Monday Morning Discipleship: Does Anybody Want To Be A Servant? Pt. 5

Pastor Jackson returns with this week's MMD as we discuss how to serve those that we deem outside of our "circle". Are we loving those that we deem not like us in the same way that Christ would? Are we we using the Gospel as a draw or are we only using it to "come against" everything that we disagree with? Take a listen and share!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, whenever you might be joining us. Welcome to the Purpose and Beyond Podcast. I am your host, Kelly R. Jackson. Let's just get right into it as we always do. It's time for our Monday morning discipleship, Monday morning discipleship. As always, we like to come on on Monday, try to give you something to supplement what you may have heard on Sunday morning. Before we get back into our series and uh make some other announcements or or some uh declarations here, let me give you an announcement as we always do. Uh, if you'd like to be a sponsor of this podcast, you could do so by visiting www.patreon.com forward slash purpose and beyond. We only have one level of sponsorship there. It is five dollars per month. Uh, there you can be a sponsor of this podcast in support of what we do. We thank you uh for those that are sponsors, and you all are just sponsoring just uh in support of what we do. It's just a couple of dollars that you give, but we thank you. But it's only one level of support: five dollars per month. You can do more. Uh, some of you do actually do a little bit more than five dollars. But uh, if you want to do that, you also have access to exclusive content uh and and other things that are there on the Patreon side. So again, if you want to be a sponsor of this podcast, visit www.patreon.com forward slash purpose and beyond. If you don't want to do the whole Patreon thing, uh you'd just like to be a blessing to the ministry, you can do so by visiting www.krjministries.org forward slash donate. There, you can donate directly into the ministry. Even there, uh, if you want to do a recurring payment of just five dollars per month in support of what we do here, uh all major credit cards and debit cards are accepted there. Uh, but as we tell y'all each and every week, uh, every time we come before you in the podcast, however, you choose to bless us, whether you do it financially or whether you just tell somebody about the podcast, share it on your social media timeline. However, you choose to bless us, we will be satisfied in Jesus' name. I want to make mention of our latest work, uh book that we uh put out last year. Uh, we'll pull it up on the screen, show you how you can order it. But this book right here, follow me, bringing the person and teachings of Jesus back to the forefront of Christianity. And this book is so needed uh right now. Again, you'll see it right there on the screen. How you can order yourself a copy of this book. Uh, we're going to share some excerpts from this book uh on today in today's podcast. But again, follow me, bringing the person and teachings of Jesus back to the forefront of Christianity. Uh, this book will be a blessing to you. So if you visit www.krjpublishing.com uh uh forward slash bookstore, uh it'll take you right where you need to be. And that way you can order yourself a copy of this book. We'll ship it right out to you again. Uh, this book is so needed nowadays. Uh, we got so many uh things that are going on in the name of Christianity, but they're really rip misrepresenting Christ. And so we would love to get you a copy of this book. So again, www.krjpublishing.com forward slash bookstore. Pick up a copy of that book. Again, we'll share some excerpts from that book on today. Uh, we believe that it will be a blessing to you. Let's get back to the podcast again. This is Monday morning discipleship. Uh, this is uh part five. Does anybody want to be a servant? This part five of Does Anybody Want to Be a Servant? Uh, let me clear some things up again. Uh, it's Monday morning discipleship, but if you're watching this video right now, it debuted on a Wednesday. And uh it took us some time to get back here. Uh, you know, uh, we were dealing with fatigue. I'm gonna be honest with you, we were tired. And then uh uh when I got ready to go again, I got sick, and so we could not record. And it's been a minute since we've been back with the podcast, and I do apologize for the delay. Uh, but y'all, we got to take care of ourselves sometimes. And uh again, I missed one because I was just tired, you know, and and uh a lot of things going on, and I was just tired. But then we got ready to go again. I got sick, and I missed uh miss Bible class. Listen, uh, the the members of For the Kingdom will tell you uh we had to cancel Bible class, and they know that I rarely cancel Bible class, and so I did not want to miss Bible class. I miss being on the podcast, and so uh I hope that you all forgive me uh for not being here for the last few weeks, and even in the end, rolling this out on a Wednesday. Uh, but we believe that the word of God will still be blessed on today. So I thank you all uh for being so diligent and hanging in there with me. Uh, but this is part five. Does anybody want to be a servant? Our scripture today, uh, we're gonna share scripture from familiar places, and and it's gonna tie in with where I'm gonna share with you uh from the book, uh scripture, uh John chapter 