Last Sunday I shared that my oldest child is now in middle school, and that's a bit of a crisis for me. Because I remember middle school. Like I remember it really well. I can remember all the temptations, I can remember all the struggles, and I can remember all the ways that I messed up, and all the ways that I messed up, and my parents never knew about. And so I'm just I'm praying differently for my son. I'm praying very specific prayers, and it's pulled my brain back into that season of life. Now, I want you to do a favor for me, real quick. Think about middle school. I know this is semi-traumatic for some of us, okay? But do your best right now. Go back to middle school in your mind. Now, our high school students are with us this morning. Normally they've got their own thing on Sunday mornings, but once a month they're in the big room with us. And so, high school students, this is an easier exercise for you guys than it is for a lot of us. Middle school is more recent for you. Um, but think back to middle school. Like, get into the middle school version of yourself's mind and some things that might help you with that. What music did you listen to in middle school? Like, think about that for a second. Like in middle school, I had this amazing thing. I had a three CD disc changer in my room. All right? It was incredible. I could have three CDs and like skip around to different stuff, and I'm like, what were the CDs that were in there? And there were a few, it was a mix, it was like grunge rock, late 90s rap, and RB, but there was a staple for me in middle school, and I'm not even afraid to admit it, because it was a boy band, okay? But but before you laugh at me, okay, it was like what I would say is like the only true legit boy band, and it's the band Boys to Men, right? Like anybody listen to Boys to Men back in the day? I love boys to men. You know what I love about boys to men? Taught me how to apologize to women. Because that is basically all boys to men's songs are. They're just like, like they even have a guy in Boys to Men, and his only job, he doesn't even sing, he just has a really deep voice, and every few songs he just comes in, and like halfway through the song, he's just like, baby, I'm sorry. Like that's just every boys to men song, you know? I was even gonna recommend if you haven't listened to Boys to Men to listen to him, but then some songs popped in my head and I was like, no, don't do that, maybe, but uh, but either way, middle school, middle school me was like rotating through a bunch of different songs, Boys to Men was a staple, so that helps me remember middle school. What what did you what did you wear in middle school? Like what was the fashion of the day? Think about that. That helps bring you back. Okay? Or or like what were your hobbies? What were you into? Think about that for a second. Who are your friends? Who are your enemies? And this is the big thing. What was your priority? What was your priority? What was your your main goal when you were a middle school student? Mine is really easy to think about. And it's simply this fitting in. When I was in middle school, I just wanted to fit in. And that was really hard for me because in middle school we moved a lot. And it kind of ramped up. I went to one school in sixth grade, I went to two schools in seventh grade, I went to three schools in eighth grade. And when we moved, we like, we moved different states, different cultures, and that's probably what contributed to my desire to fit in, as I always felt like an outsider. At the same time, it made me work really hard to try to fit in. So in the middle of seventh grade, I moved from southern Missouri to Wisconsin, to like the middle of Wisconsin. And you know, when it came to being a middle school student, trying to fit in and whatnot, music, clothing, that stuff's pretty easy. But what was really hard for me is the way that I talked. Because everybody in Wisconsin talked different than I did. And I thought they all talked strange, weird. Like it just sounded like I wanted to be like, you guys are saying everything wrong. But they were all talking the same, so I was the one that sounded strange. I'll never forget my first day of school. They did the Pledge of Allegiance, and they said, I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And I sat there and went like, what is a flag? Like that is not how you say that word. And it was driving me crazy inside, but they were all saying it, and so after a few weeks, you know, I'm I'm like freaking out because I just they're all making fun of the way. I talk, but I want to say, no, you guys don't understand. You're wrong. They're all like, if you haven't lived in a place like Wisconsin, you have no idea how passionate a group of people can be about a sports team like the Packers in Wisconsin. There is nothing like the passion that they have for the Packers here, but they'll talk about it, and it wasn't like go Packers, it was like goal packers, goal packers, you know? And just drove, it was like a drill in my brain, like stop saying words wrong. But I wanted to fit in. And so I remember making a conscious decision, I could remember my thought process. I just decided one day I'm gonna start talking like that. Because I wanted to fit in. I'm in seventh grade. And so people would come up to me and ask me a question, and I'd be like, oh yeah. And after about three or four months, it sort of just took. It was second nature. And then in eighth grade, we moved to Memphis, Tennessee. And I come into Memphis, Tennessee, and again, I'm like used to this, and I'm like, oh hey, oh man, hold and and everyone's looking at me funny now, and and the South, this was my first experience with the South. How many how many of y'all were born in the South? Like, born and raised. Okay. So you guys do something really interesting that that I had never experienced until I moved to