KINGDOM LIFESTYLE : Walk In Love

So how's everybody doing this morning? There we go. The past two times it's been like three people. That was five now.

We're getting there. We're getting somewhere. Man, I'm excited to be here. Hopefully y'all are excited as well.

How cool is it to see something like that happen? You know, we're such in a routine that, sorry, I have a little bit of OCD. I'm probably so off. I know, right?

But it's so cool. We get such in a routine and we just, when something's different than what it normally looks like, we get kind of like frazzled. I don't even know where that word came from, but you know what I mean? It just looks different.

So now we're out of routine. Now we get a little uncomfortable, but when Jesus wants to move and you're willing, he'll do it wherever you're at. And that's the cool thing about it. It don't have to be in a church building.

It can be in your car. It can be at work. It can be in the bathroom. It can be wherever you're at.

And I just think it's so cool to get to experience that, be a part of that and just rest in it and allow him to do what he does. So I'm excited. Listen, it's been, it's been, I feel like every time last time it was the microphone. Last week, you just had to be here, I guess, because we couldn't go online.

I guess it was one of those messages that just had to stay in house. But so I'm excited. I'm talking to Phil. I come out of this.

I'm gonna blame it on Fred, but I come out of this and I gotta step over here. And this thing catches my shoe and rips it. I'm like, what in the world is happening? But I'm excited because, you know, anything that comes against us like that, I'm just kidding.

I'm not going super religious on you guys. I just didn't pick my foot up high enough. We were gonna finish that, friends like, do we need to? I'm like, no, we don't need to finish that.

I'm kidding. So I wanna start off today with something that's near and dear to my heart. Go ahead and throw this first slide up there. Boom.

This is the City Reach Ballers, y'all, the senior team. Yeah, give them a hand. All right, rest your hands because you're gonna be giving them another hand. So we just won the conference championship.

Give them another one. Listen, these kids fought so hard all year long. It was a learning a growing experience that was super cool to watch and be a part of. Bob, Big Cat, you know, the men in the men's home, go to the practices and so into these kids lives.

It was just super cool, but they went out and played, y'all, and it was awesome. The other thing about it that's super cool, well, I don't know if it's cool, you might look at it different. Do y'all have areas where you take the new man off and hang it up and then let the old one come out for a minute? So my wife, it's like, yeah, if people are raising their hands, you cannot take her into a gymnasium for a sporting event.

You will look at her like she is not saved. And I mean, she's over there yelling, listen, it got so bad. Fills on the side, like the game's going on, he's like, Evie, Evie. She's yelling at this referee, y'all, I had to apologize at the end of the game.

To come to find out, he's like, no, I was being serious. If she wants to referee, because all I hear is in the midst of the game and then her shout, like come on, you're missing the college, all this stuff. He's like, it's more dramatic than that. But he was like, if you want to referee, give me your number after the game.

She said, I'll give it to you right now. Three, zero, one, she's stuck. Oh man, it was something else, y'all, I'm telling you. Oh man, this is fun, it's gonna be fun today.

She's just passionate, that's not an excuse, but it was good. But yeah, they won and that was super cool. I wanted to share that with y'all. All right, let's go ahead and get into the message.

So we're in a series called Kingdom Lifestyle, Kingdom Lifestyle. And today we're gonna be about, talk about walk in love. And I don't know if you guys, you probably don't remember, but if you're paying attention, I seem to always gravitate towards love. I don't know why, it just draws me in.

And that's what I just want to make sure that we understand the love that he has for us, because that's ultimately what's gonna get us to a place to really set us free, to live our lives in a new way. So with the Kingdom Lifestyle, how many of us know that there's, oh, he just went ahead. He's here too quickly, okay, he's got his hands on his head, he's brought back. So I went and saw Dan Muller yesterday.

Did anyone go out to see him in the past couple of days? Couple of years, cool. Super cool guy, different communication style, but he said something around this that kind of just, I already had it kind of together, but it brought it home and I really liked this. But your motives for being a follower of God will determine the lifestyle that you walk out.

Amen? That's good, isn't it? Because what's your reasoning for following God? It's a real question we have to ask ourselves because if you're following him just to get into heaven, then you've missed the message of the cross.

