Well, this has been quite a week. Last Sunday we talked about how being God's kids doesn't mean we get a pass on conflict. He gets us through it. And uh this week he's getting us through it. And uh for some of you, this will be the first time that you've uh you've heard about it. Uh we sent an email this week to all the email addresses that we had. We've updated that info a little bit. It's uh it's on our website. Um and um there's also copies at the Vodesk if uh if you didn't get one and and would like to have one. A few weeks ago there was a a party at an apartment here in Woodstock. There were two 19-year-olds that have been charged with statutory rape based on what the police believe happened at that party. The police department sent out a press release last Tuesday that included a sentence saying that the teens had met at our high school group. Um AJC, WSB TV, and and I think some of the radio stations picked up on the story. Um they then kind of misrepresent well, they then misrepresented it and sensationalized it in in a way where for a couple days we really became the focus of the story. And I don't really know where to where to start with all this. I I will say that Susan and I can't stand spin. And especially church spin. Um, you know, what we're to do is just share the truth, share it in love, and that's what I'm gonna try to do. There's a few things that um we know about the situation that might help you have even more understanding, but we we can't share it because there's there's two minors involved in the situation. But I think you'll overall understand and um and understand what our response should be. I said that the the police had reported the teens that met our high school group. I thought that was true, um, mostly just because they had um said it. And um but then I learned uh late Thursday night that three of the four um people involved, there were there were um two boys, two girls involved, three of the four have been friends for a long time outside, and there's there's no way that they first met at our uh at our high school group. Um there are two young men that are charged. One of them, Yancey Tanner, has never been involved in our high school group. He showed up one time. Um that night he lied about his age, he created a uh a small disturbance, and Justin told him that he could never come back. The other, Jonathan Carrier, had been coming to the high school group before he moved away. He had just moved back to the area, and his fourth night coming back to the group, he brought Yancey. Um Jonathan was also not allowed back after that night. It was widely reported that Jonathan played guitar in our youth praise band. And um, well, for one thing, we don't even have a youth praise band. Um neither of these boys has served in any capacity on any team ever at his hands. Both boys were banned from the high school group before the party at the apartment ever took place. A parent of one of the girls took the girls to and picked them up from the apartment. There were no staff members or volunteers or anyone from his hands involved in in any way. The young men were charged with statutory rape. Statutory rape is sex with someone under the age of 16. There are also child molestation charges that surround this same incident because both girls are underage. I tell you that so you understand what happened, not to in any way minimize the crime. Uh statutory rape is a very serious crime. Um I think all these charges uh individually each carry uh mandate are felonies and they each carry mandatory prison sentences. It's a very serious uh crime. There's a reason young men are held responsible when they have sex with an underage girl. It's because they are responsible. They are responsible. They're responsible um legally, and they're especially responsible um morally. I think in this size group, I'm sure that there are parents that have gone through this with uh with their daughter being victimized, and I'm sure there's many women who have um been victimized in this type of situation. And I know you know the uh the trauma and the pain that that something like this causes. I mentioned that one of the parents took the girls to and picked from them up from the apartment. And I'm sure in retrospect they would they would never um have done that. The reason I mentioned that is really just to help you understand exactly what this situation is. And uh what was reported on the news is very different than the scenario that that actually happened. But it isn't to blame the parents. Um what seems to happen in this type of situation is people want to blame someone, you know, and so oh, it has to be the church, oh it has to be the girls, oh it has to be the parents. And and there's only two people ultimately responsible for this situation. They're both in jail. It's uh it is the two boys that they're the ones that are responsible. And uh and it's okay to be angry at them. We just can't stay angry for long. We need to let that go. And uh and we need to forgive so everybody can move forward and um and move past that. I don't know one of the girls' parents, they aren't part of his hands. Their daughter only came to the high school group uh occasionally. We had helped her in many ways since before this happened, and have tried to help as much as possible since. The other girl's parents and family are part of his hands. I do know them. They really love their daughter. Um, this has been devastating for them and for their daughter. Since this has happened, they've had a lot of decisions that uh they've needed to make, and they've made one great decision after another. They're very loving, they're very parental, and the family's doing well. And they're they're they're receiving counseling, and and considering the situation, all everyone is doing very, very well. And and and they're part of us. And so I say that because you know the they don't need any condemnation. You know, they don't deserve any condemnation. What they need and what they deserve is help and love and encouragement and prayers. They're a great family. They're a great family. And so every time we think about this, please just pray for