God Never Meant for You to Live Exhausted | Big Ten Week 4

faith promises that not an incredible way to start church come on now it's amazing gosh I gotta be honest with you I love coming up here and preaching you guys but having to leave high-fiving kids that come up here was a little bit of a bummer but I'll get over it okay man I'm just I've missed you I'm so excited to be with you and again I'm so grateful for our kids team and our winning team but just one more time can we give God all the praise he's so worthy he's so worthy what's up man it's how you doing buddy I love you gosh man we are right in the middle sometimes yet you ever been in a really special part maybe you're on a sports team or a special season of life and you didn't realize how special it is can I just ask you to if you've been here if you're brand new just just shake yourself pinch yourself we are in a move of the Lord the last couple days over summer fun over 1,200 winning team and kids and why those winning team people serve because some of you guys y'all know your kids yeah and for some reason y'all decide not to medicate them when you send the stuff with us okay I don't know what that's about no but but really why do they serve they serve because over 250 kids want to ask questions about a relationship with Jesus they serve because 134 kids said that they wanted to get baptized and they wanted to see God be their forever friend be their Savior I know my middle child River he's eight years old he's he's probably turned in 47 communication cards for salvation right that's what happened you're here every week right and and he just turns them and turns them in and we want to make sure they understand it and so we've been asking the questions but we got to the point where we went to KidSteps KidSteps is what you do we don't just let kids get baptized unless they understand what they're doing okay and so River want to get baptized and so we we went to KidSteps with him and so we get to be a part but when you're sitting in there when it's your kid when you bow your head and you hold hands with your son and when your wife and you pray the salvation prayer with your kids one more time we have got some praise on what he's doing so awesome so again just even more than that last weekend I wasn't here I was preaching at a wind network church and if you're new here if

you haven't heard the wind network is something that we started not just me we as a church we started that and what we did it for was to unite churches to equip pastors and to plant more churches in the state of Tennessee in just over a year there's I think there's 22 or 25 churches in the wind network so far and we've already seen this was as of last week there'll be more this week but as of last week we had already seen more than 2,900 baptisms in those churches in the state of Tennessee it's amazing I'm telling you you help lead that you help so whenever we tithe when we do that this is what we're doing you hear those kids just cheering excited about giving about being a part of Isaiah 117 I want to encourage you keep serving keep tithing keep giving you're not just impacting these kiddos and generations you're impacting churches a state a nation let's be obedient and see how far God will take this movement I believe it'll be to the ends of the earth and so I'm so excited to be with you two weeks ago I was on vacation I was watching online as our campus pastors priests I love our campus pastors and then last week I was preaching at that church and so this week whenever I was preparing my sermon and I was so jacked to be with you guys I'm preparing my message I'm going in hard on it Monday Tuesday Tuesday night I go out to play this little par 3 course and I do in the evenings there's not many people out there so if I throw a club y'all can't you know know about it no I'm just joking I listen to sermons so I don't throw clubs and so I'm listening to sermon and I'm like oh I haven't listened to last week's sermon if they promised yet and so I want to pause there before I tell you what happened last week a guy preached and he really only referred to himself as dr. big daddy okay if you're new here that's my dad and you know how sometimes your dad just says stuff and you can't get him to stop that's one of those things okay there's problems and there's fact of life and my dad called himself dr. big daddy's a fact of life guys okay all right so no but dad did an unbelievable job and before I tell you what happened on the golf course I want to tell you my mom and dad they weren't perfect but they did an unbelievable job discipling me my brother and my sister and one of

the ways they did that was telling us about spiritual warfare at a young age and I know spiritual warfare can seem confusing and you're not sure how to cover it that's why we're here to support you as you equip yourself and your kids and your students to win their world. One of the ways that my parents did that was with this just absolute amazing book called The Screwtape Letters. It's an older book about spiritual warfare, and we're actually gonna go through that book. The next series we do, we're gonna go through that book together, kinda do some summer reading as a family. It's gonna transform your life, your family, and our church. However, as we prepare for that, if you have questions about spiritual warfare, we wanna make sure we hit them. So on the screen, there's gonna be a way for you to send those in, and as we go through that book, we would love to tailor it to exactly what you're experiencing in your life. So let us know, okay? As you're putting that in, I'll go back. I'm on the golf course, I'm swinging, I'm listening to Dad's sermon, and I was like, he started, and I was like, oh, that's the analogy that I was gonna use. And he keeps on going, like,

