And this has been this has been a really good day so far. It really has. Well, right now I would say that we're like waist deep in a series called People. We've been spending our entire summer talking about people. And if you're here for the first time, this is not us taking a break from talking about God. This is not us going, man, I'm so sick of talking about God. Let's change the subject. Not at all. No, quite the opposite. In fact, us talking about people is so connected to us talking about God. The way we we feel about people, what we believe about people, reveals what it is we actually believe about God. And Jesus always, always joined together the idea of loving God and loving people. To Jesus, those were one and the same. And so it's actually by becoming really clear on where we stand with people that we let the world know and we reinforce for ourselves what we actually believe about God. This is very, very important. The two are closely linked. I mean, God becoming a person, Jesus, that's that's a big part of the story, shows us how intimately linked God and people are in God's mind. And so we've talked about what we believe about people. We think very highly of people. We believe that people are unique and powerful and inventive and creative and intelligent. People are awesome. We're very pro-people. And last week we started talking about what we think people need, because as awesome as we are, we are not without our opportunities, right? I have many. And so last week we talked about how people need help. And today we're gonna continue down that train of thought. What do people need? What do we as a church, as a family, what do we believe that people, us included, really need? And I'm about to say something right now. This is our kind of focus for the morning, that is gonna sound like such a duh thing to say in church on a Sunday morning that I actually won't even be offended if you just go, well duh, out loud. It won't bother me at all. So you have my permission. Okay? Not that you need it, but but you have it. But it's a statement that if you make outside of a church on a Sunday morning, you get a different response. And it's simply this we believe that people need Jesus. First service didn't take the bait at all. You guys are awesome, thank you. I was hoping that would happen. We believe people need Jesus. In fact, I'll go a step further. We believe that the primary need in our lives is Jesus. That there is nothing we need more than Him. And so everything we do together is really focused in on that belief that we believe at the end of the day that no matter what's going on in your life, no matter where you come from, no matter where you are, what you need more than anything else is Him. You need Jesus. When it comes to my decision-making process in life, which is sometimes good, sometimes not, I tend to think in terms of filters. You know, in life I've been given some filters. Some filters I got the hard way, I did something stupid, and I learned never do that again. That became a filter for my decision making, and some filters I've been blessed enough and lucky enough to have given to me by really wise people, people who have invested in me and they've said, hey, look, take this filter, apply it to your life, it's worked for me. Don't learn this one the hard way, like I had to. And I'm so grateful for some of those filters. And one that I was given years ago that has actually become this guiding principle for how I think about life and the decisions that I make is this. Who, not what. Who not what. So often we get fixated on what? What's gonna happen? What's the right decision? What should I do? What needs to take place? We get so fixated on all the what's in our lives, all the things that we think need to happen or or need to change, but in reality, if you get the right who, the what's have a way of taking care of themselves. If you have the right person in place, all that other stuff tends to get taken care of. But if you have the wrong person, if you have the wrong who, things can go off the rails very, very quickly. And I know this because I'm the wrong who for all kinds of things. Like for so many things. I'm the absolute last person you should trust. I have a very limited skill set. I'm good at having awkward conversations. I'll say that. If you need someone to have a really awkward conversation, I'm your man. I'm your man. I don't mind that at all. But so many other things, I'm like the worst person for, I'm the wrong who. I'll give you an example. A few years ago, we had a red couch here at the church that broke. A red couch in the coffee shop, and we needed to replace the red couch. And I was working on the message. You know, I speak almost every Sunday, and for me, that speaking process actually begins with brainstorming, which leads to writing, and so every week I write pages and pages and pages. Last week I wrote three messages. The first two were bad. Um, this the third one, that's up to you to decide, I guess. But like, but I wrote three, so it's just pages and pages of words, and sometimes I get writer's block. If you've ever had to write or do something you know creative like that, you get you get blocked sometimes, and you can either just force it, never really goes well, or you try to figure out a way out of the writer's block. And usually for me, that means