13, verses 34 and 35, and then Deuteronomy chapter 10, verses 12 through 19. So again, John chapter 13, verses 34 and 35, and then Deuteronomy uh chapter 10 verses 12 through 19. And uh listen, if you are a follower of this podcast, uh you remember me doing uh a podcast where I talk from these verses. I'm gonna bring that up. Uh we get to the book, and I dealt with these verses again, but uh it bears repeating. We talk about being a servant of Jesus Christ, and uh the the the the theme today, the aim, if you will, today, uh in relation to being a servant of Christ is how we are to interact with others that are not like us. And y'all, uh I'm not gonna mention it today. We got some things going on in the news cycle right now, uh where uh again, uh we're we're saying we're Christians, but we are attacking people that are not like us. And there's a difference, y'all, between standing on what we believe in and attacking other people. And I want to be clear on today, uh, part of the reason that we wrote this book, and again, I'll deal with that in just a second, but part of the reason we wrote this book is that people uh in the faith are more loyal to passages in the Bible than we are to Christ. Y'all hear me today and don't misunderstand me. There are people in the faith that are more loyal to passages in the Bible than they are to Christ. And if we say we're Christians, our first loyalty is to Christ. Now, you might say, well, Pastor, uh, if Jesus, uh, you may not be saying this, but I'll go ahead and put it out there. Uh, Jesus said he didn't change anything in the old testament. Jesus said he didn't change one iota, as we would say. Uh, he says he still supports everything in the old testament, right? I'm in full agreement with that. Again, we talk about that in the book, Follow Me. Jesus did not destroy the Old Testament, but Jesus also told us to follow him and how he deals with people that are outside the faith that are living contrary to the faith. And if we are going to be servants of Christ, we have to do as Jesus told us to do. So you might be able to find a group, a section, a handful of folks that you think are anti-Christian. Again, I talk about this in this book. You might be able to find those people. We have to be careful not to be overzealous and become zealous in this faith and start waving our Bible around without saying, how would Jesus have conducted himself with these people that are not like us, that don't believe as we do, that don't live as we do. Y'all hear me today? Watch this. Let me go to scripture very quickly because I don't want to run out of time today. So I'm going to start here today. Uh, in John chapter 13, verses 34 and 35. And this is going to go a long way. Again, these scriptures I got to talk about it uh in just a second because we did this on another podcast, on another episode. John chapter 13, verses 34 and 35. I'm gonna start right there today. Again, and then we're gonna share some excerpts from the book as we go through today. So uh from the New Living Translation, here is what the Bible says. We'll pull it up on the screen for those of you that are watching on the video side. Here is what the Bible says: John chapter 13, verse 35. Jesus says this, your love for one another. Let me go back to verse 34. Y'all forgive me. He says, So now I am giving you a new commandment. Love each other just as I have loved you. You should love each other. Then verse 35, he says, Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. Let me go back again. So now I am giving you a new commandment. And Jesus says to give you a new commandment. That doesn't mean he's changing what was said in the old testament. He says, I'm giving you a new testament, a new commandment, rather. Love each other just as I have loved you. You should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. That is John chapter 13, verses 34 and 35. So now let's get to the notes on today. Uh before we run out of time. Again, I'm I'm almost at 10 minutes now, and I want to make sure that we we kind of laid out some things. So let me start right here. Serving should be based on who we love and how we love. One more time, serving should be based on who we love and how we love. What do you mean we say that, Pastor? Jesus says, Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love one another. So every time I read that, when Jesus says, just as I have loved you, that tells me I need to examine how did Jesus love me? How does Jesus love me? Watch this, y'all, because we love to do this in the church. In spite of my past, in spite of my current, in spite of my future, in spite of my past faults, in spite of my current faults, and in spite of the future faults I'm gonna have. I still got some sin in my life, Jesus still loved me. I still make some mistakes, Jesus still loved me. Sometimes I don't act like I belong to him, Jesus still loves me. As I have loved you, he said, I want you to love other people. Now, this ties in, y'all. It wasn't up with the Holy Spirit that that held me up until this moment. It does, y'all hear me today. Jesus is not concerned, his love rather is not based on your conduct. My Lord, today. His love is not based on your conduct. If his love were based on your conduct, he would not love us. If his love was based on you never sinning, he would not love us. If his love was based on whether or not you get it right all the time, he would not love