that's the verse I was gonna use. And I realized, the last two days, I've been preparing my sermon on the wrong two commandments, okay? Monday, Tuesday, about 10 hours on the wrong sermon, okay? It's been a long time since I felt like, oh my gosh, I haven't done my homework. It's been a long time, so I was like, oh no, what am I gonna do, right? So I'm out there, and can I just tell you something weird? I get to prove it by staying in front of you, but I wanna give you a word from God. So you may wonder, like, did you have peace? I did. Was I frustrated? Of course, I was a little frustrated. I missed it. Did I feel behind? Of course, I felt behind. But was I anxious? No. Was I sad? No. Can I ask you, in your life right now, do you feel behind most of the time? Do you feel like you'll never catch up to your to-do list, or maybe to that other person that you're trying to keep up with? Today, can you just receive a word from God? And I didn't realize what God was gonna do today,

but God's about to do something in our lives. But can I just speak this over you? Today, if you will rest in God's word, the rest will get done. If you will rest in God's word, the rest will get done. If you're ready, say I'm ready. But I'm gonna need some more out of you this weekend, so I'm gonna need you to lead, because God's gonna challenge 100% of us. So if you're willing, say I'm willing. All right, God, we're humble today. All right, so let's get after it. It's gonna be an amazing day. So in this series, we're looking at the Big Ten. And you've probably heard them called the Ten Commandments, but whenever they were given, God's people called them the Ten Words, because they're supposed to be 10 words from a heavenly father, not 10 do's and don'ts from a dictator. These words from God, they show us how to live a flourishing life, the John 10, 10 life, life and life to the full, in everything that we put our hands to. So this week, we're on the fourth row. We're on the fourth row right here. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy, and now shall not bear witness against your neighbor. Now, just a refresher. This wasn't supposed to be just a list of 10.

These are two lists of five that coincide with each other. The left side help us know who God is and who we are, and the right side help us know what we do. But a lot of us, we put the do before the who. We try to do enough to earn who we are or who God is. That's not how it's set up. It's never how it's been set up, and we are sons and daughters of the king. We are not slaves. That's not who we are, and so I want us to see this. God wants us to see this as he has it for us. So today, we are gonna talk about our work and our words. What a massive topic to talk about our words and our work. Can you imagine how different your life would be if in your work and your words, you got life from it, you got excitement from it, you were jazzed about it, but not just you, the people around you. Can I tell you, you would be well on your way to winning the world to Jesus. So I wanna take some time and talk about our work first, who we are, who God is when it comes to work. If you have your Bible, and I hope you do, will you go to Exodus chapter 20? You can go there in your paper Bible, on your phone, but I just wanna encourage you, please, if it's not your first time, go put your own eyes on the word so you can find it tomorrow. Exodus chapter 20, verse eight. Now, while you're getting there, when you look at it,

you'll realize that this word from God is a little bigger than the others. It has a little more detail, and that's intentional. This Sabbath word is a big deal for God. If it's a big deal for God, then it should be a big deal to us. So in Exodus chapter 20, verse eight, here's what it says. Remember. the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all of your work, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you nor your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your house. For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and is all that is in them, but the rest is a Sabbath day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Now, before we talk about work and resting from work, I want us to take a minute and go back to the beginning. Listen, the first thing the Bible tells us about God is that he worked. I actually realized while I was preaching since the first service that when I started talking about work, literally the room like tightened up,

like it was a cuss word. And listen, can I tell you, it's gonna get harder today than just describing work to us, all right? But if we go back to the beginning, the first thing we see God do is work. For six days, he labored creating the world and then he rested. He made you in his image and guess what the first thing he did after he made man his image, he breathed the breath of life, the ruach into his nostrils. Guess what he gave him? A job, a J-O-B. It's not a cuss word, I promise. It's a gift from the Lord. In Genesis 2.15, God puts man in the garden to work it and to keep it. Work is not the curse. Sin is the curse. Work is our sacred partnership with God. If you look at the first page of the Bible, God made the world good, but he didn't finish it. He let us be a part of it. He handed it to us and he said, partner with me. He said, take what I made and make something from it. He made the raw material. He made the wood, but he didn't make the houses.

