The Good Life ROI

Well, good morning Summit family. It is good to be with y'all this morning. Hey, by show of hands, how many of y'all stayed up for the whole game last night? My goodness. All right. So y'all may fall asleep. So I need everybody on your feet, everybody on your feet for the honoring and reading of God's Word. Not just so you may fall asleep. All right, y'all go ahead and turn to scroll to where Philippians 2 today versus 1 through 11. Let's go Canes. All right, the boys, the boys are going to do it. I know they are just like the Lord did it, right? All right. So verse 1, so if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourself. Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,

even death on a cross. Therefore, God is highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father. This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Y'all can go ahead and take a seat. Now we're continuing our series through the book of Philippians today talking about the good life, the good life and today we're going to talk about the ROI of the good life. Okay. Now last week Pastor Curtis did an incredible job. He did an incredible job with a strong message giving us two points that when Christ is your life death becomes gain and when death becomes gain life becomes mission and look just can we stop right now all those folks that came forward and prayed to receive Christ last week at all of our services. Can we praise God for them? It was amazing to see that. And look, I know that there are some of you that are here today. They probably prayed that prayer last week or maybe prayed it this week and we want to know that I want to walk with you in that some of our staff some of our elders some of our members here want to know that so please come and tell us because the Christian life was not meant to walk alone. We want you to be a part of what God is doing here and we want to walk with you through all God has for you.

Now, I'm going to assume some things about you today. So I want you to forgive me about that. But I think that they are probably very very true. Is your life getting the ROI that you desire? ROI just means return on investment. Are you getting the return of the investment of your life that you desire? Maybe it's material, maybe financial, maybe career, maybe relational, maybe physical. What is the return of your life that you were seeking to get at the end of it? You know, there's a story of a lady who worked for the IRS for 23 years. 23 years. She retired at age 51 in 1944. She never made more than $3,150 a year. Never received a promotion. Never got a raise for those 23 years. And at 51, she said, I'm done. I want a change. And so she retired and she retired with only $5,000 in her bank account. That was $5,000 in 1944. So today's money is about $87,000. Now, we know this. $87,000 is not enough to retire on. Right now, it's barely enough to buy a new car. And so we know that that's not enough. But she retired at age 51. And as she took her knowledge of studying the financial

statements of some of America's largest companies, she adopted and developed a buy-and-hold long-term strategy, which she held some stocks for over 50 years. And she invested all the dividends from those stocks, lived very frugally. And at the end of her life, which she lived 50 more years, at the end of her life, her portfolio was worth $22 million. So from $5,000 to $22 million, that means it grew 4,400 times. How many of you would take that on your investments today? Everybody in the room. We all would. We all would. Now, how many of you would take that on your relationship with God? How many of you long for that with your relationship with God? How many of you want more intimacy from God, more communion with Him, more fellowship with Him? or relationship with him, a deeper love from him, a deeper compassion from him. How many of you long for more from God and how many of you long to be used more by God? See, I believe each and every one of us came in here today longing for more. Maybe you want more knowledge about who God is. Maybe you want more understanding. Maybe you want more grace. Maybe you want more mercy. Maybe you want more love. Maybe you just don't know who Jesus is and your friend invited you

because they were gonna buy you lunch and you just want more free food. I think however you came in here today, you desire for more. And let me let you in on something. God does too. God does too. God has more for you. And I pray that you're like Ann Schieber and you're no longer content with the status quo and you wanna ask more from God by the time you leave today. So whenever we think about the good life ROI, Paul in this passage here gives us three stock tips. Three stock tips for this. The first is receive. Receive, that's stock tip number one. And we're gonna look at that through verses one and verse two. So I'm gonna reread that now for us. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Now, this is an if then statement. If you have received these things from Jesus Christ, then do likewise. I love that the second chapter opens up with what we have received in Jesus.

