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Transcript

[SERMON] The Extra Mile · HOTLCAST

0:05
SPEAKER_00: Well, today we we're gonna talk about our vision, why we do what we do here.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: We call it vision 330.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: That's our vision for the years 2030 and beyond.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: If you ever wonder where it is, those of you sitting the back who don't ever wait and make your way to the front, it's always on the wall over here and on the walls around the room.
0:21
SPEAKER_00: And so you can always see it.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: But our vision 330 is this it's boldly to introduce our community to Jesus.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: It is to embrace a culture of honor.
0:29
SPEAKER_00: The way we live matters, and the way we honor people matters.
0:31
SPEAKER_00: And then we want to grow as a church, but we want to only do it through discipleship.
0:35
SPEAKER_00: We want to multiply through discipleship.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: We want people to have transformed lives and be transformed by Jesus Christ, and that's how we want people to, as they enter into relationship, that's how we grow as a church.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: And we do that by introducing people boldly to Jesus, by honoring people as we do so.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: That's who we want to be.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: This all comes from a Bible verse that we always have over here on the wall.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: And when we look at that, it's on the screen today.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna read this together.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: You guys are gonna read it out loud.
0:59
SPEAKER_00: I'm proud, ready.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: You get the yellow part.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: It's John 3 30.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: He must increase and I must decrease.
1:07
SPEAKER_00: The whole goal of what we want to do as a church is to make Jesus more known and really make ourselves less important.
1:15
SPEAKER_00: That is the goal.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: Jesus increases, he's the he.
1:19
SPEAKER_00: The I is we collectively and I individually.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: So I, Kyle, want to decrease as well as Heart of the Lakes wants to decrease, and we want to see Jesus increased in the world.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: And for us, that's our vision.
1:31
SPEAKER_00: That's what we filter our events, our activities, our plans, our uh the future, the goals that we're doing.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: We're trying to filter it through those things.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: Because it's about Jesus, it's not about us.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: And so Vision 330 isn't just about where we're going, it's really about who we're becoming.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: Like we have a vision that hopefully will transform us as a church, but it should be one that transforms you as individuals.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: It's not just a vision for a church, it's something that's individually a vision for person to person.
1:58
SPEAKER_00: Because your job as a person is to boldly introduce our community to Jesus.
2:02
SPEAKER_00: It's not just the church.
2:03
SPEAKER_00: Hey, there's a great thing for the church.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: Good job, church.
2:06
SPEAKER_00: You should introduce people to Jesus.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: No, it's Al, it's Chris.
2:12
SPEAKER_00: They, each individually, insert your name here.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: I need to boldly introduce the community to Jesus.
2:19
SPEAKER_00: That's the goal.
2:20
SPEAKER_00: That's our plan.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: And then when you live in a relationship with people, family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, classmates, you're gonna honor them.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be different than the world.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: We live in a world where people just want to do and say whatever they want.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: Because you have these devices, you can do it without any repercussions of how they feel about it.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: Like I could just say horrible, mean things, and nobody can say anything back to me.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: And I, that's the way the world is.
2:42
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, hey, how about we do it differently?
2:44
SPEAKER_00: How about we honor each other and build each other up and we treat each other the way God tells us to?
2:50
SPEAKER_00: And then we want to multiply through discipleship.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: That's your goal.
2:53
SPEAKER_00: You should be teaching and training and serving in a way that people are getting to know Jesus more fully and it's transforming their lives.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: And when we look at Scripture, we see over and over again these ideas, these concepts reinforce.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: But I want to go to the book of Matthew, Matthew 5, 41.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna read together today.
3:11
SPEAKER_00: You got uh the last two words to read out loud.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: It says this if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him.
3:18
unknown: Two miles.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: Two miles.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is Jesus, these are his words in your Bible.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: If you had a read one, red letter edition, these would be read.
3:26
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is preaching his most famous sermon from Matthew 5 to Matthew 7.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: It's called the Sermon on the Mount.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: He's preaching to thousands of people of all ages.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: This isn't just for old people, and this isn't just for young people, it's for all people.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: And what he's saying here, he's already preached just before this, he preached about divorce, and then he preached about oaths, and then he's preaching about retaliation and relationships, and then he goes on to preach after this about loving your enemies.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: So he is just hitting one thing after another after another.
3:53
SPEAKER_00: It's like right punch, left punch, right?
3:55
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is talking about some hard topics.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: And he's saying in this one, hey, if anyone ever just asks you to go one mile, don't just do the bare minimum, go the extra mile.
4:06
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know about you, but I am not a person who likes to run.
4:09
SPEAKER_00: All right?
4:09
SPEAKER_00: Uh anybody here, who where's my runners at?
4:12
SPEAKER_00: I got like five of them.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
4:14
SPEAKER_00: That's why our run club could never get started.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: You're all lazy.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: So, all right.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't in it either.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: But um, I'm going to Italy in a couple weeks, and one of the last trips I took to Italy, we happened to be in Rome during the Rome 5K.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: So, you know what Kyle thought?
4:28
SPEAKER_00: It was also the marathon, but they had a 5k version.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: So Kyle thinks, hey, I went in Rome, right?
4:34
SPEAKER_00: So the guy, I hate running.
4:35
SPEAKER_00: There's a reason people always ask me, Do you like, do you miss playing football?
4:38
SPEAKER_00: No, because I hate running.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: So like I I hated it.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad to be not running anymore.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: But I was in Rome and I was like, let's do the 5K.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: So my whole family was there.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: We did the 5K together, and we thought this would be a great thing.
4:49
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't love to run, and I don't love to run 3.1 miles either.
