I Have Decided To Choose Relationships | Pastors Adam and Rebecca Peterson

Before we jump into the message, let me look into the camera. Online family, there's a lot of you. And I'm not shocked by it, because it's cold. And you decided, I think we're just gonna stay home and watch today. And we're glad that you're watching. You didn't even have to do that. So we're not putting any shame on you. We are so grateful that you are here with us. Come on, let them know. We're grateful for them. And then I would love for you to do a little bit better than that. As we put our hands together for all the men and women who are joining us in correction facilities. Let's go! All across the state. Every single week, we've got thousands of men and women who are joining us and being a part of our church family. And so we're grateful that you are here with us today. So we are continuing this series called I Have Decided. And today, we're gonna jump into a topic that applies to every single one of us. Every one of you, no one is exempt today. This is a message for all of us. Today, we have decided that we are going to choose relationships.

And there was not a whole lot of excitement there. Because collectively, I think right now, you're all like, do I have to? Like, that doesn't really sound like something that I wanna choose right now. But here's what we believe here at this church. That we are meant to be in relationships with others. We are not meant to do life alone. We are not meant to just go home every single day and have no community or no relationship with other people. We believe there is power in friendship. There's power in getting in a circle with people. There is power in community. And so we're gonna talk about the importance of it today. And we're gonna encourage you. And we're gonna let you know how you can be connected to the family of God here at this church. And so to choose relationships is where we're going. And if you're a note taker in the house, I got a little bonus for you, okay? And if you're not a note taker at Rise Church, we just feel like you should probably be a note taker. Just God loves note takers, okay? And I love note takers. And so we got a double whammy for you today. Two sermon titles, okay? So the first one is to choose relationships. The second sermon title is this. Today I have decided to listen to my pastors because they love me and care about me.

And they want what is best for me. So I'm going to finally listen to them and I'm gonna get in a group. I'll give them all my note takers a second to write that title down. This is our heart for you. I hope that you hear this message because this is probably one of the most important messages that we could preach to you. And we believe without a doubt that if you will apply this to your life, your walk with the Lord is gonna be so much better. Let me give you a verse just to get things going this morning. Ecclesiastes four, verse 12 says this. Though one may be overpowered, meaning if you try to get through life and navigate it alone, you're probably at some point gonna be overpowered. And if you're like, well, who am I gonna get overpowered by? I'm pretty strong, okay? You're gonna get overpowered by the world. You're gonna get overpowered by the devil. Now the devil is not gonna get overpowered by you. You're gonna get overpowered by the devil. Now the devil is not greater than the God who lives in you, but he is stronger than you. And if you try to go through life on your own, even the strongest of Christians

are gonna get knocked down from time to time. Life is gonna hit you. And if you get knocked down and you're by yourself, who's gonna pick you back up? Come on now. But God created us to be in relationships with each other. And so the good news is this, two can defend themselves, meaning you can actually have somebody that's in the fight with you. And then he goes on to say this, this is the smartest guy that has ever lived. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. And a lot of scholars have a different interpretation on this, but a lot of them believe that they're talking about you, me, and God, that we are woven like this, think of like a rope or something, that you got one of them that's weaved this way and the other one that's weaved over, and then God's in the middle of it. And at a certain point, you don't know which one's God and which one's you and which one's them. That's the relationship that he's talking about here. And he said in that type of relationship, it can be broken depending on how you operate. Now, God's never gonna break, but if you operate in it God's way, you get the right people in your life, the enemy's gonna try to break it,

but it's not gonna be quickly broken. It's gonna take a lot of effort. And that's what we're talking about today. We need those relationships. Yes, we need God. God created us to have relationships with others that strengthen us, that push us closer to Jesus. And so if you're ready and excited for this message, say yeah. You're gonna love, note takers, you're gonna love point number one. Come on, it's this. We choose to risk it for the biscuit. Come on. You know who came up with the titles and the points today. Here we go. So relationships, they can be risky. You are opening up your heart, opening up your life to other people. And so if relationships can be risky, then that means that we've gotta guard our hearts, check our hearts, and always be making sure that our hearts are pure. In Psalms 51.10, this is King David. He says, create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. And so the scripture is written by King David. And this is after the prophet Nathan comes to David and calls him out on some sin that he has in his life that is unrepentant.

