Follow Me: Reframing Command & Control

In this message from Harvest Sarasota, we rethink one of the most familiar phrases of Jesus: “Follow me.”

What if it was never meant as command and control? What if it was never about pressure, coercion, or falling in line? What if “follow me” was always an invitation into close companionship?

In this episode, we explore Luke 9:23 through a fresh lens and consider how Jesus invited people not into fear, but into relationship. Along the way, we confront the ways faith has too often been used to burden people, control people, and pressure people, and we reclaim a more faithful vision of the gospel: one rooted in presence, dignity, belonging, and love.

This is a conversation about carrying heaven with us. About what it means to embody good news. About why witness is less about making a case and more about making space.

If you’ve ever felt burned by religious pressure, exhausted by performative faith, or curious about a more compassionate and Christlike way, this message is for you.

#HarvestSarasota #ProgressiveChristianity #FollowMe #CarryHeaven #PresenceOverPressure #MakingSpace #BelongingBeforeBelief #InclusiveFaith

Transcript

Harvest Sarasota (00:00.332)
If you have your Bibles, well, we're gonna go there in a second, but I wanna talk through something that I think is very interesting, beyond interesting for me, that I have actually, this is gonna start off sounding like a message I've already done, but it is not, I promise you. But if you have your Bibles, you can go to Luke chapter nine, and we're gonna start in verse 23 in a little bit here.

But if you remember, by the way, when we do our unplugged, we're going to more than likely be introducing some new songs that we've been writing. So one of the things that has been on our heart has been to write songs that more closely match our theology here. So theology that puts justice as a priority.

that includes all, that does not put the burden and pressure on people to perform, that welcomes people into the arms of God. And so we have been writing songs. We've gotten feedback from some of you in the congregation that say there's some times where there's songs we sing that you just don't feel like match who we are. And unfortunately, we're kind of dealt, this is what you can sing and you don't just like come up with something on the fly. And so as we're navigating that, we are starting to write.

The team is writing, Jim is writing, Robin and I have been writing and we're hoping to bring some new songs to you that are harvest songs and start to begin to sing them for you. And I promise you, I've heard the songs that Jim has been writing, of course the songs that Robin and I have been writing and they are, believe, capture almost perfectly the heart of this place. so wouldn't it be cool if we could sing some of these anthems that

more closely resemble our heart for God and what God is doing in this place. Not that the songs we sang today weren't, because there's definitely some beautiful moments in all of them, but we're going to start to create from this house. so some of it's just from messages I've preached, some of it's just from our own hearts or life experience. And Jim's been writing and being inspired by folks like Richard Rohr and others and taking some of these concepts. And so we're excited to do it. Jim has a song that I think will be the anthem.

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of the church here called Held Here, right? Is that the name of it? And I can't wait for you to hear it. It's gonna be amazing. So it just takes a little time to get them out, but we're gonna be doing them. So a couple weeks ago, maybe a month ago, I preached a message called Heaven is Not the Point. And I'm gonna kind of go in a different direction with that idea today. So don't think I'm regurgitating what I spoke on, because I have a very clear point I wanna make.

Actually, today's title is Follow Me, and the subtitle is Reframing Command and Control.

And so I wanna, that'll set you up for where I wanna go with it. The way that we have thought about heaven, as I talked about about four or five weeks ago, whatever it was, is we've framed heaven as something that's distant, that's in the future, that's something to get into hopefully eventually. Faith became the mechanism of getting us to heaven, and that was the main focus. Our faith gets us to heaven, to heaven, to heaven, heaven. And it wasn't.

there wasn't much talked about regarding what else faith does in our life. It became a means to an end. Heaven was later, it was somewhere else, it was down the road, was something that's waiting for us or for me. And faith became essentially about ending up in the right place someday. you know, what's interesting is sometimes when I say these things, you think, is this the stuff his dad preached back in the day?

And I don't actually remember my dad speaking a lot about heaven, heaven, heaven and waiting to get there. Actually, he was very focused on what we were doing here on the earth. And so I'm not talking about that, but I know that many of us and a lot of the other churches that I was exposed to growing up or people that were speaking or writing, there was so much about making sure that we dot the I's and cross the T's and get our way to heaven. Did anyone else experience that? Yeah.

