The Hard Truth About Easy Living | Artificial Intelligence | Week 1

Hey, what's up Flatirons Church Online? I'm your host today, and I just want to say welcome Thank you for being here with us and listen This is not just a service to watch but it's also a place where you can get connected And we want you to follow us on YouTube all of our social platforms are right there We want to connect with you the best way for you to connect with us It's a text next to 808 5 7 when you do that We're gonna send you some encouraging words throughout the week I'm just something to just really get you through your day at work at school But more than that we want to hear from you. We want to hear your prayer requests We want to hear what's going on any questions you have and here's what's crazy about it There's somebody actually on the other end of that text and we want to respond to you and love on you We're in a series right now called artificial intelligence and in the world that we live in man There's so much advice and things that we get from podcasts to YouTube to AI To books that we read just endless information and advice But with that sometimes I still find myself stuck and so our pastors are gonna help us just dive into how we can actually be Transformed so it's gonna be a great service today Let's get started with us The business car each down I have no Now Now I See you Oh Salvation that called my name To where I'm now The more I Change on me

Every day No change on me ♪ I'm healed and redeemed, I can't help but call on the name ♪ ♪ That buried my shame, who opened my grave ♪ ♪ I can't help but praise You, be praised in love ♪ ♪ I can't help but lift up, shout some joy ♪ ♪ When I think of how good You've been, faithful now until the end ♪ ♪ I can't help but praise You, praise You Lord ♪ ♪ I can't help but praise You, praise You Lord ♪ ♪ I can't help but praise You, praise You Lord ♪ ♪ I can't help but praise You, praise You Lord ♪ All right, Flatirons, 9 a.m. service. How are we this morning? Hey, it is so good to be together. And man, if you're new, we are so glad that you're here. Our team, we would love to connect with you. Easiest way to do that, head out to the New Here booth right after services. We got a gift for you, a team that would love to meet you, answer any questions you got. Or it's as simple as texting the word next to 80857. We'll just help you stay focused during the week by sending you a few text messages of hope and encouragement. Now, Flatirons, last weekend was a big weekend. Who was here for Easter last weekend? Just show of hands. Yeah, I mean, just incredible time together. Over 20 services across our campuses. Thousands of people gathered. And I just gotta shout out the people who made it all possible. The thousands of volunteers who served in sacrifice.

Can we just give it up for those volunteers? Thank you so much for what you do to make a space for us like this. And the number that matters more than any other number is the number of people who, at the end of service, they went from death to life. They stepped into a new thing that God had for them. They went under the water. They got baptized. They came out new people. And last weekend, across all of our campuses, 848 people got baptized. Flatirons, can we celebrate that? I mean, just... No, we celebrate that number because every number is a name. Every name has a story. And I got to meet Lexi and Jordan. Lexi and Jordan, they watch with us online. They'll be watching this this morning. They worship from California. They caught a red-eye to get here for Easter. They were flying in later that afternoon. And Jordan has been taking some steps in his faith journey. Was not yet sure he was ready to get baptized. And you know what happened at the 11 a.m. service? He got baptized in his clothes that he flew in on and that he was flying out on. And Jordan, we are so proud of you. Last week... Come on. Last week, we remembered together

that new things are possible through the name of Jesus. And so today, we're gonna continue to sing. We're gonna continue to worship. We are going to continue to praise the name of Jesus together, Flatirons. So Flatirons, let's sing together. Come on, we sing. In the mighty name of Jesus I pray Calling on the power of heaven I proclaim Every weapon formed against me We must pray In the mighty name of Jesus I draw a permanent boundary line The enemy has no right to come Near my family No scheme No scheme could ever undo God's plans No matter the circumstance The cost ♪ Sealed my destiny in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ I pray calling on the power of heaven ♪ ♪ I proclaim every weapon formed against me ♪ ♪ Must pray in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus, in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ I know all the power of fear and darkness ♪ ♪ It must know, he's every key to every victory ♪ ♪ I hope in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus, I will not fear, I will not fear ♪ ♪ When the enemy comes near on the door frame of my life ♪