All right, I knew this was gonna be a little tough. I was sweating and I got my rag today, so I knew this was gonna be a little tough because what I hope you guys get today is that we really have some choices to make, but it's gonna come down to what you're following God for, because if you're following for the right reasons, then you're gonna walk in love because you understand what the cross was really about and it was for us to have life. We sent a spree, he justified us, so we can now give that to others and it's not just about me, me, me, me, me anymore, and it's about all and it's about the body. And I'm so glad that you came today because God's drawing your hearts into the body to gather, to fellowship, to grow, to then go out and really impact things in a bigger way.

So let's go ahead and go down to the next slide, which is to walk. I believe Phil said it last week like this and listen, guys, I do joke a lot. Don't take offense to any of this. I cannot pronounce this and I've listened to it a thousand times.

I think Phil called it a pair of potatoes or something. I can't remember what it was, but we're gonna go with that. But yeah, sorry, I'm not too up the speed on my Greek. I'm getting there.

It says, to make one's way progress, to make do use of opportunities, Hebrew for, to live, to regulate one's life, to conduct oneself, to pass one's life, because listen, this whole thing is for us to progress in our walk. Amen? Because if he gave his life for us, he didn't just give it to us to stay where we were at, right? We have to understand the price that was paid for us.

We have to understand the value of what was done and receive it in that manner. And if we don't, we're never gonna get to a place to want to apply that. So our life now is walking, and we're expressing and showing love to those around us. So that's what this is based also of our walk in a lifestyle.

So the question, one of the questions I have for you today, next slide, what are you walking in? Super quiet, right? Y'all are gonna have to help me today. Because what are you walking in?

There's really just two options. I thought about it. I thought it was hard, and all this stuff was coming up, but really there's only two options. And guess what?

It's rocket science. You're either walking in love, or you're walking out of love. Woo! Man, and that's how hard concept the grass been in.

Right? It really seems that hard, but really it's that simple. God, listen, when we start bringing it back in, going to our work, going to scripture and allowing it, which is truth, to reveal itself to us, and grab a hold of it with our belief and trust and putting it in that, that's when it's gonna take us to a place to where we start walking in these things, and these things start falling away because we understand what matters most, and that is what he did for us. All right.

So let's go ahead into the scripture. So the first, and I guess really my main, my main passage of scripture I'm gonna use here is Ephesians 5, one through two. I was in Ephesians 4 last time talking about the new man, but I wanna talk about today with walking in love what this is really about. Starting in verse one, and this is the new King James Version.

I use the message translation to NIV. I use all of them, so just bear with me. If you have any questions, I always refer you back to Phil. He's sitting right up here, he's bald, he's got some Jordans on.

I'll give you a phone number in his address, he just moved. I'm giving all his business out there. That's how serious I am, it goes his way. So Ephesians 5, one through two says, therefore be imitators, everybody say imitators.

I know someone said it. Someone said, intimidators. No, I'm just kidding. Right?

Be imitators of who? As, as dear, what? And walk in, as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us, and offering in a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma. Ooh, wee.

Smells sweet, right? Unless you don't understand what that is. Then it's super confusing. Go to the next slide for me.

So the love here, agape, or agape. One or the other, am I right? Which one? Agape.

Like I'm going to listen to you all. Y'all don't. You got to leave me wrong. My wife all the time, she speaks in Spanish, and I got to translate to make sure she's really telling me.

Sometimes, because I've said something before, she's like, those two don't go together. I'm like, what? But agape love is affection and goodwill. Love, but leavenance.

I know I messed that up. Brotherly love. Most of all, it's unconditional love. Man, thank God for that, right?

Thank God for unconditional love. Or none of us would be sitting here right now. Man, that's so good. So I want to read the message translation of what I just read, because I feel like it brings a little bit better understanding.

I know they say that it adds some, it takes it twists some words up, but we all do that too. So don't beat me up. Let's, we're just here to learn and to grow and sharpen each other. So the message translation says, watch what God does, and then you do it.

Are we good? You following? All right. Super tough stuff, isn't it?

It is, if you don't read your word. So like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. So guys, listen, the example is super simple, right? I know everyone has had parents at some point in time because you're sitting here.

That's obvious, right? We've had an example, and we've learned things, and we've grown up under things. So a child has to look to their parents to some extent. Why?

