Started From the Bottom

What is up, CBG? So good to be with you today. If you're a guest, my name is David. I'm one of the pastors here at Church by the Glades. I've been around for a minute, so it's good to hang out with you every single Sunday morning. And so, what do we talk about? What do we talk about? Let's talk about your cute kids. We have some beautiful kids at Church by the Glades. We really do. So, if you're a parent or a grandparent or that aunt or uncle that's involved with your kids, we have some amazing kids. By the way, it's like, oh, look at the beautiful stock photography, these random. These are actually the staff kids. We've had like just like a bunch of like new babies around the staff. My staff's taking that verse, be fruitful, multiply the heart. But aren't they beautiful? I mean, they're super cute kids. I feel bad for the first staff person with an ugly baby. What do we do? Because they're all beautiful babies. Having said that, if you are a parent, what do you want for your kids? You want them to prosper. You want them to succeed. You want them, yeah, to have goals, but to understand, to get to your goal, you don't just think about it, dream about it, you do something. You got a goal, you got to grind, right? You got to put in the work, got to persevere, right? You got to find a way to bring value, be the first one in, last one out. In fact, because most things in life, there's a progression or sequence. We tell our kids, you got to climb the ladder, got to climb the ladder. So two weeks ago, I started a conversation about a passage in the New Testament, and I used the ladder as a very simple prop. I want to bring back the ladder. I want to revisit that passage in just one moment, but I don't want you to turn there. I want you to turn to Judges chapter six, Judges chapter six. Say it textually loudly, Judges chapter. Six. So if you have your Bible, turn on your Bible, open up your Bible. If not, I've got this giant billboard-sized LED behind me. We'll put the verses up there. Maybe take a screenshot and go back some time today and read Judges chapter six, and I have a little bonus homework for you. But this idea of I want our kids to prosper, do well, you got to climb the ladder. Because most things in life, there's this journey you go on. So, maybe your little one, he or she's a good athlete. Man, they're fast, good reflexes. Oh, yeah, he has a strong arm. She has a good crossover, and she's a punk kid just playing like a little kid, rec league. And then after that, maybe they get really good, and they're playing at middle school, and they excel, and you're like, man, you got to do the work, do everything the coach asks more. And maybe you get them a coach, or they

do travel sports, and they make JV, then they make varsity, and maybe they do so well climbing the ladder of athletic success that they get that D1 scholarship. Now, they're not playing for money yet. They're not in the league. About 1% of athletes in college ever play in the NBA or play in the NFL. But, man, they're doing good. They went through the steps. And almost everything in life, we tell our kids, you got to climb the ladder. Academics, you got to climb the ladder. I want to learn a new language. I want to learn Portuguese. You start with what? Portuguese I, then Portuguese II, and Portuguese III. In grad school, I had to learn Greek. The new test was in Greek. So, I took Greek I and Greek II, and then I got really confused after that. It's a hard language. Everything, everything. So, you never start here, right? You know, business, you don't graduate college, and all of a sudden, they make you the executive vice president of a major corporation, unless your daddy owns a major corporation. And then, it's not the best thing for you because you're ill-equipped. You're not prepared, right? It's probably not going to go well. You got to kind of grind. You got to get so — let's think about the spiritual life. I want to talk to you about, yes, your career, and yes, your academics, and yes, your athletics, and yes, your relationships. But the faith journey begins, begins with the recognition we all fall short. We don't measure up. You stay in Judges chapter 6, but in Romans chapter 3, the apostle Paul says, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And the Greek word, I do know this from my Greek, the Greek word there for all means all. So, turn to your neighbor and say, I didn't know I was sitting next to a sinful person. Turn to your neighbor, I didn't know I was sitting next to a sinful person, a lawbreaker, right? And guess what? So are they. It's all of us. It's the best person you know. It's the worst person you know. We're all in the same sin boat. How bad can it be if it's all of us? Well, actually, the Bible says sin is cosmic treason. It's a spiritual disease. It separates us from relationship with a holy God. In fact, in Romans chapter 6, it says the wages of sin is death. It's kind of scary, Pastor. What do you mean? What happens if I die? What dies due to my sin? Well, your peace dies, your purpose dies, your relationship with God dies, you die eventually physically, then you die spiritually. That's really bad news. There's some bad news in your Bible. But guess what? The Bible has some bad news, but the bad news is just in the Bible to show you by perspective the greatness and the gravity of how good the good news is. In Romans chapter 5, I promise when we get to judges, Romans chapter 5,

