Beyond - Live Differently

In this message we talk briefly about the "perfect donut," AND...we look at the Apostle Peter's charge to share Christ THROUGH the way we choose to live our lives. Peter teaches us that one of the most important and effective ways to share the Gospel is by choosing to LIVE OUT the Gospel out in our everyday lives. Also in this message we're invited to reflect on who God has already placed in our lives that we can share Christ with and encourages us to be praying for them. 

For more info about RPYA check us out on Instagram @rpyoungadults or at our landing page on rockypeak.org

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello everyone. My name is Addison, and I'm going to be doing our scripture reading this evening. We're going to be in the book of First Peter, chapter two. It's pretty far back in your Bibles, almost at the end. We're going to be at verses 9 through 12. First Peter chapter 2, verses 9 through 12. That says, But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, in God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

That was wonderful. Hey, RPYA, it's good to be with you once again. And those of you that are joining us for the very first time or for the first time in a while, welcome to RPYA. Always like to take a few moments to let you know what you've gotten yourself into. RPYA stands for Rocky Peak Young Adults. We are the ministry for 18 to 25 year olds here at the church at Rocky Peak. And the reason why we exist is that we believe that God wants to use your generation to change not just the world around you, but generations to come. And so a primary way that we partner with God in that are these Sunday nights. We believe that these are a place for encounter for real people, not idealized, fantasy, seemingly perfect people, but real people. To be able to get to come and encounter a very real Jesus. And it's in real encounter that we believe that Jesus unleashes a movement of passionate Christ followers. And so again, I'm really, really glad you're here. Especially if you're here for the first time. If we haven't had a chance to meet, I'd love to meet you afterwards and just say hi. And I've been saying this the last couple weeks because we are in adult ministry, meaning you get to choose to be here or not. Some of you get to come with a group of friends, which is awesome. But there are some of you that come by yourselves, and those of you are my heroes. Because it's not always easy to walk into a room where seemingly everybody knows what to do, where the bathrooms are, how this all works, and you're kind of trying to break into it. And so I love that you've made that effort to be able to come and do this. And so if we haven't met yet, my name is Dream, the young adult pastor here at Rocky Peak. And I want to kick things off as I usually do by praying for us, but I want to go ahead and I want to pray for us a little bit differently. I want to pray for us, and I want to invite you to pray with me by using the words that Jesus Himself taught us in Matthew chapter six. So if you would, let me invite you all to stand together. And so we're gonna get to say this out loud. There's something beautiful and powerful about the people of God saying the word of God out loud. And so there's two slides of this. All you gotta do is follow along with me on the count of three. Here we go. One, two, three. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Let's stay standing as I pray over us. King Jesus, thank you that in the words you taught us to pray, the beginning statement is one of the most beautiful truths of all time. That because of what you have done, because of your death and resurrection, we get to call God what you call God, Father. Because of what you have done, King Jesus, we get to have intimacy. We get to be known, and we get to know who God really is, and that changes everything. And so in a room this size, we're all over the place on the spiritual spectrum. There are some of us that have known you for a long time. We've encountered you, we believe in you deeply. There are some of us that maybe we knew you at one point in our lives, but maybe we fell away or we got numb, let circumstances of life just kind of this whirlwind took off. There are some of us that maybe we're exploring, or maybe we're like, I think you all are wildly crazy. Wherever we're at, I'm grateful that everyone is here. And I'm grateful that you are here, Jesus. And so we ask that you would not let us leave the same way that we came in. And as we open up your word, which is living and active, as a communicator, I pray that I would become much, much less, and that you, King Jesus, would become much, much more. It's in your name. We all said, Amen. You can go ahead and grab a seat. And as you sit down, make sure you grab one of those note sheets and pens. That's gonna help you follow along with this time. So I want to start off by asking you a question. I want you to think about in your life what is one of your favorite experiences? What is one of your favorite experiences that you've had in life that was so good you just had to tell other people about it? It was so good that it motivated you. I have to tell other people how good this could be. Now that's a very, very broad question. It could be something in terms of media, a movie that you watch, a show that you watch, a book that you read, an epic song or an album that you heard. It could be a trip that you took, a destination that you experienced. It could be a roller coaster that you conquered. It could be that you met someone. I met that person at LAX in the airport, or I got that autograph, or I got that picture. It could be a food item you ate. There's a lot about food that is life-changing, that God blesses us through that. But think about that question: what's one of your favorite experiences you've had in life that you're like, I have to tell other people how awesome