The series is called,
Dawn is Coming. And we're talking about how we
live in the light of sunrise. We live in the
expectation of sunrise. We live always--
no matter how dark it feels-- with the anticipation
and the promise of sunrise coming. I just want to
encourage you right now. No matter how dark it
feels in your life, no matter what you're
going through right now, the promise of scripture
is, sunrise is coming. The promise of scripture
is that it works out in the end for God's people. So if it's not
working out, that just means it's not the end for you. Just hold on. Just hold on. It's always too early to give up
because God is up to something in your-- Am I going to have some help on
a Sunday at 9:00 AM preaching? I'm telling you God is
working in your life. God is working in your story. And I dare you to believe it. 1 Peter, chapter one. Therefore, prepare your minds
for action, Be self-controlled, set you're hopefully
on the grace to be given you when
Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children,
do not conform to the evil desires you had
when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you
as holy, so be holy and all you do. For it is written-- then
he quotes Leviticus. I like that book because
it's Levi-ticus-- be holy because I am holy. Since you call on a father
who judges each man's work impartially, live your
lives as strangers here in reverent fear. What a rhymer you are, Peter. Strangers here in reverent fear. Sorry, I just get
distracted sometimes. It probably doesn't
rhyme in the Greek. For you know-- verse 18-- that it was not with perishable
things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed
from the empty way of life handed down to you
from your forefathers. But what were you redeemed with? The precious blood of Christ, a
lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the
creation of the world, but was revealed in these
last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God,
who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your
faith and hope are in God. Now that you have
purified yourselves by obeying the truth
so that you have sincere love for your brothers,
love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again,
not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through
the living and enduring word of God. And then he quotes
Isaiah when he says, for all men are like
grass, and all their glory is like the flowers
of the field. The grass withers
and the flowers fall, but the word of
the Lord stands forever. And this is the word
that was preached to you. And, Jesus, we pray you breathe
something special, something new, something important,
and something life giving on our hearts as we consider
these words for a few moments. And we pray that our
lives out of this moment would be different because
of what happens here. Our lives out there are like
the flowers, are like the grass. Here for a moment, green for
a moment, bright for a moment, but fall brings the
fading of the colors. Winter brings that
shriveling of the leaves. We know that our best-- at our best we are like
flowers, we are like dust. But we know that we can be
tapped into something eternal and that's your life
in us that never fades. And so help us, God,
to see that what we can't see with the naked
eye is what matters most. And what we can see
that seems so real and seems so pressing
now will soon be gone. So help us to look with the
eye of faith on our lives and to see into eternity. And then help us out
of that perspective to make new sense of
our lives here below. We pray this in Jesus' name. And we all together said, Amen. From these verses, I want
to preach to a message that I'm calling,
Love While You Can. Love while you can. On Peter's mind is growth here. As he transitions
from the first section that we focused on last
week into this new stretch of scripture,
there's a connection. And the connection is evident
because of the word therefore. And my Bible college
teachers taught me some things that I don't
remember, and some things that I do. One of the things
that I'll never forget is one who told me, whenever
you find the word therefore, always stop and ask yourself,
what is it there for? And that's a really
easy rule of thumb. And it's one that you
could just rip off. Because as you read
scripture you're going to find regularly--
especially in the New Testament-- the word therefore. And Paul loves to use it. Peter drops it here and there. You'll see it and James. You'll see an
argument being made, statements being laid out. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. And then there will
be the word therefore, and now he's going to get
to application essentially. Now he's going to tell
you because that's true, here's what to do. I like that. Because that's true, here's
what to do, therefore. So when you find it, circle it. When you find it, underline it. When you find it, highlight it. What has Peter been telling us? He's been telling us how