the South, because I went from Memphis down here to Georgia, is you guys like smoosh words together. And y'all is the classic. I never I never said nor heard the word y'all unless it was like a movie featuring very stereotypical southern people until I moved here. I happen to love the word y'all. It's a super convenient word, especially when you have four kids. Guy can just be like, all y'all, right? Just put it all together. But you guys, I remember being in Memphis, and uh I asked someone something, and instead of saying, I don't know, they just looked at me and said, uh-uh. And like I didn't know what I didn't know what that meant. Like I literally was like, hey, do you know where this classroom is? And I'm like, uh-uh. And I asked it again, and they said it again. And finally, I was like, I'm so sorry. Do you I just need help finding this class? And they went, I don't know. Oh, okay, thank you. Because all I heard was uh-uh, and that's not a word. That's not it, that's not a word, there's no consonance at all, right? So the whole time I'm in middle school, I'm just this outsider. And I talk weird, or at least everyone around me talks weird, but they think I talk weird, and it was just this constant adjustment. But I worked hard to fit in. Like I worked so hard. And if I could go back and I could talk to my middle school self, knowing what I know now, one of the first pieces of advice I would give is man, don't work so hard to fit in. Number one, when you're making decisions and your primary filter is to impress the people around you and fit in, those those tend to lead, those filters lead to some pretty poor decisions. And I made many of those. But the main thing I would say is, man, don't work so hard to fit in because that's just not God's plan for you. God does not desire us to be people who just fit in with the world around us. He makes that really clear in Scripture. In Matthew chapter 20, Jesus is having a conversation with his disciples. And he's telling them, hey, this is the way the world works, this is what the world values, and then listen to these words. Very, very simple, but also really powerful. He says, But among you it will be different. He says, but among you it will be different. Jesus calls us to be different. Matthew chapter 5, he says, You are the salt of the earth, but what good is salt if it's lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It'll be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. You are the light of the world, like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand where it gives light to everyone in the house, and in the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. Jesus says, Look, my plan for you, my desire for you, it's not for you to fit in, to be like everybody else. It's to stand out, it's to be a light for everyone to see. Bless you. 1 Peter 2 9. But you are not like that, talking about the rest of the world. For you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation. That word holy, it means set apart. It means different, put aside for a very special purpose. You are a holy nation, God's very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness and into his wonderful light. Time and time again in Scripture, we're told, hey, Jesus followers, if you've decided to give your life to Jesus, you're meant to be different. There should be things about us, things about the way that we live, the way that we think, the way that we operate, that the rest of the world looks at and says, that's that's different. And it's for the purpose of showing people the goodness of God. So what we're gonna do for the next few weeks is just spend a few weeks talking about what different really looks like. Like different how. If you ever look at the world and think that it needs to change, if you ever look at the world around you, and it might be the world at large, or it might be just the circle that you're in, your group of friends, the dynamic in your office, the dynamic in your home, and you think, man, this needs to change, something needs to change here. A difference needs to be made. The simple truth is, you can't make a difference if you're not different. Can't do it. If you want to make a difference, you have to be different. And Jesus calls us to be different, and he puts his spirit inside of us so that we can be different, and he teaches us what different looks like, what different means. We're gonna spend a few weeks talking about the difference. Now, our first two Sundays, we're gonna focus on two really simple words: truth and love. As Jesus followers, our lives are supposed to be rooted in truth and love. And if you're here and you're watching and you don't follow Jesus, you haven't made that decision, just know that that's one of the primary functions of our lives as followers of Jesus Christ is to get rooted down in God's truth and his love. I was driving in the car with my wife Megan on Tuesday, and we were talking about this idea, and she said something just really insightful. She said, you know, it's really interesting how backwards and upside down our culture is right now on these ideas. Because we live in a culture and in a time where truth is viewed as a very personal thing. And love is viewed as like this general thing. You know, love is love, love is out there, love, it's like this thing that exists. And then she said, but what's what's amazing is that your life actually changes when you accept general truth and experience personal love. And I was like, man, that's that's interesting. I've been thinking about it all week long. And so we're gonna talk about truth and love as our first two topics of conversation in this series. And I wanna encourage you and challenge you with this. Sometimes when we talk about basic concepts like truth, love, you name it, it's easy for us, especially if we've been in the church for a long time, to sort of check