Being Known

And that part right there is why you go to base camp, so you're ready for that piece of the journey. You know, and for Mount Everest, if you're going to climb, you go to base camp, and the whole idea is that you would get some foundational skills, some practices that you need, and that would help make you successful in the journey. And we kind of feel like that's the same in this spiritual journey, that it's a good parallel there are some skills and some practices that are foundational to a spiritual journey. And you might be here, and you might be brand new. You're searching, really. You're just starting, or you are someone who has been on a spiritual journey with Christ for quite some time. There are some practices, some skills that help us to be successful. Now, you may not know or have thought about it, but not everybody makes it to the end of their goal when they climb Mount Everest, but they say that the statistics are up. And one of the reasons that they say that is because there are more guided expeditions now, that there's more support for those who are climbing. And it just goes to show something in that arena that we believe here, that the people that you journey with, they do make all the difference. So we've been covering a lot of different practices, and if you were here, Greg talked about worship. And then Joel and Nathan talked about prayer and scripture. And then last week, Ben and Judy talked about Sabbath. And so today, we're going to talk about another practice and about journeying together. And so I want to invite Diego up here. We want to say hello to Fenton and Mid Rivers and Grants Trail and everyone who's watching online. This is Diego. Diego is the youth pastor here at Chesterfield. So I know some of the campuses might not know. Yeah, I mean, your fan base is here, and I'm looking forward to it myself.

And so we're going to get started. I'm going to get us started, and then you'll come. Would you pray for us before we get going? Yeah, I'd love to. I'd love to. God, first of all, how grateful we are to be able to worship you the way that we did just now. I pray for my friend Kimberly now as she speaks, Lord, that you would speak through her. Lord, would you open up our hearts? Would you open up our ears to what it is that you have to say, God? And would you work through us today and give us something to hold on to for the rest of our week? It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Amen. All right, thanks, Daniel. Yep. So in the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 4, verse 9 and 10, it says, Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone, they are in real trouble. Now you might be accustomed to hearing this verse in a wedding ceremony, but the fact is that the verse is meant for more than that. It speaks to all of us and about our need for each other. What is true of Mount Everest, having a guided expedition, being with people who are prepared, being next to people, it makes a big difference. Same in the spiritual journey. Now, this week as I'm getting ready for this message, you know, my phone, it knew that I was. You know what that's like?

When you're talking about something or shopping for something and your phone starts sending you ads and information. So I started receiving things about hiking and I assure you that's only because I'm preparing for this message. It is not normal on my feed. And there was a woman who, a video of her that came across the reel and she said, I had the best time on my hike. I met so many people. I mean that EMT and those two nurses and the forest ranger that walked me out. They were fantastic. Now that's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about the rescue crew necessarily. I'm talking about when we read through the Bible, we see that God's people were usually together. That there's an emphasis about relationships and about unity. When we say that Israel traveled as a nation, Jesus journeyed with his disciples. The apostle Paul traveled with companions. I mean, there's not too many places where anybody just goes it solo. Now there's a couple things about that. Because if we go it alone, you know, we isolate ourselves. And I'm going to say that there's two big reasons that I think that's not as good as going with other people. Number one, it's not near as fun to go by yourself. When you think about on that journey, on the spiritual journey, that when you reach those if you would, scenic overlooks or those vista points. When you see God do something, that His good plan has come to fruition and you can see it, it is better if there's someone there with you to share it with.

It's better for that situation to see something that you thought God was never going to come through and then it happened and He did and you share it with someone. That is better. The other thing is that going it alone is just plain harder. Trying to navigate our faith in a world as complex as it is today, it puts us in a more vulnerable position. While if we're with people who have a shared focus on Jesus, it significantly improves our perseverance. Now there might be some of you who think I'm gonna talk about the importance of going to church or joining a small group, but really I wanna tell you about another spiritual practice in the Christian faith and it is called spiritual friendship. Spiritual friendship is when Jesus' followers commit to one another's spiritual transformation. Spiritual friends have a shared commitment to seeing each other love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. Now in our current culture, some would say that friendship is not as maybe valued as it was in past days, in past times. It used to be one of the crowns of life, you might say. But some people think that friendship has become a little bit more about what I can get rather than what I can give