He carved the rivers, but he didn't make the bridges. He made sound, but he lets us write songs. Work is not, it's not an obligation. Genuinely, work is a celebration. And listen, I realized when I was building the theology of work in the first service it was hitting, it was hitting. Can I be honest? I didn't know we were gonna get convicted that early. So gird your loins, because here it comes. You are either a workaholic or you're lazy. Let me say it one more time. Lock all the doors. You are either a workaholic or you're lazy. Now I know that's pretty intense. The reason that this is so intense is because there's a lot of spiritual warfare around our rest and our work, because our work is our witness. And listen, God has our work and our words on this beautiful line on this road. But you know what I realized? I heard this quote this week, I loved it. For every mile of road, there's two miles of ditch, one on either side. On the life that God has called you to, there's a ditch on one side called workaholism, and there's a ditch on the other side called laziness. And God wants to pull us out of those ditches today to get us on track to winning our world.

Workaholic or lazy. Hey, the person next to you knows which one they are. You can stop elbowing them at any time you want to, okay? Husbands, wives, we don't need that. But while you're arguing with yourself or maybe with me or maybe your spouse as to which one you are, let me pause for a moment and give you some cultural and historical context around the Sabbath that maybe you don't know. We have a seven-day work week. Where do we get that seven-day work week from? The Bible, God's design. I love that. Actually, we all have atheist or agnostic friends and they're living God's design. And not only that, not only are they living God's design, the world has tried to live outside of God's design and it's went terribly. After the French and the Soviet revolutions, they both tried to do work weeks that were outside of seven days and it went terribly. It wrecked family lives, it wrecked travel, it wrecked economy. So they went back to a seven-day work week. I think there's about 185 countries in the world. Do you know how many have a work week outside of the seven-day work week? Zero. Because God has designed it. It's not because of economy, it's not because of trade,

it's because it's God's design. God has a design that's best for your life. And there's some ways where you might be fighting God's design for your life. And I would encourage you to take today to realign with his design. One more thing about this. that I just thought was cool, maybe you know, maybe you don't. Historically, Christians, we have taken the Sunday as our Sabbath. Now, why is that? That's because Jesus rose on a Sunday. So we've taken that as our Sabbath. Now, Jewish people, which Jesus was a Jew, Jewish people, they celebrate Sabbath or Shabbat on Saturday. But like true Americans, we went buffet style and took both, okay? We took both. We took Saturday and Sunday, all right? So we went ahead and received two Sabbaths for ourselves. I know that's not how it works for everybody, but I'm just trying to cut the tension a little bit. Now that you've learned something, right? Maybe you've laughed a little bit. Let's really get back into the whole dichotomy of workaholic or lazy. Because I know it's challenging. I know it's polarizing.

Whenever we look at that word from God in Exodus chapter 20, verse eight, he tells them to work six days and to take one day off. Now, why is this important? Jesus, or God has given them these words right after they've been slaves in Egypt for 400 years. So enslaved people do not get days off. That's not how being a slave works. Now, I know your job might be hard. It may feel like it sometimes, but we are not enslaved people. By and large, I don't think anybody is this weekend. And so what we wanna do is I want us to look at this whole command. I want us to obey the whole passage, not just go all the way to the Sabbath rest side, but look at the whole passage. Because if you think about it, the command or the word says work six, rest one. That means that 86% of the command is about your work and one day is about your rest. And so can we just take a moment and look at the whole thing? Actually, I heard a quote this week that I didn't understand when I first read it, but as I kept on praying and studying, it made more sense. And the quote said this, anyone can take a Sabbath, anybody can take a day off, but it takes the other six days to make it holy. Can I ask you a question? You that work, hey, students,

can I ask you, because a lot of students, your job is school. Your job is to honor your mom and dad. So take what we're about to say in that vein for yourself. Do you work so hard that it's considered holy? I'm not asking do you work so hard to get it done. I'm not asking you to work hard enough to be a top performer. I'm asking you, we don't work based on the world standards. We work based on the word standards. I'm asking you, do you work in such a way where God looks at it and says, hey, that's holy? And holy doesn't mean weird and it doesn't mean that you don't wear makeup and you wear a skirt and you speak in tongues and you have all your hammer nails. That's not what it means. The definition of holy means set apart. It means special. It means a sacred purpose. You are holy. You are a son or a daughter of the most high king. You are an ambassador. That means when you go to school, students, that means when you go to work, whether you're a construction worker or a teacher or a stay-at-home mom or a doctor, that you are going into holy, sacred use. Christians, your work is your witness. We should have joy when we work.