us. In spite of all of my mess, in spite of all of your mess, he loves you. In spite of it, does he condone everything that I do that you do? Absolutely not. But it does not stop him from loving you, and it does not stop him from receiving you. How does that tie in, Pastor? Because we want to exclude people where Jesus is trying to include people. Well, these people ain't living right, Pastor. You let Jesus take care of that. We've said it so many times. I am a fisherman. I don't clean fish. Jesus said, I'm gonna make you a fisher of men. He never said I'm gonna make you a cleaner of men. You can't clean nobody up. So be a fisher of men. Let Jesus clean the man. Y'all hear me today. And so Jesus says, as I have loved you. And when I read that, I read in the manner that I have loved you, love each other. That doesn't just go for discipleship, disciples, y'all. That goes for everybody. Because he says, when y'all love each other, y'all prove to the world. Yes, we got something to prove. We have to prove to the world that we are loving, even when they don't do like we think they should do, even when their behavior doesn't line up with the word, we have to prove to the world that we're loving. You know why? Because we love on a Jesus who loves us the same way. And let me say this very quickly before I move on to my next note because I wrote this in one of my books one day. And I said, listen, I said, we are in the business of sin measurement, not God. I said, we got big sins and little sins. We got things that we just I'm not gonna tolerate that. I'm not I'm not gonna tolerate the LGBTQ. But I go to church with liars and gossips every Sunday. God ain't weighing it out like that. The scripture says that all unrighteousness is sin to God. Right? And we have got it in our hearts what we ain't gonna put up with while God's putting up with all kinds of stuff from us. Sins known and unknown, right? And I know I'm not popular when I say these types of things, but we should be serving based on who we love and how we love. And so again, let me say this before I move on to my next note. It starts with how we love Jesus. Oh, I love you so much, Jesus. Well, if you love me, he says, I'm giving you a new commandment. Love each other just as I've loved you. You should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. Jesus also told us, he said, if you love me, keep my commandments. If you're gonna be a servant of me, do what I tell you to do, and do like I tell you to do. And y'all showed me in the Bible where Jesus saw somebody who was so unholy that he said, get away from me. Y'all hear me today? Not in the Bible. There's gonna come a day. Jesus says, now this is salvation first time around. Next time around is judgment. Show me your Bible. He was even washing Judah's feet, as we're in the middle of the holy week right now. He's even washing Judah's feet. And if Jesus can wash the feet of the man who put him on the cross, what's our excuse? Next note, Jesus stresses that we ought to love as he loves and according to his commandments, as I've just kind of gone through here. He stresses that we ought to love as he loves and according to his commandments. So when you got hate in your heart for a certain group of people, certain segment of society, is that what Jesus told you to do? Remember what I said earlier. We ought to be serving Jesus, not our favorite passage in the Bible. We ought to be followers of Christ, not our favorite passage in the Bible that condemns the thing that we feel like condemning this week. We say we're Christians, we ought to follow Christ. We ought to love like He said love. And let me be clear. For some of us, the way Jesus told us to love is uncomfortable because we want to fight all the time. We want to identify something that we can hate so we can come against it. We love to come against. We love to come against. And here is Jesus. Even as he was chastising Pharisees, he was still ready to receive them. I'm just telling y'all, y'all ain't y'all ain't doing it right. But I still love you. And y'all, let me say this very quick. Tone, tone matters, right? Next note. The love that we give is to be based on who we are in Christ, not who we believe others are. My Lord, today. Let me read it again in case y'all didn't hear me. The love that we give is to be based on who we are in Christ and not who we believe others to be. No matter what I feel about you as a Christian, if I think you own your way to hell, the love I give you is to be based on who I am in Christ, not what I think you are, not how I think you rule in your life, not how I think you are putting your soul in danger. You might be doing all of those things, but the love I give you ought to be based on who I am in Christ. And y'all, this is unfortunately, this is not popular thinking in the church nowadays. As I said earlier, we love to come against. Instead of us lining ourselves up with Jesus, who says, I may not like what you're doing, but I love you. Let's start there. Have y'all noticed? Let me say this before I'm I'm trying to run out of time. Have y'all noticed that the relationship that Jesus has with us? Uh, you know, it's not like the relationships that we have with one another. Let me explain that very quickly here. Very quickly. Y'all give me a minute. The relationship that we have with Jesus is not like the relationship that we have with other people. When we have a relationship