You all know we're all in trouble, right? They have to look up to them, yes, for love, for different things because they don't know. But by nature, with that being their parent, that's what they know to do because they don't know any other reason or any other way, right? So with a spirit that's placed inside of us by nature, if we believe and trust God, then we're going to look to His ways.

Because that's what's going to help us get to the way that He created us to be, and that's the only way. So we watch what God does, and then we do it. Like children learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you.

I struggle with that for a minute. I was like, mostly. That like the only thing He does? But it's mostly what God does is love you.

Keep company with Him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious by extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us, but to give everything of Himself to us.

Love like that. Can I get everybody to say, love like that? All right, so now that you've voiced that, we don't have any other reason to act any other way, right? We got the example right in front of us.

No. So the next scripture that I want to go to, because this has it in there as well, is going to be 2 John 1 6 in the NIB version. And it says, and this is, and this is that we, in obedience to His commands, as you have heard from the beginning, His commands that you, man, this stuff is like, it's hard, isn't it? It's hard to understand.

But it's not really. It's really only tough to understand if you're not following Him for the right reasons. If you want to carry out what He's done for us, then you follow what He says and tells us to do. Command us to do.

But again, the command is because we want to. We've heard this. This is just going back over and letting us know what we should already know. As you have heard from the beginning, the only way that you've heard from the beginning is if you've studied, if you've read the scripture, understood what He's done for you and said, yes, I'm following you, because when you realize the need for Him in your life, it creates that desire to want to know more.

So His command, again, here in scripture in John 2, 1, 6 says obedience to His commands. Listen, I'm not making this about, actually, I'm not even going to go there because this is His words. There has to be an obedience and a commitment to these things for your life to change. If you're doing these things and your life's not changing, what's the disconnection here?

And this is how simple this is, guys. It really is that we have to be obedient to the word, but the only way we're going to be obedient to it is to fully understand why we are doing what we are doing. So we're talking about love, and I love, this is probably my favorite scripture in the Bible. Go to the next slide.

1 John 3, 16. It was like, oh, John 3, 16, I know this is 1 John. Get it right. It says in verse 16, this is how we know what love is.

Jesus Christ laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. Can everyone say amen? So this is the Gospel message in a nutshell, right? I know there's all kinds of things out there, and people will tell you all different things, but if you don't study your word and allow God to reveal Himself to you, to allow you to see that right here, why did He come?

When we understand that and what He did, and were to imitate Him, right? Do I got to go back up and that what it said? The imitators of Christ. So if Christ laid His life down, guess what you got to do?

Can we say it a little louder? I don't know if you believe it or not, when you say it. If He laid His life down, what are we to do? Right?

So my heart today for this whole message, and you hear me before we go any further, because I don't want anyone to get this twisted or offended or any of that, that God's we have to understand what was done on the cross. When I get that in my heart and I believe it, and I start to apply this word to my life, it changes things, and my eyes open up that it's so much more than me, and it's about Him, and what He's done, and for people to see that, so they get free, and that we can all now come together and do this thing. That's my whole heart for this message. I'm probably gonna say it a thousand times because I want you to understand the reason that this is on my heart is for us to grasp, that if we don't follow this for the right reasons, we're going it all wrong, and we don't have time to waste out there.

So this is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. And I know it's tough, but the quicker you get rid of excuses of why you can or can't love somebody, and what that looks like, the quicker you're gonna get past all of the nonsense that we're gonna get into here in a minute, and be able to get to your purpose, your calling, and the real reason that you're on this earth, is to carry out the gospel message, which is to love one another. That's a commandment.

That's not a suggestion. You don't get to pick or choose what this is. And again, I'm not here telling you what to do. If you don't have this in your heart and desire and to want to do this, then a lot of what we're doing is foolishness.

Okay. This is why I need to enter a joke so it lightens the load here. I feel like. No.

All right. So we talked about if you're walking, if you're not walking in love, you're walking. Say out. We need to walk it out.

So I'm gonna keep going. Exit stage left. So walk out love. So the scripture that I'm gonna use for this, go to the next slide.

And guys, I'm about to read a good bit here in a minute. I'm nervous, y'all. I don't like to read like a long passage. Stay with me.