out. Because we can kind of check the box and go, yeah, truth, I get it. Love, I get it. But these are concepts that we've got to grab a hold of and hold tightly to. Because we live in a world that isn't static, and the world around us is constantly trying to have us loosen our grip on these ideas. And so take truth, for example, what we're gonna focus on today. We live in a world that is filled with lies. Just filled with lies. We get lied to all the time, and we know we're being lied to, and we don't even care that much anymore because it's so common. You know, advertisers lie to us, television programs, media lie to us, politicians lie to us, and we don't even expect the truth. But it should bother us when we're lied to. Like, does it does it bother you when you get lied to? Like anybody at all just gonna be like, I hate being lied to. I hate it, right? But we're also used to it. God never lies, but we do have an enemy. And Jesus said that Satan is the father of lies. And so if we're gonna be people who live connected to truth, if we're gonna base our lives on the truth of God, we have to be aware and alert because there's lies all around us. I've seen so many people who mean well, good people who have shifted their foundation just ever so slightly from the truth of God to the lies of this world, and it sabotages their life. Because those lies, sometimes they're easy to spot, oftentimes they're not. They're subversive, they're enticing, sometimes they even come from within the church. That's the crazy thing. Satan's a really good liar, and he can lie using God's truth. In fact, Paul, one of the leaders of the early church, wrote to his protege Timothy in 2 Timothy 2. He said, talking about many people in the church, that they had left the truth. They have left the path of truth, and in this way they have turned some people away from faith. He goes on in chapter 4 to say, For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths. They will reject the truth and chase after whatever they already want to hear. So we've got to be people who understand what the truth is and are committed to holding on to it tightly. Being on guard against the lies that are around us. It's a vital part of our faith. So today we're gonna we're gonna have a conversation about real truth. Now, somebody just do me a favor and fill in the blank that I'm about to put in this sentence. There's no such thing as blank truth. Anyone anyone know what goes in that blank?

Absolute. Absolute.

Absolute. There I heard it. There's no such thing as absolute truth. That's a phrase that has been in our culture for a while and it's really taken root, especially in the last several decades. There's no such thing as absolute truth. Quick show of hands, who has heard that phrase? You've heard someone share that, you've heard that somewhere before. Who's like first time, never heard it in my life? Okay? A couple of us, yeah. So there's no such thing as absolute truth. Okay? That's something that you look it up, that's been spoken for decades now. And I love that statement because it is an absolute statement. And so, if it's true, it's not true. Like if there is no such thing as absolute truth, that is an absolute truth, which means there is an absolute truth. It's just that the absolute truth is that there is no absolute truth, but that's absolutely true, and so we just go in circles and circles and circles. Over the course of the last several years, I mean, really the last 50, 60 years in our culture, but the last five or ten have been extreme, there's been this growing development of the idea of personal truth. You might hear people say things, well, what's true for me? Or my truth, that's my favorite, my truth. I want to pull the my truth. I've said this before, but I just want to, I don't want to get pulled over for speeding. That's the wrong way to say it. But if I ever do get pulled over for speeding, I would love to see what happens if I tell the officers, well, sir, my truth is that I was only going 35 miles an hour. That's your truth. My truth, like just I want to see what would happen. I don't think it would go well, and I'm not gonna do it if it does happen. Um we live in a culture that's that's dominated by the idea of personal truth. And the idea is really simple: that every person has the ability and authority to determine what is true for them. And then what's even becoming more common now is it's up to everyone else to rearrange their lives around that person's personal view of truth. Even if that personal view of truth is observably not true. And so truth is fuzzy and truth is hazy, and truth is something that can be manipulated very, very easily in our culture. And it's this obsession with personal truth. And the thing about personal truth uh is that it's it's kind of nice in the sense that it's it's good to feel right. Like I love to feel right. I hate feeling wrong. I actually hate feeling wrong more than I hate being wrong. I like to be right. And so if I can decide what is true and what's not, then I always get to feel right. That's nice. And it's nice to feel like you have authority. It's nice to be able to say, this is what I say is true. You know, that that gives you some self-indulgent confidence. But the problem with personal truth is that it's always going to be limited by us, the persons who create it. It's always going to be limited by what we know and what we don't know. And this is the real truth. All of us know way less than we don't. If every single one of us made a list of all the things we know and all the things we don't, the don't list would be way bigger. Way bigger than the list of what we know. In fact, it would be huge because we don't even know what we don't know half the time. You know, when it comes to life, there's so much that I just don't know. That's why the older I get, the more comfortable I am with the answer, I don't know. Or