Mark Medley: Hey everybody, welcome to lesson 10 of the Foundations Course.
Mark Medley: Hey, you've made it all the way to the end.
Mark Medley: Congratulations.
Mark Medley: This is a big deal.
Mark Medley: And we're going to finish today by talking about what God wants me to do with the things that He gives me.
Mark Medley: One of my favorite things to talk about is looking at what God has done for us now, how He's made us, and how can we take our uniqueness and how can we glorify Him and bless other people through it?
Mark Medley: So, what we're really talking about here is we're talking about stewardship.
Mark Medley: And a steward is someone who is put in charge of what belongs to another person.
Mark Medley: So when we see ourselves as bought with a price, redeemed by Jesus, that we're not our own, but we glorify God in our body.
Mark Medley: We glorify God with all the things that we that He has given us.
Mark Medley: We see that we're not our own, which means we belong to someone else.
Mark Medley: And we have to understand that the things that we are given are not ours either.
Mark Medley: They're really God's.
Mark Medley: And we are in charge of doing the very best thing that we can with them.
Mark Medley: We're in charge of stewarding them well.
Mark Medley: And so in Romans 14, 11 and 12, it says, as is it is written, As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to me, every tongue will confess to God.
Mark Medley: So then each of us will give account of himself to God.
Mark Medley: You know, Jesus told this story of the parable, uh, a story of uh the parable of the talents, which he he mentioned that these uh these men were given uh talents uh by their master, and the master went away, and they were supposed to do something with them.
Mark Medley: One was given 10, one five, one one.
Mark Medley: And so what do you what do you do?
Mark Medley: Uh what did they do with it?
Mark Medley: Well, they took the first two took them and they increased them.
Mark Medley: The other one took it and was afraid that he might lose it, uh, so he hid it in the ground.
Mark Medley: When the master came back and gave them and draw them and brought them into account of what they had done.
Mark Medley: Well, the first two said, Hey, we have taken what you gave us, and we made more.
Mark Medley: And he blessed them and he even gave them more because they were faithful.
Mark Medley: The one that had hidden it in the ground, he rebuked very harshly because he was holding this thing in and not stewarding it well.
Mark Medley: He was hiding it in the ground.
Mark Medley: So, what is God given?
Mark Medley: What has God given to you to be steward over?
Mark Medley: In Luke 16, verse 10 through 12, Jesus said, Whoever can be trusted with very little can be trusted with much.
Mark Medley: And whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.
Mark Medley: So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with spiritual, true treasures?
Mark Medley: And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?
Mark Medley: Here's this is the idea.
Mark Medley: Whatever we're given, we need to take it and multiply it.
Mark Medley: So from God's perspective, it's a matter of trust.
Mark Medley: I trust you with this.
Mark Medley: From our perspective, it's a matter of stewardship.
Mark Medley: What we're given, we do something with.
Mark Medley: So as Christians, I'm not my own.
Mark Medley: My stuff is not mine.
Mark Medley: It belongs to Jesus.
Mark Medley: Everything belongs to Jesus.
Mark Medley: How do I serve Him and serve people with it for His purposes?
Mark Medley: Okay, so you might be thinking, I may not, I don't really have a lot.
Mark Medley: Uh I don't have anything.
Mark Medley: Really much to steward, right?
Mark Medley: Well, let me give you a little list here.
Mark Medley: It's in your book, if you want to look at it.
Mark Medley: Uh, your time.
Mark Medley: You can be a steward over your money.
Mark Medley: You can be a steward over possessions that God has given you.
Mark Medley: And over your spouse, loving them and respecting them as they ought to.
Mark Medley: Over your children, if you have children, are you raising them in the fear and admonition of the Lord?
Mark Medley: You can steward your relationships and friendships.
Mark Medley: We can steward your burden or your calling from the Lord, your thoughts, your words, your actions, your spiritual gifts, your employment.
Mark Medley: You can steward your job and do it well.