ridiculously awesome salvation is. Now again, context he's talking
to Christians who are hurting. He's talking to Christians who
are going through dark times. And he knows that they
don't need what they want. What they want is, every
little things going to be OK. Don't worry, God's going
to kiss your boo boos. Right all? That's what they want. What they needed was to
understand something bigger. To understand what
they're a part of. To see a greater context. To see a greater panorama. To see their blessings. To see their calling. To see the bigness of God. What we want is to be talked
off the ledge of quitting. We want coddling. But we don't actually
need coddling. What we need is a
greater calling. What we need is somebody that's
going to stir up our hearts and fill our spines with steel. So they're hurting and he knows
they kind of want coddling. Don't quit, it's good. No trust me, Jesus is good. No, no. Don't call it
quits Christianity. I promise God's good. No, what they needed
is, do you even know how great your salvation is? So that's what they got. They got, people for thousands
of years dreamed of the days that you're living. Oh, my gosh. You can hear the narrator
voice kicking in. It's like a-- a long time
ago in a land far, far away-- they're like, oh, my gosh. I see myself a
part of something. And that's what they received. So line upon line
upon line upon line he stacked these levels of
how great their salvation is, of what it costs God. Of what God wants to do in them. The fact that the angels-- that's what he left off with. He built to a pretty
big dramatic conclusion, the angels are
dreaming to be a part of what you're getting to
experience day in and day out. Then he pivots
with a, therefore. And now he's going
to tell you what to do in light of those
truths that he's given to you. Therefore, he says--
and what follows is-- I've jotted down
four different ways that we can seek to grow in. Four areas that we
can seek to grow in. I was toying with calling
this message, Ready Set Grow. Because that's really what he--
he's like, OK, this is awesome. Ready, set, OK, grow. Here's where to grow. And the four are, number
one, to be mentally strong. Through this, in light
of our great salvation, our aim should be to
grow and in a way that we would become mentally strong. And that's evident from
just the first thing he says in verse 13. You see it there. He says, prepare your
minds for action. Prepare your minds for action. Then he qualifies it,
be self-controlled. If we're to grow
up as believers, if for it to become strong,
we need to be mentally strong. We need to be
strong in our minds. We need to be self-controlled. One translation
puts it this way. Therefore, gird up the
loins of your mind. Now that we need
help with, right? Now again, remember
he's not talking to people who wear blue jeans
and leopard print shirts and crush them like with
a great sense of style. [LAUGHTER] In confidence, obviously, right? The people he was writing
to wore togas and robes and belts and stuff hung down. So all of their garments
were super drapey. So if you needed to run or if
you needed to do manual labor, if you needed to
work with your hands, if you needed to
carry equipment, if you were around things that
could hurt you, what do you do? You get everything
tight, everything arrow. So what would you do? You grab it, you tuck
your robe into your belt, and you'd cinch it down. They called it
girding your loins. It's so gnarly to say
that every single time. You had to gird your loins,
because if you were running-- listen to me-- if you were running
with something drapey be hanging down, what
was it going to do? Trip you up and cause
you to get hurt. It will trip you up
and slow you down if you tried to move forward
fast without girding up your loins. So what is he saying to us? He's saying that mentally
we need to come to a place where we are choosing to
deal with the things that could drag us up. The things that
could trip us up. The things that could
impede our forward progress. You need to gird up the
loins of your mind-- And then the New King James
puts it this way, be sober. Now when we think
of that word sober, we think strictly being not
under the influence of alcohol, which certainly,
if you're drunk, you're not going to be
able to be sober in the way the texts speaking. But the word itself does not
strictly speak of alcohol. What it's talking about
is to be at a place where you have mental clarity. To be at a place
where you're truly-- as the other translation
put it, self-controlled. That you're focused. That you're aware. That you're not fuzzy. That you're not hindered
by your thought processes. So if we're going to follow
Jesus like He wants us to, we need to win the war
with mental health. Now this is a nuanced
conversation then. This component of
