Move to One: Vision Sunday

Today's message is really personal for me over 20 years ago. God flipped my life on its head in the best way. I was running hard away from church and God, and I was looking for pleasure. I was looking for fulfillment.

I was looking for purpose and meaning in my life. And I found it at first. And some of you know what that's like. I found it for a little while.

But then after a time, I was more broken and more lost and more lonely than ever in my life. And I got so desperate that I came to church. And I came to church by myself. And maybe some of you that's you today.

And God prays God for you. The other courage to obey the Holy Spirit of God that was tugging you to say come to church even if it was by yourself. And that was me 20 years ago. And I showed up to a church.

And I heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I heard it in the context of the grand narrative of Scripture. And it was the hope and the purpose and the meaning and the salvation that I desperately needed. And it changed my life from the inside out.

Listen, I'd love to tell you that in that moment, like the trajectory of my relationships changed, my patterns changed, my thought life changed. But the reality is it didn't. Like I was still pretty jacked up. And I just kept coming back to church.

And here's the reality. I came back for probably six months to a year and no one talked to me. No one pursued me. And I was kind of still alone.

But I was studying the Word of God, inspired by the Spirit of God. And looking at the Son of God. But I didn't really have the people of God. And I was still kind of struggling with sin, just cycles of it in and out and thought life that just about the hopelessness of our world and all those things.

And it was just continuing to come back. If that's you, be encouraged today. I continued to come back. And eventually some people like Gail Wyatt and Michael Dennis and Marshall Peterson and older man and younger man and a guy my age.

At different points in time, they came around this jacked up guy. And as I continually tried to give them the Heisman and stiff arm them, they just continued to pursue me with the grace of truth and truth of Jesus Christ. And some of them I went through the book of Galatians with. And some of them I just had dinner with their family.

And some of them we read a book called Grace Awakening, A Loud Word by Word. And that is what broke the cycles of sin in my life. That is what broke honestly some demonic strongholds in my mind. That is why I'm a pastor today.

That is why I'm a father and a husband who is imperfect, but who's been moved by the perfect love of Jesus. It wasn't just enough for me to have the Word of God and the Spirit of God and the Son of God. I needed the people of God. And that's not just unique to your jacked up broken pastor.

You know, we're all created that way. Genesis two, before sin, pre, fall. Do you know what God says? It is not good for man to be alone.

You are not meant to do this life alone. I don't care how many seminary degrees you have. I don't care how much you know about God's Word and how much you dominate people in Bible trivia. I don't care if you look like you got your life together.

And maybe you got some respectable sins, you know, like pride and gossip. But you're pretty cleaned up. You don't have like the despicable ones, like lust and lying and all those things. And you kind of show up to church and you look like you got your act together.

I don't care who you are or where you've been or what you've done, you were designed for relationship like that. And I am too. And it didn't just stop when I was like 20 years ago and a jacked up college student. And now I've graduated because I'm a pastor.

I still need this. Do you know what? Like this season of my life, it's really interesting. My wife and I were talking about this.

It's one of the most immensely joyful seasons of my entire life. My wife and I are married 19 years. And we still love each other. And yeah, we, Jaya and I, we go on dates together.

And our kids are like, why you always got to do stuff without us? I'm like, this is the best way I compare you. It's to love my wife. And by the way, pro tip for parents, go on to date with your spouse.

OK? And we're loving life together. It's not perfect, but we're loving life. We're loving life with our kids.

We hang out with them too. But we're in a season where all of our kids are in an age where we can go to Disneyland and go there from open to close. And nobody wants. As like a taste of heaven, people.

And we're in a season with our church. And not just because it's going bigger. We're updating with our worship center. But because I actually like y'all.

Y'all are fun to hang out with and fun to pastor. Like, I'm in this season of immense joy. But I'm also in this season of intense pain. It's a couple months ago.

I lost my father. And it has been one of the most sorrowful seasons of my life. Simultaneously, it's been one of the most celebratory seasons of my life. And it's been both at once.