the parents. Pray for the two girls, pray for everyone involved. One thing that uh we, meaning his hands, can learn from all this is how we look at ages and age verification in our high school group. Um what we've done in the past is that if someone is a senior in high school or younger, they can be part of our high school group. This is how almost all high school church groups um function. If someone's a senior in high school, they're they're in the high school group. If there is one thing in this whole situation that I have really second-guessed, it is why would a 19-year-old be in our high school group? And the truth is there are a bunch of seniors in every high school that turn 19 during their senior year. Um but we've got to we've got to learn from this. And uh and we're gonna change to a no older than 18 approach, uh, and we're gonna verify the age of of every student in our high school group. And I I want to say that that the approach we've had was not recklessly foolish. Um, I had a conversation with uh with a great run young girl Thursday night before our high school group because I was gonna talk about this with the group and talk about this change with with all the students, and I knew that she was uh gonna be affected. She's a great girl. She's a the the type of student every one of us would want in our high school group. Um she turns 19 in, she's a senior this year, she turns 19 in January. You know, and so she's gonna need to move out into a different into a different group. And David and Valeria, many of uh you know know them. They're uh Susan I's adopted nieces and and nephews, Stefan John's uh children, adopted them over from Latvia. Um you know, they are gonna turn 19 their senior year. There's there's there's different kids that that that are uh are affected in different ways uh by this. But I think um obviously it's the best thing to do. And so um that's what we will do uh moving forward. And finally, I just want to say that uh we have the best high school group. I mean, it is a great, great high school group. We have uh tremendous students that we can be extremely proud of. Um the uh adult volunteers are are awesome. Uh Justin McTear and uh and Megan. I mean, they are two of the finest people I've ever been around. It's it's just uh I'm so thankful that they um are working with our kids. Um I'm proud of them. I'm proud of the high school group, I'm proud of us as a church. This is a great church, and Susan and I are proud to be doing this um with you. We're doing a really good thing. We're doing a really good thing. God is doing it, God is here, it's an important thing, and uh. But it's worth it. It is uh it's absolutely worth it. It's not always gonna be fair, um, but it is always gonna be worth it. It's uh it's really important. So um let's pray. Father, I just praise you. I thank you for being such a uh good God. I thank you for being such a good um father and dad for all of us. Thank you for adopting us as your children. I thank you for what you're doing in this in this uh church. Um I just ask you to be with uh with each of us here. Um help us not to be discouraged, help us to be encouraged and and strong. And we especially ask you to be with uh um the people involved in this situation, um, the the parents, that you would just give them strength, you would give them supernatural uh wisdom, um, and that you would uh give them comfort and and peace. Um please be with the with the two girls, Father, that you would just fill them with your Holy Spirit. That you would give them your wisdom and give them your love and give give them every everything that they need and heal them completely from from this trauma. We ask you to do be with the the two uh young men who are in jail, that while they're there, that you would reach them and that you would uh and that you would change them, Father. We ask you to do that. And Father, it's asked you to be with us as as a as a church. I ask you to fight for us. I ask you to uh get back for us um part of our reputation that was taken. And so we praise you and we thank you, we love you and trust you. Holy Spirit, please speak to us uh the rest of this morning. In Jesus' name. Amen. Well, this month we've been looking at our lives from a slightly different uh perspective. Um, the idea has come from a book. It's called A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. It's written by Donald Miller. He gets to view his life from a unique perspective. He had written a book entitled Blue Like Jazz, it was a bestseller. Um, a couple of movie producers wanted to make it into a movie. Uh it was an autobiography, basically, Don's life story. So they set out to convert his autobiography into a screenplay which would be made into a movie. What he quickly found out was that his life really wasn't interesting enough to be a movie. And so he has this unique opportunity. He literally gets to go back with these two guys and rewrite his own life story. So he writes books and he has to learn about screenplays and and movies, and he talks to experts, and he goes to seminars, and he learns the key elements of a great story in a movie. And this is my paraphrase: a great story in a movie or screenplay is a likable character that wants something important and overcomes conflict to get it. But the point of the story really is the transformation of the character. And so we're getting a fresh look at our lives from that perspective. How can we live lives, our lives, in a way that each of our lives is a great story? We've talked about being a likable character character, we've talked about wanting something important, and we've talked about overcoming conflict to get it. Fighting through obstacles, fighting through through tragedy is an element in every story. But the point of your story, the point of each great story is really the transformation of the character. Take the movie Tommy Boy, one of my favorites. Tommy's dad was a successful businessman who owned a brake pad factory. He dies unexpectedly. Tommy's played by Chris Farley. You know, he is the stereotypical, selfish, lazy son of a tycoon. But now he wants something important to save the