4:53
SPEAKER_00: So, and for a lot of you think, well, if you're a runner, you're like, oh, it's 20 minutes, not a big deal.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: Nope, for me, it's 45 minutes plus, easily.
5:00
SPEAKER_00: So, and if you know anything, anybody know anything about about Rome?
5:04
SPEAKER_00: One, they don't have a lot of asphalt streets, they have a lot of old Roman cobblestone streets, which makes it harder to run.
5:11
SPEAKER_00: You can twist your ankle pretty easy.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: And the worst part about Rome, what did you learn in history class about Rome?
5:16
unknown: Seven hills.
5:18
SPEAKER_00: Seven hills.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: It's famous for its seven hills, which means you're just running hill after hill after hill.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: It's miserable.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: I hated it.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: So uh, and when I got done running, I didn't think, oh, let's let's turn this back into another one.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: That's never a thought that's ever entered my mind and anytime I've been running.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: It's not like, hey, I was running at Michigan and I was just like, hey, oh yeah, coach, I'm gonna go run an extra mile.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: That was never a thing.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: But that's what God is calling us to do in our relationship, in our life, in our relationship with Him.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: If you have to go a mile, go the extra mile.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: Give more effort, don't just give the bare minimum.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: Jesus never called us to minimum effort Christianity.
5:58
SPEAKER_00: There's never anywhere in here that it says, Jesus says, put the least amount of effort into your faith.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: Yet, that is modern-day Christianity.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: That is the church in 2026 in all of America.
6:09
SPEAKER_00: It's minimum effort Christianity.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: What's the minimum I can do to say that I follow Jesus so I can get into heaven?
6:17
SPEAKER_00: And some of you, you do this really well.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are like, I can get to church ten minutes late, I'm gonna miss a lot of that extra stuff, a couple songs, I can get there and I can get out right at the end.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: I can just get out the door as fast as I can, don't talk to anybody, and I can get on with my life.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: That's minimum effort Christianity.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: It is.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: What's the least amount of things I can come to that I can still be called a Christian?
6:37
SPEAKER_00: What's the least amount of the Bible that I can put into my life to be a Christian?
6:41
SPEAKER_00: What's the least amount of prayer time that I can?
6:43
SPEAKER_00: That is modern-day Christianity, and it's a danger to the church, is that we are putting in minimum effort.
6:49
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus himself is saying, hey, when you're asked to go a mile, go another one.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: That's the effort level that Jesus is wanting us to give.
6:59
SPEAKER_00: That's when we look over here on the wall and says, He must become greater and I must become less, he must increase and I must decrease.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: What he's saying is, you want me to increase, go the extra mile.
7:09
SPEAKER_00: Go further.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: See, the first mile is what's required.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: The second mile is chosen.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: You have to make a choice.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: You gotta make a choice that I want to go further.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: You gotta actually just you gotta actually say, Oh, this is look, I don't want to do this, but I'm gonna do this because that's what extra looks like.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: The first mile shows what you have to do, the second mile shows who you are.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: It's about character.
7:33
SPEAKER_00: Going that extra mile shows the character of who you are inside.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: Are you being changed by Jesus where he is increasing?
7:39
SPEAKER_00: And so your character is embodying the character of Christ?
7:44
SPEAKER_00: Or are you just being lazy old Americans who are just doing the minimum effort so that we can get by?
7:51
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about this.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: Anyone pay extra taxes just because you can?
7:57
SPEAKER_00: Right?
7:58
SPEAKER_00: But you could, right?
7:59
SPEAKER_00: You could send the the you could send the government an extra thousand dollars.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, I didn't think you charged me enough.
8:05
SPEAKER_00: Here's an extra thousand.
8:06
SPEAKER_00: Right?
8:07
SPEAKER_00: Try that.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: All of you try that.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: So you see how it goes.
8:09
SPEAKER_00: That's your last Sunday here.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: Just kidding.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: Um don't do that, I'm just kidding.
8:15
SPEAKER_00: But really, the effort that we put in or the lack of it or the extra effort shows our character.
8:22
SPEAKER_00: And so you cannot go the extra mile while protecting your comfort.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: A lot of us, our goal in life is just to be as comfortable as we can all the time.
8:31
SPEAKER_00: To I always want to be comfortable, I don't ever want to feel out of place, I don't want to feel awkward, I don't want to feel anxious, I don't want to be nervous, I don't be afraid.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: And so I we basically insulate our lives like bubble boy so that we don't ever have to have any difficulty, and we don't ever have to go any extra mile either.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: Because going the extra mile makes me uncomfortable, makes things difficult, makes me anxious, makes me unnervous, makes it it takes extra effort.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: And so we have to be careful in our life that we're trying to be so comfortable in our relationships, in our life, in our career, in our workplace, in our home, in our community, in our church, that we're really not putting in any extra effort when God asks us to.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: See, the extra mile begins when the words I have to become I get to.
9:19
SPEAKER_00: And it's not that I have to go to church, it's that I get to go to church.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: It's not that I have to show up and serve, it's not that I have to study for a test, it's not that I have to help my my neighbor.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: It's that I get to, I get to, I get to, I get to.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: It's a difference in perspective.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: We live in this culture of FOMO.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's afraid of missing out.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: So, like we're having the 3:30 meal uh third Wednesday.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: So some of you you're thinking about coming, but you're also thinking, ah, something better might come up.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: So this is the culture that we're in of today, right?
9:54
SPEAKER_00: Uh we're we're planning a board, use board game garage sale.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: Another church did it, had like 3,000 people show up, and they've done it for years.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: So we should we're starting that, we're doing it this fall, you'll start hearing more about it.