We should have joy. This is not just for Snow White and her dwarves whistling while they work. Do, do, do, do, do, do. This is for you. It's for you. Nehemiah 8.10 says, the joy of the Lord is my, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Do you know what Nehemiah was doing when he said that? He was working construction. Have you ever worked construction? I did two summers where I carried blocks. I did another summer where I was working for a roofer and roofers carry shingles. Before we had the sweet electric thing that carried the shingles up ladders. Do you know what that machine was before we had it? Your boy. And I was fatter in that season. I had shingles and me. It's hard. And Nehemiah is still. Dude's sitting there, not only is he doing construction, but he's being attacked. He has a sword in one hand and a hammer in the other. But you know what he says? He says, I will not stop this work. Look, I'm doing what God told me to do. The joy of the Lord is my strength. What I want to tell you is I believe you can feel this.

If you're a Christian, you can feel something rising up in you. Whatever God has given you to do, whether it's school, honor your parents, police officer, teacher, whatever it is, there's joy in it. Not because there's joy in your boss or the place of work. There's joy in you. We don't give honor because somebody deserves it. We give honor because we're sons and daughters of God and we have honor to give. We don't walk into work with joy because it might be a joyous place. We walk and we give joy because we have joy. Your work, man and woman of God, is your witness. Give God some praise. were allowed to do that. I love it. I love it. I love you. Oh, Zach, your job is to be the pastor. Yeah, your pastor. You know you, you. Different sermon we'll talk about later, right? Hey, Christians, we can't be soft. When it comes to work, we can't be soft. Young Christians, I have to pronounce this really well. There's a growing population called the NILFs. N-I-L-F. Some of y'all even know what that's close to because you're holy. Some of y'all do know it's close to because you're a sinner. Okay. NILF stands for not in labor force. And can I tell you who is booming in that category? Young men, Christians. What if, what if employers said, I need some believers? What if, what if I found people loitering in the parking lot? And I'm like, hey, what are you doing? You're like, I need, I need some workers. I need some people who come to work and they get their

own time and they're, they're kind and they smile and they pick up after other people and they don't gossip and they're not backbiters and they just do their stuff and they have joy. It's almost like they're working for the Lord because Colossians 3.23 says, everything your hands find to do, do it as if you're doing it unto the Lord. Your work is holy. Do you work holy hard? Not do you work hard? Do you work holy hard? This is who we are. Christian, your work is your witness. Whenever we get the work right, we do have to ask the question, am I resting right? Am I resting right? After you've put in those five or six days of holy hard work, then we take a Sabbath, then we rest. But can I tell you that, I know you're not supposed to say that people do things wrong anymore. You're not supposed to say that, but some of you guys are resting wrong. Okay. It's just how it is. And you may say, can you rest wrong? Absolutely. Rest is not about doing nothing. Rest is about doing the right things. Let me give you an example. For your physical body, the two most important things for your rest are your sleep and what you eat and how many of you guys know you can sleep too much, right? So students, some of you guys have been taking comas since school went out. All right. Anything past nine hours is a coma. Okay. And y'all are in it. And we're just blessed that y'all woke up this morning. Okay. So listen, but if you sleep, let's just say you just, whatever. You just sleep too long. You sleep for 10, 12 hours. You wake up, you're like, oh my. You're like, you know what I need? I need a nap. I need a nap from my coma. That's what I need. Right? You can sleep too much. How many of you know that you can eat wrong to fuel your body? Right? Some of you guys, after you eat, you don't feel like a triathlete. You feel like Jabba the Hutt. Okay. And you don't feel

