We are going to jump into
the preaching of God's Word. If you have a Bible,
two places today-- I know, it's crazy. Exodus 20 and 1
Corinthians chapter 2. So maybe make your way to
one, throw a finger in there. And then find your
way to the second one. Or if you're on an app, you
can bookmark them pretty easy. We're really glad to have those
of you at church online too. I know we say hello
here and there. But really, thanks
for being with us-- [applause] --and joining in
what's happening here at Fresh Life in
Montana, in Oregon, Utah, and soon to be Wyoming also. We're pretty excited about that. I want to preach a
message to you that I'm calling "In The Rough." Any golfers in the house? That's frustrating--
in the rough. I happen to be with Mark
Twain on this subject. Mark Twain said golf
is a perfectly good way to spoil a good walk. It's a good walk you
had going until you had to stop and start golfing. But I'm not trying to
offend any golfers. But for golfing,
I know this much, when you end up in the rough,
things have gone wrong. It's not going so good when
your ball is off the fair. You want on the fairway. You want it on the green. You don't want it in the rough. You don't want it in the weeds. But with our spirituality,
believe it or not, it's just the opposite. When God is looking at our
worship what He actually wants to see is He wants
to see it in the rough. He wants to see our
worship in the rough. And that's exactly what
we're going to see. We're going to
start in Exodus 20. Basically, what we
have here is God has just given the
10 commandments, these 10 things-- super
important for His people to know and to do perfectly--
impossible list of what He's asking for us. And none of us have kept them. And so He gives us this
chiseled in stone list, like do this or die. Do this or it's all over. And then immediately afterwards,
directly after giving us this list of these commandments--
don't lie, and don't steal, and don't commit adultery, and
don't take my name in vain, and have no other
gods before me-- He had to start
with that one too. Because the moment He starts
with that one, we're all sunk. Because we've all put
things before God. Every one of us have put
something before God. We put ourselves before God. We put money before God. So those people
who make their life about keeping the
10 commandments, He hasn't even got to the second
one, it's already over for you. Because every one of us at the
very outset have already failed and we haven't even heard
the second tablet yet. He gives that and immediately-- I love so much that right after
that list is given-- here's what to do. All you have to do is-- you want to get to heaven? You want to be whole? You want to be forgiven? You want to have eternal life? All you have to do is be
perfect like I'm perfect. So that's living by
the 10 commandments. And fortunately, for us, He
immediately pivots and tells us how to build an altar. He immediately pivots and
tells us how to build an altar. And an altar, if you don't know,
is where sacrifices happen. An altar is a meeting place. An altar is where
those people who haven't completed the 10
commandments perfection list have somewhere to turn to God
in the midst of their failure. And in the Old Testament, you
find a very distinct altar that is eventually
at the Tabernacle. Well there are actually two
of them, an altar of incense and an altar of sacrifice,
which was a brazen altar. And then Solomon would
make this big temple. And his altar would be there. But then all throughout
the Old Testament, you also have individual
altars, personal altars. And this list that He gives
us-- the 10 commandments-- when he follows it, He tells how
to build a personal altar. This is what Abraham did. Abraham would build an altar. He'd pile stones together. You have Jacob. Even when he slept in the
woods with a rock for a pillow, he turned that into an altar. You have Noah immediately after
the flood building an altar. You have Samson's parents
building an altar. And Jesus came down
before Bethlehem and lit the altar on
fire and then ascended to heaven in the smoke. You think your life is weird. You have so many
altars in Scripture-- Gideon making an altar,
David making an altar. And so He's telling us-- well this was Old Testament--
but God telling His people how to build a personal altar. And I love what He tells them. He tells them, basically, He
wants it to be in the rough. He tells them do not
build it out of silver. Do not build it out of gold. Because the temptation
would be then to revere that altar as a shrine. The temptation would be
to revere that altar. Your meeting place with God,
