Right Place Right Time

Transcript

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

If you want, you can turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter eight. These last few weeks, we have been starting an In Our Sermon series, Right to Life. We've been talking about this spirit life and how the spirit works in us to create life. We have a very kind of a very raw visceral metaphor that we see in Romans chapter seven about the spirit and us kind of coming together and new life kind of being born out of that. As that happens, we talked, last couple of weeks we talked about maintaining a realistic watch over our souls, right? So we're not, in other words, we're not expecting kind of perfection on this. If we're following the Lord, if we're living by the spirit, if we're following Jesus, we don't expect perfection, but we also need to understand that we still have to fight.

We still have to fight sin, okay? Then we moved into the idea of confidence that when we have confidence, when we know, when we understand how and understand what's going on, then we are truly, we are beginning to be set free for obedience. We're set free with kind of resurrection power, okay? Last week, we discussed how all of this, following Jesus, all this living by the spirit, it is not unicorns and rainbows. It is heavy, it is taxing, it is anxiety producing, it can lead to depression, it is difficult. It is difficult. And we talked last week, we said, we said suffering can't take away more than glory brings. Suffering can't take away more than glory brings. And so we know it will be worth it in the end. Today, as we end our series on Right to Life, as we end Romans chapter eight, and really as we end for the spring semester, our focus on the book of Romans,

we're gonna pick up our focus back in the fall, but over the summer, we're gonna be doing a couple of, we're gonna do a sermon series called Ears to Hear, where we're gonna be looking at the sayings of Jesus, parables, hard sayings, weird sayings, all kinds of, Jesus said all kinds of things. And so we're just gonna be looking at it, several different kind of things that he said over the summer. And from all over in the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And so that's gonna be a lot of fun. For this week though, for our last week, what I wanna leave you with, what I want you to focus on is today, we're just gonna be talking about one big truth, and we're talking about one big lie. One big truth, one big lie. The big truth will totally transform you. When you get it, when you grab it, when you have it in your bones, that one big truth, it really does change everything.

It changes relationships, it changes how you work, how you handle conflict, it changes everything. And the one big lie, the one big lie, if you swallow that blue pill, right, if you believe the lie, it will completely destroy you. Gone, it'll just erode you, you'll be nothing. And there really is no in-between. There really is no way to opt out of both. You got one big truth, you got one big lie. And to get it inside, to really see it, we need to first see the big lie, okay? And the big lie is what enemies all around you are gonna use to isolate you, to seduce you, to frighten you, to accuse you.

And in order to see this, in order to see kind of the contents of this lie, we need to look at a man called, not a man, a person called Sisyphus. Say he's not a man because he wasn't real, but it's a myth, it's fine. Greek mythology tells us about a man named Sisyphus, okay? Sisyphus was a very, very crafty guy in Greek mythology, very crafty. He cheated death twice, okay? Cheated death twice, but you can't cheat death and kind of escape the penalty in Greek mythology. I don't really know how it works. I don't even think they know how it works. So he receives this really odd fate, right? And here's his fate. He has to roll a huge boulder up a hill, up a large mountain, okay? He's got a just f, just strange, just huge boulder rolling it up a hill, and right as he would get to the very top, that boulder would slip from his grasp and it would roll all the way back down the hill.

And he had to do that for eternity. That was Sisyphus's fate. He rolled a huge boulder, straining, trying, I mean like just everything you can imagine where you're trying, you're almost at the top and you're straining the whole time. We had a party this weekend at the house where I had this graduation party and it was a lot of fun. There's one point where Jed and I are in the backyard and we're scrubbing the deck, okay? And my wife, she buys this deck cleaner stuff. So I mean, it's not, listen, it's not just kind of like give it a good pass and the deck's clean. It's like, no, we're like getting solution out. It's gonna be a thing. It's gonna be an ordeal. And so in my mind, look, I'm 45 years old. My back is not like super great, okay? If I have a weakness anywhere, if I was a superhero, my weakness would be back, okay?