walking away from what I'm doing, just doing something something simple, something cathartic. And so that day, I hear that we need a red couch, I'm having writer's block, and I said, I will go get the couch. I can do this. I can do this. And so I went to a furniture store, grabbed a friend of mine, had a truck, went to a furniture store, thought that was a good start, walked in the door, saw a red couch, sat on it, said, This'll do. Went up to the salesperson and said, I would like this red couch, bought it, brought it back to the church, felt like a champion, felt like a victor, like I had been productive and accomplished something. The only problem is that according to everyone else, the couch wasn't red. It looked red to me, but I was told that is not a red, we sent you to get a red couch. That will not go in the space that we need. It's not it's not red. And I actually have the couch. I'm gonna show you the couch, okay? Because we still have this. Guys, if you want to bring out uh the couch, where are you guys at with the couch? Here we go. Here comes here comes Alex as they walk. Let's see. Alex, and who else is with you? Is that Jeremy? Yeah. Okay, all right. All you go and it's Burgundy, okay? Let me tell you a few things. Number one, if you'd like to buy the couch, it's not for sale, but you make a strong enough offer, we'll give it to you. Um like I was that kid in school that had the box of crowns that was eight colors. I didn't have the 64-color box with a sharpener in the back. And so my understanding of colors is very broad strokes. Just red-ish, blue, green, and like all these other colors, like burgundy, sharp. I didn't have that crown as a kid, so I don't know. Okay, it's not my fault. It's not my blame my parents. And if you are getting school supplies for one of the foster kids in our community, get the 64 bucks of crowns so that they're not the person that buys this couch. Now, I will say, I will say, it's a super comfortable couch. It's like a corduroy material, it's awesome. And I will also say that when I told the salesperson, I'll take that red one, I was not corrected, you know, and I realized that this person works off commission and they're like, look, you're gonna buy it, you can call whatever color you want, go ahead and take it. So, you know. Now, is is there anyone in the room, those of you who aren't, you know, all high and mighty and going, it's burgundy, is there anyone who says, that looks red enough to me? Thank you. Thank you. Now, uh, I'm like fighting a war with the Burgundy people. I apologize. Um, we actually have another red piece of furniture, and I want to bring this one out. Guys, if you'll you'll do this again. This is the red I was sent to replace, okay? So just understand that when I came back and they said, no, no, this is red. This is this is the color of the furniture you were coming out to replace. Um, seeing the two side by side, I do agree that there is a slight difference. Okay? I do understand that, like, yeah, that's not the same. But it's not, it's okay, it's not like it's that far off. That's what I'm trying to say. It's not like it's that awful. Whatever. You guys can take the furniture away. Take it. I don't even want to see it. I don't want to see that couch ever again in my entire life. I want it gone. Someone's like, I'll take it. Is that Katie? That's cool. I did see, you know, Stacy Walls, I did. I did see the chair, and in my mind, I was like, that's red. I don't know what happened, okay? My point is this. This is the point. We gotta get back to a point. There is one. We got the wrong what. Because we sent the wrong who. Okay? That's the point. When you have the wrong who, the what's the those those they don't tend to work out. And you know, that's just the way it is with life. You know, there's so many, there's so many things in our life that seem out of place. There's so many things in our life that seem off. We feel this lack so often. We feel like we we lack something, something's missing. There's a peace that we don't have, there's a love and a joy that we're not experiencing. We feel like something's something's off. We lack direction, we lack clarity, we lack understanding, and it just seems like something is missing. And when we have that feeling, what we often do, what we're taught to do by our culture is to look for that thing that will fill the void. But we don't need something, we need someone. We need Jesus. He he is the right, the right who. He's the right one. And you know, it's funny, I talked about having writer's block. This last week I was having a similar experience, and I had sat down and I prayed, and I have a whiteboard, and I, and God had given me a few things. Number one, you know, people need Jesus. That's a real revolutionary thought in church. So I'm like, thank you, Lord, for that one. Um, people need Jesus. And then I sat and I thought through that, and I'm like, okay, what else, guy? Like, like, what do you what do you want to say? And and I even had written out, people don't need something, they need someone. But then I was struggling to know where to take it from there, and and I even started experiencing some doubt. Is this what we should talk about? Is this even like what we need to focus on this Sunday? And so I reached out to a friend of mine. I have so many good friends, so many wise people