Latest / HOTLCAST / [SERMON] The Storm Won't Win: Choosing Faith Over Comfort | Vices 3.0

Transcript

[SERMON] The Storm Won't Win: Choosing Faith Over Comfort | Vices 3.0 · HOTLCAST

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you guys so much for being here today.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Matt Plot.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm one of the pastors here.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: You might be wondering if I'm preaching the final kind of closing of Vices 3.0, why I'm showing you a thing for habits.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it was actually kind of funny because the sermon series I was finishing and kind of going through and planning at Jackson for the last two weeks was called Habits while Kyle was here doing Vices.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: And it was really kind of cool because God had kind of lined everything up to where the stuff that was happening here and the stuff we were talking about there was similar enough that it worked out great for me because I didn't have to write a different sermon.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: I was able to just kind of continue what we were talking about because it all sort of flows together.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's really cool how sometimes God kind of works things in that kind of a direction.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to start by asking you guys something.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been here the last couple of weeks, you've heard five different testimonies.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you heard something that you didn't know was a story from somebody in the church that was here before?
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Show of hands.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: The reason that I ask that is because every single person, no matter how long you've been at this church, whatever your life situation might look like, you have a story.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: There is a piece or a part of your past that somebody else in this room doesn't know.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's just the way that it is.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: In a room that has this many people in it, that is automatically going to be the way that that plays out.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that's okay, but it needs to be something that we collectively as individuals are working on.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because your story matters.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: The thing that God has done in your life matters.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're a person who says, you know, I've enjoyed the Vices series, having the opportunity to be able to listen to and hear the stories of what people have gone through and the experiences that God has brought them through, and how all of those pieces and parts come together, that is awesome.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's what these moments are for.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: But they don't have to stop just with the Vices series.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: They can be a story about something you have gone through, something God has pulled you through.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've heard those and you're like, well, my story is not as interesting as theirs, or my story is not as powerful as theirs, or, you know, mine was from so long ago that I don't necessarily think that it matters.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: It does.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: It matters and you matter because your story can help demonstrate to somebody else what God can do in each and every one of their lives.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: More than that, you're gonna be able to tell these are the choices that I've made since then.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: It might have been 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 50 years ago that you dealt with something.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: But your life since then has hopefully been making those right choices each and every time.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: But the question is, how do we recognize what choices are right choices?
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe to put it a different way, how do we figure out a way to keep making the right choices?
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's the hard part, right?
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you are a person who's been through addiction, you're a person who's been through divorce, you're a person who's been through heartbreak, love loss, custody battles, you're a person who's been through anything and everything under the sun.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Making the right choice once is maybe a little bit easier, but making it time and time and time again, that's where it becomes challenging.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's where you're able to look at it and say, this has to become a pattern for me to be able to look at it and say, I'm finding success in each of these moments.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm able to find something about this moment that is the right way to behave.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: So the first thing I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna give you three, okay?
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna ask you to remember all of them because I've been doing this for a very long time and I know you won't anyway, and that's okay.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: But what I will ask you to do is if there's one of these three key components that strikes a chord with you, jot it down.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Save that one, focus on just that one this week and see where it can take you from there.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is this seek God.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: And this is something that might seem to be super simple, but it's really not.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because for each and every one of us, we have to make that a priority.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: We have to take that time and say, I'm going to actively be doing this day after day after day.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there are many ways that you can pull this off.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: There are many ways that you can make this happen.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: We will start by going through and talking just for a moment about how we do Hoddlewood here.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: We look at movies and we look at modern stuff and modern cinema, and we're like, hey, where can we find pieces and parts and components of God and what God wants us to know from these modern stories?
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's one example of it.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: But you can do it in your everyday life by saying, What opportunity is God giving me today?
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: What would it look like if that person who was waiting on me, who just kind of seemed a little bit down, seemed a little bit hurting, a little bit burdened, what would it look like if I took just a moment and said, Hey, can I pray for you?
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now you might hear that and say, Well, my gosh, Matt, that's so much harder to do because at the end of the day, they what if they say no?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: What if I'm rejected?
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: You might be, but what if they say yes?
