Discipleship Pt 4

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

We are gonna be in Malachi chapter three today, if you wanna turn there. If you have been around kids long enough, if you've worked with kids, if you've had kids of your own, you understand that it's not long until they are stringing words together, they are making sentences, that those sentences turn into questions. And the number one question a brand new speaker begins to ask is one word, and that word is why, why? Why are school buses yellow? Why do bees sting? Why is rain cold? It is a wonderful phase to raise a child in. I kind of miss it just a little bit, I'm happy to be in the phase I'm in, but I kind of miss it just a little bit. Because it's honestly curious. It's this wonderful thing where nothing is assumed.

They're not asking because they know what rain is about, they're asking because this is the first time they feel something and they're thinking, this is cold, why is this cold? It's great, the level of curiosity is honestly inspiring. The hazard, so conversely, the hazard of becoming an adult is not assuming nothing but assuming too much. The hazard of getting older is that you forget why you do things, you forget why, you plan that vacation, you forget why you did that thing. Look, as we discuss discipleship today, this is our fourth week last week, as we discuss what it is to invest in other people's spiritual journeys. Let's not make the mistake of believing

that making disciples is just an end to itself. What do I mean by that? What would be an end to itself? Well, okay, let's take the question seriously. What do you mean? The question seriously would be like, why should we invest in people's spiritual journeys? So why should we do this? Well, if we're just assuming, if we're making the mistake of just believing that it's an end to itself, we're answering it this way. We're saying, well, because Jesus demonstrated it.

Okay, that's true, it doesn't answer why, but that's true. Jesus commanded it. Again, you're correct. You could also say, the first Christians did it. You read Acts two, Acts three, and so on, right? All through the New Testament, Christians did it. They invested in other people's spiritual journeys. They made disciples, and all of those are true, but it doesn't answer why. So I'm gonna invite you to be a toddler with me today. We're not gonna throw food or play red light, green light, although I'm a little jealous that they get to do that.

Be a toddler with me today. Don't assume, ask why. Wonder why. Why Jesus came to this earth and invested in people's spiritual journeys. Why did he do that? And I would submit to you that his purpose was not simply to make disciples, it was not simply to start a movement, although it includes these things, the why of it is much, much larger. It's part of a bigger question and answer. And to find the first clue, we're not gonna go to Malachi three first. We're gonna go to Mark one, verses one and two, and we're not gonna be in Mark today. I'm just referencing that for obvious reasons. You'll see in a second. In Mark chapter one, verse one and two, so this is the beginning of Mark's gospel. In fact, it says so, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, okay? So this is Mark introducing his gospel, okay? Now Mark, you don't know this, Mark compared to Matthew and Luke and John

was very concise, okay? He has the shortest gospel by far, okay? His, I think it's like 16, 15 chapters, very short. Matthew's like 28 chapters, John's 15 or 16. I'm sorry, Mark, excuse me, 15 or 16. So he says here, verse one, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, remember, he's being very limited with his words. What does he say in verse two? As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, behold, I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Now something that you need to know, whenever somebody in the New Testament is quoting the Old Testament, a lot of times they're not gonna rattle off every prophet that they're quoting, they're just gonna start with, they're only gonna list the most famous one. Isaiah is the most famous. But in these verses, he's actually quoting

two Old Testament prophets. The first is Isaiah from chapter 40, Isaiah 40. The second one's from Malachi 3. Okay? And it is curious, it is noteworthy that Mark is gonna begin his gospel and that he's gonna do it by citing Old Testament scripture from Isaiah 40 and Malachi 3. And it's not just here, Isaiah 40 and Malachi 3 are also cited early in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke. So Matthew, Mark, and Luke all cite Isaiah 40 and Malachi 3. Why? Why is that such a big deal? What Mark is telling us by putting the citation at the beginning is that this is kind of a lens through which we can see Jesus' ministry. We can understand who he is, where he's come from, what he's come to do, right? So it's kind of this lens, we need to see that. And I wanna focus on Malachi 3 today because when you investigate the other part, when you investigate Isaiah 40, okay,

it's basically Isaiah 40, talks about somebody coming to reveal God's glory in person, right? So in other words, Jesus is the Son of God. And that's why they're citing Isaiah 40. But it's less clear why they're citing Malachi 3. And so I want to examine Malachi 3 and find a little bit more detail and find, again, find Jesus' purpose. Why? Why is he investing in people's spiritual journeys? Why is he making disciples? So let's start, let's look, Malachi 3, verse one. We're just gonna do the first four verses and we're gonna do them one at a time. So Malachi 3, one, behold, behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight. Behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. Now look, I'm gonna set up Malachi 3 here for just a second. In Malachi 3, there's two people.

