I recently preached
to our students on this passage of
scripture and I just felt like this is something
that we need to live in, as a whole church as well. So Genesis 28, as
we begin, I'm just curious if you have any
sort of peculiar, unique way that you like to
begin every day. It seems like, whenever I
talk to successful people, in any sense of that word,
one thing that they have in common is there is a unique
way that they've figured out how to craft sort of their own
masterpiece morning routine to get what they
want out of each day by launching into it
on the right foot. It's possible to salvage a
day that's not going well, I want you to know that. It is possible to take a
day that has steered itself into the ditch and do some
corrective action on it. But why? If you don't have to. Why not begin a
day the right way? I think a lot of
times, we end up hitting exactly what we aim for. And if you aim for
nothing, listen to me, you'll hit it every single time. So by developing a morning
routine, it's possible, this is the reason I spoke
this to our young people, is because, as I
look back at my life, and if there been anything
I've done right that God's been able to bless, one
thing has been, there's been a morning routine
that I've gone through ever since I gave my life to Jesus. There's something involved
in how I begin my day, that starts it on the right foot. Now I've become a student
of this, a little bit. And I just love the
eclectic, funky, bizarre ways that many high
performance individuals choose to start their day. And so when I listen to
interviews or read books by people that I
admire or I've seen-- the world has seen do things-- I always perk up
a little bit when I hear them talk about
how they begin their day. Oprah Winfrey, for example, she
wakes up every day around 6:02. Like bing! 6:02, she wakes up. You know, what's
weird about that is that she doesn't
set an alarm clock, she doesn't believe it them. She just says to
herself before she lays her head on her
billion dollar pillow or whatever it is, 6:02, and
that's when she wakes up. She then takes her five dogs
on a walk, has an espresso, reads truths that she
stores in truth box, she pulls five of them
out, reads five truths, then she exercises, and
then she eats breakfast. And she says without planning
it, or working for it, she almost always, as
she looks at the clock, is eating breakfast at 8:30 AM. On the dot. As Oprah. Benjamin Franklin had a
famous morning routine. You can Google it and
look into what was in it. It was a three hour long
way that he began every day. And I won't bore you with all
of it, but what is interesting is a part of it was him pausing
long enough to ask himself this question, what
good shall I do today? That would be a
pretty dope thing to incorporate into your
morning, wouldn't it? To ask yourself, just
sit there with a journal for a quick second, and
write down that question-- what good shall I do today? What if you put
that on your mirror, in lipstick or something. What good shall I do today? What if you didn't
touch your phone without first asking yourself
the question, what good shall I do today? I can hear someone in our
church scheduling a tattoo appointment, even
right now, right there on your wrist, all Kendall
Jenner style, all little, right? What good shall I do today? Teddy Roosevelt, y'all, if
you've been part of the Church for any length of time, you
know I have a serious man-crush on some Teddy
Roosevelt. He's amazing. Youngest person to ever hold
the office of president. But even on his busiest
day, as commander in chief of the United
States of America, he read three books
per day, minimum. Because I know whenever
we talk about reading, everyone's like, I
know but I'm so busy. Like, you're not the
president and stuff. He always read a minimum
of three books per day. And you go, how do you
how do you even do that? He said, well, I always
read one before breakfast. So that's how you get that done. You read a book even
before you have breakfast. That's why they put Teddy
Roosevelt on Mount Rushmore, by the way, right? And not me. Mark Wahlberg, he one day posted
his freak show morning routine on Instagram. I had to screen capture
it before it went away because it just seemed
too crazy to believe. He wakes up every day,
get this, at 2:30 AM. He has time for prayer,
first thing, then he has breakfast, then his
first workout of the day, then he plays golf, then he
does cryo, and it's just 10:30. And then he has his whole day
in front of him, at that point. Jane Austen, famous author, she
would wake up and immediately play the piano, make
breakfast for their family, then she would sit down
for that day's writing. And she would do nothing else
until that creative writing time had been done. Anna Wintour,
editor-in-chief of Vogue, she starts her day,
every single day, with a one hour long
tennis match at 5:45 AM. Famous self-help
guru Tony Robbins jumps into a 57
degree cold plunge. That's the first
thing he does and he has one of these installed at
every single one of his houses around the world. And he explains that
it's better than coffee-- you are wide awake,
57 degree water. So he gets out of
bed, disrobes-- bam! Jumps in the water. And he also says it's likely to
be the worst thing that happens to him every day so might as
well get it out of the way, right then and there,
and from that moment forward, anything
is an improvement. My personal favorite though,
is Winston Churchill. Churchill woke up every
single day at 7:30 AM but did not get out
of bed until 11. And while lying in pajamas, he
would have his breakfast served to him in bed, he would
have his mail brought in, along with all the
national newspapers, and he would lie
there in bed working. Different secretaries
coming in and out and him just continuing on. At 11, he would finally
saunter out of bed and probably while
on his fourth cigar, he would take his
first bath of the day. You're saying, Levi, first bath? Yes, because after
now having his day, he would then take a nap
and then a second bath. He even had a special bathtub
installed on his train car so no matter where
he was moving about, he could have his second bath. And the reason he did all
that was because he found out he was freshest after he
woke up right, right away in the morning. So by having a nap
and another bath, he got two mornings
for the price of one. So I don't even know
what to make of that. And I don't know
what of that you want to pull, if anything, into
your schedule because I don't know necessarily what it's
going to take for you to wake up your body. But here's what I'm
here to ask you-- what does it take each
day to wake up your soul? I want to preach to
you a message that I'm calling I woke up like this. I woke up like this. You see, Beyonce
taught us to downplay how much work we've
done in our whole vibe but just lying and
telling the world, I woke up like this, right? It's like, you and
your 30 stylists helped you wake up
like this, Beyonce. We're so funny-- people are so
funny-- you compliment someone like, oh you look great. It's like, oh, this old thing? Like pretending like,
yeah, this whole thing is like your fourth
outfit choice, right? This old thing. I woke up like this. We're going to see
someone in scripture who had a powerful encounter
with God one morning. That woke his heart up,
that woke his soul up. And the world has
never been the same. Genesis, chapter 28,
starting in verse 10. If you are new to the
whole church scene and you don't have
a Bible with you, you're not going to feel out
of place at all because we're going to put the scriptures
up on the screen for you. So you'll arguably have the
biggest Bible of us all. It says in Genesis 28,