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And so we talked a couple weeks ago about what if heaven was never meant to be just a destination? And the turn that I want to kind of begin to head towards the main part of this message is heaven is not just a destination, but heaven is something that we carry with us. Yesterday, Robin and I went to the Salvador Dali Museum. Have you been there? There's some pretty intense stuff there.

We learned about Dolly's life, we went to the 360 experience, the immersive experience there. And one of the quotes that came up, roughly, because I'm trying to remember off the top of my head here, but he said essentially that I don't believe in heaven, but heaven is something we carry within us.

Harvest Sarasota (05:11.308)
And I think his point was, maybe a little bit more blatantly or a little more roughly put, is that we can't just put this off as some ethereal distant idea, but heaven is something we carry within us. And the kingdom of God, as we know and have been taught, is near, it's within, it's among us. I mean, these are all scriptures that point to this idea. It's not clouds and the sky.

It's heaven is wholeness. Heaven is peace. Heaven is dignity. Heaven is belonging. Heaven is love embodied. This week, Robin and I did a donor dinner, and I'm gonna be a little bit coy here with this, but I believe it. We did a dinner with a donor that bid on having a dinner in our house or theirs where I did.

the courses with Robin and Jim did the wine. And Doug came and provided a course and helped us out, AKA kept me straight. Now, are you going to turn that oven on? Because two courses from now, we're going to be having to heat up such and such. Yes, Doug, I'm going to. Stop telling me what to do. And it was wonderful. It was one of the best things I think we've ever done. It was so much fun. We had 11 people in our homes, one of our donors and 10 of her friends.

Our donor being not to the church but to Harvest House. Wonderful lady, Cathy Marshall. And she supports us and she brought her friends over and we did this nine course dinner which can also be yours for $5,100 to Harvest House, okay? We'll sell another one. So, nine course dinner with wine pairings for each course. Actually, think there was eight pairings because two of them were combined.

And one of the ladies there enjoyed it so much that at some point, actually multiple times, she said it to Robin, she said to me, I just need to tell you this is heaven for me. And that might sound trivial, but we can find heaven, if you will, in a lot of things. Find it in a moment at a table with friends having something.

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You know, it's having something that we enjoy. Find it in the beach. We can find it here worshiping together. We can find it in a smile. We can find it in a hug. We can find it in a lot of things. And heaven really is something that is incarnate. It is with us. We carry it with us. We change the atmosphere when we walk into places. Jesus, wherever he went, people felt seen. Carrying heaven means people feel seen around us.

shame lost its power when Jesus was around. I love that idea. Maybe we should write a song about it. But I love the idea that if I am around people, that shame begins to lose its grip on them. What would that look like? What would my affect my words, the way that I conducted myself? What would that look like? That shame would begin to diminish.

and its power and its grip on somebody's life would slowly fade to nothing because I was there.

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Of course, outsiders were included, healing happened, and the list goes on and on on on on. Of the difference, let me say this, in the charismatic kind of renewal movement, there was a lot about shifting the atmosphere. Anybody remember that stuff? Gotta shift the atmosphere. That's all fine and dandy, but if the atmosphere doesn't also shift the hearts in the room, if people aren't being affected by it, then I don't care about the atmosphere.

Because it's easy to say the atmosphere shifted, there's no way to measure it. But there's a way to know when God is at work and heaven is here, when people are experiencing less shame, they're feeling seen, they're being healed, they're feeling included, they're feeling apart, they're being inspired, joy's in the room, all of these things. That tells me that the atmosphere is truly shifting. But I believe, if I could sum up, I believe that...

In the life of Jesus as recorded in the New Testament, people didn't just hear about heaven, they truly experienced it around him. He embodied it, he brought it into the room and he gave us not just the permission or command, but the power, the endowment of that power to bring that wherever we go. Of course in Matthew 28.

And then Jesus turns to people when he shifts the atmosphere and their lives are affected by it. When their eyes are opened, their shame begins to lose its power, as I mentioned. They feel included and loved. They feel seen.

They feel like a human being again. He says something almost every single time he says something that I have to be honest with you, for a while has thrown me off. You have this encounter where it's this loving, kind, compassionate, full of grace, meets you where you at, Jesus, experience, and the person's life changes, they're impacted, something shifts in them.

