Words Alone Are Not Enough

We kick off a new - and UNEXPECTED teaching series all about becoming Christ-Followers who are LIVING OUT the words that we say. We have to start with acknowledging that there is often a disconnect between our verbal commitments to Jesus, and our daily actions. But instead of falling into guilt and shame, this "wake up call" is a powerful INVITATION from the Holy Spirit to experience significant transformation through being taught, one day at a time, what it genuinely means to live a More Than Words life. 

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

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hamiganis, welcome to RP1NA. My name is Melam. Today we're going to be opening to Matthew 26, 31 through 35. Okay, starting at verse 31, it says, Then Jesus told them, This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee. Peter replied, Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will. Truly I tell you, Jesus answered, This very night before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times. But Peter declared, Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you. And all the other disciples said the same.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Thank you so much, I love you for doing an awesome job reading. Thank you. Hey, RV Way, it is good to be back with you in what I would call a delightfully normal Sunday night. We've had a couple out of the ordinary. A couple weeks ago, we did our red, white, and blue night in which we celebrated America and we got to play a lot of different games. Last week we got to go roller skating out in Ventura, and it always amazes me how many of you have never been on wheels and discovered gravity as you went through that. And then the ones that just knew themselves well enough that came and hung out and never got on the ramp. I respect it. I respect it. But I'm excited to be with you as we kind of get back in the swing of things. But I think a lot of you may have seen our reel a couple of days ago on Instagram. This message time is a little bit unusual. In case you didn't see that reel, we have been doing this series on Sunday nights called Beyond the Yearbook, where we've been going through the life of the disciple Peter and doing that by reading his letter later in life, the letter called First Peter. Our plan was to do that series throughout the summer. A couple of weeks ago, we began sensing the Lord say, Hey, about that, I want to take you in a different direction. And so what we began learning as we began to listen and follow really what is the heartbeat of our church is that as we were doing that beyond the yearbook series, the Lord began to set a foundation through Peter's life. And now what seems like kind of an abrupt left turn is something that the Lord has been preparing us for as he wants to prepare this ministry. Because for those of you that are here for the first time, welcome. If we haven't met, my name is Jerem, the young adult pastor, and I'm excited that you're here. But one thing that we say every Sunday night when we gather is the reason why RPYA exists is that we believe that your generation is meant to be unleashed to change multiple generations after you. And we are here to partner with God to the best of our abilities in however he wants to do that. And so when God says to best prepare you to reach your generation by taking a left turn, we are gonna do it. And like I mentioned in that video, it is exciting and it is intimidating because I love to have a plan. I love to have clarity, I love to know where we're going. And tonight is a little more rough around the edges than I'm comfortable with, but it's also a lot of fun. Because God is up to something over these next three weeks, and in particular, as He's preparing our hearts for this August 7th event that we've never done before, this one-day conference. And so I'm excited to kick things off for you. I want to start by just going to the Lord in prayer. So let's go ahead and just pray together. Jesus, you told us to take a turn and we are doing it happily because you, not me, not anybody else in leadership, you are in charge of this ministry. And so, Jesus, as we begin to present our offerings to you through this time of teaching, we just pray that your will be done. We just pray that you would spark something in these young adults, that you would spark something new, spark something powerful, spark something refreshing. Ultimately, Jesus, would whatever you spark, open their eyes through the gift of your Holy Spirit for them to encounter you in a beautiful and a powerful way. Jesus, may I, as the communicator, become much, much less. I don't want anybody walking out here going, man, Dre's awesome, because that's not what it's about. May you, King Jesus, as the only King of Kings and Lord of Lords, become much, much more. And it's in your name, King Jesus, we all said, Amen. Hey, when you sat down, you sat down on a note sheet that's gonna be able to help you follow along with this time. But what I want to do when we kick things off is I want to take you back to it, take you back about 21 years ago. So 21 years ago in that summer, Megan and I got engaged. And so look at us, we were adorable back then. And if you can think about it, as we were living in our engagement, it was an exciting time as we began preparing to get married, began preparing for our marriage, we began envisioning the ideal married life, right? And it doesn't have to be marriage necessarily, but you've ever had those seasons in which you're envisioning something beautiful in the future, and all you're thinking about is the good stuff, but you're not thinking about reality. And one of the gifts for us in that season