if it becomes too pretty, if it becomes too perfect
it will become a false God. Then you see number
one thing not to do. You're back to that as you're
finding the remedy for it. You're back to that as you're
trying to be fixed from it. And so He's telling them,
don't build it out of gold. Don't build it out of silver. So here's the rule,
keep it simple. That's really the message in
a sentence, keep it simple. Keep it simple. Keep it simple. Keep it simple. He's saying, I want
it to be in the rough. You're like, you
keep saying that. What do you mean? Well notice in verse 24
of Exodus chapter 20-- hopefully you're
there-- he says, "'build me an altar
of the earth'." You don't get more
simple than that. Just pile some dirt together. That'll do. That'll do. "'Altar made of earth-- offer your sacrifices
to me-- burnt offerings, peace offerings,
sheep, goats, your cattle. Build my altar wherever I
cause my name to be remembered, and I'll come to
you and bless you'." Listen, you can
see God anywhere. I love it. Jacob turned his
pillow into an altar. You can turn your
pillow into an altar. There was times when
there were sacrifices, the best people just pour out
oil, people pour out resource. Abraham said, you've
done so much for me. I'm going to give you a tenth
of everything you entrust to me. You can make an altar anywhere. And as you make an
altar to God, He'll bless you wherever you go-- [applause] --coming in and going out. Your life can be-- I love this so much. "'Build my altar. I'll come to you and bless
you'," This message-- I really felt like God was
telling us as a church, not with something we would
build in one of our buildings. Because our buildings
aren't the church. We are the church. I feel like the Holy
Spirit's telling us it's time for us to build an altar. [applause] It's time for us to have
a life of meeting with God and seeking God. And He will come
to us and bless us. But as we build our altar,
we got to keep it simple. He says, verse 25-- this is really the one God
told me to talk about-- "'if you use stones to build
my altar, use only natural, uncut stones'." The King James
says unhewn stones. "'Do not shape the
stones with a tool, for that would make the
altar unfit for holy use. Do not approach my altar
by going up steps'." It's a good thing this isn't the
altar because I had to come up steps to get up here. But this isn't the altar. This is the altar. "'Do not approach my
altar by going up steps. If you do'"-- this is so funny-- "'if you do, someone might look
up under your clothing and see your nakedness'." This was just practical. [laughter] In the Old Testament they
didn't have underwear like we had underwear. They were all wearing
dresses, right? And man, if you're
on a stage a lot, you've got to be
careful what you wear. The worship leaders,
they know that. People will see your nakedness. You got to be mindful
of your clothing. I love how practical God is. OK, now we've read Exodus 20
about this keeping it simple, an altar in the rough-- beautiful. Now I want to show
you a New Testament passage where Paul speaks
to the church of Corinth. This is 1 Corinthians 2. We're just going
to read two verses. He says, "'and I, brethren,
when I came to you, did not come with excellence of
speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to note
anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified'." That's all I got,
Paul was saying. That's all I got. Those are the bullets in my gun. [applause] That's all I got. I didn't have wisdom. I didn't have the
human excellent speech. I just had Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. Now believe it or
not, both passages are saying the exact same thing. What are they saying? They're saying this-- get it. Write it down. Supernatural
effectiveness does not require superficial
embellishment. For there to be power, things
don't have to be perfect. For there to be
power, it doesn't have to be perfectly arranged. That's what was happening
in the Old Testament. When the altar was
built, He was saying, don't get your tools out,
and overwork the stones, and make them all perfect
as you stack them up. He says the big priority isn't
what you do to the altar. It's what happens
on top of the altar. It's not what you're
bringing to the table. It's what I'm going
to bring to the table when I lavish down forgiveness,
and I lavish down my grace. [applause] It's not about your effort. It's about what you're
going to receive from me. When we seek God in our
devotional life, when we come to God in church, when
we give to God, when we serve God, the emphasis isn't, oh,
look how beautiful my rocks are that I've piled up together. It's what happens