verse 10, "Now Jacob went out from Beersheba." Someone just woke up, beer what? Is that a place? Can I go there? Is that like an
Oktoberfest thing. "And went toward Haran." "So he came to a certain place
and stayed there all night, because the sun had set." "And he took one of the stones
of that place and he put it at his head, and he lay down
in that place to sleep. " "Then he dreamed, and behold, a
ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven;
and there the angels of God were ascending and
descending on it." "And behold, the Lord
stood above it and said: 'I am the Lord God of
Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land
on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall
be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad
to the west and the east, to the north and the
south; and in you and in your seed all the
families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you and I
will keep you wherever you go, and I will bring you
back to this land; for I will not leave you until
I have done what I have spoken to you.'" "So Jacob awoke
from his sleep and said, Surely the Lord is in this
place, and I did not know it. And he was afraid and said,
'How awesome is this place! This is none other
than the house of God, and this is the
gate of heaven!'" "Then Jacob rose early." Here's his morning routine
now, are you ready? So he's had an
encounter with God, now it's going to change
how he begins days. He rose early in the morning. He took the stone that
he had put at his head, he set it up as a pillar, and
he poured oil on top of it. And he called the name
of that place, Bethel, which literally translated
means "the House of God." But the name of that city
had been Luz previously, but he didn't know that because
when he got there it was dark and he just was at
a certain place. He's like, I have no
idea where I'm at. Not a good camper. He was using a rock for
a pillow, guys, right? He's not good with directions. Verse 20, "Then
Jacob made a vow, saying, 'If God will be with
me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and
give me bread to eat and clothing to put
on, so that I come back to my father's house in peace,
then the Lord shall be my God. And this stone which I have
set up as a pillar shall be God's house, and of all that
You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.'" Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for
your word, for the written description of this
encounter with Jacob, and how powerful that is. But more than that,
how it shows us what we are capable
of experiencing, for just as you were with
Jacob, in his desert season of the soul. So you are with us here today. There's not a single
high schooler, there's not a single
mother, there's not a single family, a
single person, here today, who's alone. You are with them, and you will
be with them wherever they go. I pray you would open
our eyes to see that. I pray that you would
radically change our hearts, change our lives, and help
us to radically change how we begin our days. And I believe that
one tiny tweak, could change so much for us. I pray this asking
that you would also do what only your spirit can do. And that is change people
who don't know you, who are without God, and
without hope in this world so that they come to a saving
relationship with you that alters everything in their life. I pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. There are four different ways
that the Bible uses the term sleep. So if we're talking about waking
up like this, like Jacob did, it would be good to at
least just sort of get an overview of what
the Bible means when it talks about sleeping. So-- it's a good song. Pretty good. It's pretty good. I like it, it's good. So there's four different ways
that the Bible-- highly, highly distracted. Easily, easily, easily
distracted here. Have a quick sip, recalibrate. It's fine. So four different ways
to talk about sleeping. The first is, of course,
just the normal way. The way that we
talk about sleeping. Like if someone goes to
sleep, they just, you know, how many of you
know that you snore? Anybody here? Like I know I snore,
I've been told I snore. Yeah. Do you ever wake
yourself up doing it? I don't always wake myself up
snoring though my wife tells me that's a thing. But I do this weird thing
where I'm kind of falling asleep, where my lip seal
gets broken by a puff of air. Like-- [PUFFS] [PUFFS] And sometimes if I'm like kind
of napping, or catnapping, or like-- I'll wake myself up. [PUFFS] I was driving from Nashville
to Alabama recently and a couple of our
staff members were there. And I was so tired,
I just preached, and the event was
just high stress because the band that was
supposed to be playing, they couldn't show up last
minute because of the American Airlines variant. I can't call it
the Delta variant because I'm a loyal Delta
customer so I call it the American Airlines variant. But. So anyhow, I'm all tired, I
just preached, we're driving, and I kept waking myself up. [PUFFS] And then I was so embarrassed
and self-conscious thinking about this
weird breathing thing I was doing in front of them. Anyhow, when we
talk about sleeping in the first sense
of the word, we're just talking about that, right? Where all the weird
things happen. You're sleeping physically,
taking rest biologically. The Bible does use
that term because it says Jesus slept in a boat. And of course, it means that his
physical body that he was in, being God, yet coming into a
human form to be one of us, to be as us, to die
for us, He fell asleep. Awesome. Instance number 2 of the
use of the word sleep, is someone who has died. A person who has died,
at times in the Bible. And it's always for a Christian,
it's never for an unchristian. When a Christian has died
the Bible uses the word sleep to describe that person, right? One example would be in
1 Thessalonians, when Paul the apostle
is asked, like what about Christians who have died? Did they miss the Resurrection? Did they miss it because
they've already died and and Christ hasn't
come in glory yet, so did they miss out
on the Resurrection because they're dying? And Paul says no, actually,
they're in an enviable state, if anything, because
they didn't just die, they fell asleep in Christ. A Christian who
dies, the Bible just goes, they just fell asleep,
which is pretty awesome. Jesus is the one who
introduced such language when his friend Lazarus, who
believed in him, had died. The disciples were
like, we should go. And at first, Jesus
wasn't urgent at all because he's like, no
it's OK, it's OK, it's OK. Then Lazarus died, but then
Jesus said we should go now, and he's sleeping, and
I'm going to wake him up. And they were confused because
they're like, if he's sleeping, he'll get up on his own. But he says no. This is John
chapter 11, he says, no, we need to go
because our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep
but I'm going to wake him up. And then they were like,
wait if he's just sleeping, there's no big deal. And he goes no, Lazarus is dead. They were just highly
confused because Jesus is switching back and forth
between these metaphors. Why would Jesus call a
Christian who has died as someone who's fallen asleep? He wants us to be able
to see death the way he sees it, as a
temporary arrangement. Y'all how encouraging is it that
it's not the end of the road for him. That he doesn't
see it as terminal, he doesn't see it as fatal,
he doesn't see it as final. Jesus sees someone
who has died as asleep and that's because
it's something that he can overcome
and bring them out of. And what Paul told
the Thessalonians is that every single person whose
a believer in Jesus who dies, is not going to stay dead