it says, but God demonstrated his great love for us in this, why we were still sinners. Christ. died for us. The Holy One, the perfect One, the Son of God, died in our place, and you can receive salvation through Christ. If you've never ever done that in 21 and a half minutes, there'll be prayer partners at the edge of the stage. They would love to help you navigate your personal relationship with God, decision through Jesus Christ. And you can walk out of this environment today knowing things are cool between you and the Heavenly Father. That you're forgiven, you're accepted, and you're qualified for heaven. Just don't even know what to say, they do. They'll show you some promises in God's Word. God always speaks truth. And you leave this day saved. And you might say, okay, all right, so if I do that, or if I did that back when, I did that, you know, some time in the past, I guess it's a journey. I guess after that, when I'm saved, I start down here, because I was a sinful person, but I gave myself to Christ, and I start to climb the ladder. I start to climb the ladder to earn God's grace. I climb the ladder to earn God's love. So I guess, I don't know, I start reading my Bible a little more.

I start praying with more diligence, I guess. I start to go to church. By the way, that is a good thing. Are you surprised I'm an advocate of going to church? If you go to a Bible-based church, a Christ-centric church, here's a crazy thing. You don't just live better. There are studies that show you live longer. I found, this is crazy, I found, this is not from a Christian institution, I found from an Ivy League university, a multi-year study that found that people that attend church on a regular basis, at least once a week or more, live on average seven years longer. They don't even know the reasons why. They're not sure, is it the health habits Christians tend to practice, or is it just the synergy of community? Seven years! So you're going to church, right? I'm serving, I'm volunteering, I'm bringing the tithe. Oh my gosh, I'm being generous, right? I'm doing all these things, so I do all these things long enough. If I serve and volunteer, if I sacrifice, eventually I'll get to the top and I'll be worthy of God's love. I'll earn his grace, I'll earn, right? And that sounds really good,

but I think here's the one place in life that is not the way it works. So if you missed two weeks ago, I rolled out one of my favorite passages. I promise I'm getting the judges. Ephesians chapter one, Ephesians chapter one, on the screen right now. I won't reread the whole thing, but man, take a screenshot of that, take a note in your mind, and sometime this week, please, please, please, read Ephesians chapter one, especially if you're frustrated or you fail or feel insecure or feel like, man, I'm just not crushing the Christian life by fall. If it's climbing the ladder, man, I'm way down there in some low rung. This says, it uses a term, how we are viewed by God in the heavenly realms, in the heavenly realms. Say it with me, one, two, three. Heavenly realms. Term shows up five times in this little letter in the Bible. It means if you could see yourself the way God sees you from heaven. You feel like you're a loser, you feel like you're a failure, you feel like I, and some of us grew up in churches,

we were told that. I hate to criticize other churches and other pastors, but some of us grew up in churches where pastors told you on Sunday, if you could see yourself the way that God sees you, the wicked person you are, the sinful person you are, or the reprobate and the wretch that you are, if you could just see that, and you walked out of church feeling bad about yourself because you knew some of that was true. But I like to politely and respectfully challenge that because in Ephesians chapter one, written to Christians back in the day, and they were as flawed and messed up as we are, that's not what it says. It says things like that. Look at some of the, I won't read the whole thing, but just some of the words, the language describing someone from God's point of view in the heavenly realms that God sees you as a saint. God sees you as blessed. God sees you as chosen. God sees you as adopted. If you're a Christian person, you're a God's spiritual son. You're his royal daughter, holy and blameless,

