We get together a lot, we focus on what Jesus has done for us, but he's not the only person that has given everything. Many have followed his example, and there are a lot of people, uh maybe people even in our own families and our lives that have given everything so we can we can live in this country and we can enjoy the freedom that we have. And I think it's worth uh a celebration, a clap at least for everyone that's given their life for us. We are so blessed. I want to uh I want to share a few quick stories, then I have two announcements before before Ken comes out. Uh at the back four columns where we have prayer requests and our giving kiosks and things like that, uh, there's also these cards. There are story cards. We want to know your story. We want to know what God is doing in your life, we want to know maybe what he's even using you to do in someone else's life because he chooses to work through us so often. Uh, I got a couple of this last week and they had a similar thread. And it was about this church. And here's what I love about this is whenever you hear his hands church or the church, that is not an organization. It is not the staff, it's not the building, it's you. You are the church. You make this place what it is by being the loving, amazing people that you are, letting God's love and his light just kind of shine through you. And so you affect so many people you may not realize. This person wrote that my husband and I started coming to his hands about a month ago, and we now consider this church our home. We love it here. Uh we we grew up in a very religious family, but we were missing an understanding of what Jesus' love was really about and the fact that he actually desires a relationship with us. It has never seemed that he was at the center of what we were taught. But the very first Sunday we were here, we made the decision to follow Jesus. She said we were broken and lost, but the love of Jesus has changed all of that because of this place. So thank you guys so much for being the church that you are. I love it. This person was bold enough to leave her name. Her name is Heather. And she said, Before I came to his hands, I was mad at church. I was mad at God. I was even mad at myself. Nothing fit into place like it should, even though I tried forcing the pieces. And she she emphasized, I, that she is the one that tried. Since my first Sunday, God has broken down my hard heart and my anger. He has taught me to forgive, and he's provided me with a wonderful group of godly women here at this church that help me and support me. I've always loved God. I grew up in a Christian home, but I refused to step out in faith until now. So I want to praise Jesus for his unending grace because without him I am nothing. I love it. It's awesome. The reason I love to share stories like this is because we all need to be reminded that what we do here and who we are as a family, it changes people's lives. God is moving, he is working. It's incredible to watch the results, to watch the lives that are changing on a weekly basis, on a daily basis. Those of you who serve on teams, these are your stories. Those of you who pray and you pray for people at this church, you pray for this community, for everyone, for all the churches in this community. You're part of these stories. Those of you who give financially, you're not investing in an organization, you're investing in lives, and lives are changing. So I want to thank you for serving. I want to thank you for praying. I want to thank you for being who you are. I want to thank all of you who invest financially. It's it's a huge, it's a sacrifice that you make, but it's paying off in countless people's lives. So thank you, thank you, thank you. Um, I want to talk about two things coming up really soon. Number one is in July, July 12th through the 16th. Uh we're calling this Adventure Week. If you're familiar with VBS Vacation Bible School, this is our version of that. And Adventure Week is for two-year-olds through fifth graders. It's gonna happen the evenings of Sunday the 12th, all the way through Thursday the 16th. Uh, the theme is Everest, and so it's gonna be a whole week for the kids that's gonna remind them no matter the challenges you face, God will get you through it. God is there for you, and there are gonna be 400-plus kids, I believe, that are gonna be here for that. And so we're gonna have a chance in July to take 400 children, teach them about Jesus. Some of these will be kids that have never heard about Jesus, don't have any idea that they were created by God and that they are loved by that God that created them. It's gonna be an amazing experience. I know many of us have kids and we'll want them to be part of that. So you can start registering and signing your kids up for Adventure Week today in the lobby at the Connect Desk. There is no cost. We just we just need to have an idea of how many to expect. So if you just want to go to the Connect Desk, fill out the information, and we will be ready for your kids. If you'd like to help, we could definitely use it. Our students will be highly, highly involved in that. Some of the students you may have not known that, but you're gonna be highly, highly involved in that. So just be ready. Um, you're gonna come back from the road trip, you're gonna go riding that, it's gonna be awesome. Um, but we'll need as much help as we can get because there will be worship, there'll be games, there'll be skits, there'll be all kinds of things that we'll want to do to make sure the kids have an incredible experience. But be praying for that week because we want to see it have a big result in a lot of families' lives and a lot of kids' lives. Uh, the other thing is something Ken will talk about here in just a second, a little bit more, but it is comedy night. It is June the June the 7th at 6.07. So 676, yeah. Um, that's what it is. So comedy night is is exactly what it sounds like. We're gonna get together here and we're gonna laugh. We always