Skills | Becoming | Week 4

[00:00:00] Foreign Church. We are thrilled you decided to listen to our teaching on your favorite podcast app. If you made a decision to follow Christ today, would you let us know by visiting yes.newlife Gillette.com Here is this week's teaching. [00:00:27] Good morning. [00:00:28] Hey, if you're ready to jump in the Word and say let's get it, do it. [00:00:36] Let's try it again. [00:00:38] That was not. [00:00:40] I think I need to walk back out on stage. If you're ready to get in the Word this morning, say let's get it. [00:00:45] Hey, there we go. We're going to be in First Corinthians, Chapter nine. If you got a Bible, open up there. While you're turning there, I want to say good morning to everybody on Church 307. [00:00:54] Jail, prison, anywhere in Wyoming, wherever you're watching from, we're so happy that you're here today in week four of our Becoming series. If you're following along in life groups and reading the book, then you know that this week we are talking about the skills of a disciple. Same thing when we talk about life on mission as a church. Life on mission is the skills we need. That's just the summary of the skills we need to live life as a disciple of Jesus. So first Corinthians, chapter nine, we are going to start reading in verse 24, here's what it says. [00:01:31] Do you not know that in a race all runners run, but only one gets the prize? [00:01:37] Run in such a way as to get the prize. [00:01:40] Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last. [00:01:46] But we do it to get a crown that will last forever. [00:01:49] Therefore, I do not run like someone running aimlessly. I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified from the prize. [00:02:06] Let's pray. [00:02:08] Jesus, it's your word, as we've already experienced your presence as we worshiped echoing heaven here in this room, experiencing a glimpse of what it's like to be praising you for eternity. [00:02:25] So today, as we now turn to your word, to ask what it means to live as your disciple, as who you created us to be. [00:02:34] If there's anything that's just my ideas, let us notice it and reject it. [00:02:40] But if there's anything over the next few minutes that's faithful to your word, consistent with your character, then plant it deeply in our hearts that we would become like you, Jesus, because that's why we're here. [00:02:53] Amen. [00:02:56] So there is a phrase that I tell my son all the time. I tell it to him so often that when he hears me start saying it, he rolls my eyes. He rolls his eyes. Parents, you familiar with that? [00:03:09] Yeah, he's nine going on 16. [00:03:11] And. But I. For the record, I count that as a win. Right. When he rolls his eyes about that, I think that's a parenting win. Because what that means is he knows it so well that when I say the first two words of the phrase, he already knows what I'm about to say, and he's going to hate it for, like, the next 10 years. It's going to drive him nuts. But maybe in 15 years, when he actually needs the phrase, it'll be so deep in his mind that he can recall it when it matters. So maybe, maybe not maybe, but maybe if your kids are rolling their eyes at you, it means you're doing something right. Just a little encouragement for today. Here's the phrase, though. [00:03:45] Everything in life worth doing is hard. [00:03:50] Everything in life worth doing is hard. Now, some of you are thinking, cj, I mean, not everything's hard. I once ate a whole cake in one sitting. [00:03:58] Wasn't that hard? And I think the question you have to ask then is, is that worth doing? [00:04:03] Which the answer is maybe, you know, if it's a good cake. Good, good moment. Right. Sometimes you got to celebrate. But I think we're approaching the question wrong if that's the way we're thinking about it, because it might not be that hard to eat a whole cake, but it is hard to make a cake worth eating in one sitting. [00:04:20] It's difficult to make a cake that doesn't come out of a box made with basically, Styrofoam and sugar. Right? It's difficult. My wife bakes. And baking is 50% skill and 50% magic. I don't understand it. It's hard work to do it. [00:04:33] Everything in life worth doing is hard. If you want to become anything, it's going to be hard. If it's worth becoming. You want to win a basketball game, it's going to be hard. You want to get a black belt, it's going to be hard. You want to work your way up at your company, it's going to be difficult. You want to have a good marriage, it's going to be hard. Some of us have heard the phrase, oh, love should be easy. If it's love, shouldn't it be easier? And anybody who says that's never been in love, love isn't supposed to be easy. [00:05:03] Everything in life worth doing is hard. [00:05:08] It requires hard work. [00:05:10] There's a philosopher, a Christian philosopher, was a Christian philosopher and author, Dallas Willard, who talked a lot in his writing about who we're becoming, about what it means to become who God created us to be. Discipleship. And he said this. It's a very similar phrase. He said grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. [00:05:36] Earning is an attitude. [00:05:38] Effort is an action. [00:05:41] Grace is not opposed to effort, but it is opposed to earning. [00:05:48] Everything