The Last Instructions of Jesus Part Six

morning for these beautiful voices. Lord, I just thank you for this day. I thank you for this word. I pray that your words that you've given me will will pour out clearly and and uh that the people will hear it and embrace it, Lord.

And we thank you and praise you in Jesus name. Amen. >> So, have a seat. You guys are awesome.

>> Um so, here we are, week six. All right, we're in the fifth church, um, which is often referred to as the dead church. And, uh, Jesus came, we're in a series. Jesus came about 60 years after he was buried, dead, and and rose again.

He came and he dictated to John seven letters to seven churches. And we've been focused on them these last few weeks because once you realize that these are red letters, these are letters to churches, these are letters to Christians, and that they're in Revelation, the end times chapter, and that they're from Jesus himself to us. These are these are words to us in in our time, okay? This end times church.

And so, we've been studying each of the different churches. Jesus uh has a system. He calls them out. He tells them what's they're doing wrong, what they're doing right, and then he tells us what we should do.

Okay? And so, here we are. We're in Revelation 3:es 1-6 and I'm going to start reading. And to the and this is all Jesus, all red letters.

And to the angel of the church in Sardis, write these things, says he who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works, that you have a name, that you are alive, but you are dead. Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. Remember therefore how you have received and heard.

Hold fast and repent. Therefore, if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. You have a few names, even in Sardis, who have who have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the book of life, but I will confess his name before my father and before the angels.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. So this is the dead church. Jesus says, I know your works. You have a name, but you're dead.

They he has no relationship with them. They have ghosted essentially Jesus. Okay? Anyone who's dated since the 2000s.

Now, if someone's ghosted you, they don't want to have a relationship with you. They don't want to return your calls. They don't want to have um dialogue with you. Okay?

they they are blowing you off. Okay. These people would be senos Christians in name only. Okay.

Um and and you know examples of this would be someone who got sprinkled when they were born or someone who um and then and then walked away, never went to church, never you know stepped foot, never studied their Bible or someone who had an emotional experience when they were a teenager and asked Jesus into their heart but then lived their life their way. Never having any relationship with Jesus. Never never cracking open that Bible. never talking to him.

Okay. Um he says here, hold fast. Okay. Hold fast to that word and repent.

Okay. Works don't get you there. He says repent. Okay.

That's turn and start walking in the way you should be walking. Um and he says something very interesting here. He says, "If you do turn and come back to a relationship with me, I won't blot your name out of the book of life." Which means if you don't if you choose to stay focused on just you and staying away from Jesus and you have no relationship with Jesus, it is possible he may blot you out of the book of life.

Okay? So the book of life is when you ask Jesus into your heart, you repent of your sins, you come in and Jesus writes your name in the book of life. So on the great white throne judgment at the end of time, Jesus, everybody who's ever lived is going to be brought before Jesus in judgment. Okay?

and their works are going to determine inner in or not. And none of us are going to be found good except people who have asked Jesus in their heart. Jesus the verdict against them is going to be not guilty because what Jesus did on the cross took care of it for us. Okay?

We get to go to heaven because of what he did on that cross. Okay? That's the good news. That's the gospel message.

Okay? But what he's saying here is you have to still stay in a relationship with me. You can't just say a couple words that don't mean anything, then live the rest of your life for you. Completely ignore me and not hear those words, you know, be be get away from me.

I've never knew you. If you go to Matthew 7:es 21-23, we read, "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name?"

And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Like why don't we hear anywhere about this stuff? This is big.

Okay, this is Jesus is saying, "Hey man, it's not your works. I do want a relationship with you." Okay, I want you to come to me and develop a relationship with me. And it's not just about just saying something and then you get to live the way you want and then skipping up to heaven.

It's just this is Jesus talking here. It's not Brian Pier. So I mean if you don't like me that's okay. But it's Jesus here.

Okay. John 10:27 through30 says this. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand.

My father has given them to me as greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my hand. My father's hand. I and my father are one. There's some conditions here.

My sheep hear my voice. Okay, we have to listen to him. He knows them. He has a relationship with them and they follow him.

Okay, these are that's some pretty big stuff there because it's not being taught. Okay. You can't just say a few words that don't mean anything and then just think that you're going to skip on up to heaven and everything's going to be hunky dory. Rainbows and kittens.

