Better Together - Rich Evans

Sunday sermon recorded on August 2, 2026   

Part of the "Better Together" series.   

https://linktr.ee/northpointema

Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:00

So the sermon today is by Rich Evans, Rank and File Member North Point Church. That's my title. And I'm honored to be with this church. This church is amazing. We've watched amazing things happen in this room, in other rooms, outside of the rooms. It is flat amazing. But the question is, who is this guy and where's Patty? So you try to get Chris Sharon to do it. And I'm sure he tried like 12 other people and finally, you know, well, I guess we'll let Rich do it. Actually, some people said I was pretty good at it. So I will, that was encouraging to me. Whoever told them that, thank you for that. Because it's not. I'm just not a preacher. And I will say what Petty does up here every week is hard. It is not easy at all. It is hard, hard, hard stuff. My story, I'm from a broken family, grew up in Melrose, youngest of 10, lots of abuse growing up. Very troubling life in high school, drug addict, selling drugs, immorality, prostitution. There's so much stuff in my past. Most of you know because I've shared different stories about where I've come from. But I've been trying to be a disciple for going on 40 years. Sometimes I do really well at it, other times I don't do well at it. Sometimes I have good days, sometimes bad days, sometimes good weeks, sometimes bad weeks, sometimes good years, sometimes bad years. That's it's kind of the journey. But that's here I am, 40 years later, and by the grace of God, I still believe the Bible. Yeah. I still believe I'm forgiven. I still believe Jesus died on the cross for my sins and still wants me in his kingdom. So here I stand. We have ground rules when Rich Evans preaches. So the ground rules are when you see a question mark, that's not just to read and ponder, okay? That's for you guys to raise your hands and to join in. Okay? Oh, I gotta set the timer because I'm always like Petty and I, Petty is awesome because he he always wants to do better. He always wants to do um, you know, he wants to learn, he wants to grow. One of the things that he we were noticing is his sermons were going longer than he wanted. And so he's like, we're gonna set a stopwatch, and I want you to time me, I want you to send me the times of the sermon every week. Have you noticed his sermons have got down to about 30 minutes?

SPEAKER_08 2:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:37

Yeah. And I I could listen to Petty's sermons all day, but we've noticed that some of you can't. Um but anyway, so I'm gonna start now. Okay, so I I broke the rules already on that. Um so if you answer the question, try not to take us too far off track. That's all I ask. Um because I'm not experienced enough to recover quickly from that. Uh and if you have, and if you and if you have unanswered questions at the end, uh come and see me or other people, and that's fine. Um North Point is doing a series on Better Together. All right? Right? Um we've got t-shirts. Look at the t-shirts. We've got shirts everywhere. You got Haley and Lori wearing shirts, you got Ivan wearing shirts, and Ozzy, of course, wears his Bushy and Aussie campaign shirt. Make America Laugh Again. That is literally what his shirt said. Anyway, um, so Better Together, my goal is to compliment this series in this message. The question is, are you a good listener? So already I'm gonna break the ground rules. Don't answer this question because that could be embarrassing. If you especially if you're married and you raise your hand, you say, I'm a great listener, and your wife goes, Are you kidding me? Uh we so we won't do that. But a couple examples, you know, here's a woman talking to her elderly husband. Don't worry about losing your train of thought. I'm not listening anyway. Uh and then we've got this guy here. She said I never listened to her. Or at least that's what I think she said. I wasn't really listening. So listening is a challenge for all of us, don't you think? Um I say no, I'm a terrible listener. I had to learn to stop talking. And listen. I had to learn, especially in my marriage, I had to learn to stop interrupting Jennifer. Because she'd be like, she'd start talking, I'd be like, oh, I know exactly what I'm gonna say, so bah! And I say it, and it just didn't help our marriage, surprisingly. Um but what happened was is I I I really started to train myself, and I consider myself a listener in training. Um, and that's okay. Uh but I wanted to share some scriptures about this concept and about the whole concept of being open to hearing things. Um James 119, my dear brothers and sisters, take note of this. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. Um my late mother used to say all the time, you were given two ears and one mouth. There's a reason for that. And so you know she was definitely right on with that. Um here's a question. Notice there's a question mark, all right? How do you know when someone is actually actually listening to you and how does it feel?