And I don't know where all of you stand with him today. I believe there are those of you in here that have surrendered your life to him, those of you that have not, and those of you that if you're honest with yourself, you really don't know where you stand with God. You know, I can tell where you stand with God by your response to him. Because I can tell what you received by how you respond. You know, how many of you in here are still paying off student loans by show of hands, student loans? That's a lot of you. And that's a lot of money. Now, what if somebody came up to you today and said, hey, how much you still owe in your student loans? Hey, let me pay that off for you. And they paid off your student loan completely. How would you respond to them? You would probably hug them. You would probably pick them up. You would probably cheer. You would tell everyone about them. You would take a picture with them, post that, tag them in it. And then you would tell everyone about this generous benefactor that has just paid off all your debt. Your response to them would be gratitude. Your response to them will be love.

Your response to them will be joy because you have just received a debt that you were supposed to pay and that they paid that for you. Now, on the other side, what if the debt collector of your student loan came to you and said, hey, you know how much you owe? And you told them how much you owe. They say, great. You don't have the rest of your life to pay that off. Now you have to the end of the month. And if you don't pay it off by the end of the month, we're gonna increase interest by 10% every month. You don't pay it off in full. How would you respond to them? You would weep. You would cry. You would beg them. You would barter with them. You would ask them, please spare me. Please don't do this. Please, you don't have to do this. See, how we respond to someone is based on what we receive from them. And so I can tell what you have received in your life from Jesus Christ by how you respond to him. See, now, by show of hands in here, how many of you, and I'm gonna ask you to be vulnerable, how many of you need encouragement, companionship, grace, empathy, and love today?

How many of you? So many of us. So many of us. That's why you came today, because we need that, right? There is a need. See, in order to receive, we have to see our need. In order to receive something, we have to see our need for it. Now, you may or may not know this, but there are bags of Lifesaver mints stashed across this whole campus. And I've stashed them for myself because the last thing I wanna do is breathe down horrible breath upon you when I talk to you every Sunday, right? My son somehow comes home with pockets full of them every weekend. I'm like, bud, why do you need 75 mints? And he's like, I don't know. And we find them everywhere, everywhere. So if you see a mint in his hand, just swat it out, all right? Please, I'm tired of finding them all over my house. But we have them because our breath just begins to stink, right? As we're here and we stay throughout the day and we have some tea or we have some coffee, it just begins to kind of go sour, right? Now, if somebody walked up to you and said, hey, would you like a breath mint? You may say, no, I'm good.

If somebody came up to you and said, hey, you. need a breath mint, what would you do? You would run to the far corner of this place. You would do what I do, you would hide. You would chew five of them up immediately. You would breathe in and out a hundred times until everything from top to bottom smelled and tasted fresh. You would, you would because nobody wants to have bad breath, right? But you're not gonna receive that mint until you understand your need for it, right? I don't like to chew mints. I don't, I don't like to have mints, but I do it because I don't want bad breath because I need it. Now, let me just say, for those of you that don't like to do mints, but you like gum, if you pull out a pack of gum and there are people around you, it is an unwritten rule that you offer them a piece, all right? Don't pull out a pack of gum and just shove it back in your pocket, all right? Man, that's rude, right? And Jesus sees that. If you pull it out and you only have, if you pull it out and you only have one piece, you better divide that piece up by however many people are around you, all right?

Now, the reason somebody offers you a mint is because you need it, right? They're not just trying to be generous because they would like to keep that mint for themselves. Believe me, I am that person, all right? But we do it because we need it. What need do you have in your life? What need do you see? See, I just had us raise our hands about how many of you come in here today and need encouragement, need love, need compassion, need fellowship with spirit. Do you see that need? And do you see that Jesus meets that need? See, the crazy thing about sin is sin separates us from God, who is our ultimate need. And so what we're left to do is we're left to just try to seek and find Him in things of this world. And none of those things will meet our needs. See, we won't receive anything until we see our need for something. And that need shows us that we are in need of Jesus Christ. And the beautiful thing about a need is everybody's got it. Everybody's got it. You can't think more highly of yourself than you should because you're in just as much a need as somebody else. You know, we judge everyone with bad breath and we may even talk about them when they're not around, right? And we might, but if you have bad breath too,