You actually have to spend some time with Jesus. You must have a relationship with Jesus. >> Amen. >> Jesus said we are to abide in him.

In John 15:4, okay, he says, "Abide in me and I in you. as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you embide abide in me. This kind of speaks of a closeness, a oneness, right?

The branch and the vine, they're connected. All right, there's a there's a connection there. Um Paul in Ephesians and other places makes the analogy of Christ and the church being like a marriage. Um Revelation 197 and 8 confirms this.

It says, "Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his wife us has made herself ready and to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright. For the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints." So the Bible clearly makes an analogy of a bride and a groom. Jesus is the groom, we're the bride.

Okay. Um and if we want a good relationship with Jesus, all right, I mean this is huge, right? relationship with Jesus, heaven. Ghosting Jesus, no relationship, hell, right?

And so, we've got to have relationship. And they compare it to marriage. Let's look at some characteristics of a good marriage and see what we can learn about how to have this good, thriving relationship with Jesus. We good with that?

>> Amen. >> All right. So, the first thing in really good marriages, they're friends, right? They're friends first.

We're to be a friend of Jesus. They spend time together. They know each other. Jesus knows you.

He knows you inside and out. The question is, how well do you know him? >> That's right. >> Okay.

How well do you know him? So to know someone, you got to spend time with them. >> All right. How do we spend time with Jesus?

Well, one of them is in this. This book right here was given to us and for us, but it's not about us. From the first page to the last, it's about Jesus. So, if you want to know about Jesus, you have to blow off the dust, you know, open it up and actually spend a little time in this word.

Podcasts are great. I've got a podcast. I got podcasts on our website. You can download all sorts of podcasts.

They're great. But it's not the same as reading the word of God and getting him because he will share stuff in there just for you. That's right. >> It's so cool.

Just for you that day, he's going to spend some time and share something. And you'll read something in the morning and then you experience it later that afternoon and you're like, "How did he know that was written thousands of years ago? How'd he know on this day I was going to experience this? That's crazy to me."

And yet that's the truth of it. Um the other way we we spend time with him is in prayer. Okay? Prayer is the direct link from us to Jesus.

Okay? It's a direct link to God. It should be open. It should be real.

And it should be every day. Okay? Pray without ceasing is the the word that people say. Mark 1:35 and 37.

We learned this last week. Jesus would go off alone in the morning early, spend time with God, get his marching orders, then head into the day. Okay? And that's that's a great thing for us to do.

Um, and when we're with him, confession is the key to healing. Okay. Um, so it's essential to release and and let God into the deep places. Okay.

John 15:15, Jesus says, "No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends. For all things that I have heard from my father, I have made known to you." Where's it known? In his word.

Okay. Um, how are you living when he comes back? All right. We want to be in a in a in a good We want to be friends with Jesus.

Another key thing in every good marriage is honesty. All right? We want to be honest. We want to open up and bring everything into the light because that's where he heals us.

Okay? That's where he heals us. Jesus knows everything that's wrong. He knows what's up.

But we still have to bring it into the light, right? Because because it's for us. It's not for him. We're doing it for us.

We're bringing it into the light for us. The devil, if it's in the light, the devil can't mess with you. See, what happens so often is we want to keep the things in the past hidden in the past. We want to cling to our um our our our past kind of what do you call it?

The image we have of ourselves that we created way back from whatever destruction we had when we were young. And and and it and if we don't accept what Jesus did on that cross and just move into that, we we may keep that there. And if we keep that there and we don't talk about the past and we don't talk about all that, then it's hidden deep down inside, then the devil can sit there. When good things start happening to you, the devil can be whispering, "Oh no, remember you're this person.

You're this person. the accuser of the brethren and and and then you begin to do things that you don't really want to do. Why? Because you've been clinging to the wrong thing.

Okay? So, it's our benefit to bring it into the light. If you've got doubts, bring it into the light. If you've got fear, bring it into the light.

If you've got if you've got fear, go to the Bible. God will give you verses to go directly against that fear. And if you constantly have the same fears coming over and over again, write them down and have them ready because that's the sword of the spirit. The word of God is the sword of the spirit.

That's your your your sword to to attack and to win. Okay. Um but we want to be honest about our our deep wounds and bring it to Jesus. So um I got saved when I was 30.