And so he's telling David, you've got this sin that you need to deal with and that you need to confess. And so David could have responded in a number of ways. He could have defended himself. He could have said, what are you talking about? How dare you call out my sin? Or he could run to God and say, my friend, my brother in Christ has called out my sin and I'm actually gonna run to God and let God purify and change and cleanse my heart. This is what healthy and good friendships do. And it's risky at times to say that I'm gonna be vulnerable enough to share my life with others that they might actually see the things that I'm struggling with and they might actually see some of the really messy parts of my life, but that their goal in our friendship is to actually come alongside of me, not to call me out to make me feel bad, but to call me out to push me closer to Jesus. And this is the kind of friendship that we need and our response has to be the same way that we say, oh, you've pointed out something that I don't see or maybe something that I actually very well do know I'm struggling with in my life. And my response isn't gonna be to get offensive. My response isn't gonna be to get mad at you. My response isn't to get so sensitive

and just get my feelings hurt. Instead, my response is going to be, hey, thank you for pushing me towards Jesus. I'm actually gonna run to him and I'm gonna deal with this mess in my life. And it's actually now probably gonna make our friendship stronger because we've helped each other and now when you're struggling with something next season, now I can come alongside and say, hey, you remember when you called me on my mess and pushed me forward? I'm here to do the same thing for you. But relationships can feel risky at times. My prayer has always been, and I don't do this in all seasons well, but God, give me thick skin, but give me a soft heart. Give me thick skin so I'm not wearing my heart on my sleeve and getting so offended and so hurt and so bothered all the time, but give me a soft heart to where I can receive correction, I can offer correction, because this is how we have to function in our relationships because here's the hard thing about relationships. People are gonna hurt you. Yep. They're gonna walk out on you. They're gonna let you down. They're gonna say they were there for you and they're not. They're gonna hurt your feelings on purpose and sometimes not on purpose.

You're gonna hurt people in your life. You're going to not be there when they need you to. You're going to be the one that is off, you know, that has offended someone's heart. Relationships can be risky, but here's the really good news, that relationships are risky, but they are a risk worth taking. Come on. They are a risk worth taking. That's good. So I'll risk it so that I can walk in community with people. I'll risk it so that I don't have to walk through life alone. I will risk exposing my heart and my life to other people, knowing that in a season, they might not do the same for me, but I will risk it because, one, it's what I know God's called me to do, and two, because I just might gain something beautiful in the process and find some people that are gonna push me towards God and they're gonna help me. It doesn't mean that I'm not gonna guard my heart. It doesn't mean that I'm not gonna be cautious about the relationships that I let into my life, but it does mean that I'm willing to risk it, knowing that God might actually give me something beautiful in the process. Let's go. Hey, so for the past 21 days,

a lot of people in our church have been fasting, and fasting is just a spiritual discipline that God kinda introduced in the Bible where you give up things in your life that you don't necessarily need because all you do need is Jesus, and specifically, we fast from food from time to time, and so I don't know about you, but I've just been thinking and dreaming about the foods that I'm gonna eat when the fast is over, which is today. Come on, but how many of you have been blessed by the fast? Let's go, let's go. How many of you have lost weight? Don't put it all, you don't have to raise your hand. Don't put it all back on, but one of the things I've been thinking about, my wife and I have different taste buds, but one thing that we love together. are biscuits. I don't care if they come out of a can and pop, you know, you open them up and put them in the oven. You know, if somebody wants to make me some homemade biscuits, let's go. Put some butter on it, let's go. Put some honey on it. Put some gravy on it. Yes. Ain't nothing better than a biscuit. Okay?

There's nothing better than a godly friendship. Yeah. Let me say that one more time. There is nothing better than a godly friendship. Raise your hand if you've ever offended somebody. Raise your hand if you've ever been offended. Here's what the devil likes to do. He likes to look at you and I and he goes, hey, remember how that person hurt you? You can't let other people in because the next person's gonna hurt you too. Right. And so the person that hurts you, he'll use that to actually keep you from entering into the next relationship that could actually probably bring healing to you. Our pastors taught us this a long time ago. You cannot lead people like this. I'm just gonna keep you at a distance because if I let you in too close, you could hurt me. We lead like this. We love like this. And when you do, you let people in real close. And when they get in real close, they can hurt you. They can. But they could also be the greatest value to your life. Right. And all I'm trying to say is this, you need that. Don't let a past relationship that ended negatively keep you from entering into those new relationships.