And do you know what's got me through? The Word of God, and the Spirit of God, and the Son of God with the people of God. And people like Nyan and Alberto, who sent me voice texts, audible prayers as I was losing my father. That I played over my father.

I played over myself. People like Marshall Peterson, that guy from college, we're still in an intentional relationship. And he came all the way to Phoenix from Sugar Land, Texas. And we were like, where is that?

Who knows? But he found an airport. And he got on a plane. And he was like, I want to be with you.

And all these joys, but in all these lows. And I want to lock arms with you. And he prayed over me. He prayed over my kids.

And if you're a parent, don't even take time for me. Can you pray blessing over my kids? Can you speak truth over my kids in the midst of the lies that they're experiencing? And he did that.

And that's what sustains even your pastor. And listen, this is what I want for you. This is what I want for our church. Some great things are happening in our church.

Now I'm excited to go back in the worship center. But I have zero interest in playing the game of church and going through the motions. I have zero interest in a big crowd, feeling a room. I have every interest though, and every passion, and every commitment to you to fill a city with disciples of Jesus Christ, who are locked arms together, saying, let's go into this dark world and be the light of Christ, because light lights up darkness and the darkness has to flee.

And of all the bad things we see in our world, and all the abortion and racism and ill will and polarization and debates and just people struggling with their mental health, that's darkness. And you and I have the light of Jesus Christ. And if we lock arms together, instead of trying to do this thing alone, the darkness will dissipate. And your neighbor's life will be changed.

We're gonna see some people celebrate. They've been baptized today. And not just they're in water, but they're in the holy spirit of God, in almost every one of their stories at 9 a.m. And it will be the case at 1030.

Somebody else, grab them. They locked arms with a real person. And they pointed them to the person of Jesus Christ. And it broke chains of addiction, people.

This is what happens. And this is what move to one is about. This initiative, this vision, this ideas. Hey, what if every single person in our church experienced these type of relationships centered on Jesus, they were intentional, that were accountable, that were vulnerable?

And what would happen, not just in our church, but I just think about what would happen in the city of Phoenix, if all of us didn't just play church, but we experienced discipleship in Jesus name. So that's the idea. And you need to know, we didn't come up with it. All right, we didn't get creative.

I know it's a creative graphic, right? Move to one. And this bracelet, it looks awesome. It feels great.

I love it, guys. But we didn't come up with this idea. You know who did? Always the right answer.

Jesus Christ, right? Jesus Christ, Matthew 28, you can turn there if you want. We'll put it up on the screen. Matthew 28, 19 through 20, Jesus said this, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

I'm just gonna preach this briefly. I want you to look at those three phrases, make disciples, baptizing and observe. That word, disciple, we did a whole series on, called disciple a few weeks ago, go watch that on YouTube, go listen to that. But essentially what we said is this, a disciple is someone who follows Jesus.

Like if there's a line of people in line to follow Jesus and his ways and his truth and his grace, but they're actively doing it, they're not just taking in information, they have a relationship with Jesus. They're learning, that's what disciple means literally a learner, but they're learning to live like Jesus. And you and I are called to grow as disciples of Jesus. But as Jesus says, we're called to make disciples of all nations that as you learn to live like Jesus, that you bring other people along in word and indeed and see them follow and learn to live like Jesus as well.

We're called to make disciples. Listen, this is the mission of God. This is the mission, by the way, if you're church shopping, we have a lot of new people at our church every single Sunday. This should be, the church you go to, this should be their mission.

Now they can come up with cute language and I'm gonna share you hours and they can alliterate it and everything like that. But if it doesn't stem from the great commission, then we're doing it wrong. This is our mission. This will never change, you need to hear that.

We will never stop making disciples of all nations. This is the mission of the church, this is the mission of Jesus. This is the mission of Phoenix Bible Church. We pray and early on as we started the church 11 years ago, okay God, what does that look like here in central Phoenix?