Mark Medley: Your employees if you're over them, over some people, your witness for Christ, your position of influence, your vote, your talent and skill, your estate, your knowledge of scripture, your knowledge of ethics, your knowledge of general things, your uh maybe a word of prophecy that was spoken over you.
Mark Medley: There's a stewarding of that prophecy as well.
Mark Medley: Your body, taking care of your body and keeping it pure.
Mark Medley: Your trial or your suffering, what you're going through right now, you can steward that well.
Mark Medley: You can turn that into something that glorifies God.
Mark Medley: Your hands, your feet, what you do where you go, the care of the earth, all these things are areas that we all have opportunity to, from or at least most of these, we all have an opportunity to be a steward over.
Mark Medley: So at some point, the way I think of it is, what am I, what am I given that I'm going to stand before Jesus one day and say, here's what you gave me, and here's what I did with it.
Mark Medley: And that's a great thing, maybe to make some notes down there in your book.
Mark Medley: What are those things that you have that you'll stand before Jesus and say, Here's what I did.
Mark Medley: Here's how I was faithful with what you have given me.
Mark Medley: So we're going to talk about a few things here, okay?
Mark Medley: Um, some specifics.
Mark Medley: We're going to take some of those out of that list and talk about how that, what that looks like in our lives.
Mark Medley: First thing is my time.
Mark Medley: Ephesians 5, 15 through 17 says, Be careful then how you live, not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity.
Mark Medley: Some versions say, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Mark Medley: Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
Mark Medley: There is something connected with using our time correctly and understanding our times, what we're supposed to be doing in this season, that is connected to understanding God's will for your life.
Mark Medley: If you want to know God's will for your life, you have to discern your time.
Mark Medley: What is this time?
Mark Medley: Maybe your time is you're raising your children.
Mark Medley: This is God's will for your life.
Mark Medley: To put your effort and your most effort into your children, the worst thing, I think, would be to uh lose your children.
Mark Medley: Gain uh promotion in your job, gain money, gain uh ministry or recognition or something, and lose your children.
Mark Medley: Okay, so maybe you're the time in your life is you're raising children.
Mark Medley: Maybe the time in your life is you're past that and you're in your empty nest years, and now you're ready to do something else.
Mark Medley: But but knowing the will of God, understanding wisdom is connected to understanding your times.
Mark Medley: So be careful how you live, make the most of every opportunity.
Mark Medley: Today, today, I have an opportunity to make the most of my time for the kingdom of God.
Mark Medley: In Psalm 90, we see an interesting thing about time.
Mark Medley: First of all, we see Moses is the author of this uh psalm.
Mark Medley: And so Moses understood some things about time because he lived to be a very old person.
Mark Medley: We see in the scripture he lived to be 120 years old.
Mark Medley: He had three different sections of his life.
Mark Medley: The first 40 years, which were preparatory in Egypt, the second 40 years, which were preparatory in uh the wilderness while he was raising a family and shepherding sheep, and God was dealing with things in his own life as well.
Mark Medley: All this was preparatory for what he was going to do the last third of his life.
Mark Medley: And it's interesting, isn't it, that you could actually be prepared for 80 years for what you're gonna step into on your 80th birthday.
Mark Medley: It's possible.
Mark Medley: But he says something interesting.
Mark Medley: He says, Teach us in chapter 12, uh, chapter in Psalm 90, verse 12, teach us to number our days right, that we might gain a heart of wisdom.
Mark Medley: Now, this is interesting.
Mark Medley: You kind of break this thing down here, right?
Mark Medley: So teach us.
Mark Medley: This means that we don't have it in ourselves normally.
Mark Medley: Uh there's something in the orientation of human beings that we don't always know what to do with our time and our seasons of our lives.
Mark Medley: We need to be taught.
Mark Medley: There needs to be humility.
Mark Medley: God needs to teach us the value of time.
Mark Medley: Teach us to number, and that word means number, or it also means order.
Mark Medley: Teach us to order order, bring order to.