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Excuse me. And then oftentimes he followed it up with this, follow me.

And that phrase can code two very distinctly different ways.

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And it may not be for you, and maybe I'm projecting today, but that's pretty much what being a pastor is all about. Some of you are going to get that later, that was funny. Sometimes follow me can sound like command. Sometimes it can feel like hierarchy. It can trigger some of the wounds around, just listen up, do what I tell you to do, get in line.

And has anyone ever in church or in a faith experience just been told to get in line?

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We don't need you to interject right now or ask questions, get in line. And if you've had that experience, sometimes we can connect the idea that follow me was more of a command than some sort of invitation. Like now that I've, see, it can become transactional. Now that I've done something for you, get in line and follow me. And we know that's not the heart of God, but that concept.

has been used in that way in traditional evangelical experiences and others, where it's like, listen, look what God did in your life and now you want to cause trouble. Follow me, get in line. I'm running the show here.

Harvest Sarasota (12:34.304)
And I looked at this phrase and I thought, I'm gonna kinda, I'm gonna tell you, the Bible can become so much more exciting if you're willing to let go of your preconceived, pre-taught, pre-learned stuff. If you take every scripture as if you're reading it for the first time through the lens of a loving, inclusive Father, God.

If you begin to change it and read it that way, it will totally blow your mind. Because almost every time I have a problem with something, think to myself, this feels maybe like it's out of line with the spirit of this story or the heart of God. When I go and look at the original Greek, almost every time, my eyes are open to something brand new. And that's when things get exciting. Because now we don't have all of these like,

these barbs that we're trying to navigate through to get to the other side, where it's like every time we try to take steps, something else kind of, you know, oh, that little pain over here and a little pain over here, but that's fine, I'm gonna shake it off, I'm gonna keep going. We can actually navigate this faith and realize that each one of those things more than likely was misconstrued, misinterpreted, and put there to keep people in line. And so when I read this, I was like, let me look at this and find out where else.

This is used and maybe the concept around it. So I'll acknowledge briefly that in the traditional reading sometimes we can feel that follow means pressure. could feel like we have to prove ourselves. It can feel like we have to sacrifice to qualify. The scripture I'm getting ready to read in that right now has got some of that sacrifice in it.

Let's go to Luke 9.

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23.

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says this, and he was saying to them all, if anyone wants to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.

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Now do you see that

Let's just be real for moment here. Can you see how dramatically our lens of what we believe the heart of God is for humanity can shift this scripture into two very different streams?

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If God is a God of...

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you do what I say, follow my commandments, or else. And we read this scripture before I get into the Greek, and he was saying to them all, if anyone wants to come after me, he needs to deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

can easily be shifted in that direction. Somebody with a microphone in their hands behind a pulpit on a Sunday morning can easily use this to get what they want.

Harvest Sarasota (15:47.334)
Or we can look at the original intention of the scripture and then allow it to add to what we believe about the heart of God for us. And when we look at this, the phrase or the word used here for if anyone wants to come after me, that Greek word is the word, well, I'm not Greek.

but it's A-K-O-L-O-U-T-H-E-O, acolytheo, my best. It means to accompany, join, or walk alongside. It's beginning to shift a little bit, isn't it? And then at the end of that, must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. The follow me part here is the word opiso.

which means to move in the same direction, not just submit.

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walking alongside in the same direction. Now recently I got in trouble with my wife.

because we got out of the car at my mom's house. Step up, honey. She's getting out of the car, and I'm here.

Men, have you ever done that? And what does she say? Are you going to wait for me?

Yeah.

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What did I say? I said, lay off. No, I didn't say that. didn't say that. Inside, inside, inside. I think. Right? That is not walking alongside in the same direction together. That is more of a, I am the boss, follow me, get in line. I'm gonna make my entrance when I want to and you gotta figure it out, right? This.

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This is accompanying, this is the Greek word, alongside walking in the same direction. Does this look like command and control?

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Shh!

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Not unless I do this, right? Get away from Rocky and Braden, they're bad influence. Right? This is the picture that Jesus has given us. We translated it, follow me, but the group, what happened? there's nothing wrong with that. Okay. This is, this doesn't look like the way maybe some of us have interpreted the word follow me.