What does that look like in the heart of Phoenix? What does that look like with us and kind of how we're wired? And we just said it this way, that it means love moves. And that's what that banner is that we have, the study of love moves that we wanna love Jesus, learn to live like him and lead others to him.

That's how it takes shape at Phoenix Bible Church. And so like Jesus talks about in this passage, as we become a disciple, we get baptized. You see that we have people go in the water, come out of the water, praise God, and commit to follow Jesus Christ for the rest of their life. There's some people who are gonna do that again, this service.

Amen, praise God for that. But you need to know that's not the end, that's not the finish line, that's the starting line. Then we don't just get baptized, come out of some semi-cold water and say, man, I got my ticket punched to heaven, like I'm good, I'm gonna go watch football now, I don't know, I gotta go play games, I don't know what I'm gonna fill my time with, I'm good, I'm going to heaven when I die, I'm good. And that's exactly the opposite.

That's why Jesus says, make disciples, baptize them, but then teach them. And if you look at the text, he says, teach them to observe or obey all that I've commanded. He doesn't just say teach them knowledge, like get filled up and get puffed up. He says, teach them to observe, to obey.

Another we can say it is to move, to look at the commands of God, to look at the life of Jesus and start to take steps with them, to walk in step, as scripture says, with the spirit of God. That's why it uses all that intentional language. It's something you move towards, it's something you take action with. And this is our mission, and the way we say it at Phoenix Bible Church is this mission, it leads us down three movements.

We say it here at Phoenix Bible Church, their devotion, community, and mission. That if we are to live out this mission, here's three primary lanes we wanna drive in as a church. You may hear things like, hey, get connected. You heard it this morning, Tony did a great job.

You may hear things like, hey, get involved. Hey, church is not a conference that we attend 52 times a year. It's a community you participate in. And we say it lots of different ways, but really what we're wanting for each one of you is in some capacity to move in these three ways.

Devotion, community, mission. Devotion that you would start and get baptized. That is the starting line for every believer. And if you haven't been baptized, we'll do another baptism Sunday next Sunday.

We'll do four in a row, amen? We'll baptize people every single Sunday if we need to. Because that's where it starts publicly declaring. You should've heard this service this morning.

Each person publicly declaring their faith in Jesus Christ amidst tears. One of them today was their very first Sunday in the Phoenix Bible Church. And he just realized, got you invaded my life. And I didn't preach a regular sermon, but he got the cross and he got the resurrection.

And he knew he needed Jesus. And he got in the water, be baptized. What are you waiting for? But doesn't stop there.

That devotion continues. It continues as you come to what is called the Church of Jesus Christ. As you experience the manifold wisdom of God. As you experience Jesus building his church in the gates of hell, not prevailing against it.

That's what you're part of today. That's not just another service or gathering. It's not just religious venue. This is the Church of Jesus Christ.

And that you would start to prioritize that in your life. You need to know, we've tried to make this throughout history as simple as possible. You know, Sunday mornings, every single Sunday, at the same time, you know, church happens. You know, there's some other things in my life, like we got three kids and they're involved in all sorts of activities.

And their schedules change every week. It's a nightmare as a parent. Right, because we have to readjust and build our schedules. Church is the same time every week.

Did you know you can build a rhythm in your life? Around nine and 10, 30, every single single year. We finished about an hour, hour and 15, depending on if AC is preaching or me. Like if you can rely upon it.

You can come to church. You can watch online. If you miss, we love you. I used to build those rhythms in your life, but you don't just let them stop with church.

You see those things spill over into your week. There's 168 hours in your week. One of them is church on a Sunday. What are you doing with the other 167?

Here's what I know you're doing. You're reading and hearing the lies of our culture and the lies of the enemy. Are you reading and leaning into the Word of God? Are you experiencing Sabbath rest?

Are you experiencing relying upon the spirit community, with other believers fasting and prayer? Do you have the spiritual rhythms that you're practicing? This is how we see mission take place and through our church. It's prioritizing these things.