was we took the premarital counseling course that was being offered at Rocky Peak at the time. And that's something that we not only believe in as a church so much that we make it a requirement if anybody wants one of us as the pastors to marry them, because we believe in what this brings up to the surface. And so this particular day, the course had ended, and Megan and I were sitting in my car up into the parking lot, and like I said, reality had come to the surface. And Megan, beautifully, was having a breakdown. And it had nothing to do with me, but it had to do with our future. See, what had come to the surface is that Megan is the child of divorce. Not only that, divorce is incredibly prominent on Megan's side of the family. And divorce is never easy or simple, it's always heartbreaking. And she had seen family member after family member suffer through this over and over again. And so Megan is having this moment as she is now heading into marriage and she was asking this question. I know that we say that we're different, but how do we know that will be true? And this is an incredibly honest and vulnerable question. And the emphasis is on the truth and the reality part. And so for me, I I as a typical guy, I immediately went into fix-it mode and I began trying to fix it by saying the right words. I began saying, no, no, no, it's gonna be different because you and I, we we have Jesus. It's gonna be different because you and I, no, we're we're gonna work hard, we're gonna work at this each and every day. No, no, no, it's gonna be different because no, we're gonna make it. We are gonna make it. And the words I was saying were good words. The words I was saying were honest words, but I realized that the words weren't solving anything. And as I look back on the time, what I realized looking at her is that what Megan needed in that moment was more than words. She needed more than the right words to be said. She needed time. She needed to see the words we were saying lived out each and every day. And the reason why I start with that illustration is because that is true in every aspect of our lives, but it is no more true and no more important than in our lives as Christ followers. That when we answer the invitation of King Jesus in our lives, we are answering an invitation to be a people that are living lives that are more than words. And that's the beautiful thing about the Bible. It's why the devil fights like hell to keep you out of it, and why the invitation of the Holy Spirit is to get you into it. Because what we see in the Bible is that God's vision for you is that you would live in more, that you wouldn't be a person that simply says the right thing, but you would be a person that is living it out. And that's what these next three Sunday nights are gonna be all about. And so this night, as we set the foundation of what does it mean to live a life that is more than words? There initiate, we need to start with two foundational words. We kind of need to set this foundation with these two key words of what this means. So the first word, the first fill-in is this disconnect. Disconnect. And this is the humbling word. This is the sobering word, this is the vulnerable word. We need to acknowledge that there is often a disconnect between the spiritual Christian words that we use and the life that we live each and every day. There is often a disconnect between our words, between our promises, between our commitments, between our purity when it comes to the life that we choose to live each and every day. And that takes us back to the passage that Ella read over us that we see an example of this disconnect in the life of the disciple Peter. And I say this and I'm not trying to joke on this, but if Peter makes me feel better. Peter makes me feel better, not because I'm any better than Peter, but you know why Peter makes me feel better? Because he's me, because he's us. And the whole series we were doing because Jesus sees more. But if we go back to Matthew chapter 26, Jesus has just told them, one of you is gonna betray me. Jesus now quotes a prophecy that says, you're all gonna scatter and leave me at my time of need. And Peter said replies, even if all fall away on account of you, I never will. Man, doesn't that sound noble? Doesn't it sound like an apex of the movie? I will never abandon you. And Jesus responds afterward by being very specific with Peter about how he is going to deny him three times. It is the type of specificity that only Jesus can do. And what's Peter's response? Peter says, I never will. And he goes on to say, but Peter declared, even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you. And all the other disciples said the same. This is the definition of being a dude, right? This is the definition. You can imagine that, yeah, Jesus, I will take a bullet for you. It's Roman times, but go with it. I will take a sword for you. Jesus, I will stand with you. And all the other guys are like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And what happened? And here's the thing that we need to acknowledge, though. I believe wholeheartedly that when Peter is saying these words, he is absolutely sincere. I believe wholeheartedly that he is as honest as he can be, and that he means it. I will never leave you. I will never abandon you. And think of how relatable that is to promises and commitments we've made to the Lord that we have not kept. And I'm speaking to myself here. See, Peter is in a spiritually emotional moment. Many of you have experienced spiritually emotional moments, maybe in a family gathering, maybe in a church setting, maybe in a camp retreat setting, maybe even one-on-one, these spiritually emotional moments in which it leads us to make