Okay. And um and I immediately jumped into being this this um hardworking guy and and and trying to be the best guy I could be. And I worked and I worked and I worked. But unbeknownst to me, I still what I was doing was wearing a mask.

I was being the hardworking good godly man to everyone so that I was looking for my validation there. But deep down I still hadn't dealt with this, okay? This stuff in my heart. couple years ago.

A couple years ago, this is 20 years later. A couple years ago, I'm I'm on my knees in my um probably at the lake house and and uh and I kind of saw God high and lifted up in his glory and um I saw this I just I became very present of this deep hurt that was still in there. And it was like this ball. Um and and I just the the heat or the light coming from from Jesus just kind of shrunk and shrunk and shrunk and shrunk and shrunk until it was gone.

>> Amen. >> Okay. >> Amen. >> And I was free.

I felt free. I felt like wow >> I really am loved by him on this. I was this deep just knowledge that it really am loved. I I finally was walking finally understood how much God loves me.

how precious I am. I mean, honestly, I'm his favorite, you know. That's just how I That's just how I feel. I'm his favorite, you know.

>> Sure. >> Uh but 20 that's 20 years of being a Christian and and that it the hurt was still there. Okay. My mentor, Bill Prince, he he by the time he was 14, he was in bars drinking and fighting.

even at 14. I guess you didn't have a drinking age back in South Carolina long ago. Um and and so he had a rough childhood, you know, parents, alcoholics, all this. But he had this eye on this girl, okay?

But the girl was a good girl and she would not go out with him unless he went to church. So he spent months trying to woo her to the dark side, you know, to his side so that he didn't have to go to church. And uh and he never won.

And so one Sunday morning he comes in hung over, probably having had fights the night before and he goes to church and God got all over him and he was on the altar just crying and weeping and everything and and he just it was the he stood up from that time and he immediately walked out and he was done. He never took another drink of alcohol. He never took um he never got in another fight. Okay?

He went he started tithing. He went in Monday morning to where his job is fat. the factory was and he's like, "Boys, there's a new man in front of you." And he just started witnessing and changing.

You can accept what Jesus did on that cross and immediately change. Or you could not believe it and have it take years and years and years to finally get there. Okay? God's going to still work on you until you get there.

But man, it would be better if we just believe Jesus at his word and just accept it. Okay? if we would just be honest with him and open up to him. Okay, that's that's it.

And trust him. >> That's another thing in a good marriage. Trust. Okay.

Proverbs 3:5 and 6 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths." Some some passages say he will uh uh well, he'll direct your paths. Trust.

Trust means you know that you know that you know that God has this. Okay? You just know it. And he is fully trustworthy.

Okay? Because he's God. He's perfect. Listen, if there is any presence of fear or doubt or worry or anxiety, that's an area where you haven't turned it over to the Lord and trust yet.

Okay? If you're worried about money, you haven't trusted God with your money. If you're worried about this relationship or how someone's going to respond to you, you haven't turned that relationship over to the Lord yet. Okay?

Any It's It's like almost a light. Wherever there's fear, doubt, anxiety, that's that's the Holy Spirit saying, "Hey, bro, right over here. You haven't given this one up to him yet." Okay?

And and we want to do that because he will trust us. He will direct our paths. God has this. Okay?

There should be you should a Christian should just be alive and and and not Jesus called it the easy yoke. You should just be able to to wake up and just enjoy the bounty of God. That doesn't mean everything is going to be perfect. Okay?

My kids will tell you, man, I I I say this all the time. What could possibly go wrong? I say it all the time. Um and I mean it right.

But don't I say that all the time? and they always go like something go wrong. Not really. Because Romans 8:28 says even if something goes wrong, he's going to work good from it.

Okay? So honestly, if he's going to work even the bad stuff for good, really nothing can go wrong. >> I'm not lying when I say it, right? It's like just embrace this guys.

Roll with this, okay? It's fun this. It's more fun this way. Okay?

We need to step out of faith. Remember, faith is a muscle. Okay? So if you have an anxiety somewhere, go to the Lord in prayer and turn it over to him.

All right? Start stepping out as if that fear is gone and it'll be gone and that faith will get stronger. Okay? Step out as if um if we're worried about money, how you're going to make ends meet, start tithing and test and see and trust and you're going to grow in your faith.