forever in physical form, there is a Resurrection. When the trumpet is sounded,
and the angels come down, and Jesus returns in glory. I'm telling you, every single-- ain't no grave going
to hold that body down. Yeah, I'm telling you. We're going to rise. So if anything, if we
would say, wait I know-- I love someone who's
died, I feel bad for them. He goes no, early to
bed, early to rise. The dead in Christ
shall rise first. And so, they're not
missing out on anything. They will have a front row seat
to the physical Resurrection. But you say to me, Levi,
what about in between? If that's what their body is
doing because when you attend a funeral of a
Christian, you can just see that as a seed
going into the ground. A temporary thing. They fall asleep
physically, they will rise. Ultimately, an eternity,
but what about now? What about in between? In between, we can believe that
their true self, their soul, who they are on the
inside, has gone to be with Christ, in
heaven, between now and then. Which Paul said, and here's my
favorite two-word description of heaven, are you ready for it? Far better. To be with Christ,
in spirit form, is far better even than what we
experience here on this earth. And so we can have
a great peace. I know it's still sad
when a loved one dies, but we can have confidence,
and we can have comfort, we can have hope. And this fall, at
Fresh Life Church, I'm going to be preaching
a whole series just on what it does to have
hope in your heart going through challenging,
difficult, even brutal times. So I want us all to be
thinking and praying as we move towards that. Right after Labor Day,
we'll be kicking this off. Who we can reach
out to in life who has suffered some difficulty
or catastrophic loss or is going through
a painful season, who we can in courage to
come with us, and then we can experience this
together because there is such a great power in having
hope going through hard times. Amen. Amen. So those are the first two-- someone who's actually
sleeping, someone who is dead as a believer. The third way that the New
Testament uses the word sleep is to describe somebody who
is not a Christian at all. Their state on the inside
is essentially asleep, meaning they could wake
up to know who God is. They could wake up
to no longer be lost. It's that whole Amazing Grace. I once was lost,
but now I'm found. I once was blind, and now I see. To be blind and to
be lost, the Bible describes such a
person as asleep, meaning they're not
responsive to who God is, but they could be. And that's why Jesus came. Ephesians invites
those who are lost to experience the power of
salvation using this language. It says, therefore he
says, "Wake, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and
Christ will shine on you." This is one of the first
telling of the gospel stories that we find in scripture
as the New Testament began to understand what
had been given with the Resurrection
and the Holy Spirit. It's this opportunity
for people who are lost, people who are dead
on the inside to no longer be sleeping, but to be awake. And then the fourth and
final use of the word-- if you were asleep
but now you're awake is to no longer be going through
the motions as a Christian. For the fourth sense
in which sleep is used as a metaphor in
the New Testament is to describe someone who
has passed from death to life, is a Christian. Maybe you said a prayer
in vacation Bible school in the third grade. Maybe you knelt by
the side of your bed and your mother or father
led you in a prayer to give your heart to Jesus. Maybe you responded
to an invitation like we'll have at the end
of this worship experience. And you did give
your life to Jesus. But as time went on, you
drifted and your passion began to cool somewhat. And now you're asleep at the
wheel of your Christian life. You know Jesus. You're not in any
danger of going to hell, but you're not making
an impact like you could for heaven right here. You've sort of become
a sort of a chameleon, and you blend in
to every situation. You don't really ever stand out. You you've lost a little
bit of the saltiness, like Pastor Tim taught us
that we're meant to have, that impact that
we're meant to have. You're no longer that
peculiar people, that chosen-- you're not living like that. You know Jesus, but
you're not living for him or shining brightly. There's sort of a lukewarmness
to your walk with God, sort of a tepidness. Are you a Christian? For sure. Yeah. But there's not that zeal. There's not that power. There's not that strength
or that vitality. And the tragic
thing about this is that this is I think what the
enemy wants for us the moment we come to know Jesus. If he can't keep you
from getting saved, he wants to keep you from
making the impact so that you're not a threat to
anybody else that he wants to keep under his grasp. So he wants the
church to be asleep and to be full of sleeping
people who are not taking it so seriously, who are
not so crazy enthusiastic and and over the
top about it all. And he would love for you
just to sort of be asleep until you die. And then you'll
wake up and realize what you could have done
while you were still here on the Earth. It is in this sense
that Romans chapter 13, verse 11 uses the sleep
metaphor when it says this, "The hour has come for you
to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer
than when we first believed." What is Paul saying? Paul saying this
life is racing by. And the full final
extent of our salvation will be realized when we
stand before God in heaven. And then you will
look back-- many of us will look back on this time
that we had here and realize, dang it. I missed out on the chance
to help and to heal and to be the hands and feet of Jesus. You can't share your
faith in heaven. You tell someone, do
you know about Jesus? Like, yeah, he's
right over there. He's actually having a Slurpee. Right. Ah, where's a homeless
person in heaven? Not any. They all got mansions. Where someone who
needs comfort-- there's not a single person. Where's the volunteer
firefighter crew in Great Falls that
needs new equipment? Y'all, there's no
wildfires in heaven. This is our time to shine. This is our time to engage. This is our time
to share our faith. This is our time to
stand up and to be willing to be counted as a
follower of Christ, whatever it costs us, however
difficult it might be, whatever we're ridiculed as. I'm telling you,
this is our time. The night is coming. [APPLAUSE] And while it shines, we got to
make-- hey, this is our chance. So let's not be
sleeping at the wheel. Let's not be not
paying attention. The hour has come
for us to wake up. This is your wake up call. Yeah, I get it. Your body wakes up every day. But what does it
take for you each day to wake up your spirit, to wake
up the inner person, to wake up that person that is capable
of receiving power from God so that you can give
it out all day long? I think there's a
lot we can learn from Jacob because of his
masterpiece morning routine he went through the moment
after he encountered God. And arguably, results matter. I mean, scoreboard matters. So let me just tell you-- this
that Jacob put into place, simply put, it worked. It worked. What he did here, the
motions he went through-- I know going through the
motions gets a bad rap, but if it's the right motions,
it can safeguard your future to where you want to go. Jacob put some of
the right motions, the right rhythms
into place here. And as we look at his life
from before this encounter, this morning moment,
to after, he's a completely different person. He even goes by
a different name. Now, Jacob, let's deal with
the elephant in the room. What does it mean? It means cheater. It was a name spoken
over him by his parents, because when he was