you can't say anything about them. And spiritually speaking, we've all got bad breath. And so we can't think more highly of ourselves than we do anyone else. That's what a need does. It levels the playing field. And that's what sin has done. It has leveled the playing field that we are all in need of Jesus Christ. We all need love. We all need encouragement. We all need comfort. We all need fellowship with the Spirit. And so do you see that need? And have you received from Jesus? Have you received his encouragement? Have you received his compassion? Let him love you and be what you need. See, what we need is not for something in this world, but for the one who created this world. Receiving the love of Christ means that we have to remove things that are not Jesus in our life. And that's our second stock tip today. Remove, remove. We get this from verses three and four. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourself. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Now, Paul builds on his argument here from verses one and two, moving from what we have received to how we complete his joy and share the mind as Christians. Now, did you know that Christians are supposed to be the most unified people group of anyone on the world? Anyone, anyone in the world, Christians are supposed to be the ones that are on the same team and on the same page and for each other and have each other's back. Because we did nothing to save ourselves and Jesus did everything to save us. We brought nothing to him, he holds nothing back from us. Yet we think we need to judge other Christians for not acting how we think they should, dressing like we think they should, looking like we think they should, driving like, thinking like, voting like, dating like, growing their hair like, talking like, living like how we think they should. And we judge people when they don't measure up to us and we condemn ourselves when we don't measure up to them. Stop that. Jesus didn't judge you or condemn you, so why are you doing that to yourself and others? Quit it. Who raised you? That's not what you're supposed to do.

Christians should be known more for what unites us, which is Jesus Christ and our need of him, than what divides us, which is our preferences, opinions, and self-righteousness. Now, I don't say this word around my six-year-old son, but I hate it. I hate it. I hate when Christians are not unified. I hate when we debate each other on social media or make a podcast tearing one another down. We look so petty and childish. It is the opposite of what Jesus said in John 13, 35, when he said, you will set yourselves apart as my disciples by the way you love one another despite your differences. See now, some things do require a response and hear me, there is a time and a place for that, but not all things and not most things. See, I wish, and my South Carolina roots are gonna show here, I wish the Holy Spirit could put a shock collar on all of us. And when we go to post or to say something that tears some other Christian down, the Holy Spirit could just shock us and tell us, stop it. Don't do that. We're better than that. And so I wish we could do that, but since we can't, since we can't do that,

then I believe Paul here gives us three things that what I call portfolio killers. They are what will kill the ROI of the good life in your life. You know, Charles Spurgeon says, self is the worst enemy a Christian has, because the biggest thing we need to remove is us. The biggest hindrance to the work of God in your life and the lives of those around you, it's not outside of you, it's you, it's us. We need to remove us. And Paul shows us how the first portfolio killer is selfish ambition, selfish ambition. This asks, how do I get ahead? How do I get noticed? This person thinks what I want and who I wanna be is more important than what you want and who you wanna be. So get out of my way or get run over. This mindset uses everything and everyone to achieve their view of success, no matter the cost, and no matter who they run over or hurt to get it. Everything that goes well is their glory and everything that goes wrong is someone else's fault. They are nothing without significance. And can I be honest with you? I have selfish ambition. And the bad thing is, is I use you to get it. I feel like I need to apologize to you, because I constantly compare myself to other pastors. I need the praise of other pastors.

Man, John, what God's doing at Capitol Hills. Man, John, Summit Church. God is doing incredible things. Man, John, you just gotta be in awe. And you know what I say? Oh man, yeah, we're just blessed and highly favored. You know, man, God is good. Man, God is kind. And what I mean is, no, no, John is good. And John is kind. And see, I want you to see me. I don't want you to see Jesus. I want you to see me through him, not him through me. And that, I feel like I need to say, church, I'm sorry for that. Because I have that desire in my heart that I want to be significant and I want to get ahead. You know, if this is you, if this is you, how do you feel? How do you feel? What are you working so hard to get and protect? Is having all the things that you have or the journey to achieve them really worth it? Does it feel as good or taste as sweet as you thought it would? Remove it, remove selfish ambition because you weren't made for you. You weren't made for you. D.L. Moody says, God sends no one away except those who are full of themselves. God sends no one away empty

