Quick question. Has anyone here ever experienced having too much of a good thing? You ever had that happen to you before? It's possible, right? There are all kinds of things where that can apply. Maybe it's it's food. You have really good food, you just have a little too much of it. And at a certain point, the goodness starts to fade away and bad things begin to happen. Maybe it's vacation time, right? You have some time off work, and at first it's awesome, and you're loving it, and you're resting, you're sleeping in, but but if it goes too long, maybe you start to get bored and you start to almost desire to have work to do. Too much of a good thing, it can happen. This last week, I experienced too much of a good thing. The thing that dominated my my Christmas time was this thing called Star Wars. So just out of curiosity, raise your hand if you saw Star Wars, the new Star Wars movie, okay? I'm guessing most of us had because it's already the highest-grossing film in Disney movie history. That's a big deal. And it's made over a billion dollars, so I'm sure many of us have contributed to that. I did my best this last week to contribute to that success. See, what happened was my son was really excited about it, mainly because I have been grooming him to be excited about it for a long time. We've been building to this moment. And I got a ticket for Monday morning at 9 a.m. Because I did not want to wake up and have Liam ask me like 500 times during the day, when are we going? When are we leaving? What time's the movie? I just wanted to wake up and go. And so we did that. We went, we saw the movie, he loved it, he was so excited. We got back home and he ran to Megan. He said, Mom, it was amazing. And he starts to tell her what happened, and she's like, No, no, no, don't spoil it for me. I want to see it too. I just I want to know what happens. I want to be able to experience it for the first time. And so I had this moment of realization that if my wife's ability to watch this movie without it being spoiled is dependent on my son's ability to not talk, we're in a lot of trouble. Because he is my son, and he is a verbal processor, and he was just it was like, oh mom, there was this one part, and she's like, No. And I said, honey, we gotta call a babysitter now. This is an emergency. We have to go see this movie again, right now. And so we did. We did. So I saw Star Wars twice, twice in one day, and I've never done that before. I mean, my daughter watches Frozen a lot, but I don't sit down and like watch it with her multiple times a day. It's the first time in my life I've ever gone to a movie theater twice in a 24-hour period of time. And I'll just say this, it's a strange experience. If you've never done that before, you know that that weird deja vu feeling you get from time to time? Just imagine that for two hours. Because it was strange. And then a few days later, a few days later, one of our friends was telling us about seeing it in 3D, and Liam was there with me, and they're saying, Oh, did you see it in 3D? And we said, No, we didn't. He doesn't even know what 3D is, but he picked up that apparently it's pretty awesome. And so he looks up to me and says, Dad, can we go see it in 3D? And I'm like, I yeah, I guess so. So we went and we saw it, we saw it three times. Three times. And then and then my friend Dusty sent me a text and said, Hey, I haven't seen Star Wars yet. You want to go? And I said, Yes. And then he didn't he didn't respond after that. And I know you're sitting in the back corner. I saw you earlier. I'm still ready to go, Dusty. I'll go a fourth time. I don't care. I had a lot of Star Wars this week. And it wasn't just the movie. Our our son's Christmas was just Star Wars. He got Star Wars toys. He got a gift card to Toys R Us, which he used to buy more Star Wars toys. He got Star Wars costumes, he got a Star Wars video game. In fact, I have one picture that sums up my Christmas. This is my so I I woke up one morning, went downstairs to the living room, and this is what I saw. This is this is my son Liam playing a Star Wars video game, dressed up in that outfit. And and I wish I had a video of it, because he just kind of looked at me and like nodded and then went right back. It was awesome. It was awesome. So I had a I had a really good time this week. It was it was just a lot of Star Wars. And we're we're definitely approaching that that too much of a good thing threshold. I'm really close to it. There are a lot of things in life that that we can have too much of. The too much of a good thing rule applies to much of our lives, but there are exceptions to that rule. There are things that are so good you can never have too much. Like I've never heard someone say, I've got way too much fulfillment in my life. Like my life has so much meaning. I wake up every day and I have purpose and I know what I'm supposed to do. I just need like pointlessness. I need confusion. That's what I need. We've got too much fulfillment. I've never heard someone say, I have hit the joy quota for my year. I'm tired of things happening that are good to me. I'm tired of enjoying life. I need something to bring me down. That's what I need. You don't hear that. Because there are some things that are so vital, that are so good for us, that we can never have too much. We always we always need more. And that's a very good thing because we have a God that is all