born, he was born holding onto the foot
of his brother, Esau. He was one of two. They were twins. And when Esau came out, Jacob
was holding on to his foot. And he hitched a free ride,
like Marty McFly style on the back of the Jeep, right? He hitched a ride
on out of the womb. And everyone was like,
what a little cheater. Little cheater. Dirty little cheater. That was his name. What a name. Thanks, Mom. You know what I'm saying? Thanks. Heel catcher is
what the name means, but it was a picture of what--
he would live up to that name. And a lot of times,
things end up becoming exactly what
we speak over them. So he was called a cheater,
and he lived up to that, always swindling, always
looking to get ahead. And that's how he ended up
in the middle of nowhere on this night, where
he went to sleep with only a rock for a pillow. He had cheated his brother
Esau one too many times. And finally, Esau decided,
I'm going to kill my bro. And everyone's like, ha, ha, ha. His mom was like, actually,
I think he might kill you. You need to get out of here. What do you mean, Mom? Because Jacob was a
smooth skinned man. He was European, all right? So he did not go camping. He did not go on
the hunting trips. He was more comfortable
at Neiman Marcus. This cat did not belong in the
Bob Marshall wilderness, OK? So when all of a sudden,
he's out camping, he's just completely
out of his depth. And he has no one. And he has nothing. And he realizes it's all-- the chickens have all
come home to roost. He made this bed. And now he has to sleep in it. And God, encountered--
he encounters God with all of God's goodness
and all of God's glory. And from that moment
forward, everything changes. In fact, down the road,
as he keeps seeking God and keeps calling on
God's name, and some of these things he keeps putting
into practice in his life, the right motions, day after
day after day, guess what? It makes a big difference
and God continues to reveal himself to Jacob. And one day, God
says, you're no longer going to be called Jacob. You're going to
be called Israel. Israel means governed by God. And it changes when you say,
God, I want you to govern me. I want you to rule
and reign in me. When you say, every day,
not my will be done, but thy will be done. I'm telling you, if you
speak that over yourself, you are governed by God. What good does God
want me to do today? Things begin to change. And where he once was
penniless and broke as a joke, living in the
desert with nobody, as he began to slowly but
surely make good decisions and God-honoring decisions,
God began to bless him. And he got some animals. And the animals grew. And he got more
and more livestock and more and more livestock. And he began to do right
things and good things in honoring God. And he would make
mistakes, all right? Multiple wives--
different sermon. Not a great plan. But as he honored God, he
began to watch God bless him. Now flash forward many
years later in a prayer, Jacob biographically
tells his story. Just in one sentence, he sort
of writes his own biography. And here's what he says to God. He says, "I'm not worthy,"
Genesis 32, verse 10. "I'm not worthy of the
least of all the mercies and of all the truth which
You have shown Your servant," because back then
when I woke up in Luz and changed the name of it
to Bethel, house of God, I had crossed over
with only my staff. He had nothing but
a stick to his name. But now, "I have
become two companies." What was a part of
these two companies? Well, Genesis 30,
verse 43 says this man became exceedingly prosperous. He had large flocks, female
and male servants, and camels, and donkeys. So much, he had to separate
it into two contingents. He became one of the
most successful people in that land, not just
financially, but prospering in every sense of the
word, because there's a lot of people who have
money but not peace. Jacob was being
blessed financially, but mercy and truth were
guarding him on the inside and keeping that prosperity
from turning into idolatry. Now if you would interview
old Jacob or Israel, say, hey, tell us your morning routine. Tell us what you do. What do you do? How'd you get so-- he would laugh because
he would remember who he was before he encountered God. And he knows that you and I
would be looking for like, tell me 10 things I got to do. Can't you give me like
a Grant Cardone book? And I want a 10x jet. And what do I need to do
to hustle and sell or be sold, right? And he would just laugh and
say, it wasn't something I did. It was someone I met. I woke up like this. I went to sleep a sinner. I woke up a saint. I went to sleep alone. I woke up. God was with me. It wasn't something I did. It was someone I encountered. You might say that the foot
catcher met the foot washer. And when that happens,
everything can change. When you're no longer
just trying to get ahead and trying to one up and trying
to put yourself out there and trying to manipulate
circumstances and outcome and you meet Jesus
and you choose to become governed by God
and now you seek to serve, you seek to make
a difference, you seek to do what God
has called you to do, it just changes everything. And that's what
happened to Jacob. He was humbled by the
circumstances of life and by the goodness of God. And you can be too. Four things I see that were a
part of this amazing encounter that changed everything
for him that apply to us as well-- first of all,
Jacob walked away amazed. You should walk
away from your time in scripture, your
time in church amazed if you're doing it right. Amazed because the point
is always to lift up God and always to glorify God. We don't come to church
to be told the next 10 things we need to do so
we can go out that week and do them and feel
really good about it. Wow, look how many
times I prayed and look how many
quiet times I had. And look, I don't smoke or
chew or run with girls who do. I'm amazing. It's like awesome, right? People tend to focus
on the wrong things. Like, well, if I stop smoking,
maybe God will love me more. Someone asked me
one time, Pastor, can I smoke and go to heaven? I said, of course you can. You'll even get there faster. [LAUGHTER] So there's plenty of reasons
to smoke, to not smoke and all of those things. But how God feels
about you should never be at the center of
anything we do for him. Like, if I don't do this,
somehow God in heaven is going to be pleased with me. And Jacob realized
to put religion in terms of what we do
makes it all about us, and that's not
going to amaze you. That's going to exhaust
you and eventually cause you to throw your
hands up in despair. Or you just will sort
of compartmentalize and become a hypocrite
and sort of think, I do these few things
over here, and then it justifies me to do these much
more worse things over there. So that's not what
we're looking for. We're looking for a true God
encounter, which will amaze you because it will always
open your eyes up to see how wonderful he is. The gospel only has
room for one hero. And friend, you are not it. Amen. Genesis 10 is where we get the
language of the gate of heaven. Did you notice how Jacob said,
this is the gate of heaven. This is the gate of heaven. That's language pulled
from Genesis 10, where there's a word that runs
from Genesis to Revelation. And it's sort of an all
encompassing word that describes man's attempts to
fill the hole in his soul apart from God. You know what that word is? Babel. Babel. Babel directly translated
means gate of heaven. You see, God has
always told us what we need to do to fill the
hole inside of our soul. All of us have a
hole in our soul. Doesn't matter how much money
you get, experiences you have. There's always an emptiness. This is why Tom Brady's asked,