I promise I'm going somewhere with this, but. So Romans 14, 15. And this is the NASB 20. It says in verse 15, for if because of food, your brother or sister is hurt, you are, do not destroy with your choice of food, that person for whom Christ died.

So listen, like I said, stay with me. But again, we're to walk in love, but if you're not walking in love, you're walking out of love. And yes, this is talking about food, which I love because I love food. Everybody loves food, right?

Y'all are thinking right now what you're about to eat here in the next half hour. I already know. Cause I'm thinking about that. Amen, Don said.

And we learned, what was it last week, right? That McDonald's is loving it. Burger King's have it your way. So I don't want to get this confused, but this is the same translation of the words is why I'm using it, that all of love in all these verses is agape.

And walking in or out, this is talking about, it's the same word that we're using in pair of potatoes. And we need to understand some of the stuff that we're doing to ourselves that's taken us away from walking in love and is putting us in a place of walking out of love. And if we don't help each other get to the understanding of why we're doing what we're doing, then we're just gonna all be lost. So I'm getting ready to read this whole passage.

And I'm gonna try to go quick. I'm gonna fumble over some words, but please stay with me. I'm gonna break it up some, but I wanna get through this just as quick as you do. So in Romans 14, I'm gonna go ahead and start starting in verse one.

And the message translation. Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don't see things the way you do. I might not even get through this whole, this verse one. Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don't see things the way you do.

And don't jump all over them every time they do or say something you don't agree with. Even when it seems that they are strong on opinions, but weaken their faith department. Remember, they have their own history to deal with, treat them gently. Man, can someone just say amen?

Amen. For instance, a person who has been around for a while might well be convinced that he can eat anything on the table while another with a different background might assume all Christians should be vegetarians and eat accordingly. I promise I'm not making fun of no one. If you believe in and all that, I'm getting to a point.

But since both are guests at Christ's table, wouldn't it be terribly rude if they fell to criticizing what other, if they fail to criticizing what the others ate or didn't eat God? After all, invented, invited them both to the table. Thank you, Jesus. How many of us know that he invited all of us to the table?

All of us. I don't care what you're done. I don't care who you are, who you come from, who your parents are, anything of that nature, what you eat, what you don't eat, any of that stuff, we're all invited to his table. It goes on to say, in verse four, do you have any business crossing people off the guest list or interfering with God's welcome?

If there are corrections to be made or manners to be learned, God can handle that without your help. Oh, I just heard someone's feelings. I know it did. Listen, stay here.

If you do leave, then we'll know that it was where you're at. So it says, or say, one person thinks that some days should be set aside as holy and another thinks that each day is pretty much like any other. There are good reasons either way. So each person is free to follow the convictions of their conscience.

Verse six, what's important in all this is that if you keep a holy day, keep it for God's sake. If you eat meat, eat it to the glory of God. And thank God for prime rib. Someone say amen.

Yeah. If you are a vegetarian, eat vegetables to the glory of God. And thank God for broccoli. My wife knows I love broccoli.

So verse seven, none of us are permitted to insist on our own way in these matters. It's God we are answerable to. All the way from life to death and everything in between. Read this with me out loud, not each other.

Man, that's so good, right? Some of you are losing some of you. Sorry, I'm gonna keep reading. That's why Jesus lived and died and then lived again so that he could be our master across an entire range of life and death and free us from the petty tyrannies of each other.

I know y'all, listen, I don't know what you are getting from this right now. And I'm not trying to, I'm not making a mockery of anything. I am getting to a point here, but are you guys starting to notice something in this? I hope you really are.

You, some of you are shaking your head. Says, so, so where does that leave you when you are criticized, when you criticize a brother? And where does that leave you when you condescend to a sister? I'd say it leaves you looking pretty silly or worse.

Eventually, we're all going to end up kneeling side by side in the place of judgment facing God. Your critical and condescending ways aren't going to improve your position there one bit. That's, it was gonna be quiet. Help me out.

Read it for yourself, since scripture. As I live and breathe, God says, every knee will bow before me. Every tongue will tell the honest truth that I am only, I and only I am God. Amen to that.

Verse 12, so 10 to your knitting. You've got your hands full just taking care of your own life before God. Your hands are full with what? So if your hands are full about your own life, why is everybody else's name coming out of your mouth?