♪ It's the blood of Jesus Christ, I will not fear, I will not fear ♪ ♪ There's an army of angels here, I'm protected on all sides ♪ ♪ By the blood of Jesus Christ, I will not fear, I will not fear ♪ ♪ When the enemy comes near on the door frame of my life ♪ ♪ It's the blood of Jesus Christ, I will not fear, I will not fear ♪ ♪ There's an army of angels here, I'm protected on all sides ♪ ♪ By the blood of Jesus Christ, I will not fear, I will not fear ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus, I pray ♪ ♪ Calling on the power of heaven, I proclaim ♪ ♪ Every weapon pointed against me, must break ♪ ♪ I pray in the mighty name of Jesus, in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh I know all the power of fear and darkness, it must go ♪ ♪ There's every key to every victory, I know in the mighty name of Jesus, I pray ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus, in the mighty name of Jesus, in the mighty name of Jesus, oh ♪ Philippians 2, 9 says, Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of our God, the Father. So come on, that's the mighty name of Jesus we call upon this morning. No matter your circumstance, no matter your situation, we speak the name of Jesus over anxiety, over fear, over doubt. So come on, we lift our voices, we sing. ♪ I will not fear, I will not fear ♪ Yeah, come on. ♪ When the enemy comes near, on the doorframe of my life ♪

♪ Is the blood of Jesus Christ, I will not fear, I will not fear ♪ ♪ There's an army of angels here, I'm protected on all sides ♪ ♪ By the blood of Jesus Christ, I will not fear, I will not fear ♪ Yeah, sing it over your situation right now. Come on, call the name of Jesus. He is with you, He is for you. Come on, we proclaim it. We declare it. ♪ I will not fear, I will not fear ♪ ♪ There's an army of angels here, I'm protected on all sides ♪ ♪ By the blood of Jesus Christ, I will not fear, I will not fear ♪ ♪ When the enemy comes near, on the doorframe of my life ♪ ♪ Is the blood of Jesus Christ, I will not fear, I will not fear ♪ ♪ There's an army of angels here, I'm protected on all sides ♪ ♪ By the blood of Jesus Christ, I will not fear, I will not fear ♪ ♪ Christ, in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ I pray, calling on the power of heaven ♪ ♪ I proclaim, every weapon formed against me ♪ ♪ Must break, in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, my Jesus, in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, I know, all the power of fear and darkness ♪ ♪ He must go, he's every key to every victory ♪ ♪ I hope, in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus ♪ Yeah, come on, we lift him up, in the mighty name of Jesus, in the powerful name of Jesus. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father.

Oh, we thank you, Jesus. Lord, remember hisself. We want to be a church, we want to repay the Lord, and we want to party with the Lord spaciously. We want to rekindle our spirit. We want to connect with each other like crazy. We want to be a church of the presence of God. Therefore, may we join with you in proclaiming, may we be conversion darkness. Being curious, day after day in this ministry, and as much as I've learned, I have true faith in you. Oh, could have only been the precious blood of Jesus. I cannot explain, but nothing's more real than this, in the presence of God. Oh, when my heart experienced, when my shame hit the wayside, and my sin met the most high, I've been washed from the inside. I've been washed from the inside. Hallelujah, hallelujah. I know it was the blood, could have only been the blood. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah. I know it was the blood, could have only been the blood. Could have only been the blood. Thank you, Jesus. I've been washed from the inside. Come on, this is good news, we sing. It's never been about performance, perfection,

or striving for acceptance. Let me tell you, it's only by the blood. It's never been about deserving or earning. It's a gift that's freely given. Let me tell you, it's only by the blood. Come on. Hallelujah, hallelujah. I know it was the blood, could have only been the blood. Hallelujah, hallelujah I know that He was the blood That has only been divine I know that He was the blood I know that He's blessed in the Word I know that He's blessed in the Word Yeah Come on, lift your voices, we've seen Him this morning Hallelujah, hallelujah I know He was the blood Could have only been the blood Hallelujah, hallelujah I know He was the blood Could have only been the blood I don't know what brought you here this morning Watching online But as I was just singing the tune with you I thought to myself The blood of Jesus I don't know if you've ever been somewhere, been in a situation, been in a time in your life Where that's the only thing The only thing that could make you feel whole