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: What if that's the thing that they needed in that moment?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: See, we can seek God wherever he is willing to reveal himself.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: And let's be honest, God is everywhere, moving all the time, and willing to reveal himself in every single thing that happens.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: But as humans, we're easily distracted.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like, think about this for a minute.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it's not any different than what a child is like whenever they're a toddler and you kind of jingle your keys in front of their face and they're just mesmerized.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like we're the same way, only the thing that's jingling in front of us is career, house, car, cell phone.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's all of these different things that want to draw our attention away from God.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you might call it a sin, you might call it a vice, you might call it a bad habit, but the idea is that you have to be able to look at those things and say, I need to start eliminating distractions.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the thing is, is that focusing on God equals less distraction.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: It just does.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: But why?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, here's the thing.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I love Kyle Young, like I just do.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: He is one of my best friends and one of the greatest people that I know.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: But when things kind of get serious and stuff starts to get kind of stressful and real, his optimism just goes higher and higher and higher.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I love him, but it's really annoying.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like, really, like a lot.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that's okay though, because he's using those moments to focus further on God.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: He's saying, you know what, all of this bad stuff that's happening, maybe as an example, it's like four car crashes in, say, just for argument's sake, 18 months.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's something like that, where you're looking at those scenarios and you're like, I could get bitter, I could get angry, I could get frustrated, I could get any of these things that I want to get, but I'm not going to.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because instead, I'm going to keep my eyes on God.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: The world wants me to be frustrated.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: The world wants me to be distracted.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: The world wants to continue to draw me away from all of the things that God has for me.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: But that's not what I'm supposed to be focused on.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's not where I'm supposed to be.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because ultimately, the world doesn't care about your needs.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: The world only cares about your wants.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: And those are two very different things.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: You want the big house, you want the yacht, you want to be comfortable, you want to be all of these different things.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: For some of you, you want to have good health.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: You want to be at peace.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: You want that relationship to work.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: You want that person that said that they loved you and cared about you to come back into your life.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: You want all of these different things, but those are distractions.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's what Jesus says about those types of things.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: He says specifically this.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Remember the parts in yellow, we read together.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: These things, the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: He knows everything that you need throughout all of your life.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: So he continues on to say, seek the kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, it's important to note that it's everything you need, not everything you want.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: You've heard Kyle say many times that it God is not a genie in a bottle where you rub the lamp, he poofs out, and it's like, what do you need?
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: What do you need?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: What do you need?
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what it is.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: When your heart starts to align with God's heart, and your desires start to align with God's desires, the things that you need end up starting to be the same things that God wants to give you.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: It ends up being that you're that same direction that you're wanting to pull is the same direction that God is trying to take you.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: And that is such an amazing place to be throughout all of it.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: But simultaneously, that doesn't mean that making those better choices, making those right calls won't still be hard.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: It will.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: It just will.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: No matter what you look at throughout life, life is going to be difficult.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: This might not be the feel-good message you came here for today, just little caveat with that.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: But we were never promised simple, we were never promised easy, we were never promised stress-free, we were never promised any of those things.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: What we were promised is that it was one day going to be worth it.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, what does seeking the kingdom of God actually look like?
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: What are the things that you can practically be doing to seek the kingdom of God?
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: I made just a short list, and this is not all inclusive, but it's a really cool place to start.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: When I am wronged, I can choose love.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: I can choose in that moment when somebody has completely done or said something to disrespect me, to be awful, to be dismissive, to be any of those things, when I'm wronged in whatever way, I can choose to be loving and to care about them and be compassionate instead.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: When I am angry, I can choose peace.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Simultaneously, when somebody else is angry at me, I can choose to be a peacemaker in that moment.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: It gives me the opportunity and the chance to look at a situation and say, I'm going to handle this better than what they're expecting me to do.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Or when I am hurt, I can choose forgiveness.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: I can look at a situation and say, Yeah, I can get bitter, I can get bitter, I can get angry, I can get frustrated, or I can forgive and I can start to get better.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: And that is such a better direction to take.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: It just is.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Choosing to reflect Jesus in some of the hardest moments of your life is easily, easily your best opportunity to seek God.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: No matter how you break it down, no matter how you want to slice it, that is the best way to go about it.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: But how do I know in the midst of that which reaction I need to have?