in life worth doing requires effort. We do not earn our salvation. [00:05:55] But if salvation is worth living in, it requires effort. [00:06:00] Everything in life worth doing is hard. Now, that might be a little bit confusing. Let's think about it like this. I want you to imagine that you want to buy a house. You decided that you want to buy a house. So you maybe are starting from nothing, starting from scratch. Never bought a house before. You got nothing in the bank account. So in order to buy this house, you work really hard and you live way below your means. You are on the, you know, ramen and no Netflix type budget like you are putting in the work to save up that down payment. You save up the down payment. You work to get a good credit score. You apply for the mortgage and you buy a house. Congratulations. Right now, from here on out, you're building equity. Every mortgage payment that you make is building equity in that house. If the market moves in the right direction, you're building equity in that home. You're building wealth, right? You're making money. [00:06:49] That's earning. [00:06:51] You put in the effort. [00:06:53] You worked really hard to get the house, so now you deserve all of the equity that comes out of that house. [00:07:02] Grace is opposed to earning. [00:07:09] Now life isn't opposed to earning. [00:07:11] It's perfectly fine to earn, work hard and buy a house. But grace spiritually as opposed to earning. [00:07:19] Let's imagine something different. Imagine you'd want to buy a house, but there's not a chance it's going to work. Maybe you made some mistakes in your past. You've got a horrible credit score, maybe you had to file for bankruptcy. [00:07:31] You're not going to be able to do it. There's not a chance that you're going to be able to qualify for a loan. [00:07:37] So somebody looks at you in mercy and generosity, then gives you a house. [00:07:46] Now you've got two choices. Now this is where it gets important. You got two options then if someone gives you a home for free titles in your name, the value of the house is now in Your name. That's a lot. That's valuable. You've got two choices. One option is, you could say, sweet, I own a house now. I got a house. That's great. And then you could live in it and never do anything. [00:08:06] You could not clean it. [00:08:08] You could never mow the lawn. The roof could start leaking and you wouldn't fix it. You could, you know, smoke inside the house and never clean up after the dogs. And over. Over time, that house is going to depreciate, right? The value is going to get lower instead of higher. Now, you still have a house, right? The house is still yours. It was still a free gift, but the value of that home has not been maximized. [00:08:34] You haven't made the most of that gift that you were given. You have a free house, which is great, but living in a dirty house that's leaking is still a bummer, right? [00:08:45] You got another choice, though. The other option is somebody gives you a house for free, and you recognize the value of that gift. [00:08:54] You see how significant it is that someone would give you a home, and you decide to apply yourself to maximizing the value of that gift. So what do you do? You keep it clean. [00:09:06] You keep the grass mode. You trim the bushes. You do everything you're supposed to do. If the roof leaks, you fix it. If. If something's dirty, you clean it up. And over time, you save money and you work so that you can finish the basement and add square footage. Add finished square footage, and then maybe you work hard over time and you add a half bath and you see the value that you were given. So you apply effort to the home to maximize the value. [00:09:32] That's effort, not earning. You weren't. You didn't earn the equity, but you did apply effort to maximize the value of what you were given. Grace is opposed to earning. You cannot earn what God gives you. [00:09:51] But grace is not opposed to effort. Now, we have to take a sidebar here, because I believe that this is one of the most common temptations we face as Christians. I think if you're a follower of Jesus, because I wrestle with this over time, we forget that we didn't earn it. [00:10:09] And we start to think that our effort means we deserve it. [00:10:14] So then we look down on people who don't have it. [00:10:20] Can I say that again? [00:10:22] Over time, we start to think that our effort means we earned it. [00:10:27] And because we deserve it, we look down on people who don't have it. [00:10:32] So our lives are trending in the right direction, and we see our friends who aren't and we say, come on, just get your act together. [00:10:41] If you would just earn it. You don't deserve what I have. [00:10:44] You don't deserve the seat in church I have. You don't deserve the reputation I have. [00:10:50] You don't deserve for people to pay attention to you the way they pay attention to me. I've put in the effort. And we forget. [00:10:56] We might have put in the effort, but we didn't earn it in the first place. It was a gift from God. Church is not a country club. Nobody buys or earns a seat. This is a free gift from God, and it's a gift given to everyone. [00:11:11] You can't earn it. And when we stop, when we start thinking we've earned something in God's community, then