SPEAKER_04 5:35

Yeah. When I know when somebody's listening to me when they're you know looking at me and and they're kind of doing those little like active listening responses, you know, like a uh-huh, or leaning in. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 5:50

Yeah, they're physical ways you can do it. Anything else? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:54

Um how does it feel? It makes me feel like what I have to say is important to them. Yeah. Value.

SPEAKER_08 5:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 6:00

Yeah, we need that. Anybody else? Yeah. Richie. So like, say for example, if you're feeling happy or sad, like they repeat what you said. So kind of like Christine. Yeah, they do teach that in active listening, especially if someone goes on for a bit. And I'm not saying droning on, don't hear that. What I mean is if somebody talks a lot and you're kind of trying to understand it, and sometimes we when when we I don't want to say babble, but when we uh unload, when we when we unload stuff, there's a lot to unpack. And if you're actively listening, you're going, okay, so what I hear you saying is this, this, this, there's books on this, and I'm talking hundreds of books on this. Yeah, there's a lot, and why is that? Is because have you ever spoken to someone who is quick to speak and slow to listen? What do you feel when you're talking to them?

unknown 6:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 6:52

Misunderstood.

SPEAKER_06 6:54

Okay, misunderstood, yeah, that's good.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

Oscar.

SPEAKER_06 7:00

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, you're now you're now dealing with the enemy. Davina.

SPEAKER_05 7:05

Uh they said in their ways.

SPEAKER_06 7:07

Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yep. So we all know what that feels like. Um let's look at a couple more problem uh proverbs. Fools have no interest in no interest in understanding. They only want to air their own opinions. That's rough. How do I know that's rough? Because that's where I was. I was very opinionated, and I still am very opinionated, and we'll talk about that in a minute. But yeah, there's no interest in understanding, and all they want to do is talk about their own stuff. Um, there's a there's a comedian, Brian Regan, and he talks about the me monster. And the me monster like walks into conversations and just goes, me, me, me, me, and all these conversations about me. And one of his things is he talks about, yeah, well, what if there, what if there was a guy who walked on the moon who happened to be a part of that conversation, and the guy's going, me, me, me, and I did this, and then all the guy says is, but I walked on the moon, and it'll silence the me monster. I guess you have to see it. Anyway, um, yeah, that wasn't even part of my notes, and I probably shouldn't have gone there. Um but let's talk about opinions for a minute, all right?

unknown 8:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 8:22

What would you say it means to be very opinionated? Does it bring up positive or negative feelings?

SPEAKER_05 8:28

Kind of negative.

SPEAKER_06 8:30

Sure. Why? Oh, go ahead.

SPEAKER_05 8:32

I think when someone's very opinionated, they're very they can be very closed-minded, and this is their set understanding of something without the uh ability to hear angularness.

unknown 8:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:43

Somebody who is very opinionated uh is very likely not at all curious. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 8:50

Yeah, not curious. There's a there's a show on HBO, it's Ted Lasso. Uh it's so riddled with F-bombs that I can't watch it. It just pollutes my brain. But his character is just a super positive character who's just curious about things. He asks questions all the time. He doesn't judge. You know, I'm judgmental, I'm opinionated. Jennifer confirmed that I'm not just being, you know, I mean, that's my nature. She doesn't want to do it, but it's true. Um, I'm super opinionated, and it's it's unnatural for me to not be opinionated. Okay, so here's a question, right? Opinionated people. We've all talked to opinionated people. My dad was very opinionated, shocking. Um and have you heard things coming from opinionated people that you kind of scratch your head and go, I don't wonder if that's true. You know, growing up, there they were all kind of stuff, especially on the playground. They were like, all right, this is true, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm not talking about rumors, I'm talking about facts of life kind of thing. Did you ever hear of the the thing that dogs' mouths are cleaner than humans' mouths?

SPEAKER_05 9:56

Yeah, heard that.