And so we're going along and I'm kind of just lightly scrubbed. I'm not digging in, okay? Let's just be real. I'm not breaking a sweat scrubbing the deck here, okay? So then Jed's like, well, let's trade off. No, no, no, he didn't say this first, sorry. Jed, he takes a turn in scrubbing and when he does, I mean, he gets after it with like, you know, 500 horsepower, bro. I mean, he is on it. I mean, you know, he's bent over, he's just, you know, going and I'm going, I'm just looking at, this is me, okay? I'm looking at and going, okay, our deck is, one side of our deck is 12 feet by 20 feet. You just did like, I don't know, one foot by three feet. Okay, that's all you did and you're kind of breaking a sweat and I'm looking at the rest of the deck going, Jed, I don't know if we could get all this totally clean that way, okay? So in that moment when I saw Jed like going to town

and I knew I could look in his eyes, the man wanted to clean the deck all the way. I could not beg him off that. I felt a little bit like Sisyphus. I knew it was going to end. I felt a little bit like Sisyphus just like, oh, I felt like it was just strain and I could not imagine, here's what I could imagine. I couldn't imagine getting to the very end of the deck and I mean, we put a good hour and a half in that thing. I couldn't imagine getting to the very end of the deck and then turning around and seeing the deck all dirty again. Oh, that would be defeating. That would be like going through a whole work week and then realizing you don't get a weekend. You got to keep working. The work week just starts over again, okay? This is Sisyphus. The myth of Sisyphus is an icon for futility and it's been an icon for centuries. In the last few decades though, it has really become more of a rallying point.

Scholars have used it to describe existence. In 1942, Albert Camus published what he called the myth of Sisyphus, that was the book. In that, he wanted to really kind of refine his thinking on what the absurd life is. So, Alfred Camus, he's a philosopher, he's trying to describe the absurd and he uses the myth of Sisyphus to describe the absurd. And then this is the quote he talks about with the absurd. He says, the absurd lies in the juxtaposition, don't get lost in the long words here, hang on. The absurd lies in the juxtaposition between the fundamental human need to attribute meaning to life and the unreasonable silence of the universe in response. I wanna read it again and I want you to really kind of, he's laying out two things that don't match. He's saying, on one side, you've got the fundamental human need to attribute meaning to life. And here's what's on the other side.

On the other side is an unreasonable silence of the universe in response. Albert Camus was not a Christian. He's not gonna talk like one. But I wanna stay on this quote for just a second because this really illustrates the big lie very well. It makes two assumptions, the first assumption. The first is it assumes that the fundamental, that there is a fundamental human need to attribute meaning to life. In other words, it says, it assumes our lives have no meaning. That's the basic assumption on something like that. Because the assumption is that you are the one attributing meaning to your own life. There's no meaning to find. You're just making it up as you go along.

You're not digging far enough to find the meaning. You're not climbing a mountain to find the wisdom of the sage to get the meaning. You're not seeking to understand the deepest puzzles of life. You're not doing that. You're just describing it, you're attributing it yourself. There's no meaning to find. And here's the second assumption. The second is that the universe responds with an unreasonable silence. That God, who likely does not exist, does not care.

These are the two assumptions in what this guy's talking about with the myth of Sisyphus. He's saying our lives have no meaning because you have to attribute the meaning to life. And he said God doesn't really care because there's this, he calls him the universe, just very kind of vague on purpose. And it's responding with an unreasonable silence. So God, who likely doesn't exist, doesn't care. Even if he does exist, he doesn't care. And when somebody internalizes this, this is the big lie, when someone internalizes this, they are completely destroyed. If you are convinced that you bring meaning to your own life, that you are ascribing meaning to everything that you're doing, then really nothing matters. Not really. It only matters because you make it matter. And so if you wake up one day and feel like you don't need to make something matter, then it magically doesn't matter.