And I would just submit to you, if you haven't prioritized these things, stop here, recalibrate your schedule and start to experience the goodness of God through his mission, through his church. And start to switch some things around in your schedule during the week and on Sundays so you can experience that. That's how discipleship happens. It happens in devotion.

It happens in community. And that's that second movement. The idea is right now you're in rows and we love that and we think there's a powerful thing that takes place. When people of all ages, ethnicities, personalities, when you sing together.

If you have golden tones like Mariah Carey and you sing in the shower, God bless you. There's something different when you sing in this room. Amen? There's something different when I hear on the front row, when I hear people crying out to God, even if they can't sing, it is edifying to this brother.

I start singing. When I see like Marco, Sesanjara singing and belting it out and raising his hands on the front row, I'm like, I want some of what he got. Now, caffeine, but also the Holy Spirit, amen? And it's just, there's nothing, I can sing in the shower and I love it.

I can curate my playlist. And that just so you know, that doesn't always happen from brain-known Sundays. Sometimes I'm like, I would've done this song, but okay, right? But I don't care, it's powerful because the people of God and power of the Spirit of God are glorifying God together.

When we sing, as we get under God's word together, you start to see how it applies to different people, ages and stages and it's powerful. And yet we don't stop in these rows. We leave this place and move into circles. We leave this place and lock arms for the mission of God, for us that's called groups and classes and studies, men's and women's studies on Wednesday nights, classes that are happening right now at 1030, that are happening right before this at 9 a.m.

And men, you should go to one of these classes and even just try that or try Wednesday night. What you have is really significant. You have people from all different backgrounds, sexually, ethnically, spiritually. I got into some of these classes, I know some of the people, demographically.

And they get together and they study God's word. One of them right now is studying the Gospel of John while we study first John. All the people came to church, heard first John and now they're studying the Gospel of John and they're seeing how the Bible fits together. One of them is a new class that started just several weeks ago on the story of scripture.

And I love it, they have young and old couples and young pros and they also had somebody who would say they were a Jehovah's Witness, which is not Christianity by the way, but they stumbled into our church and they said, I want to learn the Bible. And they went to a class called the story of scripture. And it changed their life and they were like, I want to come back every single week. And then you have people that have been doing this for 40 years and they just love them packing the Bible.

And you have those people crossing over. Do you think we learned some things when that happens? Do you think that changes things when we're in that movement of community? And then we have mission to serve on a team, to go on a mission trip across the globe to serve our city as we have multiple opportunities to do that every single month at Phoenix Bible Church.

And it starts with, for many people, just serving on a team. We say once a month for six months, just try something, whether it's host team, whether it's our coffee team, kids team, worship team, production team. Did you know those little donut holes that are out there, like in the little baskets, did you know we don't have a donut fairy? You know that?

You know we have people that get here early morning and they take the donut holes and they put them in the baskets and present them to you. And did you know, like that matters. Some of you are like, you don't want me to be on the host team. Like I do not like people.

And listen, I don't want you to be on the host team then. I don't want you to be in the front door of our church. But you can put donut holes in a basket and rub shoulders with other believers in your life of a disciple. And it matters, you know how significant it is?

My daughter who's 10 years old, every single week she talks to me about the donuts. She's debating me as like dad, but also pastor and like submitting her complaints. You guys think you have complaints from me? Talk to my 10 year old daughter.

She's like dad, we need to go back to the full size donuts. And I've written a three-point explanation of why. You know, at least we should come in half. And I'm like, OK, OK, we can get into that a little bit.

But I'm just like, you know what? These donuts do kind of matter because you know what they show? We expect people to come here. And we expect some of them for it to be their first time.

And some of them, that's going to be a little bit intimidating. But if you fry bread with sugar in the name of heaven, it helps people feel a bit more comfortable and prepares them to hear my message on Sunday. Right? It all matters, serving on a team.

PBC Kids, we say all the time, this is not babysitting. This is making little disciples. Tony's up here. She was our kids director.