about more. We have a God that's very uh abundant. Just look at creation, for example. There are billions and billions of planets, and so far we know of one that has life, it's ours. And if the universe is meant to be a home for us, God went a little overboard. It's kind of overkill. You might look at God and say, hey, beautiful universe. It's pretty big. And it seems like the people just need that one rock, not the billions of them. But see, God, his nature is to never do the minimum. He never, he never does less than we expect. He is a God that is all about more. Jesus shows us this time and time again. Matthew chapter 7, verse 9, Jesus says to parents, you parents, if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not. So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give good gifts to those who ask him? How much more? That is actually a really appropriate phrase for God. He is a how much more God, because picture something you love, someone you love. God loves that person or that thing more than you do. What are you passionate about? God is more passionate than you are about whatever it is you're passionate about. What are you dedicated to? God is more dedicated. God is the how much more God. In John chapter 10, verse 10, Jesus says it this way. He's comparing his desire for us to the desire that Satan has for us. And he says this the thief talking about Satan comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. And I love this. Because Jesus could have stopped at life, and it would have been a beautiful statement. He could have said, The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, but I have come that they may have life, and everyone would have said, Yes. That's that's amazing. But no, no, Jesus adds that other little part. I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full. The message version of this same verse puts it this way: He says, I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of. God is about more. He's not content to just give us enough. He wants us to have more life, he wants us to have an abundance. And here's the thing about us as people, we we sort of naturally desire more. I mean, how many of us want to get more out of life this year? We feel selfish sometimes for desiring more, even though we have we have so much compared to so many people, but there's something inside of us that desires more, and sometimes we think it's greed, and in some situations it might be if we desire the wrong things. But there are other things in life that it's never greed to desire more of. In fact, it's it's natural, it's good that we have this yearning, this desire for something more, because God, I believe, desires to give us more. And I believe he put that desire in us, that desire to get more out of life, he put that in us because he wants us to desire what he wants to give, and he wants to give us more. And so we're starting 2016, this year as a church, talking about the more that God wants for us. What does he want more of in our lives? What do we want more of? And the possibilities are pretty endless. I was really excited about kicking this off today. I knew exactly what I was gonna talk about. I was gonna talk about how we can have more breathing room. Wouldn't that be awesome this year if you had less stress, less worry, less anxiety, and more room to breathe, more rest. I want that this year. 2015 was not a restful year for me at all. Breathing room, that's something practical. That's something we can we can wrap our heads around, that's something we can grab a hold of. So I was like, yes, let's talk about more breathing room. And as today got closer and closer, I just felt that that's not what we're supposed to talk about to start the year. We're gonna talk about that next week. So, spoiler alert, more breathing room next Sunday, be here. It's gonna be great. But I'm sitting there praying, okay, God, well, what do we talk about? How do we start the year? What do we need more of? And and the word I got was God. And I'm kind of like, well, yeah, we're gonna be in church. We're gonna talk about you, God. Like, I get it. But it was just really clear to me that today we need to start our focus on more, our journey to have more by talking about how to have more of God. But the problem with that, the frustration I had with that, is that that's not very practical. What does more of God mean? What does that look like? Does that mean you have to come to church every Sunday this year? It does not, but you know you can. So more of God. See, I wanted to start this with something practical because here's the thing practical's good, practical works. I like practical things. And I think in the last 20 years, one of the best things to happen in church culture in America is for churches to actually start caring about the practical issues that people face and to actually begin talking about and engaging the issues that we all deal with in the day-to-day. That was a great movement that happened about 20 years ago. It's still happening, and churches now are better than ever at talking about the practical. And this is this is just my personal opinion, I might be wrong. But in my experience, a lot of times when there's a shift, sometimes it's like a pendulum. And the shift happens, but but maybe it gets out of balance too. And one of the things that I notice sometimes in in Christian culture in America and church culture