You don't need to fight for anything. If God isn't there or if God is there but doesn't care, then there's no need to try. There's no one to impress, nobody's looking, nobody cares. All of existence is just you in your room on your phone. Right, that's it, that's everything. And when you, look, when you imbibe that, you are completely destroyed. These are the grenades that the enemies say to themselves, but even culture, bad influences, your enemies, they're going to hurl at you. And when people believe this, this is why, this is why spouses leave families when they believe this. This is why people walk away from Christianity when they believe this. This is the breaking point. When you believe it's all really up to you, that is the breaking point that strips you of all armor. You are no longer able to have resolve on anything that is difficult. You are resigning from your own life when you believe that

and you are completely destroyed. And this, this is why we have Romans 8, 26 through 39. This is why. Because we need a way to combat this truth. And we're gonna see this truth in a couple of different ways, but we need a way to combat this truth, especially today. And there is one big truth that shields us from those grenades. Let's start looking in Romans chapter eight verse 26. And it's gonna be up here also. If you don't have a Bible, but you'd like to look at one, if you don't trust it, I've written it exactly on the screens. There's a Bible usually around you in a seat, under a seat around you.

Okay, in Romans 8, 26, it says, "'Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, "'for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, "'but the Spirit himself intercedes with us for us.'" Excuse me, "'with groanings too deep for words.'" At the beginning, it says that the Spirit helps us in our weakness. Now, that word in Greek, it really means to work alongside. There was a very common Greek word for help. Boethao, boethao is a very common word. Anytime you see the word help in the Bible, it's usually boethao. That ain't boethao. That's a really long, it's a sun anti-lambanatai, okay, super long. All it means is to work alongside. It's not just helping, you're not just handing somebody a screwdriver. The Spirit's not just making sure you don't fall as you go down the stairs. The Spirit is working alongside you. How is the Spirit working alongside you? Next verse, Romans 8, 27.

It says, "'And he who searches hearts knows "'what is the mind of the Spirit, "'because the Spirit intercedes with the saints. "'according to the will of God.'" You have the Holy Spirit searching hearts in order to intercede for you. Not just searching your heart so that the Holy Spirit can just know what you're thinking, but the Holy Spirit is searching your heart in order to intercede. The Holy Spirit is finding things that you ought to pray for, but are not and praying for you, okay? This is a way over step, right? If you're kind of a private person, the Holy Spirit knows everything already, okay? Everything that you should pray for, but forgot to pray for, or don't wanna pray for, the Holy Spirit's praying. Your family, your kids, your career, your spouse, other people's needs. The Holy Spirit is searching your heart and praying, interceding for you, praying on your behalf.

The Holy Spirit is working in you. The Holy Spirit is working in you, always interceding, always searching your heart, always working with you. Here's an example. Because sometimes it's just easy to say, well, the Holy Spirit's working with you. Okay, let's just example, okay? You and your best friend, whoever that is, that could be your spouse, that could be whatever some of you, that's your kid, that's great. Okay, you and your best friend, they get big fight, big fight, okay? Now on your own, directly after that fight, what's going on? You are distraught, you are scattered, you are sad, you are vengeful, you are maybe many combinations of those things, okay? Maybe you are adjacent to those things. Okay, so on your own, you're all those things, okay? You just gotta fight, you're sore, you're mad, you can't believe they said that, you're blaming them, okay? You're hot, you're not rational,

you are wrapped up in it and you cannot see straight. Okay, what's the Holy Spirit doing? The Holy Spirit is interceding for you in that moment. The Holy Spirit is praying, Lord, please help Drew calm down. Please, Lord, convict Drew of his sin. Make his heart soft. Remind him of gospel truth. Give him the desire to make amends. All those are great prayers to pray and I'm not praying a lick of that in like the three seconds of an aftermath of a big fight with Christie. I'm just not, okay? I'm not there, I'm not there, maybe one day I'll be there. You know, babe, there's hope, right? One day, I'll just magically like, you know, go there. But until I can do that perfectly on my own, which is probably gonna be forever,

I'm gonna need the Holy Spirit. I'm gonna need the Holy Spirit praying those prayers for me. I'm gonna need the Holy Spirit saying, Lord, make Drew's heart soft. Convict him of sin. The Holy Spirit is at work in you, at work alongside you, searching your heart, praying for you, head on a swivel. Conversely, your enemies all around you, right, are working this big lie.