You gotta risk it for the biscuit, man. It's worth it. It's worth it. And there's nothing better than a godly friendship. You know, one of our favorite things to see play out here at Rise Church are people that become friends that were complete strangers. I'll look at somebody hanging out, talking together, and I'm like, how do y'all know each other? And they're like, oh, we just met. How'd you met? Well, we started serving together here. We got in a group, we were in a group together, and now we're hanging out outside of church and doing meals together. We're in each other's homes. Complete strangers six months ago, and now close friends. Because God has a way of like multiplying the relationship. It doesn't matter that you haven't known them for 20 years. You've only known them for a short time, but God's like, I can speed that up. Yeah. And I'm just here to tell you, got a preacher in the house, let's go. Let's go. I'm here to tell you, God wants to do that in your life. If you'll let him, and you need it. You need that friend to be in your life that can encourage you,

and then you need to be that friend for somebody else. Jesus understood it was worth the risk. Okay, picture this. In a 24 hour period, 24 hour period, Jesus got betrayed by one of his closest followers, Judas. In that same 24 hour period, one of his other closest followers, Peter, denied that he even knew him. In that same 24 hour period, his other closest followers bailed on him completely. When he needed people the most, they weren't there. People that he had invested his life in. For three years, people that he had spent time with, people that he had loved, people that he had brought in close, they're gone. And you would have thought that Jesus would have resurrected from the grave and got out and been like, relationships stink. Don't let people in, this is what they'll do to you. But he didn't do that. It was too late for Judas. He had already taken his own life. But he went to Peter and called him out and said, I need you back in the game, Peter. I still love you. I haven't given up on you. I got a plan for your life. I want a relationship with you, Peter. He got the other guys that had bailed on him. Guys, let's go get back in the game.

Because relationships are important. This is what Jesus said about relationships, John 13, 35. All people will know that you are my followers by how you love each other. Meaning the lost world is gonna look on at how we do life with each other. And that's how they're gonna know we're different. I've heard people say this before, drives me crazy. Well, I love God, but I don't need to go to church. Technically, they're right. You can love God. and not go to church. You can love God and have a real relationship with God and not go to church. You can. But I would just say, why would you not want to? Because if you love God, you should love God's people. Because God's people are the church. This is just a building. We gather as the church. When we all leave here today, this will still be a building. We will be the church going out into the world. And it's how God's people get together and love each other that will cause the lost world to look on and go, oh, they must be Jesus followers. Like, the world should be jealous of our relationship with each other. Like, they should look on with envy and go, golly, those people actually care about each other. Like, they actually talk nice about each other.

Like, when you talk about, like, what did you do on the weekend? And everybody's sharing their plans, and you go, I went to church. Like, you got out of bed on that cold day and went to church? Why? Because I love God, and I want to be around his people, and I like the people that I serve with. You talk about getting in a group, and they go, what are you doing Tuesday night? You want to go, we're gonna go up, blah, blah. No, I got my small group. I'm gonna get around my people. You mean the people that you saw on Sunday? You just saw them two days ago, and you're going, yeah, I just love them. What are you doing Friday night? Well, I'm watching so-and-so's, and you know one of the biggest things I love is when you watch each other's kids so you can go on date nights or run errands or do anything like, or when you're bringing meals to one another. How do you get all that? How do you get? You got to get around people. Right. You got to risk it. You got to let people in.

You got to let them in. Yeah. You got to let them in, and listen to me, listen. I'm telling you, you need it more than you know. You need it more than you know in your life, and there is somebody in our church that needs you. It's worth it. It's worth it. How will they know? By how we love each other. Right. Point number two is this. We choose to be in it to win it. So Pastor Adam shared last week that it's often a fight in our life to continue to pursue God, right? Some of you might feel right now like you are in the fight of your life to keep faith, to keep connected to the body of Christ, to keep pursuing God, and the really good news is you don't have to do the fight alone. God has never called you to try to figure out this battle all on your own. He gives us the church, and he gives us people to fight alongside of us, and so we're gonna look at a story in the Bible, in the book of Exodus, and I kind of want to set up for you what's happening in the story, who's the characters, and then I'm gonna get to the main point,

and so we're in the book of Exodus. This book is the exit of the Israelites, and they are leaving slavery that they have been in from the Egyptians, and they are headed towards the promised land, the land that God has laid out for them, and so they are on a hard journey. They've been in slavery for years. They've gone through a really hard season. They are tired. They are vulnerable. They are exhausted. They are hungry. They're tired of wandering around. They just want to land and get planted and rooted in their future home, and so it's been a really hard journey. They've complained a lot along the way, and so we have our characters we've got here in the story. We have Moses, and Moses is the leader. He is the one that they are following out from slavery into the promised land. We've got the Israelites. They've been in captivity, but now they're free, but they are wandering in the wilderness, and then we've got a couple of other people here. We have Aaron. Aaron is Moses' brother. We have her. Her is Moses' friend.

