Elevate | Part 8 - Pastor Eric Parks | April 17, 2026

In Part 7, Pastor Eric Parks recaps what we’ve learned so far in the series and challenges us to lean into the areas that matter most.

Transcript

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What's up, fellas? Hey, give somebody a high five around you. High five, each other. Um, okay, listen to this. Yesterday, driving in my car, I listen to sports radio. Um, I'm a 92-5 guy, um, and uh so I'm listening to on the sports radio. And I pull into the church parking lot, and uh the guys at the noontime show, they're like, um, hey, if you text in the word backpack to this number, you could get tickets to the Nuggets game. And so I was like, you know, on Saturday, they're in the playoffs for those of you that are living under a rock. Um so so I get out of the car and I I text, I'm like, why not? I'm just gonna text backpack. I've never won a thing in my life. I literally walked to my computer 30 minutes later, I get a text. They said, Congratulations, you just won Nuggets playoff tickets, club level. No, that's the whole story. There's no point. I just won playoff tickets. That's all I wanted you to know. So I'm gonna be at the game on Saturday, rooting the nuggets on. Um, I'm I'm really excited about honestly taking the next few minutes. And here's what I want to do. If you have a pen or paper, um uh go ahead and grab it. I want to do a little review. Now, for some of you, you're brand new, and um Jason already said it. We have a podcast, you can go and check that out. Um, many of the messages in the in this series, this Elevate series has all been connected. And this is all about like uh how do we become the men that God intended us to be? That's been the journey. And um, if you remember, at the very beginning of the series, way back when, so this was like August, this was a long time ago, feels like forever ago, we began to have this conversation about what kind of man am I actually becoming? Not the man that just performs at work, not the man that just shows up when everything's going well, the the man underneath everything. Who's that guy? Who's he? And that's what this whole series has been about. Not information, honestly, it's about transformation. And so let me go back in time and remind you the very, very beginning of the series. Very first time I talked to you, I said, um, I sort of made a big claim that there are three plagues that are quietly killing men. They are loneliness, boredom, and helplessness, right? It's it's a plague. It's not cancer, it's not accidents, loneliness, boredom, helplessness. This slow erosion in so many men's lives. And we talked about purpose and identity and brotherhood. We have been on this journey to say how do we sort of begin to challenge these three killers of man's souls. And so the seven things I'm about to just rewind and remind you of are just anecdotes, anecdotes to that. Very first part of the series we talked through is purpose. Purpose. Write that down on your thing, on your sheet, put it in your phone. Who are you and why are you here? Because you've got to start with purpose. A man without a purpose is just a man with a schedule, right? Purpose. Genesis 1 said that you were made in the image of God. That is not a compliment, that is actually an assignment. You're made in his image. And we talked about in the very beginning of this series that there are three elements of purpose. That you have a calling, you have an assignment, an impact. A calling, an assignment, and impact. And what I mean by that is calling is who is God asking you to become. That's calling. Your assignment is the problem you were created to solve, and the impact is who gets blessed when you show up. Now, for me, I have a very specific way I address this. Um, when I talk about calling, I have four words that I want to define my presence in every space that I walk into. Um, in fact, some I'm I'm pretty slow, so I had it tattooed right here on my arm so I could remember it. Uh, kind, calm, true, and present. That's what I'm called to be. In every space, that's what I want to show up. Kind, I want to be calm, I want to be present, I want to be true to who God made me to be. And I know what my assignment is. My assignment, God has asked me to help people who are trying to follow Jesus understand that if Jesus was right about God, life, and the soul, then it would make sense that we would rearrange our lives around him. My my job, my assignment is to help followers of Jesus understand what it means to rearrange their life around what Jesus said is true. And and who gets the impact or who who gets blessed? Is I think followers of Jesus who genuine genuinely want to follow him. That's the elements of purpose for every single one of us. Calling, assignment, impact. And here's what we said, and you're gonna see this theme run throughout this entire series. We said that um calling is actually also about connection, that we don't decur decode our purpose in a vacuum. That being connected in tables like this, having people in our life is part of how we begin to understand our purpose. That was part one. Part two, we talked about the heart. Now, I didn't get to teach this one if you remember back. That was our own uh Bob Seal came and taught us. And uh he talked about this fight inside. The kingdom men don't ignore their inner life, they steward it. We looked at Proverbs 4.23. Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Your heart. Now, um, for some of us, uh, we're better at it as men than others, but um I have this pillow that sits on my chair. I was gonna bring it out, I totally forgot it. But I have a sticker on my laptop. It's the feelings wheel. Some of you are like, what in the world are you talking about? Feelings wheel. It's just defining feelings. Most of you wouldn't know a feeling if it hit you in the face. You know, it's like you're when someone says, How you doing? The only thing you know how to do is fine, fine, fine's not a feeling. And so part of the journey is begin to understand, oh no, I have all these feelings that are going on. And recognizing what they are. Like this is part of tending to the inner life. The work on the inside, it is not soft, it is foundational, right? A man who hasn't dealt with his heart will lead his family and his business and his friendships out of wounds. And then part three. So that would have put in August, September, now or in October. We talked about surrender. And this this one I think sometimes can hit different. Because really at the heart of surrender is um challenging control. Now, look, most of us are probably not gonna say we're control freaks, but I think probably most of us are pretty comfortable being in control. I mean, as men, as leaders, uh, as what we do, oftentimes we are tasked with making decisions, right? For our family, at work, so being in an element of control we're comfortable with. And I I as we began to dive through this whole idea of surrender, um, we really were challenging. Well, what is behind control? Why is it that for some of us control is so important? Is it so difficult to let go? And and um I think we challenge that a lot of that is fear. Like control is really about fear. Fear of failure, fear of being unseen, fear of um uh what happens if I let go of this. This is why we looked at Proverbs 3, 5 and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, submit to him. That's a control statement, and he will make your path straight. We say control is not a personality trait, it is a spiritual issue. And it goes all the way back to Eden with Adam and Eve. And every time we white knuckle our lives instead of surrendering them, we're really just doing the same thing. One of my favorite stories, I told the story during this that message, um, was about a fighter pilot. Dallas Willard writes about it in one of his books, and he talks about this fighter pilot who was um flying through um a very, very large storm when uh all of a sudden the pot fighter pilot um pulled the stick of the plane back, thinking that the plane was supposed to be going into a climb and didn't realize that the plane was upside down and drove the plane directly into the ground. And um one of the things that Dallas pointed out is that this pilot really believed, got disoriented and believed that he was flying right side up. And I think oftentimes we live in a world where much of this world has convinced you the way in which we live is is right side up, and we question maybe the way the world has told you control and masculinity, maybe you're flying upside down. That maybe the way of Jesus, even though we call it the upside down kingdom, maybe that's actually right side up. And as we um laid out, we laid out instruments of faith. How is it that we let go and surrender? There are instruments of faith that help guide us when we let go of the steering wheel, and we let go of whatever that metaphor is in our lives. We think it's God's word, these are instruments to help guide us, the Holy Spirit, prayer, community, and obedience. Let me pause for a second because Jason hit on this, and I really want to encourage you, men of Plum Creek. Um, we started a series on prayer, and for some of us, um, I know that some of you, man, uh, prayer has been a big part of your life. But for some of us, the practice of prayer, um, really praying, can be a struggle. I talk to men all the time. They're like, man, listen, um, I pray so I can go to sleep, right? Because I just start talking and then I don't know what to say, and then I fall asleep. Like, that's how I go to bed at night. Um, and the reality is most of us approach prayer, many of us approach prayer in a similar way. We're like, I just don't even know what to say to the guy. What am I supposed to say to him? Like, I, you know, I ran out of things to say. I don't really know how to do it. So many of us are very uncomfortable. What we are going to do over the next five weeks is teach you how to pray. Teach you how to pray. Five different forms of prayer, five different ways of communicating with God. It is foundational. Actually, if you get this right, all this other stuff, I promise you, will fall into place. Learning how to communicate with your Heavenly Father. And so I want to encourage you, get a guide. We're going to be starting next Monday together. Get a guide, walk through the five forms of prayer. Show up on Tuesday nights. We'll be in this room. There'll be worship. We're going to walk through and teach how to pray the prayer of adoration, pray the prayer of petition, pray the prayer of lament, pray the prayer of confession. It will be transformational. So I want to invite you to be a part of that. Now, we got to November, and um part four of the series was all about leadership. And this was about the strength to lead at home and in community. David Miles came in and talked, taught us, and he asked this central question: where does strength to lead come from? And he laid out three very specific places that strength to lead comes from. It starts with Jesus. This is modeled in John chapter 15, where Jesus talks about remaining in the vine. It comes from strength to go from brotherhood. Like we are, we we grow when we are connected one to another. And then third, it grows when we know strength to lead grows when we know what God says about us, who we are. Because true masculinity isn't toxic. It looks like 1 Corinthians 13. Patient and kind and protecting and preserving. So then we moved into the winter months. Part five of the series was growth. That's where I taught you about training versus trying. Many of us, when we think about our spiritual lives, it has been tied to this simple misunderstanding of what it means to grow in your faith. And most of us know the try hard method. Do you know the try hard method? The try hard method is really simple. You come to a service like this, a preacher like me says something, you feel