The only thing that could strip away the guilt, strip away the shame You search for it in a bottle, you search for it online You search for it in a relationship But friends, look at me in the eye, you've got to get this It's the blood of Jesus that has set us free It's the blood of Jesus that's given us new life It's the blood of Jesus that has taken us a thousand miles from Christ And brought us into His presence In a little bit, we're going to take communion together Where we celebrate the body Celebrate the blood of Christ that has redeemed us But I want us to get our hearts prepared for that in a little while Pastor Jim got us into this old Baptist mode last week And there's some hymns, listen, I don't know if you're old school Baptist like me Some of you, this is your first time in church, I'm going to get much sweatier than this And I got to tell you, these old hymns Just speak to the heart of God And there's one particular that says What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus So Flatirons, wherever you are this morning Whatever campus you're on, whatever couch you're on, whatever room you're in Would you just raise two hands up in the air if you feel comfortable As an act of surrender Saying Lord Jesus, what can wash away my sins? Hallelujah What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus

And what can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus Come on, we sing again And what can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus And what can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus Oh, precious is the flow That makes me white as snow No other fount I know Nothing but the blood of Jesus Just the voices, come on Oh, precious is the flow That makes me white as snow No other fount I know Nothing but the blood of Jesus Hallelujah, come on Father God, nothing but your blood could set us free. And today we celebrate that, today we're grateful for that. So Jesus, speak to our hearts, speak to our souls, and we ask you to do what only you can do. In the mighty name of your son Jesus, all God's people said, amen, amen, and amen. Let's go church, come on. Hey, I'm Carl, I'm one of the pastors around here. Before you grab a seat, would you say what's up to somebody else and tell them Jesus loves you, and so do I, come on. What's up man? Hey.

What's up Doc? Dan, what happened to you man? Nevermind, nothing. Hey Dad, there's a NASA football game today. Go. So, AI is better at words. And can find answers quicker and rarely makes mistakes. On the surface it checks all the boxes. And it makes one who is using it appear to be much smarter, much better, much wiser than they are. What AI isn't is real. By definition, it's artificial. It's imitating the original by replacing, by substituting it with something else that looks and acts or claims catch this to be better. What it doesn't have is a soul. It's never received grace, it's never extended grace. It's not capable of love because love comes from God and no one or nothing can replace what God and God alone can do. See, there's no such thing as artificial spirituality. AI can improve sex. Everybody put your phones down, now the time to search that. But it can't improve intimacy. AI can map out a life plan or a things to do list. But it can't give purpose or meaning or significance. AI can give you a financial plan

but it can't change your heart from greedy to generous. But in today's quick fix, order it and get it delivered today, world, it looks like everyone else is ahead and you don't wanna be left behind. Most of us are choosing to settle for the artificial because real seems like a lot of work over a lot of time. So let's start with a big question. Are you experiencing a real life or an artificial one? And I want you to hold that question in your head as we dive into this series because over the next week together, it's our hope that as it relates to your parenting, your marriages, your sexuality, your peace and purpose, you would say, yes, I am experiencing a real life in abundance anchored on Christ Jesus. Now listen, y'all, I don't wanna bury the lead. I don't wanna bury the lead because here's the thing, eventually artificial stops working. Not immediately, not overnight, that's what makes it so dangerous. It works just enough to convince you it's real but eventually you hit a moment where what used to satisfy you doesn't satisfy you anymore. That moment has a name. I've talked about it before, but it's called the wall. Here in the book Critical Journey,