this is? And so for me, most of my life is dominated by food. I adore food and I adore eating. Most of my thoughts are when am I gonna get to eat again? Now, several years ago, I had a little bit of a health crisis, and that changed how I eat to this day. But before that crisis happened, my love language of food was donuts. I love donuts. Are they any of the fellow donut people out there? And I was always on the search for what I would call the perfect donut. And several years ago, I would say that I found it. In the city of Azusa, so let's say like 45 minutes away from us, there is a little shack called the Donut Man. And I was out in Azusa visiting APU, the college out there, and somebody had said, go to the donut man and try the strawberry donut. I didn't really know what to expect, but as we got to the donut man, there was a line about a block long. And mind you, this was 10 p.m. on a Friday. There was a line about a block long, and I'm like, okay. And as we waited in line, we got up and there's no place to sit. It's just a very simple counter with glass where you get to see in. And I looked in and I saw these beauties. And this is what's called the strawberry donut. And so it's this open-faced sandwich of fresh-baked glazed donuts. They take whole strawberries, and of course, we can't let anything be healthy. And so they smother it in this like house-made sugar sauce and just give them to you. If you've ever wondered what diabetes looks like, it is this. You will eat it and your foot will fall off, but it will be worth it. And so when I experienced this for like a month, I couldn't stop talking about it. I wanted to write songs and poems about the donut man. I was texting people. Have you ever heard about this? I was working it into every message and preaching that I was doing. It had nothing to do with what I was talking about. But people needed to know. I felt a responsibility to tell others because this was going to change your life. So that's what I mean when I say, have you ever had an experience that you're like, I gotta tell other people. I can't shut up about it. Take 10 seconds, turn to somebody around you, invite somebody around you. What's one of those experiences for you? Go. Alright, we're gonna jump back in. I'm gonna jump back in. How many of you, your answer was food-based? The first thing that came to mind was food-based. Thank you, Melanie. All right, a couple of us. How many of you it was meeting someone? It was like having an encounter, you met someone. How many of you was a trip of some kind? You went somewhere, you experienced it. Any like theme park people? Any people that like, oh, in the back, any it's a FIA over there. How many of you, it was like a movie or something like that, that you had to kind of music? Anybody with music? You heard that album, or like your Spotify burned down, something along those lines. So the reason why I start this way is because it kind of builds an emotional connection to the topic on the table this evening. Over the last several weeks, as we've been going through Peter's letter, we talked about this in week one, that Peter begins by talking about salvation. And as we're gonna be reminded this evening, salvation is not a moment that starts our journey and then we move on. But salvation is the foundation that we now build the rest of our lives around. And as Peter continues to expand on this point, if salvation is everything that the Bible says it is, that means that salvation changes everything. Literally, salvation changes everything. Salvation only found in Jesus is the greatest thing that has ever happened to us currently, as well as for our eternities. And as we look at our passage this evening, what we get to see is because salvation is everything that the Bible describes it to be, we now get to share that gift with other people. We now get to tell people that salvation is not limited or contained just to me or you, but salvation is a gift that the great gift giver wants to give to the people around us in our lives. And that's what we get to unpack. And for those of you here for the first time, a few weeks ago when we kicked off our summer, we started the series you see on the screens called Beyond the Yearbook. And the cute premise behind it is we think of this idea of yearbook photos. Yearbook photos capture a moment in time, a moment in your life, right? But what if that moment is not a pleasant one? What if that yearbook photo is not a good one? Does that mean that we're now trapped in that moment for the rest of our lives? And we're doing this by studying the life of the Apostle Peter. Now, when Peter was one of the 12 disciples of Jesus, if there were yearbook photos or year or senior rewards, Peter would have gotten least likely to succeed. Because just read Peter's life. He was bold, he was arrogant, he talked out of turn, he tried to put Jesus in his place more than once. And Jesus saw everything that Peter was, and yet he still saw beyond that moment. He invited Peter to live in more, what's called transformation. And the reason why we're doing this is because it's the same invitation for you and me. That Jesus sees everything you are. He sees all the good, but he also sees the limitations, the sins, the temptation, and the messiness. And he invites you to live in something more beyond your yearbook photo. And so we've been on a journey through the letter of 1 Peter. We're following a much older, a much wiser, and a much more humble Peter. And I don't say this with any level of facetiousness. Peter is our older brother. And so, as an older brother, he's inviting us through his letter to understand here's what I've learned about what it really means to walk with Jesus. And so as we continue with that series, I want us to go ahead and go back to that passage that Addie read over us. So you've got your Bibles, open them up. You've got your abstract among. If you go to 1 Peter chapter 