restored. Some of you guys woke up this morning, full from dinner last night. Guilty. Forgive me, Lord. Right? So, hey, if you can, if you can eat and sleep wrong and you can do your physical rest wrong, don't you think when it comes to God's word, where there's more spiritual warfare, that the devil is going to try to have us rest wrong? Can I just kind of speak in your life, as somebody who prays for you every day, as somebody who loves you desperately, can I just ask you to consider some things when it comes to your Sabbath? I'm going to assume at this point, you've worked wholly hard at your job, at your school, honoring your parents. When it comes to your Sabbath, will you take these into consideration? Will you trade the world for the word? One day a week, at least, will you take in more God than gossip in the world? Listen to some sermons. Listen to some podcasts. Get in God's word. Would you do it? It's going to fuel your design from the Lord. Would you trade the screen for solitude? You're staying up at night, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, then you can't sleep because you've had a dopamine dump on looking at a screen that you shouldn't have looked at at that time of the day. You can't go to sleep. But what about getting alone with the Lord and hearing from him instead of politics or influencers? Would you trade your worry for worship? Listen, I'm telling you, I know anxiety and depression are a big deal, and part of that's because we're not resting right. Would you get in there? Would you turn on worship music? And hey, you might not feel it. Sometimes you've got to worship your way through it. At our house, we call it push. Pray until something happens. Push. Pray until something happens. Trade your worry for worship. Hey, trade your remoteness for relationships. Get in group.

Come on. Get in group. I don't have time. You don't have time not to. Look at how your life is trending without it. Do you know what I'm saying? I promise you there is space. The reason I promise you there is space is God has designed you this way. You might wanna take a picture of this. This is huge. These are just some ways. Can I tell you why you might be taking pictures or considering this? One of the biggest topics today, burnout, burnout, burnout, burnout, burnout. You know who we blame for burnout? We blame the employer. Because on Monday, we have to get up and go to work and we're tired and we don't feel like it. We don't blame the eight hours of Fortnite that we played on Sunday night before work. That really hit two generations differently. You know what I'm saying? But you feel me, you know what I'm talking about. Burnout is not your work's fault. Your work is your witness, okay? And so we have to prepare well to do the work that God has given us. It's not a curse, it's a blessing, come on. Listen, church, this is not a generational grind. This is not a personality problem.

This is a theology problem. While the whole world is trying to find their peace in mental wellness days and weed dummies, we are gonna find it in the work and the word of the Lord. You can have peace, you can have joy in God's work that he gave you, amen? That's who you are, that's who you are. Okay, guys, we are so behind. I need y'all to listen real quick, okay? Christian, you are not a workaholic. You are a word-honoring son or daughter of the Most High King. Hey, if you feel like I'm lazy, you are not lazy. After today, you are gonna get laser-focused on who God made you to be, and your work is your witness in what he has called you to do. So let's, before we wrap up our time to go today, let's take a moment to pray. Let's take a moment to look at the word of God this is connected with. Remember this Sabbath day, keep it holy. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. This, again, is in Exodus 20, verse 16, and that's what it says. Now, how do these connect? When you feel like your work doesn't have spiritual weight, your words will slip. You know how whenever you feel, when you feel like something doesn't matter? Like students, whenever you feel like a class

doesn't matter, it doesn't get your best effort. When you feel like something doesn't matter, your words, whenever your work doesn't carry weight, your words slip. But can I remind you who you are? Ephesians 2.10, you are a masterpiece made on purpose with a purpose for the good deeds that God has set out before you. Now, I left something out that's not in my notes, so I'm gonna say it, because you guys are gonna listen really fast. Hey, stay-at-home mom, stay-at-home parents, specifically stay-at-home mom, you need a Sabbath too. Some of you husbands, myself included, come home and you're like, why are you in such a bad mood? And you haven't made any space for her to have a Sabbath in years, because you think she just stays home. You stay home, big boy. I'll be home for 10 minutes without, I'm like, I'm gonna kill all you guys. I know why some animals eat their young when Rachel's not there. I'm telling you, I put, never mind. I'm gonna get that joke. Hey, hey, you want more joy in your house? You want more intimacy in one room of your house or multiple rooms if the kids are gone?

That's not in the notes. Sabbath's gonna help you. Make a way for that woman of God. What fills her up? Just going on a hike, getting her nails done, whatever, getting that sermon and getting that worship in. Make a way, protector. Make a way, leader. We don't whine about something that we haven't worked on, okay? So speaking of whining and working, let's talk a little bit about our words. Listen, I know this isn't very Christian to me, but every time I've read that verse, you shall not bear false witness, I think about a couple of years ago, whenever Will Smith smacked the mess out of Chris Rock. Don't look it up, there's potty words. But he said, keep my wife's name out of your mouth. That keeps on coming to my mind. It made me wonder what standard do we hold when it comes to the words that we're willing to speak about God's kids? What's your standard? Not just about kids outside you. When you look in the mirror and the words you speak over yourself, this word from God uses courtroom language, but it goes beyond the judicial courtroom and it goes to the court of public opinion.