promises and commitments to God. Maybe we've made promises like God, I promise I'm gonna pursue you more. I'm gonna pray more. I'm gonna read the Bible more. God, I want to pursue you. I want to know you. Maybe we've made promises about getting involved. God, I'm gonna go to RPYA. God, I'm gonna go to church. I'm gonna be there every week. God, I'm gonna make this a priority. God, I'm gonna serve someone. I'm gonna get involved in wildlife or RPK. I'm gonna get involved in my home church. Yeah, a life group. I'm gonna get involved in a life group. I'm gonna go and I'm gonna show up every Tuesday night or every Wednesday night. I'm gonna go and be a part of that. Maybe some of us in those moments we've said, God, I'm gonna make some different choices. My language is gonna be different. Whether or not it's profanity, the way I use my words towards others is gonna be different. Maybe you say, God, I'm gonna make different choices with my time. I want you to have more of my time. I want to be wiser with my time. God, I'm gonna scroll less. I'm gonna delete some apps. I'm not gonna let that have a grip on my life. God, I'm gonna make different choices when it comes to alcohol. I'm gonna make different choices when it comes to dating. I'm gonna make a different choice when it comes to pornography in my life. In fact, some of us have made a commitment going, God, I'm gonna give you everything. I'm gonna give you my whole life. And I bet you, in that moment, you were absolutely sincere. So what happened? The same thing that happened to Peter. While we were sincere, we had no idea how hard it would be to follow through. Peter could have never imagined a world in which standing by Jesus would have been so hard. There are many of us that when we make these commitments in sincerity, we don't imagine a world in which it's gonna be difficult to follow through with them. We don't imagine how to follow that we're gonna need to follow through with these commitments when the emotions fade, when the band leaks, when the retreat is over, when that initial rush goes away. We don't imagine how hard temptation is gonna hit. Man, how many of you when it's gonna, I'm not asking you to raise your hands, when it's come to sin, when it's come to stumbling, when it's come to disobedience, a younger version of you would have been like, man, I would have never imagined that that would have hit me as hard. I would have never imagined it would have been that tempting. There are many of you that would have never imagined how hard it would be to follow through with these commitments, with how busy life is, with work, with school, with um family commitments. Man, going to church requires me actually going, but that requires two hours, and I gotta do this, I gotta do this, I gotta do this. Oh, showing up for RPK, that's gonna require this, but I have to do X, I have to do Y, I have to see. Many of you, when we make these commitments, we don't ever imagine that one day we would be doubting our own faith, doubting what we've been taught. We ended up being sent this YouTube video that challenged everything we thought we knew about Jesus, and we're sitting there going, I never thought it would be hard. And all of this so far sounds like a bummer, right? But let me lead you to a beautiful encouragement. If that is you, because it has been me, if that is you, you are normal. You are a human being, you are a real person, and a very real Jesus stepped into this world to enter into the lives and to transform real people. And so we needed to begin with that first acknowledgement that the problem is there is often a disconnect between our words and how we choose to live our lives. But then the second word is the hope that we have in Jesus, and that's this. Your next villain says, Invitation. Hear me. Jesus is inviting you to let him transform you into a person that lives out the words you say. Jesus is inviting you to be transformed by his authority, his power, his grace, his mercy, his holy spirit to be a person that lives out the words you say. And as I mentioned, over these next couple of Sundays, we're gonna be unpacking some specifics of what that means, but we're starting with a big picture. And so there in your note sheet, we have a neon light statement. And a neon light statement for us at RPY is that if you don't remember anything else that we talked about, remember this statement. And so that neon light statement is that a more than words life starts with our hearts, not our actions. A more than words life starts with our hearts, not with our actions. See, again, there can be an eagerness when we see that there's a disconnect, when we see that there's a problem, when we see there's something holding us back. Sometimes we want to jump right into it and be like, okay, what do I gotta do? What do I gotta do? How do we fix it? What do I gotta do? And what we see is the Bible's like, slow your role because before you get to your actions, we gotta talk about your heart first, because it's your heart that's gonna then overflow into your thoughts, your actions, your behavior. It's your heart that's gonna change everything. It's why the Bible constantly is speaking of giving God your heart, loving Jesus wholeheartedly. We're told in Jeremiah's letter, Jeremiah chapter 29, you will seek me when you find me with all of your heart. And so if the Bible begins with heart, then we need to begin with heart. So if you got your Bibles open 'em up, got your abs turn them on. We were in Matthew chapter 26. We're gonna go to the right in the New Testament to the letter to the Colossians. We're gonna go to the letter to the Colossians chapter three. And we're just gonna look at the first verse. It's there in your note cheat as well. It's also up on the screen. So this is what the Apostle Paul writes. Since then you have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts. Do you catch that? Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. And so, as good growing Bible students, we can't separate the verses of the Bible from the original audience, the people that they were originally originally written to. So, first of all, the author of this letter is a man called the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul comes on the scene as a big-time Jesus hater. In fact, it would not be inappropriate to call him a terrorist to the early church. There was blood on his hands. He had an encounter with Jesus and it changed his life. And he now began to go and share that with Gentile, non-Jewish communities through multiple missionary journeys. This letter to the ancient city of Colossae, to churches and Christ followers in that area, he is writing to a young church. And I don't mean necessarily physically young, I mean spiritually young. They were mostly Gentile believers, meaning they were coming out of a Roman belief, they were coming out of a pantheon of gods, they were coming out of a radically different worldview and different values. And so the Bible is inviting them into a brand new reality. And so, as Paul writes to these young and growing Christ followers, he says that the top priority of your life is to give God your heart over and over and over again. And here's the beautiful thing about how much bigger the Bible is with the words we tend to understand. Heart, as some of you have heard me say many a times, is not a disnified version of heart. It's not about emotions and follow your heart bell and all of that. Heart, in a biblical sense, is your identity, it is everything that makes you you. And so to look at this verse, what is Paul saying? Give Jesus your whole life. But he also realizes something. We don't know how to do that. We need to be taught, we need to be trained, and that's maturity. I said this when I was teaching this morning in our weekend service. That Christian maturity is not that you have all the answers. Christian maturity is not that you know everything there is to know about everything when it comes to the Bible. Christian maturity is not that you have a following and people seem to follow you. Christian maturity is that you're teachable and that you stay teachable, and that you're constantly saying, Jesus, teach me how to live a life every day in my real life that is more than words. That's what maturity is all about. And so over the next couple of weeks, we're gonna be unpacking some very specific areas of our life, but until then, we need to talk about our hearts, and there's three key things when it comes to giving God our hearts, to living this verse that we need to understand. So there in your note sheet, there's a section entitled Three Truths About Your Heart. So the first one is this your heart needs a restart. If we are gonna be a people that answer Jesus' invitation to a more than words life, we need to acknowledge that first and foremost, all of our hearts need a restart. And let me illustrate what I mean. Have you ever watched like any of those dramatic, dramatic uh doctor shows? Like when somebody is like hosting. And flatlining in the ER, and then very dramatically they pull out those electrified paddles and they're like, clear, and they pump it, and the person jumps up like two feet, and then they rub them again, and they're like, clear, and they keep doing it, and the music builds up, and then all of a sudden the person comes back to life with this big gasp, and you're like, What's kind of fun as I say that is there's multiple of you in here that are like future nurses, and you're like, Yeah, real life is not that exciting. But if we kind of go with that picture of our heart being paddled, and what happens when you take that whole gas is you have been given another chance to live. And so to say that our hearts need a restart means that it's not about going backwards and trying to fix what came before. It means that God wants to paddle us into something new and wants to give us a new chance to live. And there's a little bit of a fill-in right under this. There's one key word. God's paddles is what's called reformation. So our hearts, our identity, who we are, has already been formed. And it's been formed through a lot of different ways and means and voices in our life. It has been formed by our families, it has been formed by our life experiences, it has been formed by our passions, it has been formed by our interests, it has been formed by our friends and our community. It has also been formed by our failures, it has been formed by our sin. It has been formed for evil that we've opened the door to. And so there has been good formation in our heart and there has been negative formation in our heart. And this isn't in your notion, but one of my heroes, the late great Dallas Willard, once said that the greatest need of all mankind is a reformation of the heart. That's what I mean by God, restarting our heart. And so the first step to living Colossians chapter 3 is saying, God, I want you to have my heart so that you can make something new out of it. The Bible is all about new. The Bible is about new creation. So that's the first truth about our hearts. Our hearts need a restart. The second truth, the second fill in is this your heart needs regular checkups. Your heart needs regular checkups. Have any of you ever had an electrocardiogram? An EKG. An electrocardiogram records the electrical signals of your heart. It's checking your heart rate, it's checking the rhythm of your beads, and really the point of an EKG is that it's trying to