when we meet with God. It's what He brings. It's who He is. It's His grace. That's the focus. [applause] It's not about
the embellishment. It's not, look how
ornate my quiet time was. Look how great my altar is. Look how many verses
I've memorized. It's not about these cut stones. God's worshiped on unhewn
stones, raw stones, rough stones piled up together. Because then His
Holy Spirit can come. And that's where the power's at. [applause] I like how Eugene
Peterson put it. He said, "the primary
concern of the spiritual life isn't what we do for God
but what God does for us." But we so quickly forget this. And we stop just piling up
earth, and piling up rocks, and seeking God, and
meeting with God, and trusting that it's our
weakness that caused us to need Him in the first place, and
that He brings the power and He brings the life. And all of a sudden it's
back to being about effort. And it's back to being
about achievement, which is the very reason
the altar was needed. Because we couldn't do
the 10 commandments. And so since we failed
at the 10 commandments. He said, OK, fine. If you're not
perfect, then here. Let me point you to the altar. Let me point you to the cross. And that's, at the end of the
day, what the altar spoke of. The altar pointed
forward to the cross. And it wasn't some
perfectly shiny cross. It wasn't some
beautiful jeweled cross. It wasn't some fancy cross. It was a used cross. It was a second-hand cross. Many people had
died on that cross. And if Jesus hadn't
died on it, Barabbas would've died on it that day. It was streaked with blood. It was dirty. But it did the trick. It was dirty. But it did the work. It was dirty and filthy. [applause] It was pockmarked with nails. But it was what
was on the cross. It was not the
cross that mattered. It was the Son of God who
came to hang on the cross. So again, it's not
the embellishment that's superficially done
that makes it powerful. It's what happens
on the altar, not what the altar is made of
that gives it its power. I felt like I wanted
us to just get back to our roots a little
bit and remember that the power of Christianity
is never the packaging. It's always the person. The power of Christianity
is never the packaging. It's the person. [applause] Christianity isn't a
system, it's a Savior. It's not a religion, it's
us having a relationship with God's son, Jesus Christ. The power is never
in the packaging. It's not about effective speech. It's not about us
having human wisdom, or some clever argument, or
how great our stones are. It's about God coming
down to this earth. It's not about a ritual. It's about the Resurrection. It's about the fact that
He rose from the dead and He's promised us new life. And the moment we lose sight
of that, we lose everything. Because if all we have is the
commandments that we've kept, and how holy we are, and
how many weekends in a row we string together we
don't miss church-- and now we're in small group. And if we did some
things for God-- those are all great things. But the moment it becomes about
that, there's no power in it. It has to be living. It has to be dynamic. It has to be fluid. It can't become static. It can't be in the past. It must be ever-present and
always looking to the future, ever-present and always
looking to the future. It's not what did
He do back then? It's what is He doing right now? It's what is He
doing in your heart? It's when was the last
time you sought Him? [applause] It's are you getting
fresh revelation? And are you going to Him? It's piling up the earth again. It's rebuilding the
fallen places once again. It's seeking God again. It's getting on our knees again. It's asking for
fresh power again. It's having a love for
our fellow man again. It's needing to see
God move today again. It's going back to the cross. It's remembering the empty tomb. It's seeing the stone roll away. It's remembering the angel sat
on it and said, he is not here. He is risen. It's seeing Mary with
her tear-streaked face finding herself at the
feet of the Savior, looking up into His face and
realizing He was not dead. He had risen. And He is coming again with
power, and glory, and honor. [applause] And it's living so that every
breath might make Him famous. I'm telling you it's about
that old rugged cross. [applause] Jot this down. The gospel isn't a ceremony
for halo polishing. It's an emergency
room for life saving. The moment church becomes
us together in worship polishing up our halos,
coming together once again to just exalt in how great we
are, and how much-- the moment it becomes about
that, it's empty. It's lifeless. Because Jesus didn't come