we change it from God's people to something else. [00:11:22] Read the story of the Old Testament and you start seeing what happens when the people of Israel think they deserve it instead of, it was a free gift. [00:11:31] It always leads to chaos. [00:11:34] Grace is opposed to earnings. When we start thinking, I realize this is heavy, but it's important. When we start thinking as if we have earned the grace of God, earned our place in the kingdom, we are now working in the opposite direction of God in the world. [00:11:52] We're working against grace. [00:11:56] But grace is not opposed to effort. [00:11:59] We do have a gift. We've been given that because of the value and generosity and mercy and beauty of the gift, we can apply effort to make the most of it. [00:12:12] So once again, this is heavy, but it's important. [00:12:16] I think this is what Paul is talking about here in First Corinthians. He's looking at a new church at a church that he planted. Paul is the author of about half of the New Testament. He's the first missionary. [00:12:29] And he's talking to them about the way that they live their lives. And he says, don't you know that if a runner runs in a race, they train, they put in effort. [00:12:38] Now, their effort doesn't guarantee them a prize, though. Every runner trains if they take it seriously, but only one gets the prize. So he says, run. Train as if you're going to get the prize. Train as if you actually want the prize that you could get. Then he goes on, he says, we're not competing for some sort of crown that can go away. It's much more valuable than that. You're not competing for something as silly as people looking up to you or respecting you or you having some sort of position in society. It's way more important than that. All of that stuff is Temporary. We're competing. We're applying effort for something that lasts. So I don't train like a boxer beating in the air or like a runner running aimlessly. I train as if the prize is possible and actually matters. Now we know from everything else Paul wrote all throughout the New Testament that you can't earn salvation. [00:13:28] The prize isn't salvation. That prize was won by Jesus and given to us freely if we would just trust him. So the prize he's talking about in this passage is not heaven. It's something else. [00:13:43] We don't earn heaven. [00:13:46] The prize Paul's talking about is becoming who you were created to be. [00:13:53] This is what we have to see this morning. Once again, this is a lot, but we have to see is possible to receive the gift of salvation but miss out on the prize of becoming who you were created to be. [00:14:13] One more time. [00:14:14] It's possible to receive the gift of salvation, to spend eternity with God in heaven because of the generous, kind mercy of Jesus, but to miss out in this life on who he created you to be. [00:14:29] We do not earn salvation, but we apply effort to become. [00:14:35] Salvation is a free gift. [00:14:38] We apply effort to become who God created us to be. Now the good news is the Holy Spirit meets us in the effort. [00:14:45] The Holy Spirit doesn't just reward us with transformation because we earned it. Effort creates space for the Lord to work in our heart so that we can be changed and become who we were created to be. But without effort, there is no becoming. [00:15:02] So here at New Life, we talk about life on Mission. In the chapter you're reading in the book this week, we talk about skills. These skills are life on mission. There are five skills in Life on Mission. We believe at New Life that these skills are the baseline practices of of a disciple, that this is the foundational practice, the foundational way I live in order to become who God's created me to be. These are the five things that I apply effort towards if I am a follower of Jesus, trying to become who God's created us to be. So these are skills that we learn just like any other skills that you learn to become anything. These are the skills that we learn and work on as we become who God's created us to be. So here's the first one. [00:15:44] We gather purposefully. Everybody say gather purposefully. [00:15:48] We gather purposely. You're here. You're halfway there. That's awesome. Now, most of you know, though, that just being in church doesn't mean you're here on purpose. [00:15:57] Sometimes we show up in purpose because show up in church because somebody made us. Sometimes we show up in church because there's a cute girl sitting next to us. Sometimes we show up in church for a lot of reasons. Sometimes we show up in church and we just take a nap for about an hour. I've done that before. I'm not gonna lie. My dad was a preacher. I've slept through a handful of his sermons. [00:16:14] So we gather purposely. [00:16:16] We, we prioritize the gathering. What that means is that God's people, the gathering of God's people takes priority in our schedule. So we don't gather when nothing else is going on. [00:16:29] We gather intentionally. And everything else fits around that we gather purposefully. But it doesn't just mean that it takes priority in my schedule. It means that I gather with the intention to worship, give glory to God and to grow through connecting with God's people and through learning from His Word. I gather on purpose. Have you ever