following our calling and living out our faith
is one that often times we sort of seem to
think either, is something that should be ignored
altogether in the church. Or is to be completely
spiritualized. As though to follow Jesus
means that if you're truly faithful, if you're
truly honoring him, you're never going to deal
with any of the issues that mental health brings up. Anxiety and depression
and other disorders, which is completely
and totally unfair. Because we give space for every
other difficulty or disability. We would give you-- I took asthma medication
this morning and none of you would go, are you
a real Christian? Why would you take
your asthma medication if you're a real Christian? But someone who
has to pop a pill to deal with a chemical disorder
or disbalance that they're dealing with-- or imbalance
that they're dealing with is somehow treated as less than. Someone who is struggling
with a mental disorder or a mental difficulty is in
no way betraying their faith. Let's just say that
once and for all. If you need help mentally,
if you need something, get the help that you need. And in no way is that
any sort of a betrayal. Listen. Listen. Listen, we don't all have the
same drapey things hanging down as each other. And we need to give each other
the space and the freedom and the support to get the help
that we need in girding up. We don't all start
at the same place when we go to pull up the
drapey things that hang down. For some of us, there are more--
it's going to be more difficult than other. Look, I got activity
induced asthma. And you might
breath fine running. But for you, you might
have an issue with anxiety or a battle with
depression that I don't understand anything about. Now you're all of sudden
huffing and puffing in your mind and for me I don't understand
that, because I've never dealt with that. And I wouldn't begrudge
someone who had cancer from going to getting the help
they need, so why would we treat a mental health
disorder as anything different than that? [APPLAUSE] So what does that mean? That means that if we're
going to fight like Peter says we should fight, we
need to have the space to be mentally strong. Now, maybe that takes
professional help. Maybe it takes medication. But for all of us, it's going to
take intentionality and effort. You will not be
mentally strong even if you don't have some
sort of a specifically definable diagnosable issue. We all need to choose to
fight for mental health. And this means, as we talked
about in the last preaching series we were in,
making sure we're getting the quiet that we need. Making sure we're not
having this stream of technology constantly. The noise of television and
social media incessantly. That we're getting the quiet. That we were getting the space
that we need to hear from God and get back in
touch with ourselves. And not lose our own
souls living in this age that we are in where CNN
can be constantly telling us every single thing that's
happening in the world-- every terrible thing
that's happening. And then when there's
nothing, inventing something just so they have something
to sell commercial space to so they can make us feel
that there's something always urgently happening. The ticker is always running. The ticker is always running. Who tweeted what? What's going on? What shows on now? And all of a sudden-- Let me tell you something. You can invite symptoms of
a disorder you don't even have into your life. And many of us are dealing
with self-induced anxiety. And how ridiculous is that
to not have a condition, but mimic the effects
of that condition. And bring those
things onto ourselves because of our choosing
to live far from the peace that Jesus died for us to have. [APPLAUSE] So are you mentally strong? Are you taking
the time to assess and to diagnose your own
personal state of being? And to check in with
yourself, and to check in with your spouse? And to be accountable
to a community of people who can speak into your life
and ask those tough questions? How are you doing? How are your thoughts lately? Some of us we just keep
the volume up all the time because we don't even want to
be alone with our thoughts. Because we feel like
it's such a scary place and we instantly go dark. So we need to choose the
environmental and behavioral choices that are going
to bring us to a place where we're thriving. And whatever that looks like,
and whatever that needs, that's all great. But we certainly-- now,
we need to also bring in the component
of the Holy Spirit. And what Jesus is going to do. All those things are important. And I think for a long time,
the conversation in the church was all just the spiritual side. Just Jesus. Just pray. Just read that Bible
verse and make the-- that doesn't help
with someone who's dealing with schizophrenia. Let me tell you something. Someone with bipolar
disorder, they can pray all they want and