redeemed and forgiven. Based on, this happens the moment you're saved. Whether you were saved 18 years ago, 18 months ago, or in 18 minutes. So based on this, I think God sees us here, not there. You're no longer that lowly sinner saved by, you're now, this is your new position, your new identity, your new identity in Christ. When I say this, shout the word identity. Identity. In the heavenly realms, if you could see yourself the way God sees you, he sees someone wonderful, someone powerful, someone purposeful. He sees a person of great value. You were worth Jesus to him. It's an incredible idea. So it might beg the question, well, David, if God already sees me up here, why do I just go ahead and do the things I wanna do? Me, Sunday morning, truth be told,

I watched that fight last night. I like to sleep in, it'd be nice. Right, there's some things the Bible says I shouldn't do, but I wanna do, right? I find them enjoyable. Giving money, praying, oh my God, why even bother? If God sees me over there, okay, very important idea, because I do believe we should do this stuff. I do believe we should read our Bibles. I believe we should share our faith. I believe we should volunteer. Serbian selfish. I think we should be generous. I think we should live a holy life. Why? Why? Why? Why? It's because of our position. Our practice flows out of our position. It's not to earn God's love. It's because you already have God's love. It's not to earn God's grace. It's because you already have God's grace. It's not hoping you make the bar. It's because you have. You see, what we don't understand and pastors don't preach enough is this. How radical the transformation is that happens in our life, spiritually speaking, from the heavenly realm. The moment you say yes to Jesus, I don't care how messed up, how jacked up you are. The moment you come in here, you're still hungover from last night, but you got here and you come talk to your prayer partner and you're saved. And in that moment, you're saved. You pray that Romans 10, nine salvation prayer and receive the gift of salvation. The Bible says, yes, you're qualified for heaven. And yes, you're accepted by God. And yes, your sins are forgiven. But it also says there's a new you. Right then, a new you. Salvation is not a subtle, slight improvement, a better version of you. It says in Romans chapter six, you became a new man. You became a new woman. The old person in Christ, dead and buried. But a new man, new man in the image of Jesus is now seen from the heavens.

The righteousness of Christ now applies to us. It's not just a transformation, it's a transaction. Jesus took my sin and God now sees his righteousness in me. New man, new man. If that's not crazy enough, it says in 2 Corinthians chapter five, verse 17, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature, a new creature. The old things have passed away and behold, all things are new. Stay with me. It says there are new things happening because I'm a new creation or I love the translation, there's a new creature. See, here's what makes sense. Here's why I change. Every creature has a unique nature. And the nature of the creature drives its behavior, right? Even creatures are kind of the same, like a blue whale and a white shark, they both live in the ocean, but they're not the same creature, right? Because one is a blue whale and one's a white shark. They have different natures, very different behavior. Like giant blue whale, they eat krill in small microscopy stuff. White shark eats you. Close relatives, a mountain lion and a house cat. But different creatures with different natures. It's so profound, the nature. I'll illustrate this way. You go home after church, you walk in your front door and you're surprised to find an 800-pound grizzly bear in your living room. I don't mean some grizzly bear that escaped from the circus, like a wild grizzly bear. By the way, if you're watching online, we don't really have grizzly bears in South Florida, so no one's thinking it's going to happen. Pretend it did. How do you feel? It's an apex predator. You're like, oh my gosh. You're not thinking, should I pet it? No. You're like, because it's a grizzly bear, its nature is a predator, he looks at me like lunch. Now, same scenario, different creature. You walk into the same living room after church, same day, and the neighbor's golden doodle is there in your house for some reason. The golden doodle, where was he? Oh, for the grizzly bear, oh, right? Golden doodle's cute and fluffy and nice. You're not frightened, they might lick me to death, right? Every creature, every, see, when you are saved, you become a new creature. You mutate. You are a new spiritual species. That all messed up, sinful, selfish, addicted person no longer exists in God's eyes in the heavenly realm. You are a new creature. I'm a new man. You're a new woman. I have a new nature. This is so critical. See, nature drives everything. Nature drives my behavior. Multiply my behaviors, it manufactures my habits. My habits construct my character, and my character is a drive to my destiny. See, yes, God sees you here. But when your practice starts to match up, when you start to do the things, obey, practice, you serve, you volunteer, you forgive, you practice this stuff on Monday, not just on Sunday morning. You start living for