And if you're wondering, like, we still have safe kids and volunteers over there. It's OK. She has other volunteers, like 100 of them. You should join them.

Who don't just babysit kids. I love this last night. I was at a Halloween party with some people in our church and some people that don't go to our church. And I was talking with this lady who does go to our church around honestly, some people who don't.

And she could not stop talking about PBC. And what she was talking about was not my preaching her brain's worship. What she was talking about was she was serving this morning at 9am in Kids Ministry for the very first time with her daughter, Melina. And she was like, I'm just so excited that we get to invade this space together.

I get to show my daughter it's not all about you, because our kids need to hear that, amen? And there's these other little kids that you can invest in. Like, you don't have a junior varsity Holy Spirit. Like, my daughter, you can start investing.

You can start making disciples. And she was so excited to do that. Did you know that continues to happen in PBC youth? My oldest daughter, 16 years old now.

And she's got like dad as pastor, like, who can disciple her? And I've got degrees. But you know what's changed my daughter's life? Katie and Parker and Amy, who are a little bit ahead of her, who served in kids, who served in youth.

And they said, hey, you're a pastor's kid. You're probably more jacked up than ever. Because you got this guy, like, but man, I'm going to come alongside you in the midst of all the lives of our culture that my daughter is facing and still faces. She's got these other girls.

And they don't seem crazy like their dad, like her dad. And they're like, sending her Bible verses. And they're like praying over her. And they're talking about the lives of our culture that will fail and will fade, but that the word of God abides forever.

And it's sharper than any two-edged sword. And you cling to this. And it's changed her life. And it's changing her life.

Because somebody said, hey, I'll sign up to serve in youth. I'll make little disciples and kids ministries. We experienced the mission of God as disciples of Jesus. And he's making disciples.

Please do not just do something in our church to grow through the motions. Please do not hear us saying, just get connected. Just come. No, that's not prophets.

There's tons of things for you to do. What I'm inviting you into is sign up for the thing. So you can be a part of the eternal mission of God, the great commission to make disciples of all nations. This changes everything.

And that's what move to one is all about. Move to one is this unique expression that we want to lean into. That's really a subset of all of this. That we want you to experience this.

And so how do we want you to experience? I'm going to get a little nuts and bolts on you just because I want to make sure you know. Grab this form that you got when you walked in. Would you grab it and just hold it up if you got it?

Let me know you got it. A lot of you guys got this. You can scan it for more digitally inclined. You can scan this QR code on the screen.

It'll pop up as well and go online and fill all of this out as well. But if you look at it, it explains what we're going to talk about, which is move to one discipleship relationships. How we define those? We simply define those.

You can look at the sheet with me. Intentional, vulnerable, accountable, missional relationships. Intentional relationships focused on abiding in Jesus. Vulnerable, we can experience immense joys, but also intense pain and do that together, locked arms together, accountable.

When you are having a hard time coming to church, when you are having a hard time reading the Bible, praying, discipling your kids, you can have other people in your life who can spur you on and do that with you. Many of us, every January, we think about working out. And some of us, we pay money and join a gym. And how many of you know?

Like if you try it six times by yourself and it's all about you and you're looking at in and out burgers versus lifting weights, you're going to choose the in and out. But if you have a coach, if you have a trainer, if you have a workout partner, we should come, put that down. Let's go work out and it helps you stay focused. It helps you stay on track.

It's the same way in your spiritual life. You need to be accountable to other people. Missional to serve on the team, to serve the city and say, hey, the funnest part about doing church and serving other people and going on mission trips is the people and locking arms together. And we want you to experience that in what we call the discipleship relationship.

On the back side of the form, you'll see there's some information for you to fill out. The birth date is really key, not because we want to shame you for your age. We just want to know the demographics of our church. We want to help kind of pair you with people who may be in different ages and stages.

Maybe they're the same ages. We're going to try to help navigate that with you as a staff. But what team you serve on, what group or class you might be. And if you're in none of those things, just your interest.