or I really just need a friend because I'm bored. I'm just looking for someone to pass time with instead of spend time with. But in the Bible, in the Old Testament and the New, we see the value of spiritual friendships. In the Old Testament, we read about David and Jonathan. Now Jonathan was the son of King Saul, but David was anointed by God to be a future king. Their relationship was rooted in a shared commitment to God and seeing God's well done. First Samuel 18 one says, Jonathan was bound to David in close friendship and loved him as much as he loved himself. Jonathan recognized David's calling and he affirmed God's work in his life. And Jonathan knew that God was calling David, not him to be king at that time. And Jonathan trusted God with both their lives and calling. David trusted the advice that Jonathan gave him. They were in it together, committed to seeing God's well done in each of their lives. Now in the New Testament, maybe more obviously to us, is the fact that Jesus was with his 12 disciples, but not just them. He had more of an inner circle with Peter, James, and John. There were some things that he didn't just tell all the 12. There was some things that he shared with just those few. And in the account of Matthew, it says this, then Jesus went with them to the olive grove called Gethsemane and he said, sit here while I go over there to pray.

And he took Peter and Zebedee's two sons, James and John, and he became anguished and distressed. And he told them, my soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me. In one of the most difficult times in the life of Jesus, he called his few spiritual friends in closer to share that with them. It's important. This practice of spiritual friendship is another dimension of relationship. And I wanna say it is specific to Christ followers. Now of course, in our shared humanity, we have a lot of different friends. We have friends, if I'm a person of faith, I have friends who don't have a faith. I have friends of different faith. And those friendships and those relationships, they mean a lot. They make my life better. I am blessed by those. But this practice here is about this common thread, this common bond of following Jesus and living this life of a Christ-centered faith. It's a fierce commitment to each other's walk with Jesus. It's a step deeper than just community. It's more than neighbors or colleagues. It's not really just a small group that you're part of. It is a relationship of the deepest trust. And maybe you've seen this proverb before.

It says, as iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. I think we all need a few people like this. The one who knows me so well that they can speak exactly. the words of encouragement that I need. The one who will listen to my anxious thoughts, and as I go on about them, and on, and on, there'll be a moment they'll say, you're complaining now. Because they're a friend, and they know when I've entered into a new zone. They can say that to me. It is the one who will invest in the formation of my character, who knows the lies that I sometimes believe, and the one who knows maybe lies that I might tell to defend or self-protect. And they're able to call me out on that. Proverbs 27, 6 says, the wounds from a friend can be trusted. So it's not easy, it's hard, but it's so necessary and it's rich for me to become who God is making me, and the same for them. Hebrews 3 says this, so watch your step, friends. Make sure there's no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course, diverting you from the living God. For as long as it's still God's today, keep each other on your toes so sin doesn't slow down your reflexes. If we can only keep our grip on the sure thing we started out with, we're in this with Christ for the long haul. So how is it that one would practice spiritual friendship? And it's really one simple step to make it happen, and that is that two spiritual friends would decide to intentionally meet together, face-to-face, eyeball-to-eyeball, and that this relationship would be made a priority. That it would be something that's very important, not something on the side or secondary, but this would be an important part of one's calendar, of one's relationships. And when you get to that meeting, there's three things that you do.

First, you ask about each other's life. Secondly, you affirm God's work in each other's life. And then the third one, you admit your problems and your struggles and your temptations. Now that first one, asking about each other's life, that's what's happening. Pretty much unfiltered, you just share everything that's been going on since the last time you met, and it's what's your perspective on that, how do you feel about it, have you prayed about anything, have you heard God say anything, all of it, all the things. And then the second part, affirming God's work in each other's life. You know, there's a God-led, Spirit-fueled transformation taking place in each one of us in that relationship. And there are times, and maybe you can relate to this, when we can't see it for ourselves. It takes someone else to say, you know what, I can see that you are trusting God more. I can see that your faith is growing. I can tell that this delicate situation you just went through, you handled that a lot better than you used to, because they know all the things. They know the story, and they can connect the dots for you. So affirming God's work in each other's life is so important. And then there's the third one, admit problems, struggles, and temptations. As you can imagine, this is the one everyone looks forward to. Can't wait to get to that part of the conversation, right? I mean, it's hard to share things like that. That's why who your spiritual friend is is so important. It's easier to kind of rationalize things in my life. It's easier to kind of deny certain things. But because of the bond that we share, and the fact that I can share things with them, and they can share things with me, and it's things that we wouldn't just share with anyone, it makes a difference. It might even be at that point, you could say, do you see where I might have a blind spot in something? Now this third part of the conversation, it is the hardest.