The first is the messenger who's coming to prepare the way and the second is the one whose way is being prepared. So we got a messenger going before and then we have the second person coming. The reason, the reason that we quote that near the beginning of the Gospel of Mark is because the person who went before Jesus is called John the Baptist. You might've heard of him. He's the messenger who's coming before. But I wanna concentrate on the second person, the one whose way is being prepared. So we get a few clues as to who this person is. It says that this person is the Lord whom you seek and he will suddenly come into his temple. So what we see in Malachi 3, way before New Testament, this is 400 years before Jesus came, what we see in Malachi 3 is that God is saying I'm going to come in person into my temple. I'm not gonna, it's not just my glory that's gonna shine,

it's not my spirit that I'm gonna put on. I'm going to show up in person in a new way. God is coming in person and we know this, right? We know this. But the second part is that it says and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming. So this is a synonym. This is another title for the same person who's coming. He's the messenger of the covenant. So to sum up, God is coming in person to remind people of their covenant. God is coming in person. This is Malachi 3, right? And there are obvious parallels here with Jesus' ministry, right? Jesus came in person, God in person, right? And so check, right? So he's coming in person, but also, what does Jesus talk about? He talks about fulfilling scripture. He talks about fulfilling the Old Testament. He talks about, he will cite the Old Testament and he will relate it to what's going on right there.

Okay, so Jesus is this guy. He is God in person. He's reminding people of their covenant with him. Okay, and this is why Mark cites these verses in particular, so let's keep reading Malachi 3. We've established from 3.1, we're talking about Jesus. Let's keep reading, we've got three more verses to go. 3.2, but who can endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears for he is like a refiner's fire and like Fuller's soap? Look, refining, refiner's fire, it's something that purifies, right? So if you want to make metal more pure, you can't scrub it, you can't just take it apart and pick the bad parts out, you gotta melt it. You gotta put it under extreme temperature, impurities rise to the top, you skim it off and you do it again, you heat it up and you skim it off and you heat it up. And that's why we have different levels of gold. There's 24 karat gold, there's 14 karat gold,

there's 10 karat gold, et cetera. It's because you want something that's 24 karat gold, that thing has to be melted at a high temperature and you have to skim all the impurities and it's a whole process. That's why it actually costs more, okay? So when God is coming in person, he's going to turn up the heat. So this isn't all good news, okay? It's not like, oh, oh, God's finally here, in person, in his temple, and he's gonna remind us of our covenant. What 3-2 is telling us is that that's not gonna be a fun process. That's not gonna be like skipping rope. That's not gonna be like, you know, kicking back and remembering good times. This is gonna be difficult. He's got work to do. He's coming to purify his people, he's coming to make his people holy. Why? Verse three. Malachi 3-3, he will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi

and refine them like gold and silver. Sons of Levi here is like kind of a euphemism for God's people, right? He's gonna purify God's people, refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. So God is going to make them holy in order for the express purpose of them and bringing sacrifices to him in righteousness. Verse four kind of shores this up for us. Malachi 3-4, then, after they are purified, after they are made holy, the offering of Judah and Jerusalem, God's people, will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years, okay? According to Malachi 3-1 through four, what is happening? God is coming in person, Jesus, check, okay? God is coming to remind them of their covenant, Jesus, check. And God is coming to make his people holy so they can worship him, okay? That's what's happening. When you're talking about bringing offerings in righteousness,

this is worship, right? This is the Old Testament version of what we just did, of whenever we are coming before God's presence. And what Jesus is coming to do, according to Malachi 3 and a lot of other places in the New Testament that we'll talk about in just a second, but according to Malachi 3, just taking that, Jesus is coming to make people holy so they can worship him. And when we talk about being made holy, when we talk about Jesus making us holy, we've got baggage, okay? We've got baggage with that word, we've got baggage with that whole premise, that whole enterprise, and we need to understand what's going on. So what I wanna do is I wanna take three misconceptions and three truths about holiness. I want you to see it, okay? Three misconceptions, three truths about holiness. The first misconception, right? First misconception is that holiness is an add-on,