Art, music, games, sports, exercise, outdoors, cardinals, for whatever reason. Whatever floats your boat, you would write that down and we're going to help you participate in this as a staff. We'll follow if you turn this in, if you turn it in online. We're going to follow up with you and help you try to facilitate these relationships in your life.

And we're going to give you something called seven marks booklet that I'm really proud of based on the seven marks of a disciple that our mission, that our movements, are meant to produce. They're meant to make you more like Jesus, not be programs or curriculums. And we believe there's seven principles that we sort of see in the New Testament in the life of Jesus, like biblical framework, like gospel identity, like missional engagement that will you'll start to see in your life if you're following Jesus. You'll start to become more like Jesus in those ways.

And this booklet is where you could start in this intentional, missional, vulnerable, accountable relationship. You could just say, hey, let's grab coffee. And let's go through this. It's just a tool for relationship.

The ideal way to use this is by the end of the seven weeks, you're looking at the two other people you meet with, the one other person that you meet with. And you're like, you know, I feel like I'm really weak in this area of generous stewardship. I'm not super generous. I don't even understand why we're supposed to be.

And at the end of the seven weeks, you'd start on a journey to do that together. Maybe one of you strong there. Maybe you're both weak there. We'll have a discipleship resource center.

When we do have a finished worship center, where we have all sorts of curriculum and resources for you to grab next in that discipleship journey. And then we have really the linchpin to this whole thing, a bracelet, because how could you launch an initiative without a cool bracelet like this? We're gonna give those to you on your way out. You can just grab one on your way out.

The books are $7. Just really to cover our costs. I mean, just I just need to tell you this, like seven marks of a disciple, the book costs $7 because our cost is $7. Seven is the perfect number of heaven.

Look at God, come on somebody, right? How is this happening? But just you know, you can give a donation, $7, $10, whatever you wanna do. Grab one of these booklets, grab one of the forms, grab a bracelet.

But here's what I'm telling you. I want you to do that, understandably. I believe that that that tool could get you in a relationship that could change your life forever. And yet here's what I know.

The reason many of us are not in those relationships right now is not because you didn't have a form. It's not because you didn't have a booklet. Although I think it's an awesome booklet. It's not because you didn't have a bracelet.

Like it's not like, okay, I have all that to him now. It's like, done, like problems solved, our whole church is experiencing discipleship. I doubt that's gonna happen. I think the reason you and I are not experiencing discipleship relationships as Jesus intended is because of the lie of the enemy.

So I was thinking about this the other day, Genesis three, you know, Satan shows up, Satan's our adversary. He's trying to get us, kill us, destroy us, steal from us from the very inception. And I just thought about why didn't he show up with a sword? You ever think about that?

Why didn't he show up with explosives, with machine guts, and just take everybody out? We showed up with lies. Can you really trust God? Are you really who he says you are?

And Satan knew that he can kill us for a lifetime, for generations like that. And the people I talk to in our church that have been around church for 50 years or this is their first Sunday, and I pitched this idea to them, do you know what they tell me? I don't know enough. I mean, people really knew me.

I mean, if I got vulnerable with some people, like I don't think, yo, let me in here. I think if I got vulnerable with God, like lightning which right displaced him, like I, you know what people tell me is like, Tim, I'm too busy and you just want me to add this to my list. And I would say lie, lie, lie. This is not an addition to your list.

If you feel busy today and right now, you've already like, I'm not gonna fill out a form. Do you know how important I am? Do you know how busy I am? My job and how busy I'm with my kids activities?

Listen, this is the thing that you were, this is the great commission from Jesus Christ. It is a lie of the enemy that you don't have time for this and have time for everything else and scrolling nine hours a day. That is a lie. This is meant to be intertwined in relationship that you do life with one another.

You do all your kids activities, but you do it with other people. You do work, but you're intentionally focused on the gospel and discipleship. It's a lie that you don't know enough. It's a lie that if people really knew you, God already knows you and he died for you.