God with all you have. You start to flesh out your new identity in Christ. New man, new woman, new nature. All of a sudden, the synergy between that becomes very powerful in your faith journey. Let me show you an example. Finally, we're at Judges chapter six. Our hero in the story, his name is Gideon. Gideon. When I say three, shout the name Gideon. One, two, three. Gideon. Gideon's a cool story. One of the coolest heroes in the Old Testament. And he shows up because things are bad. A lot of brokenness and dysfunction. I'll quickly read. And I want you to see how bad things are for God's people. Why? They're God's chosen people. They should be enjoying the promised land. They're not living like it. They're being seduced by pagan deities. They're vicious. They're selfish. They're sinful. And guess what? If you tell God, hey, God, I'm cool. I got it. He'll respect your free will. You want to do work and finances and relationships and sex your own way, cool, go for it. I won't protect you. I can't bless you. Anyways, here we go, here we go, here we go, here we go. Again, the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. For seven years, he gave them in the hand of the Midianites because the power of Midian was so, sorry, it's over here, I'll show you. It's over here. Was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters. This is bad. Shelters themselves, they had to live in the mountain cliffs and caves and strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, now Amalekites, another Eastern people invaded, good job, invaded the country. They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way from Gaza. They didn't spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep or cattle or donkeys. They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count the men and the camels, so many bad guys. They invaded the land to ravage it. Way to read.

Verse six, Midian, so impoverished the Israelites, they finally cried out to God for help. So, bad. For seven years, bad. Better part of a decade. In fact, there's way more dysfunction than just those four. Dysfunction is pervasive. It is everywhere. So much brokenness. They are victims. They're enslaved. They're marginalized so much. Now listen, if that looks like you today, you're just a mess. In fact, you're a dumpster fire. Not judging, just saying, right? You got all this brokenness in your life. It paralyzes you. You're like, I don't even know where to start. Or maybe that's not you. Maybe a bunch of areas of your life are great. Like your finances are great, your job's great, and your marriage is great, but you have this addiction. You've been battling for years, and you try to keep it a secret, and you just can't get a victory in that one area. After a while, you get befuddled, immobilized, you're paralyzed. I don't even know where to start. I've tried everything before. I've tried. Maybe it is the marriage, right? The marriage, ooh, it's oof. I mean, you're not going to a divorce court, you've got kids, right, you build a life together,

but oh my gosh, he's on your last nerve. You know, there's no romance or attraction to him, and you're like, we'll just limp to the finish. I don't even know what to start with. I don't know what book to read, or I don't want to go to a counselor again. What do I do? Okay, what do you do? It's bad. It's bad. It's bad for you. Seven years bad. Imagine. I mean, they're living in caves. Imagine. Imagine how bad that is. What would happen in America if we had to go live in caves, right? The evil Canadians from the north attack us, right? And just kidding, you know. But you know, Canadians attack us, and things are so bad here in South Florida, you have to leave your neighborhood and your home. We all have to move to the swamps. We have to move to the Everglades. We're all making lean-to's out of sawgrass, and our kids are starving. We're eating water moccasins, bullfrogs, alligators, and mosquitoes. I don't know what to do. It's terrible. There's starvation, right? They're displaced. And so God says, okay, I need an agent of change. I need a hero.