10:03
SPEAKER_00: But one thing they told us, don't get worried if you don't have enough games, use games to sell, because people don't sign up until the last three or four days.
10:12
SPEAKER_00: They've got months, but because everybody's always waiting on something else better to come, so they wait till the very last second.
10:19
SPEAKER_00: That's why when I asked Frank this morning, I said, Hey Frank, when do we need to order chicken?
10:22
SPEAKER_00: He's like, well, yeah, tomorrow.
10:23
SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, the problem is we still could have 40 people sign up between now and Wednesday.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: That's just the way it goes.
10:29
SPEAKER_00: And so it's the mindset of Americans in 2026.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: We're always waiting for something else.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: And what I've decided to do, um, because honestly, that was me too.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: I was like, oh, I want something else may come along.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: I rub my life off a schedule now, like schedule.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: And I wasn't a scheduled person.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: But if I don't schedule it, then I don't make it important.
10:50
SPEAKER_00: Because if I leave space in the schedule, I'm leaving space for something better to come along.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: And that's not what we're called to do.
10:56
SPEAKER_00: We're called to live in a way that we're always moving towards Christ, showing our character and living in a way that matters.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: Because we get to love people, serve to people, give to people, go to church, have a relationship with the Lord, have a prayer life, read the Bible.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: We get to do those things.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to, we get to.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: Mark 10, 45 says, For the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
11:27
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: I watch a lot of movies and shows.
11:30
SPEAKER_00: I've watched them my whole life.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: Never once have I saw somebody that has been imprisoned and captured and is being ransomed.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: And I never once have I thought, that'd be great to be that person, right?
11:41
SPEAKER_00: Never was like, yeah, like I hope someone captures me when I'm in Italy and then ransoms me back.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: Like, that's not a thing, right?
11:47
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus came knowing that he was going to be ransomed.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: He was going to pay the penalty for our sins, and he was going to be paying the ransom for us, like the debt that we owed that need to be paid.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was going to do it because he's a servant.
12:06
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
12:08
SPEAKER_00: He didn't have to.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: He got to.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: He got to.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: It's a different perspective.
12:15
SPEAKER_00: See, extra bio Christians don't just attend church, they serve.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: They find a way to plug in.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is always the thing we see in society.
12:24
SPEAKER_00: Like I see this all the time on posts.
12:26
SPEAKER_00: People, you you guys do it.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: Same, I've done it before.
12:29
SPEAKER_00: You get on Facebook, there's a post, someone needs something or needs help or needs somebody to help move or whatever.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: A church needs somebody to set up tables and chairs, whatever it may be.
12:37
SPEAKER_00: And everybody's like, Well, man, somebody should do that.
12:41
SPEAKER_00: I really hope they get that.
12:43
SPEAKER_00: I'll pray for them, right?
12:44
SPEAKER_00: And then like four hours later, you check again.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: Want to see if anybody's signed up for that yet?
12:49
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, somebody really needs to do that, right?
12:52
SPEAKER_00: But not you, because that would be extra mile effort, and we're really comfortable about not putting in extra mile effort.
12:58
SPEAKER_00: What would it be if everybody just put in the extra mile effort and it was like people were fighting over who gets to go help?
13:04
SPEAKER_00: Instead of, ah, somebody has to do this.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: We gotta love this person.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: It's a difference in perspective.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: Extra mile Christians don't just attend church, they serve people.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: They're like Jesus.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came to serve.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: To serve.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: Extra mile people don't just ask who's gonna do it.
13:23
SPEAKER_00: They ask, how can I help?
13:25
SPEAKER_00: How can I help?
13:26
SPEAKER_00: How can I make a difference?
13:28
SPEAKER_00: How can I help you?
13:30
SPEAKER_00: Now, yeah, we should find somebody who's better equipped than me to do that.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: Nope.
13:34
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's you.
13:35
SPEAKER_00: And you'll figure out how to get equipped to do it in the process.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: See, 330 begins where convenience ends.
13:42
SPEAKER_00: If you want Jesus to increase and you want to decrease, you gotta lose the idea of the convenience of your life.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: Everything's gotta be convenient for you for it to work out.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: Well, if it was convenient, if it was more convenient for me, I would help.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: Or I would give.
13:55
SPEAKER_00: Or I would show up.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: But it's not very convenient for me.
13:58
SPEAKER_00: Guess what?
13:59
SPEAKER_00: Nothing's convenient.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: That's where you have to make the hard choice.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: A lot of times, the things that you're called to do to serve Jesus is in the most inconvenient times.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: I've been doing this as an adult, my whole adult life, I've been serving it in church.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: It's inconvenient all the time.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: Loving people is inconvenient.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: Guess what?
14:21
SPEAKER_00: People die at the most inconvenient times.
14:23
SPEAKER_00: They do.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: They do.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: People have life issues.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: They go to the hospital at inconvenient times.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: I was at the Somerset Beach Camp and I was having a great lunch conversation.
14:34
SPEAKER_00: I was eating the melted grill, had a wonderful sandwich, and and all of a sudden I get a phone call.
14:40
SPEAKER_00: Hey, some older lady fell, may have broke her hip.
14:44
SPEAKER_00: You need to come.
14:45
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I have a half a sandwich left.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: So I put my sandwich down and I left to go check on her.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: That's inconvenient.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: Like, life is inconvenient.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: Michigan, have one second left on the clock.
15:00
SPEAKER_00: Very inconvenient for Western Michigan.
15:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna be honest with you.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: Very inconvenient.
15:06
SPEAKER_00: But if you're always waiting on convenience, you're never gonna find it because life's not convenient.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: Right?