come into church? Not really feeling it that day. [00:16:54] I have plenty of times. [00:16:59] So we gather purposefully. [00:17:01] Just like sometimes you go to the gym and you're not feeling it that day. [00:17:04] We gather and we choose to apply the effort to receive from the Lord, even if we weren't feeling it that day. We gather purposefully. So that's the first skill, and it's a skill that we have to learn. Life will pull you in the opposite direction. Effort will pull you to the gathering on purpose. Here's the second thing we do. We connect deeply. We connect deeply with God and with other people. [00:17:30] We practice this primarily through life groups at New Life. [00:17:35] Any of you kind of like shade tree mechanics, like to work on cars here? [00:17:40] Yeah, a couple of us. [00:17:41] About a week, about 10 days ago, the clutch went out in my Jeep, which, if you know what that means, it is a huge job. And I decided I can do that myself, no problem. [00:17:51] Here's the secret. I can't do that myself. [00:17:55] So I spent all day. I started about 11 o' clock on Friday, got down under my Jeep, started unbolting stuff, unbolted a bunch of stuff I wasn't supposed to unbolt, had to rebolt it, and then kept working all day, got done about 10 o' clock Friday night. When I say done, I mean done to the point I couldn't do anymore. The job was barely started. [00:18:14] Worked all day Saturday, finally got everything unbolted and had to take the transmission off. If you know anything about cars, you're like, yikes. You were about to get crushed under the transmission and I couldn't get it unstuck. So I texted a guy from my life group that I connect with deeply, and I didn't want to ask for help. Can I be honest? I hate asking for help. [00:18:36] I hate it. [00:18:37] I'd rather do just about anything. I'd rather help you all day than ask you for help. So I didn't ask him for help. I texted him and I said, hey, do you have any ideas how to get a transmission unstuck? I know I've got all the bolts off. And he said, I'll be there in 20 minutes. [00:18:53] And he was there in 20 minutes. And he did in about four hours what took me a day and a half to do right. [00:19:02] Here's why I tell you that story. [00:19:04] I have been a pastor for 13 and a half years, preaching about connecting deeply, preaching about life groups. My dad's a pastor. I've been in church my whole life. That's not a flex. [00:19:16] What I'm trying to tell you is I still struggle to connect deeply. [00:19:21] I've preached 100 sermons about how you have to ask for help if you want help, and I still don't do it. [00:19:30] We think that these things aren't skills. We don't think of these practices as skills that you have to learn. [00:19:37] But connecting with people is a skill. If you want good shot form on a basketball team, you have to practice it. [00:19:45] If you want to point your toe rightly in ballet, you have to practice it. If you want to connect with other people, you have to practice it. In Genesis, chapter two, God said, it is not good for a human to be alone. We were created to connect deeply. [00:20:01] So we do that in life groups. And what that means is I go to a life group first, I sign up for one. It's never too late to sign up for a life group. We will find you a life group. Today, we'll find you a life group tomorrow. We'll find you a life group. Anytime they're in season, we will get you into a life group. It's never too late. [00:20:16] But I go to that life group. I prioritize it, and then when I go, I actually open up. I ask for help when I need help. I know it's hard. Believe me, I almost died underneath a transmission because it's hard. [00:20:31] But we do it anyway. We learn the skill, we practice the skill, and there's no arrival point. [00:20:37] It's not like we'll show up to a life group four times and check the box. [00:20:42] No, no. We'll be practicing this for the rest of our life. And we'll get better at it for the rest of our life. [00:20:48] And we connect with other people and we connect with God. Pastor Mike talked last week about abiding. We connect deeply with God and we connect deeply with other people. Now this next one is everybody's favorite thing to talk about in church. We give generously. How many of you are stoked to talk about money this morning? Amen. [00:21:09] Yeah, that's a lot more than I was expecting. Honestly, this is my least favorite thing to talk about. If I had to pick between a sermon, a 35 minute sermon about money and a hour long sermon where I had to talk about sexuality, gender, identity politics, abortion and every other controversial thing in our culture today, I picked the second one every day. I hate talking about money in church because it's the one thing everybody gets angry about. The other ones, it's only 50, 50. But I don't like hearing about money. [00:21:43] I don't like hearing about money. [00:21:46] I don't like talking about it because also I understand. I grew up wearing hand me downs. My dad passed through a tiny church. You see pictures of me when I was 8 year old. It looks like I played soccer. I couldn't kick a soccer ball off this stage, but my older cousin could. [00:22:00] I get it. [00:22:02] It's hard to talk about money. It's not fun. [00:22:06] But here's the thing. [00:22:09] We have to