We have. Her's a dude. Her's a dude. We've got Joshua. He's the leader of the army, and then we have the Amalekites now. Another enemy of the Israelites is now coming on the scene in Exodus 17, and so what's happening right now is that the Amalekites begin to attack the Israelites, and so they're exhausted. They're fighting, and they just want to be done with it, and they're questioning Moses every single step of the way, questioning if he's the leader, questioning if he really heard from God, and so they've just seen this beautiful miracle. They've seen this beautiful miracle where Moses takes his staff, and he hits it on a rock, and water pours out so that they're not thirsty any longer, and they're still grumbling, and they're still complaining, and so we get to this battle, and the Amalekites come, and they begin to fight, and so Moses goes on top of the mountain, and God gives him a battle plan. He gives him this supernatural strategy, and he says as long as his arms are up, they begin to win the battle. As long as his arms down, they start to lose. What a wild thing, right? Can you imagine being Moses in this moment? Like, oh gosh, they're winning,

and now they're not winning, but this is what they're experiencing in this moment, but what happens in this story. is that Moses starts to get tired. Like he physically just begins to get exhausted. And so here's where we see that God's supernatural provision of an incredible battle plan is actually coming together and partnering now with relationships, Exodus 17. So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went to the top of the hill. And as long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning. But whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. And when Moses' hands grew tired, they, Aaron and Hur, took a stone and put it underneath him and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side and one on the other, so that his hands remained steady till sunset. And Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword. And so we see God's power at work in such a really cool, incredible way. But yet we see how God used relationships to actually sustain the battle plan until they were able to be victorious. And so Moses starts to get physically tired. He couldn't do it alone. Now could God have supernaturally sustained Moses' arms the whole time?

Absolutely. But he chose to get really creative and actually use friends to help supernaturally sustain him so that he could see the battle through until the end. And so let me touch on a couple of quick things here. First, Moses was an incredible leader, an incredible leader who saw visions from God, who heard clearly from God, yet he got tired. And so some of you are in here today and you're, I'm a leader and I'm a Christian and I'm a follower of God, yet I'm so tired and you feel like that's like a bad thing. We're all gonna get exhausted. We are all gonna get tired at moments. We're all gonna feel weary. Moses didn't sin in this moment. He wasn't doing anything wrong. He just simply physically could not hold his arms up any longer and so he needed people to help sustain him. You need people and Moses wasn't alone. And the moment that his arms started to get shaky and his arms started to get tired, he had two people on each side that could tap in and say, we're here to help you. They were not there to kick him while he was down. They weren't there to tell him, Moses, you better get it together, buddy, like get your arms up. I need you to get a little bit stronger.

They were actually there to say, oh, you can't do this anymore. That's okay, we've got you. We're gonna get on either side of you and we're gonna lift up your arms and we're gonna hold you up and we're not gonna leave you in the middle of the battle. We're not gonna leave you for a second. We're actually gonna stay and we're gonna see it through until the end. You need people in your life that aren't gonna run when your life gets hard. They're not gonna run when things get messy. They're not gonna run when you get tired and grouchy and uncomfortable to be around. They're gonna stick beside you and they're gonna hold up your arms. And so here's what I want us to notice here is that the victory of the people depended on Moses' arms being raised. That was the battle strategy, right? That was the battle plan from God. As long as his arms are raised, they're gonna have victory. But Moses' raised arms depended on Aaron and her. They depended on his relationships. And so the strategy that God had was supernatural, yet it was backed up by these amazing relationships, by these two men of God that stood beside their friend. And victory was only going to happen

because Moses had people in his corner. Last week, we needed some people to hold up our arms. Really like every week, we need people to hold up our arms. Like this is life right now. And we didn't just like tap on each other and say, I need you and you need me. We call our friends. We call our friends and say, hey, we're feeling a little down. We're feeling a little discouraged. We need people. We have an incredible staff that holds up our arms every single day of the week. We've got people in our corner that when we get tired and when we get weak, they are there to hold up our arms. Aaron stood with Moses. Her stood with Moses. They didn't stand at a distance. They stood side by side in complete proximity with him, close to him, close to where they probably saw the sweat on his brow from how hard the battle was. But they did not leave him for a moment. There are moments in your life where your faith is gonna be weak, where you don't know how to pray anymore, where you don't know how to move forward. And you need people who are gonna say,