15:14
SPEAKER_00: 330 begins.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: Jesus increasing begins where convenience ends.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: You just gotta love him and choose him over the other stuff in life.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians 9.7 says, each of you must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
15:33
SPEAKER_00: Cheerful giver.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: This is about giving finances, right?
15:36
SPEAKER_00: Giving tithes and offerings.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: And so God wants us to give cheerfully.
15:39
SPEAKER_00: But giving is decided in our heart in advance.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: We're making a decision beforehand to no matter if it's convenient or not, I'm gonna give because I'm doing it cheerfully to the Lord.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna love him, I'm gonna serve him, I'm gonna give to him because I've made a decision, even if it's inconvenient.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: And there is times it's inconvenient to give financially when money's tight or your car broke down.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: I have a car in my driveway that has a tire that's flat, flat, flat.
16:08
SPEAKER_00: Like there's nothing.
16:09
SPEAKER_00: That's inconvenient.
16:10
SPEAKER_00: And Patty's like, are you gonna fix it?
16:11
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, no, it's raining.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: That's even more inconvenient.
16:14
SPEAKER_00: So she's like, well, you can fix it in the rain.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: I was like, not me.
16:18
SPEAKER_00: So the sun will come out tomorrow.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: That's what I said.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: It'll come out tomorrow.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: It didn't.
16:24
SPEAKER_00: But it's coming out today.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna work on it today, hopefully.
16:27
SPEAKER_00: Or tomorrow.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: Or some other sunny day.
16:29
SPEAKER_00: So it's gonna happen.
16:32
SPEAKER_00: But like we have to recognize in our life, extra mile Christians don't just give, they live generously.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: They live generously.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is not to like beat you over the head and tell you to give more money to the church.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: Like, you've got to give what's in your heart, but it's always inconvenient to give.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: Giving tithes and offerings is inconvenient.
16:49
SPEAKER_00: Yes, God gives us money that we steward we give back to him.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: And the world says that's crazy.
16:53
SPEAKER_00: Why would you give money to the church?
16:54
SPEAKER_00: Like, it's inconvenient in our human mindset, but we're being faithful because he increases and I decrease.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: And the way that we can show him that he's increasing is by saying, God, what I have belongs to you, and I want to faithfully give it back.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: And then we do that with our treasure, but we also do it with our time and our talents.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: Because some of you, it's easy to cut a check, right?
17:17
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to get on an app and give some money.
17:20
SPEAKER_00: What about giving five minutes, ten minutes?
17:22
SPEAKER_00: What about giving two hours?
17:23
SPEAKER_00: What about giving a day?
17:24
SPEAKER_00: For some of you, that's way harder to give your time.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: And so God wants us to give our time cheerfully too.
17:31
SPEAKER_00: And live generously with how we give our time, our treasure, and our talents.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: See, generosity isn't about how much you have, it's about how much of you God has.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: That's a powerful one.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: If he's really increasing and I'm decreasing, then my generosity flows from how he's increasing in my life.
17:52
SPEAKER_00: And what part of him he belongs to.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: What part of him in my life belongs to him?
17:57
SPEAKER_00: And so the more generous I am, is the more I'm connected to my God, my king, my Lord.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: Because he has more of my heart.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: See the extra mile costs something.
18:07
SPEAKER_00: That's why it matters.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: That's why it matters.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: So Matthew 5.16, still during that Bible verse, not Bible verse, still during that sermon, it says this Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good work and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: Now, the Bible says that your good works don't save you.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: That you don't get salvation to being a good person doing good works.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: But what it does say is that we are supposed to go do good works because the way that we live matters because it brings glory to God.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: I love football season, not because uh I've been talking about Hail Marys all summer, and then a Hail Mary happened, first game of the season.
18:46
SPEAKER_00: I kind of feel like I made that happen.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: Um I thought after it happened.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: Um but like what I love about football season is the moment in the Boise State game where Boise State's ahead at halftime, they lose the game to Oregon, a close one.
19:01
SPEAKER_00: But the coach comes over from Boise State, uh, the lady comes over, she's like, hey, I want to interview you.
19:07
SPEAKER_00: Tell me about that last drive, whatever.
19:09
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, I just want to tell you, I want to give thanks to Jesus Christ, my savior, who allows me to coach this great game.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: Like, that's his first response.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: Now he's doing, he's doing work.
19:17
SPEAKER_00: He's actually working, coaches work.
19:19
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know that's their job.
19:20
SPEAKER_00: But in his job, he's pointing it all right back to Jesus.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: He's giving glory.
19:26
SPEAKER_00: Are you doing that?
19:29
SPEAKER_00: Are you doing that at your job?
19:30
SPEAKER_00: Are you showing up at a job on like on Tuesday after the weekend and be like, oh man, I'm doing all this for God's glory?
19:35
SPEAKER_00: Or are you like, I have to do this, I hate it, and I don't want to do it any more than I absolutely have to.
19:39
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna do the bare minimum.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: What about school on Tuesday for students?
19:44
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna go to school and say, hey, I get to go to school, it's amazing.
19:46
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna do everything I can for God's glory.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna be like, oh, I have to come to this place, I hate it.
19:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna do the bare minimum.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: See, a lot of us are bare minimum people trying to keep our level of comfort up to where we're comfortable with instead of living for Jesus in all the way that we can in every aspect of our life.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: See, the extra mile makes Jesus visible.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: That's why it's important.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: If you go that extra mile, that's when your character shows.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: And that's when people see Jesus.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: That's when you give glory to God.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you some descriptions of what the extra mile church looks like.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: The extra mile church notices the person standing alone.
20:24
SPEAKER_00: In football, Coach Carr used to say, you gotta have your head in a swivel.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: You have to have your head in a swivel looking both ways because someone is coming to knock you out.