So listen, I'm not trying to be rude here, guys. I'm trying to be serious for a moment. If we are focused on our life and what God is doing in our lives and what our purpose here on life is, and we would stop wasting time about all the nonsense, that would leave us more time and be able to fill it up more with the love of God and walking it to position somebody, to see him and get set free. But guess what that has to be?

That has to be your motive to why you're following God. Because if it's not, you're going to get carried away, tossed, there's so many different scriptures to talk about the tossing back and forth and just you're deceiving yourselves. No one likes to read that. They look at that and they're like, nah, honey.

I ain't going to that. All right, I'm me. I'm just going to do me. So forget about deciding what's right for each other.

Here's what you need to be concerned about, that you don't get in the way of someone else. But aren't you supposed to reach people? Sorry, I don't do a good secondary voice like Fred does. I love Fred's like, oh man, that's so funny.

That's me every time. I don't have a good secondary voice. But here's what you need to be concerned about, that you don't get in the way of someone else making life more difficult than it already is. Guys, we have all been through things.

COVID hit everybody. Some people act like it just affected them. It's like, nah, it's shut down pretty much the whole world. Like, you're the only one that was dealing with some of those things.

Yes, health issues were different. I get all of that stuff. But again, at the end of the day, if we focus more on love and not complaining, then we would be in a lot better place, mentally, physically, all around. I'm convinced, verse 14, Jesus convinced me.

This right here said it all for me. Jesus convinced me. What the cross did convinced me. That's what changed my life.

When I believed in what he did, that he put all of my sins up there with him. And when he died and came back up and justified me, that's what I believe in. That's what I stand on. And that's what gives me the ability to not look left or right and focus on him because he's the one making the way.

So Jesus convinced me that everything as it is in itself is holy. I think y'all need to hear it again. You might have missed it. That everything as it is in itself is holy.

Guess we made it holy. Come on, y'all are answering this. Listen, we should be out here changing this community and lives the way y'all are answering these questions. Because if we really grab ahold of this, man, life's are gonna change.

You're gonna get excited about this. You're gonna understand your purpose and you're gonna put passion behind it. And when you do that, man, things really, it just flows so much better. But he made it holy, not you.

He did. So guess what? If I leave out without an understanding who made it holy, I'm not gonna get very far. Actually, I'm getting nowhere.

I think I'm going somewhere, but I'm just really deceiving myself. Cause he's the one that made it holy. Guys, you don't get to sit here and be like, oh, that's not holy. Jeez, oh, Pete, look at their shoes.

They're not holy. Mine are holy. I rip mine. But say that's not holy.

Like seriously, our eyes and when we look, we look at people for the heart that like through the lens that God does. Like next time you look at somebody, do you go, like, I know everyone does it. I'm guilty, but next time you look at someone, I just challenge you to look at them and say, my God died for them too. Just a split change of your thought of how you look at somebody might change the whole direction of what you're hearing, what God's telling you to do.

Your thoughts, I'm telling you, we're called to do what with our thoughts. Take them captive, right? And I'm telling you guys, the more we walk in love, the more we're gonna hear his voice, the more we're gonna react and respond to his voice to do the things he's calling us to do. But if we're walking out of love, we're not hearing any of that.

We're actually hearing what she said. But seriously though, because we can tell ourselves a lot of different things and we can get comfortable. And when we get comfortable, and everybody knows that in the middle of all that, when I'm comfortable and I'm serving self and not serving him, then nothing's happening. And I don't know about y'all, but I'm tired of sitting in a place of nothingness and I wanna get to a place of being filled with joy, being filled with peace, giving the strength, giving the guidance, allowing to hear his voice to push me, to pray for people so they can see him, so they can get set free.

And the only way we do that is by continue to focus on who he is and what he's done. So I was in verse 14, right? By the way, we treat it. Okay, I'm convinced, Jesus convinced me that everything as it is in itself is holy.

We of course, here we go, this is a good one. We of course, by the way, we treat it or talk about it can contaminate it. Okay, yeah, I don't know, those men and girls are doing it for me. Like I don't think you're fully grasping this guys.

By the way we treat it or talk about it can contaminate it. Can somebody say amen, please? Can someone shout and say thank you God? Thank you God.