is that we get so focused on the practical that it becomes at the expense of the spiritual. And we we end up categorizing practical and spiritual as if they're different things. And it's very natural for us to do that. We have our spiritual life, it's our life with God, but that's different than our going-to-work life. That's different than our day-to-day life. We've got these practical issues that we face. It's our our bank accounts, it's it's our relationships with our spouses, with our kids, with our coworkers, it's our careers. These are practical things that we want to work on. And then there's the spiritual stuff, and we don't often see how much they go together. So we have practical, we have spiritual, we separate the two, but here's the the problem with that. There is nothing more practical than what is spiritual. There is nothing more practical in your life today than God. And here's the reason why. It's very simple. The reason that what is spiritual is completely practical to you is because you are spiritual. And I'm not talking about that in some new agey mystic way. You are spiritual because you have a spirit. In fact, you you are a spirit. You have a body, you live in a body, but you are a spirit. And one day your body will have run its course, but your spirit will just be getting started. And we have to remember that when Jesus came to this world 2,000 years ago, he talked about a lot of practical things. He talks about finances, he talks about rest, he talks about relationships, he talked about so much, but his primary focus, his priority was the spiritual. It was reconnecting us to God. It was waking our spirits up. That was his his focus. And and I think he understands our our pull to the practical at the expense of the spiritual. I think that's part of why he said this in Mark chapter 8, verse 36. He says, What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but you lose your soul? See, we could have a year this year. 2016 could be the year that everything practical lines up. We have enough money, we've got, you know, a lot of peace in our relationships, our jobs going well, we hit all the green lights on the way, you know, to school. We have everything lining up in the practical, but if if there's not more God, if the spiritual is missing, what do we gain? What is spiritual is what's most practical. And if we're gonna have the best year of our lives, if we're gonna have the most important year of our lives, if 2016 is gonna be the year where we get more out of life, we have to begin by desiring more of God. We have to become people who refuse to settle for less of God than we can have. Because with God there's always more. Have you ever had regret, experienced regret in life because you settled for less than you could have had? Several years ago, I was at a job interview, and I was really excited about this job interview because number one, I wanted the job. Number two, the job interview was at a really nice steakhouse. And I was in my early 20s, and steak was not on the menu very often in my early 20s. I'm in my early 30s, it's still not on the menu very often, but in my early 20s, it was it was rare. And so we're going to this really nice steakhouse, and I open up the menu, and one thing, one item jumped off to me. It just grabbed my attention, it was the fillet. And if you're a steak person, you know that there is steak and then there is fillet, and they are different things. But here's the problem, though, the fillet, it's expensive. It's like the most expensive steak on the menu. And when you're at a job interview, do you order the most expensive thing on the menu? I don't I don't think so. I didn't think that was appropriate. So I actually ordered first, and I had two people that were interviewing me, and I ordered the bottom tier steak, like the lowest, cheapest steak they had, and then both the people interviewing me ordered the fillet. And one of them got the fillet with portobello mushrooms. They added on to the filet. And then when the waiter left, this person literally looked at me and said, You should have got the filet. It's amazing here. And I just had to nod my head and be like, Oh, yeah, I'll probably come back and use my own money, you know, to buy that. Um, I'm like, I'm a bottom-tier steak kind of guy. I like it tough and really gritty. That's how I like my steak. And so, you know, they brought the food, and my steak was good. Again, steak was not on the menu much, so I was happy to have steak, but but every bite, watching them with their fillet, it was like a little bit of torture. Just regret in every bite. See, I could have had fillet, but no, I settled for less. Even though my intentions were good. I think we do that so often with God. I think there's this constant pull and this constant temptation to settle for less of God than we can have. And we do that for several different reasons. Sometimes we don't think we are qualified to have more of God. We have a past, we have sin, we have issues, and we look at ourselves and we say, I cannot have any more of him in my life. Maybe those other people can have that, those people who are like really solid, really mature in their faith. I can't have more of him. I don't understand him. I don't know enough of the Bible, I don't know enough about God to have to have more of him. Maybe we've seen someone who seems to have this amazing connection to God. And