in the South, uh-uh. Right? I'm just way more comfortable with that because I don't know. And so if I base my life off my own personal version of truth, I am basing it on such a limited perspective. And that's gonna be flimsy, and that's not gonna hold up, and that's not gonna be strong enough to build my life on. All of us have to remember we are constantly building our lives. Those of us in the room or watching who are young, you're you're in the earlier stages of building your life. These are foundational years. So build your life on something that's that's genuine and true and strong. And many of us in life, we've we've had this experience where we built our life on our own ideas and and that maybe felt like it was going well for a while until it all came crashing down and we had to do a complete rebuild. A lot of us have been through rebuilds. If you're gonna build your life, build it on something that can take the weight. Build it on something that is really true. Because there is a truth that transcends perspective. God, he's never limited. There's nothing God doesn't know. There's nothing he doesn't know. He has no blind spots. And so when God says something is true, it's true. When God says something is good, it is good, which is really cool because God says you're good. If you put your faith in Jesus, he looks at you and says, You're good. That's true because God said it. And when God says something, it's true always. In fact, there's really nothing in scripture that the Bible says God can't do other than lie. Because everything he says is true. And that, by the way, is why scripture stands the test of time. There's so many things in scripture, it's so cool that it took the rest of the world like centuries to come around to. For example, these are some classics. The book of Isaiah says that God sits above the circle of the earth. And that was written about 600 years before Jesus, give or take. And so about 2,000 years before the world was like, ah, the world is not flat. It says God sits above the circle of the earth. Job, which might be the first written document that we have in the entire Bible, according to some scholars, says that God suspended the earth on nothing. We're talking centuries and centuries ago, thousands of years ago, that the earth is suspended on nothing. It's just floating in space. And at the time, that would have been a crazy idea. That's just stupid. Because every culture in the world had an idea of the earth being on something. You know, Greek mythology, there's a guy named Atlas, and he's he's holding the world all the time. He's in great shape. He is, if you see the statues, he's and you have to be, right? In many ancient cultures, there was the view that, and this is sounds silly, but this was a view in many ancient cultures that uh the earth was on a giant turtle. And man, I'm so glad that when we first sent something into space with a camera, there was not a giant turtle. That would have just messed up everybody. Oh, it is a turtle, right? It's like, no, there's nothing. It's just there's nothing below, nothing above. But scripture said that thousands of years ago. It's amazing how often the things in Scripture, which often seem foolish at the time that they're written, even years later, prove true. What a great example of it is prayer. You know, the Bible tells us to pray all the time. All the time. It says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, always be joyful, never stop praying. Ephesians 16, or Ephesians 6.18, pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere. Philippians 4, 6. Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he's done. We're constantly told to pray, but many people in our culture today would say prayer is just, it's a joke. It's just a crutch. It's a mental exercise that people have invented because they think that there's a God out there. What's interesting is just two years ago, New York University did this amazing study. And they took people who were an Alcoholics Anonymous, and they had them hooked up to an MRI, and they were reading all their brain activity and whatnot. And while this experiment was going on, they showed these people images of alcohol that would stimulate cravings. And it worked. Any of us who have ever had an addiction, I've been through an addiction, you know that. You know, sometimes you can be in a certain situation, you can see something, and it's like your brain starts going. It's really tough. And so they're measuring all that brain activity, and the brain's just firing on all cylinders, certain parts of the brain connected to emotion and desire. And then they had the people pray. And what the MRI reading showed is that when people prayed, a deeper part of their brain was activated. And that part of the brain that was like just going, going, it began to calm. And their emotions were checked. Now, I don't need an MRI machine to tell me that prayer works. I've seen it work so many times that I don't need convincing, but it's cool that it shows it. And so this was not a this is not a Christian study. This is not like some church doing something. This is New York University. And they're just looking at brain activity and found that, oh yeah, when people pray, for some reason it changes things. It actually changes us. Prayer literally changes us, changes the way our brain functions. So thousands of years ago, when when these ancient people who had never like, you show them an MRI machine, they're like, what is that? They're going, man, pray all the time, pray. On every occasion, pray. When you're tempted, when you're struggling, pray. Well, prayer works. See, see, God's truth, it stands the test of time. It stands the test of time. And it even gets more personal for us because that truth, it's not just some abstract idea, it's not just a bunch of lessons that we're supposed to learn. That truth is actually a person named