that holiness is extra, right? Holiness is on top of what we're already doing, what we're already committed to, right? It is a tier above the best we can, okay? It's somehow unreachable, and that's a really toxic way to conceive of it, that it has to do with doing extra add-on stuff. So I'm working my job, I'm taking care of my family, I'm going to school, I'm making good grades, whatever, right? But if I wanna be holy, I gotta add on to that. It's about adding stuff on, it's about including more things. And that is a terrible way to conceive of it, only for this reason, that whenever Jesus came to make people holy, this is the same thing as Jesus coming to put everything back in order. Let me say that a different way, that our truth, that our number one truth on this is that your holiness is foundational. Your holiness is foundational, and it has everything to do with what you are already doing.

Okay? This might not sound like a big deal, but when you sit down and you look at your schedule, when you sit down and you understand how you spend your time, and you start thinking about holiness being an add-on to that, the stress begins. We don't need to conceive of it that way. Again, toxic, what we need to think of holiness is that it is foundational. Maybe here's another way to say it. Holiness is the way that you and I were meant to live. It is a way that agrees with us the most. It is a way that puts us in a position

to move with the Spirit and be a blessing to other people. In fact, maybe another way to say it would be the very best thing, very best thing, anyone on earth could do is to be in a right relationship with their creator. That's the very best thing for anybody on this earth. That's better than a promotion, that's better than winning a lottery, that's better than anything. The very best thing that a person could do is be in right relationship with their creator, and that's what holiness is.

It's being with the Lord in a significant capacity. It is you and the Lord having this right relationship. From that relationship, when that relationship is made holy, whenever that is happening, your other relationships are going to feel that. We don't talk about this very often, but I think it's helpful to say it this way. Listen, you've got a broken relationship you want to heal. You've got a marriage that needs fixing. You dealing with depression, you dealing with some deep, deep, deep frustration. One of the things that you need to do, one of the things that you need to do is to pursue holiness. Pursue a right relationship with your creator, set aside time to pray, read scripture, and look, it's not rubbing a lucky rabbit's foot. It's not putting on a good luck charm, it's not any of that. What it is, it's pursuing how you are made to be.

Jesus wants you to be holy, and when you set aside time and you say, Lord, here I am, look, I'm here, I got five minutes. I need you to make me holy right this second. I need to relate to you right now, heart to heart. I guarantee you, promise you, that the Lord God in heaven is gonna make use of those five minutes in a way that you don't expect. You sit down and you lay your heart before the Lord and you say, Lord, listen, I wanna be holy, I wanna come before you, I wanna do what you're asking me to do, I wanna be obedient. I know I'm not perfect, but I want these things. Jesus wants to do that. When we ask him to begin or to continue that process of setting us right, the Lord is more than willing and able and delights in that. The Lord delights in that. Holiness sets you right, it heals your soul, it calms your anxiety, it allows, think of it this way, holiness, whenever you are pursuing holiness,

it allows good things to grow and it uproots things that destroy you and the people that you love. That's what holiness does. Jesus came to make people holy in part because holiness is foundational. It's not just foundational, there's another kind of misconception and truth pair we need to set up with this that a lot of times when we talk about holiness, we talk about competition. Because you say holy and everybody else says holier than thou, okay, right? We've all been on either side of that phrase, okay? Holiness is not holier than thou. Look, when we see someone trying to live well, when we see, like if we're doing something that's either dumb or totally sinful and we see somebody abstain from that, not cast aspersions, not say, well, you should, they're not wagging fingers, they're just not partaking. What is our temptation in that moment? Our temptation is in jealousy to say,

well, who do they think they are? You can't slum it with us? What's your deal, right? You think you're better than us? That's our temptation, immediately. And when you and I talk about striving to live a holy life, we fear being that. We fear people taking that the wrong way. We fear ostracizing people that we love because we're somehow trying to put on, like, well, I'm being holy today. It's like, oh, okay, cool. You got religion, fun, but that's gonna cut you off from people and that's what we fear. Okay, let's talk about what holiness actually is, okay? Truth number two, holiness is sacrificial and loving.