except those who are full of themselves. The next portfolio killer is conceit. And conceit asks, how do I get noticed? And a conceited per person is a topper. It's a topper. We all know them and we all just want to shake them, right? Like you won't hurt anyone, but you'll shake the mess out of them, right, right? Now, a topper is someone that if you've had a good day, they've had a better day. You've got a good story, they've got a great story. You've had a bad day, they've had a worse day. You've been to a good restaurant, they've been to a better one. You met somebody great, they met somebody greater, right? They just have to top you. And again, I'm a topper. I am, I am and I hate it about myself. I really do. It's miserable when I do it. I hate it and I do it the most to my wife, if I'm honest. Like after five years marriage, we've been married 16 years now, I'm convinced that every morning when a married couple wakes up, all they do is fight over who had the worst night's sleep. That's all we do, that's all we do. We look and I say, hey, darling, how was your night of sleep? It was tough, I don't know if I slept good.

I'm like, what do you mean you don't know? It's you. Ooh, like either you slept good or not. She goes, I mean, I just tossed and turned and dreamed and stuff. I said, oh, oh, well, I'm 6'6". No bed is made for me. I've been sleeping diagonally in a bed since I was 16. And I played college football and my bones hurt whether I move them or not. So let's drink our coffee, right? In silence. Y'all need to pray for her. Pray for her. Because then I come home from work and I say, hey, darling, how was your day? Man, it was a long day. Oh, it was? What was long about it, darling? She goes, man, the kids were crazy today. I say, oh, oh, the kids were crazy today? Well, I've been dealing with crazy church folk all day. And I know it's not the same, but it's worse, right? And so y'all got to pray for her because I mean, she's just trying to share her heart and I'm like, no, my day's worse. It's bad, but we all are that way. We all do it. We all have conceit. And see, this person is constantly consumed

with recognition and affirmation. Is this what your life is about? How is that going for you? Because you have to feel lonely because nobody thinks you're as special as you do. Look, remove it. Remove conceit. You were not meant for you. And the third portfolio killer we see is self-absorbed. And we get that from Paul saying, looking at your own interest. Now, this is a scarcity mindset. This is driven by the belief that there is a limited amount of what you desire most in this world and you have to get it before someone else does. A scarcity mindset drives you to use people, hurt them, run over them and deceive them all just to get what you want and all to get there first. You want to get to the table of life first because you fear if you get there late, nothing will be left for you. This person is constantly comparing and checking reports on your competitors. You were consumed with the new. And if somebody has something that you don't or has been somewhere that you haven't been or gets an opportunity that you didn't, then you can't rest until you have something bigger and better and newer than they do. Does this describe your career?

What about your marriage? What about your friendships? Do you drive your employees or your spouse to the brink of exhaustion because you think there's only a limited amount of what you want most in this world? And if you don't get it, then you failed and your life is not secure or worth it? See, people like this are usually so stressed and they monitor their lives so closely that there's some coping mechanism in their life like alcohol or edibles or porn or adultery or that inappropriate relationship at work where you haven't crossed the line but you're standing right beside it. So you need something in your life that you can control and find release in because you are so caught up in yourself. C.S. Lewis says a man wrapped up in himself makes a very small parcel. If this resonates with you, how is your sleeping? In fact, what is your relationship like with your kids right now? Because kids are never convenient and they will never serve your preferences. If this is you, you've probably already checked your email or text 20 times this morning. So you're so caught up in that scarcity that you have to get it before nobody else does. Let me ask you, do any of these three

describe the life that you are living? Is it the life you wanna live? Would you really call this the good life? Then why are you? See, Paul gives us the way, the way through this and he tells us that it's found in humility. In fact, Paul mentions humility several times in these 11 verses. Humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less. Humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less. It's looking at your life and realizing that wherever you are or whatever you have has been given to you by God. Not just for you, but for others around you. Do you realize that? How horrible would it be if God made you successful for you? Do you think the world really needs more of you? No, you can't even stand you. The world doesn't need that. That's not why. God made you successful, given you the intellect and the connections you have and equipped you with the character, knowledge, and vision and skills that you have for the people around you. See, God gave you all the things that you possess to be used by him through you to look out for the interest of others and consider others more significant than yourself.