at first we get encouraged, we're like, wow, they really know God, but then it becomes discouragement because we think to ourselves, I can never have that. I'm never gonna be that person. I'm never gonna have that kind of relationship with God, but I want to, but I just don't, I don't have what they have. There is this constant temptation to settle for less of God than we can have, but but we need to understand something to start this year and to start it right. Our capacity for God in our lives. The room that God has has built into us for Himself, it is so much greater than we ever imagined. You have the capacity to experience more of God than maybe you've ever dreamed of before. You really do. In the Old Testament of the Bible, there's a story of a couple guys that have a really interesting interaction. And it's a story of one person that's settling and another person that desires more. The main character in the story is a man named Elisha. He was a prophet, he was a great prophet. We we read this story in 2 Kings chapter 13. I'm gonna start in verse 14. This is Elisha at the end of his life. When Elisha was in his last illness, King Jehoash of Israel visited him and wept over him. My father, my father, I see the chariots and the charioteers of Israel. Now, I'm gonna give you some context for that. At this time, Israel was at war with a nation called Aram. And basically what we we see happen here is that Jehoash is saying, Every time I close my eyes, all I can see is war. I can't stop thinking about the army that I'm leading. I can't stop thinking about the battles that are coming. I'm nervous, I'm scared, I'm fearful, I'm I'm just I'm obsessed and I'm stressed about this war. Every time I close my eyes, all I see are my chariots and my soldiers. Elisha told him, Get a bow and some arrows. And the king did as he was told. Elisha told him, Put your hand on the bow, and Elisha laid his hands on the king's hands. This is actually a really beautiful moment. There's a passing of the torch that's happening here. Then he continued, Open this eastern window, and he opened it, and then he said, Shoot. So he shot an arrow, and Elisha proclaimed, This is the Lord's arrow, an arrow of victory over Aram, for you will completely conquer the Arameans at Aphak. And then he said, Now pick up the other arrows and strike them against the ground. So the king picked them up and he struck the ground three times with a man of God, Elisha. He was angry with him. You should have struck the ground five or six times, he exclaimed. Then you would have beaten Aram until it was entirely destroyed. Now you will be victorious only three times. And then Elisha died and was buried. And that's a weird way to go. Okay? It's a strange last day. You know, at first this seems kind of perplexing to us because what's going on? I mean, the king comes to Elisha. Seems like it's going pretty well at first. Elisha recognizes that something's happened in this king's heart, that he's open to God, and so he's he's kind of passing the favor and the blessing that he has in his life from God, because he had a lot of it. He's basically saying, Hey, I want you to have this. I want you to have the faith and the confidence that God's gonna be with you like he's been with me, he's gonna protect you, he's gonna give you victory. So shoot this arrow, and they shoot the arrow, and I really hope no one was out that eastern window walking around, but I don't think there were. Everything was safe. And then he says, take these arrows and strike the ground three times. And I don't know if that was a custom. At that time, it very well could have been. A lot of times we'll read the Old Testament or even the New Testament, because that was 2,000 years ago, and we read people doing things that seem really strange to us. And that can actually sort of become a holdup, something that trips us up in our understanding of God. But we should never get tripped up. Because if we were to go back several thousand years and explain to people then some of the ceremonies and the rituals that we have now, those would make no more sense to them as theirs make to us. Like, take, for example, uh a ribbon cutting ceremony. Some of you may have had these, you may have started a business. And if you open up a business, you can have a ribbon cutting ceremony. It's a grand opening, you invite your friends, your family, you invite the community, you put out marketing about it, the mayor might show up, city council shows up, you're opening a new business, and here's the way it works. You would explain, okay. When you open a business, first thing you do is you get a ribbon. Okay? And then you put that ribbon in front of your business, and then you pretend like that ribbon is keeping you from going in, even though it's just a ribbon, right? And everyone goes to your business and they stand there and they they all do the same. They go, Oh man, we can't go in because there is a ribbon in our way, and there is no possible way for us to go over or under or surmount or just pull it apart. It's a it's a ribbon. So we need some scissors, some strangely oversized scissors. And there's got to be one company out there that has the market cornered on giant scissors. And you buy these scissors and then you cut this ribbon, and when you cut the ribbon, everyone goes yay, and they know they can come inside because the ribbon is gone. Thank goodness the