2, and as I mentioned in my intro, there at the top of your note sheet, if you know those long-running TV shows that do the recaps at the beginning, like previously in Lost or something like that. And so if you look at the top of your note sheet previously in the series, previously in Beyond the Year book, we started by saying that living beyond is built upon salvation. Salvation is not a moment that we ever get over or move on from. Nowhere in the New Testament do you ever see them move on from salvation. But they constantly are going back to the fact that this is our foundation. This is what we build our lives and our eternity around. And so Peter in this passage is saying, so take salvation and go and tell other people. And so as a church, we exist, the Church of Rocky Peak exists, to be able to unleash a movement of passionate Christ followers that are pursuing God, that are loving people, that are serving sacrificially, and the fourth marker that are sharing Christ with others. And so in those four verses, Peter beautifully actually gives us four truths about what does it mean to actually share Christ with people around us. And so it starts as we go back to verse 9. Peter says, but you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. And so let me emphasize the word declare. That is sharing Christ. In church circles, if you want to use a very fancy church word, it would be called evangelism. This is telling other people about the gospel, the reality, that Jesus is King, Jesus is real, Jesus forgives us of our sins, Jesus gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit, Jesus marks us for the rest of eternity, and Jesus unleashes us to spread the good news to people around us. But do you notice something? Do you notice that Peter is answering the why we share Christ? We don't share Christ out of obligation. We don't share Christ to meet a quota of some kind. We don't have to. We get to, because as Peter talks about sharing Christ, he begins by reaffirming our identity in Jesus. Because look what comes before Declair. He's saying that you, if you have given your life to Jesus, this is who you are. You are now a chosen people. You are now a royal priesthood. You are now a holy nation. And I love this. You are God's special possession. This is in this moment how God sees you. This is how He thinks of you. Yes, we have flaws. Yes, we have limitations. Yes, we have temptations. Yes, we have failures. But when you read the New Testament, the second half of the Bible, what is absolutely beautiful to me is never our identity associated with being sinners. Because that's who we used to be. We're imperfect. But this is who we now are. And so this is the foundation of what it means that you share Christ. And there in your note sheet, you've got the first of these four statements. Your first fill-in is this. Sharing Christ is the overflow of our new identity. Sharing Christ is the overflow of our new identity. We started this series several weeks ago by looking at when Jesus names this disciple Simon, and he renames him into Peter. And that wasn't simply a symbolic naming, that was a literal transformation that this is who I see you becoming. This is what I envision for your life. And in fact, I'm kind of combining some things we normally do. If you notice there's a bullet point underneath that, that says neon lights. Neon lights for me. If you don't remember anything else I'd say in this message, remember this one thing, this one point, that sharing Christ is an overflow of who we now are, of who God sees us to be. Man, we live in a world that is formed and lied to us, and saying that if you want to have any type of identity of value, you better earn it. You better outvalue other people. You better show why you're worthy of it. And so this identity is a gift. It's our starting point. This is how God sees us now. And from that foundation, he wants to build and grow us. And so he goes on in verse 10. Look what he says, once you were not a people. In other words, you were dead. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. This is the gospel that because of our sin, we were separated from a beautiful, loving God the Father. There was nothing you or I or anybody else in this earthly world could do to fix or solve our sin problem. Nothing could bridge that chasm. The only thing that could do it is Jesus. That is why, for God so loved the world, he gave his one and only son, so that whoever believes in him shall not die, but have eternal life. And so again, this is our starting point to be a chosen people, to be a holy pre a royal priesthood, to be God's special possession is not the advanced master's degree class that we earn after 20 years of faithful living. It is the gift of God in how we start our journey. In fact, when we started the series a few weeks ago, I went to this quote by author and speaker, Megan Fate Marshman, and she said, This grace is not just getting what you don't deserve. Grace is getting abundantly what you could never deserve. That's who we now are. We are swimming in something we didn't just not deserve. We could have never deserved it. And that's how much God loves us. And so what Peter is saying is we get to live in that, and we get to share that with other people. How many people in our world, in our family, at our Starbucks, at school, at work need this truth? We have it. And we get to share that with other people. We get to point them to the gift together. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful life. And but before we move on, I I want to say something. If you would allow me, I want to say something in my father voice. I'm not your dad, I'm not trying to be your dad, but I get to speak as a dad. And that's one of the gifts of getting to be a part of this ministry with you. There are many of you here, and especially those of you that have walked with Christ for a while, that you don't believe this. Because it sounds too good to be true. You're like, I can't, I have to earn it. No, no, not me with the things I've done, with the hurts I've experienced. This is not true of me. And so putting on my dad voice, it is true of you. This is how God sees you. And so before I move on, can you just, with your eyes open and your eyes closed, as you look at the verse, would you just take a few moments and would you just pray to the Holy Spirit and say, Holy Spirit, would you help me believe this? And would you help me live in this? Amen. She goes on, verse 11, dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. And so there's actually a lot in this statement, but in particular, there's a lot in that designation of foreigners and exiles. And so one of the intents of why we do Sunday nights is we want to equip you to be good Bible students. Good Bible students just ask a lot of fundamental questions. One of the most important things that we need to ask is how was this understood by the original audience? As a quick sidebar, being a good Bible student is not trying to take the words of the Bible and cram it into modern day. Being a good Bible student is understanding that the Bible was written to a very different world. And it becomes bigger and comes to life when we start understanding what that world is all about. And so this was actually known phrases. And so from a local standpoint, this was being written as they were living in the Roman Empire. And so how social statuses and classes worked in the Roman Empire was that you had what was called Roman citizens and you had everyone else. And everyone else was pretty much a foreigner and an exile. And here's the big deal. Being a Roman citizen was the goal for multiple people because it was the path to power. It was the path to the elite. It gave you rights, it gave you privileges that most people didn't have. But ultimately, to be a Roman citizen meant that you belonged, meant that you were sitting at the right table in the cafeteria, meant that you had the right. Connections and the right friends, and it did, in a sense, communicate you are better than other people. In the ancient world, at the time of the Bible being written, this was the goal that most people had I want to be a Roman citizen. And so the original audience of Peter's letters, they knew what it was like to be foreigners and exiles, but now it's getting bigger. He's saying that as Christ's followers, we no longer belong in this world. Full stop. We're foreigners and exiles in the world we live in. And to be honest, we now live in a tension. If you've ever heard the phrase that as Christ's followers, we are in this world, but we are not of this world. And that is a true statement, but that brings tension with it, because we once belonged to this world. We once had the same goals. Like if the goal of the ancient world was to be a Roman citizen, then we had the same goals. And often our goals was to play the game the way the world plays it, was to value what the world values, was to do what the world does. But we are now fundamentally different. Think of it this way: have you ever gotten the opportunity to go back to your elementary school? And it's interesting when you walk through your elementary school, there's memories, there's things that kind of like come back and make you smile. But when you look at things like how small the desks are, when you look at things like the certain like where classroom placements are, have you realized I remember that I once fit here, but clearly I don't anymore. This is not where I'm supposed to be anymore. That's the statement that Peter is making about the Christ follower. We are in this world, but we don't belong to this world anymore because we live in a radically different reality, which is the reality of the kingdom. And he goes on to say this. Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners like this, to abstain from sinful desires. How does the world work? Sin is normal. Sin is normal. Think about how you thought and how you lived before Christ. Sin is normal. It's everywhere. Sin is the most mass-marketed product on earth. Sin is normal. And so, in a way, why would we pursue anything different? Because it's just what's normal to us. There's like this philosophical question: does a fish know that it lives in water? And the answer is no. Why would it? Because it's all it's ever known. For us in the world, all we ever have known is sin until Jesus opens our eyes to not only another reality, but he opens our eyes to what sin is. What Peter says sin is waging war against our soul. And we often love to justify sin. It was just a lie, it was just one look at porn on the computer, it was just one this. It could be worse. I could be murdering people, I could be doing this, I could be doing that. But remember, sin is the weapon of the enemy, and John 10:10 tells us the enemy has one goal: steal, kill, and destroy. That's it. The enemy is not looking to slightly hurt you. The enemy is not looking to slowly knock you off track. The enemy is looking to steal, kill, and destroy what God adores, which is you, his children. And he does that through sin. And so what we get to share is that we get to share there's another way. There's another way. And he goes on, verse 12. Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits. And do you catch something? Do you notice that his emphasis is not our words? Do you notice he doesn't say, hey, prepare your answer? For when people ask you, is Jesus real? Hey, prepare, prepare your answer for what the gospel is. Like, do you do you have it down to like four statements? And are you ready to deliver it? And I I want to and I want to say something on that. Words matter. Words are deeply important. Words can be life-changing. But the impact of words is only found when they're backed by a life. And so that leads me to the second villain. That sharing Christ starts with a lifestyle, not words. You can hear me. Words matter. If you walk out of this place going, man, Dre says that our words don't matter in how we share Christ, you have misheard me. But if our lives are not backing them up, then our words are empty. And empty words are destructive words. Empty words cause problems. Let me let me illustrate it. Have any of you ever been to Raging Waters? So when I was in sixth grade, I went to Raging Waters, and let me do a quick sidebar. I hate water parks so deeply. I hate water parks so much because you are paying money to swim in a toilet. It is disgusting and gross, and the pavement is hot and the water is cold, and you're standing in line just to go down a slide that I could have done at the park. I hate water parks. But when I was in sixth grade, I didn't know any better. And so I went with my older brother and some people to Raging Waters. And something that I used to have at Raging Waters, and I remember it was on commercials and everything, they used to have these like these common things you find at water parks, but these big drop slides, they used to call it drop out. And I remember with all the like pride and bravado I had as a sixth grader, for the month ahead of time, I was telling anybody that listened to me, I'm gonna do that. First thing I'm gonna do. I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna conquer that. And I really believed it at the time. And I kept talking about as we were driving to Sandemism, like, I'm gonna do the dropout, I'm gonna do it, man. I'm gonna conquer. It's gonna be no big deal. I believed it up until the moment I saw it in real life. And I heard somebody screaming coming down, and my brother's like, Do you wanna do it? I'm like, absolutely not. And my brother was really nice about it. He's like, Are you sure he would kind of check in different ways? You know, you talked a lot. I'm like, absolutely not. And it was his then girlfriend, now my sister-in-law, who's like, You really talked a big game, but you didn't back it up. And that was the wisdom of the Lord, because that stuck with me to be like, absolutely right. And I think a lot of the time something that holds us back in our Christian maturity and our faith is that we tend to talk a big game, but we don't back it up. And so that's why, as we see Peter's emphasis, Peter is not saying that words don't matter, they do. Peter is not saying correct terms and theology and all that don't matter. They do. But Peter is reminding us that it's our lives that add impact to the words. It's our lives that communicate something much, much louder. And here's the thing: our lives are communicating proof that God can change people. The way we live our lives is proof that what we say about transformation is true, that God can change things. And that leads me to the next film and the third point about sharing Christ that I love. Sharing Christ requires real people, not the perfect ones. Sharing Christ requires real people, but not perfect ones. Because to be honest, if you've been around church for any length of time, if you've heard messages on sharing Christ or evangelism, that there's a small percentage of you that are like gifted in this. They're like, let's go. There are some wonderful brothers and sisters and saints that have been gifted to like walk up to random people at 3rd Street Santa Monica or at a food court and just start a conversation about Jesus. And it's beautiful and it's natural and it's not weird. And then there's the rest of us that we hear this and we're like, he's not looking at me, right? Like it's not supposed to be me. And often when it comes to sharing Christ, when it comes to the fact that God is calling you as a believer to share Christ, we feel two temptations, and there's an issue. The first temptation is this I'm not qualified. It's not me, I'm I'm not qualified. And sometimes we may view that on an academic level as like, well, I don't know all the theology, I didn't know that there were 66 books in the Bible, I don't know this, I don't know where Ruth is, I don't know if I can find this. But really, a lot of times we feel uh we feel like we're not qualified because we're real people. And real people are messy. Real people are limited, real people fail and stumble at times. And here's the beautiful thing. When we actually, I'm not trying to sound snarky about this, but when we actually read the Bible, do you know what we see? God doing incredible things through really flawed people. God doing incredible things through real people. Do you know how many people in the Bible are like, God, you got the wrong person? Do you know how much Moses argued with God? Do you know how many times Gideon's like, okay, well, well, show me this or show me that. I don't know. Do you know how many people were real about this? That God showed up and said, I want to do something awesome. They're like, You got the wrong person. And here's the beautiful thing: we live in a world of real people. If we were perfect, we would not be able to connect or relate with them. And in fact, the misconception of people of faith is that they are perfect. And it's almost intimidating. People are like, I can't because I'm real. Let me illustrate it this way. I shared this illustration about a year ago when I was teaching in our weekend service with the adult. I'm I'm a lifelong comic book kid, as you can tell from my shirt. And so we know who this is, right? So, growing up reading comic books, I loved reading comic books of all kinds, except for Superman. I always had a problem with Superman. You know why? And by the way, if you love Superman, love what you love. I don't want to gatekeep your nerd him. But do you know why I didn't like Superman? Because he was perfect. Because he always knew what to do. He always knew what to say, his curl never got messed up. In fact, the greatest example of this, this is Christopher Reeve, the actor that played him in the classic like 