Mark Medley: Is your life defined by the order that you bring to it?
Mark Medley: Are your days defined by purpose?
Mark Medley: And then it says, teach us to number or order our days.
Mark Medley: Days.
Mark Medley: It doesn't say teach us to order, uh, number our years or our months or our weeks, even.
Mark Medley: It says our days.
Mark Medley: Interesting that he breaks it all the way down into that small segment of uh revolution of the earth, right?
Mark Medley: And so our days, because if we get our days right, we get our weeks right.
Mark Medley: And if we get our weeks right, we get our months right.
Mark Medley: And right months make right years, and that makes a right life.
Mark Medley: It's like you can't win the tennis match unless you win the point.
Mark Medley: You win the point, so you can win the game, so you win the set, so you can win the match, and you have to, but you have to work on the point in order to win the big picture, right?
Mark Medley: Teach us, Lord, we don't know how to order our small increments of time days correctly.
Mark Medley: There's a right way to order them in a wrong way, and that leads into wisdom so that we can gain a heart of wisdom.
Mark Medley: Ordering our days, spending our time right, is wise.
Mark Medley: It's one of the most uh one of the things that scripture speaks of, using your days, um, which brings wisdom.
Mark Medley: I was thinking of the sons of Issachar, it says that they understood their seasons and so they knew what Israel should do.
Mark Medley: They understood their times, they were discerning of what was going on, so they knew they were, they became wise as to what needs to happen.
Mark Medley: So time is a great leveler.
Mark Medley: Everybody has the same amount.
Mark Medley: I have the same amount as you.
Mark Medley: We don't have the same amount of talent or of money, uh, but we have the same amount of time, right?
Mark Medley: We have we have everybody is the same.
Mark Medley: So what we do with what we're given makes the difference between my life and your life.
Mark Medley: So the greatest use of time is to spend it on something that will outlast you.
Mark Medley: And yet, I think there's nothing in our culture that we squander more than time.
Mark Medley: We literally can scroll for we could scroll for hours on our phone.
Mark Medley: We could binge a show on TV for hours, and our days are gone.
Mark Medley: So how do we measure our days right?
Mark Medley: If we waste our days, we waste our destiny.
Mark Medley: God teach me to do this correctly.
Mark Medley: There's some there's a couple of questions in your book you can talk, you can answer, and maybe meditate on that and journal on that.
Mark Medley: My talent is one thing.
Mark Medley: Another thing that I can um that I can be a steward over is my talent.
Mark Medley: What is it that God has given me that I bring to the people who are around me?
Mark Medley: What's my my unique perspective, my unique spiritual gifts, my unique um personality, my unique calling or heart passion, my abilities that I have and not everybody has, my experiences that not everybody has experienced.
Mark Medley: All of these things shape me into what God can use to you to make a unique influence and impact on my sphere of influence.
Mark Medley: So, what are the talents or strengths that God's given me to steward them?
Mark Medley: And am I stewarding them well?
Mark Medley: One of the great things you'll have a chance to do uh if you're part of Trinity Community Church, is to come and uh take part in a fit class.
Mark Medley: Our fit class, it stands for fitting in at Trinity, but it really is fitting in in the kingdom of God, and we talk about those very things.
Mark Medley: What are my spiritual gifts?
Mark Medley: Paul gives um three lists of spiritual gifts, and that's in Ephesians 4 and in Romans 12 and in 1 Corinthians 12.
Mark Medley: There are things that God is giving to each of us, and we have different ones, and you have abilities and gifts that I don't have.
Mark Medley: So you have a way to love God and love people that I don't have because of your unique uh spiritual gifts.
Mark Medley: Uh, we talk about the calling of God on our lives, the the heart passion, the thing that makes our uh makes us um cry, that brings us to a place where we know something has to be done about this.
Mark Medley: And this is probably a burden in my heart that I need to do something about.