which is your favorite Super Bowl ring? You know what he said? The next one, because even
with a whole handful of rings, there's still something
inside trying to-- nothing ever is enough. It's like, oh my God. That high was so great. I will never need heroin
again for the rest of my life. That one high filled the hole. No. There's always going to
be, I need another hit. I need another thing,
sleep with someone else, and more pornography. No, there's always a
sense in which we're trying to fill up that hole. And religion works
the exact same way. That's Genesis 10. They're trying to build a ladder
to heaven, a stairway to heaven at Babel. Let's see if we
can get to heaven using our man-made means. And the materials of choice
change from day to day, from culture to culture,
from person to person. But this one thing does not-- our need for
something transcendent to give us immortality,
to help us to have peace, to help us to overcome our
guilt, to give us a purpose. It is insatiable. And so we turn to Babel. Maybe I can get to
heaven this way. Maybe I can get to
heaven this way. And Jacob lived in a day when
everyone thought, if I do this, if I sacrifice my
child to the gods, if I give this blood
sacrifice, if I do this, maybe God will be
pleased with me. None of it worked. Then he goes to sleep,
not seeking God, doing unethical things, doing
bad things, removed from his family, removed
from everything he ever knew. And he falls asleep a failure. He falls asleep a cheater. And then God says,
you're ready for me. And the heavens open up
and a ladder comes down. And Jacob sees the ladder
with God at the top, inviting him to
participate in heaven, inviting him to participate in
wholeness, inviting him to walk in shalom-- that sense of peace,
that sense of wellness, that sense of promise,
that sense of purpose, that sense of
destiny, that sense of everything I've
ever been looking for. That's what it was. This is, he says, the gate
of heaven, not me getting up. It's God sending
the ladder down. And friends, the
ladder has a name. And his name is Jesus Christ. And he came to this world
2,000 years ago accompanied by angels. And he came down so
that you could go up. He came down so you
could have the hole inside your soul filled. He came down to
give you purpose. He came down to
forgive your sins. And he is not waiting for you
to get a few things in place. He's not waiting for you
to get yourself together. You never need to feel
like, I can't go to church. The roof would fall down on me,
like people tell me sometimes when I invite them to come. I say, look, I get on the
stage 40 weeks out of the year, and it's never
fallen down on me. And I guarantee you, you're
not a worse thinner than I am. But it's not about
how good we are. It's about how good
God is and what he did and sending his son, a
ladder who came down. And that ladder
died on that cross. And that cross has
become a bridge. And through that bridge,
we can get across the chasm so wide that no one can
ever jump across it. And we can be reconnected
to our creator. We can wake up from
the deadness of sins and be all of a sudden-- see the world in
a brand new way, through the lens of salvation
and forgiveness and purpose and mission. And my encouragement to you
is to do something every day as you start your day just to
remind yourself how amazing it is to walk with that
God, how amazing it is that he loves you. And when you read
the Psalms, you see David just basically
being blown away. Oh my gosh. Look at the dolphins. Right? When I see what you've
made, it's amazing. How good is God? That God loves me. I'm amazed. We have to fight to
stay amazed because you can get desensitized. Secondly, Jacob
realized how powerful it is that he got to be included. You and I get to be
included in the story. God didn't say, I'm
going to reach the world, so you please just stand
over there and don't make a mess of anything, right? He said, no, I'm going
to bless the whole world through your seed,
through your family. And so Jacob realized
there was a power not just on God's goodness,
but now an importance on him being a part of it
and participating. And he said, through your
seed, through your family. So you watch Jacob imperfectly
approach being a parent. You watch him imperfectly
approach raising his 12 sons, Reuben and Issachar and Naphtali
and Gad and Simeon and Benjamin and Asher and Levi and Dan and
Joseph and Judah and Zebulun, all these kids. His goal is to pass on the
promises to his children and to include
them in the story. His goal is for them
to know God's plan. Even to his deathbed, he
speaks life and speaks faith and speaks God's goodness
over his future generations through him. And so my goal as
a parent, hopefully your goal as a parent,
your morning routine not just to wake yourself up
and be amazed at that, but to realize my
family's included. And as you spend some time in
quiet or in prayer each day or reflecting in a
journal, what can we do to bring our
family into the story? What can we do to speak
life and to speak faith and to pray over our children,
but also our children's children and to tell
how faithful God has been to our sons and
to our daughters? By far, we are included. We're included in the story. And to rock this city
time, it's time for us as a family to serve. As we give, it's a
chance for our children to participate in the
building of God's kingdom. We're amazed. Secondly, included. Thirdly-- and I love this,
because, at this point, he doesn't even have kids yet. He doesn't even have a wife
yet, but the kids are already a part of the story. So you single people,
now is the time to begin praying
for your children. Now is the time to begin
praying for your grandchildren and to be asking
God to create in you the kind of person to be
a rocking grandfather, a rocking grandmother, a pillar
for your kids to depend on and your grandkids to look
to and aspire to be like. Then thirdly, he gets invested. The last verse we
read is him vowing to God, no matter what resource
you ever put into my hand, for the rest of my life,
10% of it, the first 10%, I'm putting back
into your hands. And here's a-- look, there's
no there's no Moses yet. There's no law yet. There's no
stipulation on tithing that's put into the law. This is a guy who's
been touched by God. And what's his
immediate response? Well, I want to put some
skin in the game here. Why? Whatever your heart has
fallen in love with, passion flies towards. Right. Passion flies--
Resource flies, rather, to what you're passionate about. What I'm trying to say is if you
let us put your Bank of America debit transaction log
on the screen here, all of us would be able to see
what you're passionate about-- hunting or
paddleboards or travel. I like how everyone's like,
oh, jeez, help us all, right? Your Amazon account, right? We would all get-- because you don't
have to-- it's not hard to put resource towards
what you're crazy about. You're like, you
spent that on that? Yeah, but do you
know what it does. And if you're crazy
excited about it, if you're super
obsessed about it, it's going to make sense to you. And your wife will never
understand a $700 fishing pole. She's just not ever
going to understand that. But for you, it's like, no,
but you don't understand. The way it's balanced,
it casts like a dream. The line goes out, because--
you see what I'm saying? Resource going towards
passion makes sense. Jacob's now
passionate about God. So he's like, well,
yeah, of course I want to get some
skin in the game here. I want to get invested
in what I care about. But Jacob, that's going
to be a lot of money when you're super
wealthy one day. He's like, yeah, but I'm
passionate about this. Do you know what
God's done for me? I want other people