with other people, other than select few people, right? Um we start at a place outside of love and we build to love. Jesus starts at love and then he builds from there. If I can explain to you like this, what with my children, when my children were inside their mother's belly, I loved my children. So we started from a place of love. But that's not how all of our relationships start. We got to be introduced, we got to get to know each other, and then we hopefully get to a place where we love each other, and then we go further. But as Christians, y'all, we're supposed to love like Christ, right? Which means that we have to start at love and then build from there. God's relationship with us started at love, for God so loved, it started at love that he built from there. And what you and I have to learn to do is love like Christ, which means I'm gonna start at loving you. I'm not gonna start at throwing you out, I'm not gonna start at disrespecting you, I'm not gonna start at yelling and screaming at you because I don't agree with your lifestyle. I'm gonna start at love and then we're gonna go from there. This is how we got the faith messed up because we stopped a lot, we stopped telling people they have to start at love. Because the Bible says that he loved us before we loved him. He started at love. Let's go to some more scripture. I'm run, I'm already, I'm already uh threatening to run over today. Uh, this is what happens when you've been gone for a minute, right? Let's go to Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 12, chapter 10 rather, y'all forgive me. Deuteronomy chapter 10, verses 12 through 19. Deuteronomy chapter 10, verses 12 through 19. So, watch what the Bible says as usual for those on the video side. I will pull it up on the screen for you again. Deuteronomy chapter 12, verses chapter 10. Y'all, y'all forgive me. Deuteronomy chapter 10, verses 12 through 19. Let's put it up on the screen for you from the New Living Translation. Here is what the Bible says. And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? He requires only that you fear the Lord your God, and you live in a way that pleases him, and love him and serve him with all your heart and soul. And you must always obey the Lord's commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good. Look, the highest heavens and the earth and everything in it all belong to the Lord your God. Yet the Lord chose your ancestors as the objects of his love, and he chose you, their descendants, above all nations, all other nations, as is evident today. Verse 16 says, Therefore, change your hearts and stop being stubborn. For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords. He is the great, he is the great God, he is the great he is the great God, the mighty and awesome God, who shows no partiality and cannot be bribed. He ensures that orphans and widows receive justice. He shows love to the foreigners living among you and gives them food and clothing. So you too must show love to the foreigners, for you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt. That is Deuteronomy chapter 10, verses 12 through 19. Now, all up in here is what we were just talking about. Jesus, the Bible says rather that we ought to love God and we ought to love one another. We got to love everybody, we got to love the foreigners. Got to love God with your heart and your soul. You must obey the Lord's command. And he says, Everything belongs to you. He says, Your ancestors, uh, the Lord chose your ancestors as the object of a love, and he chose you, their descendants above all nations. The Bible says that God chose you, chose me, and he chose us and he loved us. And then he says, Because you receive this love, you have to share this love with those that are not like you. Foreigners, y'all hear me today. Foreigners, not just foreigners to the land, but even foreigners to the faith, y'all. People who are not a part of our little click, our little club, our little Christianity circle, people who are not identifying in our our spaces. He says you gotta love them too. This is what this is what the Bible says, you gotta love them too. Right? Let's get to the next note here. We were always meant to be a service to those that aren't like us. Right here in your Bible. Old Testament, by the way, went back to the Old Testament. We were always meant to be of service to those that aren't like us. And again, uh not just the foreigner, because we got a thing in this country right now with the foreigner. We want to round up people that's a room out of the nation. Um, and we claim we're Christians. The Bible says that you you ought to serve those people that are not like you. And I'm saying this again as a faith. Those people that are foreign to our faith, that people that don't identify with everything in our Bible, we still require to love them and show them love and treat them in a Christ-like manner. That's what your Bible says. That's not what Pastor Jackson says, but that's what your Bible says. Pastor Jackson is repeating what's in the Bible. And y'all, we we we failing at this, but sometimes we're proudly failing at it. We're glad to not love people, we're glad to not uh be connected to. People that we that God has called us to be connected to, right? Next note, serving the familiar is easy. Serving the unfamiliar is where we are challenged. I said this to y'all already today before I started reading