This is media, this is your own flesh, these are bad influences, the devil, and they're all whispering, they're all whispering, look, none of this really matters anyway. Just tell them off and go find somebody else. You're the only one who cares about this. You're making too big of a deal with this. Just drop it and just move on to something else. Don't deal with it. The big lie, it leaves you feeling isolated. And next we see another part of the Trinity working, Romans 8:28. It says, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. So okay, you've got Father God here, building our good future for those that love him, nothing is wasted. All that suffering that you're dealing with, all that frustration, all that pain, even the aftermath of a big fight with a friend, the Lord God in heaven,

Father God is not wasting that. His plan is still on track for his glory and for our good, those things are enmeshed, okay? This is further explained in the next verse, Romans 8:29. It says, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be first born among many brothers. Okay, God has a good future for you, and that includes conforming you into Jesus's image.

Your greatest joy is not retirement, okay? Looking at you retirees. Your greatest joy is not retirement. It's good, but it's not your greatest joy. It's not your greatest joy. Your greatest joy, moms, okay, Mother's Day, Happy Mother's Day, your greatest joy is not that afternoon nap, okay? Now it's good, it's good now, I know. It's real good, but it's not your greatest joy. And your greatest joy is not vacation. Your greatest joy is not that promotion that you're working at, that's not your greatest joy. Your greatest joy is living the life that Jesus has called you to live and being conformed into his image. It beats all of that hands down. It's not even close. Being conformed into the image of Jesus Christ is the greatest source of joy that anyone could possibly have. It beats the pants off of that afternoon nap for sure. Although that afternoon nap is again.

Jesus is better. It keeps going, look, look, verse 30. Here we go, Romans 8:30. It says, and those whom he preached this is the Lord God in heaven predestined. He also called, and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified. Look, let's drive this home. Father God is planning for you. Planning for you. Ephesians 2 speaks of ordering good works for you to do. Matthew 10, God knows about sparrows and the hairs on your head. Of course he knows about your future. Proverbs 16:33 says that the lot is cast, but it's every decision is from the Lord. In other words, that looks like dice rolling to you, but the Lord God in heaven is like, no, I mean, I'm making all this happen. I'm ordering all of this. I'm putting all of this in sequence to make a point to illustrate things, to bring about my glory and your good, to do all of that.

Father God is completely sovereign over everything, and that includes suffering, and that includes rejection, and that includes your promotion. That includes the span of your life. That includes the era in which you were born. Think about that. You could have been like a medieval serf, okay? But the Lord God in heaven is like, no, I want you to be born in this time. Why? Well, that's for you to figure out. The Lord will show you. Keep on that path. Let's go back to the example, the big five with a friend. When you have a big five with your friend, look, there's a, I know, it seems crazy, but there's an element where you can trust that Father God has laid out plans for reconciliation, that he is using that fight to teach you, to grow you, to strengthen the bonds, and ultimately to conform you into the image of Jesus Christ. You think it's just a fight with a friend,

but the Lord God in heaven is like, no, no, no, that's just one of the many stars in the constellation of this person's life. That's one of the many things that I have put in sequence, in order, on purpose, to bring these things about. And that means, whenever you feel like stuff's in chaos, when you start to believe the big lie, and you're like, everything's out of control, it's all on me, I've gotta, you know, you start getting into tizzy, I gotta make it happen, right, I gotta, I make the meaning. It's up to me. When you believe that lie, then it's incredibly frightening, because there's so many other things that are outside your control. In fact, if you really believe it, if you really believe the big lie, that it's all up to you, then you're gonna become a recluse, who's gonna be afraid to leave your door. Because there's so many other things you can't control.