to experience this, so I'm going to give
towards the house. I'm going to give
towards the vision. I'm going to give
towards the kingdom. I was telling our
youth at our conference about William Colgate. Anybody here use Colgate
toothbru-- tooth-- tooth-- toothpaste? That's what they call it. [LAUGHTER] It's been a few weeks. I've been out of the game. My bad, all right? How about Crest, right? Eventually, I do hope to see
every hand go up, by the way. [LAUGHTER] It's like, there's
not that many brands. Who uses like some hippy
toothpaste like Tom's, right? Gross. Who makes your
own toothpaste out of like kombucha
and charcoal, right? That's weird, right? That's why we have
mints in the bathroom. Oh. Just for you. The story of William
Colgate building this massive now multibillion
dollar cosmetics empire is pretty fabulous. He's a young man who
had a dream of building a soap company-- that's how it
started out-- in New York City. And he knew Jesus. His Mom had made sure he
was raised in the church. And so he set out. You know, he'd been
taught how to make soap. And he's on the ship heading
towards New York City. And the ship captain
befriended him. Hey, what are you up to? They both soon found out
that they each love Jesus, and they became fast friends. And I was telling
our students how cool it is, because if you
know Jesus, other people who know Jesus, who you have
nothing else in common with, you're now family with them. And it's really an
incredible thing. And so this guy, while
they were on the ship, he was sort of investing
in him and mentoring him. And he said, I'm going to
build this soap company. And here's my dream. I have this recipe
for making soap. And he just said, look. He said, someone
in New York City has to be the number one
manufacturer of soap. And that might as well be you. If it's going to be anybody,
it might as well be you. But make the best product
that you could ever make. Never cut corners
on your product. And then he says,
secondly, if you sell someone a pound of soap,
make sure you always give them a pound of soap. And if it's going to be wrong
on one side or the other, make sure it's more than what
they're buying and not less. Don't ever scrimp. Always be a man of your word. And then he said
the third thing. He said God's going to
begin to bless you if you do these first two things. If you get a reputation for
excellence and integrity, your company is going to grow. There's going to be a
greater demand on your life than you know what to do with. Just remember who gave you
the gift of making soap. Just remember who allows
you to have the ability and the air in your lungs. So any time you ever get
paid, honor God's ownership in your life by taking the first
10% of whatever he hands you and give it back to the kingdom. Well, Colgate took
all that to heart. And he made a great
product, and he always was a man of his word. And every time he
got paid, there was always that little urge
to sort of reinvest everything back into the company. And I'll get around to it later. Right now, I'm just
getting started. I can't be generous right now. But he just remembered
the ship's captain's voice was ringing in his ears. And he took the first
10% and gave it to God. And he found out that as he
gave, God blessed his business. And as he gave, God
continue to bless. And what he soon realized was,
I'm not giving enough away. And so he upped
his giving to 20%. And he was giving 2/10
of everything came away. And God blessed it even more. He was making even more money. And so he opted to
3/10 and then 4/10. Now he was making
so much money, he was able to think
about what passion projects he could give towards. And above and beyond
just his local church, he was helping fund the
translation of the Bible into different languages. Then he fully funded opening
up a Christian college to train ministers
on the East Coast. By the end of his life,
he was giving away 50% of every single dollar
that came into his life. And he said, in his
words, the more I gave, the more successful I became. Or as Jesus put it, seek Ye
first, the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness and
all these other things will be added unto you. And I just want to encourage
you that if you have it in your head that I'm going
to be generous one day or when I'm a
millionaire, then I'll really get to be generous-- I told our students this. You will never be able to
send $100,000 wire transfer or write $100,000
check and give it away if you can't do it with $10. And if you can't be
faithful with 100, if you can't start small, if
it can't start right here-- this is why I love it that Jacob
is-- right, he's penniless. He's got nothing, but he says,
God, if you give me anything, I'm going to give the
10% of it back to you. He didn't say, once
I'm rich, I'll do it. It started small. It got bigger with time. I'm talking about
morning routines. I'm talking my life change. This is the chance-- Jennie and I had come
together in the mornings. We just did it this
last week, we get paid. We ask, how do we give? How do we put first
fruits first when an investment matures when some
unexpected blessing happens? Our first instinct,
our first priority, we've put it into muscle memory. It's routine now. Wake up at 6:02 if you want. That's fine. But I'm just telling you, if
God blesses you with anything and you prioritize heaven and
you prioritize the kingdom, you will have a greater
passion for God. And you will have the
confidence of God's blessing on your resources. [APPLAUSE] There's not an amount you
could ever pay me not to give, because I've met a
lot of people who have told me over the years
they can't afford to die. And I've met no one ever
who's told me that they tied and they're not walking
in God's blessing. I've never met anybody
who has consistently tied and just like, I'm
walking in God's blessing. You cannot give God. So I'm not a smart man, but I'd
rather walk in God's blessings than not be able
to afford to give. Anybody with me? All right, fourthly,
Jacob walked away from this thing dedicated. You just see the
obvious evident sense of a man who's dedicated to God. He even went through a
little symbol to show this. And what did he do once
he put his pillar up? He poured oil on it. You can't unpour oil. When you pour oil out-- he was saying, no, my life
is poured out for you, God. I once had a thing that
I wanted my life to be. And I threw that plan away. New plan, follow God
wherever he takes me. New plan, honor God. He wants to do through
me, I am dedicated. Have you had a moment in time-- I realize many of
you have had a Jesus moment, where you got saved. No longer in hell. Amazing. That's where it starts. But if you had a moment
where you've just said, God, here am I, send me. Want my life to count towards
your kingdom, whatever that looks like. Here am I, God. Send me my life support out. What does it take to get there? Well, you have to
sacrifice comfort. Jacob took his pillow and
turned it into a pillar. And that's, a lot of
times, the separation between where we
are, and maybe what God wants to do through us. There will be things at times
that aren't comfortable, that don't make sense,
because God's weird. I know, I know. It's not like a real
theological way to describe it, but I read the Bible
a bunch of times and I've been a pastor
for a few minutes, and I just have walked
away with this conclusion. God is weird, all right? And I think he's proud of that. I really do. I mean, when he wanted
to take down a giant, he chose a little
boy with a slingshot. Conventional wisdom
says a soldier. A weird person says, let's pick
a cheese-delivering shepherd boy. That'll be great. [LAUGHTER] The foolish things