1970s, like early 80s movies. In the very first Superman movie, Lois Lane straight up dies. And so, do you know what Superman does? He flies around the earth so fast that it turns back time. And he goes and he saves her. Even for a Superman movie, that is absurd. That is absolutely absurd. But not even death would stop him. And as a kid, I would read his comic books and go, I can't connect with him. Because part of the fun was I want to imagine that I'm one of these characters. I want to imagine that I can do this and I can't relate with perfection. So you know who my guy is? Spider-Man. Do you know why Spider-Man is my guy? Because he's got problems. Peter Parker is an orphan. Peter Parker is a nerd. He gets bullied by Flash Thompson. Peter Parker has no money. Peter Parker is gets yelled at by his by his boss over and over again. Peter Parker's late for class because he's being Spider-Man. He's failing at a school. He gets fired. He's got woman problems. And I'm reading this going, that is me. And the fun of Spider-Man stories is he's real. And yet he's more. And that's why God uses you to share Christ. Because you are around real people that need living proof that God came for real messy people. I love to look at evangelism this way. Man, if God could do this in my life, he can do this in yours. If God could save me, if God can change me, he can do this in your life. And so when he says live such good lives, do you notice what it doesn't say? Live perfect lives. As we translate this from the Greek, do you know really what this means? It means be intentional. Make intentional choices, to obey God. So the first temptation is I'm not, I'm I'm not qualified. The second temptation is honest. It can be awkward and lonely to be different. Think about our teenagers. And some of us are still in it. The loudest message we hear in our teenagers is different is bad. Don't be different. And some of us have got a defiant nature, like, oh, you can't tell me what to do, I'm gonna be different. But a lot of us were like, okay, where can I find my group where I can we can all just be the same? Where we want to be like everyone else. Different is bad. And what God is calling us to do is to live differently, is to live different lives. And it could be awkward, it can be lonely because seemingly when we look at the world around us, it feels like, well, to live a life after God, no one else is doing it. No one's really doing it online, no one's doing it in school, no one was doing it at Simi High or Granada, nobody was doing it at Chatsworth, my own parents aren't doing it. It feels like if I actually obey God, I'm gonna be the only person. It's kind of like in sports, like it's baseball season right now. It's like if you look at a sea of Dodger Blue and you find like the one Yankee fan that's in there, that's super good job, Kate. It's super, she's from New York. It's super awkward for that person, right? Because they're like, I thought there would be more of us. And sometimes the temptation is I don't want to live as an open Christian. Because it feels like no one else is. And if you think about it, think of again some of the things that God invites us to live in. Sometimes it feels like I it's hard to live in sexual purity because it feels like everybody else is sleeping with everybody. It feels like everybody, men and women, are addicted to pornography. It feels like if I didn't do it, then I would be the one that's not doing what's considered normal. It's hard when it comes to substances like pot or alcohol because like everybody's doing it. Everybody's going out and getting high, or everybody's getting drunk, and I'm the only one that's not. And again, even though we might intellectually be like, and that's a good thing, it still feels emotionally complicated. We look at something like cheating in school and we're like, everybody's doing it. Chad is writing everybody's papers, everybody's got this going on. So if I'm the only one that's not doing it, that feels awkward, that feels lonely, that feels weird, and this is kind of a bigger topic for another time. But hear me, that's why church community matters. The reason why, and hear me, again, as an older brother, church is not designed to be optional. Church is essential because we need to get together with other brothers and sisters. We need other like-minded people that are trying to do this journey together because there is something about when the saints gather, it fires us up to be able to go and live differently in the world around us. But occasionally showing up on a Sunday is never gonna give you what your heart needs. And so if Rocky Peak is your home church, dig into your home church. If Rocky Peak is not your home church, that's what I love about YA is that we've got people from all kinds of different places. If Shepherd's your home church, if Freedom's your home church, if Restore's your home church, if Cornerstone's your home church, if Calvary Westlake is your home church, wherever your home church is, get plugged in as much as you can be here on Sunday night because of what God gives you to be able to go and share Christ. For those of you that are gonna be leaving out of the area in the fall, one of the most beautiful choices you get to make is to get involved in a local church where your colleges are. A great step is most campuses have like a Christian organization, like crew or young life or something. Go there and ask them, where are you going to church? Because the beautiful thing that I often remind my kids, we're in this is like we're a public school family, is it may feel really lonely at times, but there's always more of us than you realize. There's always more of us than you realize. And think about it for some of you even walking into this place to be like, oh, okay. There's other young adults that want to follow Jesus. That's cool. So get involved in community because it takes away the awkwardness