kind of guilty about it. You're like, you know what? I need to get that right. And so, what do you do? You try hard. You're like, what I'm gonna do, I'm I'm gonna I'm you know I'm gonna try harder. I'm just gonna try I'm gonna try harder not to say those bad words anymore when I'm riding around in the truck. You know, I'm gonna I'm gonna try really hard not to yell at my kids when they're driving me crazy, right? I'm gonna try really hard. And we try hard, and over time it works for a minute, until it doesn't, and then you quietly quit until you come to another service, and a preacher makes you feel guilty, and then you start trying hard again, right? Anybody know that cycle? And what we what we challenge ourselves with in this series is or in this particular message is that growth isn't about trying harder, it's really about training smarter. And I told you my running story, they're all embarrassing, right? Um, you cannot run a marathon just because you want to. Well, you can, you can, and then you can almost die. You gotta train, right? And that was what this whole thing was about. Is training. Jesus said, Listen, I want you to follow me, not admire me, not agree with me. I want you to follow me. Do what I do. Train. No man stumbles into spiritual maturity. And you are being formed whether you know it or not, and this is so key. You gotta hear this one. When we think about training and trying, you are being formed. You're being trained even if you're not training. You say, Well, what do you mean? Well, if you're sitting on the couch, not doing nothing, you're training to be a couch potato. You know? Like you are training for something, and you're being formed by something. And I've challenged myself over the last 14 months to be sure that I'm in this as much as I am in that phone. Because the truth is, whichever one I'm in most is what is forming me. So we are training, we are being formed. This is why 1 Timothy 4 7 says, train yourself for godliness. Training is not earning, training is participation, it is the rearrangement of your life. You are practicing, you are practicing. That's what we do. We practice. And then we moved into part six, brotherhood, and I heard from so many of you how meaningful this particular message was. I think we were in January when we talked through Brotherhood that no man fights alone. I think this is exceedingly important because there is a quiet crisis within men of isolation. I mean, a bunch of you are here because you're tired of like not having meaningful relationships in your life. People who carry the load with you, people who cry with you, celebrate with you, call you out when you do dumb stuff, right? For real. And this is what we talked about in Ecclesiastes 4 9, two are better than one. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. A threefold cord will not be quickly broken. And we talked about one of my favorite shows, the 101st Airborne Band of Brothers. If you've watched that show, it's unbelievable. But here's the reality: how do these men in situations like this survive? Not because they were fearless, they survived because they weren't alone. Courage grows in community. Something happens when we're together and you go together. There are four marks of brotherhood. We are intentional, it does not happen by accident. Someone has to text first. Remember, I talked about going on mandates. I know a bunch of you're like, come on, dude, quit saying that. No, but for real. Somebody's got to actually, somebody's got to reach out and say, hey, man, would you like to go get coffee? Would you like to hang out? For some of you, man, some of the biggest, toughest guys I know are the most awkward when it comes to just asking another dude to hang out. Just use your words, guys. Ask somebody to hang out. You're like, well, what if they say no? Well, I they probably won't. So use your words. Be intentional. Be regular. One coffee doesn't build a brother. Consistency does. Be honest. Surface talk, that is for acquaintances. Honesty is what builds brothers. Learn how to talk. In fact, this week it was really interesting. I was uh I was recording a podcast. We have a podcast coming out in a in a few weeks on just spiritual growth and formation. And um I'd walked across the way and started chatting with the guy who was uh producing the podcast, and um, and I was there, and then Pastor Craig showed up. He was walking through the same place. We were actually grabbing a beer, and um he's like, Hey, what are you guys doing? I'm like, hey, sit down. And within the next 30 minutes, inside of that the that space, we went real deep real fast with this fella about what was really going on with his marriage and his life, and I thought, this is what every man needs a safe space where you can say, bro, could you give me some advice? Because you're a few exits down the road on my marriage or my work. This is brotherhood. And that was part six of our series. And then part seven, which is where we were last week, is all about integrity. Something I've noticed about my children. I talked about this last month, about when they um when they get in trouble, they never come running towards you. You ever notice that? Yeah, a kid gets in trouble, they don't come running towards you. Told the story about Gray, it's one of my favorite stories. I'll tell it again. That kid. Um he's our middle son, he's at the University of Kansas, he's about to graduate, and um Chrissy and I had gone downtown, and uh we were downtown Denver, and uh I came back to the house and it was immaculate. Immaculate. We had gone for a night. That's not right. I'm just telling you this. That kid, my two boys are the grossest two humans on the planet. They just leave trash everywhere, they just leave it. I'm like, literally every morning I walk downstairs, I'm like, Harrison, that there are literally 14 cheese wrappers on the couch. All you had to do was like pick it up and walk. You walk by the trash can every