determine your health. It's trying to determine your heart health as well as being able to diagnose conditions. The point of an EKG is to tell you, is your heart healthy or not? Now think about it. Wouldn't you want to know if your heart is healthy or not before a major accident? Before a heart attack, before a major episode. Because if you find out your heart is trending in a difficult direction, then there are steps you can take to improve the health of your heart, to prevent a major, to prevent a major accident or episode, and that's the beauty of heart checkups. And so as we continue this illustration, the echocardiogram of our spiritual lives is God's eyes in our lives. That's the beauty of encounter. God sees what we don't. And in particular, there's two things that an echocardiogram is wanting to test, wanting to test as a whole. The first thing is an echocardiogram wants to see how your heart handles stress, how your heart handles physical stress, how your heart handles emotional stress. So often, if you're being given an electrocardiogram, is they connect you, and it's cold, they connect you to these things, and then they just take your rate and your rhythm as you're sitting there. And then they make you work out. I was about 19 the first time I had an EKG, and I was not prepared for that second part. I thought the nurse was kidding. But they led me into this room, and the first thing they did was they had me run on a treadmill nonstop for 20 minutes. I was not dressed for this. I was not prepared for this. I was in worse shape than I am now, so I felt very self-conscious and embarrassed. And so as we ended the 20 minutes, and I'm huffing and puffing my way through this, they led me into a stairwell and said, now run up and down these stairs as many times as you can. Yeah, that's torture. And I remember when I came back huffing and puffing, they lay me back down and they're registering, and I'm asking, like, what are you looking for? And we're like, we don't know how your heart responds to stress unless we stress it. Our words can mean one thing when life is calm. But our ability to live them is tested when we experience real life. We need God's eyes in our hearts because how do you know how your heart responds in temptation without God revealing that in your life? How do you know how your heart responds? You want, don't you want to know how your heart responds when you're scared, when you're anxious, when you're stressed? How about when you're how do you do you want to know how your heart responds when you're angry? How about when your heart responds when you're confronted? When somebody is confronting you with sin or areas of growth in your life? How about when you are challenged? How about when you're experiencing loss or breakups? How about when you didn't get what you wanted? How about when you're sad and you're depressed? We need God's checkup in our lives because it reveals truth. And why we need God's eyes? So for those of you that are new to RPYA, often I like to say in certain moments, hey, I need to speak with my dad voice. And I'm not trying to be your dad, but I want to speak as a dad. And so when I say that I want to speak with my dad voice, I'm gonna say something that's gonna sound spicy, but know that I mean it with grace and love, not with any type of shame or conviction. The reason why we need God's eyes to do the heart checkup is because the person in our lives that tends to be the worst to determine our health health is yourself. Because we are often blind to what's actually happening in our hearts. And you know why? Because we are really good at justifying our own sin. We are really good at explaining it away. No, no, no, no. I it's not a problem. I could stop anytime. It's not a problem, even though we keep messing up over and over again, we could stop. Or you know what? We repented, it's good. We don't need to bring anybody else into it, we're good. No, no, no. What's happening on Instagram, the DMs, the messages, who I'm messaging, no, it's okay. It's not a problem. It's only a problem if you make it a problem, but it's not a problem. No, I'm not scared about my future. I just want to have a plan. I just want to have clarity. I just want to make sure everybody is following the script I gave them. It's not a problem. Hey, what's going on? No, it doesn't hurt me. What's going on in my family? No, I'm okay. It's fine. We don't need to talk about it. We can move on. No, I don't need to go to church. I am church. It's happening everywhere. I don't need to be in community. No, I don't need to be around people that are gonna tell me what I don't want to hear because I've got this, I've got this, I don't need to be around. Do you get what I'm saying? We need God's eyes. Because we're really bad at self-diagnosing. And not only do we need God's eyes, but often God's eyes happen through the work of older saints in our lives. That's a term that we use often in RPYA, and that means that one of the most important things that you can do is to find a regular rhythm of meeting with other Christ followers that are older than you. Because they've been where you are and they survived. And they can see, they can speak, they can call out. Don't get me wrong, wisdom from your peers is a gift. I'm not trying to knock that away, but they're as limited as you are. And so being able to speak to somebody who survived, and so again, with the dad voice, but beautifully going in, if you are choosing to live as a young adult, as a Christ follower, and you are not regularly seeking the wisdom of older saints, you are setting yourself up for a heart attack. Is there an older saint in your life that loves you enough to say you are wrong? Is there an older saint in your life