Jesus Christ. Jesus had the audacity and the boldness in John 14, 6 to say that I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. This is a scripture we use very often. He says, He doesn't say I know the truth. He doesn't say I know the way. And he doesn't say I know the path to life. He says, I am the truth. I am the way. I am the life. That's bold. He claims to be truth itself. John, one of the disciples of Jesus, maybe his closest friend, begins his gospel with a really interesting phrase. He says, In the beginning, the word already existed. The word was with God, and the word was God. Now, this is kind of a it's poetic language that he's using here. But it's kind of hard for us in English to grasp what he's he's actually saying because the Greek that he was writing in, he was writing to the Greek people in the Greek language, and he said that in the beginning was the logos. That's where we get the word logic. But the word logos was a very specific word to Greek people. In that culture, in that time, they believed in this concept called the logos. And this is what it was. This is from Greek writings. The logos is an eternal and unchanging truth present from the time of creation, available to every individual who seeks it. If you know anything about Greek culture, Greek philosophy, it was all about the pursuit of truth, asking lots of questions. Because they believed that there was this ultimate truth. They called it the logos. And it's eternal and unchanging truth, present from the time of creation, available to every individual who seeks it. And John is essentially riding to these people saying, hey, that idea that you've had, like, you're right. Ding ding ding, congratulations, you got it. It's just that it's not an it, it's a who. That Jesus is the eternal truth, present from the time of creation, and he is available to everyone who seeks him, which is why he says, if you seek me, you will find me. If you seek, you will find. And when we live lives connected to Jesus, truly connected to him, we live lives of truth. John chapter 8, verse 31. Jesus says, You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. That's actually what happens when you live a life of truth. You're free. You're free from fear, from worry, from anxiety, because all of those things are distortions of the truth. If we really know the truth, that there is a God who is over all, who has all the power, who has all the answers, and he loves us and he knows us and he sees us, and he makes promises to us, that he will be with us and he will never leave us and he will never forsake us, then why worry? Why be afraid? Why be anxious for anything? Because we have a God and He's in control. When you live a life based on truth, you live a life of freedom. And Jesus makes the bold claim, and his followers continue to that he is the truth. And that's why the teachings of Jesus have not only stood the test of time, but as a Jesus follower, appreciate the fact that there's never been a teacher in the history of the world whose teachings have been fought more harder. There have been more attempts to stifle, to silence, to outlaw the teachings of Jesus than the teachings of anyone that's ever lived. And yet, today, billions of people on this planet will gather together to worship and explore and talk about and think about the teachings of this man who lived an obscure life 2,000 years ago. What are the odds that a 30-year-old carpenter with no formal education, with no wealth, with no earthly power, living 2,000 years ago in the most remote place that you could possibly imagine, would say things and do things that would penetrate every single culture on the face of this earth. That's what's so unique about Jesus. His teachings don't just penetrate a certain type of culture, they go everywhere. Because his teachings are truth. And they bypass so much of even what we believe is true and they speak to our hearts. So I heard a pastor say that the reason he believes in Jesus is because when he reads the words of Jesus, he recognizes that the only way someone could know those things is if that's the person that made us. He's the truth. So I want to ask a simple question. What do you do with truth? We don't invent it, right? It's not it's not personal truth, but like real truth, general truth, universal truth. What do you do when you encounter something that is that is absolutely true? You rearrange your life around it. There's a few moments in my relationship with my wife that I wish I could go back and change. Well, there's actually lots, but but there's a few that really stand out. One is when I proposed to her. I had this super elaborate proposal plan, and it was gonna be like romantic, and she'd still be telling stories about it, and then I just got antsy and proposed to her in my dorm room. Um, because I was nervous, I was just anxious. I was like, I had the ring, and there she was, and she looks so pretty in my dorm room. And you know, every woman dreams of being proposed to in a dorm room. And so I was like, here we go. The other way would have been so great. But the other thing I wish I'd go back and change is the way I responded to her the first time she said that we were pregnant. Now, in my defense, it was three three o'clock in the morning. She woke me up, and her exact words were, I think I'm pregnant. And here's what I said. Do you think or do you know? I barely remember this, but she she does very well. Um I was like, Do you think or do you know? And she's like, Well, I don't know. And I was like, okay, well, let's just check tomorrow. And then I rolled back over. And I remember waking up and being like, Are you pregnant? Like, because it was three o'clock in the morning. You know what I mean? I mean, give me some grace. I see some judgment in your eyes. Like, come on, guys, three in the morning, okay? I was half asleep. But when when it hit, like when I