in my life that just helped me out. And so I reached out, I sent him a text and said, Hey, here's here's what the message is this week, here's what I'm stuck on, just help me understand if this is right or where to go from here. And and he responded, he said, Oh, I already talked to you about this a few months ago. And I was like, I'm a terrible listener. So he's right. I'm like, yeah, I totally remember that conversation. Could you refresh me? Could you give me just a slight refresher? He's like, Yeah, you sent me a text and you asked me about something, and I responded, and it's totally what you're talking about. And I literally have no idea, had no idea at the time what he was saying. I mean, I remember sending the text because we're starting a new series in August, and just a little teaser, it's called Breakthrough. The idea is how do you have a breakthrough without having to have a breakdown? Right? Because you can have a breakdown and that will lead to a breakthrough often, but it'd be nice to have a breakthrough without the breakdown. And so I reached out to some of my friends and I said, Hey, what in your life has led to a breakdown? And I specifically said, tell me something that has caused a breakthrough in your life. And so, this was in April that I had sent this, and here it is this week, and I'm looking at a whiteboard that says, People need Jesus, and we need something, not, or we need someone, not something. And my friend who I reached out to to help me from there responds, and he sent me what he had sent me two months before. And this is what he wrote. This is so awesome. This is the Holy Spirit just confirming that okay, this is what we need to talk about today. He wrote, in my experience, breakthroughs are rarely, if ever, about something. Instead, they are almost always about someone. I don't typically learn a new concept, and then that changes everything. I meet someone new, or I'm thrust into a new relationship, or I come back into the presence of someone I've known for years, and I'm reminded again that I'm not alone. They model in their words and actions how life can be different, and suddenly I have the courage to change. My breakthroughs are caught, not taught. And obviously, Jesus is the ultimate someone whose presence changes everything. I know, right? Even as thick as I am, I'm like, all right, God, I guess we'll keep going down this path. It's not about what, it's about who. And if you feel that lack in your life, if you feel like something's missing, it's a person. And it's the presence of a person. And his name is Jesus. And one of the interesting things about Jesus is that Jesus pointed to himself as the answer for life. In John, for example. John is the book of the Bible that was written by John, who happened to be Jesus' best friend, and he gives us a very unique perspective on Jesus that only the best friend of Jesus could give us. And in the book of John, Jesus makes several I am statements. There's several statements he makes, eight in fact, where he says, I am, followed by something else. And we all make I am statements all the time. You've probably said, I am hungry, I am tired, I am over it, I am sick of it. We all say I am things all the time. Jesus' I am statements, they were a little bit different. For example, in John chapter 14, verse 6, Jesus told him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. Sometimes people in the world get really upset with Jesus followers when they make this statement, when they say that Jesus is the way, not just a way. And you should never get mad at a Jesus follower for saying that. You should get mad at Jesus for saying that. Okay? Because he's the one who said it. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. In John 6.35, Jesus replied, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. In John 8.12, Jesus spoke to the people once more and he said, I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life. In John 10, verse 9, Jesus said, Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. Jesus is always saying, I am the answer, I am the solution, I'm the one. That's a pretty bold thing to say. You know, it's really interesting because to say something like that, you either have to be right, correct, or you're nuts. Like those are the only real options, right? I mean, like, who would go, like, seriously, who does that? Who goes around saying things like, I am the light of the world, I am the bread of life, I am the way, the truth, and the life, I'm the gate, I'm your entry point into the kingdom of God. Like, you're either God or you're an insane person to say those things. Those are really the only options, and it's so interesting because you don't hear a lot of people say that Jesus is nuts. You don't hear that a lot. It would be really convenient for the world just to say, oh, we don't believe in Jesus because he's clearly nuts, but that doesn't really hold water because so many of the other things that Jesus says are so revolutionary and groundbreaking and profound. He has this way to speak into the human condition like no one else who has ever existed or ever will exist. And the rantings and ravings of lunatics do not tend to hold water 2,000 years later. And so the world can't really look at Jesus and say he's nuts, because that just doesn't work. He's too profound, he's he's too