to make bad men good. He came so dead men can live. [applause] And the gospel, it's not
a halo polishing party. It's a life-saving
rescue mission. It's us once again
realizing He needs to give us new life, and
new energy, and new power, and new strength. It's never about us
putting on our Sunday best and feeling
good about ourselves. The moment our prayer
time becomes like that, our relationship with God gets
reduced to what we've done or not done, it
cannot save any more. There has to be
that humility to it. I use the phrase emergency
room because nobody feels proud on their
back on a stretcher. Nobody feels strong when their
clothes have been cut off to make room for IVs,
and catheters, and oxygen meters on the finger. You lie on your back
in the ER helpless. You lie on your back-- I remember one time being
in the emergency room. And I'm struggling to breathe. I'd had a real
bad asthma attack. And I drove myself to
the emergency room. I was blacking out
on the drive there. It was my senior
year of high school. I should have not driven
myself to the hospital. I wasn't thinking clearly. And I remember just
struggling to breathe, and being hooked up, and
just feeling such fear. You don't feel strong. You don't feel power. You don't feel in control. It's humiliating. They're turning you over
so you don't get bedsores in the hospital. Just think about--
and that's the Gospel. We have to remember, the Gospel,
that's not about our strength. It's about our weakness. It's not about what
we can do for God. It's about what God
has done for us. That's the primary concern
of the spiritual life, the Christian life. Not what you do for God,
there's plenty of reason to do lots for God. But it's as a result
of remembering what He's done for you. When you get that
right, it makes you want to do
even more for Him. Not to earn His favor, but
because you have His favor. Because you know that
His righteousness isn't based on you. It got placed on you. The moment you looked
unto Jesus and were saved. [applause] Why no stairs? Why no stairs to your altar? I love it that He
said, when you're building your altar-- because He
knew some people would be like, you know what? God's so good, I'm going to
build me a really tall altar. And then all my neighbors are
going to see me climbing up the stairs to my-- oh, he's
having his quiet time again, climbing up the stairs
to his big old-- He's says they're just going to
look up, and see you, and see that you're naked. [laughter] And pride just
reveals nakedness. The moment we lift ourselves
up, it just reveals nakedness. We lift ourselves up, people
are like, they're naked, they're empty, they're lifeless. Our pride just
reveals our nakedness. Jesus gave us just
this perfect picture of this in Luke chapter 18. "Jesus told this
story to some who had great confidence in
their own righteousness." They had scaffolding to
get to their altars, right? They "scorned everyone else." They looked down on them
with their arrogance. He said, "'two men went
to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee,
and the other was a despised tax
collector"-- for sure going to hell that guy,
works for the IRS. "'The Pharisee stood by himself
and prayed this prayer'"-- look at this-- "'"I thank you God"'." You have to say
it like that, God. It's like nine syllables,
G-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-d-- [laughter] --"'"that I'm not
like other people-- cheaters, sinners,
adulterers"'." The mask is back. Sexy mask is back. This guy's masking hard core. "I'm certainly not like that
tax collector over there." He's saying this out loud to
God about someone else praying. "I fast twice a week. I give you a tenth
of my income." Look how shiny my rocks are. "'But the tax collector stood
at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to
heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest
in sorrow saying, "O God, be merciful to me,
for I am a sinner"'." Just dirt piled together,
pouring out his life over it. Just rocks stacked
one upon each other. They weren't beautiful. They weren't shiny. They hadn't been jeweled. They weren't bedazzled. They were just rocks piled
together for him to say, God, I didn't keep the
10 commandments. God, I'm a failure at your law. I'm a hot mess. I don't even deserve to ask
you for grace, but I do. I ask you for grace. I ask you for help. God, I have nothing, but
I need you for everything. "Jesus said, 'I
tell you the truth, the sinner, not the
Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves
will be humbled'"-- pride reveals nakedness-- "'and those who humble
themselves will be exalted'." You see the moment
we treat the Gospel and we come into church like