say this at his hands. We take God very seriously, but we do not take ourselves seriously, sometimes to a fault, but we don't. And and Ken is gonna be leading that night. Uh, he'll talk about it in a second, but but he, if you're not familiar, is one of the one one of the most successful Christian comedians in the country. He goes all over the place and he's he's spoken to so many different people. And a few years ago, he actually brought a lot of jealousy into my heart. Um, I'm a huge basketball fan, and he let me know just to know that he was actually providing the entertainment for the final four coaches' banquet. And um, not like I wanted to be there or anything, but uh but I was like, oh, you know, people tell you things, you're like, good, good for you. Good, good for you. I'm so happy for you. Um But Ken goes all over the place. He's an amazingly gifted speaker, as you guys know. He's part of our teaching team, and he's a hilarious comedian. It's not just gonna be him, though, there's a whole team, it's a it's a whole lineup. Um, some comedians that are are really well known if you're familiar with with that kind of whole scene. And normally something like this, something like this would cost in the the $30 to $40 range. Tickets are $10 if you buy them here. They're $15 at the door, $10 if you buy them here, you can buy them today in the lobby over by the source. And the great thing too is if you buy two or more tickets, they're only $8 a piece. And that's on purpose. We would love for you. We would love for you to give someone a ticket as a gift. If you bought a ticket, eight bucks, and you said, hey, to a friend of yours, to a neighbor, said, Hey, uh, I have a ticket for you. If you can be here that night, come. I mean, that that's an incredible invitation, and a lot of people don't expect to walk into a church and like enjoy life. And that's what we're gonna do. It's gonna be awesome. So I want to encourage you to grab a ticket and grab a few and give them away to people that that God might want here. That's a great invitation. All right, well, let's pray as Ken comes out and shares with us. Jesus, thank you so much for this family. I'm so good to be here every single morning. I'm blown away by how much life there is in this place. And it's because of the life that is in every single heart in this room. God, we want to live for you. We want you to live through us. We want to experience the life that you have for us. We want to grow, Jesus. We want to grow into the people you created us to be. And so we just ask that you would open our hearts and minds as Ken shares with us so that we can do that. We love you and we ask all this in your name, Jesus. Amen. Amen. All right, well, Ken Kington. Where'd you go?

I had no idea you wanted to go to that final four thing. I really didn't. Uh I had an extra ticket and I just didn't know what to do with that. So uh I I will say that I I told him that afterwards, um, but I did. I actually I was at the event the day before the final four, and uh the head of ticketing for the NCAA walked up and to my buddy, he goes, I got I got four extra tickets. Do you know anybody wants them? And I'm like, Meh. Um so I called a buddy of mine who was dating a girl at the time, and uh this this is just the real live in the now point that uh I said, dude, because we had played basketball that morning together here. He said, What are you doing this weekend? I said, I'm flying down to the final four, it's on my bucket list. He goes, It's mine too. And I'm like, that's awesome. So I called him, and he's my bookkeeper. I said, Hey, you got 10 minutes to make a decision. I've got two tickets to the full final four. Do you want them? And uh he said, Oh my gosh, give me three minutes. And he called back, he goes, Yes, I don't know how I'm gonna get there, I don't know what I'm gonna do. But uh, the girl I've been dating, she's a basketball fan, we're coming down. They drove down, and it was kind of the signature kind of figure out is this the one date, basically. They'd been dating for a while, and he said that she was like totally there. They had some friends, they had stayed up there and uh walked went through a rainstorm. And anyway, they just uh they got married about oh gosh, I guess about eight, uh no, not eight, uh about a year and a half ago, just had their first baby, and we saw that baby last night, and it all for me the first time I met her was the final four. So um I don't know what that means to Justin, but uh it was a cool live-in-the-moment stage. But uh, if you were here last week, we talked about living a life of success and significance and how do we do that? And this week we're gonna jump into how do I grow and how do I get to that point? I gotta ask this question. I want to see a show of hands if you had this. Was there a place at your house growing up or your apartment or your trailer, your condo, or whatever you lived in, where there was a doorway or a wall where there had pencil marks on it where you measured and they do that? Anyway, who had those? Raise your hands. The rest of you, really? You lived a pathetic childhood. I'm sorry. Um wow, I really feel bad for you. Uh but you just had that, and it's there was this tendency to want to go, uh, am I taller? And like every birthday, look how much you've grown. And that's the way growth is. It kind of is over time. And I I want to just take a look at that this morning and say, okay, so how do we how do we grow and and how do we get there? And how do we get to success? And what is success? How do I find it? How do I get it in significance? And as I get a little bit older, I don't want just success. I want something that intrinsically in me goes, that was significant. That's gonna live on beyond me, that's gonna have a ripple effect way beyond my life, and I want that. So, how do I get that? How do I get that in growth? Well, I want to just kind of start where we left off last week of saying it's not gonna come through philosophies. Now, philosophies