ribbon is gone, right? That's a weird ceremony. And ceremonies in and of themselves, they don't really matter. Having a ribbon cutting ceremony does not guarantee a business to be successful. But the way we engage ceremonies, they it does matter. Like imagine you're the person that's opening the business, you're the one that gets to cut the ribbon, and everyone's there, everyone's watching you, and you sort of nonchalantly sort of shrug your shoulders, grab the scissors, and go, alright guys, you can go in. We're open. Does that matter? Yes. Yes, it matters because that is a moment that dictates some enthusiasm. That is a moment that begs for some passion. You're supposed to show people that you're excited about this opening. You believe this is gonna be successful, you want them to be excited too, so you have to, you gotta muster some excitement. What about a wedding ceremony? What if you're the person that's standing there and the officiant says to you, do you take this person to be your husband? Or your wife, and you just look at them and go, Yeah, I guess. I mean, you're doing what you're supposed to do, it would be better for you to say that than to go, you know what, now that you put it that way, I don't know if this is something I want to go through with. That that would be worse, but if you just looked at the person and sort of said, Yeah, sure. I like this person, yeah, why not? That does not bode well for your future. Because again, that is a moment that dictates some passion, some sentiment. And when we see people not not engaging with something that's really important in a way that shows a reverence. In a way that shows that they grasp the gravity of what's going on, it's upsetting. And that's what's happening here for Elijah with Jehoash. This is a ritual that he's creating so that Jehoash can understand that God is going to favor him, God is going to bless him, God is going to give him his spirit. And so he says, Hey, take these arrows, strike them on the ground, and Johash goes like this. He just goes like this three times. And Elisha goes, What are you doing? What, you should have struck five, six times, a hundred times. You should have gone crazy. Why would you do that? Why would you just do the minimum? Why wouldn't you go for it? Because see, if you understand Elisha's backstory, this does not compute for him. That's not how he was wired. Years ago, Elisha had been in the same exact position. He was the young guy, he was the one that the torch was being passed to. We read the story in 2 Kings chapter 2. It's a really funny story, if you see it in the right light, I think. And the Lord was about to take Elisha, not Elisha, Elisha, Elisha passed the torch to Elisha. And that must have been really convenient for like business cards, because they just had to like change a letter or something like that. Super God's efficient sometimes. So he's about to go away. Elisha and Elisha were traveling from Gilgal, and Elijah said to Elisha, Stay here, for the Lord has told me to go to Bethel. But Elisha replied, As surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, I will never leave you. So they went down together to Bethel. The group of prophets from Bethel came to Elisha and asked him, Did you know that the Lord is going to take your master away from you today? He's going to leave you. And this is what Elisha says, Of course I know. But be quiet about it. Stop talking. And then Elisha said to Elisha, Stay here, for the Lord has told me to go to Jericho. But Elisha replied again, As surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, I will never leave you. So they went on together to Jericho. And then the group of prophets from Jericho came to Elisha and asked him, Did you know that the Lord is going to take your master away from you today? Of course I know. Elijah answered, but be quiet about it. Then Elijah said to Elisha, Stay here, for the Lord has told me to go to the Jordan River. And shockingly, Elisha responds, As surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, I will never leave you. It's like he's saying, How many times do I have to repeat myself? Everyone needs to shut up and let me go with Elijah. So they went on together. Fifty men from the group of prophets also went, and they watched from a distance as Elijah and Elisha stopped beside the Jordan River. And then Elijah folded his cloak together and struck the water with it. The river divided, and the two of them went across on dry ground. When they came to the other side, Elijah said to Elisha, Tell me what I can do for you before I'm being taken away. And Elisha replied, Please, let me inherit a double share of your spirit and become your successor. Now, that's a big thing to ask. Because if you know the story of Elijah, he wasn't exactly someone that had a minimum amount of God's spirit and God's power in his life. He wasn't some minor guy that did some cool stuff for God. No, no, he's an icon. He's a legend. He is someone that at that time had more of God in him than anyone thought they could ever have. He did amazing miracles, he did incredible things through the power of God in his life. He was someone that everyone would have looked at and said, Never before has there been a person with that much of God in their life. He's the kind of person you would look at and you would say, if I could just have half, half of the amount of God he has in his