day. You walk right past it. So I walk in the house, it's as clean as I've ever seen it. I looked at Chris, I'm like, something's not right. So something's not right. House is vacuumed. Well, we have those Nest cameras, and I was looking through all the Nest cameras trying to figure out what this kid was up to, and um, every one of the cameras was positioned just right where you couldn't see anything. So then I got real suspicious, and one camera, he missed one camera, and I saw these kids walking through the back door, and one of them had a case of beer sneaking into the house, and as soon as they opened the back door, I could hear a raging party coming from my house. So I I I go to Harrison. Harry's his little brother, five years younger. Harry was probably about maybe about nine at the time. And Gray was supposed to be watching Harry, okay? He throws a party in the house. So I go to Harry and I'm thinking, I'll get all the information from the young one. You know how it is, you gotta squeeze the weak one. So I get Harry on the steps, and I look him right in the eye, go, hey, hey, you're not in trouble. Your brother's about to get in trouble. I need to know what happened here. And Harry said, ten years old, blonde hair, you know. The I think this kid's gonna break. He looks me straight in the eye. And he goes, Dad, I have no idea what you're talking about. He wouldn't tell at his brother. I was like, bro, that's awesome, but you're now grounded too. Listen, we all do dumb stuff. We don't ever come running to our father when it was when we've messed up. It's like we want to hide, we want to pretend. And part of integrity is learning how to live wide open. Listen, you don't always get it right. But you can make it right. You don't always get it right, men. A lot of you are carrying some of that. And this is part of what we talked about. Look, most of the battles for your integrity, they aren't actually fought in public. They are fought at midnight in hotel rooms and conversations that nobody will hear. That's integrity when nobody's looking. Integrity is not what you do when the stakes are high, it's what you do when the stakes feel invisible. This is integrity. The question isn't whether your moment is coming, the question is whether you're building the kind of insides that can do what is right when the time calls. So Jason mentioned this and I'm wrapping up. He talked about this coin that we gave at the very beginning of the series. And for some of you, you might have it in your pocket. For some of you, it might be in a car and a nightstand. But I want to tell you why we did this. Because we're coming to the end of this series, and I will tell you, um, I'm so excited for what's coming in the fall. We've been working all spring on a series that we're rolling out this fall that I think will complement everything we've been talking about this last seven seven months. But for this series, we gave you this coin. And um, it's just a coin, look, it's it's a piece of metal. But it's like anything that we tie meaning to. And part of the hope was with this coin that maybe every time you hold it or you put it on the dash or it's sitting, mine actually sits most nights on my nightstand where I can see it. That we're reminded of these seven elements of what it looks like to elevate. Purpose, because a man without a mission is just a man with a schedule. Our inner life, it matters because what happens inside you is always driving what happens around you. Surrender. Because control is not strength, it's fear with a with a different kind of posture. Leadership, because men around you at home, at work, in your community need you to show up. Growth. We take seriously our growth and we are intentional about it. Brotherhood, we are intentional about connecting and sharing with other men in our lives in integrity because, man, you are in secret. That man, that is who you actually are. That every time you have this coin, that those one of those seven ideas maybe springs out at you. And so as we close, here's what I want you to do. I do want you to dig this up when you get home. And I'm gonna invite you to put it somewhere you see it. Somewhere on a uh on your on your dash of your pickup, or maybe on the desk at work, or maybe it's somewhere at home on the counter, somewhere you can see it. To remind you of these things. And I want to ask you this as you head into your tables. What is the one thing that over the last seven months, and maybe this is the first time you're here, and that's totally cool. You can you can um you can still jump into the conversation, but what is one thing that God has taught you about one of these seven elements in your life? Like one area where you're like, man, I have taken a step, and I know some of you have taken steps. I know it for a fact because you've told me. You've invited a guy on a mandate, right? You've connected. Some of you, I know you've done some deep inner work. You're like, man, I have been tending to what's going on inside my heart. I want you to think about that one thing and share it at the table. And then I want to challenge you as we head into the closing of this series. What's the one thing that you hope over this summer you can get intentional about? Purpose, inward life, surrender, what is it? I want you to process that at the table. But before we do, because this is the last time I get to teach you in this series, I just want to pray over you and then release you to talk at your table. So let me pray for you. Father, for all the men in this room who show up faithfully, not only here in this room, but in their life and their families at work. God, I just pray that you'll continue to guide them toward the man that you made them to be. May this series, may this time together be formative in their walk. This is what we know. We know that men that follow Jesus shape the world. So, Father, will you help us take steps closer to you and lockstep with you? In Jesus' name. Amen.