I need a chain breaker. God always changes by choosing someone. And so God could choose anyone on the face of the planet, but he chooses Gideon. He chooses Gideon. It's awesome how he does this. So verse 11 right now. Verse 11's on the screen. I love it. It has that supernatural encounter. The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Oprah. That woman is everywhere. Belonged to Joash the Abyssarite, where his son Gideon was, ready, threshing wheat in a winepress to keep from the Midianites. The Lord turned to him and said, Lord, turn to him and said, because you must be proactive. That was good. A little late, but good. Must be proactive about your freedom. Yeah, good. Got to make an action step. If you have all this dysfunction, God's not going to go, okay, poof, you're fine. No, you got to cooperate. Got to make a move. Right? Right. Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand, and I'm not sending you. And you think he'd be like, oh my gosh, this is my moment. God chose me. This is incredible. Thank you, Mr. Angel.

I'm in, but no. Lord Gideon replied, how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire tribe. I love it. He said, oh, Mr. Angel, this sounds amazing. We need this. There's so much dysfunction, but me? I'm the weakest and the least, the least and the weakest. I love who God chooses. I love when God wants to make a change in the world, wants a chain-breaker, someone to change the trajectory of a family, right? Their history. No one stays married in your family. People are always broke in your family. No one gets a degree in your family for generations, but God says, mm, we're going to change it. And He picks someone we would not pick. He chooses someone we would not see, but God sees within you potential leadership, talent, opportunity. Opportunity he'll provide the resource in the moments if you'll say yes to your calling But here's here's Gideon like I I'm the wrong guy and God it's bad. Have you been painting? How bad? I don't know where to start God for seven years. The Midianites have oppressed them. They stole in our crop I'm living a cave. So where do we start quickly? Where do we start? We're I think I think we how about right here right here He's stuck. Let's get him unstuck when you have when you have a dysfunction pervasive in your life It immobilized you right? We got to get you moving. So why why why why why did God choose Gideon? Here's my theory. The Bible doesn't say what was he doing? We found him. He was threshing wheat in a In a winepress. I love biblical detail I won't give you the whole description Threshing wheat wheat what you had to do with the kernel of grain to make it something your family could bake into bread, right? There's a separation process but bottom line is this it takes space

You have to have a spacious environment lots of wings you throw in the air and it separates the parts It's not nutritious from the part that is blah blah blah anyways, but he's in a winepress Why in a small little winepress? It's a inadequate environment for the task at hand Why if he goes to an open space the Midianites will see him and come take the grain and kill him So he's in a inadequate environment, but he's trying It's not the best plan But he's doing something. He's doing something. He's moving. He's moving say the word moving one, two, three moving He's moving. He's doing something. I thought about this dad's why why do you do it? Why why would he why would he try this? It's not gonna produce a lot of brebbies. He's gonna my guest is living in a cave for seven years No harvest in seven years He's there and finally sees maybe his little girl and she's so thin right now and she's so lifeless and emaciated He says, you know her tummy growls again. So I got to do something. I can't let my kids die The enemy occupies the village, but I think I know I can scrounge some grain I think I can't go to open place, but at least the winepress I get he's doing something Do something to lead your family? Do something to lead the people you love and so God says who I'm gonna pick him, but look at this Look at this guy right here. Look at Gideon angels. Look at him. Look at him. Look at him. That's gonna work very well He's doing something You're praying for God to bless you But you live in your mama's basement playing video games all the time eating Captain Crunch Let's get you moving. Let's get you moving, right? Right? That's not you but financially you're a train wreck financially, right? I mean marriage is fine, right kids are okay. You look how you look good because you buy things you can't afford But you have two mortgages on your house Got a student loan that's eating your lunch right now. You got maxed out credit cards got doctor bills You haven't paid you're so stressed out right now. That's what we do Financial Peace University One thing we teach you is where do you start? How do I get moving? Where do I begin? I'm overwhelmed by this Let's get you moving. God does not bless sedentary people God looks for someone who's working and moving. Let's do something. Let's do something All right, why are the neighbors still hiding out letting their kids die fear? Fear will mess you up