that loves you enough that says no, to disagree with you? That is often the eyes of God in our life. We need regular heart, we need regular heart check. And then the third truth about our hearts, our third villain is this that your heart needs a healthy diet. There's a comedian that I really like named Nate Bargatsi, and he was talking once about how much he loves French toast. But that when you eat French toast, you feel like you want to die afterwards. Because you have basically eaten a loaf of bread covered in syrup and whipped cream and chocolate syrup. Pretty much what Oliver would love, right? So, but he goes on to say that when he feels bad, he often will ask the question, what is wrong with me today? Why do I feel so off? Why do I feel so bad? And he makes that joke that I'm not acknowledging that the problem is my diet. The problem is what I'm eating. And so the reason why I bring that up is because we need the Lord to help us see what am I feeding my heart? What are you feeding your heart? Because your heart is eating, your heart is eating regularly. So the key question is, what are you feeding your heart? And what effect does that food, so to speak, have on your heart? Because whatever you're feeding your heart is forming your heart. Whatever is forming your heart is forming your identity. And so the question is, what are you feeding your heart? So here's a couple ways that we feed our heart. What are your thoughts and your behaviors feeding your hearts? What are you dwelling on? Where does your mind go when you let it wander? What is going on up here because it's affecting here? What about your behaviors, your habits? That's feeding your heart. What about your schedule? What do you do with your days? What do you do with your time? What are your priorities? If you could plan out your day, what does that look like and how is that feeding your heart? What is your scrolling doing to your heart? What kind of situations are you putting your heart in with what you're doing on a screen, with the things that people don't know? Late at night, what are you feeding your heart? What about the people you choose to spend your time with? What are they feeding your heart? What is happening to your heart? What about what you listen to? What about what you watch? We could go on and on and on. But here's an acknowledgement and here's an invitation that we need to make. Do you remember when you were in elementary school and they showed you that plate with the different like food groups and they wanted you to be like, hey, when it comes to sugar and all this, this is the smallest one. Eat your vegetables, eat your fruit, eat all that good thing. For many of us, if our spiritual hearts were on a plate, the smallest thing would be Jesus. Because he gets an hour and a half. He gets 15 minutes a day. But our hearts are still eating. And our hearts are eating a lot the rest of the day. And so there's an acknowledgement, but there's an invitation. If we begin to feed our hearts something else, something healthier, it's going to have a significant impact on how I live my life. It's going to have a significant impact on the person I become. It's going to have a significant impact on following through. And so for some of us, this is beautiful and kind of intimidating. Because it might be the Holy Spirit is asking you to make a significant change. Because we need to learn how to feed Jesus to our heart. Spending time encountering, slowing down, dwelling with him. Let me give you an example of a young adult that was living this out. And so I've mentioned a few times in RPYA, I mentioned this this weekend when I was teaching, that over the last couple of years, there's a woman named Megan Marshman. She's an author, a pastor, a preacher, and she's become one of my favorite leaders over these last couple of years. And I'm reading through one of her books right now. And in her book, the whole premise of the book is what does it look like to give God your whole heart? And she talks about that one of her favorite questions to ask new friends is, what do you do with your time? She doesn't strike me as a small talk type of gal. But one of her favorite questions is, what do you do with your time? And the reason why she likes that question is the answer, to put it in my words, reveals what you're feeding your heart. The answer reveals what you're investing your life into. It reveals what you're feeding your heart. And so she talked about this one particular night, they had a bunch of new friends over for dinner, and one of them was a young adult named Faith. And Faith was not only there for dinner, but Faith had begun working for Megan. She was a brand new intern. And so as they're going around and asking this question when it comes to faith, her answer is, oh, I'm taking nine units in college, I'm getting to know God, I'm volunteering at your church, I'm hanging out with friends, and she keeps talking, but Megan shares honestly that her she stopped listening because her mind goes back to faith saying, nine units. Because for Megan, that is a clash of values. See, Megan is a type A personality. Megan is a get it done personality. She got her master's degree in half the time. She's done more community service than was asked for her. If you ask her for something, she will overachieve and write. You want you need her to write a paper, she will write a book. That is her. She talks about that is her family of origin. They are achievers. They are go, go, go. And so she sees life as an opportunity to invest everything you have. And so she's hearing a young adult saying, I'm only taking nine units at school. And she's sitting going, What's wrong with you? What do you mean you're only taking nine units in