Mark Medley: Uh we talk about our spiritual gifts, our heart passion, our abilities, uh, skills that have been given to us, our uh personalities, unique way that we view things and we express things and our experiences, all those things.
Mark Medley: We talk about all those things.
Mark Medley: And we talk about uh this we also use the Clifton Strengths Finder.
Mark Medley: We add all that together and we say, hey, what are the ways that you are unique and how can you uh bless people around you?
Mark Medley: I love what Peter says at 1 Peter 4, verse 9 through 11.
Mark Medley: Each one should use whatever gift he's been given to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.
Mark Medley: If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God.
Mark Medley: If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.
Mark Medley: So each one of us is unique.
Mark Medley: And I love how Paul says it too in Romans chapter 12.
Mark Medley: He says, For by the grace given to me, I say to every one of you, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
Mark Medley: Just as each one of us, uh just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
Mark Medley: We have differing gifts according to the grace given to us.
Mark Medley: If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith.
Mark Medley: If it's serving, let him serve.
Mark Medley: If it's teaching, let him teach.
Mark Medley: If it's encouraging, let him encourage.
Mark Medley: Do you see a pattern here?
Mark Medley: If it's contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously.
Mark Medley: If it's leadership, let him govern, let him govern diligently.
Mark Medley: If it's showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
Mark Medley: But Paul is basically saying there's something that you've been given, a measure of faith and a gift of grace.
Mark Medley: Okay, and whatever you've been given.
Mark Medley: So it's interesting that he says, don't think more highly of yourself than you ought to think.
Mark Medley: Okay, we can understand that.
Mark Medley: Don't be proud and haughty and have an overly high view of estimation of your worth.
Mark Medley: But he also says, think soberly.
Mark Medley: In other words, don't think more lowly than you should think.
Mark Medley: Don't think too high, don't think too low, because you have been given a measure of faith and a gift of grace.
Mark Medley: And whatever that is, use it.
Mark Medley: If it's prophecy, prophesy.
Mark Medley: If it's serving, serve, if it's giving, give, if it's teaching, teach, if it's encouraging, encourage.
Mark Medley: This is like whoever you are, be and honor God and steward your talent that way.
Mark Medley: Okay, then we also have the third T: time, talent, and treasure.
Mark Medley: Treasure.
Mark Medley: What has God given me?
Mark Medley: What has He put in my hands to be able to give to other people?
Mark Medley: So we'll read this in Acts chapter 4, verse 32 to 35.
Mark Medley: All believers were one in heart and mind.
Mark Medley: No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.
Mark Medley: With great power, the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them.
Mark Medley: There were no needy persons among them.
Mark Medley: For from time to time, those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales, and put it at the apostles' feet.
Mark Medley: And it was distributed to anyone as he had need.
Mark Medley: So there's this generosity of what was having.
Mark Medley: Now, okay, so you might say, wow, that sounds like communism, it's Marxism.
Mark Medley: No, it's not at all.
Mark Medley: Because this was done voluntarily.
Mark Medley: This is like the opposite of communism.
Mark Medley: This was done because hearts were changed.
Mark Medley: From the inside out, this was this happened, right?
Mark Medley: Hearts were changed.
Mark Medley: People saw needs, they loved people, they loosened their grip.
Mark Medley: You know, communism is from the outside in.
Mark Medley: Communism requires this of you.
Mark Medley: Communism makes you do this, and it doesn't work.
Mark Medley: This is something very different.
Mark Medley: But it's it's the sign of your heart.
Mark Medley: You know, Jesus did look.
Mark Medley: It says that he was at the treasury one day and he was looking as people were giving what they were giving.
Mark Medley: And a widow gave a small bit, all she had.
Mark Medley: Other people were bringing and giving out of their excess.
Mark Medley: And Jesus said, This poor woman has given more than all of them, because she gave all that she had, and they gave out of their excess.
Mark Medley: And so the point is, Jesus was looking at what was being given.
Mark Medley: He's looking.
Mark Medley: So do you honestly view your money and your possessions as belonging to God and not yourself?