realized we're pregnant, like you mainly, but us together, we're pregnant. Like, we arranged our entire lives around that. That truth. It was a truth so powerful that we're like, everything's gotta change. And so all of a sudden we start looking at where we lived, and and literally the day before, I was like, I love where we live. And the next day I'm like, well, this won't do at all. You know, we we we start looking for houses, and and I remember when we we found our first house. We moved in, and my favorite thing about the house was that it had a tiny yard, like the smallest yard. I don't even know why they went through the trouble of planting grass, because I can mow it like like I actually went to Home Depot and bought one of those old school mowers that doesn't have a motor. It's just like those spinning blades, because that's I just did that like twice, and I'm like, mowed. I loved it. And part of that is because I grew up with a uh, and dad, if you're listening, I love you, but man, when it came to yard work, my dad was intense. Like, I in literally I would mow the lawn and he would come out and inspect it afterwards. And he would even get so far as to get down to the ground and like look at it and see, and then he would get up and go, like, what happened over there? So I didn't have a strong desire to do yard work after high school, and uh, and I was like, I'm never gonna have a yard. But then we found out we were pregnant again. And I'm thinking about having multiple kids, and all of a sudden I was like, Well, we need we need land, we have to have land. Where is there land that we can afford? And the answer is north. And right here, it's always north, and so that's why we live where we live, because we we just need more space. Because the truth of having children was so substantial that we have to rearrange our life around it. When you know something is true, and you do not adjust your life or rearrange your life around that truth, that is the definition of foolishness. There's a man named Dallas Willard who uh wrote some really amazing, amazing books before he passed away, just a great theologian. And he has my favorite definition of a disciple. He says, A disciple is a person who has decided that the most important thing in their life is to learn how to do what Jesus said to do. A disciple is not a person who has things under control or knows a lot of things. Disciples simply are people who are constantly revising their affairs to carry through on their decision to follow Jesus. Jesus is the truth. And if we want to live lives that are healthy, that are secure, and frankly, significant. Then we have to rearrange everything in our lives around the truth of who Jesus is and what he's asked us to do. And I'll be honest, that's not easy. In fact, many times it's extremely inconvenient. There's times as a husband that I'm just I'm selfish. And I might want to just say, hey, you know, guys, everyone shut up, me time. But but I always think about what Jesus says. And to just be totally honest with you, you know, I our first year of marriage was really hard. Megan and I got married young. I was 21, she was 20. And the dorm room thing, I lived in a freshman dorm for three years before we were married. I was an RA, if you know what that is in college. Not exactly the best way to prepare for cohabitating with a woman is to live with 318-year-old men all day long. And so I was not a good roommate. Um, and you know, our first year of marriage went so it was so difficult that we both had a conversation a year in. Like, is this gonna work? And to be honest with you, didn't feel like it was. But we asked a question, it's really simple, but also really hard. Well, what does Jesus want us to do? Because our marriage isn't really about us, it's about Him. And we knew that He wanted us to fulfill the vow that we had made. And that, by the way, isn't to say that if you are divorced or have been through divorce that you should feel shame. Uh, my dad was married before he married my mom. I literally wouldn't be alive if two people hadn't gotten divorced. Because God can take any situation in life and he can bring it around as something really, really good. But I knew in that moment that while it may have been my personal will or even her personal will to say, you know what, maybe this isn't gonna work, it was God's will that we be together. And we said, no, we're gonna do this because Jesus. We have to rearrange our lives around him. That has to be the driving force, church. If you're a Jesus follower, please listen. This has to be the driving force behind every decision that you make. It's not just what do I want? What does he want? Now what's beautiful is oftentimes, because he loves you so much, what what he wants is what you want. You know, there's times in life where where you get, God, what do you want me to do? And he might look and go, Well, what do you want to do? Because he loves you. That's how I am as a dad. So much of the time, I'm like, well, is that you want to do that? You want that for Christmas? You want to go watch that movie? You want to, okay, I love you and it's fine. Let's let's go do it. But so often when we make major life choices, major life decisions, unfortunately for many, even many who claim like Jesus is the one I follow, they're not decisions that are centered around him. When you encounter real truth, you rearrange everything in life around that truth. And so I just ask the question: is there anything in your life right now that needs to be rearranged a little bit? So that you can continue saying yes to Jesus. For some of us, it's it's easy. There's things. There's like, oh, obviously, this one behavior in my life needs to change. This is not helping me say yes to Jesus. In fact, this is getting in the way. And if you know what that is, man, take whatever steps you gotta take to change it. Because Jesus is the