SPEAKER_06 9:57

Have you heard that, right? Now, think about that. Fact or fiction. Are dogs' mouths cleaner than humans? Look at him. He's so cute!

unknown 10:11

Ah!

SPEAKER_06 10:12

No! But what about how oh come on? You don't just want to get a nice healthy kiss from that guy. So, no. Just no. And if you look, if you look it up, if you do some studies on it, are they cleaner? No, they're not cleaner than humans. Uh they're different kinds of bacteria. There's a big study on it. It actually came from ancient Egypt and Greece, where they'd watch dogs who that had wounds, they'd lick their wounds and it would heal. And so they're like, huh. And so they literally started using dog saliva on human wounds.

SPEAKER_07 10:47

Oh wow. Oh goodness.

SPEAKER_06 10:49

Yeah, we don't want to that didn't notice it is not part of our routine. Oh, let me help you. You know, you think about the remember the leeches thing? Yeah. You got mental health issues, throw a leech on them. Like, no. Um, but but those opinions are pretty much everywhere. Um let me just see where I am. All right, here's a question. Does hot water freeze faster than cold water? Yes. How many people have heard that? I've heard it. You've heard it before, right? Is it true? Yes. How many raise your hand if you think no?

SPEAKER_07 11:26

Oh no.

SPEAKER_06 11:28

Raise your hand if you think yes. And I hate doing this when I'm in the audience and I'm wrong. So the the real answer is in some circumstances, yes. It's the MAPIBA effect, I'll never pronounce it correctly. But in some instances, hot water will freeze faster. And the reason is because once the temperature plunge starts, it goes faster if it's coming from a higher temperature. Crazy, huh? So some opinions are right, some opinions are wrong. Um, what other rumors or sayings have you heard that are downright untrue? Can you think of any? I know there's a yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:11

If you cross your eyes, you're gonna stay that way.

SPEAKER_06 12:15

And when my kids were growing up, Ricky's my son over there, so I keep up. Um rumors that I heard is if you crack your knuckles, it would cause arthritis. It would cause arthritis. And my kids used to crack their knuckles. Now, it drove me crazy because I'm like psycho, and any noises like that are like, shut up. But but um, and so I would say it's gonna, it's it can't be good, it can't be good. And then Ricky came up, one of you guys came up with a study that said No, we called your brother Paul. Oh, that's right. My brother, who's a doctor. And osteopath, so he studies bones and and that kind of stuff. And he's like, Nope, they did studies on it, and it doesn't do any bad at all. So crazy, right?

SPEAKER_08 12:58

Right.

SPEAKER_06 12:59

Um, what else? Any others? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:02

When you can't sleep, they say that you can start counting gold or counting sheep.

SPEAKER_06 13:08

Counting sheep. Alright, yeah, especially now if you're a sheep if you're a sheep herder, you'll be like, you'll wake up and you'll look and make sure all your sheep are there. Uh so there are many things that are like that. Um sometimes true, sometimes not true. But we gotta we gotta stay curious. And here's a proverb, it says spouting off before listening to the facts is both shameful and foolish. So that response that I told you I default to the I know exactly what's going on here, and I go blah. But if I don't know the facts, my kids make me look stupid. Um obviously I'm exaggerating to make the point, but yeah, I mean, we have to listen. Uh, do you see someone who speaks in haste? There's more hope for a fool than for them. Um don't be that guy. Nobody likes that guy. Um we need to just stay curious. Uh Proverbs 19.20, and this is if there's any theme scripture for this message, it's this get all the advice and instruction you can so that you will be wise for the rest of your life. Um I love that. That's an NLT version. Um But the question is does this mean we should listen to all the advice we're given? Because I don't know about you, but that I have a lot of people in my life who love to give me advice. They'd be like, oh, I know what you need to do, you need to do this. Should we listen to all the advice we're given? Why or why not?

SPEAKER_03 14:48

Well, depends on what you mean by listening. Um follow all the advice, not necessarily. I I like to listen to all the input, and then I you know pray about it or you know use discernment in other ways to kind of ferret out what works or what's normal or right and what's just you know cogwash. But I listen to people, even if they come to me with something that doesn't make sense, yeah. I I try to stay curious.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

Yeah. Alan, when when someone who don't have keys, we'll have to give you advice on how to raise your keys.