of this world, right? That's what God loves to use--
the weird things in this world, the peculiar people. You see our calling
brethren-- not many wise, not many strong-- have been chosen. God has chosen the foolish
things of this world. Goes up to the desert to get
someone who has alienated himself from everybody. And that's the guy he's going
to build his nation of Israel through. We need someone to write 13
books of the New Testament and plant churches all
across the Roman Empire. I know. Let's find someone
who hates Jesus. [LAUGHTER] That's weird. Might just work, right? And in your life,
there are things that God wants to do that are
going to amaze the, whole world but they're going to feel weird. You've to put
yourself out there. You're going to have to
quit being a chameleon. And I think what
it's going to take is that sense of pushing that
oil out, taking that comfort and saying, no, no, this
isn't a pillow anymore. This is a pillar. It's a part of the house
of God and so am I. Stephen Ambrose is one
of my favorite authors. He had the chance to interview
Dwight D. Eisenhower at the end of Eisenhower's life. And he asked him this question-- Ambrose wrote one of the
definitive books on D-Day, the Normandy invasions. And he asked Eisenhower who,
out of everybody involved, do you attribute having
played the greatest role? Who in Word War II really and
especially focused on D-Day, who is the person who it
couldn't have happened without? And without skipping a beat,
Eisenhower said Higgins. Higgins. Higgins, he said, is the
man who won the war for us. Ambrose was taken aback. He didn't mention Patton,
Churchill, Roosevelt, Omar Bradley, Douglas MacArthur. He didn't-- I mean, could have
said you're, looking at him? His title in the whole
thing was supreme commander of the Allied forces, right? Who's the most indispensable
person to World War II? Eisenhower's like, cough,
cough, you just met him, right? Higgins, he said. Stephen Ambrose did
some researching, and it turns out this is
who he was talking about. This is Andrew Jackson Higgins. Not even in the
military, by the way. Not a soldier, not a marine. He was a businessman, a
boat builder by trade. He specifically-- since
he lived in New Orleans-- built these boats he
called Eureka votes that solve the problem of how
do you get around in the swamps, get out and do trapping, get
out and do hunting, get out and make moonshine during
Prohibition in the woods. He sold a lot of
boats to moonshiners. These flat bottomed
boats that had encase propellers and
ramps to drop down could beach themselves. Successfully navigating in
as little as a foot of water, and then you could
drop the ramp, get out, do whatever you need
to do in the woods or the bayou. Then you could back out and go
quickly on to the next place. They were just kind of a
passion project of his. He had 100 employees,
a little factory in downtown New Orleans. But this boat-- this Eureka--
boat solved the problem we didn't even realize we had. And that was as D-day
began to be planned, Operation Overlord
has been called one of the most significant
moments in Western history. June 6, 1944, 77 years ago when
150,000 brave soldiers landed on the five beaches
of Normandy-- many of them lost their lives-- to take back France and
eventually wrestle Europe out from the clutches
of Adolf Hitler. But the big problem was, how
do you get 150,000 soldiers from the massive
ships they came on onto the shores of the beach? You certainly can't park
these big ships and big boats on the shore. They require big docks
and all the rest. And you couldn't
unload them quickly. And by the way, this all
happened in six foot, raging seas that morning. But the answer, they realized,
was this little boat-- that this guy had made in
New Orleans could be used to get 36 soldiers at a time. That's exactly what happened. Here's a photo of the
Higgins boat loaded. You've seen this if you've ever
watched Saving Private Ryan. That's what they started
calling it the Higgins boat. This was the perfect vehicle to
get soldiers from the big boats to the beaches, because it could
be loaded with 36 men or 12 men and a Jeep or a small tank. And then, if you look
at this next photo, it would ram up on the beach,
and the ramp would drop down. And the men could rush off. And because it had
an in propeller, even in a foot of water,
it now could safely back out and go back to the ship
and get another batch of men. And on D-Day in the
waters off of Normandy, 1,500 Higgins boats. You can see the. There's-- as far as the eye can
see, look at the next photo. You just see them out
there and just continually just doing resupply
missions all day long. Pretty cool story. What was amazing
about it was to go from one little factory to
building all these boats that were needed, he had to
scale up operations. And that's where
Higgins was a mastermind in process and hiring people. He quickly opened up 8 factories
all around New Orleans. And he went from 100
people to employing well over 20,000 people. Hitler so feared him
he called Higgins, the new NOAA because he was
just creating boats like crazy. Here's a photo inside one
of his assembly plants, where he's building
these Higgins builds. You're going to see them
being built like crazy. The sign in the
back makes me laugh. The guy who relaxes is
helping the axis, right? So don't settle down. Keep going, keep
going, keep going. He was famous for
putting in the bathrooms a photo of Adolf Hitler
with a bubble above his head saying, take it easy. Because even after
Normandy was over, they needed more of these
boats, because the whole Pacific theater needed them
for all the islands off the coast of Philippines
and around Japan, where there were soldiers
who had been basically taking control of these little islands. These boats were used. By the end of World War II,
there were 20,000 Higgins boats in operation, all
because of this one man that Eisenhower said. It's the man who won the
war and the Higgins boat has gone down in history as
the boat that won the war. I also love that Higgins
was the first person in New Orleans and one of
the first in the country to hire a Black person
and hire a white person and pay him the same. To hire a man and hire a
woman, and pay him the same. Now, I'm not trying to
preach him into heaven. He drank a whole
bottle of whiskey a day and cursed worse than an
Irish sailor, all right? But he was a man who Eisenhower
says wasn't in the military, but this is the man
that won the war. Here's my question to you. Jacob, who saw the
Vision of Heaven and realized how
heaven actually works, his instinct was
to be a part of it. Why? Because he realized
he was positioned to be a blessing
to the whole world. In other words, he woke
up to see that God wanted him to be a part of the latter. And my question to you-- just like These
Higgins boats that ran back and forth from
the big ships to the shore, from ship to shore,
from ship to 0. Those boats became a ladder. Will you let God use
your life as a boat? Will you love God
do what Peter did who let Jesus stand on his
boat and push off to sea and preach from the boat to
get the word to the people? Do you realize that
when you Jacob, pour out oil on
top of your pillar. And say, God, you
shall be my God. And today, all this in
front of me wherever I go, whatever I do whoever, I bum
into on the trail whoever. Whoever is serving me food
at the restaurant, who I sit next to. And second period,
come this fall God. God, will you use
my life as a boat. Yes. You got life. You got healing. You got salvation,
and you want to get it to all these people
on the Earth. So I'm not satisfied just
being a Christian myself. Use my Instagram
story as a boat. Use my Facebook page as a boat. Got, here am I-- I am awake to see that I am