You can't even have safety. So let's hold fast to the big truth. Let's hold fast to the Spirit, the Holy Spirit working in us, alongside us, that Father God is planning for you. Let's keep going, let's keep reading, verses 31 and 32 of Romans chapter eight. It says, what shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us, oh, how will he not also, with him, graciously, give us all things? Look, there is a way to trust God that he has a plan for you, and still doubt his intentions for you. Let me say that again. There's a way for you to kind of acknowledge, okay, God, you are sovereign, you are in control, that's cool, and still distrust him for having your best intentions in mind. Like, hey, God, I get it, geopolitical powers, like, I know you've got that under control, right? You're not worried about the war in Ukraine.

You're using that for your glory. But the war that's going on in your soul, because you feel rejected by a really good friend, somehow God's not sovereign over that, right? You got Ukraine and God's sovereign over that. I can trust the Lord for that. But when it comes to your pain or your weekend plans, somehow you're out of control. Somehow you doubt God's goodness there, right? What these verses remind us of is that God is a generous father as much as he is a generous king, or a sovereign king, sorry, I murdered that, that God is a generous father as much as he is a sovereign king. In other words, God is in control of everything and he says, yes, but he also loves you like a father. He loves you better than a father ever could.

And you're like, well, how does that happen? How does that all work together? I don't know. I have no idea. I'm kind of glad I don't. Then I'd be responsible for it. God's plans are good on their own, and I'll say it without reservation, God is for you. It says it right there. It says in 31, if God is for us, who can be against us? The understanding in that verse is that God is for us, period.

If God is for us, who can be against us? Next verse, verse 33, who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Look, God's good plan for you weaves in your freedom, weaves in your justification, okay? It weaves in you being the recipient of God's great generosity. You're gonna have everything you need and more, and this is what you can see, with his planning and his provision that Father God is setting you free. The Holy Spirit's working in you, but God is moving heaven and earth literally to bring about his plans. Those plans include your good. They include his glory. Father God is setting you free. What does the big lie do? The big lie repeats the lie from the garden that the serpent told Eve. Serpent tells Eve, look, did God really say not to eat of this fruit? And then he's like, no, no, he totally said not to eat of this fruit. And then really, the serpent shows his hand,

he says, God's holding out on you. God knows that when you eat that, you're gonna know good and evil, and you're gonna be like God, and God wants to keep you down. God wants to keep you oppressed, marginalized. He wants to keep you stupid, so he can have control over you. God is holding out on you. The enemy tries to seduce you into giving into the flesh because you distrust God's intentions. If you're in the fight with a best friend, your temptation in response to that, give it into your flesh, would be to say something like, okay, well, we're gonna see how they like it. I'm gonna do what they did to me, I'm gonna do it back to them, and we're gonna see how they like it. We're gonna make them pay.

Mothers, I know you have seen this in your children. Not, no, you haven't done it. I'm just saying you've seen it in your children. Where, when you see little kids fighting, one kid hits another kid, well, what's the other kid wanna do? Does the other kid want to hit the kid back with exactly equal measure? No, wants to do it harder. Why? Anybody know why? Teach them a lesson. You ever thought that? I wanna teach them a lesson. Who's the teacher there? You, right? Whenever you are in anything like that, the big lie tells you, take control, be God.