And for a lack of a better translation here, for whatever reason, the folks translating this in English chose to follow me, which can be a lot of different things. More clear, thank you. Give this wonderful lady a hand.

Harvest Sarasota (19:01.066)
If you look at the mirror translation, which I love, they translate this as Jesus saying, join me in close companionship.

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And joining me in close companionship means when you're denying yourself, we're denying ourselves. When you're picking up your cross, we're picking up the cross. If we're giving of our lives, we're giving of our lives together. We're in this together. Your sacrifice is my sacrifice. Your...

denial of things that may be harmful in your life or other people's lives, I'm gonna do alongside you. I'm walking with you in close companionship. This is not command or control. This is Jesus inviting us into close, authentic friendship and companionship, journeying together on our way towards something.

So it makes much more sense when it's like, hey, now your eyes are opened. Now you're no longer, you're no longer paralyzed.

You no longer have leprosy. You no longer have an issue of blood. The shame in your life is beginning to diminish. The power and control of that shame in your life is going away.

Harvest Sarasota (20:39.648)
Now it makes a lot more sense that a being, a God in man form, who would do that would then say, and now will you walk with me?

Now will you journey with me?

I

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Does this make sense? Maybe follow me was never fall in line behind me. Maybe it's always been come close and walk with me.

It's, this is one of the most important things I need you to hear. Because the counterpoint to this is you can't get away from the part that costs us something. There's a lot of scripture in the New Testament about what it costs us. That it didn't just cost Jesus, but it costs us something.

Paul writes about it, Jesus says it very clearly. Hey, this isn't always gonna be easy, this journey. It's gonna sometimes cost you something. But it's not less costly, this change, this switch, this new understanding, it's less coercive.

It's not less costly, it's less coercive. The cost is still there, but it doesn't come with coercion. We're not being forced, we're being invited. And you say, well, how do you know that? Well, the language really helps us here. But also we can look at a couple of stories, like...

We know that Jesus eats with people he shouldn't, requiring nothing on the back end of that. We know he walks with people that he wouldn't normally walk with in society. We know that he's building belonging first before he's ever seeing or experiencing any sort of change or difference in someone's life. In the case of Zacchaeus, which by the way was not a popular guy.

Harvest Sarasota (22:47.202)
What does he say to Zacchaeus? We all know, right? We sang the song growing up. comes down from the tree and he says, I'm coming to your house tonight. There's been no change in Zacchaeus' heart, noted here. All we know is Zacchaeus, who people didn't really like, climbs a tree. Jesus spots him, says, hey, come down from that tree. I'm coming to your house tonight. He would invite himself in.

to close companionship and invite people into close companionship even when things didn't turn out the way he probably was hoping. In the case, this is wild, but in the case of the young ruler that we read about, what happens with the young ruler? The rich young ruler. Jesus gives the rich young ruler an invitation. Y'all ever heard that story?

to not keep you here forever, trust me. There's a story about that. An invitation is given, the rich young ruler does not accept the invitation. And Jesus, full of grace, lets him go. Hey, there's an invitation here. I'm not gonna force you to do this. You can receive it, not receive it. It doesn't change how I feel about you. And the invitation's still open. But here it is.

No coercion, no guilt. My God, can you imagine this? If the places Jesus went, the power of shame over people's lives were diminished, only to then heap more shame on them after he got done with that? That doesn't make sense. It's like, now your eyes are open. Boom, let's stab, let's, right. Wait a second, what just happened? But that's, bad religion feels that way sometimes.

It's like we didn't actually get rid of burdens. We traded them.

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for a different burden.

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And we are promising a life full of joy, this carefree embrace God. And then we heap burdens upon people that they cannot carry.

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And the scripture actually says when they fall finally under the weight of those burdens, we blame them.

But the invitation really wasn't an invitation, right? Some coercion involved. Was, hey, come lay down your burdens. And the fine print was, so we can give you new ones.

Harvest Sarasota (25:40.238)
That's right. I was like, well, what's the difference? Well, now you're not going to hell, but I'm still burdened. That's not it. It's like, here's the invitation to follow me, rough translation, that's a rough translation, but to join me in companionship. And you say, you know what, I'm not ready for it.