powerful, it's he's he's too right. And so the world tries to define middle ground, right? And so you hear a lot of things like, I think Jesus is a great teacher, and I think he's a great man, and just an amazing person. I just think he's wrong about the whole you know being God thing. But the thing is, when someone says, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and I am the light of the world, and I'm the bread of life, and I'm the gate that you enter through, when someone says things like that, they are not leaving you middle ground at all. Like there's no there's no fence. Is he or isn't he? When someone says something like that, you have to respond. You have to either accept it or reject it, because there's no middle ground when someone says things like that. And and I look at Jesus and and clearly he's not he's not insane. Unless he was selectively insane. And I don't think that's a thing. Like I don't think there's someone who's like, I'm crazy on Thursdays between 2 and 5 p.m. But other than that, totally sane and really no, that's not how it works. No, Jesus, he's not he's not crazy. I think Jesus is absolutely right. I think Jesus knows exactly what he's talking about. Because I've experienced this. That when Jesus speaks to me either through his word or when Jesus speaks to my heart, when I'm in his presence, there's something inside of me that stirs that I can't even explain. And there's parts of me that begin to come to life that I don't even really understand or know how to describe. Jesus knows me better than I know myself. Jesus knows me so intimately that the only thing that makes sense to me is that he must be the one who created me. He understands me like only the creator understands his creation. And Jesus knows, knows, that I don't need something to make me happy. I need someone to fill my life with joy, and he is making it very clear that he is the one. That Jesus is the one. He is the who. He is the someone, not something that we need. Our world needs Jesus. I mean, you just look at the world, and look, if you're here and you're new, we're not a church that puts the world down, we're not a church that sits here and acts like we're all great and the world's going, you know, to hell in a handbasket or whatever. That's not that's not our culture. We we love the world, we root for the world, we we believe in people because Jesus believes in people. But we still have the ability to look at the world and recognize that that things need to change. Things have to change because our world desperately needs Jesus. Our world is confused. Jesus is the light of the world. When you have light, you're not confused. Every night I turn the lights off on my way to bed. And if I had no children, this would be a very simple process. I'd turn the lights off, I'd walk to where the bed is, no issues. But because I have three children, when I turn the lights off, I forget about the minefield that's been laid in front of my feet. You know, and like, why haven't they invented squishy Legos yet? That's all I want to know. Why? Can that be that hard to invent a Lego that when you step on it doesn't feel like a knife in the bottom of your foot? I just think if you work for Lego, I'm just billions of dollars right there. Just do it, okay? I turn the lights off and I'm trying to navigate this minefield and I'm confused. I'm stumbling around in the dark, and that leads to like injuries and pain. But if the lights are on, I can go through anything because I can see clearly. Light makes confusion go away. And when I look at the world, there's just so much confusion. And the world needs the light of Jesus to clear it up. I don't often talk about political subjects on Sunday mornings. Um I don't believe in being politically correct at all because racism was politically correct 50 years ago, and I don't think that was good. And there's just things that I see in the world, and my heart breaks because it's so clearly the result of a confusion that exists because of a lack of light. Because of people who have shut themselves off to the light of Jesus and have just chosen to walk around in darkness. And before I talk about this example, I just want to say as a church, I know that you know we don't all agree on certain issues, and as a church, we're really passionate about the fact that we don't all have to agree to get along. We don't all have to agree to belong together. Okay? And so if what I talk about, if this is an issue that you're on a particular side of that's different from me or from our church as a whole, then you know I'm okay with that. But like one of the organizations that we support is the Hope Center. I love so much. The Hope Center is a crisis pregnancy center. We're on track this year to give them, I think, $50,000 to help save the lives of unborn children. That's awesome. And and they exist to take young young women and young men in crisis pregnancy situations, pregnancies that they didn't they didn't plan for, and to encourage and empower these young people to do the right thing and to bring these children into the world and to give these children a chance. Because no one gets to ask the child, hey, do you want to live? And whether it's them raising those children or adoption, they encourage and empower these young men and women to do that. And they also do amazing other things like