And we're meant to reflect that with one another. Amen, that's what makes Church so amazing. It's a lie. And that's why, just briefly, I'm not gonna preach the whole sermon.

Everybody calm down, okay. Just briefly, I just wanna, we're in this series. I'm first known too, but God's providence. Man, he speaks to this.

Look at the text with me. I'm just gonna read it briefly. He speaks to this whole idea of our identity, not your activity. Discipleship is rooted in your identity in Christ.

And when we don't experience it, it's because of the lies and distortions around our identity. Catch this with me. First John, chapter two, verse 12, he says, I'm writing to you little children. Your sins are forgiven for his namesake.

I'm writing to you fathers because you know him who is from the beginning. I'm writing to you young men because you have overcome the evil one. I'm writing to you children because you know the father. I write to you fathers because you know him who is from the beginning.

I write to you young men because you were strong in the word of God abides and you and you have overcome the evil one. If you pay attention to all of that in that text, what's interesting is you'll notice these are no instructions. These are all affirmations around your identity in Christ. Now there's fathers, there's young men and there's children, scholars will debate.

Is that bio age or is that spiritual stage? And a lot of scholars come to the reality. It eventually, it doesn't really matter a whole lot because these are truths that are true about every single one of you. If you know Jesus, if you know Jesus, you know the father.

You know the one who is from the beginning. If you know Jesus, you have overcome the evil one. If you know Jesus, you are forgiven for his namesake and you have a perfect father in heaven. That's what John just got through saying.

And he's just giving you affirmations. He's talking about your identity, not your activity. Why? Because where the enemy will dig at you the most is not about what you do, it's who you are.

And he will convince you that what you do becomes who you are. And if you're doing a great job, you'll be self-righteous. If you're failing, you'll be full of shame. And the enemy wants you to go from one extreme to the other swinging on that pendulum and never get this, never give your life away to people or to God because you think you're too busy or you think you don't know enough or can't do enough.

And so John says, hey, you know where discipleship is rooted? Not in your activity, it's in your identity. The young men, you have overcome the evil one. And again, maybe you're an actual young man and you're like, man, I need to hear that today.

And that's why John gives that targeted encouragement. But maybe that's all of us. You need to be reminded, in this world you will have trouble but take heart, I have overcoments. Because the reality is some of you later today, you're gonna experience evil and you're like, I don't know that we've overcome it, Tim.

I don't know, Tuesday night, like I feel some evil in my own heart, in my own mind. And you need to be reminded that you have overcome in Christ. See, Colossians says, through the death of Jesus Christ, he disarmed all rulers and authorities, the evil one. That even if you still see evil in the world and we do, amen, we still see evil in the world, that it's like an evil dictator that you were under, you had to obey, you had to submit to.

And Jesus, Colossians says, he disarmed that ruler. You're no longer under his authority. You're under the authority of Jesus Christ. And so that evil dictator, like today, there's evil dictators in the world, they still exist, there's still is manipulative ever, as ever, there's still evil, but you're not under them anymore.

You don't have to obey them. You don't have to commit that sin. You don't have to experience that lie. You don't have to let it dominate you anymore because Jesus has overcome the evil one.

He says, you are forgiven for his namesake. That's in the perfect tense grammar students. That means a completed action in the past that has implications for you today. That the sin in your life, it says you're disqualified from experiencing disciple super relationships, from being known in the church, from other people really digging into your life.

Jesus says you're forgiven, and you know a perfect father because of a completed action in the past that has implications for today. That's who you are. And then he finishes it up, and the whole text is really wrapped with this idea that we're all children, that we know a father, because scholars will say, okay, maybe it's bio age, maybe it's spiritual age, but over and over, John, as he writes the book of 1 John, says children, children, children, all of us. If you're a father, if you're a mother, ultimately, you're a child of God, and you have a perfect heavenly father.

And this is what I believe is the key to unlock all of what we're talking about. This is, I think, the truth that would break the lie of, all that we're talking, it keeps us from one another. It keeps us from God as we do not understand this truth. So John proclaims it over us.