It goes to the courtroom of the comment section on social media. It goes to the courtroom of the text message thread you have about the person who's in the cubicle next to you. Are you willing to gossip? Are you willing to tell lies? Are you willing to say nothing when you know something needs to be said? Because saying nothing is speaking really loudly, and I think we both know it. What are we using our words for? Our work and our words are our witness. It's very interesting. It talks about this, don't bear false witness. And the last thing that Jesus said, the last thing that Jesus Christ said before he went to heaven to make a way, a space for me and you, he said this in Acts 1.8. He said, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses. Same courtroom language. How does a witness bear their witness? With their words and their work. What kind of witness are you bearing with your life? To Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. We are his witnesses. Our life, our work, our words are witnesses. We take the stand every day, every conversation, every car ride.

We take it. Can I tell you that your work and your words should be Holy Spirit-empowered, world-winning weapons against what the enemy is doing, against you, against your neighbors, against your classmates, against your coworkers. That's what God has. God has you to stand the gap and to be a witness with your work and your words. Listen, the enemy's been attacking our work and our words since the very beginning. And I just wanna stop for a second. Before, we had just a moment together of freedom and commissioning. I really do believe there's people that you need to start a relationship with Jesus today. And we've been talking, and you feel something pulling you in. Maybe you've been religious, but you never had a relationship. Maybe it's your first time, and you're like, oh my gosh, I didn't know this is what this was. I didn't know that Jesus came to offer me this joy and this identity and everything that I do, because he did. And he came, and Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins, to give us life and life to the full. And the reason I know you're being drawn in right now is because God's word says in Ecclesiastes 3.11,

that God has put eternity in the heart of every person. That's you. Are you ready to start a relationship with Jesus? I know you still have questions, and that's okay. We'll answer those. But can we start with the main thing? Have you ever given your life to Jesus? On my Bible, it says you're last. I just wanna always consider, is this my last sermon? Is this my last chance to give my life to Christ? Is this my last chance? When is this your last chance? When is this your last work week? When is this your last conversation? If you're ready to start a relationship with Jesus, we would love to invite you into that right now. We're gonna pray a prayer to start a relationship with Jesus. And if you wanna join us, we'd love to have you. Will you bow your head and close your eyes? And let's just pray this out loud all together. Say, Jesus, I know I've sinned, but I know you came to pay for my sin by dying on the cross, because you love me and you want me. I believe in my heart, and I confess with my mouth that you are my Savior. With heads still bowed, eyes still closed, nobody looking around,

hey, if you just start a relationship with Jesus, I'm gonna ask you to raise your hand. Just a second, don't raise them up yet. You came here today because he wants you. You came here today because he wanted to set you free. You came here today because the rest of your life will never be the same. And if you're ready to walk in that, you just started a relationship with Jesus, I just want you to raise your hand really bold right now. Go ahead and raise it up high. Come on. The rest of your life is gonna be radically different. Awesome. Come on, raise them up high. Be bold. Thank you, Jesus. Awesome. Awesome. Faith Promise, can we celebrate with the people that gave their lives to Christ today? Come on, what a great day. What a great day. What a great day. Hey, as we wrap up our time together, we think about what causes us to be workaholics? What causes us to be lazy? What causes us to use our words in a way that doesn't build our witness? And I really do believe that it comes down

to something the Bible calls pride. And pride isn't thinking too much of yourself, only it's thinking of yourself too much. And we think that, well, well, I shouldn't have to work that hard, or I should get to work as much as I want, or they deserve the things that I say about them. I really do believe the root of that is pride. And in James 4, 4, 6, I believe it says that, yeah, James 4, 6, it says that God opposed the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Now, I don't know about you, but if anybody said, hey, you're living your life in such a way where God is opposing you, I think I would dig in a little bit. I think I would check myself. Can I ask you, when it comes to how you work, when it comes to how you rest, when it comes to how you use your words, The Holy Spirit is showing you some pride right now. Do you have some pride in your life? Students, in how you honor your parents, when they're around, when they're not. Or do we have some pride in our lives? I don't want the Lord against me. I wanna trust Him in how I work, how I use my words, and how I rest. So this week I ask you, can we be humble people? Can we honor Him in everything that we do? Because our world celebrates pride, right?