the writer Janet Hagberg explains the wall like this. The wall is a deeply holy place on the faith journey. It is always individual, mysterious, God-shaped, and infused with spirit, inviting us to transformation. The wall's the most difficult part of the faith journey and asks more surrender of us than we may think we're capable of. Now, don't get it twisted. The wall's not failure. The wall's not God has abandoned you. The wall is not you're falling apart. The wall is where the artificial stops working. It's where the futile, temporal thing you and I trust is exposed. It's where what held you can't hold you anymore. Experiencing the artificial isn't anything new. If you grew up raising kids or were a kid in the 80s, listen, y'all, we ate a lot of things that weren't real. Yeah, yeah, we didn't know it, or maybe we just didn't care, right? Remember, we had this cheese product that legally couldn't be called cheese. It was individually wrapped, it was perfectly square, didn't melt quite right, didn't taste quite right, but we all ate it because this was normal. Listen, where are all my poor kids in the house? Remember Sunny Delight, Sunny D? Yeah, yeah, right? It's still coating your teeth today. It looked like orange juice.

It was bright orange with a tinge of antifreeze. And it had more in common with soda than it did with an actual fruit. And I think my favorite is margarine. Remember this? I can't believe it's not. That was their whole pitch. That it's not real, but it's close enough. Here's what's wild, nobody said stop eating that stuff. Nobody pulled us aside and said, hey, that's not actually real butter. We just accepted it because it looked, catch this, right enough. It tasted good enough. And more importantly, it was easy. And this is where we gotta be honest. We're still doing that today because we are all looking for the easy button. We all want life with less friction. We want outcomes without process. We want results without resistance. We wanna skip steps. We wanna bypass tension. We want the outcome without the formation. And if we're honest, we don't really want help. We just want a shortcut. Friends, I believe it's fair to say when we Google for an answer or attempt to glean wisdom from a social influencer, get news and knowledge from Instagram and Facebook,

and now with all the multiple AI chat models, what all those mediums do is gather a cultural consensus from the information and the answers that we're speaking, and what do they spit out to us? They spit out our best and worst ideas, which means if you're not careful, you'll start trusting something that is only reflecting us instead of something that can actually transform us. And here's the tension. Just because something works right now doesn't mean it'll last. You can build a life that looks full and still feel empty. You can be efficient and still feel lost. You can have the answers and still lack direction. The Bible explains exactly what can lead to such artificial living in Jeremiah chapter two. If you've got a Bible, I want you to open it up to Jeremiah. It's in the Old Testament, just a little bit past Psalm. But first I want us to understand the context. And y'all, we want you to get this every week. When you open up God's word, context is key. Knowing who it's written to, when it was written, and what was the purpose it was written for. See, the book of Jeremiah is authored between the sixth and seventh century BC. The setting is Judea. Israel, the nation of Israel, had been split into two parts. You had to the north, the kingdom of Israel, and to the south, where Jerusalem was,

was the kingdom of Judea. And these people are nearing exile. That means the Babylonians. Romanians are coming and they're ready to siege on Judea. But the spiritual condition of the people in Judea is a worldly one. See, they're focused more on comfort and convenience in their everyday living. Their hearts had turned towards idle self-reliance and idolatry. Idolatry is running rampant among them. And what they've been doing, they realize, isn't working. The prophet Jeremiah is speaking in the midst of this confusing and difficult time. You could say the people of God had hit a wall. Look at what it says in Jeremiah chapter two, verse two. Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, thus saith the Lord. I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness in a land not sown. Jump down to verse eight. The priest did not say, where is the Lord? Those who handle the law did not know me. The shepherd transgressed against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not profit. There is still there, therefore I still contend with you. Declare the Lord.

With your children's children, I will contend. For cross to the coast of Cyprus and see, or send to Kadar and examine with care. See if there is such a thing, and catch this one. Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not prosper. Jeremiah, God's speaking through Jeremiah is telling the people, then and now, I remember how it used to be between us. God's musing, He's musing with excitement and the commitment that we had when we lived like He was the only thing that we needed and wanted. He's saying, remember, remember. Remember last week when you stood up and sat in that chair, when you watched it online and you saw 800 plus people step into the baptism of water, step from death to life. Remember how you felt. Remember six months ago when you pledged your allegiance to me, when you said, listen, I wanna live a generous life. Remember two, three years ago when I brought you out of that brokenness and that shame. Remember how good it felt. Remember how real it felt. Yet the people of God are turning worthless things, temporal things into their everything. See, the prophet looks over 800 years since God's people had stepped out of captivity in Egypt. And he's saying to them, look, the governments,