post-abortion counseling, because some people need that. It's an amazing organization. I'm honored to be part of them. You know, it's a subject that we're pretty passionate about as a church. Because it reveals the confusion in our world. It's crazy, right? This is crazy because our world will look at an unborn child in the womb and say that's not a life. There's no scientific basis for that, by the way. There's absolutely zero science that supports the idea that because that child is still in the womb, developing and growing, that it's not a life. Science is not what the argument is based on, it's philosophy. And the philosophy that's often used is it's not a life because you know he or she is dependent on the mother for life. And until that child can exist independently, we're not going to count that as a life. But let me ask a question: who in this room can actually live independently of other people? Anyone? Like any of us actually live independently of other people? What happens if you become dependent on a machine to be alive? If you have to become dependent on a pacemaker or dependent on medication? There's no such thing as a human being that is not dependent on someone for life. And what's even more baffling to me is that is that our culture will look at an unborn child in the womb and say, that's not a life. Tomorrow, if a germ is discovered on planet Mars, the front page of every newspaper will say life on Mars. And that's messed up, right? Like that's that's messed up. That we're gonna count, we're gonna count some like amoeba on Mars as life, but but look at an unborn child in the womb and say, that's not life. See, it's thinking like that that's so messed up and so confused because it's missing light. Jesus is the light. And when you have the light in your life, the things that are confusing become clear. Jesus tells us, I'm the light of the world. Walk with me and you won't walk in darkness anymore. You won't have to stumble around and try to feel your way into the right situations in life. Jesus says, I'm the bread of life. He says, I'm the sustenance that you need. If you have me in your life, you will have sustenance for your soul because you can have a full belly and an empty soul, and that's a miserable way to live. And you don't really know what it's like to be full, to be filled, until your soul has sustenance. And Jesus is the bread of our soul. And Jesus says, I'm the gate. When you come to me, you get entry into the presence of God Himself. And our world has come up with so many crazy ways to have access to God, so many religions that have this laundry list of rules and rituals and all this insane stuff you've got to do and you've got to adhere to just to have a chance to be in the presence of God. But Jesus comes and he says, I am the presence of God, and you have me in your life. You have entry into the very presence of God Himself. I mean, Jesus, He's the one, He's the answer for our world. And He's the answer for us right now. One of the challenges that I deal with, and I know I'm not alone, is I'm a Jesus follower. In fact, I usually don't say that I'm a Christian. I'm not against saying that. It's just that when people hear the word Christian, they often don't think of Jesus. And I want to make people very clear that they should, but they don't, but I want to make people very clear that I followed Jesus Christ. Jesus. I became a Jesus follower when I was 12, and the day I was 10 actually, I got baptized when I was 12, the day that I started following Jesus is not the day my problems went away. Right? Because I've had a blessed life. My problems at 10 were pretty minor. Like I had a few. I was really I was really mad at 10 years old that my parents didn't let me watch R-rated movies. That really bothered me. Because I, like looking back now that I have kids, I'm like, you're never gonna watch one. But like but at 10, I had some friends whose parents let them watch R-rated movies, and I was just like, your parents are amazing. My parents are dumb. And uh that was that was like that was probably one of the biggest problems that I felt in my life at age 10 was R-rated movies, can't watch them. My problems are bigger now. And so it's funny because I could say that the day I gave my life to Jesus is the day that my problems began to intensify. Because following Jesus does not mean the problems, the problems go away. And so sometimes I sit and I have this confusion and I get all off in my thinking and I get focused on the things, the what's. I start looking at all the what's in my life, and I start going, that's not how it should be. That's that's definitely not how it should be. That's off, that's not good. This is what when is all this stuff? When are all the things gonna be right? And I forget sometimes that even as a Jesus follower, I need Jesus. I need Jesus every day, I need Jesus every minute of every day. Jesus is not a box that I checked off once in my life and then I moved on. Jesus is not a box that we check off on Sundays. Jesus isn't even a box that you check off every day and say, I've had my prayer time, I read my Bible, I'm good. Jesus is sustenance, life itself. Jesus is what we need. Every minute of the day, we we are meant to live in the presence of God, to literally breathe in and have his presence be like oxygen for our souls. And so I need