maybe God will heal them, and I believe he can. But if he doesn't-- and he
doesn't always choose to heal in that way-- there's going to
be needed, perhaps, medical help for your whole
life until Heaven-- when there will be healing, by the way. Because everyone who
is a Jesus follower gets healed eventually. There's no bipolar
disorder in Heaven. There's not going to be
schizophrenia in Heaven. There's not going to be
depression in Heaven. There's not going to be
anxiety attacks in Heaven. There's not going to be
claustrophobia in Heaven, or whatever these
things are that would be triggers for
you of difficulties and disordered as you deal with. But let me just
tell you something. For far too long, it
was taboo to speak about those things in
the church as though they were a betrayal of faith. But I also want to acknowledge,
it can go the other way. That it can go toward that's
the only conversation then. And we completely
forget about what Jesus wants to do in our life. Let me say this to you. You might need-- here's a way
that helps me understand it-- you might need help
getting to ground level, because some of
you may start out chemically or in some other
way below ground level. You might need some help
from medicine and some help from counseling to
get to ground level. But all of us at ground
level need Jesus. All of us at ground
level need him to take us where he wants us all to go. [APPLAUSE] And so we don't exclude the
power of the Holy Spirit, and the blood of Jesus,
and the name of Jesus. Let me tell you something. We overcome by the
blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. And we don't love our
lives to the death. That's how we're
going to see victory. That's how we're going to see
mental clarity and strength. That's how we gird up
the loins of our mind. Now, let me tell you something. We tend to drift
towards disorder. We drift towards decay. We drift towards
being unhealthy. If you don't pay attention
to your diet for a while, you don't find yourself come
to eating carrot sticks. Right? When you drift-- when
you've had a bad eating week-- when you're like, I just
let myself go for a little bit. it wasn't like, what'd you have? Mostly celery. Lots of kale and quinoa. No. It was like, Doritos
taco at Taco Bell. That's what I had. Right? True story this week. Flourish all right? It was, my wife was gone, I
didn't know where she was. She was studying. She preaches only a
couple times a year because I will lose my figure
if she preaches more than that. All right. I kid, mostly. My point is it takes active
work to stay mentally strong. And to keep those-- and what was not
dragging down last week, might be dragging on this week. So it's constantly
assessing, where you at? Where you at? Checking in with your community. Checking in with yourself. Checking in with your family and
the people that care about you. And above all things-- listen to me-- if you
need help get help. If you're hurting,
tell somebody. If you're a Christian and
you're hurting, tell somebody. If you're having scary
thoughts, tell somebody. If you're having thoughts of
harming yourself, tell us. We love you. We need you in this world. We need you alive. God has plans for your life. The devil's come to
destroy, but Jesus has come to bring life
and life abundantly. He loves you. You are loved. You are cared for. You are needed. You got to choose life. You've got to choose hope. You've got to choose
to gird up those loins. You've got to deal
with those demons. You've got to shine that light. You've got to say his name. You've got to call on him. [APPLAUSE] And I'm brokenhearted
dealing with this and believing that
God wants all of us to fight for that strength. All right, so that's the first
component, mentally strong. Secondly, we need to be
realistically hopeful. If we're going to
grow into a place where we're loving
while we can, we need to be
realistically hopeful. Do you see in the text how he
says after prepare your mind, he says, set your hope? So we got to prepare
our minds, but we got to set our hope fully. We got to fully set-- is
you're hope fully set? Then he goes on to talk
about Christ being revealed. Set your hope fully for
the day when grace is given because Christ is revealed. But listen, you have to
do something towards that. So you got to prepare your mind. I can't prepare it for you. Believe me, I'm having
enough hard time preparing my own dang mind. I'll help you. I'll pray for you. But you've got to
prepare your mind. Every day you've
got to prepare mind. I know I'm dumb,
but I'm not done. You've got to keep preparing--
it's why a quiet time of Jesus is so important. Because that day's
crazy is coming, you've got to prepare
your mind for it. Who are you? What's your goal that day? What's your plan? What are you living for? What's your value system? What's your bread supply? Are you going to live
for this world's bread? Are you live for