the established systems, they haven't solved this problem. False gods like Baal haven't solved this problem of artificial living. He even makes the reference to how other nations, pagan nations, worshiped idols and in their difficulty they didn't switch and turn their back on their false idols. Yet God's people who have the truth, who have this living truth, who have this living hope are looking for a substitution. Y'all, do you ever find yourself doing anything like that? Where the job, the life stuff, the kids, the sports, the family schedule, the activities and commitments have become this all consuming thing. And you find yourself, you find your families, you find your friends running this rat race all the meanwhile, you don't even wanna get off the couch. God then hits us with some deep truth in verse 13. This is our key passage for today. Jeremiah 2, 13. For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Several issues pop out of the text right here. You got to see this. Ancient Judea, which was centered around Jerusalem, was not built around a major water source. There was no major river like the Nile, the Tigris or the Euphrates.

Instead it was hill country, rocky terrain, seasonally dry. Rain came mostly between November and March. And for the rest of the year, there was little to no rainfall. Long, dry summers with high drought. So the issue wasn't just one of inconvenience, it was one of survival. The only significant water source was the Jordan River, but it ran along the east side of the nation and it was below elevation in the Jordan Valley, not easily accessible for most Judean cities. Meaning, most people in Judah lived with no natural flowing water source nearby. So to create this water source, they would build these plastered limestone reservoirs or cisterns. They would dig out these holes, line them with plaster and wait for rainfall to fill them up so during the dry months they could have water. But here's the deal. These man-made substitutes, they would eventually crack and leak and sediment would come into them. And it was known in the ancient world that the water out of cisterns didn't taste good. Or the other option is they could trek to the Jordan or they could seek a natural spring, but that would require some tension in their life. You tracking where I'm going? Therefore, they much like us preferred the easiest answer.

And dealing with the problems, those shortcuts presented through these cisterns was easier to deal with than doing the difficult thing. Jeremiah uses the word forsaken in verse 12. Jesse taught our staff on this a few weeks ago. The word forsaken, that's not casual language, that's military term. It's the idea of leaving a soldier behind. Not by accident, not because you forgot, but because you chose something else. It was an intentional abandonment of a person. God's people forgot about the source, built a substitute, and that substitute led to stagnant water. But the real crisis is what happens when the artificial can't actually hold water at all. See, rarely do any of us think, rarely do I think I functionally have turned my back on God, that I have forsaken God. We don't think that, but in fact, that's what we do. It just starts a different way. Instead of saying I'm forsaking God, what do I do? I say, hey, I'm not gonna rely on you as much anymore, God. I'm not gonna rely on you. I'm gonna rely on other things. Some modern cisterns for us in our day and age. Success, relationships, comfort, performance. And here's what's tricky. These modern cisterns work. They produce and they provide and they give you a return. They give you a feeling until they don't.

And when we can't make sense of things, we'll look for artificial replacements wherever we can find them. Whether that be in activities, whether that be in resting in the, oh, I'm so broken, I can never get fixed. Whether that's in wealth, whether that's in family performance. Worst of all, it's in an unhealthy habit that gets out of hand and captures our heart because something in us is always looking for relief, but not everything that relieves you restores you. Some things numb you, some things distract you, some things delay the issue. What's that thing for you? You go to it to feel better and it feels better for a little while. But the next day, you just feel worse. What does that look like today? There's a student with access to everything. Answers instantly, information consistently, but they lack identity. And when things get quiet, they don't know who they are. There's a professional where everything is working, everything looks right, but inside they're empty because success can give you progress, but it cannot give you purpose. There's a parent trying hard, showing up, doing everything they can, but they're quietly wondering,