it's halo shining party, a halo polishing party,
all that reveals is the fact that we have
nothing where it counts. But those of us who realize that
grace is all about an emergency room, the gospel is all about
a life-saving intervention, we're coming to him
saying, I got nothing. I need you for everything. [applause] That is how we receive help. That is how we receive power. And that is how we receive
grace for the journey. And we can never lose that. It's fine to get started, but as
we've been a believer of Jesus for a while, we
get sick of that. Because we don't
want to keep being in that position
of needing grace. We want to start
figuring out some things and formalizing some things. We want to get
systematic about it. We want to put some
things in place. And then we start
treating other people who are coming in now at the
level of spiritual development we think that we're
at instead of saying it's all about the
grace that got me here. It's going to be the grace
that's going to get you here. It's going to be the grace
that gets us on, and on, and on and on. And the moment-- listen
to me very carefully-- the moment we remove
the rough edges, we remove the effectiveness. The rough edges of the cross are
what we don't like, eventually. The rough edges of
the altars and the way that our relationship
with God is meant to be just crude,
and primal, and guttural, and from the heart
and a prayer like you would pray if you were
drowning, the moment we remove the rough
edges off of that, we've also taken away
the effectiveness. I thought about how
there's a sentence, my favorite sentence
from my book, Swipe Right that I wrote--
my favorite sentence from the entire book-- I spent months
writing this book. My favorite sentence--
I pored over every word. My favorite sentence
isn't in the book. I was horrified. In the editing process,
it got deleted. Because the editor pointed
out to me that I had repeated it like five times
throughout the whole book, that I liked it so much that
I would kind of re-echo it. And she had said, it's
just too many times. It's a great sentence. My goodness gracious,
it's a fantastic sentence. But it's just you have it
in there too many times. And so I went back through and I
agonized over which one to keep and which one to stay. She was right. It was in there too many times. And I read them all. And so I got to thinking
I'm going to have it in a couple of times. But somehow or another in the
edit rounds I lost track of it because so much talking
got about how many times this sentence showed up. And when the book
finally came out, there was no sentence that I
actually loved in there at all. You see, it got tampered
with and so it got removed. It's heartbreaking. But that's what
happens to the Gospel. We get sick of so many themes. Man, this is so repetitive. We're just talking about
grace all the time, and my neediness all the time,
and my emptiness all the time. Can we just tone it
down a little bit? Can we remove some of
the cross's rough edges? Can we polish up a
few of these stones? But the moment we remove
the rough edges, we remove the effectiveness. There is no Christianity
without a bloody Savior. [applause] There is no hope without Him
rising up from the grave. And the moment we forget
about that, the moment we bury that lead, the
moment we stop emphasizing it so much with our every
last breath, that we take the power out of the
message that we proclaim. There is no salvation
without the cross. There is no hope without the
blood of Jesus shed for us. [applause] Christ has died. He has risen. He is coming again. And that's all we got. That's why I'm not coming to
you with excellent speech. I haven't got it all together. I'm a hot mess in
need of God's grace. But this I know, I was
blind but now I see. I don't have it all figured out. I don't understand
the whole Bible. But I know that Christ rose. I know that he's coming back. [applause] I know that He could save you
if you put your faith in Him. Anybody who believes in
Christ will not perish but have everlasting life. Come on, shout about it. All right, jot it down. Number three, your
worship doesn't have to be pretty to be powerful. You know I love that
the rocks that we might feel like,
man, these aren't suited for place in worship. Sometimes we feel like that. We're the rock. We are the rock. And we actually have permission
to compare ourselves to rocks. Because over in the
New Testament, when we get to the cross,
which is the altar that he was talking about in Exodus 20,
what do we find in 1 Peter 2:5? "You also, as living
stones, are being built up a spiritual house,