And I can remember, there was a time when I sat down with one of my friends, and we're going to have this conversation at the coffee shop, and we're there. So we get started, and we ask about each other's lives, and we talk about things. And then we affirm God's work in each other's life, about different things that we saw, and we talked a little bit. And then we're getting to the admit part and everything, and the conversation is just waning. And we're talking nonsense at this point. And I noticed, you know, like she's having trouble making eye contact with me, and it just seemed like something was in the way. And there was. There was something in the way, right? There was an elephant in the room and it wasn't money and it wasn't politics. It was the thing that she didn't want to talk about and eventually she went on to tell me that there was a temptation in her life that she'd given into, that she'd acted upon, and that she'd made a choice that was going to change the trajectory of her life. And she went on a road away from Jesus at that point. And I thought, I wish you would have talked about this sooner. I wish I would have known. I wish I could have helped. In the book of James it says, make this your common practice. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. Now here's the thing. This elephant, I could have been the one to bring it in, right? I could be the one. And the thing is, if I brought this in and I didn't talk about it, I'd be carrying it back out. I'd be carrying it with me because it's inside of me, this struggle, this temptation, this problem. And I don't know if you're aware, but those kinds of things, they get heavy. They're heavy. And then, you know, we try to hide it. There's not a winter coat big enough in St. Louis for me to hide this and wrap around myself, right? I could try to turn this way, but, you know, there's still like part of the elephant here. You can still see it. I could try to like hide it or tuck it under, you know, but there's still part of the elephant that you can see. I mean, there's just no way around this thing. Here I am with it. And the question is, how long do I plan to carry

this thing? Because, you know, at some point it's going to start wearing on me. And at some point it's going to wear me out. And I could surrender it to Jesus at any moment. I don't need to have a meeting to do that. I could talk to Him anytime. But if I don't, if I insist on this, I will be walking it back to my next meeting with my friend. And it will go back on this table. So the next question is, why? Why would I want to do that? If I have a spiritual friend who's committed to helping me with this, why do I want to hide it? Why do I want to carry it around? David Benner says, soul friendship is the gift of a place where anything can be said without fear of criticism and ridicule. It is a place of grace, a place where others are accepted as they are for the sake of who they may become. That's what this is about. It's for the sake of who they may become. Who does not want to be more like Christ? All of us. Who doesn't want to have an abundant and full life? I think that's what we're all searching for. We're all seeking to live in. I'm going to tell you, there's nothing better than loving God with all your heart, soul, and all your might. We don't want things getting in the way. And a spiritual friendship can help us see that realized in our lives. So, Diego, I want you to come. I want to ask you this question. One of the things that I hadn't mentioned was that, you know, mutuality is important in spiritual friendship. It's not a mentoring relationship. This is a side by side, we're walking together kind of thing. And it can't be one person doing all the giving and one person doing the receiving. OK? Yes, sometimes people are in troubled seasons and they take more time. But I'll just let me just be straight up with you. You can't be the person that always has the troubled season. It can be hard to find a spiritual friend in that case. It has to be a rhythm in it. And you told me that you have a friend like this. Right, because I get this, right? So I have a buddy of mine who's from Florida and we keep in touch via text. I am a quite literally horrible texter, just the worst. I can't believe this cause you're young. I know.

I'm just counting on you, but go ahead. This is surprising, right? This is very surprising. And so he will, he'll call me out on it. We have this understanding that we hold each other accountable. He does for me and I do for him. And so even for the smallest things. So he said, hey man, and he said, you kind of suck at this. You got to do a little bit better at it. And I was like, ouch, but you're right. And because I love him and because I know he loves me, I had to act on that. And how did you find this friend? I met him at church. We had like a few things in common, Jesus and sports. And we talked about those things. And then eventually we started opening up about heavier things and we grew closer. Yeah. And so if you leave here today and you're thinking, I am interested in trying this spiritual practice for the journey. It could be that you already have this friend. You just haven't taken the step to intentionally meet together and commit to this kind of thing. Or it could be that you need to pray and pray specifically. Who could someone like this in my life be? Because it has to be someone that you trust. There has to be trust there.