am I actually doing this thing right? Different lives, same problems. We're building lives that look like they work, but they don't actually hold water. I wanna talk to parents for a little bit here. Now stay with me if you're not a parent, because we're all raising a life our own, and we're all setting examples for people around us, and we're even showing them that we're relying on the real or we're relying on the artificial source. Here's the thing, I've noticed when I'm around our campuses, talking to our church folks, talking to parents, even talking to some parents who aren't believers, sometimes it feels like we don't know what we're doing when it comes to this parenting thing, amen? But that guy really doesn't, right? Honesty, that's what we're here for. But there's one consensus, that consensus is that we're buying into the artificial lies of parenting. The artificial lies of parenting. Let me ask you a question everyone is asking in 2026, every parent's asking this out loud or in their hearts. What's expected of me as a parent? I type this into chat GPT, and here's what it, this is a gist of what it spit out to me. What's expected of me as a parent? It said, keep them happy, protect them from anything hard, give them something you didn't have,

and make their life easier than yours was. Don't ooh and ah, remember, this is just spitting out what we've put into it. This isn't coming from the depths of hell. It's a consensus of what we already think. See, underneath those expectation, there are lies. They're not loud lies, they're subtle ones, cultural ones, accepted ones, but they are powerful. And I think there are four of them that are shaping parents in today's day and age. Four parental cisterns and the lies they make us believe. The first parental cistern is this, my job is to keep my kids happy. Listen, I get it. Nobody wants to see their kid hurting. Nobody wants tears, frustration, or struggle. So what do we do? We fix it, we soften it, we remove it, we step in early and we step in often. But here's the problem, if your goal is their happiness, you will sacrifice their formation. Because happiness isn't based on a circumstance. Happiness isn't based on a circumstance, is based on a circumstance, and circumstances change. So now your child learns, if I don't feel good, something's wrong. If this is hard, it shouldn't be happening. And when life doesn't feel good, they don't know what to do. So they avoid, they shut down, they panic,

because they've never been trained to walk through something difficult. The writer of Hebrews says it like this in Hebrews 12, 11. Says this, for the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Friends, happiness is a terrible foundation for identity. Formation happens in resistance. And if you remove every hard moment, you don't raise a strong adult, you raise a fragile one. Your job is, look at me in the eye, moms, your job is not to keep them happy. Don't simply raise happy kids, raise confident Christ followers. That's what I share with our student team and our kids team all the time. This is where we want to partner with parents, that they would be raising confident. Christ, Fall Wars, the second parental cistern. If my kid is struggling, I'm failing as a parent. See, this one's heavy. Because we take everything personally. They're anxious, I messed up. They're struggling, I should have done more. They're hurting, I fail them. So what do we do? We overcorrect, we overprotect, we overinvolve, but listen to me, struggle is not evidence of bad parenting. Struggle is often the environment where growth happens.

When I was 18, if you were watching how I was living, you would have assumed like I was actively trying to ruin my life and the life of everybody else around me. And what did my parents, Eli and Teresa Romas, do? They let me make mistake after mistake after mistake after mistake. And when everything in my world was upside down, you know what they did? They stayed steady. They didn't show panic, they didn't chase after me, they just prayerfully held their ground. And when I finally hit rock bottom, full of guilt, full of shame, full of regret, I came back to their steadiness. Because their steadiness was grounded in Jesus, was grounded in something greater than themself. Listen, that year was so hard, it was filled with so much pain. And it didn't just shape my story, it shaped my faith. And I was stronger on the other side because that young, dumb 18-year-old actually had his faith tested. The brother of Jesus says it like this in James chapter one. Says this, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kind, for you know that the testing, the testing, the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. My parents were anchored to that passage. And I was the beneficiary of their trust and faith. You cannot build resilience in a life with no resistance.