social media follows? Are you live for bread
that comes from Heaven? Does your applause
come from heaven? When you spend time
alone with Jesus, he tunes your heart
to hear his voice. Then you don't follow the voice
of a fake shepherd that day. Prepare your mind. But then set your hope. And when you set
your hope, you've got to set it realistically. What does that mean? Well, first of all, our
hope is set furthest off into the distance on Heaven. As a believer, that
our base definition. A Christian is someone
headed to Heaven. So no matter how hard
life gets here we had that to look forward to. Agreed? All right. So that's hope, of course. But that's not enough
because we still have this life to reckon with. That's not a love
because we still have crap we've got
to face tomorrow. There's still things
in your life today they're going to be challenging. So we need to have a
realistic hope that doesn't gloss over trials,
but anticipates them and has a plan for them. I was rereading this
week Jim Collins' classic book, Good to Great. And he talks-- if you've read
that book-- about the Stockdale paradox. Vise Admiral James Stockdale
was a prisoner of war during Vietnam for seven years. Four of those years, he spent
in solitary confinement. Two of those years,
he spent in leg irons. And he was savagely
beaten 15 times. But he magnificently came
through that ordeal-- can you imagine, as a leader,
inspiring those around him. And had a lot to say coming
out of that experience. Not jaded by it a bit. And he-- Jim Collins-- says,
said of his fellow comrades who were also prisoners of
war, that naive optimism is what got men killed. Naive optimism. He said there were guys who
would say, we're going get out. And everyone was like, yeah,
we're going to get out. And they would say, by Christmas
I think we're going to be home. And then Christmas would
come, they didn't get out. So they would all go, OK, by
Easter we're going to get out. And then Easter would
come, they didn't get out. And then, guess what. They would say, Thanksgiving
we're going to be home. Can you taste the turkey? We're going to be
home for Thanksgiving. And he says, those guys
eventually gave up hope. Most of them died in the camp. But he, said the
ones who survived-- this is James Stockdale-- the ones who survived
were different. They knew, eventually, we're
getting out, but not yet. Eventually, we're getting out,
but it probably won't be soon. Eventually, we're getting
home, that much we know. But in the meantime, it's
going to be challenging. He says, that-- Jim Collins says, is
the Stockdale paradox. Complete and utter
confidence mixed with an eyes wide open reality. Now, let me quote
James Stockdale. "This is a very
important lesson. You must never
confuse faith that you will prevail in the end-- which you can never
afford to lose-- with the discipline
to confront the most brutal facts of your
current reality, whatever they might be." That could have been ripped
from the pages of first Peter, y'all. He's saying, you've
got to set your hope, it's going to be tough. You've got to set your hope. The grace is coming. The strength is coming,
because Christ is coming. Right now, you're going
to deal with some trials. You're going to be
tried like the gold that goes into the fire. The fire is going to
hurt, but it's going to purify, clarify, and verify. You're going to
come out stronger. You're going to
come up brighter. You're going to come out better. You may not be getting
home for Thanksgiving, but you're coming home. You might not be
coming out of this. And I think that's
the kind of hope we have to set ourselves where
we're not going to be set up for disappointment. As we're each day
setting our hope, we're planning on the
difficulties we know will come. I think to where we
go, God's coming, Heaven is going to be
great, but it's just all going to be good following him. That's just not realistic. That just doesn't bank on
hardship and difficulty that we inevitably
are going to face. So we need to have a
realistic hope set fully on the grace that is
to be given to you. Look at verse 13. The grace to be given to
you when Christ is revealed. Now what is that talking about? It's talking about
Heaven, right? Wrong. Because to be given to you-- I had them underline it. You see it? To be given to you, is a present
participle, not a future tense. So it's on the menu
now is the idea. So there's grace to be
given to you now when Christ is revealed. So it's not just
talking about Christ being revealed in front of
you when he returns in glory. It's Christ being
revealed inside of you as you get formed and
fashioned into his character. And his grace is given to you
to sustain the difficulty, to sustain the
beatings, perhaps. To sustain the
difficulties of the Vietnam prisoner of war camp that at
times, life can feel like. There's grace to be revealed
in you right now as you let Jesus make you more like him