Absolutely. And I would add there has to be authenticity, right? You guys have to have everything on the table, be honest with one another and trust each other that way. Because the people you journey with, they mean absolutely everything. They mean everything. So going back to the mountain thing, let me ask you, if you were going to take a journey, if you're going to take a climbing a mountain and not Everest, let's just tone that down. Regular mountain, the regular mountain, who are you going to take? That's a great question. I don't know. Well, I mean, I know who I would take, but in the spirit of authenticity and quite honestly, I would have to, I'd have to let them know, like I'm not an asset on that journey. Like they're going to make me drink water and eat protein bars and I can't, I don't want to. And I'd have to let them know. You know what I'm saying? Oh yeah. Okay, now that you're saying that, I honestly think I would love to take your husband, Dave, the iron man. Yeah. I'd love to take him. I think he could do anything.

So I'll just follow him the whole way. Well, I mean, that's a great choice, but too bad for you. Because I'm taking him. Oh. Because he basically keeps me alive on a daily basis, let alone. That makes sense. All of that, yeah. That's a good point. Okay, well, we'll turn it to you guys. On a regular mountain, who would you take on a hike and why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why?

And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why?

And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? And why? Now, I'm not just saying this because Kimberly chose her husband. I truthfully would take my wife. I love that woman to death. I'd do anything with her. But the problem is we have to find a sitter. And so that kind of just is an obstacle that we couldn't figure out. And so I had to choose Dave. Dave was a great second option. I would go with him. But also, I think a lot of us could say this. I'm blessed with people in my life that I would want to take on this journey with me. Like I have a group of guys, one of them I just talked about a few minutes ago, who we just leave everything out on the table. Like we are honest with each other. And we show this very honest love to one another. This is the kind of thing that Peter talks about in one of his epistles. He says that once we start to follow Jesus and we obey that truth,

we get to show a sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Now that word sincere, I think is important. That in the Greek it's called anipakritos. Or if I'm gonna roll my R's and get fancy, anipakritos. Not too bad, right? Pretty shabby, I'm proud of that. Now one definition puts it as describing sincere behavior free from hidden agendas. Right, that's genuine. That's trustworthy. And that's authentic. And like we said earlier, authenticity, it matters so much in these relationships. It matters so much. But we're not just looking for it in our friendships. We're looking for it everywhere, all the time. We're looking for that. But the struggle is that we're not always willing to give it in return. And it's because it's a little bit risky. It's because it's hard to step out that way. It's kind of like singing in front of a crowd when you don't know how to sing. Birds flying high, you know how I feel. I did not like that. Okay, I'm going to try one more time. Birds flying high, you know how I feel, it's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me and I'm feeling good. I know, I know exactly what you're thinking right now, who

let that guy on stage and what was that? And it was bad, I will tell you, it was bad, but also it was auto-tune, okay, just to call it out, it was auto-tune. Now, Wikipedia has a definition for it and it says, it's software that automatically corrects or changes the pitch of a recorded or live voice or instrument so it matches specific musical notes. I think auto-tune is a pretty cool thing, I think it's cool to use at times, but in my case, if we're talking about me, if you can't tell, I can't sing and so what it does in that instance is it hides the real me and it tries to cover it up as best as it can to correct and to change and to match the right note and let's be honest, I gave that thing a run for its money, okay, so I'm trying to sneak by so that what you hear and see can sound perfect and look perfect and it makes the risk a little less risky and now I'm pretty far from that Greek word we just talked about, now I'm correcting a flaw in order to portray perfection and now it gets a little bit more relatable. Anyone here have felt the need to be perfect? The need to be okay all the time? The need to pretend like everything is just fine and you know what, it is what it is? Of course. Honestly, why wouldn't we? At some point in our life, we brought our honest, true values, thoughts and opinions and when we were faced with rejection, we decided, okay, you know what, the only way for me to be accepted then is to just conform to what everybody else wants me to be and then others of us, the thought of standing out or being different, it sounds like the worst thing ever because we do not want anyone to notice the struggle that is actually going on underneath. See, this whole