Because God is again, the way that we treat it has everything to do with how much belief we put into it. If I don't fully believe and trust in all of this stuff, I'm not gonna treat it very well. Because the things you really don't care about, you don't, man, I know where this is going. I'm about to tell myself y'all.

So I just bought a car, right? Fred always talks about it. I think it's all these pitches. I see what he was doing.

He was like, and a car sales training seminar the past that other week. So I got my car and I've watched, I've only had this thing like a week guys. I've vacuumed it three times. It's brand new.

I've watched it like four times. And I swear the birds are just like, it's blue. Hit that car, it's a target. I don't get it.

But Evie gets in and she's like, yeah, still waiting on mine. I'm like, huh? She's like, yeah, it's funny how when it's yours, you treat it better than you do when it's not yours. And I was just like, oh man, she's right.

I'm like treating this thing. Like, I'm not that I treated hers back. To be fair, everything, she's like, kids aren't eating here. It looks like a buffet exploded in there.

Yes, it does. But I want to get back to my point. I want to get too far off. When it's yours and you believe in it and you see the value in it, you treat it better and you're careful with it, you want to do right by it.

So if this doesn't mean something to me guys, we don't treat it that way. The way we talk about it, there's no authenticity behind it. There's no genuineness to it because if you try to tell something you don't even believe, how the world are you gonna think they're gonna believe it? I mean, we have to really get into this and start believing the things that we're saying.

Because if not, we're just contaminating it and we're making it harder for people to see why he did what he really did. All right, that's quite. All right, go to the next platform, bro. Appreciate you.

Verse 15, this is the verse that I was getting to earlier in the other bed. It says, if you confuse others by making a big issue over what they eat or do not eat, you are no longer a companion with them in you no longer a companion with them in love, are you? And if we're not, then where does that leave us at? There's someone said it, thank you.

Super, it's a good job, thank you. She gave me a thumbs up. This is that easy. I know guys, don't give me all your excitement at once.

I don't think I can hold it back. How awesome is it to know though that this is how simple this stuff. We are given drawn out instructions of what to do and not to do. And if we do those things in love and with a genuine heart that all this stuff just keeps us for us.

Man, I'm excited. I don't know. But we have to grasp that it's because of love. And if I'm not in love, I really got to start taking some inventory of my life of what I'm doing and what my motives are to figure out why my life isn't growing and maturing Christ and he's allowing me to see new things.

It's probably because I'm giving myself off to some secondary things that are blocking the vision for the purpose of what he has for my life. Okay, some people are not in their heads. Don't you dare let a piece of, I laugh so hard when I was reading this. You're no longer comparing a companion with them in love, are you?

These remember are persons for whom Christ died. Would you risk sending them to hell over? That isn't what I was going to laugh about. That them to hell over an item in their diet.

What I love about what this did though, that's how petty we are guys. When our focus isn't on the main mission and loving people, that's how petty we can get. You're eating that? What?

Yeah, you're doing that. Okay, nice. You're fasting, and then we do this. I go, you wash your face.

You know what I mean? We do all these things that we focus on that has nothing to do with what the real mission is. And we're wasting time. And we're wasting opportunities.

Oh, God, we're wasting opportunities to show the love that has been given to us, to people that are struggling to see it. And we have the ability to show by applying the love to our life, to walking in it. See, some people are just comfortable enough walking around it. Okay, I must say it again, I'll break down a little bit of what I'm saying.

Some people are okay with having somebody in their life that they look up to, that they're like, oh man, the love's like radiant from them. That they're just cool. It's like, oh, if I just get a little piece of it, I'm going to hang over here and walk with them, right? Maybe try to tie a rope and you can drive me when I can't drag myself.

But the reality of this is that that's okay, but if you're not progressing in life, grabbing a hold of truth and applying it to your life, reading the word so you can then get into the place of flowing and walking in it because that's what he wants for you. All right, we'll get excited to start running down the strip here that we talked about. So verse 16, this is why I laughed about it. It was just funny how they put it.

Don't you dare let a piece of God bless the food become an occasion of soul poisoning. Man, that's so good. God's kingdom isn't a matter of what you put in your stomach for goodness sake. It's what God does with your life as he sets it right, puts it together and completes it with joy.