are great. I had a couple philosophy classes that drove me insane in college. They're like, if a tree falls in the wood and nobody is there to hear it, did it make a sound? Yes. Well, prove it. What? I mean, I didn't want to waste my brain energy going, really? That's that's how you're you got your degree. That's what you're living for is trees that make no noise. That's that's you. And and and the philosophies of life, and I used to think there were there are some philosophies that really make you think, and and I kind of one of them was you know what? Uh, well, we're just uh for for eternity. For eternity. How do I get to heaven? I've heard this philosophy. Well, we're all just on different roads, and we're gonna end up in the same place. And that sounds really good unless you think about it practically. And in reality, if you believe that philosophy, when you leave here today, just get to go home, get on any road and just drive, and you'll end up home. Okay, that that no, you have to have a specific road to get to a specific place, and uh, eternity is no difference. And God, and if you read the Bible compared to any other religion, it's the only one that says this is the way you can know that you have eternal life. This is the way you can know it. And there's no other religion on the planet that points to one person, God becoming a man and serving and giving his life so that you can know that you have that. And it's uh I won't go down the philosophy road. There's another one that I kind of bought into for a while of just how are you gonna get to heaven? Well, I hope I'm good enough. And that's a real pervasive idea in our culture about good be good, be good, be good enough. And if we if we really believe that, we've got to ask the question what's good, what's bad? Who gets to define good and bad? Is there a list out there so that we can try to live up to that? And and if it's the good bad thing, who decides what's good and bad in the end? What's good enough? Is it a bell curve or half of it's gonna be good and half of us gonna be bad? And if that's the case, shouldn't we be out there trying to make good people do bad stuff so we got a better chance? Or would that be bad? And here's the real bummer. What if it is the good-bad thing and there's this huge scale in heaven and God puts everything we do on a scale and we miss by one? Wouldn't that stink? It's like, man, you mean if I didn't cuss in third grade, I'm in, and that's it? Dang! So the philosophies of life and this concept of good, bad, and all that, it just doesn't get it for me. And and then the most dangerous one of all, and what I really struggle with, and I want to be open this morning. I struggled when I first came into Christ, religion would try to get in there, and religion, I'll define it as simply this is taking the truth and forcing it on people in order to control them in some way. And that was never God's intention for a man to have any kind of control over other men. What we do is we share the truth as best we can in such a way that we can individually take that truth and let God speak to our hearts. But here's some of my struggle. I I tend to be a perfectionist. So when I first started reading some of the truth, like in Deuteronomy, one of the beginning books of the Bible, I read this passage in Deuteronomy 6.4, and we're gonna put them all up on the screens here this morning. But if you want to follow along, I encourage you to go to the New Testament to Genesis, Ephesians, uh not Genesis, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, that area of the New Testament, because those are the letters to those who were new Christians and wanted to grow, and we're gonna do just kind of a bounce around there. But I would read a verse like this in Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 4 and 5. It says, Here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. The Lord, love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. That's a great verse, that's a great truth, and we should do that. We should love God with all and all and all. But if you're a perfectionist like me, it gets down to well, there's times that I don't do what I'm supposed to do. And what happens there? If uh that means I'm not all loving at all times with all that I have, so what does that mean? And then the religion would kick in with what I call the bad list in Galatians chapter 5, verses 16 through 21. I just want to read a couple verses, then I'll ask you questions as we go. And it says this So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. So these are these two natures. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the spirit, and the spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other so that you do not do what you want. Now let me ask a question just to be honest, to see if you're in the same category as I am. At any point in life, have you ever done something you knew was wrong, and but you decided I'm doing it anyway? Anyone else in that category? Okay, most of you, the rest of you are lying. So, um, and that's a sin. So you you're in the category. And then it gets to the rest of the list, and I gotta tell you, this is a hard list because Jesus draw the line later on in or in the in the gospels. He says, if you even dwell, you think about these things and think, I don't want to do that, you've just lacked opportunity, you've already committed that sin. Look what he says as he goes on in verse 18. But if you are led by the Spirit, you will not, you are not under the law. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious. And as I look at these, now you don't raise your hand, I don't want you to raise your hands, but in your heart, in your mind, I want you to think, just put a check mark by any of these that you've either thought of, done with, or struggled with or done. And that is this uh sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery. I don't even know what that is, but I'm sure I've done it. So idolatry. I literally stopped at idolatry. I think, well, I've never had an idol. I don't worship an idol, and God just really hit my heart again. Really? Have you ever thought if I had this, then all my problems would go away? And I'm like, well, yeah, if I had more money, he's like, then you idolize money. Crap. Okay, so witchcraft. I didn't have that one. That was it. So I'm like one for five out of those. Hatred, guilty, discord, jealousy, yes, fits of rage, yes, um, selfish ambition, dissension, faction, and envy and drunkenness and orgies and and the like. I warn you as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. As a perfectionist, I read that and I'm like, God, 12 out of 15, I'm guilty. I'm sunk. And and the truth is, is if I'm living by a religious standard, then I'm I'm I'm I'm sunk. And you can go over to the next column into chapter six, because in God's economy, the truth says this in chapter six, verses seven and the first part of eight, it says, Do not be deceived, God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature from that nature will reap destruction. And let me just tell you, I believe that with all my heart. And because I've experienced it. And if you're looking for what our culture looks at and says that Christians think they're perfect, they don't. Religion thinks they're perfect, and then they rejoice when somebody of faith struggles and fails in one of these areas, and they're like, You're hypocrites. They've got the wrong definition of what a Christian is, because I can tell you right now, I've never met anybody who trusts Christ fully that says I'm perfect. We realize we are completely imperfect. And if you're looking for that place, you're in the wrong place today. Because I guarantee you, right now, right now, where you sit, if you were to take your chair and draw a 20-foot circle, there is somebody, probably multiple people in that circle that have not only failed in one of these areas, but have experienced the destruction of it. Literally. Don't look around because you'll be going, oh, I bet it's that guy, you know, and then and it's not. It's not. But we look around, we like, I I I have. I have struggled, and it is true, we we reap what we sow. And that's the painful part. But God's desire is that we really start asking some simple questions to experience life abundant, life in full, and life eternal. And how do I get there and how do I grow? Well, the first question we have to ask, and I'll just throw out three questions today. The first one is, am I alive? Am I alive? Not do I exist, and Justin puts it beautifully. He says, you know what? There there are. There's the body, the soul, and the spirit, and and we are physically existing, we're alive, but we just exist. We're not alive. And if I can put it this way, that God longs for us to experience this in Galatians 2, chapter 2, verse 21, 20 and 21, we get to the point where we realize when we come to that point where I can't do this on my own, I I'm not capable. And even as a Christian, where I fall short, and I'm tired of falling short, it says this in verse 20 I have been crucified with Christ, I no longer live. But Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, I embrace it. That's my only hope. For if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing. This is the belief. Not that I can be good enough, that I'll ever be good enough on my own, or that I can even do good on my own. I need the risen Jesus to come into my life and not only forgive me, but empower me to do what I can't do on my own. Because I need that help. If I could put it this way, it's the difference between being alive and not. Now, I gotta ask another question. Raise your hands. If you were around in the early to mid-70s, raise your hands. If you were alive at that point, okay. Now, if you weren't, watch these people around you because this is one of the best. Now, if you were to tell your child, hey, for your birthday, we're getting you a pet. And you, I want you to get in your mind like a six, seven, eight-year-old child, a pet? I've always wanted a kitten or a dog or whatever, and you just think, oh my gosh, for my birthday. And you tell all your friends, I get a pet for my birthday. I'm so excited, I get a pet for my birthday. My parents told me they're gonna get me a pet. And you were around in this mid-60s, I'm sorry, the early to mid seventies. There was a big fad then, and your parents wrapped it up, and you open up and you get a pet. Rock! You get a pet rock. There's a thing called pet rocks. You know what they were? They were rocks. That's what they were. It was a rock. Can you how would you feel at that point going, huh? I want a puppy. I mean, I can throw this at my sister, but this is really the this is the pet. Does it exist? Yes. Did they call it a pet? Yes. It's nothing. It's a paperweight. You can't do anything with that. But think about the difference between that and getting a puppy. I'll never forget when Kennedy, when she was in treatment, she got a pet pug and she named it Skittles, and we still have Skittles, and you run around. She, this little puzzle, she just played, she was euphoric. She could not take her eyes off of it. It was life. It's looky little. She'd lay down next to him and he would nibble on her and look, she's she'd giggle, and it's just life. That's the difference between living and having Christ in us. Without Christ, we exist. We are a rock. We are just kind of going through, but we're missing the life that God longs for us to exist. And he says, Hey, I've got this for you. In Ephesians chapter 3, verse 16 through 20. It's probably one of my favorite prayers. These are letters that are written to young believers, new believers. Those are the first churches that were around. And I believe if I could write a letter, I would write this one. In Ephesians 2, I'm sorry, Ephesians 3, 16 through 20. I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, his love, his sacrificial love, may have power