series, we've been going back to Romans 12 verse 2, do not conform to the patterns of this world but one of the ways that we do choose to conform is when we believe the lie that in order to feel any kind of value and belonging, we have to present ourselves as acceptable to this world and we start to think that the best version of ourself is now the edited, auto-tuned version, the one that hides our weaknesses and performs for approval but Romans tells us transformation comes from not from pretending to be perfect, it comes from renewal and that transformation is formed through surrender, not performance. We can't brute force it, we can't do it ourselves. If we bring pretending and performance to our conversations, to our relationships, to our spiritual friendships, it means that deep down we have decided to believe that hiding our imperfections is somehow better than being honest, sincere and authentic and that is not the full life that Jesus promises. Jesus, he wants us to live surrendered lives, not performative ones, an authentic life and it starts by living an authentic life with him and now the world has a lot to say about authenticity. There's a lot of definitions out there, you probably already have one in your head so let's just try to stick to the common one which I think is to be true to one's self or as the kids say, be real bro, right? So let's go with that definition but if I'm to be true to myself then I now need to figure out who myself is and if I need to rely on myself now to tell myself who myself is, now I'm relying on myself to tell myself who myself is and I am busy and I have no idea who I'm actually supposed to be. Now I'm myself here and myself here with this group of people and this group of people and it's unreliable. Now I'm relying and I'm trapped on

relying on people's reactions to decide who I am. If that's authenticity, I don't want it and if some of you are trapped in that, I understand it's a burden and a struggle to be authentic that way. It's exhausting to keep up with and it says I'm to live my life in my own image, not God's. And that's the difference. Authenticity as a follower of Jesus is living a life that highlights God's image and not our own. We give him credit for who we are. Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians, he says, to put off our old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. See, as followers of Jesus, we are not true to ourselves. We're true to Christ. And that is where we find our true selves. This is authenticity. It's a result of displaying trust in God's plan and his design for our life. So what does that look like? Well, I think we should do a little bit of an exercise. Okay, so let's say that you are on a plane, you're getting on the flight, you walk in, you get a chance to look at the cockpit and you see the pilot. And this is what you see.

Do you trust this guy to fly your plane? No, right? Not, of course not. Okay, scenario two. Let's say, God forbid, you have to get a medical procedure done and you go, you have to go to the operating room and you meet your surgeon and this is what he's doing. This is what he's doing. Okay? Not trusting him, right? Also, it looks like he got fired for being a pilot and is now doing this. So there's a bit of a pattern, a bit of a pattern going on. And last one, you call an Uber, the Uber shows up and you open the door and this is your driver. You're not getting in the car. I'm not getting in the car. He's cute, but I'm not getting in the car, right? So obviously, we're all on the same page. You don't trust something untrustworthy, right? You trust what's reliable and what's sincere with no hidden agendas. Someone who doesn't, you trust someone who doesn't bring any auto-tune to the table. It's because they admit that they are not perfect, especially when it's clear

that they are now taking steps towards God. And this is where I want to bring us back to David. See, if there was anybody who needed to perform and pretend and had the pressure to do so, it was David. Because he had the title of king. He had that authority. He had that respect. And he cared about it a lot. And we read about a time in scripture where he continually sins against God and he makes lie after lie, trying to cover it all up, all to preserve his own image and his own status. I mean, he was completely consumed by the fear of being found out. Now, I don't know about you, but in my life, I have given into that fear many times. And it could be anything. I don't know specifically what it is for you, but I can probably think that you're thinking about it right now. The opinions of other people, right? The image that you have to uphold, maybe at work or at home or at school, social media. The fear that if you fall apart, then everyone else around you will fall apart because you feel like you're holding it all together. The fear of failing somebody you love. The fear of people finding out about your struggle. That fear, it can get so strong

that you feel forced into a corner. And then it's oftentimes in those moments that we choose to trust something different than trusting God. And I think this is where David was at. And eventually he would be found out and he would be confronted with this stuff. And his image would be kind of all messed up and his lies are now out in the open. And he was faced with the moment. Do I now trust myself or do I trust God? Do I continue walking in my own direction and try to fix it? Or do I draw near to him? And it's this question I think we need to ask ourselves if we are going to commit to living authentic lives as followers of Jesus. See, the further you are from him, it's the further you are from seeing yourself as he sees you. But drawing near to him is where authenticity actually begins. And this, and I think where King David lands, after all the hiding, after all the fear, the image is gone. David doesn't choose to run from God, he goes to him. And in Psalm 51, we read one of the most honest prayers in scripture. And he says, create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a loyal spirit within me.