I can pray for you. I've got faith for you. I'm here to jump in the battle with you. I'm not gonna leave you alone. I'm gonna walk with you every single step of the way. Some of you are fighting the hardest battles in your life and it's killing you right now because you've got the wrong people on your side. And you've got people who are criticizing you. You have people who are actually pulling your arms down instead of pushing. your arms up, and you are not gonna make it through the hardest battles in your life if you don't get people on the side of you to help push you forward, to help strengthen you in the hardest moments, and also, I'm telling you, if I hear one more person say, I don't need a small group, I will absolutely lose my mind. You know why? You don't wanna see it, you do not wanna see it. Because maybe in this moment, you don't need somebody to hold up your arms. Maybe you're doing great right now, maybe you're feeling strong, maybe you've tapped into the strength of God, but there are people in this church that are dying right now, and they barely have faith to get out of bed and to get into this house, and you've got something inside of you that can stand on either side of them

that can lift up their arms, that can push them towards Jesus, and so for the love of God, lay down your pride, lay down your selfishness, and get your butt in a group and begin to be something for someone else that they need in their life. This is how the church is meant to function. You need people, but you also get to be that for someone else, so quit thinking about yourself. Stop thinking about what you wanna do with your schedule and say, I'm gonna get in a group, I'm gonna help somebody else, I'm gonna lift up their arms, I'm gonna care about the church of Jesus Christ, and I'm gonna build it up, and I'm gonna be in someone else's corner, and in the process, you might just gain something beautiful for your life. Get in a group. Begin to help somebody. Be their person. Hi, rest. I get that talk about once a week, so. We like to say sometimes Pastor Rebecca will kick you in the butt, and then I'll just come rub on your shoulder, so let me rub on your shoulder a little bit. Let me actually, everybody in this room just take like a minute. Online family, I love that you watch online.

If you're in Jacksonville, Florida, and are able to be in the room, we need you in the room, we need you in the room, because we're not gonna know what's going on in your life if we're never around you, and we never see you. So don't just get in a room on Sunday, also get in a group. If you're outside of Jacksonville, Florida, find a church home that you can plug into. Keep watching us, please. We'll keep pouring into you. Find a church home. Men and women in the correctional facilities, find some people. They're there, they are there. Might be hard to find them, find them. Be an encouragement to them. Let them be an encouragement to you. Let's all get back on the same page, all of us. Proverbs 17, 17 says a friend loves at all times, the right friend, a true friend, a godly friend. They love at all times. Here's what that means. Through the good, through the bad, through the really, really ugly. Now here's why some of y'all haven't got in a group yet. You're like, well, I'm not going in a group because I don't wanna tell people about the sin in my life. We don't do that, okay?

Eventually, you will build a friendship with somebody. And in that friendship, trust is gonna grow. And when trust grows, then you're gonna tell somebody about sin that you're struggling with. Sin that keeps kicking you and taking you out. And you hear, I know what you're thinking. You're like, well, I could never tell anybody about that. Okay, and then you'll stay stuck. The Bible is clear in James five that when we confess our sins, we find healing. We find strength, we find victory, but it's gotta be the right person. And when you find that right person, they're gonna love you. They're gonna hear the deepest, darkest mess and sin of your life. They're not gonna judge you. They're not gonna run and tell other people. They are gonna build you up, strengthen you, encourage you. They're gonna remind you of the grace, mercy, and forgiveness of God. Come on, a true friend, they love at all times. And a brother, a sister in Christ, they are born for a time of adversity. Meaning God formed them, got them ready, put all their stuff together, and then put them in your life so that when you went through adversity, God's like, I got a brother for you. I got a sister for you.

You're not gonna walk through this alone. When you're going through hell on earth, you got somebody that can come alongside you. They can't change your situation. They can't fix it. But they can walk with you through it to let you know you're not alone. They can remind you of the things that you're forgetting. When the enemy's lying to you, they can speak truth to you. And we need that. We need that. I like to picture, I'm a former youth pastor, so I like to picture Moses going up on top of that mountain and he's like, God is messing with me. If I keep my hands up, we win the battle. If I put them down, we lose. And so Moses is like, let me just see if this works. Whoa! Right? But then his arms get tired. Smartest man in the world knew, I'm gonna need people. Moses knew it. Jesus knew it. I hope you know it. Get some people in your life. Pastor John, then come up and help us close this out just so they don't think we're yelling at them. Let me give you this quote. I heard a pastor say this years ago. You've probably heard me say it