Okay? Um and that doesn't mean you may not get overwhelmed. Sometimes there are points during the day where I'm getting yelled at a lot by by people because I deal with money and you really get to know people when you're dealing with money, okay? And um it's not always pretty.

And so there are times where it gets a little bit overwhelming. I'll go outside and walk around, take a deep breath because I want to stay in love, joy, peace. Okay? And and I and I get back into love, joy, peace.

That's where if we're truly trusting the Lord, we the end result of that is love and joy and peace. We should be in that. And when something interrupts our love, joy, peace, look at it and see what why why did you, you know, get all flustered over there. You know what, and see what lesson there is and then take it to the Lord.

When you get to the place where you're really trusting God, it should be an easy, enjoyable, even in your struggles. Think about the original disciples. Even when they got thrown in prison and a Roman dungeon, I'm thinking, is pretty duny, pretty nasty, pretty horrible. You know, they were singing songs.

Even in the bad, you you can embrace Jesus because the end fruit of trusting is love, joy, peace instead of worry, doubt, and fear. You get it? >> You get it? You with me?

All right. Another thing great marriages have is a shared mission and vision. >> Okay. A great marriage, the husband and the wife are working together to create a godly family, to raise godly kids, to to to make an impact, you know, for the kingdom together as a as a couple.

Okay? It's a shared mission and vision. They're working together for a shared goal, a godly family. As lovers of Christ, we should have a shared mission with Jesus Christ, right?

He's the groom. We're the bride. So, we're together in this with a shared mission. Jesus tells us that mission in John 6:38.

He says, "I have come," this is Jesus speaking about his own mission. I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. Our job as Christians is to do God's will. That's it.

That's it. It's easy. That's it. That's all we have to do.

That means, you know, we read the great commission in Matthew 28:19 and and and 20, you know, um reach the lost, make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the father and son and the holy spirit and and um teaching them to obey, right? That's that will happen if you're obeying God. If you're um on the same mission field, if you're doing what God wills you to do, that'll be a part of it. Okay?

But doing his will is first. Okay? The great commandment, love God, love others, right? Uh Matthew 22:37 and 40, love God with all your heart, soul, and mind.

That again is a it is a function. it will spill over. A tr a disciple truly going after the Lord and after his will do those things, but they're not the goal. We We don't want to make missions the goal.

Obeying the Lord is the goal, and the missions will flow from that relationship. Everything flows from the relationship. The key is the relationship. It's not us doing more stuff.

It's the relationship. So now everyone in America is motivated because of Charlie Kirk's death and they're all motivated to go and do something. Well, what do you do? Okay.

Uh they they want to storm some hill. They just don't know what hill to they they've never stormed a hill before. Okay. Be faithful in the little things.

First take care of the family you've been given, friends you've been given, etc. First take care of that. When you're in the morning and God convicts you on doing something, just obey it. Okay?

If you're praying and and and God tells you to call your cousin Louie later that day, call Cousin Louie, okay? Because you don't know what's going on in cousin Louis's life. It's possible cousin Louis sitting there saying, "If no one loves me, I'm going to take my own life." And these things happen.

If no one show and then that call from you is the thing that kept them from doing that. You didn't know any of that, but God did. You know, you we've all had people like out of nowhere intercede in our life at right at the time that we needed it and we didn't ask for it. God was taking care of us.

He's so beautiful that way. Um last weekend, I'm reading first Corin and we have to obey him even when we don't like it. 1 Corinthians 9:27. I'm reading it last weekend and it says this, "But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified, man."

And I felt convicted that I got to start exercising. Can I tell you I hate exercise? I've made it 40 years without significant amounts of exercise. Okay?

I've joined gyms and by January 5th, you're not seeing me in that gym the rest of the year. I'm just paying 25 bucks a month for the rest of the time. Um, I mean, really, right? He's coming soon.

I'm going to have a new body. What's really the sense of me, you know, working out right now, >> but I there's a Planet Fitness right across the street from my work. I joined it last Sunday and every day this week I did work out. Okay.

Yesterday was working out with the boys playing tennis, but but uh still that that counts, you know. That counts. Um, so is it good for me? Of course.

God's God's not going to tell us to do bad stuff. He's going to tell us to do stuff that's good for us or the other people that we're around. Okay? He's a good God.