a holy priesthood"-- look at this, amazing-- "to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." So you are the altar. I am the altar. We don't have to build an altar. We are the altar. And as living stones, we
are stacked up together so that these sacrifices
of our life being spent honoring Him or
worshipping Him, and when we sin, asking for
that forgiveness, confessing to each other
that we might be healed, and living out that life of
being a priesthood, which the Bible teaches the
priesthood of all believers through Jesus Christ. So as we live this
out, sometimes as we come to the
stones of our days, as we come to the
stones of our moods, as we come to the
stones of our hours and our situations
and our mistakes, we feel our stones at
times aren't pretty. It says unfinished
stone, but can I clean that one up a little bit? Can I clean that stone up so
then I can bring it to God? Can I get this a little
bit straightened out? And we feel that way, don't we? We feel like I
can't come to church because I'm not living right. Man, I got drunk again. And I slept with my
girlfriend again. And I did this again. Let me-- let me-- give
me a couple of weeks. Give me a couple of weeks to
sort of sort this stuff out. Then I'll come back to God. No, listen. You got to bring Him
your rock as it is. It's like when you hit
your ball into the rough. [applause] You don't pick the ball up
and bring it to the green. You hit it from where it lies. You hit it from in the rough. God wants you if you
feel like you're dirty, if you feel like
you're unworthy, if you feel like you're
unholy, newsflash, you are. But God isn't. [applause] So right there where you are,
turn that rock into an altar. Put it on top of it. It doesn't have to be pretty. It can be powerful. Because it's not about
superficial embellishment. It's about supernatural
effectiveness. And so when you take
your rock of sin and you turn it into an
altar, you got to turn it over and say this is now an altar. [applause] I feel like I'm in the rough. I feel like I'm
in the rough here. But I'm going to turn my heart
into an altar right here. My rock is muddy. My rock is messed up. My rock is misshapen. I'm embarrassed about this rock. I'm ashamed about this rock. Turn it into an altar. Right there, your
heart, it's an altar. [applause] Turn the rock over. Pour some oil on it. Turn the rock over. Let the blood cover it. Turn the rock over. Let God's Holy Spirit
fall on it once again. Consecrate yourself
to Him afresh. Do it if you have
to do it 10 times. But I fell down, Pastor. I fell on the ground. I'm telling you
if you fall down, worship Him from where you lie. [applause] Worship Him from where you lie. Honor Him right there. You are a living stone. As long as there is
breath in your lungs, there's a hope for a newer,
better, fresher walk with God that's possible as you
turn your eyes to Jesus, look full in His wondrous face. I'm just saying it
doesn't have to be pretty. I think sometimes we wait
till things look pretty. They're never
going to be pretty. We're just works in process. We're on this journey. It's incremental,
not instantaneous. The key is to each day
turn your heart as a living stone into that altar. And let Him write His
Word on your heart. Let Him use His hand to take
the rockiness out of your heart and put in the softness of
flesh as His Spirit will do. And each day, as you keep
letting your heart be consecrated and dedicated
again, and again, and again, it becomes powerful even
though it's not pretty. My brother-in-law beat
me at tennis this week. And he kept apologizing,
not for beating me, for how ugly his serve was. It was ugly. His form was atrocious. Andre Agassi would cringe. John McEnroe would cuss. I mean, it was-- Serena and Venus would just
turn around and walk away. I mean it was just a
tremendously ugly serve. And he kept saying, I'm so
sorry my serve is so ugly. And I finally
stopped him and said, you know, it might be ugly. But it seems to be doing
the trick because it keeps getting past me. And I'm just telling
you it doesn't matter how ugly your worship is. It doesn't matter if you feel
like you're barely hanging on. You could be ugly
crying the whole time. But that life of honoring
God, it's better to win ugly than it is to lose pretty. [applause] I mean, I just
think we just have to realize the prettiness of
our worship isn't the point. The power of a life
consecrated to God, that's what's unstoppable. And that's what we see
here in these unhewn stones that are made into
an altar to honor the Lord. Charles Spurgeon said,
"trembling sinner, away with thy tools. Fall upon thy knees in
humble supplication. And accept the Lord Jesus to