Mark Medley: Is it all his?
Mark Medley: So um money and time uh both have to be planned.
Mark Medley: The way you spend them have to be planned in order for you to get the most out of them, right?
Mark Medley: You're gonna spend money with or without a plan.
Mark Medley: Uh, and you can only spend your money one time.
Mark Medley: And so I need a plan for my money.
Mark Medley: So here's a great way to plan.
Mark Medley: Think of it this way: I plan to give.
Mark Medley: And the Bible speaks of tithing, and it's a good place to start in your giving.
Mark Medley: Tithing is an Old Testament, it began in the Old Testament, but it wasn't a law of the Old Testament.
Mark Medley: It predated the law.
Mark Medley: It happened, it began before the law even came in place.
Mark Medley: So it's something deeper than a law.
Mark Medley: In the New Testament, Jesus said, uh, talked about the Pharisees tithing, and they tithe, but they they leave out the most important things of mercy and sacrifice and justice.
Mark Medley: And he said, they ought to tithe, but they ought to not forget these things.
Mark Medley: And so uh Jesus never said, don't do it.
Mark Medley: Um, it's giving, I think, I think tithing is one thing, and giving beyond your tithe is important.
Mark Medley: It's a great barometer of your heart, right?
Mark Medley: So give, live like this.
Mark Medley: Orphans live like this.
Mark Medley: Orphans live with their hands uh grasping, you know, and closed and tight-fisted and and cross-armed, and I will not because I don't know what I'm gonna, what's gonna tomorrow's gonna bring.
Mark Medley: I need to, I need to provide for myself.
Mark Medley: And I'm this is an attitude of an orphan.
Mark Medley: It's not an attitude of a son or daughter who knows they're loved by a father who loves to protect and provide.
Mark Medley: Uh sons and daughters live with open arms.
Mark Medley: So their arms are open, their hands are out, stretched, their their stuff is not their stuff.
Mark Medley: Their stuff is God's stuff.
Mark Medley: And if they want, if God wants us to use it for other people, this is what we do.
Mark Medley: Give, tithe, give beyond your tithe, and then save for the future or invest.
Mark Medley: Uh pay off your debt.
Mark Medley: Debt is unwise.
Mark Medley: Scripture says to owe no man anything except or love one another.
Mark Medley: Another.
Mark Medley: So pay it off.
Mark Medley: Pay your taxes and then fund your lifestyle out of that.
Mark Medley: Okay.
Mark Medley: There's a lot more we could do about that.
Mark Medley: But um have an open hand.
Mark Medley: This quote from Dave Ramsey, Dave Ramsay, the financial guru.
Mark Medley: Have an open hand.
Mark Medley: The idea of holding money with an open hand might seem to violate common sense.
Mark Medley: We feel that if we don't hold on tightly our money to our money and our relationships, they will slip away.
Mark Medley: I'm not saying literally hold your money with an open hand.
Mark Medley: It represents your attitude toward money.
Mark Medley: When you give, you open yourself up.
Mark Medley: You allow the dollars to leave and the freedom to enter.
Mark Medley: This is good stuff, okay?
Mark Medley: And then giving beyond money, giving is not just money.
Mark Medley: And by the way, I would say your local church is your first place to give, not to other ministries.
Mark Medley: I'm saying you should and can give to other ministries.
Mark Medley: That's fine.
Mark Medley: But your first place to give is those people is the place where you're being pastored.
Mark Medley: You know, the other ministries aren't coming to visit you in the hospital, right?
Mark Medley: When you're sick, or coming alongside your family when you need counseling, or you're grieving over a loss or whatever.
Mark Medley: There's a there is a place where hopefully you're connected.
Mark Medley: And that place you're connected is a place where you're being shepherded, being pastored by loving shepherds.
Mark Medley: And that should be the place where your tithe goes, in my opinion.
Mark Medley: And then uh other other places after that.
Mark Medley: If you don't have money to give, you can also go to your local homeless shelter and serve food.