no matter what you're facing. Am I encouraging anybody today? Yes. [APPLAUSE] All right. Thirdly, if we want
to grow, we need to be intentionally formed. Intentionally formed. Formation, spiritually
speaking, is so important that we give thought to it. What are we forming into? What are we becoming like? In verse 14 and 15, in
the passion translation, it says never again shape
your life-- someone say, shape your life. Shape your life. --by the desire
you followed when you didn't know any better. Instead, shape your lives to
become like the Holy One who has called you. Spiritual formation, the
goal of the Christian life is Christ likeness. The goal of the
Christian life is to be holy because He is holy. Now, again, I hesitate
to use that word because holy seems so bad. Holy seems like
holier than thou. Holy seems like religion. Right? Let me just say something. Holy isn't haughty, it's happy. Holy is like God, and
God's not haughty. Holy is like God
and God's not smug. Holy is like God and God's
not holier than thou, even though he is. Holy is happy. Holy is your best interest. Holy is separated from the
things that pull you down and becoming who
you are actually made to be-- the cat you were
made to be, Jennie, right? That's God's plan for you. So spiritual formation is
to become like Jesus which is holy, happy not haughty. But that takes intentionality. It takes intentionality
to be formed in the way that we should be. So what am I trying to say? I'm trying to say, if
you pour concrete it takes the shape of
whatever you pour it into. Pour it on the ground, it
takes the shape of a blob. Poured into a mold, you can
make something beautiful. OK? So what are the forms
you pour your days into? And do you have intentional
forms to make sure that what you're going to get
to at the end of your life is the Christ likeness
that you actually want? What will those forms be? Those forms would be
things like the Sabbath. Those forms would be
things like your devotions. Those forms would be things
like scripture memorization, and prayer, and fasting,
and tithing, and serving, and small groups. Every time you slap one of
those things down, It's a board. Where you're saying
this is a thing for me. I get paid first, and
the best goes to God, I get a day that's the
seventh day, guess what? I'm taking a day to
rest and to worship. Oh, first thing in the morning,
I'm spending time with Jesus. I refuse to be
formed by culture. I refuse to be formed
by my own desires. I don't want to do
what I feel is right, I want to do what is right. I want to do what
He says is right, so I'm going to put
a board in there. I'm going to put
a form in there. I'm going to pour my
days into something that will intentionally
spiritually form me into the place where
I actually want to be, which in the moment, is never
what I feel like I want to be. But that's what God has for us. Verse 15 in the message,
as obedient children, let yourselves be pulled
into a way of life shaped by God's love, a
life energetic and blazing with holiness. Don't you love that? God has a plan for you,
it's to become like Him. And then lastly, and we'll close
here, we want to grow-- ready, set, grow, right-- until a place where we're
reverently ambitious-- reverently ambitious. I like the tension there. Reverent, what does that mean? Full of awe. Full of wonder. When you watch a sunrise. When you stand lingering in
front of a Christmas tree that last moment
for you go to bed. You know? Just kind of reverence you feel. That magic you feel. Watching snow fall
in front of the moon, you feel a sense of awe. That's why reverence. Right? Holiness, awe. Like, take your sandals
off, you're on holy ground. That's reverence, OK? But ambitious
reverence, those two feel like they're
competing with each other. No, I'm saying, the more
reverence you feel for God, the more ambitious you'll
become in what you do for God. Good ambition. Verse 17, he says,
since you call in a father who judges each
man-- wait, hold on a second. Is he your father or a judge? Answers, yes. You call on a father who's
going to judge your work. Oh, hold on a second. Oh, snap. Father or judge? Yes. But that's the tension. That's the beauty. You're going to give
an account for what you do in your
life as a Christian at the award ceremony in heaven. But he's your father, but
he wants to award you. That informs everything,
because my kids, they do so different when
they know there's a ranking. They do so different when
they know there's a scoring. Are we keeping track of this? Yeah. OK, now I'll try. You're going to try to wanted
to find out if you're going to beat your sister or not. Right? You keeping track of-- Dad, look what I did. Look, dad. Look what I drew, dad. Look what I did. Right? Dad-- they want to please me. They want to show me. So they're not afraid
I'm going to not let him sleep in our house