20:31
SPEAKER_00: Like it's just the way it works.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: In the church, we have to have our head in a swivel.
20:35
SPEAKER_00: When you walk in on Sunday, some of you are walking in like a like a horse with like those little horse, whatever they call blinders on.
20:41
SPEAKER_00: So you don't have to see anybody.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: I just want to come in and sit down, and then I'm gonna get up as fast as I can and leave.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: And I hopefully no one talks to me.
20:47
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to talk to anybody.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: That is not extra mile Christianity.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: The extra mile Christianity, your head's on a swivel.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: You're looking around the room to find someone to talk to so you can make them feel welcome, comfortable, seen.
20:59
SPEAKER_00: Yes, even if they're shy or you're shy, you can do that with members.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: You can just kind of do the I don't want to talk to you, but I can swave at you and say hi from afar.
21:07
SPEAKER_00: That's I've learned how to tell people I don't want hugs.
21:09
SPEAKER_00: Like if you turn like this, they don't hug you because it's weird.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: So you can do the same thing.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: But when it comes down to it, we've got to start seeing people.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: Come early.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: Don't come late and try to get out as fast as you can.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: Come early, linger, talk to people, linger, peep linger afterwards and talk to people and watch what happens.
21:25
SPEAKER_00: Somebody did that after service, they had a great conversation after first service and said, Yeah, I just listened to what you said to do.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: And we just had an awesome conversation with somebody who's been here on their fourth week.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: And like she felt seen and connected because took the extra time.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: Notice people, the extra mile church starts when nobody's watching.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: One of the things I started doing a long time ago is a pick up trash.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: Uh I pick up trash when nobody's watching.
21:47
SPEAKER_00: I just, if I see trash, I pick it up.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: Now, if it's a parade, I don't because it's way too much trash.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: And they they got machines for that.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: But if I'm going somewhere and I see trash, whether it's Disney, whether it's the camp, whether it's here, where it's I just pick up the trash.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Because somebody's got to.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm not looking up, I don't pick up the trash and look around for the camera, like, hey, I want credit, like I did it.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: You just you just do it because that's your character.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: That is going the extra mile.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: Are you picking up the trash when no one's watching?
22:15
SPEAKER_00: Are you doing an extra thing?
22:16
SPEAKER_00: Are you wiping off the counter?
22:18
SPEAKER_00: Are you flushing the toilet?
22:20
SPEAKER_00: Whatever it may be.
22:21
SPEAKER_00: What do you do when nobody's watching?
22:23
SPEAKER_00: The extra mile church serves to meet a need, not to get something out of it.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: We don't serve so we can get credit.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: We serve so people can see Jesus.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: That's the extra mile church.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: The extra mile church gives more grace than someone deserves.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: I like to call these people EGRs.
22:38
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of a known thing.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: Extra grace required people.
22:41
SPEAKER_00: There are people in your life that are extra grace required people.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know any, some of you just, yeah, I know.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: We know exactly who you're talking about.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: They require a lot of extra grace.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know any, it's you.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: It's you.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: You're the EGR.
22:55
SPEAKER_00: So there's always one.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: I've got them.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: We got a church full of them.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: Like, let's be honest, there's some people just like you, and some people can be EGR for another person and not for other people because we have different personalities.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: And so the way that our personalities come along, we gotta just give grace to people.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: Even if they have different personalities, even if they have different interests, all those things.
23:16
SPEAKER_00: Like, I knew if we didn't get that extra second, it's gonna be a hard Sunday to come in here.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: Because it'd be like that one Western Michigan fan who's never wanted anything coming in with, like, oh, let's go.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling everybody what it is.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: It's just the way it works, right?
23:28
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't even thinking that.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, who do I know that goes to Western Michigan?
23:30
SPEAKER_00: I gotta void tomorrow.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: Um and so we have them.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: We have a couple.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: And so, like, ultimately, just you just give grace.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: It's the way it works.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: Extra mile church makes room for the next generation.
23:43
SPEAKER_00: This is this is something we are really big about.
23:46
SPEAKER_00: If you are a Christian, great.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: You're going to heaven.
23:51
SPEAKER_00: Work on your faith, do better.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: But this church isn't about you.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: The moment that you accept Jesus into your heart and you start growing, it now becomes about you equipping you to serve the people who are lost who need to get to that place.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: That's what it's about.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: We really believe that.
24:05
SPEAKER_00: The next generation, we want them to know Jesus, and we're doing whatever we can.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: We have 41 students up north right now.
24:11
SPEAKER_00: We're doing whatever we can, resource-wise, so that our children and our teens know Jesus.
24:16
SPEAKER_00: And the people that are lost that are coming in here have an opportunity to know Jesus.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: The rest of us, I've been a Christian since I was six.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: I'm 47.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: So for 41 years, church has not been about me anymore.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: It's been about how I can serve the people who it's about and who it's for.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: That's the difference.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: We have to change our mindset that it's all about serving my needs, and instead, it's about my me helping to serve and meet the needs of other people who are lost, who still need Jesus.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: The extra mile church chooses people over preferences.
24:43
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't matter the color of the carpet, the style of music, none of those things.
24:47
SPEAKER_00: You need to be in community.
24:49
SPEAKER_00: Like, I uh in between services, I saw a video, and the video was of the University of Central Florida.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: They had, for their third to fourth quarter, there's always a song or whatever, they had electronic dance music playing with laser beams and lights, and I thought, that's what heaven looks like.
25:06
SPEAKER_00: I've been telling you guys that's what heaven looks like for me.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: Preferences.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: We all got our different styles of music, the different things we find interesting, but what matters is not our preferences.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: What matters is loving people over our preferences so they can have an opportunity to know Jesus.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: The extra mile church invites one more person.