We can trust him, but we've got to be on mission with him. Okay? And then finally, and I'm not going to talk much on it, but commitment. Okay?

Amen. >> We promise in front of God for better or worse till death do us part. >> And there's millions of divorces every year. Okay.

I just heard a statistic. 80% of the divorces right now are being filed by the women, not the men. 80%. Okay.

Everyone I know who's going through divorce, the women f the woman filed it for it. Okay. We're the bride. God's the groom.

Okay? Now, I'm not saying all divorces are bad. I'm not saying every husband is right. I'm not saying, you know, I'm not going to make a judgment on any of that.

Every deal is different. But at the end of the day, most of those divorces are irreconcilable differences, which are basically I'm not happy and I'm out of here. Okay? God, Jesus has committed to us, man.

He died on that cross. The nails show that the groom is committed to us and he's a perfect groom. So the question is, are we committed to him? Okay.

If we're in a marriage, we should be committed to him. So one final thought, what kind of messes up instead of all the good things in what kind of messes up relationships? What's at the core of almost all divorce? It seems to me that it's selfishness.

At some point, >> at some point, one or both people began to think about what's in it for them >> or how they're not happy >> instead of they took their eye off the shared mission. They took their eye off of the prize. Okay? And I stand here as someone who has gone through divorce.

Okay? Um it's the number one tactic of the devil is to get us focusing on us. You've heard me call it the disease of me. >> Okay?

>> And and the question is, do you have it? Do you have this disease of me? Are you in a relationship with the Lord for what's in it for you? >> See, the problem I have with the success theology that's so prevalent in America today is it's all about what God can do for the person.

Okay? Ask him into your heart and he's going to help with your marriage and he's going to help with your kids and he's going to help make you make more money and he's going to help you succeed at your job and and he's going to help you live your best life now. Okay. >> But Jesus says in this world you'll have tribulation, >> but don't worry, I've overcome the world, but he still promises that we're going to have that.

So, it's it's just not truth speaking. Will God step into your your your days? Yes. Will he bless you?

But his blessings are not our blessings. >> Amen. >> Okay. He wants us to be holy, not happy.

>> And sometimes to be holy, he needs to prune you, correct you, discipline you. Amen. not pour down money on you. Okay.

Um >> so that's the problem I have with that. People that are just in it for them will be the ones that fall away. Okay. There is a great falling away that happens before Jesus comes.

Um this phone, okay, the media, all the noise, all the hate, all of that, that all plays into the devil's hands. That's all the devil. And um Christians should not be in this for what's in it for them. Okay?

True disciplehip has you doing things you may not want to do like working out. Okay? You know, if you're just obeying what God tells you to do, so there's some some some dangers here we have to watch out for. Okay?

a couple something is is is trying to get what we want from God instead of doing what's right and what what he tells us to do. Okay? We just have to be obedient. And we can we where we got to be careful as Christians is to run ahead and do things for God like do our works for God.

They're really for us. He says here, "I have not found your works perfect before God." What he means by that is this. They're doing their good deeds to be recognized.

They're doing their good deeds for what's in it for them. They want their name on that on that um wing that they're paying for. They want um you know that to the recognition and the praise. They might do something good for someone and if the person doesn't thank them, they get upset that the person didn't thank them.

Okay, these are you're not in it for the right thing. You should do whatever God tells you to do because he tells you to do it >> because it's just simple. because he knows we don't. Okay?

And so when I first got um saved, my kids were young and I started I went to church. I could I ended up in a Baptist church. I was there Sunday school, Sunday church, Sunday night, Wednesday night, leader of the men's ministry. Started Christian mortgage bro.

I'm running running. Okay. I'm doing all this stuff. Okay.

But I was doing it because deep down I still was trying to cover up the hurt that I had. All right. God's never going to tell you to do something that violates his own word. So, if you think you're out there in ministry, and that's the good thing, and you're spending hours uh mentoring these people out there, but your wife and kids are at home and and and you're not spending the time with them, that's that's not of God.

You're doing something for you so that you can you're getting fed some way from this. Okay? And you've got to come come to handle what God has in front of you first. Okay, don't go running, running, running because if you run, what happens is God may have to move you because you're in the wrong path.