if they didn't do good. So we should be afraid
God's mad at us. We should be excited to show
him what we did with our lives that he bought with his blood. That he's been planning
since before the foundation of the world. You should be filled
with reverence when you know Jesus hung
on the cross to save you. That from before
the world was made, he was dreaming about
how he wanted to use you. And that one day, you're
going to stand before him and get to tell him what
you did with this life that he gave to you. That reverence should
fill you with ambition. God, I want to run this race. I want to fight this fight. I want to reach some people. And where does that leave us? It leaves us wanting
to love while we can. Love while you can,
because all these people you're called to love-- and I wish I had time
to talk to you about how your love's supposed to
grow from selfish love to selfless love. That in the text, he says,
you already love people. But now I want you
to love people. And you're like, that
doesn't make sense. Until you understand the first
word's phileo which means love that is easy. It happens on its own. Bro love. Yeah, man, we're
just best friends. Easy love. Then he says, now that you
already love like that, now phileo the agape love. Phileo to the agape. Agape love is sacrificial love. Agape love is love
that lays down his life for the person it loves. Love is love. He doesn't get anything out of
it, but gives everything to it. He says, you already love,
now I want you to love. You already love, and now
I want you to love in a way that it cost you something. I want you to love
the unlovable. I want you to love those who you
don't have an easy time loving. I want you to love people who
don't do anything for you, don't do anything
to do better you, don't do anything to
help your standing. I want you to love-- I want you to grow in love. I want you to be ambitious with
reverence for how I love you. Because you didn't
do anything for me. You didn't help my standing. You didn't give me any
chart topping success, but I loved you. So you love people easily
who do something for you and are easy to be around. Now I want you to work
hard with ambition at loving the
unlovable in your life. I want you to grow in love
with a sense of ambition. I want to grow in love, because
I've been so well loved. And I want you to
do a while you can. Because all flesh is is grass. This message for me
was born out of regret. I had a quick fleeting impulse
last Sunday to text a friend. Quick fleeting impulse
to text someone. It was the weirdest thing. I saw his tweet he tweeted,
and I felt, I should text him. And I didn't do it. And he took his life this week. And I will not get that back. Love all you can because
all flesh is grass. And the people in our lives
that God calls us to love, we got to love and
we got to love well. Because we never know
what they're facing. And we never know what
they're walking through. Matthew Henry said-- and I'm
going to leave you with this quote-- "You have a journey to
take, a race to run, a warfare to accomplish,
and a great work to do." And I speak that over
you and I believe that to be the calling
that God has for you. Hope his hard and health takes
effort, but this is our moment. So let's get to work. Father, we thank
you for your love. We thank you for the way
it grips us and changes us and gives us the strength
to deal with our regrets, to deal with our hardships to
deal with what we're facing. And for every person
who is here today, I thank you that you
have a plan for them. That you care about
them, that you want to work in their lives
and their difficulties and their pain and in every
circumstance, in every season. Thank you for even in
my particular situation, for the way that you
are seeking to grow in me the responsiveness to your
spirits prodding in my life. And I pray for my
friend who I believe is with you in
heaven, his family. I pray for those loved ones
who are hurting because of it. And I pray for all
those who hearing this message is challenging. As we know, many
in this church have walked through hardship
because of suicide and many are fighting difficult
battles with mental health and loved ones who are. I know in bringing up this
complicated topic, which is so important to do,
there's a lot of baggage that gets dredged up. A lot of difficulty that
gets brought to the surface. And I just pray for you, first
of all, to be enough for us. For us to look to you
as the Bible says, we can look to you in our
faces will be radiant. There's not a single
other person, not a single other thing that
can claim that over us all. That for all of us, we can
look to you in our faces will grow radiant. And yet, that is indeed
the promise of scripture and that is what thousands of
years of history have verified. That there's just something
about the name of Jesus, that he is Christ,
that he is the Lord. So I pray God for healing. I even sense it now,