We're right in the middle of Pride Month, where it's celebrated. And hey, we say at Faith Promise, we exist to win the world by equipping Christ followers to win their world, starting with 1% of Tennessee. And so can I equip you for a moment on how that we should operate during Pride Month? How do we do that? Because literally, in James 4, 6, God's opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And can I tell you something about Faith Promise? Maybe you know this, maybe you don't. We are a multi-generational church. There are people at Faith Promise that they were alive when it was illegal for homosexual people to get married, and they watched that fight politically. And we have people at Faith Promise, middle school, high schools, college students, that have been told their whole life, outside of maybe outside the church or home, that if you don't accept the LGBTQ plus community, that you're hateful, that you're a bigot, that if you don't call people by these pronouns at school, you will be in trouble. We have all of those in all of our rooms right now. Do you get the challenge of that? But what do we do? We all fall into the same authority of Scripture. And I'm gonna put it really plainly to you.

God, two things. God has a design for relationship. And the only design we see all throughout His Word, and from the very beginning, is relationship between a man and a woman. I also wanna tell you something else. God did not make mistakes on people. People should not have to change their gender and all these things about them as they get older. God did not make those mistakes. Psalm 139, He put them together piece by piece. But here's what I wanna do. Can I talk to you? Because you know what we like to do? We like to look out, and we like to apply the Word of God to the world. In James, it says that this book is a mirror to look at how I'm living, not a window to judge the world through. So here's what I wanna challenge us to do during Pride Month. Speak out at the level that you're willing to show up. Speak up at the level that you're willing to show up. Speak up at the level that you're willing to be prayed up. Listen, I want people to live in every, all that God has for them. That's what I want for them. I want that relationally, I want that identically, I want all that. But I wanna invite people into my life.

This is challenging, this is hard, but we don't shy away from hard things. We stand up with our work and with our words, and we are a witness that God has a design and God has a plan. That's you, that's not just me, that's us. If we're waiting on me to meet your neighborhood that's a transgender person, or you're waiting on me to meet your coworker that's wrestling with homosexuality, the world will never be one. Ephesians four tells us that my job, the church's job is to equip the saints to the work of the ministry. Can I ask you during pride month, will you be a holy, humble, hardworking, hard-loving, hard-pursuing people that is heaven-bent on seeing our world and people one to Jesus? Do not buy this smokescreen of the enemy and fight people. Ephesians 6, 12, our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against rules and principles of darkness and heavenly places. Attack the darkness in your prayer time and go out and love the people in your real time. Does that make sense? Hey, will you stand up with me everywhere as I pray for you as you go out to win your world? Even if you're online, stand up where you're at,

at home, at the coffee shop. Come on, be a witness. You, man of God, woman of God, will go out this week in the power of the Holy Spirit and you will be his witnesses in your workplace and with your words to your family, to your neighborhood, to your workplace, to the people you haven't met yet. You will go out and you will win your world. You have everything that you need. Your work is your witness. Your words are your witness. God has chosen you, designed you, and called you for such a time as this. Rise up, man of God. Rise up, woman of God, and walk out into all that God has for you. God, right now, we set ourself apart. We will be holy, humble, hardworking, hard-resting people who use our words to draw people close to you. We will not cower by what the world or politics say. We will stand humbly. and lovingly on the truth of the gospel, and we will make a way with compassion and care, just like you did, Jesus. Make a way for people to know that they're loved and they're bought with a price. God, I pray in everything that we put our hands to, we would do it as if we're doing it for the Lord, Colossians 3, 23.

God, we love you. God, I pray that we would live a life that shows that you died for us, Jesus, that you offered us salvation, Jesus. There's nothing that will come in our path this week that is not worth standing up for, why? Because we're saved by grace, because we're sons and daughters of the King, because we've been sent on mission with the Holy Spirit to win people to Jesus. Devil, you don't have any power over this church. You don't have any power over these people. You don't have power over our marriages, over our kids, and over our students. God, whatever you had to say today, and tomorrow, and the next day, whatever you had to say, we will obey, because you're God. It's in your name we gather, and you're in me praying. All God's people said, amen. Let's go out and win our world this week. Give him a shout of praise. We'll see you next week.