Jesus. I've been following Jesus for 20 years. I need him today every bit as much as I needed him 20 years ago. I need him right now, I need him two hours from now, I need him tonight, I need him tomorrow. I need Jesus. We need Jesus, he's what we need. And it's when we forget that, it's when we take our eyes off of him that all the stuff starts to distract us and overpower us. There's this classic story from the Bible. Uh dude named Peter is one of Jesus' followers, and Peter and some of his friends that were the disciples, they're in a boat, and Jesus comes walking on water to them, and uh they were surprised, to say the least. Did not expect that. And it wasn't like it was a really calm moment. It wasn't like the water was crystal clear and like glass. It was it was a violent storm that they were in. And so through the waves, they see this figure, and it's raining, and it's it's just nuts, and it's Jesus, and he's walking on the water, and they don't really know what to do. Who can blame them? And so Peter does this thing that I do so well. Like, this is this is one of the things that I'm the right who for. He says something and then instantly regrets it. He says, Jesus, if that's really you, tell me to get out of the boat and walk on water with you. And as soon as he says that, he must have been like, Why did I say that? What is that? Why not say Jesus if it's really you? Just climb in the boat. So much simpler, so much less dangerous. But Peter, you know, does what he does. He he speaks without thinking, got that nailed, and Jesus says, All right, Peter, yeah, come on out. And Peter steps out of the boat, and for a few minutes, Peter is walking on water. And you want to talk about an experience. I doubt few human beings in existence have had an experience like that. And it makes me really jealous because I like to tell stories. I'm a storyteller. That's what I love to do. I hang out with people, I just have a way of telling stories. And I know that I'm never gonna be able to top that one. Like, I'm gonna get to heaven and I'm gonna have stories about cool things I saw God do, and then here's gonna come Peter being like, oh, let me tell you about the one time I walked on water, and everyone's gonna be like, oh, we know. Tell that story all the time. Stop it. Like, it's good, you can't, how do you one up that story? You can't do it. I think that's why, you know, there's the the tradition. This isn't like scripture per se, but it's just sort of, I don't know, it's become like, you know, superstition that Peter's at the gate of heaven, you know. I don't know why he's like a bouncer. I don't understand. But uh but I think, you know, if if he's at the gate, it's because God's been like, Peter, people are sick of the story. Just stay at the gate and just stop walking around telling everybody about the time you walk on water. Just quit it. They all know. They all know. But Peter's got his eyes on Jesus. And as long as his eyes are on Jesus, he's good. And this storm is raging. But it's when he takes his eyes off Jesus and he looks to the waves and he looks and he sees you know the wind blowing on the water, and when that happens, he sinks. And the beautiful thing is he's okay because he's with Jesus. Like, as long as you're in the presence of Jesus, you might sink a little bit, but you're not gonna drown. Because Jesus was right there and Jesus picked him back up. A friend of mine once said, I'd never thought about this before, but but he thinks that Jesus picked him up and they walked back on the water to the boat. And I bet they did. But it's when his eyes were on Jesus that he was okay. In this room, we've got a lot of different people. We come from a lot of different places, but we all have many things in common. Whether you follow Jesus or you're not even sure, or you stand on that, and if that's you, by the way, we're so glad you're here. But but one thing we all share is we all live in a world full of storms. Right? Storms are inevitable. There's never been one time in my life where it stormed outside, like a literal storm, not being metaphoric now, like a literal storm, and it and there's rain and there's lightning and there's wind, and then when it's done, I've thought to myself, I bet that's the last one. I bet, I bet that's the final storm. Like that's never happened. Because we just know that storms come. That's what that's what they do, like clockwork, they come. We all have storms. Some of us are going through really hard situations right now, some of us have experienced deep tragedy and deep hurt. And there's all these waves we could look at. And when we look at the waves, when we look at all the what's in our lives, all the circumstantial things, it's so easy to become overwhelmed. And to try to put our attention there, and it's so hard because you start to work on this what, and as you work on this one, all of a sudden this one's out of control. And you go over here and you work on this one, and it's out of control, and you're just going back and forth and you're you're you're going crazy because life is out of control and you don't know what to do. But if you get your eyes on Jesus, you can breathe. Because you know what? I don't have to know what to do in life. Because I know who knows what to do, I know Jesus. I don't have to know where to go, because I know who knows where to