from the book. Um I said this to y'all, I said, listen, I said, uh, the relationship between us and God started at love. But our relationships aren't like that. We don't start at love. We have to build to love and then we go further. And sometimes we don't get to love, and that way we don't, that and that means we don't go further with people, right? I said, so the relationship I had with my children, I said it started at love. It's because I love my children from the beginning, and then we build from there. We have to start teaching people that you have to start at love, but serving the familiar, whether we we serve in the people in the church, we serve and we're doing things at the church or whatever, and we're doing things with people that are like us, and we feel like you Christian, I'll do something for you, you could do something for me. So we're serving the familiar, serving the unfamiliar is where we're challenged. People who don't live like us, people who are rebellious. Let's just be honest about it. People who say, No, that Bible is your Bible, not my Bible. I live how I want to live. And we still call to serve those people, but we don't want to. What's wrong with us? What's wrong with us? Let me read from the book. Uh follow me. Uh, this is in chapter six, uh, one of my favorite chapters in this book, uh, Christians, Christianity, and Christ. So let me read this because we it kind of contains those verses that we just read, uh, the John verses and the uh the Deuteronomy verses. And again, um, I talked about this. I said these verses were uh in a podcast series that I did on the character of Christianity, and I brought this up again by how we treat the foreigner. Let me read this paragraph for you uh from Christians, uh Christianity in Christ chapter six, and follow me. I'll pull up on the screen for you so you can follow along. Watch this. Of note, Jesus told us that people will know that we are his disciples and thus Christians by how we love one another. John chapter 13, verse 34 and 35. Even in the Old Testament, God, remember, he and Christ are one, tells us to care for the foreigner and make sure that they have what they need. Again, Deuteronomy chapter 10, verses 12 through 19. In Matthew chapter 25, verse 31 through 40, Jesus again reminds us that Christianity isn't just about what we claim to be, but it's also about how we serve those around us that may be struggling in life. He reminds us that we serve him by serving others, which means that according to the head of the church, Christianity was never a quote me thing, it was always a quote we thing. Y'all see that? Jesus says, This is how you serve me, by serving other people. And if you read the Matthew 25 text, the foreigner, the destitute, the hungry, this, that, the other. Jesus lists all these people that sometimes we don't want to be bothered with. People that are not like us. Now, let me say this before anybody misunderstands me. Jesus never tells us to compromise who we are. You don't have to compromise who you are to serve people. If you got a regular nine to five, especially if you deal with the public, you do it all the time. You deal with people who don't believe what you believe, but you serve them. But what's crazy is we'll do it for a paycheck. But we won't do it because the savior told us to. Jesus says you gotta serve people that are not like you. That's what I'm gonna be checking for. That's what I want to see. Can you serve people that are not like you? Next note. Christianity has always had more to do with what comes out of us. It's always been about what comes out of us, what type of service, what type of love, what type of care, what type of compassion comes out of us. How are you serving the people? Not just the people of God. And maybe that's one of the mistakes that we've made for years and years and years. I want to be a service of the people of God. Well, God called you to be a servant of everybody. If you look at the Deuteronomy text, he says, I chose a specific nation to start everything with, but I expect them to serve foreigners who are in your land, who maybe don't even serve your God, but you take care of them. And if you take care, y'all hear me today. If you take care of them, if you show them Christian love, maybe you can win them over. How about that? Instead of you yelling at them, telling them they're going to hell, tell them you don't want to be a part of anything, tell them you don't want to talk to them, you don't want to do anything, and so on and so forth. And I understand, be ye separate, don't get me wrong, but if you if you serve them, if you show them Christian love, maybe you'll win them over that way. Maybe they'll say, okay, well, all Christians ain't bad because I can see how you treat me, even though you don't agree with me. Okay, I maybe maybe I'll come to church with you one Sunday. See what this thing is about. Again, catch fish. Your job ain't to clean them, right? Let me move on here. Uh, I don't want, I'm already close enough, close to close to being up against. I want to read another excerpt from the book. Uh, again, follow me. I'm gonna move on to the next page here uh so that we can prepare ourselves to get out of here uh within the next few minutes. So let me read this next paragraph. Watch this. I'll pull up on the screen for those that are watching on the video side. In order to truly be Christians, Christ must always be