SPEAKER_06 15:25

Yeah, there's a lot of that going around in there. Oscar, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

I agree. I think it depends on the person that's giving you the advice. Sure. Because sometimes if after the first paragraph they want to start giving me advice, um I I tend to not pay any attention. They don't really know the whole story. And I and people who don't ask follow-up questions. It depends on you.

unknown 15:48

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:01

Everyone wants to explain that. But like maybe you were in the same predicament as I was, but I might put it indifferently.

SPEAKER_06 16:10

Okay. Yeah, there was one time I was having a digestive problem. And I I went to a chiropractor, and the chiropractor said, Well, this is the problem that you have. It's a you know, it's it's something with this this valve in your stomach, blah blah blah blah. And so I call my doctor, and and by the way, that of course came with an adjustment. And so, and my and my doctor, uh, my brother who's a doctor, I called him and I'm like, hey, what do you think of this? I'm having this. And he goes, Well, because he's a bone doctor as well. But the the interesting thing about an osteopath is they do two extra years of training to know bones and and spinal manipulation. They do all that, which is something that an MD does not do. Uh, but what he said is, you know, sometimes when the only tool when the only uh tool in your toolbox is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.

SPEAKER_07 17:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 17:00

Right? So, and and this this is not a slam on the doctor who gave me the advice. Actually, he was right in what he was doing, but uh that one stuck out to me. If the only thing, if the only tool you have, everything looks like a nail. If it's a hammer, sorry. Um so where should we get our advice? Warning. Trick question for church people. Old people, evidently. Old people, all right. Well, I know some old people who aren't wise. These are the some of these things, like, you know, you read the Proverbs and it's like um uh gray hair is achieved by a righteous life. And I knew some gray haired dudes that were unrighteous, so I was like, what's up with that? Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:48

Various sources.

SPEAKER_06 17:49

Various sources, okay.

SPEAKER_04 17:50

Yeah. I think one is scripture, but two is also spiritually mature people.

SPEAKER_06 17:57

Spiritual people, okay, yeah. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 18:00

I mean, I I would go to somebody who's uh an expert in their field. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 18:05

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you need advice on how to remodel your kitchen, yeah, you don't ask um, you know, somebody who is a computer scientist. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05 18:16

Right, right. Yeah. I'd say people too who the fruit of your life would be what you're looking to do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 18:24

Sure, yeah. So let's review. Okay, so before, like in May, we had Elias DeLoe. Yeah. Elias DeLowe came and talked about this concept of let's see where I am. Just give me a second. We talked about how a lot of times we get this view of the church. And, you know, the old the you know, kind of old school view is well, you got God and you got the church, then the world's over here. And we kind of stay away from those people in the world because they'll corrupt us and they'll mess us up, and we don't want to, you know, we we're not gonna have anything to do with them. And then you've got the, well, okay, the scriptures do teach that, you know, though you're not of the world, you still need to be in the world. So, okay, we can be a part of the world, but we are the bridge to bring people to God. You know, the you got God and then us and then the world. And so when when, you know, when the world needs to come to God, we're gonna be the warriors who do all the work and we we will take God to the world. That's kind of our job, right? Well, Ephesians 4, 6 talks about God is one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. So it puts God in a different realm. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And so we we looked at this model as being probably more accurate. Now, personally, I look at that little circle that God's in that encompasses us, that circle is gargantuan.