In other words, it's like Jesus. You ever think about that? You ever think about Jesus being really holy and then a bunch of prostitutes and tax collectors and just the scum of the earth? People that were very used to being judged, okay? You're telling me a tax collector can't tell when somebody is giving them the eye? Like, okay, when they're judging them, these people knew what judgment looked like and they loved hanging out with Jesus. And Jesus was holy. Because his holiness, true holiness, didn't look like holier than now. It looked like sacrificial service. It looked like loving kindness. Those people in particular loved being around Jesus. Jesus got teased by the Pharisees because drunk people loved to hang out with him. It was his reputation. Look, when people strive for holiness, when you strive for holiness, the benefits of that, what the results are,

that you will become more generous, more present in the moment, that you will spend less time considering your victimhood and you will spend more time considering how you're gonna serve other people. If in your attempt, if in your pursuit of like, I'm gonna live a holy life, if you become stingier or ruder or less sweet, then you're doing it wrong, okay? When you grow in holiness, you need to grow in servanthood. When you grow in holiness, you need to consider, you will know that you're growing. How will I know I'm growing? You grow up because you will imagine ways to serve people. You will dream up ways you can sacrifice for other people and think, how cool would that be if I gave them that thing that they need? How cool would that be if we sacrificed something that we love over here to give that to them? That's what holiness looks like. That's holiness, not holier than now.

It's not judgmental. It's not competition. It's blessing, it's service. It's creative ways to include people This is what holiness is. And so when Malachi three, one through four says that Jesus is coming, he's gonna make us holy, it means that he's coming to make us look more like him. Romans eight, 29 talks about being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, that we are being conformed into his image. And this is exactly what holiness means. It's looking more like him. So look, let's recap for just one quick second. Holiness is not extra, it's not add-on, it's not something, it's foundational.

And also holiness is not about competition, it's about being sacrificial and loving. And then this last set here of misconception and truth. And this is another big one, that holiness breeds a bunker mentality. Bunker mentality, what do I mean by that? Well, think Puritans, okay? Think like 17th century Puritans, people who wanted to just stiff arm the world. Now that's not actually how they were, but it doesn't matter because that's what people think. So I'm just going with what people think. And also think like turn of the century Baptists, okay? Let's just call a spade a spade here. Still today, right? When you ask somebody else who's not a Baptist, that's a key point. When you ask somebody who's not a Baptist, what it means to be a Baptist, you're getting a lot of don'ts. They don't drink, they don't curse, they don't smoke, they don't play cards, they don't dance.

And all those things, all those don'ts are alive and well in the memory of people. I ask people that hadn't darkened the door of a church in 20 years what they know about Christians and when they hear I'm a part of a Baptist church, look that list gets, it gets broadcast pretty quickly. You get known for what you don't do. You get known for instead of engaging people, you build a bunker and you're like no, keep the world out there, we're just gonna be here in our little holy huddle. And what happens is when you have that mentality is that you treat the world like a public bathroom. Where like you walk in and you are trying to touch as little as possible, you get as much toilet paper as you can to like touch the doorknob. You either paper the seat or you hover, you know who you are. You don't, listen, you don't wanna touch anything, why? Because you don't wanna be infected.

That is a bunker mentality. When you say I'm not gonna be, I'm not gonna hang out with people that use foul language. Don't use that foul language around me. Well okay, I mean I get what you're trying to do but that's a lot more you trying to make, you trying to set yourself up as holy or you trying to like push your holiness onto them but that's not what this is about. Holiness, holiness, true holiness, spills out into the lives of others. Holiness spills out into the lives of others. And to see this, we need to see a couple of things and we need to see how Jesus viewed holiness and we also need to see how the Old Testament actually views holiness which is super interesting, okay. So quick history lesson, we're gonna go back to Exodus 19 and we're just reading two verses and they're gonna be up here, I promise. But in Exodus 19, in Exodus 19,