life, I'd be content. But not Elisha. No, Elisha doesn't say, Hey, I want I want half. I want some. Elisha doesn't even say, Hey, I just want what you've got. He says, Give me a double portion of the amount of God that you have. Give me a second helping of the spirit that God has given you. I want twice what you have. That would be like you being a band and you're just getting started, and someone interviews you, and they say, Hey, so tell me about your goals. And you're like, ah, you know, we're thinking like twice the success of the Beatles, something like that. You know, it's pretty modest. That would be like you being a painter and saying, I want twice the talent of Leonardo da Vinci. That would be like you going on a job interview and ordering the fillet and portobello mushrooms and a lobster tail. You just don't do that. You just don't do that. It's incredulous. It is incredulous that Elisha is asking for twice the amount of God's spirit in his life that Elijah had. It's insane, except for this one crazy little detail, and that's this Elisha got it. He got the double portion. He received what he asked for. And he became this unbelievable prophet, this man that God used to do amazing things, even more than he had used Elijah. It's incredible. And see, Elisha understood that there is so much more of God available to us than we realize. And if the rolls had been flipped and he was the one with those arrows, he would have looked at the king and said, You mean all I have to do to have God's favor and his blessing in my life is strike the ground with these arrows? That's all I've got to do. And then he would have struck those arrows so hard and so many times that they would have splintered off until there was nothing left but dust. That is who Elisha was. He couldn't stop until he had more of God. Those other prophets, they were content to stay at a distance and watch what God was doing. Not Elisha. Elisha had to be there. He had to experience it for himself. He had to be part of what God was doing, not a witness to what God was doing. Elisha shows us that when it comes to God in our lives, there is more. You can have more. You can have more of God in your life than you've ever imagined. I love the way Ephesians chapter 3 puts it. Verse 20 says, God can do anything, you know, far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams. He does it not by pushing us around, but by working within us his spirit deeply and gently within us. He is the how much more God. And with him, there is no such thing as too much of something good. There's no such thing as the law of diminishing returns when it comes to God. We all kind of live that way, right? We live by the law of diminishing returns. We don't think about it in those words necessarily, but that's how we live. We're careful about how much we invest in someone or something because we know that we might not get back what we put in. It's safe to live that way. So be careful about going all in in a relationship because what if you get rejected? Be careful going all in at work and giving it your all, giving it everything, because what if you get passed over for that promotion? Don't invest too much in your house because the market might crash and you may not get that money back. Be careful what you put in. You may not get out what you put in. But with God it never works that way. There will never be a time in your life where you will get back less than you put in with God. Because here's the amazing thing, and the math doesn't line up, but but you give God all of you, He responds by giving all of Himself to you, and which is more. This is not a fair trade we're talking about. What I want all of us to understand as we start this year is simply this there's more. There is more. No matter where you are with God, maybe you're someone that's just getting started, maybe you're not even there yet, but but maybe you're someone that's been following God for 20 years, and the temptation is to go, this is it. This is what I can experience, this is what I've got. I've arrived. Not that you're like amazing or anything like that, but you feel like this is the pinnacle, this is this is what I've got, and this is what I'm gonna have for the rest of my life. There is more. There is so much more. No matter where you at, you can take a step and you can have more. God wants you to have a double portion of whatever amount of Him you think is possible. And so maybe you're just curious about God, and maybe your more today is to take that step and to invite God into your life, to say to Jesus, I want you, please come in my life, be with me. To make that prayer, to make him your own. That would be more for you. Maybe you're you're someone that's done that, but you haven't been baptized, you haven't gone all in, you haven't just said to everyone around you, to your family, to your friends, to your community, I will follow Jesus anywhere. That might be your next step. We've got baptisms coming up in a couple of weeks. Just sign up today. Go all in, have more. Maybe for you it's it's engaging with the Bible for the very first time. It's getting past all the holdups you have and all the thoughts about how you can't understand it, and and it's just it's it's like Greek because it was written in Greek, but it's something that you have just always thought, I can't get this. This is too much for me. I'll just wait, I'll just wait