25:25
SPEAKER_00: One more person.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: Now I hate when Christians do this, they do this all the time.
25:28
SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't know anybody else to invited the church.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: I've invited everybody, I know.
25:31
SPEAKER_00: That's not what this says.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: Go out and find more, right?
25:36
SPEAKER_00: Go out and make new friends.
25:37
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have any more friends or don't have any friends, go make friends.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: That is the extra mile of Christianity.
25:42
SPEAKER_00: All right?
25:42
SPEAKER_00: Go, you don't, just the friends you have makes you comfortable.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: It's not about comfort, it's about Christ.
25:48
SPEAKER_00: Go find other people who you don't know yet, make relationships, and then tell them about Jesus.
25:52
SPEAKER_00: That's the goal.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: And you do that every Friday night.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: I go and I play cards with people who don't who don't follow Jesus.
25:59
SPEAKER_00: Uh so much so that my wife forgets this.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: And on Friday night, she was down at Jefferson Corner going one way.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: I was going the other way through the intersection.
26:06
SPEAKER_00: I honked at her, and then she calls me and is like, Where are you going?
26:08
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, it's Friday night.
26:09
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna play cards, right?
26:10
SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm gonna do.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: And I'm doing it because I'm going to go play cards with people who know I'm a pastor, who are not believers, because I spend my whole week with Christians all day long, talking to people, counseling people.
26:23
SPEAKER_00: I need to go have my outlet with people who are not Christians because I need to live out, invite one more person.
26:29
SPEAKER_00: It's really hard for me to invite people to church when they're already Christians, right?
26:33
SPEAKER_00: It's great, Kelly, come to church Sunday.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: Great to see you there.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: You already love Jesus, right?
26:37
SPEAKER_00: Or I can go find other people who I can live out my faith and do the thing that I'm actually telling you to do.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: Go and make new relationships, invite them to know Jesus.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: That's extra mile Christianity.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: It takes time, it takes effort, and you have to invest time, your talent, your treasure in it.
26:54
SPEAKER_00: The extra mile church stays five more minutes to listen.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: This is a hard one.
26:57
SPEAKER_00: When you got that meeting, you got that thing, you're like, I gotta go.
27:00
SPEAKER_00: This person's telling me their whole life story, right?
27:03
SPEAKER_00: It's sad, but I really gotta get to my kid's game, or I gotta get home, or I gotta go make dinner, like whatever it is.
27:09
SPEAKER_00: We gotta sometimes just stop and care more about people than other things.
27:15
SPEAKER_00: The extra mile church doesn't just give financially what won't be missed.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: This is a big one.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: There are people who give, they just give what they extra have.
27:22
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I got a fiver in my wallet today, I'll just throw that in.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: I won't miss that.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: But the extra mile Christians, they give and they give faithfully.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: And they give what the Lord has told them and compelled them to give, not what won't be missed.
27:38
SPEAKER_00: But what they've prayed about, they've talked about to God.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: Not just of our finances, but of time.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: What of their time can you afford to give?
27:47
SPEAKER_00: And what of your talent can you afford to give?
27:49
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the extra mile church does more than its job description.
27:52
SPEAKER_00: Anyone ever said this?
27:53
SPEAKER_00: It's not my job description.
27:55
SPEAKER_00: Anyone want to admit to that?
27:57
SPEAKER_00: Okay, one person.
27:57
SPEAKER_00: Nobody with it, yeah, a couple people.
27:59
SPEAKER_00: Like this would this was a regular thing in my life, I've heard as a pastor.
28:02
SPEAKER_00: People will say, Well, that's not my job description.
28:04
SPEAKER_00: Well, so here's what I do.
28:06
SPEAKER_00: I just put that last line at the bottom of the job description says whatever other thing is assigned by the lead pastors.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: So then it's all in there.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: So uh it's great.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: So you guys want to work here?
28:15
SPEAKER_00: Um, so but like that's the truth.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: We people do this.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's not my job description.
28:19
SPEAKER_00: My I'm not gonna do that.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna give them a weekend.
28:21
SPEAKER_00: That was never communicated to me in my job description.
28:23
SPEAKER_00: We do that.
28:24
SPEAKER_00: That's a that's a that's American mentality.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna give you any extra effort other than the minimum that I'm required to to get my paycheck because I want to go enjoy me and my time and my life.
28:36
SPEAKER_00: And that's what a lot of people do with their Christianity.
28:39
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's not a Christianity job description.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: I just gotta accept Jesus.
28:42
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
28:42
SPEAKER_00: I get to heaven.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: There's so much more in the job description if you read the Bible than that.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: The extra mile church doesn't just identify a need, it meets it.
28:53
SPEAKER_00: It meets it.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: You don't just say, well, that's great, someone should do that.
28:57
SPEAKER_00: Um that person really needs help.
28:59
SPEAKER_00: Their house burnt down, someone should help them out.
29:02
SPEAKER_00: It's we we help them out.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: We meet a need.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: Uh we recently started the um the blessing box out here.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you know this, the blessing box is used way more than I ever thought it would be.
29:13
SPEAKER_00: It is it is filled up and then emptied, filled up and then emptied, filled up all week long.
29:18
SPEAKER_00: We need constantly need more food for that.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: And so that's a need that we're trying to meet for the community because the community has a need.
29:23
SPEAKER_00: People come and they will get all their meals, and that's how they're surviving.
29:27
SPEAKER_00: There are people in this community who need help.
29:29
SPEAKER_00: And so trying to do that, but we could use your help with that.
29:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, yeah, yes.