Mark Medley: And then sit at the table and eat with the men and women you have served.
Mark Medley: That's giving.
Mark Medley: Uh go to a nursing home and read to the elderly for an afternoon.
Mark Medley: Help someone change a tire, whatever you can give.
Mark Medley: You can give.
Mark Medley: Okay, that's the thing.
Mark Medley: Time, your talent, your treasure.
Mark Medley: And number four, is your temple.
Mark Medley: That's your body.
Mark Medley: In 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20.
Mark Medley: Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, who you have received from God.
Mark Medley: You're not your own.
Mark Medley: You are bought at a price.
Mark Medley: Therefore, honor God with your body.
Mark Medley: This is specifically in the context.
Mark Medley: He's talking about a temple here.
Mark Medley: He's specifically talking about this in the context of our body.
Mark Medley: Our temple is our body.
Mark Medley: And so if I'm not owned, if I'm bought at a price, my body is not my own.
Mark Medley: My body is for Jesus.
Mark Medley: That means I have to keep it sexually pure for Jesus.
Mark Medley: That is the context of 1 Corinthians 6, by the way, is sexual purity.
Mark Medley: How do I keep myself sexually pure?
Mark Medley: Do I smoke?
Mark Medley: Do I drink excessively?
Mark Medley: Do I use illegal drugs?
Mark Medley: Do I frequent all you can eat buffets?
Mark Medley: What am I doing to my body?
Mark Medley: How can I motivate?
Mark Medley: How can I change my motivation from just receiving and satisfying my lusts of my flesh to bringing my body under subjection so that I live longer, healthier, so I can give to people and give to God more.
Mark Medley: That's the idea.
Mark Medley: What's your wellness program?
Mark Medley: You know, what I've learned is there's really three things you need.
Mark Medley: You need fuel, you need rest, and you need movement.
Mark Medley: So proper nutrition, proper exercise, proper rest.
Mark Medley: This is it.
Mark Medley: This is this is very simple.
Mark Medley: If you do that, if you focus on those things, if you pay attention over a long, like a marathon, not a not a sprint, but a marathon, the life, a lifetime, then you're going to live longer, you're going to live healthier, you're going to bless your family, your friends, people outside, you're going to be uh able to be used by God.
Mark Medley: There are some people who cannot minister because they're not able to do it in a healthy way.
Mark Medley: There's some people that want would love to come on trips with me overseas, but they can't they can't do it.
Mark Medley: They don't have the physical ability to do it.
Mark Medley: They could get they could get to that place if they work at it, but that's if they haven't taken care of their temple enough to do it.
Mark Medley: Okay, so there's a lot we could talk about about that.
Mark Medley: But we don't have time to do that.
Mark Medley: Uh last thing I'll say is I can steward my story.
Mark Medley: My story.
Mark Medley: So my time, my talent, my treasure, my talent, and my temple, right?
Mark Medley: And then there's my story.
Mark Medley: My telling.
Mark Medley: How's that?
Mark Medley: We can do that.
Mark Medley: And my telling, my telling.
Mark Medley: Each of them came to know Christ because somebody cared enough to share Christ with us and share the gospel and to befriend us or invite us to church.
Mark Medley: And and God gives us this awesome opportunity to be able to give that to somebody else.
Mark Medley: We have a word to speak, we have a testimony to tell.
Mark Medley: And it's very simple.
Mark Medley: You can just say, This is the way I was, this is the way I am.
Mark Medley: And the difference maker was Jesus.
Mark Medley: It's really simple.
Mark Medley: It's not something you have to do.
Mark Medley: You don't have to go to school for this, you don't have to have a degree to do it.
Mark Medley: You don't even have to know a whole lot of the Bible to do it.
Mark Medley: People see your life, and you can say, This is who I was, this is who I am.
Mark Medley: Jesus is the difference.
Mark Medley: It's simple.
Mark Medley: So God gives us the awesome opportunity to work together with him on his mission to bring hope and eternal life to others.