our priority. His person, his principles, and his pattern. Every faith has posers, but there are also people that represent those faiths well. What the church must do is not only prioritize Christ again, but we must also be sure to highlight the people and the places that are still true to the faith. We've made the wrong things popular and some of the wrong practices trendy. We've begun making idols of those that should be servants, and we've placed emphasis on certain aspects of worship service as opposed to placing emphasis on service being an act of worship. We blame things on the Holy Spirit that are actually a work of our spirit. So now, before we get out of here, these last couple notes. So we've made the wrong things popular, the wrong people popular, by the way, the wrong practices popular. Instead of going back to our Bibles and saying, I see somebody that's living contrary to the faith, how did Jesus tell me to handle that? Don't go dig out your favorite verse and tell them how wrong they are and tell them how what an abomination they are, and this, that, and the other. We know that's in the Bible. What did Jesus tell you? How did Jesus tell you to handle these people? Because you are a Christian before you are slaves to your favorite passage of the Bible. You're supposed to be a Christian. So that means you should always be concerned with what Jesus tells you to do about any particular thing in the Bible. Prioritize what Jesus says. Next note, we haven't truly prioritized Jesus if we haven't committed to his example, as I was just expressing to you. You haven't fully, truly prioritized Jesus if you have not committed to his example. I know I want to, I know I want to go off on these people. I know I want to rain fire down on these people. But what would Jesus tell me to do? And by the way, most of the time when Jesus had fire, he had fire for the church. He had fire for the people that were supposed to know better. Lord, I just preached this past Sunday uh sermon. Uh I forget the title of it, I think it's uh uh something about uh you never guess what happened at church today. I think that was the sermon. Uh uh guess what happened at church today. You know, that that type of thing. Jesus goes into the temple and he flips over tables in the temple. Every time Jesus has smoke, as we as we like to say these days, he had it for the church. And we aim all our stuff at the world. Jesus got smoke for the church, right? So we haven't truly prioritized him if we haven't committed to his example. Next note we shouldn't imitate anyone that isn't trying to imitate Christ. I shared this thought in Bible class not too long ago. Don't imitate anybody that's not trying to imitate Christ. So if they love to pull out their phone and go live on social media and run down a group of people that they don't agree with, you ask yourself, is this what Jesus would have done? Again, Jesus has smoked for what? The church, the church. And by the way, he didn't take it to social media, he went to the church. You got an issue with the church? Go to the church. Go to the church. I'm gonna put him on blast today. Where was that supposed to happen? Go to the church. Where were Jesus' conflicts happening? In the temple. In the temple. Because he was amongst God's people. Y'all, we got a problem internally. That's what he was doing. But we shouldn't imitate anybody that isn't trying to imitate Christ. And again, if you're gonna imitate Christ, you start with love. You start with love. Last note, I apologize for rushing here. Last note. Serving has always been the work of the Holy Spirit. So as we shared in that last section, I said we blame things on the Holy Spirit that is that is really the work of our spirit. Serving has always been the work of the Holy Spirit. So you want to say, okay, uh, how could I be a service? Let me come against something, let me call out something. No, no, no. Let's go serve the people. Be Christian in front of them, be Christian to them. See how they respond. If they're hostile to the church, they're gonna be hostile. But if you keep on being Christian to them, being Christian in front of them, eventually they soften. And they come to realize they go, you know what, as much as I feel like all churches are the same, me dealing with you on a regular basis lets me know that all Christians are not the same. And if there's one like you, there might be some more like you. But we have to be willing to be a Christian. And being Christian does not mean that everybody has to agree with us. One of the things I mentioned, and I'm gonna be done because I'm I'm over over. One of the things I mentioned in this book is I said the thing about God is I said he created us with free will. I said, which means he gave us the right to disagree with him. I said, our creator actually gave us the right to disagree with him. He told us what he wanted from us in his word. But because we have free will, we have the right to disagree with God. We don't have to do what he tells us to do. And many have taken that to card and said, I'm not gonna do it. And usually that's because of how we presented the faith. But we actually have the right to disagree with God. Now I don't want you to get it twisted. I don't disagree with God. I agree with everything he said, even the stuff that's hard for me to do, even the stuff that I'm uncomfortable with, even the stuff that I wish wasn't in the