Somebody all need to hear that today. I feel like you're letting your joy just fly out the window because you're not putting your faith in the right place. So now you're struggling to find the joy, the peace, to all this stuff that he puts together because you're not positioned in yourself in front of him asking him, he's the one that gives it. I want us to get to a place church that we are, we are self-standing here going to him knowing that he's the one that gives it.

Pastors are great. Everybody we need people, God uses people. But more than anything, when you position yourself in front of him, that's when things start to change because he's the one that gives it. Says, it's what God does, hey, that's what Jesus does.

It's what God does with your life as he sets it right, puts it together and completes it with joy. Thank you, God. Next slide, 18. Your task is to single-mindedly serve Christ.

Do not listen if you're married right now. Do not look through your spouse or look through the right or left of you and start not just kidding. Everyone's like, your task is to single-mindedly serve Christ. Guys, I don't care what you're doing, what circumstance, situation, anything that you're up against.

We have spouses, we have leaders, we have all these things. But at the end of the day, guess what you're accountable for? The way you respond to situations. And if you are walking in love and you're single-mindedly connected to serving Christ, that's going to change everything for you.

Your marriage, everything. I don't want to go off on a rabbit hole. Do that and you'll kill two birds with one stone, pleasing the God above you and proving your work to the people around you. Now, I don't want that to get blown out of proportion either of being the message translation of, you got to prove your work to the people around you.

What this is, is when you serve Christ, that automatically happens. That's what it's saying. It's a double-lammy, is what they call that. That that just happens, right?

So here's the cool thing about that though. When that starts to happen, guess what that does? Anybody? This is open, this is open, I don't know what you call it, but this is open for feedback.

When you do that and you start proving and showing that you're serving Christ, your life was here, it's starting to look different. What does that do now? Gives you hope, but then guess what it does? It gives other people hope.

This is what this is about. Again, this is so much more. All right, stay with me, guys. Uh, 19.

So let's agree to use all our energy and getting along with each other. Help others with encouraging words. Come on, don't drag them down by finding fault. You're certainly not going to permit an argument over what is served or not served at supper to wreck God's work among you, are you?

I've done that a thousand times. I said it before and I'll say it again. All food is good, but it can be turned bad if you use it badly. If you use it to trip others and send them sparring.

I didn't think anyone was gonna respond to that. We'll just skate by that one. We'll skate by that, guys, listen. I do hope that you're grasping this, because this is super good.

It's gonna help us get to where we're going. 21 says, when you sit down to a meal, your primary concern should not be to feed your own face, but to share the life of Jesus. Isn't that good? So that is gonna check out, that's gonna check you on where your heart's really at.

Cause I know my wife more than anything, you guys have heard this. And it's time to eat. She's like in and between switching to like the incredible Hulk, the incredible Evie, baby Hulk, whatever you wanna say. So that's why you gotta toss her a Snickers to get her back down to, not just give it.

Your primary concern should not be to feed your own face, but to share the life of Jesus. In everything that we do, we look for the opportunity, because of what he's done for us, to share that with somebody else. No matter what it is, we're always looking for that opportunity for somebody else, cause that's what it does for you, because again, you guys, grasp what we grasp. He did it for us.

That's why by nature, we learned through him to do it for others. Cultivate your own relationship with God. Oh, I'm sorry, I skipped a little piece. It says, so be sensitive and courteous to the others who are eating.

Don't eat or say or do things that might interfere with the free exchange of love. Cultivate your own relationship with God, but don't impose it on others. I'll keep going. You want me to stop?

I'm not. You are fortunate if your behavior and your belief are coherent. Guys, this hit me. If y'all don't wanna be honest, I'll be honest with y'all.

This is what we've been trying to really talk about and get that our lifestyle as a believer, right? Our behavior. A lot of us have this mindset because if it doesn't go our way or if we're not comfortable with it, then we act a certain way and we just brush it off because that's who we are. Or, you know, unheard things have happened to me in the past.

You don't understand that. Nobody knows where I'm coming from. So you didn't walk in my shoes. So you don't get to tell me.

And I have people, I've told I love them. They're like, you don't know me. Okay? I'll have to know you to love you, right?

But again, when we don't want, because when we don't want to check our behavior of how we are walking, what we are examining, what we are imitators of, then we're following ourselves. Because he says, the imitators of Christ, that means do what he's doing, follow what he's doing. Guess what he didn't do? Act crazy like we do.