Make them pay. Let them see how it feels. Here's what the big truth says. Big truth says, God loved you first. God chose you first. While you were his enemy, God loved you. In the big, in the fight, in the example of the fight, the big lie tells you, hurt him back. And the big truth tells you, go and be reconciled. Go make it right. Even if they're not apologizing, go make it right. Even if they don't like you, make it right. Even if they're still mad at you, make it right. Go make it right. Go love them first. Go put yourself out there. We've already seen the Holy Spirit. And now we've seen the Father on these two counts, right? And we're about to see the Son in verses 34 through 39, but I wanna sum up this big truth for you first. And here's the big truth, because I haven't really said what it is. So here's the big truth. The big truth is, and it's kind of big on the screen,

so it's even just big everywhere, the all-powerful Trinity. The all-powerful Trinity. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, they are all cooperating with each other to usher you into abundant, victorious, spiritual life. The Holy Spirit is working in you to do these things. Father, God is ordering your good and generous future. What is the Son doing? Let's look in verse 34.

Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised? Who's at the right hand of God? Who indeed is interceding for us? So we see Jesus there, again, interceding for us, just like the Holy Spirit, right? We see Jesus interceding for us. And then Romans 8:35, so next verse, it says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? And this is such a great question. It seems like it has such an obvious answer, but when you feel separated from Jesus Christ, this is just really good, it's just really good to hear. What shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, the sword, the love and faithfulness that Jesus has for you and I, the Bible calls inseparable. And just to put a fine point on it, it lists a few things that seem like it would totally separate us, like famine, okay?

Famine's really bad. Famine's like a whole country not eating, okay? That's terrible. Distress, persecution, nakedness, danger, the sword. Look, it's saying that there's nothing, even death itself can't separate you from the love of Jesus Christ. And this thought keeps running in verses 38 through 39. It's first, for I'm sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers, look, okay, wait, let's just stop there. Angels and rulers are much more powerful than you. Anytime an angel shows up in the Bible, everybody says, I'm dead. Like I'm gonna die. Please don't kill me. Okay, angels are frightening, okay? So angels, rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ, Jesus our Lord. Let me just translate that for Burleson, Texas in 2023.

Okay, come hell or high water. You ever heard that expression? You know what it means? It means even if hell comes down here or high water, even if the whole earth floods again, come hell or high water. Jesus is bringing you, ushering you. I mean, gotta throw you in the cart and wheel you there if he needs to, to victory. Jesus is bringing you to victory. Come hell or high water, Jesus bringing you to victory. What does the enemy try to do? The enemy tries to accuse you, right? In the middle of your big fight or in the aftermath of your big fight, what's the enemy try to say? And we try to say, look, you always do this. Starts to accuse you. You always do this. Your parents did this. You're always going to do this. Your life is on repeat. It has no meaning. Let me tell you, look, you don't have to be educated on the myth of Sisyphus to feel like your life has no meaning, okay?

There's plenty of ways to come to that lie, okay? And one of them is a really common one is, you're no different than your ancestors. You will never amount to anything more than they did or maybe even you won't even measure up to them. You know why? Because the same things that you do, your parents did, and it's gonna keep happening in your own life and you're gonna have their same faith. What a terrible set of thoughts. What a terrible playlist to have on repeat. And when you do, when you believe that, when you kind of take that in, all you see your life as is pushing up that boulder and watching it roll down again. That's all you can possibly see. It's just the same boulder that your dad pushed up the mountain or your mom, but you're just pushing it just the same and your kids are gonna do the same. What a horrible thought. What a hopeless existence.

Again, when we imbibe this, it completely destroys us. What is Jesus doing in the midst of all this? In the midst of the enemy and our flesh and bad influence and the culture and media and everything. In the midst of all that, what's happening? It says that Jesus is interceding for us, that he's advocating for us. 1 John 2:1 also says that Jesus is the advocate, our advocate with the Father. Hebrews 7:25 says that Jesus lives to intercede on our behalf to the Father. Jesus is our advocate. He's arguing against our accuser. The all-powerful Trinity, the thought, the all-powerful Trinity is cooperating together to usher you into an abundant, victorious spiritual life because it's not about your accomplishment. It's not about what you did. Not about how many quiet times you had this week. It's not about that. It's about being ushered into it. And behind you, in the midst of all that,

you need to understand that you've got the full force of God Almighty working things out. And I know what you're thinking, I do, you're thinking it doesn't always feel that way. And I'm sure it doesn't. I'm sure it doesn't feel that way at all sometimes. Let me just encourage you in the midst of, you know, like the school countdown, in the midst of the crazy, you know, it's a graduation party season, right? It's the spring, summer's almost here.