together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and how long and how high and how deep is the love of Christ. And to know this love that has surpassed comprehension and knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all fullness in God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or even imagine according to his power that is at work within us. To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever. That means today. That means today, God longs for us to experience his power, his love, his overwhelming. And as I look at that bad list and I look at that and going, God, really, you've forgiven me of all of that? And not only forgiven me of it, well, God, grow me then, because I don't want to dwell on that. I want to do what is right and good that's going to bring me success and significance. I want you to just, you can flip back or you can just read this part in Galatians chapter 6, 8, where he talks about the sowing and reaping. He he literally says, those who sow of the flesh is destruction, but the one who sows to please the spirit from the spirit will reap eternal life. That's where I want to live. I want to experience his life and his life abundant. And to just say, okay, God, I'm on your side. I want that. To desire that is that first step of growth. So I have to be alive. Because once I'm alive, circumstances of life may or may not change. There will still be frustration, like we talked about last week. But when God within and that power within us and his perspective in us, that frustration literally, in all ways, will turn to fulfillment because he's there. In God's economy, there's never pain without a purpose. And that distinction comes from God and God alone. It's like experiencing something overwhelming for the first time. There's very few movies that are just very noteworthy and great. I saw one a few months ago based on a true story called McFarland. I don't know if you saw that one or not. Definitely rent it if you get a chance. It's about migrant workers, kids that were in a school, and they started a cross-country team, and they were just incredible runners, and they felt like they were the lowest rung on the ladder, and yet they became champions, and it was awesome. But one of my favorite parts of the movie is they finished up a race that didn't go so great. And as they're driving back to this part of California, the coach either in conversation somehow mentions the ocean. We're this far from the ocean. And all the guys that were in the team, they're like, We've never seen the ocean. High school kids. They're like, We've never seen the ocean. He's like, What? And he drives to the state park. He doesn't even have enough money to get into the state park. And he looks at the guy and he goes, I've got half of what it costs. I think it was eight bucks. He goes, I got four something. And he said, Now all I do is I want to show these guys they've never seen the ocean. And the guy was like, go ahead. And to see these kids get out and see the ocean and just go, whoa. And they start running in the sand and then they pause and they take off their shoes and they're like, what do we do? But then they don't stop and they rush in and they're playing in the waves, and it's just euphoric and overwhelming and amazing all at the same time. That is this immeasurable that God is talking about. We can't imagine how much he longs to show us everything good, empower us to be everything that we can't be on our own. That's what he longs for. That's the life that he gives. The second question then is well, if if I am alive and I accept Christ, and let me take one more quick aside. If you're here today and you're like, well, that sounds really good, and I maybe have never heard that, and there's something in my heart that wants to believe that's true, but I just don't know if I can believe that or not. I want to give you a challenge. Grab a Bible and read one of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. Uh if you can't figure out which one, then read John. And here's all you do every day for one month. Open up to the book of John, read one chapter. Before you read it, pray this just to God, Himself, you and Him one on one. God, if you really are real and you really care about me, show me. Read one chapter. And just do that every day for a month. And let me tell you what's gonna happen. You're gonna start reading pieces like, oh, that's pretty good. Well, that's good. And you're gonna start reading about them, and then something's gonna happen within that first couple weeks where you're gonna read a verse and go, oh, I really like that. And then that day something's gonna happen that that verse comes to life, or you experience in life, and you're gonna go, Wow, what a coincidence! And God's gonna begin to whisper in your heart, that was me, that was me. And I I really do, I really do love you, and I really love you this much. And he's gonna start showing you how much he loves you, and and then you're gonna have these feelings, and God's gonna start addressing them, and it's amazing. And you're gonna have the opportunity to come to life. The second was how do I grow? How do I grow? And you know what? There are different parts. There's the life. Physically, we grow, but our physical bodies are gonna deteriorate, and God is very clear about that. And and it's our soul that's gonna bring that satisfaction and that significance to life, not our physical bodies. Oh, yes, there's parts of satisfaction. Yes, there are parts physically, but that's gonna deteriorate. Now, I remember being in my teens and my 20s, going, yeah, I believe that, but man, I'm I'm spiking here. I'm in great shape, and I'm getting there. And then your body just something happens in your 20s where it just goes, and then and then the 30s, and then it's like, you know, it just it's I I used to be able to literally, my wife, when we got married, I was in my late 20s, early 30s, and she goes, hey, let's run a half marathon in our first year of marriage. I trained