SPEAKER_07 20:04

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 20:04

And we're this teeny little part of it, but the cross is always the center. And the church and the world is there, and you know, we talked about God's mission as a church. It isn't that the church has a mission for God, it's the church is part of God's plan. And so we came up with what is God up to, right? That was that was kind of the thing. Like, what is God up to here? And how do we partner with that? So just a little bit of a review there. Um, okay, and how what does that have to do with what we're doing? What does it have to do with being better together, being a good listener, getting advice? Too many of us get trapped in narrow-minded thinking. I know, because I'm one of them, and I know a lot of people, and that's just how humans are. Too many of us can think that only Christian input can provide the direction for our lives. I was one of those people. I would counseling to me was this is years back, but counseling to me was like, huh. And some of it was justified. In other words, some there's some counseling out there that is so against biblical principles. So I took that and I said, Counseling is bad, all counseling is bad, all counseling is bad. And what happened is I missed out on things that were going to change my relationship with God, change my relationship with my wife, and change my relationship with my family and all of you. Uh, I had to open my mind up to that. Um, and again, I think this was the church's culture back in the day. Anyone who's been around for a while, we had this mindset of only Christian input, only we even had our own songbook, oh we choose to like it was crazy some of the stuff that we used to do. Now we don't do That anymore, and this this church I think is exemplary, correct word? Exemplary in avoiding that kind of stuff and really trying to correct those kinds of things. And so I'm honored to be a part of that. Because I think that if we think other than this, we put God in a box. And we say, God can only do here. God can only work here. And only if we initiate. And God is doing crazy other things, just like he did in all of our lives before we even knew anything about the scriptures. He's doing all this stuff to try and get our attention. I wanted to read a letter. Let's see how I'm doing here. So this is kind of my life in 2019 and on. So in 2019, our youngest daughter got unexpectedly pregnant. She had nowhere to go, so we offered to support her while she had the baby. She was working at the Great Wolf Lodge and Water Park when COVID hit. We got COVID in March of 2020, and we were the only people we knew that had COVID. So at one point we thought we were gonna die. Because that's all we knew. Lots and lots of people were dying, so we were like, okay, we're done. And Jen was like, I'm ready. But we survived. She gave birth to our precious granddaughter, Kat uh Cassidy, in May of 2020. We have a small house, and Jennifer and I were working from home while Jill had Cassidy at home. If anyone knows me, you'll know that I don't do well with crying babies and chaos in general. Chalk it up to PSD, my own mental health issues. But either way, my house was not a place of peace for me, and I began to be negative. At the same time, I was at a job that had started in 2018 where I was on support calls for the entire day. It may have been the most stressful job I've had in my career. I'm not sure I've had many stressful jobs.

SPEAKER_08 24:14

Cisco.