Few weeks ago, I was watching a documentary on John Candy, so we know the great comedian of old who died really at a young age. And honestly, my wife and I were watching it because we liked it, John Candy, and we liked Uncle Buck, and Home Alone, and we're like, let's laugh a little bit, watch John Candy, right? And man, we got into that really quick, and it was not a little after. And you realize John Candy lost his father when he was five years old, and eventually a lot of the alcohol and other things, substances and food, and everything that ultimately killed him was the result of father wounds that he never really dealt with.

And I mentioned, you know, my dad died a couple months ago, and I don't know if you can relate to this if you lost somebody. Like, things like this just find you. I was trying to watch a comedian documentary, and it's all about father, and I'm bawling by the end of it. Another time, and recently I was watching a sports podcast, sports podcast, interviewing another comedian named Steve Harvey.

I was like, this is gonna be sports comedy, it's gonna be great. And halfway through that sports podcast with a comedian, he starts talking about the death of his father. And he says to these other athletes, he's like, hey, you know what? There's no other man in my life, it's really interesting.

Who wants it better for me than he wanted for himself, like my father. Every other man and then you can know what this is like, you compete with one another, you see somebody doing well, you may love them. You're like, I'm gonna do better. And the father is the only one who looks at his kids, like, I want better for you, I want you to be better.

And he's sharing this, and he's just like, you know what, since my dad died, I've never heard another human say they were proud of me. Me, you got athletes, listen to this, and they're all like, and I'm like, feeling it too, and I'm just like, how does this, do you know who lost somebody? How does this find you, right? And it's finding me, and I'm realizing, it's not just finding me, this is finding humanity, that all of us, if you're 70, and I've had some conversations, you're like, my father, and I'm really jealous of the relationship you had with your father, and people who go off on really bad places, and really windy roads, and depression, and you can trace it back to their father, or lack thereof.

And so it's no mistake, when God says, I'm gonna choose an imagery, I could choose any, for my character and nature, you know what, I'm gonna choose father. It's no mistake that John says, over and over, children, children, children, children, you need to know, you're forgiven, you need to know that you have a father who loves you perfectly, unconditionally, who is proud of you. And yeah, that's gonna change your life if you really give your life over to that, but you need to gather with some other people who've experienced that love of a father also. And you need, I wish Steve Harvey could be in our church right now, because I think somebody always say, Steve, I'm proud of you, man, because that's what the people of God who've experienced the love of the father, you start to not just embrace that, you start to extend that to other people.

And that's what discipleship relationships are. Go through a book, fill out a form, get a bracelet, but you get into a relationship like that, and you can experience all the highs and all the lows, and you can do so with a strength and a peace and a purpose and a meaning and a fulfillment if you walk with people like that. And that's what I'm inviting you into. And that's what I'm inviting you to move.

What's move to one, move towards that. And I would submit to you, fill out a paper, do whatever you need to do to get that. Let's do that. Let me pray for you, Father in Heaven, God, I pray that you would help us to move.

And God, I just right now, I pray against every lie of the enemy, his servants, his works, his effects, his plan from the beginning to distort our identity in you, to distort how you interact with us, to lie to us and tell us we're not enough, we don't know enough, we can't do enough, we're too busy, gotta pray against every lie of the enemy right now in the name of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. And I pray that the truth of this passage, the truth of your character, the truth of your nature, the truth of your very work on the cross and in the resurrection would break up in the name of Jesus every lie that we might believe, every lie that keeps us isolated, that keeps us out of these relationships as you have intended us to be in, break those right now in Jesus name. You gotta pray that you would help us to move. As that is broken, God, Holy Spirit, I pray that you would help us to take a step, fill out a form, grab a booklet, talk to somebody before we leave, get baptized, come down for prayer, that we would not stand still because love never does, love moves, help us to move right now.

In the name of the fame of Jesus Christ, and everybody said amen.