29:32
SPEAKER_00: If you could bring some ramen or noodles or whatever you got around, don't bring stuff expired because that's not meeting a need, that's killing people.
29:40
SPEAKER_00: All right, so yeah.
29:44
SPEAKER_00: If you can bring stuff that's not expired, drop it off on Sundays, we can meet a need.
29:49
SPEAKER_00: Like, because we want to meet the needs of our community.
29:51
SPEAKER_00: And then the extra mile church doesn't just ask, is this my responsibility, but can I help?
29:57
SPEAKER_00: Well, that'd be really great, but that's not really my it's not really my responsibility.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: I don't know that person.
30:02
SPEAKER_00: There's probably someone who that's their responsibility for.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: They should help them.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: No, that's the extra mile church says, Can I help?
30:07
SPEAKER_00: What can I do?
30:10
SPEAKER_00: What how can I show up and help?
30:12
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm not a I'm not a like a I'm not like a kind of fix it guy.
30:17
SPEAKER_00: I don't know a handyman, but I can show up.
30:20
SPEAKER_00: I make a really good person to talk to while you're doing your project.
30:23
SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
30:26
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes that's what that's the help people need.
30:28
SPEAKER_00: They just need encouragement, right?
30:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
30:31
SPEAKER_00: So that's the way it works.
30:35
SPEAKER_00: We don't go the extra mile so people notice us.
30:38
SPEAKER_00: We go the extra mile so people can experience Jesus.
30:41
SPEAKER_00: That's why we go the extra mile.
30:43
SPEAKER_00: So people see Jesus in us.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: In us.
30:47
SPEAKER_00: That's why we that's why we show up.
30:49
SPEAKER_00: That's why we say, hey, let's go that extra mile.
30:51
SPEAKER_00: Let's not just do the bare minimum.
30:54
SPEAKER_00: Let's do more.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: This even works in school with with students.
30:57
SPEAKER_00: Some students they just do the bare minimum to get through school.
31:01
SPEAKER_00: What if you started doing more?
31:03
SPEAKER_00: What if you start studying harder and putting extra effort in because you want to show the character of Jesus to your school and your work?
31:11
SPEAKER_00: It changes things.
31:12
SPEAKER_00: See, extra mile Christians don't wait for people to find Jesus.
31:15
SPEAKER_00: They help people find Jesus.
31:17
SPEAKER_00: The way that we live intentionally, when we're increasing Jesus in our life and we're decreasing, we're doing it so our heart changes into the character of Christ, and people can find Jesus through the relationship, through the effort that we're giving.
31:31
SPEAKER_00: And so, what does this mean for you?
31:34
SPEAKER_00: Serve when it would be easier to sit.
31:36
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was a servant leader.
31:38
SPEAKER_00: He came to serve, he did not come to sit and enjoy.
31:42
SPEAKER_00: And he could have come to say, Oh, I just come to listen to all the rabbis of the day.
31:47
SPEAKER_00: He didn't come to do that.
31:48
SPEAKER_00: He came to serve.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: He came to find lost people and make them found by giving them a new hope, a new reality that God could change their heart and change their eternity.
31:59
SPEAKER_00: He came to serve.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: The problem is a lot of modern-day Christians just want to sit, oh, just teach me, I want to learn.
32:05
SPEAKER_00: Church is for me.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: Church is not for you if you're a Christian.
32:08
SPEAKER_00: It's for a place for you to be equipped to serve.
32:10
SPEAKER_00: Equipped to serve.
32:12
SPEAKER_00: Equipped to serve.
32:14
SPEAKER_00: That's the goal.
32:16
SPEAKER_00: And what we gotta do is we gotta do more than what's expected when love requires it.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: There are times you're gonna be inconvenienced by your faith.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: That's Christianity.
32:26
SPEAKER_00: That's loving people.
32:27
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was inconvenienced to love us.
32:31
SPEAKER_00: It was so inconvenient, they hung him on a cross.
32:33
SPEAKER_00: That's not convenient.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you know.
32:35
SPEAKER_00: They they beat him, they made fun of him, they spit on him, they hung him on a cross.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: That's super inconvenient.
32:43
SPEAKER_00: And he did that because he loves us.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: He's not asking us to do that level.
32:47
SPEAKER_00: He's just asking us when you don't have five minutes to give an extra five minutes.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: When you come to church on Sunday, hey, come spend extra minutes just talking to people, love it on people.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: When people have a need, you see it in Facebook, just say, hey, can I help?
33:00
SPEAKER_00: Like that's the inconvenience that we're really talking about.
33:03
SPEAKER_00: But we're not even willing to give that because we want our comfort, our life.
33:08
SPEAKER_00: We've got to also give when it would be easier to keep.
33:12
SPEAKER_00: We need to give our finances, our treasure, we need to give our time.
33:16
SPEAKER_00: We spend time with people, then we need to give of our talents.
33:20
SPEAKER_00: And it's hard.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: One of the convictions I've had in 2026 is I need, as we are growing as a church, there's more and more demands on my time.
33:28
SPEAKER_00: And so I have to I have to do better about balancing my time.
33:31
SPEAKER_00: So much so that we we hired someone to help just handle some of the day-to-day um stuff that goes on because there's a lot of stuff to run, uh, especially with selling properties and all kinds of stuff going on.
33:42
SPEAKER_00: Because the the burden for me was I I need to say yes when I had to say no, as we've been growing.
33:48
SPEAKER_00: When people say, Hey, you want to go golfing?
33:50
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I'll go.
33:52
SPEAKER_00: Not I just I can't fit into my schedule, I've got too many things to do.
33:55
SPEAKER_00: I need to be able to say yes.