See, we see that everything, everywhere God has us and God has given to us is not for us, but for the world around us. Have you ever thought to ask, God, what do you want me to do with my life? God, why did you put me in this job? God, why did you put me in this house, in this neighborhood? God, why did you give me this roommate? God, why did you have me moved to RDU? God, what do you want to do with my life? See, this is a dangerous question and Paul answers it with our last stock tip of the day. Stock tip number three, which is reinvest, reinvest. In the original Greek, starting in verse five through verse 11, Paul actually quotes a Psalm or a hymn that is known around that time. So let's read that together now. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus,

every knee should bow in heaven and under the earth and on earth and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. See, the great thing about this is that Jesus does the reverse of what Paul described earlier in our passage. See, we have selfish ambition, but Jesus didn't consider equality with God a thing to be grasped. And this is a nod back to the Garden of Eden. Because see, whenever God created this world, we as Christians believe that God created this world in six days and on the seventh day, he rested. He created man and woman. And when he created them, he created them to be in a relationship with him and put them in this beautiful, perfect garden. And he said, hey, you can have everything here, just don't eat of this one tree. So they were enjoying a fellowship and relationship with God. And then Satan enters in and Satan comes to them and says, hey, why don't you taste some of that fruit? They're like, oh, we can't eat that tree. Surely God didn't say that. Lie. Surely God knows that whenever you eat of it, you'll become like him, knowing good and evil. Lie. See, the original sin in our heart

is that we want to be equal to God. We want to be God. The reason we have selfish ambition and conceit, the reason we are self-absorbed is because we want to be praised. We don't want every knee to bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord. We want him to confess that we are Lord. And we use and manipulate everybody in our lives to do that. And what Paul is saying here is like, what we tried to do to become equal to God, Jesus gave up for us. And see, that's what's known as the process of kenosis. And it does not mean that Jesus ceased to be God or gave up his divine attributes. In fact, he added humanity without subtracting his deity. He took the form of a servant, was born in the likeness of man, and this is ultimate humility. From the glory of God to the likeness of sinful flesh, he did not hold onto his personal position, rights, or status, but traded them to become like us. See, we want to be like God. We want to be equal to God. Jesus said equality with God is not a thing to be grasped. Then we have conceit, but Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. We are self-absorbed, Jesus emptied himself, taken on the form of servant. Do you see this?

Does that grip you? Do you understand this, that God created you to be in a perfect relationship with him, but you, in your heart, in my heart, we rejected him. And we said, God, you're not what we're looking for. God, you're not what we want. God, we don't believe you are who you say you are, so we're gonna go find our own life. And what we did was reject God and disobey God. And as we rejected him, we separated ourselves from him. And in that separation, we incurred the penalty for death, or the penalty of sin, which is death. And in that death, we were condemned to die. God didn't leave us there. But Jesus didn't consider equality with God a thing to be grasped because he loves you. Jesus emptied himself because he loves you. Jesus took on the form of a man, of a servant, because he loves you. Jesus was obedient because he loves you. Jesus was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, because he loves you. Do you understand that? That Jesus did all of these things. because he loves you? That God sent his son because he loves you? That Jesus gave up his rights, that Jesus gave up his position so that you could be restored to God? That Jesus came and didn't just pay off your student debt,

but paid off your sin debt by the holy perfect life that he lived. That should grip us. Have you received that kind of love? Because see, whenever we receive that kind of love, we remove things that aren't about that love in our life. And then whenever we remove them, all we want to do is we invest our life into the kingdom of God, the kingdom of that love, that that love is real, that a God, the God of this universe, sent his son for us because he loves us so much. Jesus looked at his divine status and did something with it for you. Do you see that? And think about this. If Jesus did that for you, what other purpose would he have for you in your life than for you to do the same for others? Look, what burdens you about this world? What keeps you up at night? What bothers you? What do you research? What kind of grieves you? What makes you righteously angry about the brokenness of this world? You know, whatever burdens you is God's vision for you. See, whatever burden you have, God has given that to you because he wants you to take where you are