You can't teach strength in a world where there's no pressure. And some of us are so afraid of our kids experiencing pain that we are unintentionally raising them unprepared for life. And I'm not talking about your junior higher, I'm talking about your 30-year-old. You are not called to eliminate every struggle. Catch this, catch this, catch this. Their struggle isn't your failure, it's their formation. The third parental cistern. I need to fix all my kids' problems. This one shows up fast and often. Your kid has a problem, before they can even feel the weight of it, you're already solving it for them. You're calling the teacher, you're paying the rent, you're emailing the coach, you're stepping into the conflict, you're managing their situation. Why? It's because I love you. But here's the tension. Every problem you remove is a muscle they never develop. Problem solving, conflict navigation, responsibility, ownership. Those things aren't taught through lecture, they're built through experience. What does Jesus say in Luke? Jesus say, if anyone is to be my disciple, if anyone's to follow me,

they are to pick up their cross and follow me daily. But what are we doing? We're going, oh, Jimmy, I'll pick up your cross with you. We got it, we got it together. No, Galatians 6, 5 tells us, for each will have to bear his own load. And if you're always stepping in, they'll grow up expecting someone else to carry the weight of what they've created. Listen, y'all, don't fix their problems. Teach them to trust God and face it head on. The fourth system is this. I need to give my kids a better life than I had. And this one, this one sounds noble because every parent feels it. I just want them in a better situation than I had. And on the surface, this sounds like love. But if we're not careful, better starts to mean easier, more comfortable, more convenient. and yet less responsibility over time. We trade preparation for comfort. We trade growth for ease. We trade long-term strength for short-term relief. But what if better? Come on, come on, come on. What if better isn't easier? What if better is stronger? What if better is wiser? What if better is more prepared? In Proverbs 22, it reads like this.

Train up a child in the way he should go. Even when he is old, he will not depart. Because an easy life does not create a strong person. And if you give them, if I give them everything and they don't know how to handle anything, that's not better. You don't need to give them an easier life. Train them to live a stronger life. Each lie, each lie isn't just a bad idea. Each system isn't just a bad idea because they look good, they feel good, they promise something, but they don't hold. And if you build your parenting on them, you will produce outcomes we never, you never intended. Not because you didn't care, but because the source was wrong. Are you tracking where I'm going? No. So I ask that opening question again, are you experiencing a real life or an artificial one? What would it look like if we weren't just living an artificial life in survival mode, but we were actually living a real Christ-centered, abundant life, raising our kids, leading our families from a place of freedom sourced by the living water? Because we look at the example of the people of God, the Israelites. They were once slaves, so they taught their kids how not to be slaves instead of teaching their kids

how to be free. They built cisterns to hold stagnant water. They taught their children to be satisfied with a lesser version of the real thing. And we can do the same thing, I do the same thing. We can spend our whole life managing, coping, adjusting, but never actually stepping into freedom. And we wonder why this next generation is the most anxious generation in the history of this world. And friends, I believe that young adults are seeking deeper understanding and relationship with God. And I've noticed all the talk about revival in our country, revival in high schools and on college campuses. But you know what I don't hear about? Revival in the hearts of adults. Revival in the hearts of professionals and parents and grandparents. I don't hear much about revival in the heart of seasoned believers that are experiencing freedom because we will leave a legacy. We will leave a legacy to our children and our grandchildren, and that legacy will be what source were we pulling from? Because whether we like it or not, we'll be the example that this generation and the next will follow long after we're gone. And this is where everything shifts. We've been, Jim's been preaching this verse hard for the last year. Galatians 5.1, it is for freedom

that Christ has set us free. See, freedom is available, but not always experienced. And throughout this series, we didn't wanna just throw you some, you know, parental tools and marriage tools. We wanted to give you some freedom tools. Mark Jenkins, our spiritual formation pastor, and Josh Sanchez, our Aurora campus pastor, what up, Josh? Did such an amazing job with a great team working on developing what I think will be a game changer for so many of us in this church. And this was made possible by your Be Free generosity. Over the next five weeks, you're gonna be challenged from this stage, from Jim, from Jesse. We want you to connect the dots and step into what's, step into what's artificial and what's real in some key areas of your life. And we believe that this freedom is available for all of you. So Mark and the team created a freedom devotional. Some of y'all grabbed it and you didn't even know what it was. Y'all are funny. Freedom, eight weeks to living free. This isn't another sit through it. It's a decision to step into the process. where God meets you personally and begins to untangle what's been holding you back. This is where you stop managing symptoms and start experiencing the real freedom as you consistently show up and open your life to God and let the truth of God