Someone is afraid what someone with you is gonna think if in five minutes you come forward to a prayer partner Someone won't get baptized. Well, my boys gonna think about me, right? fear Fear doesn't come from God So what's the antidote for fear? What's the antidote for fear? Some preachers say faith and fear can't live in the same heart at the same time Politely I disagree because every time God calls we make a big decision I got both faith and fear like fighting it out of my heart every I got both those emotions taking place Says in John chapter 4 that perfect love casts out fear that that's good But I think the best antidote the antithesis of fear is truth Truth is powerful stuff Jesus you will know the truth and truth will set you free truth always emancipates you So when you come back to our church, listen, we traffic in truth I will do my best to always preach truth to you. I will preach the truth of God's Word. I won't ever judge you I'm gonna say it. It is not my job to judge or condemn anybody. I'm not qualified for that That's God's job and God's alone, but we'll tell you the truth in love In fact truth is so powerful, but it's so rare. There's only a couple places. You always find truth well, what's the short list of people that tell you truth drunk people babies and Spanx and Pastor David I'm gonna tell you truth. All right Put behind that list and here's the truth about fear Something right now you're worried about and you're you're anxious about you're fearful of it's never gonna happen You're losing sleep. You're stressed out. You're irritable. We have ulcer beginning It's not gonna think about like 85% of things we worry about never manufacture or if they do the amount of angst we generate is Disproportional to how problematic the issue truly is Have I lost you? Truth through what is the truth of the situation if it unfolds I give an example of my personal experience. So at least and I was talking about fear. We flew Spirit Airlines back in October. Now, I'm not afraid of Spirit Airlines. It was a great experience. You worked your spirit. It was great. And I posted this on social media because there was like a little weather event happening.

We flew on October 9th. Hurricane Milton. And so, it covered the entire state. We were visiting my mom in North Georgia. We were going to fly out of Atlanta Airport back to Miami. You recognize your geography? I thought there's no way we're flying, right? We're checking our phones. The flight's not been canceled. We drive to Atlanta, go to the airport. They push it back an hour, push it back another hour. And finally, they say, green light. We're getting on the Spirit Air. We're going to fly. Now, Lisa's like, oh my gosh. Do you think we'll be okay? I'm like, honey, there's no one at the FAA going, you know, I think it's a 60-40 they make it. Let's green light it. That's good. I think it's okay. I think people at Spirit Air are going, oh, it's probably a coin flip, but let's go ahead and do this anyway. No! They are completely confident we'll be okay. Nothing to be afraid of. It was bumpy, but nothing to be afraid of. Amen? Turn to your neighbor and say, there's nothing to be afraid of. Perfect love casts out all fear. And so, his neighbors are afraid, but he starts moving. What happens then? Leadership, leadership. The call of God in your life will always manifest itself as leadership. And so, our boy Gideon, he starts to lead. He starts to climb the ladder. He starts to lead in small ways. By the way, he starts with his family. He starts with his family's household. There's idolatry in his own household. He cleans up his family first. And then we see him in small ways, in large ways. It becomes such a remarkable leadership story in your Bible that with a much smaller force, he dispatches the Midianites. He's outnumbered about a hundred to one. But a hundred and one with God on your side, you're in the majority. And he wins this incredible victory. After that, they ask him to be the leader of God's people for four decades. He's a judge. It means he's like the president of the Supreme Court. But he climbs the ladder and things begin to change. It begins to change. Now you're like, OK, David, I thought we said we don't have to climb the ladder for spiritual things. Well, we do and we don't. But God doesn't start with, hey, Gideon, you're down here. Look how terrible it is. What a loser you are. How in the world? Look, you're in a wine press trying to thresh wheat. Oh, that's so pathetic. Way back in chapter six, when the angel first shows up in verse 12, it says, when the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, the Lord is with you. Nothing about Gideon in this verse, in this time, looks remotely like a mighty warrior. He's a skinny, scared dad looking over his shoulder, threshing wheat, waiting for the