and the loneliness of pursuing Christ. And so the last thing, the last thing I want to hit before we wrap up about sharing Christ is that sharing Christ happens through living among real people. Sometimes there's this tendency in Christians to build walls in cities. And we come to Christ, and we're thankful that we came to Christ, and then we're like, and and I don't want to go back to other people. And hear me, there's healthy boundaries and there's safety. I'm not trying to completely throw the baby out with the bathwater. But do you notice that Peter is making a really important assumption that you're gonna be living lives in places where people that don't yet know Jesus can see it? Because how else are they gonna see it? And to be honest, inviting people to church is amazing. Invite people to YA, invite people to Rocky Peak, invite people to your home church. You know why I'm so adamant about that? I didn't grow up in a Christian home. I'm here because somebody invited me when I was 15. Invite people to church. But for a lot of people, the idea of going to church is gonna initially be really intimidating. And so, how are they gonna see Jesus is you is by being around you, by observing how you treat people, by observing how you treat them, by observing how you talk to them, by letting them notice hey, there's something different about you. You know, when I was 18 years old, when I was 18 and 19, I worked with a group of other young adults. We worked at an after-school program at San Fernando Middle School in the city of San Fernando. And it was a really beautiful program because most of those students in the city of San Fernando come from working class families, like I do. And so that means that mom and dad were working, so after school, if they went home, they'd be going home to empty homes. So what we did was we provided a free place for them to get to spend the next three hours where they got snacks, they got tutoring at their homework, and different young adults we led different classes like enrichment. So there was a sports class, there was a dance class, being dramatic, I led the acting one. And what would happen is we would be there for when they uh when they got out of school, but we would get there about an hour and a half beforehand and had a prep period to get our materials and stuff together. So we were in a classroom, a group of like 10 of us, young adults, getting ready for our after-school sessions. And it's quiet, we're all kind of heads down working and writing. When one of my coworkers, and it bugs me because I can't remember his name, but out of nowhere, he's like, Dre, yeah, brother, you never curse. Why is that? And everybody stopped what they were doing, they looked at me, and yo, that was awkward. It was out of the blue. And I'm kind of like, I don't know how to answer this. And let me give you some backstory. I gave my life to Jesus when I was 15 years old. I wasn't raised in church, I wasn't raised in a Christian home. And one of the many things that Jesus had to work and change in my life was actually what came out of my mouth. A lot of what came out of my mouth was incredibly sinful. It wasn't just cursing, although I was really, really good at that. What came out of my mouth could be vile, could be incredibly degrading to women, could be racist. What came out of my mouth uh would be hidden under like the masquerade of I'm just joking, I'm just kind of doing this. I learned at a young age that I was really gifted at using my words to hurt other people. And I was defensive about it. And so that was a big thing that Jesus needed to change in my life when I gave him. And I remember Matthew, I think it's Matthew chapter 15, where it says, What comes out of your mouth is a reflection of what's in your heart. And that was incredibly convicting to me. So if what comes out of my mouth is profane, that's a reflection of my heart. If what comes out of my mouth is degrading to women, that's a reflection of my heart. If what comes out of my mouth is racist, that's a reflection of what's in my heart. If what comes out of my mouth is always cynical and kind of just biting and mean to other people, that's a reflection of what's in my heart. And so something that God was really strong with me is like, we need to change the way you talk. So now we fast forward to this moment. And I'm kind of sitting here like deer in headlines, like, like, what? And he's like, You don't curse, why don't you do it? And I remember like, well, I don't want to speak for anybody. I can only speak for me. But I gave my life to Jesus a couple of years ago, and and I shared them in the Matthew scripture. I I believe that this is something like it's a reflection which's in your heart. And I just want to, I just want to give Jesus every part of me, and that includes my words and everything going in. And then it was like silent again. And he's like, huh, that's really cool. And he just goes back to working. And I'm kind of sitting there like, what just happened? Because I wasn't changing my Language to be noticed. I never thought that that was something that God would use. To me, it's like sharing Christ was always like, do you believe that Jesus died for your sins? Are you gonna go to hell? Like I always believed that it was just those things. But what God showed me in that moment was a to me, what was seemingly a small choice caught the attention of someone else. Why? Because I was around them. Because I was living my life around them. You know, another example, and some of you relate to that, if you want to understand how evil the world is, either work in food service or retail. I have friends that work at Chick-fil-A that have been hit by cars because people are mad over their chicken sandwich. Like, that's evil. That's the evil of our world. And so I love coffee, but I'm not snooty about it. So I love Starbucks. And so I'm very nice to my baristas. But in that moment, my