Mark Medley: So Acts chapter 1, verse 8, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.
Mark Medley: And then, so you know, the Holy Spirit's given to us for a purpose.
Mark Medley: It's not just that we would feel good or have good meetings, or you know, uh all of the things we talked about in our previous session about how He was He is our guide into truth and He's our guide in grief.
Mark Medley: He's our guide uh along our way.
Mark Medley: He helps us in prayer, but all that's true, but that's not all.
Mark Medley: You receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you for the purpose of witnessing to your, and this was like concentric circles, right?
Mark Medley: Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, all the earth.
Mark Medley: Okay, there's ways you can affect your family, your immediate friends and community, the greater area and even the world.
Mark Medley: There are ways that you can you can do something to affect those things.
Mark Medley: 1 Peter 3, verse 15 says, But in your hearts, set apart Christ as Lord.
Mark Medley: Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have, but do this with gentleness and respect.
Mark Medley: So your story is like nobody else's story.
Mark Medley: And so you've got something to say that I can't even say.
Mark Medley: You have a revelation of Jesus and how he's worked in your life that I don't even have.
Mark Medley: Use it, use it, be a good steward of your story.
Mark Medley: Your two most powerful tools, the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit, combined with your story.
Mark Medley: I love it when the when Jesus healed the blind man, and then they kept uh asking him, the religious people kept asking him, what happened?
Mark Medley: What happened?
Mark Medley: And he just kept saying, you know, I've already told you what happened.
Mark Medley: Here, I don't know.
Mark Medley: I don't know if he's the Messiah, I don't know any big theological things, but here's what I know.
Mark Medley: I was blind, now I can see.
Mark Medley: That's it.
Mark Medley: And he kept saying that.
Mark Medley: This is my story, I'm sticking to it.
Mark Medley: I was blind, now I see.
Mark Medley: This is all I know.
Mark Medley: It's okay if that's all you know.
Mark Medley: This is a great story, right?
Mark Medley: So, what was I then?
Mark Medley: What am I now?
Mark Medley: Where would I be without Jesus?
Mark Medley: When you tell your story, you don't have to have all the answers.
Mark Medley: You don't have to know fancy religious words, you just tell your story.
Mark Medley: Open your heart, open your ears.
Mark Medley: Open your heart means be in a posture of seeing what's around you and who God might be connecting you to or want you to speak to.
Mark Medley: Open your ears to hear from the Lord and hear from people.
Mark Medley: One of the greatest things you can do to love somebody is to listen to them and then open your mouth.
Mark Medley: There's your challenge this week is how do I open my heart, open my ears, and open my mouth.
Mark Medley: So, Father, thank you for what you've given us.
Mark Medley: All the practical things, Lord, as we talked about today, our time day by day, our talents, what you've made us to be, our treasure, the money and the and the possessions we have, and um and our story, Lord, our temple, our body, and our story.
Mark Medley: So, God, I pray for you to give us grace to be able to live lives so that when we stand before you, we say, Here's what we did with what you gave us.
Mark Medley: And we're not ashamed.
Mark Medley: And you say, Well done.
Mark Medley: This is our prayer in Jesus' name.
Mark Medley: Amen.
Mark Medley: Well, thanks so much.
Mark Medley: You guys have made it all the way to the end of 12 sessions of the Foundation's class.
Mark Medley: And if you have any questions, you feel free to contact the office, contact one of the pastors.
Mark Medley: You can talk to me and talk to Kelly, definitely.
Mark Medley: We are so willing to open up and uh like talk to you about the things that we've covered here.
Mark Medley: And there are other opportunities for you to be able to grow in your discipleship.
Mark Medley: Do sign up for the fit class if you haven't yet, because it's a great opportunity for you to learn who you are.
Mark Medley: And any way that we can help you to grow in your walk with Jesus, we want to be able to be present and uh and do that for you.
Mark Medley: So thanks so much for being with us and God bless.