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm gonna speak for myself here.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm pretty dense.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like when God is trying to tell me something, he's gotta kind of beat me over the head with it a few times, and I'm okay with that because we have that kind of a relationship where I'm like, yeah, go ahead.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: But simultaneously, some of you might feel that same way, where you look at it and you're like, God is gonna have to make this just super clear, or I'm not gonna get it.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that's okay too, because take a look at what is said in the book of James, chapter one.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you need, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: He will not rebuke you for asking.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Do not for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: So when you go to God and you say, God, I don't have any idea what I'm doing.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what direction you want me to go.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: My life is currently in shambles, everything is crazy, it feels like the world is out to get me, and there is nothing in my life right now that is comfortable.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Please give me clarity and wisdom and guidance of what you want me to do next and the direction that you want me to go.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: God will look at you and say, I got you.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: I've got you covered.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: You need wisdom, I will give you wisdom.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: You need clarity, I will give you clarity.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: This is not always on our timeline.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: That is worth noting.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's not always gonna be where you say this prayer and God's just gonna automatically say, Here's the direction you need to go, and put a great big neon sign over top of that door.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's not necessarily what it means.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: What it does mean, though, is that if you're willing to look at God and say, You've done amazing things for me in the past, I believe that you want the best for me in the future, and I'm gonna go the direction you want me to go, you're going to live that out by doing our second point, and that is to trust him.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Trust him with the direction that he wants you to go.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: Trust him with all of the things that he wants you to do, trust him with all of the one another's that you find in Scripture.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Love one another, forgive one another, be kind and gentle to one another.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Start doing all of those things and live out your trust in him.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you have looked at this stuff and you're like, Well, Matt, I'm already doing that.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm already doing some of these things.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Or, you know, I wasn't doing them for a long time and I've kind of started down that path now, so I get what you're talking about.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: But maybe some of you are hearing this and you're like, I haven't done that yet.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: Or I haven't done that in a very long time.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: There is still time to start.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: As long as you're doing that inhale-exhale thing that we're all doing right now, you've got time.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: You can begin today.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: This is not an opportunity to feel guilty about the things you've gotten wrong.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna beat you over the head for any of that.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you're a person who says, you know, I've been a Jesus follower for the last 50 years and I still don't do the things that I'm supposed to do, that's okay.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: You still have time.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: Start.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Start today.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Start right now, start this week by asking yourself the question: how do I conduct myself and my actions?
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you are a person who says, you know what, things are going pretty good right now, like I've cleaned up my act from years ago.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a pretty decent person, I'm generous, I'm friendly, I am available for the people who need me to talk, I'm all of these different things.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: I go to church every single week.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: I know all of the songs, I sing every single one of them, but you maybe haven't prayed to God in a long time.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Years, months.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's been a situation where you're like, I haven't spoken to God in so long, I'm not even sure he would recognize my voice.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: Well, first I will tell you that that's not true.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: Second, I will tell you, if you have been through something that has created that distance between you and God, it's okay.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: You got hurt, you went through something, you had hardship, you had trauma, you had whatever it might have been.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: But the thing about trusting God is you don't have to understand him to be able to trust him.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: More than anything else, there are times where trusting God requires obedience in hardship or obedience in the midst of hardship.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have to understand what he's doing, I don't have to understand what direction God is trying to take me.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need to know where the path leads.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: I just need to know that when there's a path that God has presented me with, I am required as a follower of him to start walking down that path without ever knowing the destination.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that is okay too, because I trust him, I don't need to know the destination, because my responsibility is obedience.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: I simply have to trust God with the outcome.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: If God makes a plan and says, Hey, Matt, you're going over here, I don't get to argue, I don't get to debate, I simply look at God and say, Okay, let's do it.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: I might not want to, I might not like it, and I can take those things to him because he knows them anyway.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: So he can handle me saying, God, I don't really want to do this.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: And he will lovingly look at me and say, Matt, I don't care.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: He does care, but he would not necessarily deviate from what his plan is just because I don't like it, nor would I ever want him to.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Take a look at what happened to the disciples whenever they were spending close personal time with Jesus.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: One Jesus said to his disciples, Let's cross to the other side of the lake.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: So they got into a boat and started out.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: As they sailed across, Jesus settled down for a nap, but as soon, but soon a fierce storm came down on the lake.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: The boat was filling with water, and they were in real danger.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, Master, Master, we're going to.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Not bad.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: First service did not have the right energy behind that, but you guys nailed it.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and the raging waves.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: Suddenly the storm stopped and all was calm.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Then he asked them, Where is your wave?