And Jesus, like any of us should be when we're trying to be in relationship with somebody. I don't know the last time you did this, those of you who are single, but if you're single and you go on a date with somebody, you say, hey, I think this is going well, I think we should start a companionship here, however you say that nowadays. Not like that. I've quite enjoyed our night at Applebee's. Would you like to join me in companionship thus forward? I don't think that's it. How would we say that today?

I'm not even gonna try it, because it's gonna be bad. But can you imagine someone says, you know, I just, I think maybe we're just better off friends, which means we're not better off friends. I don't wanna ever see you again, right? I think we're just better off friends, or whatever it might be. Can you imagine being like, no, no, no, no, no. That's not what I'm saying here. I'm saying you will join me in companionship. You're probably never gonna get a call back and maybe a restraining order. But how would we think Jesus would operate any differently?

Harvest Sarasota (27:09.388)
I think that Jesus invites people deeply into companionship. There's a passionate invitation. No doubt that it's passionate. It's not flippant. It's not like, take it or leave it. There's a deep invitation to companionship, but it never coerces. Because love that forces is not love.

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You will love me.

No, I won't.

All right.

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Love that forces is not love. And I think this, I think in terms of how we treat other people.

and

I'll say this because I'm guilty of it too. We can win arguments and lose people. Or we can be okay with losing an argument and winning people.

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And that's coming from somebody who not just loves to argue, but lives for it.

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We can lose people and win arguments, or we can win people and lose arguments. And I promise you, one thing's for sure about the life of Jesus on the earth, it appears like maybe he lost an argument or two. It appears like the Pharisees could very clearly point to where he was wrong.

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But when it was about winning people, he was okay with it. He'd still rebuke them and tell them, don't know what you're saying. But he was like, no. You're healing on the Sabbath. You're talking to that woman. You're walking with those people. You're eating with that guy.

You guys can have your very clear argument that the scripture says X, Y, and Z, but that's a human being over there. And I love this, man, I love this so much. I got really deep into this. I started thinking about, do you remember when we used the word, used the word, if you still use it, that's okay, you're not old fashioned, maybe a little. The word witness.

go out and witnessing? I was just with a 81 year old preacher who's been in the Assemblies of God church for 50 years and he was saying things like, you know it's all about souls and witnessing and winning people and although the concept of that, if done right is okay with me, it was just like, I was just kind of like, oh boy, I haven't heard that for a while. But what if, what if, we don't have to use that word, but what if in reclaiming the concept of that,

actually it looked a little differently. Instead of convincing pressure, coercion, closing the deal. We used to have entire conferences. We had this whole thing, Revive Florida, that we did for a long time. They had a whole system of how you convert people. They had an armband with colors on it that matched different steps of the salvation process. And they had opening phrases that we could use to get people talking to us.

because some people looked like they were homeschooled and really weird and no one would talk to them, just kidding. And then the new, the whole system, and then we'd come back and we'd celebrate how many people went through the prayer and the whole thing and the whole deal, right? But it was all about creating a system that works, this works, this works, this works. And that wasn't Jesus' style. It wasn't a system of pressure, coercion, it was none of that. It actually was invitation, embodiment of what heaven was.

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things changed for the better when they were around.

I wonder, we would always go to like the parks, you know, like the county parks and usually end up being people who were unhoused that you end up talking to. And, you know, make yourself feel good. What about the person who doesn't have a house? Well, at least they have Jesus. Still don't have a house. I wonder if that like, I remember one time we had a thousand people here at our other location. Opening week. Almost a thousand people for a week long revival. What if a thousand people

got together and decided to build some homes that week and forgot the armbands and the going out and what have you.

Jesus did that first.

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They don't have a home. Well, before I introduce myself to them, let's get them a home.

They don't have food. Let's get them food. I didn't realize this till now, but when he says what you've done to the least of these, which remember that was their framework, not his. He never mentions the gospel in the way we've perceived it. He mentions the gospel. just, not the prayer and all that.

He's like, if they were hungry, if they were naked, if they were in prison, and you took care of those needs, you visited them, you clothed them, you fed them, you did it as if it was me. What he was showing us is you want to live out the gospel witness.