SPEAKER_06 24:15

I took, yeah, Cisco was pretty bad too. I took that job because during the interview I was promised that after learning the ropes, I would be only on the phone for about half the day and learning and training others for the other half. I thought it was a great opportunity. This never came to pass as the company never hired the people they needed to make that happen. They said they were going to hire, and I was I would and instead I was on the phone eight plus hours a day, and the workload was incredible. At home and work, I felt a pattern of resentment and negativity. In 2021, I started getting counseling for the issue I was having at home. That was helpful, but I still felt a sense of betrayal at work. And it would come out in just about every situation I was in with my managers and co-workers. Interestingly, I had the highest numbers of my entire team. I was very good at de-escalating tough situations, being a liaison among support, analytics, networking, and IT, but my negativity was always there. I should probably note that just about everybody on the team was negative at that point. It was a kind of a misery loves company situation, but that was my situation. At some point in 2021, there was a management change. And I started reporting to a 30-year-old woman I will refer to as Lisa. Mind you, I was 55, 56, something like that at the time. This poor woman had no idea what she walked into. I was very angry at that point, feeling like I had been lied to about my position and even being resentful for my co-workers for not being as productive as I was. Any work that they didn't do fell on me. So I was angry. I was an angry elf. It's important to note that that whole time with my relationship with God, I was praying to break out of the negativity. It's not like I didn't realize I was stuck in it, I just felt like I couldn't break out of it. During my first annual review, Lisa was brutally honest with me about how my negativity was hurting what she called my brand. She basically commended me for my numbers, highlighted and highlighted how sad it was that my negativity was overshadowing that. And it would leave people feeling like I was not safe. I'd love to tell you that I was devastated and immediately turned things around and became the most positive person in the company, but that didn't happen right away. What it did do, however, is shake my belief system. Here I was, a Christian, and the other people I work with saw me as unsafe and volatile at times. That is not a dichotomy that you want to have as a person who claims to follow Christ. I decided that in spite of this woman being 15 plus years younger than me, that I would invite her into my life. I was pretty open with her about what I was feeling, and that I really didn't want to be this way. I shared that my current attitudes and behaviors went against my core belief system, and I really wanted to be positive and I wanted to be to be a healthy influence to the people around me. She recommended a book called The Energy Bus. If you're struggling with negativity, read it. Great book. It was about a bus driver who did nothing but think positive and uh give positive things for their c for the people on the bus to think about. Honestly, it was kind of a silly story, but I was so desperate to make the change, it really hit the mark. Slowly I put into practice the concepts of the book, very biblical concepts. Study it out. God wants us to be positive. After a while, everyone at work started to notice. Not only was I the top performer in our group, but now I was starting to be positive, encouraging, and being someone that people could trust. Wasn't long after that that I was promoted to a senior position. I was given a lot of praise and recognition. That always happens. You go. The interesting thing was that my workload had not changed. My situation at home had not changed, by any account. But I had, by any account, I had one of the most stressful lives of anyone I knew. The difference was my mindset. And the only reason my mind changed is that I was open to input from counseling and from Jane. Someone who is not part of any church, but I fully believe God put her in my life to help pull me out of my mess. It wasn't long after that, an opportunity arose at Berkeley College of Music, and I was able to talk uh a little bit about this in my interview, and I ended up getting the job despite being not nearly as qualified as the other applicants. Uh it was an incredible gift from God. I've been at Berkeley for three and a half years now, and in my annual review last month, I got an outstanding rating. Yes, a lot of this had to do with my job performance, and a lot, but a lot of it also had to do with the positivity and general spirit of collaboration that I try to foster in my position. It's almost foreign for me to talk about this because it's so opposite of where I was in 2019. But God is funny like that. He's constantly trying to get our attention to help us follow him more closely. And after receiving this outstanding review, I felt called to reach out to Lisa and thank her for helping me through those tough days. I'm gonna read our email exchange. Everybody okay? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know I'm going on and on a little bit here. I know, okay. And I'm still looking close. Okay. Um hi Lisa, I hope things are well with you and your family. I wanted to send you a quick note to say thank you for how much you helped me uh through my dark days at Whole Logic. I was at a pretty low point when you came on board, and your challenges, think about your brand and your recommendations, the energy bus book, significantly impacted my thinking and changed the way I looked at my career and life. As you know, I'm a spiritual man and I believe very much in divine intervention. My prayers at the time were to help uh were for help to break out of the negative cycle I was stuck in. And I silly believe God used you to answer these prayers. It wasn't easy, as a matter of fact, it was very uncomfortable at times facing the amount of negative chatter I had let reside in my brain and soul. But your encouragement and belief in me helped me to fight through it and make the changes I needed to reverse that cycle. I just got an outstanding review here at Berkeley, which I've only gotten one time in my 30 plus years career. I truly believe I wouldn't be here if you had not challenged me the way you did and believed in me through the process. The church we started out here in my area is thriving, and the things I've learned and put I'm sorry, and the things I learned and put into practice in holologic days were very biblical and has made me a much better leader for the people in the church as well. So you guys owe gratitude to uh what did I call her? Jane. Uh Lisa. I'm hiding her identity. Um not very well. I haven't said her name yet, so that's good. Uh I know that management can feel like a thankless job. And so often the only feedback you get is negative. Well, here's one huge positive for you. Thank you for what you did to me, and more importantly, for who you are. And uh you know, would love to catch up by saying that, blah blah blah. Lysenta. Week and a half pass. I get a response. Rich Evans exclamation. I have to tell you, it was a delight, underlined underlined, to hear from you this week. I am incredibly thank you for your message, so uplifting. I'm not being dramatic, you brought tears to my eyes. I'm so glad you're thriving. And your church as well. Incredible. I was reflecting on this the other day. As a leader, there's always an awareness of the weight of one's words. How how I'm sorry, how what you say and and how you say it will be analyzed, discussed over family dinner, and may quickly turn into it into a gift or a curse, an encouragement or source of fear. There's such a great responsibility to be mindful of. What I was considering is how much more in a spiritual leadership capacity where one's words might be taken as inspired by God. A blessing, an opportunity to grow, a sacred duty. With that said, I'm humbled if I have been able to be a blessing to someone like you in any way. I need a drink. Remember, he said drink water and you won't cry. Um I have one right there, I'm sure. Yeah, I'll take that because I'm gonna lose it.