for like two days, ran a half marathon. It's nothing. Now I stand up quick, I get dizzy, okay? That's where I am now. It's not easy. My sons who are teenagers, they're talking about, hey, dad, I dunked the other day, and I'm like, I did it Dunkin' Donuts. I mean, I can do that, but it I mean, it and if you doubt this concept, that there was a study a couple months ago that out of everybody who's ever lived, one out of one at some point in their life dies. Okay? It's a study, I think it's true. Our flesh is deteriorating, and and yet in our spirit, in our hearts, here if we get really honest, we will know that there's a part in us that wants to do good, and there's a part in us that wants to do what is of the selfish desire, the sinful nature, which really does destroy us. And like I said, there's plenty of stories to that. And we'll all have a personal story there. But I'll tell you one of the greatest encouragements of my Christian life was that when I came across this passage in Romans chapter 7. Because I constantly felt like I wasn't measuring up and that I couldn't make the list happen. And I never realized that God never intended that for me. He wanted me to realize that, Ken, I'm gonna do this with you and through you. And I read this passage, and I think I was in college when I first read it in Romans chapter 7, verse 14. And he says this, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. What I hate to do, that's what I'm doing. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who is doing it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me. That is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do. No, the evil I do not want to do, this I keep on doing. That is the struggle in our hearts. And if I want to grow, I've got to ask the question, how am I gonna deal with that? One of the other great experiences I had was in 1 John. Because it's deciding either I'm going to rationalize what I'm doing or I'm gonna commit to what God says. And it's in these three simple verses in 1 John chapter 1 in verse 8. If I claim or if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be the liar, and his word has no place in us. There's a fundamental decision that we have to make. How do I grow? I have to choose. Instead of justifying, rationalizing, and explaining away the sin and going, well, maybe that's sin, maybe it's not, it's just the way I am. Instead, going, you know what, Lord, that's sin. I'm gonna agree with you. You fill in your own blank. I'm not gonna go through the list, I don't need to. If you and I get honest, God will say, yep, that's sin. And we have a choice. Either I can deny it, rationalize it, explain it away, or go, God, that was sin. And what is God gonna do? Forgiven. All I want you to do is get on my page, he's saying, to you and I. It's already forgiven. I've already died for it. And I want to purify you from it. I want to cleanse you from it. But it's your decision. Who are you going to listen to in this? And then in Romans chapter 8, verse 1, after that list of what I do want to do, I don't do what I don't want to do, I'm doing. This is one of my favorite verses. Put that at 8-1. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. I am not condemned by sin, and I'm not condemned to sin. When Christ is in my heart and I rely on him, there's no condemnation. I don't have to live up to the list because God says, I want to live up to the list through you. I want to walk with you through that. If I could put it this way, um, I have a good friend that's a basketball coach. And if I could put the coach being Jesus and the father being the father of lies, Satan, Satan will always throw at us partial truths and like, well, yeah, that's true, but it's only partially true in that. Think of it that way. Uh Teresa was a, she was an all-ACC player, second team all-American. She coached at several Division I schools. And then she took a job at a high school. This this woman is brilliant as a basketball coach. And we were talking one day because I coached in the middle school there, and and I said, you know, how do you deal with parents? And she goes, Oh, I don't I don't have any problem with parents at all. She said, I meet with them the first meeting with all the team there, and I tell the parents, hey, uh, I've been coaching for this many years. Here's my resume, and I'm wide open to anything uh that you want to share with me. She goes, I have a clock in my office, and here's what we're gonna do. She said, I'm I'm single, I've never been married, but I love your kids and I love basketball. I have a clock. And if you want to talk coaching with me, I will invite you to come into my office and on this clock, I will hit it. It's a count up, countdown clock, and I will hit it and I will listen to you as long as you want to tell me about basketball. And I'll listen to everything you want to say. And when you're done, I'm gonna hit the clock and I'm gonna count down. And I've read some great books on parenting, and I'm gonna explain to you how to become a good parent. And uh, I've never been a parent, but I've got some great ideas. And she said, I'm gonna spend that amount of time telling you how to parent if you want to tell me how to coach. And I was just like, You did that? She goes, Oh yeah. And uh then she told me a story that was just amazing. She said, I had this one athlete, she was an amazing player, but she was constantly torn. She said, the whole time she was on the floor, she's checking the stands for her dad. And her dad was not really interested in the team. He was interested in only his daughter. And he would yell and scream at her and she'd get locked up. She said, Finally, I figured I got to deal with this directly. It was the first half, right after the second quarter had started. I called a timeout. We needed to change our defense and we needed to adjust something in our offense. And I brought them in, and she's standing in the circle, and she says, I'm drawing it out on the board, and