mom raised me to say please and thank you. And over the years, I end up getting to know some of these baristas. They become some really, really good friends. And I remember once my kids were like, Dad, why do they like you so much? And I told them, like, honestly, it breaks my heart. How long am I talking with them? They're like, not that long. How what am I saying to them? Like you're saying, please, thank you. You're asking them how their day is going and everything. So to me, like basic human decency. So if that stands out with the amount of people they encounter in a given day, what does that tell you about everyone else? And I often am telling my kids, all it takes is see small everyday moments to proclaim the gospel, to love people well. And so we get to share Christ by living our lives imperfectly, but chasing after a perfect Jesus around people that don't yet believe. And the final illustration I'll give you is Megan, my wife. She's got this incredible uncle who is like one of the staunchest atheists I've ever known in my life. And atheism is a big, big bucket. Not all atheists want to eliminate uh religion from the face of the earth. There's actually a website called friendlyatheist.com, which is pretty fascinating to read. He doesn't agree with us, but he doesn't want to eliminate us either. But my wife's uncle like lives in the stereotype. He hates faith. He hates religion. He thinks anybody that believes in faith is an absolute idiot. And so when I first met him early in our marriage, he lives up in Seattle. For like days, her aunts and uncles are like, people warn you about Jeffrey? Like, don't bring up faith around Jeffrey. People warn you like multiple times. So we're having dinner at their house, and all I know is don't talk to this dude. Don't bring anything up, okay? So we have dinner, dinner ends. He's sitting in a back room, and his back room is actually my dream room because it's just covered in books. I just love that. And I felt bad because I feel like I'm kind of being antisocial. So Megan and her aunts are all talking in the kitchen. Jeffrey's just sitting, like having ice cream by himself in his den. So I kind of walk in and it's very tense, and I'm reading just the book titles. And one of my favorite books of all time is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. And he has this really beautiful annotated edition of it. I'm like, wow, this is awesome. This is a beautiful edition. This is one of my favorite books. I'm trying to make small talk. No joke, the next thing that has mouth. That's really surprising to me because Mark Twain was such an avowed atheist. What are your feelings on God? And I just look at him like, here we go. So we spend the next three hours talking and debating. That's exhausting. And near the end of it, he asks me this really interesting question. He's like, Dre, how would you save me? How would you save me? And I'm like, well, first of all, I wouldn't do it. But I'm like, secondly, Jeffrey, here's what I would hope. It wouldn't be because of a conversation. It wouldn't be because I have a magic thing to say. I if I lived here, I would hope that we would become friends and share coffee together. I would hope that we would just spend some time together. And in that, you would see that as imperfect as I am, this isn't just words in my life. This is something that I'm just trying to aspire to live towards with the help of the Holy Spirit day in and day out. And then it was dead silence. And I'm kind of bracing myself to be like, he's gonna be like, oh, I'm an idiot, like I don't know what I'm talking about. Like I'm just this guy with this backward hat in his living room. He's got a PhD from Berkeley. Like I'm I'm like sitting in there, like, no. And then he opens at the mouth, he's like, Trey, that's brilliant. I'm like, what? He's like, I've never heard that before. He's like, so you would actually want me to see you trying to live that out in your life. And I'm like, Yeah. He's like, wow. And then I excused myself to go to the bathroom. But that taught me something. Our words matter, but the impact is living it. And so as we wrap things up, as we tell for those of you that are new, uh, usually when we finish our time of teaching, we like to give you a few moments and just engage in prayer with what we are talking about. And we do it in some different ways. And and so I want to invite you to do something. The beautiful thing is that we don't have to start from scratch. I'm willing to bet that for most of us, God has already put people in our lives that don't yet know Jesus, that we have some type of regular contact with. This might be family members, like I didn't grow up in a Christian home. This might be co-workers or classmates, this might be neighbors, this might be your baristas or the people that serve you a target. If you're like me, I'm a target all the time. But who are people that are already in your life? And on the back of your note sheet, I want to invite you to do something. I want to invite you in this moment, we're gonna play some instrumental music, to write down a few names and to pray for them. To pray that Jesus would break through in their lives, to pray that they would see what you've seen, how good he is, how real he is, how true he is, that they would experience forgiveness for their sins, that they would experience transformation, that they would be sitting with you one day at church. We had baptisms this weekend. By the way, anybody here got baptized, raise your hand, like hi, got baptized. We got Kate. That's awesome, Kate. And you know what I love about baptisms at Rocky Peak is that we get to hear their stories. And their stories are all uniquely different, but there's often a common thread. I didn't believe until this person came into my life. Until they lived, until they came into my life, until they came and showed me what it was like to live with, to live after Jesus.