just a deep work you're trying to
do in our hearts. I want to give those of you
space, even in this worship experience all across our
church and church online. If you're dealing with
a difficulty because of mental health-- maybe
it's anxiety or depression or perhaps someone you love
is fighting that battle, and you're just hurting because
of it-- burdened because of it, could I just ask that
you just raise up a hand all across our church. Just saying, I'm
touched by this. This message has
touched something at a deep place in my heart. And maybe the call
to action is to talk to someone, your campus pastor,
your small group leader. Someone before you leave today. But right now, you just
raising your hand up to say, this is real and
God's speaking to me. Father, I pray you touch these. I don't know all the situations. I don't know all the pain. I don't know all the remorse. I don't know all the
fear, but I know you do. And I know you know the reason
that every hand is raised. And I pray you would flood
in with your mercy and grace. I pray you it would be almost
a feeling like dry ground, and all of a sudden, new rain. A powerful rain. A stormy rain that comes in over
the mountains all of a sudden. Just a downpour of your grace. The smell of rain would
be in our nostrils as we lift our
eyes to the heavens and just feel all of a
sudden soaked by you. Just saturated with
your great love for us. And whether there's a
need for medicine or need for ongoing counseling or help,
God, we pray for wise decisions to be made there. You can put your hands down. But, Father, I
pray for all of us to do what it takes
to be mentally strong. To live out this life
with our identity anchored in who you say we are. And to everyday, re-establish
that and re-establish that and to set our hope. And to cause our
hearts to be once again full of that reverence that
we might once again approach our life with that
ambition to not miss out on any opportunity
you're calling us to. Thank you for your great love. Thank you for your mercy. We receive it, Father. We pray you seal what has
happened in these moments. Not let the enemy
steal the seeds that have been sown, because
your seeds are imperishable. It's not like a seed that
brings a daffodil that's here for a little bit, then gone. What you have planted
in our hearts today is supernatural and eternal. And we want to see it grow into
a powerful harvest, Father. Don't let the enemy snatch
it, but rather, God, take what the enemy has meant
for evil and turn it for good. Take the dark things that we've
faced and turn it for good. God, it's even in my heart. I feel it a sense of a 10-fold-- 100-fold resolve to not
miss your small promptings, to hear your little whispers,
to trust those instincts-- those rumble strip moments, God. The pauses and check. Out of my regret,
God, may you grow that to be a powerful thing
that the enemy would never have sought to mess
with me in that way. I pray that same kind of
resolve for all of us. That where we've
been at our worst and where we've hurt
the worst and where we've walked through
the darkness, we would see that
switch flipped. And we would see
you redemptive plan. We would see that
beautiful arc, God, of what you wanted to
accomplish as we truly believe we live under a rainbow. We live under the colors of your
love, the colors of your grace. But help us to see those truths. Help us to see those
realities so that we might live in light of them. With every head bowed
in every eye closed, if you're here today and
you've never said yes to Jesus, I want to give you a space and
time to make that decision. If you never received
forgiveness of sin, you don't have the
confidence that when you die, you're going to
go to heaven, this is the moment to make that
decision as the Holy Spirit leads you. Maybe you've been
coming for a while and you've put off doing this. Let me just ask
you, why not now? Why not today? You're not promised a tomorrow,
but you have right now. So get right with God. Right there in the
quiet of your own heart. I'm going to pray prayer. And if you're ready to
give your life to Jesus, you could pray with me. Would you say this to him? Church family say it with us. Dear, God, I know I'm a sinner. I can't fix myself, but you can. Come into my heart
and make me new. I give myself to you. Now, with every head
still bowed and eye still closed, if you just prayed that
prayer, all across the church at the 669 Event Center. Those of you in Helena,
and Bozeman, and Jackson, and Portland, Oregon. Those of you at Church Online. Right now I'm going
to count to three, and if you prayed that prayer,
I want you to raise your hand up in the air. Your way of saying, this is
real, I'm nailing this down. This is my decision. One two, three. Shoot your hands up. Shoot your hands up. All across the church. Come on, we're
celebrating with you. We're excited for you.