SPEAKER_07 32:57

This is it.

SPEAKER_06 33:00

Thank you. With that said, I'm humbled if I've been able to be a blessing to someone like you in any way, and thank you that you have given me that now as well. Um interesting. Next week is my five-year anniversary at the company. Uh, we're in the middle of a major change. My scope of work and team size has increased dramatically. We've moved into a different part of the organization, and most significantly, Whole Logic was sold to a private equity and is the middle of everything that comes with that. And that's a scary time if you've ever been in a company. I've been considering what the right path is for me. I've been chewing on the concept that my vocation is leadership, but having doubts about myself and my path. Your message feels almost like a sign that I should continue.

SPEAKER_07 33:47

Wow.

SPEAKER_06 33:52

That I can have an impact and be a tool for goodness, even with my many imperfections. I wanted to share that with you so you understand how meaningful your email was to me. And in that spirit, I want to stay in touch, personal email, blah, blah, blah. So you get the point. Here's this woman, not a part of any churches that I'm aware. Matter of fact, I've I've talked with her. She's had a really tough um go at it spiritually. Uh right, and right now is you know, not interested, I don't think, in any type of church or anything like that. Um, but God worked through her. Helped change my life. And and you know, since then there's been many more things. And the good news is I've arrived. What is she laughing for? And Ricky's in the room too, so Ricky knows exactly how. Yes, I have grown in these areas, but there are so many other areas that I need to grow in. There are so many things, and and the only thing I know how to do is hold on to his grace and see the victories in this area and know that someday maybe this will happen as well. Um He's constantly working to get our attention.

SPEAKER_03 35:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 35:14

Not for harm, but for good. A rebuke from a boss doesn't feel good. Especially if you're a man like me who put so much weight in my career, my performance, didn't feel good at all. Get all the advice you can and instruction you can so that you will be wise for the rest of your life. Hard to do. Honor Christ by submitting to each other. I believe in that situation, that was an honor to Christ. Because here's this woman, 15 years my junior, if you will. And I if you if you've ever managed people, it's rare when somebody does that. When somebody actually submits to you, listens to you, and turns their situation around. I credit God. That's all I can do, is just credit God because that's who he made me. Um, that's how he made me as a Christian to do that. As we think about, you know, I don't even know what my slides say at this point. As we think about Jesus, think about Philippians 2. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Jesus Christ, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. And he could have. He could have. Rather, he made himself nothing. Taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found as a man, he, in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. You know, we have that. Um, where's the thing?

unknown 37:06

Ah!

SPEAKER_06 37:07

There it is. The cross is always at the center of this. If we if we are truly trying to find out who God is and what he's doing. Um questions. How's God trying to get your attention right now? Are you truly open to accepting help from others, from anyone God sends in your life? Is it hard for you to believe that God's plan to use people? Is it hard for you to believe that God's plan is to use people and circumstance outside of your the Christian community? These are challenging things to think about, but I truly believe if we let God be God, get him out of the box. He'll use anyone and anything to help us become what he wants us to become. At this time we're gonna pray for uh communion, we'll share communion together. But I guess I want to just remind us of this scripture. Honor Christ by submitting to one another. That's not just for the Christians in the room, that's for anyone. We're to submit, we're to submit our lives before Him and before each other. Let's go to God and pray. Father, thank you so much for who you are. Thank you that you can't be put in a box. Uh help us to break out of that thinking. Help us to remember that Jesus had no box. In his day, he went into a religiously tight society and smashed it open, and that's why they killed him. Um and that's why we killed them, because we don't like that by our nature. Father, help us as Christians to submit our lives to you, to um appreciate the sacrifice that Jesus made, to appreciate his example, and to live the same way. We love you, we thank you, and it is in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.