preach the Bible. [00:22:14] You're not here for my opinions. [00:22:17] We have to preach the Bible. As much as I would like to skip money in the Bible, I couldn't preach the Bible without talking about money. Do you know how many times approximately scripture references money? [00:22:32] This many. [00:22:33] Over 2000 verses. [00:22:36] Discuss money in the Bible. [00:22:39] Over 2000 verses. Now, some of you are thinking the Bible's pretty big. That might not be that many. Do you know how many times the Bible talks about hell? [00:22:50] This many. Approximately 160 times. You know how many times as a pastor I hear people say y' all should talk about hell more? [00:22:58] Only if we talk about money. Approximately 20 times more. 10 times more. Right. [00:23:06] 160 times hell is referenced. And most of the time its reference is pretty vague, actually. [00:23:11] You know how many times the Bible talks about heaven? [00:23:16] This many. [00:23:18] Approximately 650. [00:23:22] Approximately. Three times more talks about money. It talks about heaven. You know how many times the Bible talks about love? [00:23:29] That's what the whole thing's about, right? God is love. That's first. John 4. [00:23:33] It's all about love. [00:23:35] You know how many times the Bible talks about love? [00:23:38] Approximately 650 times. [00:23:43] The Bible talks about money. Three times more. Than it talks about love. [00:23:48] I get it. [00:23:49] I don't want to talk about it either. [00:23:52] But if I'm going to say Jesus loves you and say the Bible says it, I have to have to talk about money. [00:24:00] I would be cutting apart the Bible and dropping out the things that I don't like if I didn't talk about money. [00:24:08] And the Bible tells us why it talks about money so much. In Timothy, in First Timothy, I believe chapter six, Paul again says the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. [00:24:20] Jesus said a very similar thing. He said it like this. A man, a human, can't serve two masters. He will love one and hate the other. So a human can't serve both God and money. That's why for as long as there have been Christians, we have practiced the skill of tithing, which is giving the first 10% of everything that comes in back to the Lord through the church. [00:24:40] We practice that skill because what it does is it unattaches our hearts from money to so that our hearts can be attached first to Christ. The world is constantly pulling us towards money, consumerism and material things. And unless we intentionally learn the skill of unhooking from that train, we will be pulled towards the master of money. What the Greek calls the God of Mammon or the Hebrew calls the God of Mammon, we will constantly be pulled towards that. So we practice the skill. Now, once again, we understand this is a skill and skills require practice and 10% is a lot. We don't expect anybody. I understand that for a lot of us that is not even feasible. It's not possible. You couldn't keep the lights on and do that. But we believe a skill is something that we have to apply effort to and keep learning. That's why we've created Becoming a Life Giver, where we say on our church, we say that anyone is a life giver giving life to the community of Gillette. If you are giving, if you have a reoccurring gift of $20 a week or more. So that is a way of practicing the skill so that we learn the skill over time. God is generous to us. He's kind and merciful to us. We don't earn anything, so we don't give to make God like us. And we don't give to make God give something back to us. We give because it's a skill we learn so that we can live fully devoted to Jesus. [00:26:13] All right, you ready to be done talking about money? [00:26:16] There's two more. [00:26:18] Here's the next thing we serve Selflessly. You probably noticed this on this Sunday morning. You might have checked your kids in downstairs. You might have grabbed a donut or coffee, someone shook your hand, smiled at you when you came in the doors. Today we have people who serve all the time. If you've got a kids in youth group, you've got. If you've got kids in youth group, you've got awesome volunteers who are serving your family and serving your teens. On Wednesdays, we've got blessings in a backpack where people are serving all the time. [00:26:42] Here's what some people don't understand is that we serve for two reasons. We serve in kids ministry. For one, because it's good that our kids are taught the love of Jesus at a young age. Amen. That's awesome, right? But here's the second reason. We serve because serving is a skill I learn as a follower of Jesus that helps me become who God created me to be. [00:27:03] So we don't have a kids ministry because churches are supposed to have a kids ministry. We have a kids ministry because our kids need Jesus and we need to serve. [00:27:11] We don't have donuts because donuts will make people come to church. [00:27:15] We have donuts because Jesus teaches us hospitality. And because I become like Jesus when I serve. Mark, chapter 10, verse 45. Jesus said, I didn't come to be served, but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many. So when I serve, I practice the way Jesus lived. Serving is a skill I learn in order to become who I was created to be. So I volunteer in youth