Sometimes, man, we just feel a little strung out at the end of spring. Let me just help you. Let me help you see it. Because you start thinking about a victorious Christian life and you start thinking about a bunch of to-dos that you have to do. How you have to measure, don't do that. It's not, it's not what we're doing. We're talking about you being ushered. We're talking about the Lord God in heaven, cooperating.

God the Father's cooperating with the Son, cooperating with the Spirit. They're all working together. What are they all doing? They're interceding for you. They're planning your good future. Dude, they're setting the pins up so you can knock them down. And again, it doesn't mean you're perfect. But in fact, it means you don't have to be. It means that at some point, you've got to just give in to what the Spirit's already doing. What's that look like in real time? Look, sometimes it just looks like saying you're sorry. Sometimes it looks like cooperation with the Holy Spirit looks like going up and talking to somebody and striking up a conversation with them. And maybe you start sharing your story. Maybe they're interested. But you never know until you start that conversation. You never know what fruit it's gonna be whenever you apologize for something. Can I tell you, I had the wildest day yesterday

and in part, it was wild for many reasons, but one big reason was because I saw, I laid eyes on a first cousin that I had not seen in 22 years. No kidding, he surprised me at my daughter's graduation party, okay? Cousin Scott, he's a good dude. I have not seen Cousin Scott. I've remained in contact with his brother for all 22 of those years. But I have not laid eyes on Cousin Scott.

And let me tell you, I had two choices in that moment. And it wasn't, I wasn't on the throws of this. I mean, it wasn't a difficult conversation or thought in the moment. But in the midst of that, man, I could have said, hey, man, where in the world have you been? 22 years, what's your excuse? I could have. Even though I'm partly at fault, right? Like it's definitely partly on me. I've heard that phones work both ways. I'm not totally sure on that, but I'm pretty sure that we can call each other.

Instead, we just sat and talked for like 40 minutes, and I just kind of caught up with his life and his career and all that. At the end, he gave me his number. And I looked at my phone and I looked it up. Already had it. I didn't say it. I did not say that. Did not tell him that. But look, irony, right? I could have called him for 22 years or however long I've had his number, maybe at least 18, maybe I've had it all 22, I don't know. I could have called him, but I didn't.

Look, man, you got the Holy Spirit's number, right? Holy Spirit's calling you, talking to you, convicting you, helping you see things, helping you understand things, and you're like, okay. Look, you gotta pick up, you gotta answer. You gotta read the text. You gotta text back, right? It's a relationship. Look, as we enter into our time of response and singing, I just wanna encourage you, man, whatever the Holy Spirit's telling you to do, whatever you were convicted of, do it. Don't delay. Don't wait any longer. You already have the Spirit's number on your phone. Don't push up the boulder and think it's just gonna roll down again. Your life is not futile. You have a purpose.

You have a mission. You have people that are waiting for you to engage that. After our service is over, I'm gonna be sitting over here. I'm just gonna be hanging out, and if you wanna talk, man, I'll be there, and just while people are milling around, don't worry, nobody's gonna stare at you, it's fine. But I'm just gonna be right here. If you wanna talk, we can do that. Let me pray for us, and then we'll sing. Jesus, thank you for the ways that you are working

so many other things, so many things that we can't see. You're working all that for our good, for your glory, according to your plan. Lord, help us to respond to what you're saying. Help us to pick up the phone when you call. That's your name that we pray. Amen.