school? And she begins to honestly wonder, did I make a mistake in hiring this gal? Is she gonna be able to keep up? And so Megan then asked her this question, hey, hey, let's go back to the nine units thing. Why are you only taking nine units? And it's gonna be up on the screens, but I put her answer there in your note sheet as well because I found it so powerful that I want you to be able to walk out of here with it. Faith says, I want to live really well now. Not just in the future, she explained. I want to have time to serve the church I love. I don't want to rush my time with the Lord. How can I seek God first if everything else, especially my future, is the priority in my plans? Do you know what Megan realized in that moment? That there was something wrong in her heart. And this young adult named Faith provided the eyes of God to give her a needed heart checkup. This is a young lady that is living the words that she says. But let's not make this a Disney fantasy. For her to live this out, guaranteed, there are sacrifices that she makes. For her to live this out, there are some difficult choices because I'm sure choosing and living this is not always emotionally convenient. It's not always scheduled convenient. There are some significant intentionalities that she has had to learn. There have probably been times in which she's like, man, I could just sleep in. Man, if I go back to church again, man, I do a lot, I go to school, I work, and it feels like yet another thing. But what is she doing? She's reminding herself of what it means to give God your heart. And she's saying, this is worth it. One step after another. One young adult to another is a living example of what it means to live a life that is more than worth. And so, what is your next step? And again, I say this with my dad voice. If we don't take a next step, then this last 35 minutes was kind of a colossal waste of time. What is your next step? One of the reasons why we exist is we provide a place for you to come and encounter Jesus. And we try to provide different ways and different opportunities. And sometimes they are not convenient. Sometimes they are gonna ask more of you. Sometimes they're gonna require hard choices and sacrifices, but the reason why we do them or offer them is that we believe they are good for your heart. And so Sunday nights is one of those, and that's the reason why we ask you, as much as you are in control of it, choose to be here as consistently as you can, because that is good for your heart. For those of you that are going away to school and come in in a few weeks now, get involved in a local church. Even though coming into starting a brand new school, starting a new semester, being in another state can be incredibly chaotic. Your heart needs you to be in a local community with other believers. And so as much as you are in control of it, come and encounter Jesus in these walls, in your home church, wherever the Lord ends up leading you. That's one way is these Sunday nights. But two, take advantage of what we feel led to offer your hearts here at RPYA. We've got two of these opportunities coming up in the near future. The first one is what we've been talking about for the last month is this one-day conference. You have these flyers at your chairs, you have these flyers at your chairs. But here's why we are doing the one-day conference. It is an opportunity for us as a church to feed your heart in a significant way that we can't do on a Sunday night. It is opportunity for us to offer your heart something that we believe that your heart, your health, and your growth and your growth is gonna deeply benefit for that we can't do on a simple Sunday or through a teaching series. Now, it is a day-long conference that requires more out of you. That's gonna require some time, that's gonna require caffeine, that's gonna require $30 for your breakfast and your lunch. But the reason why we are doing it is again, we believe that your heart will benefit deeply from it. And so one of the things when it comes to something like that is not waiting around and going, okay, I'll wait and see. No, no, it's committing to my heart health, and I'm gonna do that now. Another one is this coming Saturday, we have our Saturday seminar. We offer this three or four times a year. This is an opportunity to do a deep dive into the things of God, to better understand God in our lives, to better understand this word called theology. And here's a beautiful thing: theology is not simply an academic exercise, theology is just how we understand God. And so these Saturday seminars are an opportunity to understand a specific aspect of God better. As we go into this Saturday, we're gonna spend three hours together from 9 to 12 understanding the Word of God. See, we could all say, yeah, the Bible, the Bible or Scripture, the Bible is the Word of God, but there is so much more to the question of what is the Bible? But not only that, one of the most important questions of our day and age is can we trust a 2,000-year-old book? Can we trust that hasn't been a telephone game? Can we trust that it is reliable because it is what we are basing our faith and our life in? And then the third one is probably the most important question. How do I even read the thing? If I'm supposed to be in it, how do I even read the Bible? And that's where we get to spend Saturday morning, guys. We get to spend Saturday morning unpacking together. And those are two key examples. But again, as we look at just as a church community, whether it's life groups in the fall, whether it's something like Flourish, the women's mentoring ministry, whether it's serving in wildlife or revolution or RPK, feed your heart. Feed your heart every chance you get.