replace the artificial that's been shaping you. Eight weeks could change the direction of your life, so don't miss what God wants to do in you, what God wants to do through you. This feels like a big commitment, but it has the potential to impact your future, to impact the rest of your life. This is your moment. This is your moment. This is your invitation to stop settling and start walking in freedom that you and I were made for. Today across all of our campuses, this devotional is yours to take. And for those of you joining us online, we have a free digital version. You just got to hit the QR code and they'll get that right into your hands. And we encourage you to activate your freedom journey right now, because you and I, if all you do is change behavior, but you don't change the source, you'll reproduce the same pattern in a different form. But when the source changes, everything changes. Listen, friends, there are moments that remind you of what's real. See, Jen and I, we're the only ones that can hug our daughters, after their first heartbreak. We're the only ones that can fervently lift them up before God in prayer. AI can't do that. A system can't do that. A shortcut can't do that. Because real life, real love, real formation comes from a real source. And this is the invitation not to try harder, not to manage better, not to change the source, but to change the source. Because some of you don't need another answer. You need transformation.

And that doesn't happen instantly. It happens daily. Walking out what Jesus already paid for, because he didn't come to make your life look better. He came to set you free. Free from shame, free from striving, free from pressure. And he came to set you free for purpose, for identity, for clarity, for impact. And when God's people get free, when God's people get free, you know what we do? We free people. Free people, free people. So this is your moment, because you can't keep doing what you've been doing, keep managing, keep coping, keep striving, and think you're going to come back with anything but a broken source, a broken cistern, or you can step into something real today. The door's open. The question is, are you and I willing to walk through, or are we going to stay where things are familiar? You don't need a better cistern. You need a different source. We need a different source. That was Jesus' message that faithful night. He sat around a table with his disciples. He said, I don't be gone, but I want you to remember what's real. So he takes some bread, he breaks it, he passes it to his friends. And he says, every time you eat this meal, I want you to remember how real I am. So we do that together. We take the bread, and we remember that Jesus is real and not artificial.

And then he took the wine, the fruit of the vine, and Jesus said, nothing but my blood. Nothing but my blood can make you whole. Nothing but my blood can remind you that the artificial will let you down, and I am real. So drink this and remember me. This is good news, that you don't have to strive you don't have to cope, you can just step into the real. Across all of our campuses, would you stand to your feet right now? As a sign of surrender and remembrance of the real versus the artificial. We sing this song one more time as a proclamation, as a shout of praise that we're in this for the long haul because Jesus is in this for the long haul. Lord Jesus across all of our campuses online in this room, God, I pray that we rely in our parenting on nothing but the blood of Jesus. Father God, that we wouldn't forget and substitute, but we would remain steadfast in trusting you with everything. So we sing this, we sing this as a confession, as gratitude, as praise. We love you, we thank you in Christ's name, all God's people said. It's never been about performance, perfection, or striving for acceptance. Let me tell you, it's only by the blood. It's never been about deserving or earning.

It's a gift that's freely given. Let me tell you, it's only by the blood. Does anybody wanna be holy and righteous, purified and spotless? Let me tell you, it's only by the blood. Does anybody wanna be worthy, forgiven, justified, really living? Let me tell you, it's only by the blood. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah. I know it was the blood, could have only been the blood. Hallelujah, hallelujah. I know it was the blood, could have only been the blood. Oh, we thank you, Jesus, for laying down your life, for your sacrifice, oh. Come on, we're gonna sing it again, we're lifting up this morning, hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah. I know it was the blood, could have only been the blood. Hallelujah, hallelujah. I know it was the blood, could have only been the blood. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Come on, let's praise him in this place. Thank you, Jesus. Oh, thank you, Jesus, amen. Amen, hey, so good to worship with you this weekend. Guys, if you need some prayer today, we have a prayer team down front. They'd love to pray with you before you go.

Have a great rest of your Sunday. We'll see you back here next week. So So So So So