participating in the plan. I'm dedicated. And I wonder what
this world could look like if we had a whole
church full of people who said, hey, I got a boat. You got a boat. Let's use our boat. Let's pool our boat let's. Give our resources to
the people far from God, like Colgate, to the ends of the
Earth, could know his goodness. Where does it start? Because, you like,
that's a lot, Levi. Now I have to see my life
as a boat and as a ladder. And the metaphors
all over the place. I need to switch
toothpaste brands. And this is what I
said to our students. Here's where it starts. It's so much more simple
than maybe you think. We saw where David started. Ready? Psalm 5, verse 3. "My voice you shall
hear in the morning. Oh, Lord. In the morning, I
will direct it to you. And I will look up
Fresh Life Church. Let's not let a day go
by that doesn't start with God hearing our voice. Right. Lots of people are going
to hear your voice all day, but it's always going to be
better if the first person you talk to is Jesus. Amen? Father, thank you. Thank you for the
life-changing morning routine of waking our spirits up. We wouldn't want
to talk to someone if we didn't brush our
teeth first or comb our hair first or figure
or what to wear first. So, Father, help
us to not be people who encounter other
people that we're meant to bless with unwashed souls. If you're here today
and you would say, I want to take my pillow
and turn it into a pillar, I want to pour some more oil
out, and dedicate my life to seeing what God
sees, to inviting Jesus to come into my boat. I love that Higgins
wasn't a general. He wasn't a lieutenant
or any soldier at all. He was a businessman. Could you say, God, I want
my business to be your boat? If you are saying that
today, could you just raise up a hand to God. God used me. Used my ability, use my
real estate practice. God you've give me some gifts,
you give me some ability. I want to use it to
make the kingdom bigger. Thank You, Father. Would You bless these? Would You shine
Your love upon them? Would You fill them
with Your Spirit? And tomorrow morning, when
their voice rises up to You with a cup of coffee, with
or without the 57 degree cold plunger, the
Churchill's cigar, I pray You bless them
and meet them there. You can put your hands down. I want to give an invitation out
for anybody who's here today, and you've not yet given
your heart to Jesus. You're still trying to build
your own Tower of Babel. But today's the day
for you to realize that God sent a ladder down. You don't have to
build your way up. He already came down to save
you, died on the cross for you, rose from the dead
triumphantly on your behalf. And now He stands at the
door of your heart waiting to call you out of your casket. If you give Him the word,
He'll come in and make you new, forgive your sins, and give
you the hope of heaven, and participation in the great
mission that is this life. If that's you I'm
describing, I'm going to say a quick prayer. It's going to be
short and sweet and I would love for you to
join with me, saying to God the words that
I'm going to supply you, like giving you a line here. This is your encounter with God. Make this your moment with Him. Say this. Church, say it with us,
no one praying alone. Dear God-- Dear God-- I know that I'm a sinner. I know that I'm a sinner. I'm lost. I'm lost. I'm broken. I'm broken. I can't fix myself. I can't fix myself. But I believe that You can. But I believe that You can. Please come into my heart. Please come into my heart. Make it Your home. Make it Your home. I give my life to You. I give my life to You. Thank You for dying for me. Thank You for dying for me. Thank You for Your Resurrection. Thank You for Your Resurrection. Thank You for new life. Thank You for new life. I give you mine. I give you mine. [AUDIO OUT] Now with heads still bowed
and eyes still closed, I'm going to count to three. And when I get to
three, I'm going to give you a moment in
time to raise up your hand. This is the way of
saying, like Jacob did, how awesome is this place! God is here and I
didn't even know it. When I get to three,
shoot your hand up. You're saying, I've
given my life to Jesus. There's no turning back. I'm going to follow Him. 1, 2, 3, shoot your hands up. Shoot your hands up. Praise God, all
across the church, the church online,
every location. Come on, let's
sing out together. [MUSIC PLAYING] (SINGING) Eden to Zion,
through every dead end, and out of that grave. I don't know how You make
a way, but I know You will. I don't know how You make
a way, but I know You will. Yes! I don't know how You make
a way, but I know You will. Oh, You make good on
every promise from Eden to Zion, through every dead
end, and out of that grave. I don't know how You make
a way, but I know You will. Yeah! Wow. A powerful, powerful
teaching and gathering, and we are so glad to
have Pastor Levi back. And really quick, before you
hop off, don't go anywhere. If you just gave
your life to Jesus, we want to say congratulations,
and super, super important for you to do this. Take out your phone
right now, if you're watching on your phone,
or if you have a device, you can send a text
message to the number 97000 with the words
"fresh life" in it. Or you can go to
freshlife.church. There's a link at the
top that says "Know God." Let us know. Tell somebody about what
God has done in your life. If you're with somebody,
you can tell them. But we'd love it also
if you would tell us because first of all, we want
to congratulate you this week, during the week. Secondly, we want to be
able to resource you. We want to be able
to equip you, as you begin this relationship
with Jesus, with some of the basics
that you're going to need. And, like, Pastor Levi
talked so much about that, just getting up each day and
spending time reading the Bible and in prayer. It's way simpler than we
make it out to be sometimes. And I just love the
practicality of this message, not just for people who
are new to following Jesus, but for all of us. But make sure, if that's you,
that you're telling somebody, you're letting us know. And then I would just
encourage you, keep showing up. Get into a rhythm of being
a part of this gathering every single week. Invite somebody
over to your house and watch it online
with somebody. Community is so important. And so, that's a transition
to community, the importance of being in that community
with other people, having relationships
in your life. I was noticing even somebody in
the chat during this gathering was saying, man, I wish
I had you guys in my life all the time. And I chimed in, I was like,
"Join a Fresh Life group." You can have that all week long. And so you can go to
freshlife.church/groups. You heard Pastor
Levi talk about it. We're looking for people who
are willing to lead groups. You can do that from
anywhere you are. And then also go
through Crash Course. You can find that at
freshlife.church/crashcourse. You can be a part
of the team here. It's more than just
being an online host, although that's great. There are so many
ways that you can be a part of what God is doing. We'd invite you into that. Also, one final
thing, I just loved the way Pastor Levi talked about
honoring God with our gifts, with the things that
He has given to us, the first fruits of all
that God has given us, that incredible
story about Colgate. And then Pastor Levi
saying, ultimately, this comes down to "Seek
first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,
and all these things will be added to you as well." So if you're not
already, back what God is doing through Fresh Life. Get behind that. And I just love the
practicality, like I say, of-- and the easily-- [AUDIO OUT]