And then just chalk it up as like, oh yeah, there's grace. What? We're good. We don't have to worry about all that.

But there's no true genuine effort to change because we're not putting the trust in him. We're not putting our belief in him. So therefore, we're not walking in love. A lot of us think we are, but in reality, we're really not.

So when we come across things that challenges how we think, what's the biggest thing as humans we do? We reject what we don't understand. It's like instantly. We just, we'd rather reject it because we don't understand it.

But when we're being faced with things and it's challenging us, are you open and willing to receive and step in to what he's ultimately calling to? All right. You're, okay. This is the last verse.

Everyone say amen, right? Finally got through it. I was worried about it. I think I'm all right.

But if you are not sure, here are this guys. If you were falling asleep, if you're not now, listen, I don't, don't worry about me. You gotta worry about the big man upstairs. Not offending me, but pay attention to this if you missed anything.

But if you are not sure, if you notice that you are acting in ways inconsistent, can someone say that with me? With what you believe, acting in ways inconsistent with what you believe, some days trying to impose your opinions on others, don't throw your shoes at me. Other days just trying to please them, then you know that you are out of line. I feel like I gotta read it back when I'm getting nervous.

This is where I'm gonna have to say. I feel like I got a shield here. I'm gonna pull up and start blocking. If you notice that you are acting in ways inconsistent with what you believe, some days trying to impose your opinions on others, other days trying to please them, then you know that you are out of line.

If the way you live isn't consistent with what you believe, then it's wrong. Ah, everyone's heart, pick your hearts up. It's all right guys. Now listen, out of all seriousness, I didn't come here today to make you feel like you're not living life right, that you're not, you know, you're so far gone.

If some of this is touching your heart, please understand that this is to help get to a place because we're talking about Kingdom lifestyle here. We're talking about our walk. We're talking about a progression that should be happening in our lives as believers as we study the Word of God because it transforms us and carries us on and continues to grow and fill us, right? It's a continuous feeling.

It's continuous growing. So we have to get through some of these challenging things that again, I'm not telling you what you're doing. If this is you, it says, but if you are not sure, I don't want anyone to walk out of here not sure today. I want to stand here and tell you, I may not know you personally, but I love you, that God has a plan and purpose for your life and that only through understanding the cross will you really truly find the love that you need to walk in that's gonna set you free, that's gonna give opportunities to allow people to see Christ in your life, which is gonna in return position to get an opportunity to change their life.

And I just hope that you guys do hear my heart that if this is you and you're being challenged in this, that you have an opportunity. You have an opportunity today to put your focus away from you and everything that's going on around you and to put it on him to get back to the place to walking in love and go to the next slide. I put down here, don't get caught up in secondary matters because again, this is a lot of the stuff in our everyday life that's drawing us away from walking and what God has us for. And whatever you walk in is what you're leaving behind.

And I guess I put that in a sense of, I don't know why we have a thousand dollars and I feel like you can't walk in out in our yard without stepping in a bomb. But if I step in that and I go to walk forward, every step I take is leaving a trail of that behind. Now in your life, I want you to realize that if you're not walking in obedience to his commands and your life isn't growing and changing and you're wanting to see him and know what he has really has for you and how much he loves you, if you're not doing that, it says, I didn't say it, y'all, scripture did. You're gonna go somewhere going back, but yeah, that was a message translation.

But listen, here's what I do now, that the Word of God, and when you share it, it does the work. The Holy Spirit inside of you is working and it is filling you up. It is bringing you to the understanding that God has more for you if you will choose him over anything else. So whatever you walk in is what you're leaving behind.

Next slide, this is my last scripture y'all. I know there's been a lot. And I got one more question after this, but Mark 1045, this is what the Son of Man has done. He came to serve, not to be served, and then to give away his life and exchange for many who are held hostage.

So again, I ask you guys, what are you walking in? And what are you imitating? Because that's what he came to do. And the last slide here is the last question of the day for you to leave with.

This was brought to my attention and I love this so much. Do you want to live for what he paid for? I want you to really look at that guys and ask yourself because receiving him and following him and saying that he's the Lord of your life is understanding that you are answering yes to this question, that you want to live with what he paid for. And he paid a high price for your life.

If you were the only one living, he would have died for you.