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: The disciples were terrified and amazed.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: Who is this man?
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: They asked each other when he gives a command that even the wind and waves obey him.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: So Jesus had said, Hey, we're gonna get in this boat and we're gonna go all the way over here to the other side.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, these guys were experienced fishermen.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's the thing about people that have a particular vocation that are experienced.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: When bad things happen, they know what to do.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: For example, I was a phlebotomist at a hospital for a while where there would be incoming traumas, and when they came in, I was responsible for going in and getting blood work and then taking that and sending it off to the lab.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: When the doctors and the nurses were scurrying around, you just basically tried to stay out of the way because they were all focused on exactly what was happening.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: They weren't nervous, they weren't scared, they were walking through a system, they were going through a plan and trying to execute what that plan looked like.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: They weren't scared.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: They were in the midst of solving problems that needed to be solved in that moment.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: So for these experienced fishermen, for some of them had been doing it for years, for them to say, We are going to drown, like this is a real storm.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is a big thing, they were scared.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so they turned to Jesus and said, We need your help.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, This is not a fear issue.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is not a lack of trust issue.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is a lack of faith issue.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: Where I told you we're going over here and now you're worried that we're not gonna make it.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well, your relationship with Jesus, I want to make this super clear because I don't want anyone to hear that Jesus is always going to end the storm.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: But in your relationship with Jesus, he won't always stop the storm.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: He's not always going to take away the addiction, he's not always going to take away the mental illness.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: He's not always going to cure you of whatever the illness or the disease is.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: He's not always going to repair the relationships, but he is always going to tell you the storm is not going to win.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: It just won't.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, there is something greater and larger that is beyond that.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: And we can look at that and trust in him that there will come a day where all of that becomes a moot point that we don't care about anymore.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: That there is a future beyond whatever we're experiencing now.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: But the third point of things to keep in mind is that in order to accept the things that God has called you to, sometimes you have to embrace different.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: Which means there are things in your life.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Things that you want to do, things that are super comfortable, that you feel like this is the thing for me, that God is gonna say, not any more.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: And you have to move on from it and grab on to whatever the thing is that He's giving you instead.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: But that's tough because that brings us to asking the question of how do we remain faithful in our decisions for Christ?
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: Not just our regular everyday decisions, but our decisions for Christ when the familiar is what feels more comfortable.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like, think about that old pair of shoes that you've got.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's super comfortable, it's broken in, it fits really well.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: You can maybe slip into it without even having to really think too much about it.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's comfortable, it's yours, it's kind of formed to your foot.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: Guys, it's also probably got a bunch of grass stains on it from mowing.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's just the perfect pair of shoes.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's comfortable, but you also know that those shoes have walked places.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: You probably shouldn't be going anymore.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: That those comfortable shoes are things that aren't taking you where God has you.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: But instead, God's got this other pair of shoes over here that you know is gonna take you the direction that He wants you to go, but they haven't been stretched out.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: You don't really wear them, they're super uncomfortable.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: They're all of these things, but the location that they're gonna take you to is way better, and it's the place that God has in mind for you, which makes that direction so much more worth it.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: It will always be better, even if it is less comfortable.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the thing is, with that other pair of shoes that you've got, you might love them.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: They might be something that you've worn for a long time, and you look at them and you're like, well, Matt, you gotta understand I could take those shoes and walk this direction.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's be real.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: This is for me and for you.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: If I could fix the parts of me that are broken, if I could do that and do it successfully, I'd have done it by now.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so would you.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know where that path is going to take you.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: And you know that it's not what God has for you.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: So you need to take that void that exists, whenever all of the things that you've started to give up, those vices, those bad experiences, those bad habits, those sins, when you empty those out and you stop doing all of that stuff, it creates a void.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that void has to be filled with something.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, you're gonna start seeking out those creature comforts again.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna go back to those bad habits, you're gonna go back to those vices.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: If you look at that moment and you look at that situation and you're like, what can I fill that void with?
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: Start filling with the things that God has called you to do.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: Pray, love, be kind, be forgiving, be generous.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: Read your Bible, attend church, get plugged in with a life group, get plugged in with a Bible study, start making the things of God your priority.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: Fill that void with things that you know are positive and good and the direction you need to go.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: James says this later in his letter that remember, it is uh it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's hard to hear because there are a lot of things we know we're supposed to be doing and we just aren't doing them.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: That is tough, but it's also true, and it matters and it's important because following Jesus was never a decision that was to be made based on our comfort.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: Not ever.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's never been, it never will be.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: If you are taking up your cross daily and following him, that is not going to be comfortable, but it is necessary because it is totally worth it, always, every single moment of it.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: What does it mean for you?