the altar of your atonement, and rest in Him alone." Put away your tools. Quit trying to fix
yourself up to come to God. And come to God so
He can fix you up. Put your tools away. He's a carpenter. Jesus does pretty good
at building stuff. He had 30 years in
Joseph's woodshop. He's the master of all creation. He's the father of all eternity. Put your tools away. Put your tools away. And just bring your mess to Him. And let Him build you. Let Him fix you. [applause] Let Him change you. Let Him who stooped to breathe
life into you in creation, let Him build you back
up again to perfection. All right, one last
thing and then we're going to shut this down. I love the involvement
aspect of this. Because this passage
also tells us this, it tells us that
stones don't have to be uniformly changed,
just patiently arranged. If we're going to use unhewn
stones to build an altar, we don't have to build every
stone to the exact same size. Normally, if you're
a brickmason, you need every brick the same. You need them to
be all identical. But if God wants
us to be built up as an altar of
unhewn stones, that means then that we're
not going to be uniformly changing these things. We're just going to be
arranging them patiently. And that's, in fact, what
God wants in this church. And that's why we put such an
emphasis on finding your place, on figuring out
your personality, on tapping into your gifts. Are you good at [? stone? ?]
Are you good at dance? Are you gifted at
administration? Are you a people person? What is it that makes you, you? What is it that makes you tick? As we figure these
things out, we can all serve God differently. We're not after an audience. We're seeking to build an army. We want to reach the world. We want to go out
into all the world. [applause] We want to keep reaching
out on television and keep reaching out
through the internet and opening up our
Fresh Life locations and growing and loving the city. And we need all the
different gifts. And isn't that what Ephesians
says on the subject? It says, "from whom the whole
body"-- this was Jesus-- "from whom the whole body"-- He's the head-- "from whom the
whole body, joined and knit together by what
every joint supplies, according to the
effective working by which every part does its share." So every stone doesn't need
to be uniformly changed. The goal isn't for me
to become like you. The goal isn't for you to
have the gift that I have. The goal isn't for me to
have your personality. The goal isn't for us to
all be uniformly change so we're all marching lockstep. We're taking off the
mask of being a clone. We're taking off the
mask of being a drone. We're not trying to
be uniformly changed. We're trying to be
patiently arranged. Is this the right fit? Is this the right team? [applause] Is this the right group? Is this the right place? Is this the right grace? We've all been given grace. We've all been given power. And when-- listen. Oh, I love this so much. I got to say it just like
God spoke it to my heart. Our differences make us
dangerous to the darkness. [applause] Our differences make us
dangerous to the darkness. But what we have to do is
stop looking at each other and being jealous of how we
were each given different gifts. But instead look to Him. Come on, you got to
come to the altar. You got to let your
heart be that altar. You got to come to Jesus and
say, what makes me different. And here, whatever
you've given me, I want to honor you with it. Do you receive
this word from God? What an incredible message. Thank you so much for joining
us for this teaching from Fresh Life Church. And if while you were
watching that you felt led to make a decision to
follow Christ, first of all, congratulations. That is the best
decision you can make. And we would love to get you
a 21 day devotional written by Pastor Levi that goes
through the Book of John. And to get that,
all you have to do is text the word FreshLife,
one word, to 99000. Or you can go click the Know
God button on our website, freshlife.church. And we would love
to connect with you. Well if you've been impacted
in any way through the ministry here at Fresh Life, we
would love to hear about it. You can click the Share Your
Story button on our site. Or you can email us at
story@freshlife.church and share how God has
impacted your life. Those stories are so
encouraging for our staff and for our whole church family. And if you'd like
to partner with us financially there's two
ways you can do that. You can either go
to our website, freshlife.church and
click the Give button. Or you can text the word
fresh to the number 45777 and give that way. Well thank you so much
for joining us this week.