until they're talking about something on a Sunday that affects me. I know it's coming. God will do that, He'll speak through that, but but you don't have to wait to know what He wants for you. Join a home group. Come to the foundations class. Get home today, just open it. Read. Start with the book of Mark. Just read about Jesus and his life and see what he says to you, see what speaks to you. Maybe your more this year is to experience the Holy Spirit. You know, this is just a personal conviction of mine, but one of the things that breaks my heart more than anything else in church culture is that the Holy Spirit just sort of gets ignored so often. Because he's weird. He's like that weird cousin that comes over at Thanksgiving, and everyone just sort of goes, like, when is he gonna leave? Um that's how we think about the Holy Spirit sometimes. And so there's there's whole churches that are awesome and they're amazing, and they love Jesus and they love God and they love people, but the Holy Spirit's a little too strange, and so he's just not talked about. He's either replaced with church activity or even the Bible. The Bible's amazing, but it's not God. The Holy Spirit is real. The Holy Spirit is a promise that Jesus made to us. In fact, it's such a big promise, Jesus said, Hey, don't worry that I'm leaving, because just wait. I'm gonna give you the Holy Spirit, and you can't even imagine what He's gonna do for you. You can have the Spirit of God living inside of you, empowering you, inspiring you. You can be Elisha, you can be the person that's not witnessing what God is doing, you can be the person that God is using to do what God is doing. You can have more. So, my prayer for us today is simply this: let us be people that never settle when it comes to God. There's no reason to settle. Let's never have the regret of settling for less of God because belief is not enough. Belief is great. If you believe in God, awesome. But he didn't come to this world to live and die for you so you could believe in him. He had belief before that. He came to know you so that he could be known by you. Don't settle for belief, don't settle for church. Church is great. This is an amazing church. I love this place. I'm here a lot. But but I just want you all to know being a big church, being a great church, being a thriving church, that's not our goal. That's not the end game. That's that's probably gonna be the result of us doing what we're supposed to do, but we do not exist so that you like being at church. We exist so that you know Jesus, so that you have him in your life. So that whenever everything around you is falling apart, you're not falling apart because you have God in your life. That's the end game. It's Jesus. He's the only one that gets famous here for a reason. Don't settle for anything less than. I'm at that point where I'm rambling, and you get it, right? More of God. Do you want more? Because if you want what God wants, you're gonna get it. There's times in my life where I have wanted things badly, but they have not been the things that God has wanted, and those do not work out well. And I have spent a lot of energy and a lot of time going after things that God just did not want me to have. Like he knows better or something. And there might be things in your mind that you want more of this year, and they might be what you actually need more of. They may be, they might be distractions, they might be things that are that are what you think you need more of, but they're actually gonna keep you from what you really need more of. But when it comes to God, when it comes to himself, there will never be a day where he is satisfied with with how much of him you have. So want more, desire more, ask for more, and be ready for more. We're gonna close with a worship song. And I know sometimes when we do the last song, it's like, great, grab the purse, let's get out of here. Um, and I know when you have kids, you want to do that. I always say this: someone is watching your children. Why are you in a hurry? Like, what is that? Is people pay for that, okay? We're gonna we're gonna hang out here for for just a few more minutes and we're gonna sing together. And and this song is it's just us crying out, we want more of you. We want more of you. And I don't know how much of him you have, but there's more. So as we as we sing this song, let this song be your prayer. Let this song be the prayer that ignites 2016 to be the year that you start getting more out of life and more out of God than you've ever thought possible. Let's pray together. Jesus, thank you so much for giving us more. You are you are infinite. I mean, really. You're the alpha, you're the omega, you're the beginning, you're the end. And I think the reason sometimes that heaven is gonna last forever, Jesus, is because we're gonna need forever to experience all of you. That's how long it's gonna take. But in this life, today, right now, we want more. And we're not being greedy. Just like Elisha wasn't being greedy. If he had been greedy and asking for more, you would not have given it to him. We're not greedy, we're hungry. We want more of you. We want more of your love, more of your life, more of your passion, more of your spirit, more of everything you have for us. We want more than we've ever dreamed is possible. So make this the prayer for our year. And give us more of you. We love you. We love you. Amen.