33:56
SPEAKER_00: So one of the things I've been doing is I've been wake surfing.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: Not a thing I ever thought this big body would do.
34:01
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I've been doing it.
34:03
SPEAKER_00: So uh and it's been fun because I've been able to say yes when someone says, Hey, would you want to come over and wake surf?
34:09
SPEAKER_00: So we need to be able to give of our time.
34:12
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's easy for it's easy to just get online, scan a QR code, and give some money.
34:17
SPEAKER_00: That's easy.
34:17
SPEAKER_00: What about when someone invites you over to a meal or to hang out or to just have a coffee and you you know you you just don't you don't have the time, but you gotta make the time because that's the extra mile.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: See, the first mile is what's expected, the second mile is 330.
34:33
SPEAKER_00: If you want to see Jesus increase in your life and you want to decrease, that's the second mile.
34:38
SPEAKER_00: That's extra mile Christianity, it's extra effort, it's gonna be inconvenient, it's gonna be uncomfortable, but that's how we grow like Jesus.
34:46
SPEAKER_00: And if you're here today and you feel like I'm talking to you, it's because you are living in that land of comfort.
34:54
SPEAKER_00: You want things the way you want it for you, and you don't want to be inconvenienced.
34:58
SPEAKER_00: And my my hope and my encouragement is I hope the Lord inconveniences you greatly this week.
35:04
SPEAKER_00: So, for him.
35:06
SPEAKER_00: Because I think that's how we grow.
35:08
SPEAKER_00: That's how we recognize it.
35:09
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'll make a confession.
35:10
SPEAKER_00: There's times when I've had 16 hours of phone calls in one day, and my both my ears hurt from holding a phone up.
35:16
SPEAKER_00: Like that's a regular thing for me on a week.
35:19
SPEAKER_00: And then I'm finally done and it's late, and it's like 9 30, 10 o'clock, and you're like, okay, everybody's in bed now, right?
35:26
SPEAKER_00: And then all of a sudden I'll get a call at 10:15.
35:28
SPEAKER_00: I'll be like, it's been such a long day.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: And I'll have to have to check my spirit, right?
35:32
SPEAKER_00: Because I'll be like, I don't want to take this call.
35:34
SPEAKER_00: And then I'll just pray, God, God, have I done enough today?
35:37
SPEAKER_00: Or do I need to take this call?
35:38
SPEAKER_00: And there's times I feel like God will say, no, you're good.
35:41
SPEAKER_00: You don't need to take this one day, make that call tomorrow.
35:43
SPEAKER_00: There's other times I just feel like, you know what, I need to be, I'm convicted I need to take that call.
35:46
SPEAKER_00: Like, the Lord will speak to you in those moments.
35:49
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm not saying you all have to go do 16 hours of phone calls every day.
35:53
SPEAKER_00: But I'm just saying I walk through this on a daily basis too.
35:56
SPEAKER_00: And this is also part of my job to serve.
36:01
SPEAKER_00: But it's gonna be the same way for you.
36:02
SPEAKER_00: When you get home from work, you want to sit down, you want to just relax and watch a show, and then someone says, Hey, uh, my car broke down.
36:08
SPEAKER_00: Can you come help me?
36:09
SPEAKER_00: And you're like, that's super incommunic.
36:12
SPEAKER_00: And that's where you gotta talk to God.
36:13
SPEAKER_00: God, do I need to go?
36:15
SPEAKER_00: Do I need to go show up for this person?
36:17
SPEAKER_00: And let the Holy Spirit speak to you.
36:19
SPEAKER_00: And then when he does, move.
36:21
SPEAKER_00: And I pray if you struggle that you're not giving of your time, your talent, your treasure in a way that you know is going the extra mile for people, start praying that God will give you situations to make those hard decisions, and then pray that he shows up.
36:34
SPEAKER_00: He'll speak to you.
36:35
SPEAKER_00: He does.
36:36
SPEAKER_00: You just know.
36:36
SPEAKER_00: You just you just know, like, I need to do this.
36:39
SPEAKER_00: And there's other times you know, no, I feel good.
36:40
SPEAKER_00: I didn't feel resolved.
36:41
SPEAKER_00: Somebody else could take care of this one.
36:43
SPEAKER_00: But the more you're attuned to to God through his word, the more you're having a healthy prayer life, the more you're gonna know in those moments what God wants from you.
36:52
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to just pray as a church, and we want to be an extra mile church full of extra mile Christians that are living out Jesus increasing and us decreasing, living out 330.
37:01
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
37:02
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, always thank you for your word, and we thank you for your example of your son, that Jesus was an extra mile savior who served, who loved, who did it cheerfully, who did it willingly, because he loved us.
37:17
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we pray that we can be more inconvenienced in life, more uncomfortable to serve you, to live out these words from Jesus' most famous sermon.
37:26
SPEAKER_00: That we need to go the extra mile for each other.
37:28
SPEAKER_00: We need to love each other, we need to live out our faith so people can see the character of God, so that God can be glorified by the works that we do as we build each other up, as we encourage each other, as we comfort each other, as we live life together.
37:40
SPEAKER_00: But I pray for just as a church, that we have wisdom to know when and how to go the extra mile.
37:46
SPEAKER_00: I pray for us as individuals that we're all challenged this week in different ways and have those moments where we have to choose.
37:53
SPEAKER_00: Am I gonna choose me in comfort, or are I gonna be inconvenienced for Christ?
37:57
SPEAKER_00: So God can be glorified.
37:59
SPEAKER_00: But we pray that we can be the extra mile church, living out three thirty and living it for you and your son Jesus.
38:05
SPEAKER_00: We pray this in his name.
38:06
SPEAKER_00: Amen.