if you've been around here long enough. You've heard somebody else say it. The quote goes like this. Show me your friends, and I'll show you your future. And if you're here right now and you're like, but I don't have any friends. If you stay that way, I'll tell you what your future is. You're gonna get knocked down by something in life and you're gonna stay down. Or you're gonna try to get back up and maybe you're not gonna get back up. Or you're gonna try to get back up and make it and then it's gonna hit again. You're gonna struggle. You show me your friends and you go, well, these are my bros, these are my guys. I've known these guys for like 10, 20 years. I would say, are they pushing you to Jesus? Are they pursuing Jesus? No, no, but they're my boys. It's only a matter of time before you fall back. You show me your friends. These are my friends that I serve with at my church. These are my friends that I'm in a small group with. These are my friends that, and they know what's going on in my world and I know what's going on in their world. I'm gonna show you your future. It's towards Jesus. Does it mean it's gonna be perfect?

No, you're gonna struggle. You're gonna fall, you're gonna get knocked down. But because you got the right friends, you're not gonna stay down. Right. Now from time to time, some friendships that were strong will fade, that happens. God is faithful to provide new friends. It's a good God. Yeah, yeah. If you need friends, the Bible says you need to show yourself friendly. You're gonna have to put yourself out there a little bit. Right. You're gonna have to risk it for the biscuit, guys. Okay, listen to me, listen to me. I'll let you have one friend outside of Rice Church, one. Choose wisely. But for many of you, you just need to get in a group. That's where you're gonna build relationships. Say this Tuesday night, we're gonna have sisterhood right here in the auditorium. There are gonna be 150 plus women. All that looks like is y'all are gonna gather together in a large group assembly. You're gonna worship together. My wife's gonna kind of open up, share some things with you. And then you're gonna break into small groups all across this building. Some of you are gonna get to see rooms in our church

that you've never seen before. You're just gonna spread out all over the campus. And you're just gonna get in a small group of about 12 ladies where you just encourage one another. And then the following Tuesday, we're gonna do that for the brotherhood. And we don't have as many, we won't have as many men here as the women because the women always dominate. Okay, so step up men, let's go. But it's not a competition, but I wanna win. And we're gonna gather with over 100 men in here. And we're gonna be together, large group assembly. We're gonna worship. I'll share some things. And then we're gonna break into smaller groups. We got groups that meet together and eat together. And you're like, I like eating. I don't like talking, but I like eating. Just make sure you always have a bite of food in your mouth and you never have to say anything. We got dog walking groups, no cat groups. We don't have time for that. There is a group for everybody. Absolutely, yeah. We've got three kids and our middle daughter, Naomi, she's 15 and she's just such a sweetheart. She's a really, really good friend. And she's what I like to call a show-upper. Like Naomi shows up for people.

She doesn't have a job, she doesn't have money, she doesn't have her own car, yet somehow that girl shows up for everybody. You've got something you need her to be at, she's gonna be there. She shows up for her friends. But what she also has is this really unique ability to walk in a room and she knows who's sad, who feels left out. She's always gathering other girls around him. I was like, who's this new friend that you have? It's really, it's a pastor heart that she doesn't quite realize yet that God's placed inside of her. But she's a show-upper. She is there for people. She's there for her friends when they're struggling. She's there for her friends when they're celebrating. She shows up for them. She actually has a friend that was awful to her last year and they're best friends this year because this girl said, you've pushed me to be a better person. So if my 15-year-old daughter can show up for people, can be an encouragement to them, can push them close to Jesus, so can you. And so my challenge today is sign up and show up. Sign up for a group and show up for a group. Be a show-upper. Maybe you show up this week and you're like,

I actually didn't really like that group. That's okay, we'll run it again next week. We'll get you in a different one. You let us. We got some weird people in our church. Yeah, you know, there's over, there's over 1,000 people in our church, though. You didn't like that circle, try another one. There's a lot more circles, but there is a group for you. It might take you a season to get one that you really feel connected with people, but sign up and show up. If you wanna sign up for a group, you can tap your phone on the tap plate in front of you. You can open up the Church Center app and you can view every single group that we have available for you. If you can't figure that out and you're totally clueless, come to the Hope Wall out in the lobby. Our team will help get you registered for a group, but they're gonna kick off this week. We're gonna see God move in an incredible way, and I don't want you to look back in 10 weeks and say, man, I missed out on this incredible season of groups because I was too tired, too lazy, too stubborn, too whatever to get connected. Get in a group. I wanna see you there. Amen.