she's not even looking, she's looking up in the stands, okay, okay. And she said, Hey, Sherry, right here, right here. And she's and she's okay, yeah. And then she's looking up in the stands, and she goes, you know what? She said, Go check in for Sherry. And she put another player in, and Sherry's like, What? And then they broke the timeout, they started to go to the bench, and Sherry starts to go to sit and she goes, No, no, no, no, no, go sit with your dad. She goes, What? She goes, go sit with your dad for the rest of the half. Because you have to make a choice. You're either gonna be a part of this team and listen to me, or you're gonna sit with your dad and talk about basketball with him. It's up to you. You have a choice. And at halftime, you can come down and tell me which choice you've decided to make. She's like, Imagine that walk around the court into the stands, your dad going, What are you doing? Coach said, I had to sit with you. Just listen to you. And see, that's what Satan longs for us to do is to be distracted. And he'll take the truth and twist it and personalize it and make it about us. But the coach is saying, Hey, I want you to be the best player you can be. But it's gonna be within this team. And and and I know your talents and your abilities, but I also know what we're trying to accomplish. And God is no different saying, hey, I made you, I've redeemed you, and I want you to be a part. And and one of the greatest ways to answer this question to grow is to be obedient. And one of the greatest steps of obedience, and you'll see it in this culture. And I started seeing around because I started praying, God, I don't want to focus on the negative list. I don't want to focus on what I'm not supposed to do. It's the old adage. If I sit here and say, okay, do not think about elephants. Nobody think about elephants. Specifically the color gray, elephant. Do not think about gray elephants, do not think about their big ears or their trunks, do not think about elephants. Then all I'm thinking about is trying to not think about elephants. But if I take the positive end, and here's the the kit that God is teaching me right now about growing, that if I want to grow, I have to start asking the question what's the other direction? And it's not selfish, it's selfless. And what is the greatest act of selflessness? Well, selflessness is that of service. He puts it in this way in Philippians 2, 3. In Philippians 2, 3, last week, Luke 4 rejoice in the Lord. And he says, but this in 2, I'm sorry, verse 2, chapter 2, verse 3 of Philippians 3 and 4. Do nothing from selfishness, selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others, others better than yourself. Each of you should look not only to his own interest, but also the interest of others. If my focus is on serving, not self, then I start to grow. I start to experience this. How do I grow? Service is the growth to the bones. Service, let me put it this way. My middle son, Cody, he's like, Dad, I want to grow. I want to grow. I'm like, well, you can work out and you can do this. And he goes, No, but I want to grow taller. I want to be taller. If you can try really hard. And so I did a little research. I started looking and listening to some people who grow. And this is crazy, but I told him, I said, I've actually read two instances, and there's multiple out there. Um, if you know basketball, you may know Jeremy Lind. Jeremy Lind is an Asian American uh from California. He was Mr. Basketball California, the best player in the state of California. He's Asian and he's like crazy tall. And they asked him, they're like, We see your parents and we see you. How did that happen? He goes, When I was a kid, I wanted to grow, so I drank milk like it was going out of style. Every day I just drank milk. Somebody said it makes your bones grow, so I drank milk all the time. And they're like, Really? And he goes, No, really, whole milk all the time. That's what I did. And sure enough, he's like way taller. And and the that wasn't the only one. Jim Harbaugh, who's the coach at Michigan now, his brother, who coaches in the NFL, said, Oh yeah, Jim was always like, I'm gonna be the quarterback for Michigan and I'm gonna play in the NFL. And he looked at the stats and he said, the average quarterback in the NFL was like 6'2, 6'3. The tallest person in his house was like 5'11. And he heard the milk theory. So he volunteered at elementary school to do the tray of milk halfway through each day. And he said, uh, it wasn't a servant thing. I just wanted to, he says, because there was always a kid who either didn't want it or that was absent. And he said, I would do two or three classes, and as I'm taking it back to the lunchroom, I'm just nailing them, going back to the lunchroom. And he's six foot two. And it's like, really? And I've looked at this over and over, and sure enough, those who like just gorge on milk, it does something during their growth spurts to make them better. I'm like, that's amazing. That's what service does in our souls. It is the milk to the bones of our soul. It makes us grow. And this service idea, look at what Jesus said in Acts 20, 35. It says, In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak. Remembering the words of our Lord Jesus Himself, who said, It is more blessed to give than receive. If we want to kill that sinful desire, we take the focus off of that and say, you know what? There's nothing in our bodies that just winds against the flesh like serving. When we serve, our bodies are like, what's in it for me? And is where's the win-win? No, no, no, just serve. And if you want to hear your flesh scream while it's dying, serve anonymously. Give anonymously to where we get no credit. It kills the flesh and the sinful desire, and it breeds and grows at a new level, what it really means to grow in our hearts. And then, if that's not good enough, look at Matthew chapter 20, verses 20 26 and 28. It says, This not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave. Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus says, ultimately, you want success, significance, lasting meaning life. Become a servant and a giver. That's the way to do it. And the last question I would ask is simply this how will I know I'm growing? Will I know I'm growing? Well, in Philippians chapter 4, verse 5, it gives a great, a great example of that. And put it on the screen as well. It says this let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Every time in Scripture that you see God showing up, there is a correlation of gentleness with it. So ask the question Am I becoming more gentle in the way I react to people? And he gives a great list in Galatians chapter 5, verse 22. The evidence or the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Ask yourself the question: Am I becoming more like this? Am I in situations showing the indicator, engaging God? Which of these do I need to let you make new in me? And I want to give you a real life example to kind of wrap up. I'm getting better at this. I'm not there. God is still working on me and through me. I shared last week that my oldest son Graham is doing an internship, and he's just such a great kid. I mean, I'm very proud of him for interning down at Blue Skies. We leave next Saturday to go down there and serve and give time to these families who have a child with cancer. At the end of that week, you are physically exhausted, but your soul is just full because you spent a whole week serving and giving, and there's something about that. But my son is also not perfect. But God is teaching me, and I've this is this past week, so I'm just I'm living in the now. It's 11:30 at night, one night. I get up really early. My wife gets up at 5:15. I get up somewhere between 5:30 and 6 to go work out. At 11:30 at night, I don't know where you are, I am in bed asleep. 11:30 came, our door opens, and my son walks in. Mom! Mom! He knew to yell mom because if he yelled dad, I would kill him. Okay, and uh he's like, Mom, I need gas. At 11:30 at night, you need gas. Really? Really? And in me is welling up this fleshly nature. And if I would have just gone with that, he would be dead, and I would be in prison, and it would not be good. Instead, I'm literally I'm internalizing this, and it's this anguish in my mind going, Lord, I have failed as a father. He is in my room at 11:30. Why is he in here? And he needs to work on money management. If he's in here asking for gas money at 11:30 because he can't get to school in the morning, he he went to a concert last week and I bought the ticket, then he bought a hat. You don't need a hat, you got nine hats. You need gas, you don't buy a hat, you buy gas, and I'm just this is what's going on in my brain. That's why when he comes in, he goes, Mom, okay. But I literally, in that moment, I heard my wife respond and I said, Lord, help. Help me not kill my son. Help him live another day. Help me put this in perspective. God, I need, I need you to give me perspective here. And the next day, my wife and I talk about it and we walk through it. And I showed patience that was not of me. I showed gentleness, not of me. Am I still there? Am I still working? Yes. But it's just like growth physically. We don't just have these spurts that go by inches. Spiritually, it's like, okay, God, how do I serve? How do I give? How do I serve my son? I need to have a conversation. We need to grow here. But it's not, and this is the painful words my wife shares with me all the time. It's not just what you say, it's how you say it. Jesus sounds like my wife a lot. So I'm learning. I'm learning this. But if I really want to grow, the evidence is this love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, self-control. And I put myself in that direction, focusing on serving and giving. That's why you see this culture here. There's a huge percentage of people. If you've been here for a while, I want to challenge you. Go out to the desk where it says join a team. Maybe it's a small group, but join a team and say, you know what, could I do? You'll see people walking around, ushering, greeting, or whatever. It's for us to get our minds in that right direction. That's what it's about. To get our hearts there. Well, let me pray and then I'm going to give you one more step. Father, thank you for today. Thank you so much for the clarity of your truth. Lord, that you really do want to give us life. You really do want us to grow. You really do want us to experience the fullness that you have for us. And Father, all it takes is us turning to you and realizing we can't do it. You can. And when we rely on you, you do. And Lord, it is a gift and a joy. Please empower us through your spirit that lives within us to trust you in those times. And it is only through the gift of Jesus we can pray. Amen. The two thoughts I have are simply this: one, pick one of those this week and just say, God, will you help me be more this this week? Whatever it is. And then secondly, I do hope to see you on 6-7 at 607. I gave the list back there. Let me just say real quickly, this list of comics, unlike Christian music, where it's the lyrics are Christian, comedy is just comedy. And this list, this lineup that's coming in, I'm the president of an organization. We're having our conference in Atlanta, and I've told my friends, you're doing a show. And literally, if you saw three of these, it would be 30, 40, 50 bucks to see them. There's eight. If you want to see a name and go look at some clips, they've got the names back there. It is going to be the funniest place in the country that night. I promise. I'm not exaggerating. Be a part of that. And uh, we're gonna have a blast. It's just gonna be fun. But I want you to do me a favor this last song could not be more perfect. Go ahead and stand up. And if you don't want to sing it, at least listen to these words and let God just germinate that seed of service and giving and hope and growth. I'll see you in June, if not before. Thanks.