that is the beginning, so it's the second book of the Bible, that is the beginning of a long marathon of law, okay. So all the Old Testament law that you hear about like don't, you know, mix fibers, don't, all these laws that God is giving his people so that they can set up a new government because these are a bunch of slaves that had never been a nation before, right, so they're getting all these laws, okay. That happens in Exodus 20. You've heard of the 10 commandments? That's in Exodus 20, okay. For the next 54 chapters, so through Leviticus and into Numbers, 55 chapters of law starting in Exodus 20. What does God tell his people in Exodus 19? See it, it says now therefore, this is God talking to his people, now therefore if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, okay, so this is a conditional, this is, I want you to walk in, hold on, I want you to do what I'm telling you to do

and if you do this, here's the goal, here's the vision, here's what we're going for. If you indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples for all the earth is mine, okay. So God is not saying, okay, look, I only own these people over here. These people are mine, everybody else, I don't know, but no, he's saying look, all the earth is mine, okay. I created everybody, I'm everybody's God, but you, you will be my treasured possession among all peoples. What does he mean by that, what's the intention here? Verse six, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, let's talk about kingdom of priests. Again, look, we're trying to get into how Jesus sees holiness, how the Old Testament sees holiness so that we can understand it. A kingdom of priests, let me just say, a priest, what does a priest do?

Priest number one job, what do priests do? They usher people into the presence of God. Priests are mediators, okay. Well if you need, if you have a mediator, then you need two sides to bring together, right. So if you are a priest, God's on one side and you are ushering others into God's presence, right. Okay, well if his whole nation is priests, if his whole kingdom is priests, then who are they supposed to usher into his presence? Everybody else, everybody else. Exodus 19, before the law, before Jesus came, before any of this stuff, before the judges, before all the prophets, what's happening? God is setting up his people to say, I'm going to bless you and through you, through you, I want you, nation, Israel, I want you to usher everybody else into my presence. And when you read the Old Testament even, when you read Old Testament prophets, that's the vision that they're putting out.

They're saying one day, all nations are gonna come and worship the Lord. And this idea of being a kingdom of priests is pregnant in all of that. God intends for his people to minister to everybody else, kingdom of priests, and that goes with holy nation. They go hand in hand and you see this again in the New Testament in 1 Peter 2:9. It says, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. Does this sound familiar? We're right into Exodus 19:5 and 6 right here. A people for his own possession, why? Again, you see it, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. I want you to see the similarities. I want you to see it because Exodus is at one end of the Bible and 1 Peter is at the other end of the Bible and we need to understand it's a whole thing, right?

It's a thread that runs all the way through that holiness and being a priest, that ushering people into the presence of God, which is what it means to, it's what it means to invest in people's spiritual journeys. What else are you doing if not ushering them into God's presence? I'm not saying you got God's presence in your back pocket that you just whip it out whenever you're in conversation with people. What I'm telling you though is that when you are made holy, the Lord uses that holiness to spill into the lives of other people, that God intends for his people to be holy and we need to see the similarities, that being a priest and being holy are combined. They're combined in Exodus 19, they're combined in 1 Peter 2. But I also want you to see the process and this is really important, this is really helpful because normally order, it matters sometimes, but here it matters a whole lot, okay?

Jesus wants the whole world to worship, okay? Just let that sink in for just a second. Jesus wants the whole world to worship. As they worship, what's happening? They're being freed, right? They're finding out who they are, how they're made. They are finding out what they're created to do. They're in right relationship with their creator. This is what Jesus wants for the whole world and so what does he do? What, how does he solve that problem? He comes in person to make us holy. He doesn't train us on evangelism methods.

He doesn't like try to whip up us, whip up us into a frenzy and say, look, you really gotta go, no. He comes to make us holy. And then that holiness spills out into loving sacrifice, into the lives of other people and if you get it backward, it is death. If you get it backward, it is death and you need to see the difference because if you say it this way, if you say, well, Jesus wants me to be loving and sacrificial, so now I'm gonna do things, I'm gonna impose things on myself to make myself holy. I need to kind of get myself holy enough and if I don't measure up, the whole world's going to hell. But look, that is no way to live.