company, and especially to save the jobs of all the factory workers. And so he and his co-worker, who's played by David Spade, they set off to do it. And they have a series of conflicts. They have these uh terrible sales calls, they have car accidents, the swindler tries to steal the company, but in the end they get a huge order. Uh the company is saved, and the factory workers all cheer. The real point of that story is the transformation of Tommy. Tommy goes from a selfish, lazy young man to a committed, loyal, hardworking leader that the factory workers just love and trust. The real point of the story was the transformation of Tommy. I mentioned Schindler's list a couple of weeks ago. Same thing, but obviously a much more important, greater story. How Oscar Schindler wants to save the lives of the Polish Jewish people during the Holocaust. He overcomes tremendous risk and uh peril and conflict to do it. But the real point of the story is the transformation of Oscar. He goes from a greedy guy profiting from a war to a courageous man who is heartbroken because he couldn't help more people. It is a great story. God has a great story for every one of us. For every one of us. We become likable characters. We, you know, we care about people and we help them. We want something important. Not acquiring stuff, not personal achievement. We want to make a real difference. We have to overcome conflict to get it. This is going to be a big statement, but I believe if we can get hold of this, it will actually help us understand life. The real point of our life, the real point of our great story is the transformation of us. It is the transformation of us. And you will have a great story. And God wants us to enjoy it, and He wants us to enjoy each other. He wants us to make the most of it. But the real point is the transformation of us. Why is life so weird? You know, life's pretty weird. You um just when we figure things out, something else comes along. You know, we figure out how to be successful students just in time to graduate from school. You know, now we've got to figure out how to be successful employees all over again. You know, we figure out how to be really good parents just about the time the kids are packing up the car to move out of the house. You know, we work for years to have strong, loving, healthy marriages. And then we wish we were still young so we could uh enjoy it. I mean, does it never get easy? Is there always some new challenge? Yes. The real point of your life, the real point of my life is transformation. It's the transformation of us. God created us each in an amazing way. You know, there's a physical part, our bodies, and there's our bodies, and there's a physical part, our bodies, there's our mind, our you know, our personalities, our mind and our will and emotions, and there's a spiritual part that we're created, you know, with with a spirit and with God's spirit. And at some point, our spirit comes alive inside us. It happens when we turn to Jesus. Susan, you know, kind of talked about it uh already this morning. There's no big formula. You know, we get to the point where we're like, you know, my way is not the way. I need the one who created me. I need help. And so we just turn to Jesus in our own words. You don't have to walk an aisle, you don't have to get something notarized. We just we turn our hearts, we turn our will to Jesus. We say, I will follow you. And then he puts his spirit inside of us. Our spirit comes alive. And right then he starts a transformation. That's why we say that God does the heavy lifting. It's because it's him inside of us changing us from the inside out. But there is a physical part. You know, our bodies get older. I'm coming to grips with that. You know, uh again I noticed the gray hair yesterday. Um and so we have this physical part, you know, and and and it makes it feel like this is all there is. But it's not. The best is yet to come. I mean, what a what a great song to be singing uh this morning. I will I will rise. Um the best is yet to come, and heaven is not some surreal place. You know, up in the clouds where we're playing harps and you know, pranking on St. Peter. It's uh it's not like that at all. Uh I'm not sure that it's it's widely understood, but the Bible clearly, clearly says that heaven is actually a renewed earth. It is how God originally planned it. And we have renewed bodies, just how God originally planned it. Strong and healthy and just loving relationships and responsibilities. There's cities and there's communities and there's and there's things for each of us to do. We'll each have responsibilities. And we'll live together with our friends and our family and our loved ones, and we'll get there already partly transformed. We'll be ready. That's why things are the way they are, because the point of the story is the transformation of the character. In Ezekiel 36, 26. For here's what I'm gonna do: I'm gonna take you out of these countries, gather you from all over, and bring you back to your own land. I'll pour pure water over you and scrub you clean. I'll give you a new heart, put a new spirit in you. I'll remove the stone heart from your body and replace it with a heart that's God willed, not self willed. I'll put my spirit in you and make it possible for you to do what I tell you and live by my commands. You'll once again live in the land I gave your ancestors. You'll be my people. I'll be your God. That prophecy's for us. That prophecy is for us. That is exactly what God does. He brings us back to Him. He scrubs us up. He gives us a new heart. Gets rid of that old stone heart. Gives us a soft, strong heart. He makes it possible for us to live life his way. It's the transformation. You will change. You will be transformed. I mean, do we not beat ourselves up? Do we not say, oh, I can't do it? Same old me, I'll never change. I'll always be like this. It's not true. It's absolutely not true. You will do it. You will make it. You will change. Because of God. You can count on Him. In Ephesians 3.20, it 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. See, when we read this verse, and we can apply it in a lot