Okay, 2008 hit, the market crashed, my business went to pot, my wife left, single man, all of a sudden I went in a single guy with kids and and my whole dynamic changed. Why did that happen to me? because I was running this way and God wanted me over here and I wasn't listening. I was still running running because I was doing this stuff for me really.

I was doing it for God. That's what I said, but really it was for me. >> Okay. Now, I didn't I didn't let my family go.

I mean, I was always home by dinner time, always playing with them, always focused. So, so I didn't do everything wrong. Don't don't want you to think I'm a a bad a bad bad dude or anything, but but the truth is, okay, we we can work so hard that for God that we're forgetting to listen to God and and he may just want you to do something simple, okay? And and he may want you in a period of rest even, you know, that that happens sometimes.

You got to listen to him. He's a good God. Um, if you do it right, it's an easy yoke, okay? You wake up, all right?

And you you get some time alone with God and and he tells you what he wants you to do and you just obey and you cruise into your day and you just obey. Okay? We have to be faithful with what he's given us. So if he tells you to call your cousin Louie, you call your cousin Louis.

If he doesn't tell you to call anyone, you go into your work and you work your business hard. Okay? Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. We're supposed to be faithful wherever we're at.

Okay? So, if you go and do a thing, you work. If you're an owner of a business, I have to work. I don't really love my job.

I I don't. Okay? But it feeds lots of ministries. It feeds my family and and I'm good at it.

You can you can be good at something you because of the way God wired you where you don't really necessarily love it. Okay. Back in '08 when the market crashed, man, I begged God to open any door. I sent my resume out to everybody.

No one was hiring in '08. And and I couldn't. No door was open. This is the only door he left open for me.

And so I plowed down and did my very best to be the best I could be at that job because that's what a Christian does. He works hard. Okay. Um, so John, so anyway, wake up, okay?

Ease into your day, stay in love, joy, peace, and when you get out of it, take it to God and let him get back you back into that love, joy, peace. You want to stay there. John 10 27 through 29. Okay?

[Music] My sheep hear my voice. Okay? And I know them. I know them.

You want to be in that place where Jesus knows you and they follow me. They do. What does God say? He says, um, if you love me, you'll obey me, right?

We follow Jesus. We obey Jesus. Okay? And they follow me and I give them eternal life and they shall never perish.

Neither shall anyone snatch them out of their hands. Listen, I hear people say, "Ah, it's been such a long day. All right. Hell is a really long time.

Eternity is a really long time. Okay? We don't want to be there. All right?

And I don't want to be um too in anybody's face but this relationship with Jesus is a serious thing. We should get serious about it. We should spend time in it with him because it's for our best interest. Okay?

He's a good God. He's a faithful father. All right? If you've had trust issues from father issues from the past, this guy's not like that guy, okay?

He's he's perfect. He's going to only get guide you properly. So, as we go into a time of reflection, okay, I want you to just kind of think, all right, think about your relationship with Jesus. Are you honest with him?

Okay. Have you opened up and really opened up to that deep hurt? Take this into prayer and and and think about this. Okay.

Do you trust him? Are you still trying to control your life? Okay. Still trying to uh put a mask over the deep hurt?

Okay. If so, you can bring it down here to the altar. get alone with God and lift that thing up to him. Okay?

Have you been seeking his will and trying to follow him or do you or or or your own? Okay. Get real with yourself. It's just you and Jesus.

All right? Maybe you feel like you're falling short. You're not doing everything you should be doing. You feel like you're not enough.

Again, take that to him. You are enough. If you ask Jesus in your heart, you're his You're you're a co-air with Christ. You're a prince or a princess.

You're a you are enough just because of that relationship. You're enough. Okay? And he loves you just as you are.

So ask him to help with it. There's a story where the disciples try to cast out a a demon and they fail. And then Jesus comes and they're like, "Please have mercy on me. Cast out this demon."

And Jesus says, "Everything's possible if you believe." And he and the guy collars out, I believe. Help my unbelief. Okay, it's such a such a great a great thing for us to look at.

He believed intellectually in his mind, but in his heart, he still knew he had doubts. And so, he asked God to help him with that doubt. We can do that. I've done that where you go and you're like, "God, I I I'm need your wisdom."

Or, "God, you know, help me with trusting you. Help me with being honest with you. Help me with loving you. Okay?

And he will help you with that. Okay? He is faithful and good to do that. So the altar is open.

Y'all come up.