ministry, yes, to make an impact on the next generation and also for my life to be impacted because I'm serving. I run a camera so that Church 307 can hear the Gospel. And also so that my heart is formed by serving, because I'm becoming who God created me to be. When I serve, I serve selflessly. And here's the last one. I influence daily. [00:28:03] Making disciples. [00:28:05] Influencing other people for the gospel is not the job of a pastor. It's not the job of a missionary. [00:28:12] It's the job of a disciple. [00:28:15] In Matthew, chapter 28, right before Jesus went into heaven, he said to all of his disciples, he said, go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He did not say, a few of you will will be called to make disciples. He did not say, a few of you will have special jobs where you can make disciples. He said, go into all the world to every disciple and make disciples. So we learn to Use the influence we have on the people around us. Now, listen, you don't have to become one of those cheesy Christians that's like, you know how this donut has a hole in it? Your heart has a hole in it, too, and Jesus can fill it. [00:28:52] Please don't. Please don't be that guy, all right? [00:28:55] Nobody. [00:28:56] Nobody likes that guy. [00:28:59] Don't do that. [00:29:02] Learn to wield your influence. [00:29:04] Did you know that the Holy Spirit is right now convicting and working in the life of every single one of your co workers? Did you know that? [00:29:11] Every single one of your co workers, the Holy Spirit's in their home, in their life, working in their life. So we learn to pay attention and we learn to say things like, hey, can I pray with you about that? Hey, I know it's been a. I know you've been working a lot of. A lot of overtime lately. Hey, can I help you out? Can I bring a meal over to your family or something like that? Just want to bless you. Jesus has blessed me. I'd love to bless you. We learned to wield our influence when. When someone in our life is like, yeah, I'm really, really stressed right now. I'm just, you know what? Marriage is on the rocks. You say, you know what? You know what's helped my marriage? Going to church. Would you go to church with me? I'll come pick you up. [00:29:43] We wield our influence. We use our influence to invite other people to become disciples. We honestly, a lot of y' all are here this morning because someone used their influence and you became a disciple. Praise the Lord for that. [00:29:58] Now God's given you influence to use in the lives of other people. It's a command for every disciple to influence the world around us for the kingdom of God. It's not the job of pastors and missionaries. It's the job of disciples. So we do all five of these things. Now, I know some of you are thinking, that's a lot, cj. How could I do all of that? But what we have to see is that if you want to become anything, you're going to learn skills. You're probably going to learn more than 5 skills. You want to become a basketball player or a ballet dancer or a hunter or a fireman. You're going to have a laundry list of skills that you'll be learning for the rest of your life. I talked with someone who teaches dance earlier this week, and I asked, have you ever stopped learning? And she said, no, absolutely not. I'm learning it for the rest of My life. Did you know Yo Yo Ma, the greatest cello player in the world? He's in his 80s, I believe, and he practices cello six hours a day because he's still learning, he's still becoming. [00:30:55] So we practice these skills. Anything we want to become requires effort. So here's what I want to ask you to do this morning. I want to ask you to take a really simple step. There are going to be three QR codes that are going to be on the screen right here. These are the things that you can sign up for. You're already here gathering and you can't sign up to influence other people. So here are the three things that you could Take a simple step. If you're here this morning thinking, I need to work on all of those skills or I need to work on one of those skills, or I've never tried any of those skills at all, this is what I want to ask you to do. Pull out your phone right now. I'm not going to think you're texting. Pull out your phone. You can text. I wouldn't know, honestly. [00:31:33] Pull out your phone, scan one of these QR codes and just sign up. Sign up to become a life giver. Sign up. Scroll down to that page where it says email. Send me an email and join a life group. Sign up to volunteer somewhere today. [00:31:46] Take a step. It doesn't have to be a big step. You might not be able to find all of the time. You might not be able to give 10% right now. That's okay. Don't cannonball into the deep end. Take a step. Learning a skill means applying a little bit of effort and growing over time. So take the first step today in becoming who God's created you to be. Right here. Sign up for one of these three things today. Let's pray. [00:32:14] Jesus, we love you. [00:32:17] Thank you that you gave us salvation and you invite us to become who we were created to be. [00:32:24] Would you give us the motivation and drive to apply the effort? Would you give us energy to not grow weary in doing good, but to take full advantage of the beautiful gift you've given us? We love you, Jesus. Amen.