of ways, we read this verse, we're like, yes, God can do anything. What he's talking about is that God can change even us. Even us. It doesn't matter what we're like, it doesn't matter where we're at. God can do anything. He can do more than you could dream or imagine. You'll be transformed in a way that you don't even think is possible. That's what God does. And he does it inside us. He does it gently. He does it strongly. He does it with his spirit. He changes us from the inside out. God doesn't sprinkle magic dust on our marriages. He transforms us. He changes us from the inside out. We have to learn. We learn to be humble. And we learn to listen. And we take time to understand our differences. And we take time to actually communicate and to trust. And it's a process. But by the end, not only do we have a great marriage, we are transformed. Addictions are a great example. You know, sometimes somebody gets zapped, and that's always exciting. That's what everybody that struggles with addiction wants. Just zap me, God. Most of the time, that's not how it works. It's a process. It's step by step. It's turning our lives to God. It's turning our wills to God. It's cleaning up our junk. It's serving other people. It's a process. But not only do we get clean and sober, at the end we're transformed. We're completely different people. It's true with almost anything. You know, if you're in debt, you know, if we're in debt, we want to get zapped, you know? A big windfall. That's uh that's what we're asking for. But usually it's a process. You know, we have to learn to plan and we have to learn what's a need and what's a want and um learn wisdom and learn how to communicate with each other if we're married and uh learn to trust each other. We need to develop different systems, and and you know, eventually we get that first credit card paid off, and it's a big celebration. But eventually we get everything paid off. We're not only out of debt, we're all new people. We're transformed. We see things different, we think different, we act different. It's a transformation. You know, part of any of those processes is changing the way that we think. In Romans 12, it says, let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. I mentioned uh the groups and classes. You know, those are those are here for different reasons. One is for us to make great friends and grow closer together. But a big reason is to help change the way that we think. If you're single and you're wanting a great relationship with someone, you might need God to change the way that you think about relationships. That's what the singles group's gonna do. If you're married and your marriage isn't all you want, it may be that you need to change the way you think about aspects of your marriage. That's what the marriage group's gonna do. If you're a lady, it may be that you need to get over guilt and start enjoying your life. That's what this woman's group is gonna do. Men, you might need to encourage each other and learn how you can live just an epic life together. That's what the men's group's gonna do. Changing the way we think, changing the way we think, renewing our minds. It's part of how God transforms us. The point of our story is the transformation of us. You know, we're following Jesus. Do you remember when we talked about uh Matthew 17? It was when Jesus took Peter and the brothers James and John, and he led them up to a high mountain. His appearance changed from the inside out, right before their eyes. Sunlight poured from his face, his clothes were filled with light. It's called the transfiguration. You know, if we were describing it now, we'd say it was a transformation that right before their eyes, Jesus transformed. We're watching the same thing with each other. Right before our eyes, we're all transforming. In 2 Corinthians 3, it says, and so we are transfigured much like the Messiah. Our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like Him. You know, God has great lives planned for us. You are likable characters. A bit unusual, but very likable. And you do want something important. You want to help, you want to have an impact, you want to make a difference with your friends, with your families, with those around you. You will absolutely have to overcome conflict to get it. The real point of the story is God's transformation of you. If the worship team wants to come up, we'll finish here in a minute. Let's stand and get ready to sing one last song together. But I also want you to know that God has a great plan for us together as a church. You know, this week was uh was really frustrating and it was discouraging. Imagine for for all of us, you know, to see the news and we've got friends asking us, you know, what's going on? Is there something bad happening there? Is there bad that's happening there at his hands? No. No. In fact, it is the exact opposite. Something amazing is happening here. It's amazing. And it's amazing because God is here, and he is pouring his love through us, and we're helping people, you know, and lives are changing. And it's really, really important, which means we're gonna have to overcome conflict to get it, and we will, you know, God has gotten us through it, He will get us through it, we will overcome it, but the point really is He's transforming us as a church. We're gonna be more loving. God is gonna be even more powerful, we're gonna be more wise. And we're definitely already more determined. It is a great, great story. So let's pray. Father, we praise you. We thank you for being such a great God. We thank you for the great story that you have planned for each of us, how you've created each of us in your very image. We praise you for that. We thank you for it. We thank you for loving us, for adopting each of us as your children. We thank you for for each other and what you're doing here with this church. This is your church, Father. We thank you for the great stories you have for each of us individually. We thank you for the great stories you have for us as a church. And we trust you to make those happen. We thank you and we trust you and we praise you in Jesus' great name. Amen.