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It's this. And when I tie that in with the idea of following Christ and the example that Jesus gave us, following the example of Jesus to invite people into companionship, to invite people into relationship, to walk with them, to sacrifice with them, to go through the hard times with them, to never coerce or pressure and to just say to people, hey, here's a community, here's an opportunity, here's something that maybe I think

You know, you've asked me about it. Maybe this is something you're interested in, is you're trying to figure out your faith and your connection to God or the divine. That looks a heck of a lot different than maybe what a lot of us grew up with. But I'll tell you one thing right now. It's exactly the way Jesus did it. Does that make sense today? I'm gonna close with this.

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The gospel is

The gospel is, quote unquote, spread when it's experienced, not explained.

We've got to allow people to experience what we carry in both relationship and companionship and what we carry when we embody heaven.

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And I'll take that word for a moment. Because I think this is maybe the most powerful part of what I wanted to say today. least Robin thought so.

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Being a witness, some of you cringe at me even saying that, I can see you. Being a witness is not making a case, it's making space.

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No, maybe they don't think it's as good as you thought it was.

Y'all, when I say this again, I'm going to need you to go, OK? So Robin understands that that was the best point. Ready? Witness is not about making a case. It's about making space.

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Thank you.

I know, that's my middle name. She goes again too far. I was like, yeah, that's my middle name.

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Because whether we realize it or not, we're going to carry and embody something into the world. We're going to carry with us anxiety, depression, fear, or we're going to carry peace, kindness, joy, invitation. Here's what I want you to know.

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I want to speak to a couple people as I close today.

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The first is, if you answer the phone, start talking after you walk out.

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I'm like a child, you can't do something like that and may not comment on it.

If you have felt pressured, coerced into companionship, well that's not compatible.

That's not how Jesus feels. I do promise you one thing, there is an invitation to walk alongside, to have somebody bear those burdens with you.

God has never been and will never be your enemy. It does not matter the things that I started with, how you love.

who you vote for, color of your skin, what you have in your bank account, your abilities. None of those things factor into it. And your answer doesn't change the way God feels. God's presence, kindness, love, compassion, and pursuit of you does not change one bit if you, like the young rich ruler, say, I'm not ready for this. That's beautiful. That is the definition.

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in my very, very uneducated opinion of holding space. It's like, hey, there's room for you here. I would love to invite you as a companion on this journey together.

And then the person says, I'm not ready. And that spot, that space that you had for them in this journey, they're like, no, I'm not ready. And they turn away and walk away.

And the grace and the beauty of humanity that God shows us that we can all be is to say to that person, no problem, I understand, but that space, I'm gonna hold for you. I don't need to fill my quota with somebody else for that space. That space is for you. I'm gonna hold some space because if by chance you ever feel like this is something that you want in your life and you want it to look a certain way,

I'm gonna meet you there.

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We don't want to build just copycat.

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You know, just, we don't just wanna copy and paste. Anyone follow Taylor Ransom on Instagram? He's like a, he does like kind of satire on the church. He's a pretty funny guy.

He has this, he dresses up like Church Caron. If you don't follow Taylor, we should have him here sometime. He does a Church Caron thing where he has this like, and he's like mama bear anointing and this kind of stuff and how his kids are doing six, seven and we know that's demonic and the devil's entering his kids through roblox and all this kind of stuff. Jim actually had him do a wonderful little thing for my mother one year. Like a cameo for my mom one year, which is hilarious. But Taylor Ransom, was seeing something that as Church Caron said,

and she said, in 1974 when Joyce Meyer copy and pasted her anointing on me, I knew that for the rest of my life I would copy and paste my anointing on other mama bears. Right? That's not it.

It's you and the person next to you and the person out there and the person at work and the person beyond and your neighbor and your friend and your ex and all of these people. They're all journeying and trying to figure things out. And there is an invitation, not just from heaven, but from the heaven we carry inside of us to welcome them along the journey of companionship towards community, authenticity, healing, hope, letting the power of shame diminish in our lives. People will be seen and found and known. There is

an invitation there and we are holding space for people to be our companions and go along with us and journey through this together. That is the beauty. That is the simple gospel. That is carrying heaven with us today.