go. I don't have to know what's going on because I know the one who knows everything that's going on. If our eyes are on Jesus, the one that we need, everything, everything is okay. Our perspective is right. And we have light and we have life. And the joy and the passion and the hope and the peace that we know is lacking in our lives, it just becomes clear when our eyes are on Jesus. The challenge is to keep our eyes there. As someone who's been following Jesus for 20 years, that's the challenge for me. Even in church, it's hard. It's even it's hard running a church to keep my eyes on Jesus. It shouldn't be. It should be really easy every single day when I pull up here to remember, oh yeah, Jesus. But there's just this way we have of getting fixated on the what. And so I just I just ask you this morning, what are you focusing on? What are you giving your attention to? What are you worried about? Replace that what with a who. Replace it with Jesus. For some of us, we've been following Jesus for years, and we just need to be reminded to shift our gaze and keep it on him and remember that when the Bible says when our eyes are on Jesus, we we run our race. And we get to the finish line. It's like that old hymn that says, you know, fix your eyes on Jesus and the things of this world grow strangely dim. Just look at Jesus. If you don't, if you don't know him, by the way, if you've never had a moment where you've said, Jesus, I'm yours, I belong to you. Like that, that needs to happen today. Because you need the peace, you need the joy, you need the hope, you need the perspective, you need the light to break through confusion. You need to know what it feels like for your soul to be satisfied. You get that with Jesus, and only with Jesus you you need it. And the beautiful thing is, it's not even hard. Do you want him? Do you want more of him? I've been following him for 20 years. I want more of him. Anyone else want more of Jesus? Like, I want all that he has. And and if you don't know him and you want him, that's all you gotta have is that desire, and he will satisfy it. You just have to cry out in your heart and just say, I yes. And by the way, if if you want to do that, I would I would be so honored just to pray with you today. And we have this amazing prayer room in the back, a quiet place where you can go and pray. After the the first service this morning, we had an awesome young woman named Shelly that came in and said, I need Jesus. And we prayed, and and I'm telling you, the joy she walked out of there with it was it was powerful. And so, if you want to make that decision today to follow Jesus, don't do it alone. Let us come alongside you and pray with you and just celebrate that moment with you. He is the solution for our hearts. He is the answer. We do not need something, we need someone, and as we close, I want to read one more one more verse. Or set of verses rather. Matthew chapter 11, Jesus said, Come to me. Come to the right who? 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 souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light. Jesus is the right someone for your life. And worship team, you guys can come out. We're gonna we're gonna wrap up with singing a song. That's what's what we do. And, you know, this this song is actually a part of our experience this morning in a really important way. Because the beautiful opportunity we have every Sunday is to come together and to be given an opportunity just to fix our gaze on Jesus. And I'm sure you came in this morning and there were probably a million things fighting for your attention. There's probably a thousand things that are on your to-do list that have to get done when you go home, when you leave this place. But this is an opportunity right now to say, no, I'm gonna I'm gonna put my eyes on him. And so we're gonna sing and we're gonna we're gonna put our eyes on Jesus and we're gonna trust him to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. And we're gonna give our attention and our hearts and our minds and our love to the one who loves us. We don't need something, we need someone. We need Jesus. So pray with me, please. Jesus, thank you so much for this moment, for this opportunity. I want to thank you, Lord, for the last hour or so as we've been able to watch people go all in with you, as we've been able to sing out and just celebrate who you are and how powerful and amazing you actually are. God, thank you for thank you for some time to reflect on your word and who you are and to talk about the opportunity that we have to live our lives fixated on you, God. But I want to thank you also for this next four or five minutes. Because I believe, Lord, that in four or five minutes everything can change. I want to thank you for the next few minutes that we have as an opportunity to sing to you, even if words don't come out of our mouth, to cry out to you in our hearts, and to get our eyes, to get our focus on you, Jesus. Give us that now. Get us looking at you. Help us see you for who you are, help us see you as you are, help us see you as the powerful and mighty conqueror that you are, but also help us see us, help us see you as the humble and gentle Savior that you are, Lord. Just get our eyes focused on you and be as clear to us as you can possibly be, Jesus. We ask this all in your name, and we love you. Amen.