Notice what David doesn't ask for. He doesn't say, God, help me save face. God, help this go away quietly. God, I don't want people knowing about this thing. Just get rid of it. He doesn't try to rush. Instead, he says, God, go deeper than what people can see. Go to the root, renew me, go to my heart. For this to happen, we gotta get close to him. Now, can I give one more fear that I think we might give into? The fear that we might be too far gone to go to God. That we've taken too many steps away that we have this too much dirt on ourselves that he wants absolutely nothing to do with us now. And so now we try to clean ourselves up before we go to him, all for the purpose of trying to be closer. And in reality, it actually just creates more distance from him. Now we're trying to pretend. So what if you let go of control? See, it's when we surrender that control and we allow God to renew us, that he makes us clean and he draws us close. And it is his grace that keeps us close to him. That's the purpose of the cross. That's why Jesus died for you. See, the closer David gets to God, the more clearly he sees God

and the more honestly he sees himself. He doesn't listen to the voice of shame and he goes to him. And I need some of you to hear this right now. God does not shut the door on you at your lowest point. You read in verse 17, David says, you will not reject a broken and repentant heart, oh God. So we move close to him because his grace is bigger than our fear. And so practically, what does this look like for us? How do we do this? I think it comes down to two things. First, we look at God. We spend time noticing who he really is, not just what he can do for us, but we try to listen to the words of a worship song and hear what the words say about him. And we let those things sit in our hearts. Just like we did earlier, we hear scripture being read over us. Shameless plug, but the first five devotionals are amazing for that purpose. When you hear scripture read over you, you comprehend it in a different way and it sits differently on your heart. But you also can read it. You have access to it. Read the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It'll tell you all about Jesus and who he is. Go to the Psalms and see all the language

about God's character and how reliable and how safe he is. And you'll understand more of his character and you'll see just how good and how patient he is. Second, look at yourself. Not with harshness, not with shame, but with honesty. Ask God, Lord, what's going on with me right now? What's going on in my heart? God, I don't know why I'm feeling tempted to do these things. I don't know why I feel like I have to be this way at work and then this way at home or this way at school and this way with my group of friends. I don't know why, Lord. You go to him with these things and you continue to go back and it becomes this cycle. See, these aren't these simple, just do it once and twice and you're done steps. This is an ongoing process, a daily commitment with Jesus. As James puts it, we draw near to God and he will draw near to us. We look at God and then we look at ourselves and then we go back to him, bringing what we've noticed into his presence and we ask him to work on us. And this is how authenticity forms over time. It's not through beating yourself up. It's not through sweeping things under the rug. Tim really just talked about it, but we don't wanna carry this stuff anymore.

We don't wanna feel the weight of this anymore. And Isaiah says that God is the one who blots out our transgressions. It's like as if he erases them. And he takes these things, he takes the junk in our life. This is David's first line in his prayer. He says, Lord, blot out my transgressions. In Isaiah, we continue to read that God is the one who erases those things, almost like he doesn't even remember them. He takes that junk, he cleans it up, and he says, you know what? Yeah, that's in the past. I love you and I'm here. Continue to live the life that I've called for you. And when we live this life this way, we show up differently. Ourselves, we show up differently. We show up differently for the people in our life, the relationships in our life. You can now be authentic. You don't have to fake. You don't have to auto-tune or tweak. You don't have to hide. You can address the elephant because you've already addressed it with God. And now what's shaping you is no longer the fear of rejection, but the confidence that the God of the universe, the King of Kings loves you.

He knows you. Now, we can take the journey up the mountain alongside those that we trust with confidence, with eagerness, with all the things that we've learned the past few weeks, because we trust the guide who is leading us. So today, the invitation is not try harder. It's draw closer. Kimberly, would you please return the favor now and could you pray for us? Yeah, let's pray. Father God, we ask that you would be with us, that your presence would draw us in to yourself. Wherever each person is on their spiritual journey, Lord God, may we know your grace, may we know your love, may we sense your presence, may we know your truth and God, may you guide us forward every step of the way. We worship you and praise you and it's in the name of Jesus that I pray, amen. Amen, go in peace.