truth. And when you encounter truth, you rearrange your life around it. Sometimes it's more subtle. You know what my if you're dating, this really applies to those of us who are dating. If you're dating someone and they make it harder for you to say yes to Jesus, either that relationship needs to change or you need to change who you're dating. Like be with someone who makes it easier to say yes to Jesus. Like be with someone who encourages you and spurs you on in your relationship with God. Be with someone who has the audacity to hold you accountable. There have been times in my marriage and even fairly recently where my wife has looked at me and said, I don't know where that thought came from, but it isn't from God. And I'm like, yeah. Shut up, you're like, what do you say? It's iron-sharpening iron. It's not a fun process, but it's necessary. But honestly, be with someone who has the ability to pray for you. Not someone who's perfect, but somebody who makes it easier to say yes to Jesus. And by the way, if you find that person, you might want to rearrange some things in your life to be with them. You know, it could be something as simple as social media. I love how how opposite social media is than the Bible. Because when you get on social media, you see like the curated life of everyone around, right? And it's very easy, it's very easy to get on social media and like in 10 minutes just to be like, well, I'm fat, uh, I'm not successful, right? My family's a mess because these other families are super put together, and I'm just a failure. Because you're looking at all these staged moments. And I've even experienced that on the other end. I remember a few years ago, I think I told this story years ago, but but we took our four children putt-putt golfing, and uh there was this place, we actually drove like an hour to do it, and they had two courses, and for only $5 extra a person, you could play both courses, 36 holes. And I was like, well, I'm gonna, I'm yeah, we're here, let's do it, 36 holes. And right before we started, we took a picture. There was like a person, hey, would you take a picture of us? You know, and and so there, we're all holding our clubs, our kids are smiling, and then Megan put it on Facebook. And they got all these likes, like, oh, happy family. And then the next two hours were the worst two hours of my life. Like, it took us two hours to play like 16 holes. Because, you know, when you have kids that are at different ages, there's nothing my family can do that everyone, it's like we go bowling, we gotta put bumpers on, but then our oldest is like, I don't want bumpers on, like, just shut up and just use the bumpers, you know? Because then the two-year-old just it's in the gutter every time. Thankfully, there are places now that you can like customize bumpers, but that's helpful. You know, so Putt Putt Goff was like, my oldest is taking it really competitively, but then my my girl, who's four years younger, thinks in her mind that she should be as good as him. Uh, and then she actually was, and that was a real problem for him. And uh and my youngest is just he just loses it, and he literally just starts throwing his club, you know, and there's like people around. And and like, I mean, a two-year-old can throw a golf club hard enough to do some damage, and so I'm just like, I'm so sorry. And Megan and I are just kind of at each other's throats because we're like trying to do all this, and we end up having to let everyone play through, like every single, because it took so long to do a whole that we're like, just play through, just play through, everybody. And at the end of the night, I remember looking at that picture. What a lie. What an absolute lie. This night was one of the worst nights. My children are terrible, we're terrible parents, we're terrible spouses, it's awful. Putt-putt is a stupid sport, it's all dumb. Why is there this picture? But it's still there, and you can go look at it and be like, what a happy family. No, it's a lie. And so if you spend a lot of time on social media, you start to feel like you're a failure. But if you read the Bible, you start to think, man, I'm doing pretty good. Because the Bible doesn't do that with the people in it. Like those that we would even call the heroes and pioneers of our faith, you read their stories, you're like, they are super messed up people. And I'm doing great. You know? I haven't killed anyone today. I'm only married to one woman. Like, it's awesome. Life's going great. Maybe God knew that if he kept the ugly parts of life in there when we would read it, we'd be encouraged and inspired. We wouldn't feel like failures all the time. And so maybe part of rearranging your life so that you can you can say yes to Jesus over and over again, and rearranging your life around the truth of Jesus means, I don't know, shut the social media off for a while. Because that's not the truth. But Jesus is the truth. Worship team, you guys can make your way up. We'll wrap up with this. When you encounter real truth, you have to respond to it. You have to arrange your life around it because if you see something that's really true, if you experience something that's really true and you don't rearrange your life around it, that is the definition of foolishness. There is nothing more true than Jesus. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He is that eternal and unchanging truth that was present at the time of creation, and he is available to everyone who seeks him. And if you need something in your life to change, it's this simple. If you haven't said yes to Jesus yet, you say yes to Jesus. And you begin to arrange your life around that yes. And if you have said yes to Jesus and you need things to change, you have to examine your life and say, Am I saying yes to Jesus in my career? Am I saying yes to Jesus in my marriage? Am I saying yes to Jesus in the way that I parent my children? Am I saying yes to Jesus and how I how I respond to my friends and the kinds of friends that I choose? And the kind of persona that I'm trying to put out there to the world? Is that just an extension of me saying yes to Jesus? And if it's not, then just rearrange your life around it. Just rearrange everything around the truth of Jesus because that is the key to have a life that is healthy and secure and significant. Because when you say yes to Jesus, you recognize that you're saying yes to someone who's already said yes to you. He holds nothing back from you. He's a great leader. He knows exactly who you are, he knows exactly why you were created, he knows what fulfills you, he knows what you're meant for, he knows what you're capable of. And if you live your life connected to him, if you constantly say yes to him, and if you're willing to be a disciple and to rearrange everything in your life to keep saying yes to him, he will only lead you closer and closer and closer to what gives you true joy. So just say yes to Jesus. And if any part of your life is filled with pain, start there and ask the question Jesus, what is saying yes to you in this part of my life look like? What does it mean? What decision do I need to make? And trust him. Trust him. Because he is the truth, and he will set you free. Let's pray. Father God, thank you so much for this morning. Lord, thank you for this church. Thank you for these friends. I love the people here so much. I love this place. And I'm so grateful for everything you are, for everything that you're doing. And Lord, I just ask that you would give us the courage and frankly the discipline to say yes to you over and over and over again. We don't just say yes to you once and move on. You didn't just say yes to us once and move on. You say yes to us daily. You are daily committed to us. You are daily committed to being there for us, to giving us what we need, to filling us with hope. Jesus, you you pray for us, you intercede on our behalf at the right hand of the Father. That's what Scripture says. You will never stop saying yes to your children, to your people. So help us be people who never stop saying yes to you, Lord. Let us be people who are willing to rearrange every single aspect of our lives around you. What pleases you, what honors you, what glorifies you, what shows the world how good you really are. Make us different, Lord, so we can make a difference. And Lord, I know in my heart that there is nothing more different than you. And there's no difference that can be made greater than the difference that a person truly following you can make. So lead us, teach us, and help us recognize that you are the truth. And your truth is so true that it requires everything to move around. We pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen. Well, guys, before we wrap up, we have some people getting baptized. So please stay if you're still here. This is not the time to go. What's really cool about today is we got three kids getting baptized. And someone asked me, yeah, yeah, we can cheer for that. Umbody asked me what my favorite thing about our church is not that long ago, and I had a hard time answering. Because I love, I love this place. It's my home. And, you know, there's a lot of things about this church that I love. Mainly just you guys, the people. But I thought about it, and I thought about all the things God does, and you know, there's outreach and all kinds of cool stuff that we're able to do as a church together. We have a lot of fun together. We don't take ourselves too seriously. I love our worship. But the one thing that really jumped out to my mind was that our hallways are filled with the laughter of children. That there's children here, children just love being here. Because here they get to experience the love of Jesus. And right now we have three kids who are taking steps to say yes to Jesus, just like we've talked about this morning. They are not junior Jesus followers, they don't get like half of the Holy Spirit. It's 100%. And they can know him and follow him and make a difference every bit as big as we can. So I want to encourage us that after each of these kids gets baptized, man, just lose it. Go crazy, be excited, cheer them on. Because this is a big deal, guys. This is a huge deal. Alright? Go ahead.

This is Zeke. And um, he came to know Christ about a year ago, but never had the opportunity to get baptized. Um, and about our second time coming here, he said he was ready. He was ready to go and um asked to get baptized. So here we are. I'm so proud of you, Zeke, and I'm honored that you're making this choice. I can't wait to see what God has in store for your life. And so I ask you, do you accept Christ as your Lord and Savior? And do you believe he died for you on the cross for your sins? Then I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son. You want to do it? And the Holy Spirit.

So proud of you. You know, um, Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is for those who have faith like you girls. And this church is gonna celebrate in heaven and rejoice for both of you for this day. So, Hannah, my dear, do you accept Christ as your Lord and Savior? And I'm so honored to bless you or to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Okay, you ready, even? Do you accept Christ as your Lord and Savior? And I'm so pleased and honored to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Oh man, how awesome is that! That's the best way to end the morning. Guys, I want to thank you so much for being here today. Uh, Jesus loves you. That is the truth. Rearrange your whole life around that. It's an amazing thing to think about. Uh, don't forget if you want to stick around, ladies in the student center, guys in the main classroom, we're gonna have a great time together. Love you all. Have an awesome week, and we will see you soon.