and what you have and do something about it. Your burden becomes your vision and it becomes what God wants you to do with your life. There are many, many ways to see this. And God doesn't say, or Paul does not say, don't be ambitious. He says, don't have selfish ambition. God wants you to be ambitious. He wants you to ask great things of him. My son asked great things of me all the time, things that I can't afford and things that I can't do because that's the heart that he has towards his dad. That's the same heart we're supposed to have towards God. You know, I firmly believe, if you can imagine it, it's too small for God. If you can imagine it, it's too small for God. You know, here are things that God may be calling you to do. If you're an entrepreneur, go create businesses and bring economic stability to the most unreached countries in the world and share Jesus with them. There are predominantly in the world and in the 1040 window, which is just between the 10th and 40th line of parallel of latitude, 3.2 to 3.5 billion unreached people. Does that move you? Does that grip you? Then take your life and do something about that. If you're an entrepreneur, go start businesses alongside all of our church plants

in North America and around the world and create economic stability for God. What if God is calling you to leave your job right now in secular world and be on staff full-time with a church? Why not our church? We're hiring here all the time. Look at the abortion rate or abortion by male grieves your heart. Then take what God has given to you and do something about that. Let me read you some stats. In RDU alone, just RDU, approximately 4,500 to 5,000 abortions occur per year. by local residents. In fact, North Carolina is becoming what's known as an abortion destination. Over 37% of the nearly 48,000 abortions performed across our state were for individuals traveling from out of state. If the fatherhood crisis in our world wrecks you and you hate to see so many kids grow up without a dad in the home, then do something about it. In the RDU area, there's an estimated 80 to 95,000 children under 18 growing up in homes without a dad. In the foster care system in RDU, there's 650 to 800 children in the foster care system. That's it. We have more people than that in this room right now. We could empty that out and we could have more families waiting to foster kids than our kids waiting for families.

Now, I know those things might seem too big. They might seem too idealistic for you. So let's bring it down relationally. Who are you withholding forgiveness from that wronged you? Maybe this week, maybe this year, maybe 20 years ago. Who needs encouragement in your life, but you're jealous of them so you're not gonna give it to them? Who needs comfort in your life, but you withhold it because honestly, you would rather have them suffer? Who in your life? It needs sympathy, but you just want to judge them for how wrong they are and how they deserve what they got. See, what if God gave you all that you have, made you who you were for a greater purpose than just yourself? What if God made you that way to use you in a great way for his kingdom? We want to invest and reinvest our life in the things of God into eternity. D.L. Moody says this, the world has yet to see what God can do through one person wholly devoted to him. Anne Scheiber, whenever she retired at 51, was not content with where her life is. Are you content with where your walk with God is? Are you content or are you willing to do something about it? Do you want to hire ROI? Do you want to receive the love and the forgiveness and the grace and the companionship and the comfort

and the sympathy from God? Do you want to pour that out to others, trusting God with your needs so that you can use what God has given you to meet their needs? Are you ready to reinvest your life, not in your kingdom, but in the kingdom of God? Now, I know that for many of you in here, it might be hard to do these things because if you're honest with yourself, you've never received from God because you've never believed in him. Do you see how much Jesus loves you? That Jesus gave up his seat in heaven so that you could be with him. Suspend your doubts for me for a second, please. But this is a God who had every right to remain in heaven and punish you for your disobedience, but did not remain and instead chose to become like you, to be in human form, to die for you so that he could be with you. That's how much God loves you. Have you received that love? Have you been that kind of love to someone else? Church, if somebody raised their hand when I asked at the front, how many of you need this encouragement, this comfort, this love from God today, and they raised their hand, then don't let them walk out of here without you loving on them and praying for them today.

See, Paul talks about the ROI of the good life is us receiving from God, is us enjoying and receiving everything that he promises us and everything he has given to us. It's us removing the things in our life that stand in opposition to God. It's us dying to ourself and it's us reinvesting our life into the kingdom of God, into eternity. That's the good life. That's the ROI because your life was not meant for you. It was meant to be poured out for the glory of God so that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. That's what we are called to do. That's the good life, to live it fully for Jesus Christ. God, we pray and Lord, we receive. Father, we receive your love and your forgiveness and your grace right now. Lord, we show us what we need to remove in our life, the idols that we have, the things that trip us up, the things that don't bring glory to you, the things that steal your glory. Lord, remove our selfish ambition and conceit and look into our own interests. And Lord, help us, show us where we are to reinvest into your kingdom. Lord, we pray that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Lord, we ask that you will help us live our lives

towards that end. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.