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: It means that I have to figure out a way to stay on that narrow path, that there is a way to do it, and there is a way to go about it, and I have to make those choices.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: So if I were to break it down into the ways that we could do that, it would probably look something like this.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: I will choose to seek God in my life daily.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: Every day, I'm gonna look for new opportunities to know Jesus and to make him known.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna figure out ways to do that with the barista who looks like she's having a bad day, or with another person in my life who's that coworker that nobody likes.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna befriend them.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna look at them and say, Hey, you are my new person.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna make them feel valuable.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: The second thing is this I will trust him in all things, good or bad.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: There'll be times that it's gonna be good, there'll be times it's gonna be bad, and there are gonna be times where maybe you can't tell whether it's good or whether it's bad.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: But whatever that might look like, you can trust God in those moments.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I will choose to embrace different, accepting his plans and his directions over mine.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because I know where mine take me, and I know what that leads to for me, and you know what it leads to for you, and you know what's at the end of that road.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: You don't want to go back there.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: Not if there's a better path you can take, not if there's something different you can be doing.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: Why would you ever want to revisit that?
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know how it ends.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: Don't go there anymore.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: Start taking this opportunity.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: If maybe you have gone through the last couple of weeks and you heard the testimonies that were given up here, and you're like, man, the life change that those people have gone through, what would that look like for me?
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: It would look amazing.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: But you have to be able to put in the work and put in the time and put in the energy and the effort.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because God wants that from you.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: He wants better for you than what you have right now.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: Even if what you have right now is really super cool, even then God's looking at your situation and saying, I've got something even greater than that.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what I want you to do.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: If that's you this morning, I want you to pull out your connection cards.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I want you to, first of all, first name, last name, phone number, do that first.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to tell us what your vices are.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's like Kyle has said each week, we don't care.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to tell us what your sins are or what your bad habits are.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: We have to deal with our own.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: We don't need to keep a list of yours too.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's just not that important.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: What I will tell you though, is if you are a person who says, Matt, I heard what you said today, I recognize that there are pieces and parts of my life where I don't have the bad habits anymore, but I haven't really started the good ones.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: On the back of your card, write choose.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: Let this be the day that you choose to start making those choices.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you're a person who says, Well, Matt, I'm kind of already doing some of the good things.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing a lot of the good things.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I read my Bible, you know, whenever somebody reminds me to, or if I happen to see something that comes up, or if I have time for it.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: Or I pray whenever there's something that's going on, you know, if somebody says, hey, I've got this thing.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: If you're looking to deepen your connection with God and you're looking to say, I want it to be more than what it is right now, I would also like you to write choose on the back of your card.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to reach out to you this week and harass you or nag you or anything like that, unless you want the phone call, the text message, the email, whatever.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: You can check those boxes if that's something you want.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: But if all you're looking for today is prayer, we want to be able to give that to you.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: We will pray over each of these as a staff this week.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: There's no commitment, there's no dotted line, we're not going to make, you know, come up here and air all of your dirty laundry.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: This is just an opportunity to say, I'm ready for things to look different in my life.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what I want out of everything that I do is to be serving God and for Him to know that I'm ready for this life change to look permanent and to look completely different than it did before.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: God, we just want to say thank you for all of this.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: Knowing that we can take these things to you, knowing that we can hand it over to you and trust that you have a better plan than what we're currently going through.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: Knowing that there's opportunities whenever we're struggling to figure out how we're going to go from here and see what that next step looks like.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: God, we simply just want to ask you, give us that clarity, give us that guidance, give us the ability to see what's coming next so that we can best be prepared for what you're going to be calling us to.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: God, we are forever grateful to serve you.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: We are forever grateful to be considered your children.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: But God, we also need to be sharing the stories of the things that have happened in our lives and the directions that things can take so that we can best be reaching others to show them that there is hope and there is opportunity outside of what they're dealing with right now.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, God, thank you again for all of these things.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: We praise you and we just ask that you continue to be with each of us.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.