Bible. But I'm like, well, he said that I have to do it. But that's where I am in my faith. But if we can love each other and we can do it through service, we can show other people. This ain't so bad. This ain't so bad. But when we start throwing our faith at them like arrows, I don't know how we expect anybody to want to take up our cause. Let's leave it right there. That's all the time that we got. I pray that you all were blessed uh by what we shared. It's good to be back. I knew I was gonna go over. I was trying not to, uh, but I pray that you all were blessed by what we had to share. Very quickly. Let me give you our tag as we always do if you'd like to keep up with us. Uh, best way to do that, check us out at the ministry's website, www.krjministries.org. Again, www.krjministries.org. Stop by there. We do believe that you will be blessed. We also encourage you to go to our bookstore or you can pick up a copy of that book that we just uh shared from today. Follow me. Uh www.krjpublishing.com. Again, www.krjpublishing.com. Stop by there. Pick up any one of our written works. We believe they will be a blessing to you. You want to receive text alerts from our church for the kingdom Christian church? Text the word connect to 586-800-1007. Again, 586-800-1007. There's also a QR code on the screen right now. If you're watching on the video side, scan that'll take you right where you need to be. And that way you can uh receive our word of encouragement videos, our devotional reading. Want you to be a part of everything that we're doing at For the Kingdom Christian Church. If you're listening on the audio side, if you have not done so already, be sure to hit that subscribe button. That way you know when new episodes drop. Again, wherever you listen to us, whether you be on iTunes, Spotify, iHeartRadio, wherever you might be listening to us, uh be sure to hit that subscribe button. That way you'll know when new episodes become available. Again, we want you to be connected in every possible way uh here with everything that we're doing uh here in the ministry. Uh, if you are watching us on the video side on the Kelly R. Jackson Ministries YouTube channel, be sure to hit that subscribe button if you have not done so already. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. Uh that way you'll know when the new videos drop. We also encourage you to like and follow our Facebook page, Kelly R. Jackson Ministries, on Facebook. Uh, we don't share any videos on Facebook. Uh, we might share some clips here or there, but the long form videos are all on YouTube. We always share the link over there. We do put a few clips here and there on the ministries page. But again, like and follow us on the Kelly R. Jackson Ministries page. If you did that, you knew uh uh the struggles that we were having getting back to the podcast. But also subscribe to Kelly R. Jackson Ministries YouTube channel. If you want to be a sponsor of this podcast, visit www.patreon.com forward slash purpose and beyond. There's only one level of sponsorship there, it's five dollars per month. Uh, however, you you know you want to bless us, you want to bless us with more, you can uh do more. But it's only five dollars a month to be a sponsor of this podcast. There are videos over there that you cannot find anywhere else. So again, if you want to be a sponsor, uh visit www.patreon.com forward slash purpose and beyond. If you don't want to do the whole Patreon thing, but you'd like to sow directly into the ministry, visit www.krjministries.org forward slash donate. You can donate directly into the ministry. There, all major credit cards and debit cards are accepted there. Even there, if you want to do a recurring payment of five dollars a month to be a blessing to the ministry, we would appreciate it. But as we tell you each and every week, however you choose to bless us, whether you donate, whether you just tell somebody about the podcast of being blessed, whether you're sharing on your social media timeline, however, you choose to bless us, we will be satisfied in Jesus' name. I want to invite you all to join us for worship service every Sunday morning at for the Kingdom Christian Church, where I am the pastor. We stream our services every Sunday morning at 10 15 a.m. on our Facebook page. You can find us by searching for the Kingdom Christian Church on Facebook. Like and follow our page there. We're also on YouTube. Search for the Kingdom Christian Church, subscribe to our channel there. That way you can join us for worship service every Sunday morning again at 10 15 a.m. If you are in the Detroit area, you want to come by in person. We do have in-person worship service. So you can join us. Uh, check out that slide if you're on the video side. All the pertinent information is there. You can come by in person and join us. Uh, if you're not on the video side, go to our Facebook page, find out how you can join us in person for work service every Sunday morning. As we tell you each and every week, we would love to see your face in the place. That's all the time that we have for our podcast today. I pray that you all are blessed. It's good to be back with you all. Uh, I'm apologize that it took so long to get back, but I pray that you all are blessed uh by what we had to share all today. I love you all with the love of Christ. God bless you, God keep this my prayer. We'll see you all on next time. Be blessed.