bad guys, watching his family die. But God sees in him potential. God sees power. God sees strength. God sees faith that Gideon didn't even know he possessed. God says, you're here. I'm looking for a hero. I'm looking for a catalyst of change. I'm looking for a change-breaker. I'm looking for a mighty warrior, and you're my boy. I promise you, when the angel said, the Lord is with you, mighty warrior, that Gideon did this number. You, you, you start here. This is your identity. This is your future. This is who God sees you in the heavenly realms. Start living like it. That's why I obey. That's why I serve. That's why I surrender. That's why I give. That's why I share my faith, because God sees me here. I'm a new creature. I'm not the old man with his selfishness, his sin. I'm a new man. With his brokenness, his bondage, his addiction, I'm a new man. Now, I gotta, I gotta work the steps. I gotta work the steps, but God sees me here. God sees me. Listen, all this sermon is about, smart people, is will you just believe? Will you believe? Will you have the courage to believe what God says about you, who you are in His Word? Says you can do all things. All things through Christ is your strength. It says if God be for you, who can dare be against you? It says nothing can separate you from the love of God. It says in all these things, we're more than conquerors. Can you believe what God says about you? And listen, Christian, let me flip the script. Ever think about what the enemy thinks about you? What the other side says about you? Even if you're trying, I get it. You're not crushing the Christian life, but you're sincere. You're trying to flesh this out. You're trying to work out these principles in your life. If you could just hear what the other side. Let me dad brag for a moment. So, I love all three of my kids. My youngest was my basketball player. My athlete still is. Zane's tall. He's 15. He plays for rec, and he plays for his school, and he plays for travel. But so, travel he does fine. His school he does really well. But when it comes to like City League here, Rec League, my gosh, he's LeBron James. He really is. It's so fun to have that kid. Like the team scored 40, he scored 20. And so, we played every team in the city twice. He's one of the Celtics, and we played every team. And the second time around, I just happened to walk by the coaches from the other team, and they were trash-talking my boy. No, in a nice way. They're dads. They're dads. They're like, man, number 30. That kid killed us last time. That kid, what do we do about him? Do we collapse on him? Well, if we do, he'll distribute the ball, right? If we leave him alone, you can't stop him.

I mean, he was good. They won the whole thing, City Championship. Zane hit nine outdoor free throws in a row to seal the deal. I mean, yeah. But hearing these dads talk about the problem my boy was for them, the enemy, right? I shouldn't confess this. I kind of made it my practice that every time before a game, I walked over by the other team's coaches just to hear what they were saying about Zane. You're not perfect with this. It's not all dialed in. You have your flaws, but my sister, you're walking with God. You're walking to your salvation. I'm so proud of you. And so, what you're doing, you're taking this on Sunday to Monday to the office, and the demons of hell are watching you going, oh my gosh, I don't want her this week. I don't want to cover her this week. I covered her last week. Oh my gosh, I'm bruised and beat up. I had the limp. I couldn't get out of bed all weekend long. Him, him, he's not perfect. Watch him. He's working his sobriety. He's been sober now for six weeks. I don't know. I don't want — I'm assigned to him. Here's my resignation. I can't do — hell. See me all living this life in such a way as a child of the King, as someone forgiven and chosen and redeemed and holy and blameless in the heavens. You're living this out. Oh my gosh, you're scaring the hell out of hell. You are making hell right now tremble. Man, hell, hell's doing shots and popping Xanax because of you. Because that's how powerful you are, how purposeful you are, how infused with God's goodness. You are gifted and you are called and you are equipped and you have the fruit of the Spirit. Live like it. Holy, blameless, a saint, blessed in the heavens with God's riches. Live like it. Redeemed, forgiven. Live like it, child of the King. Father God, this is our birthright in Jesus' name. We will live like it. As God's people say, together. Amen.