That is not the abundant life that Jesus called you to do. Sorry, it's just not. It sounds really heroic. It sounds super brave but it's dead wrong and it leads to death, spiritual death. It'll kill you, so let's get it right. I'm gonna say it again just so we get it right. Jesus wants the whole world to worship. It starts with him, it ends with him. Jesus wants the whole world to worship, so what does he do? How does he fix that problem? Does he make everybody worship him? I guess he could but he doesn't do that. He wants them to find out who they are. He wants them to find out what they're created to do. His goal for you is not for you to just become some bland automaton. Jesus' goal for you is to discover how he's made you to worship him and that's with everything. That's with your marriage and your career and everything. When that happens, it will, it will, I promise.

It will spill out into other people's lives. You will begin to have opportunities to invest in other people's spiritual journey because you are asking the Lord to be more like him. And what did Jesus do? Jesus left a really cool place and came here and invested in other people's spiritual journeys. It's the same. This is what holiness does. This is where holiness pushes us and we need to see it. So let me just ask you, you wanna live well? I do. You wanna be present for those you love?

I do. You want a lot of people at your funeral? Some of you don't. I know, but I do. You wanna invest into other people's spiritual journeys and make a difference? I do. Then ask Jesus to bring holiness to you. Ask Jesus to do that. And let's look, I know it's funny to do this. I really hate it. So if you think this is funny and you do it and you watch my face, I might not give you a good face. Sometimes whenever people say we should pray for holiness, there's always the crowd. It's like, whoa, you be careful what you're praying for. Okay, all right. It's funny, right? Yes, it's funny. You don't need to be careful what you're praying for. It's okay. Whatever the world can throw at you, if you're worried about all these little accoutrements, all these things you can't take with you, then yeah, I guess don't pray for holiness. But if you're really worried about what matters,

then ask for holiness. Don't be afraid to ask for it. Go through the fire. It's worth it. Go through the fire. Watch Jesus be faithful in it. Watch Jesus take care of things for you. Watch Jesus make you holy. Watch him reverse decades old sin patterns in your life. Watch him do that. Just watch him. I dare you. It's there. Watch him restore the years that the locusts have taken away. And watch how that spills into the lives of the people that are right around you. And so I just wanna, I'm gonna invite the worship team back up and I just kinda wanna leave you with a question and with an answer, right? How do we invest in people's spiritual journeys? No, not how, why? Excuse me, why? That was my whole point of my sermon, why? Why do we invest in people's spiritual journeys?

Because Jesus is worth it. And we really don't need another answer. Because Jesus is worth our time. Because Jesus is making things happen. And we can cooperate with that. And there really is no better way to spend your whole life. That if on your tombstone, if on my tombstone, it just says a dude, let it say dude, please. A dude who helps people on their spiritual journey. That's the finish line, man. That's the finish line. And I hope it says dude. Okay, the story's got it. Okay, good, my kids are like, dad, I got you, it's gonna be awesome.

So look, I want you to think about it. And Dan was asking what's in your tombstone. And that's a great question, I love it. On my tombstone, it's just gonna be a dude who helped other people on their spiritual journey. That's it, I can ride off into the sunset on that. I don't need anything else, and neither do you. In fact, it's actually the thing you were created to need for that holiness, for that connection with the Lord to spill out into other people. That's what you were made to do.

So spend some time doing it. One more thing I wanna say, I think I'd be remiss not to say it. If we're talking about how, how do we do this? It really just starts with you asking. It's not, there's not 10 steps here, okay? There's some 10 steps programs that are fantastic, so I'm not making fun, I'm just saying. There's ain't 10 steps. This is really just you asking the Lord to just make you holy.

And if it starts with five minutes, starts with three, if it starts with your car ride, fine, let it start somewhere, let it grow. Watch it happen. Jesus, thank you for all that you've given us. Thank you for the ways that you are a blessing to us. All these things that we were created to enjoy, you give them freely. All these things that, these things that make us struggle, that beset us, that tear us down, that destroy us, those are things that you wanna root out in us. But it's not just about rooting those out, it's about growing things in us that glorify you, that help us remember our purpose, that connect our marriage and our career and our spiritual pursuits, all those things that are wrapped up into one. It's like you say in Matthew 6:33 where you say like, look, don't worry about what you're gonna eat or wear or what's gonna happen tomorrow or if you're gonna get fired, if you're gonna keep your job,

blah, blah, blah, just all of that. Don't worry about that. Pursue the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things are gonna be taken care of. Lord, help us to do that. Help us to do that today.