Awesome. All right. Well, good morning. My name is Jonah Faulkner. I am the student pastor here at Church of the Grove for Walnut Grove campus. Just gonna get it out in front off the rip. Um, I've spent this past weekend in a house with 14, six-grade boys. Um, apart from really the the power of the Holy Spirit, um, I'm I'm running on one and a half cups of coffee right now. So uh the energy may not be there, but I promise you um that does not correlate to a lack of um passion and excitement, thankfulness, gratitude from what uh has happened this past weekend. If you are a first-time guest here at Church of the Grove, we have um an event every first weekend of March. For some reason, we choose to do it every year when the time changes as well. But uh we have an event called Unite Weekend where it is a weekend where we just pull our students in, sixth or twelfth grade, uh, and just invest in their lives and open up homes and uh get to spend get to spend the weekend with them. And it and it's incredible. This past weekend uh was awesome. The good news of of the gospel, the kingdom of God was like Russ shared, shared with about 240 students. He was rounding up just a little. It's how Russ operates. Um he always rounds up a little. Uh he said 250, but it but it was about two 240 students. Uh, we had incredible moments of just um unashamed, surrendered worship, uh, and just students just crying out uh to the Lord, giving him the glory and praise that he deserves. Um, you saw kind of from the video, one thing we've been doing throughout Unit weekend for the past couple years is serve projects on that Saturday afternoon. So we're able to do about 20 different um kind of serve sites and and opportunities yesterday uh between you know just various projects and just so many core memories and and I mean experiences are foreign for these students over weekends like this. And and I was kind of sharing with the guys last night about you know just different memories I had, you know, when I was a student. We I never went to a UNI weekend as a student or anything really like it. I had you know summer camps and things like that, but these are weekends where so many just core memories and even just foundations are laid in these students' lives. So we saw um we saw those things, we saw fruit of transform lives. It was really cool to see, you know, just some of my middle school boys come to their senses a little bit and and understand that that there's there's more to life than this life, just the things we experience here on earth. So we had um, you know, sixth grade boys kind of come to realize really just the truth and the beauty of the gospel and and why they were created, the purpose they were made for, all the way up to hearing stories. Um, there was a group of high school guys the very first night in their host home, just spending time in prayer over one another as they were confessing things that they um had not forgiven other people for, confessing unforgiveness that had been stored up in their hearts, and high school guys praying over one another and praying over the diff different things that they're walking through. So we saw so much fruit of transformed um lives, and students heard the gospel and call of Jesus on their life last night, and so many people, um so many students just said yes, whether it was placing their faith in Jesus for the first time or just saying yes to being available to be used by him and whatever that may look like as they get older and as and as life goes on. And uh the theme for this past weekend was made for more, and it was really just challenging students to to abandon this status quo that the country we live in and even the area we live in has has placed upon us. Um, that the whole purpose of this life is to just grow old, get rich, and die as happy as possible. But the we we've we told them that the enemy is trying to lull them really to sleep, to settle for things that this world offers us, and as a result, miss out on living for Jesus and experiencing the abundant life, the abundant purpose that he gives each one of us. And I think if we're all honest, um whether you know you're seven or or seven D, we all have this something within our souls that's telling us that there's there's more to this life than than what meets the eye and what the things of this world have to offer us, that there has got to be something more. And that's kind of what this weekend was all about for our students, to tell them there is more. His name is Jesus, and the life he calls us to live is so worth the cost, whatever that may look like. So this morning I really want to start off just um reading the the theme passage uh with y'all, and it kind of sets up the rest of the sermon this morning. But um, all weekend we focus on this pack passage from 2 Corinthians 5, verses 17 through 21. Paul says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is passed away, and see the new has come. Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. And then listen to this, he has committed the message of reconciliation to us. That was a big part of this weekend. Just really getting our students to understand that if you were in Christ, and this is the same for everyone in this room, if you are in Christ, one, the good news is that the old is gone, the new is come, you're walking, and you you have the opportunity to walk in the newness of life that Christ offers. But two, come with that comes a very important responsibility that God has committed to us the message of reconciliation, the message of the gospel to go into the world and to tell other people about it. So he says, therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ since God is making his appeal through us. God wants to make his appeal to the lost and broken world that we live in. He wants to make his appeal through you. He wants to use you to tell everyone else why Jesus is worthy of everything. He wants to use you to make his appeal to the lost and broken world we live in. So we plead on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. That is our responsibility to plead to everyone else to be reconciled to God. He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. This is the more that we were telling our students about this weekend. This is what we've been made for. We have been made to walk and live in the righteousness of God. And when most of us think about being made for more, and even this idea that God has committed this message of reconciliation to us, we usually imagine just something big in our minds. We we think about having great influence, we think about leadership and recognition and a lot of people knowing our name and looking to us. We picture the moment where God finally uses us in this powerful way, and we like to focus on all these mountaintop experiences, but we we don't often think about what always comes before that when we read through stories in Scripture. So the world we live in, you can create a YouTube channel and make a viral TikTok video and become famous overnight instantly. And sometimes with that kind of influence and that kind of power, we want to bypass God's pattern for developing people to be to be used mightily for him and for his kingdom. So this weekend, kind of what we were imploring on our students is that it's never been about making much of yourself. We're not made to make a lot of ourselves, but it's about making much of God and expanding his kingdom. And for this to happen, again, there's a pattern that we see constantly throughout Scripture. Before God sends someone out, he almost always first brings them low. It brings them to a low, the possibly one of the lowest places in life that they've ever been. All throughout scripture, before someone becomes a powerful instrument in God's hands, they first have to surrender their life to him. So the big idea for this morning is that the road to impact runs through surrender. The life that actually makes a difference for the kingdom of God. It doesn't always start with a platform and this, you know, grand thing that we might think of in our minds. It always starts with just submission and surrender to whatever it is the Lord has for us. So I'm going to pray and then we're going to dive into our story for this morning. God, we're grateful for the gospel. Um, we're grateful that even though uh we were dead and our sin and our trespasses, God, He didn't leave us there. Um, but you sent your son Jesus to die for us. And I pray that this morning you would just open our eyes to the mission and the purpose that you have given each one of us. That if we are in Christ, we are a new creation. And you have entrusted us with the most beautiful, most important message of all time. You've entrusted us with the gospel, this message of reconciliation that you loved us so much that you were willing to reconcile us to yourself through your son Jesus. So, God, as we just continue to um, as we walk through the story in scripture over the life of Paul, God, would you would you just open our eyes to what it what it might mean for us? Would you give us wisdom and understanding, truthful interpretation of your word? Um, and just speak to us this morning. We love you, and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So this morning we're going to be in the book of Acts looking at probably one of the most influential followers of Jesus who ever lived. So if you're if you're thinking of someone who lived fully in their identity and purpose in Christ, who lived with this idea and mindset, convinced that he was made for more than what this world has to offer, probably one of the best people to look to is the Apostle Paul. But his journey, as we're gonna see, it didn't start on a platform. It didn't start with great notoriety, it didn't start with fame or anything like that, but it but it really started on the ground. It started in a place of surrender. So this morning we're gonna read through uh Acts 9, where we read the story of when Paul first encountered the power and the presence of Jesus. So, yeah, if you have your Bible, go ahead and turn there. I'm gonna take one more sip of coffee, and then we're gonna roll. So this is Acts 9, uh, verses 1 and 2. It says, now Saul, this is that's Paul. It was Saul before Paul. So now Saul was still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. Man, he's living in his purpose, right? He went to the high priests and requested letters from him to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any man or woman who belonged to the way, or in other words, was following Jesus, he might bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem. So we see in this passage, literally, that this story starts out saying that Saul, who would later become Paul, was still actively breathing threats against followers of Jesus, making it his life's mission to stomp out the message of Jesus as quickly and as powerfully as he possibly could. He was killing and rounding up followers of Jesus to take to prison. Persecuting the people who belonged to Jesus was the fuel, the purpose that kept him going as we pick up and hop into this story. Saul had left Jerusalem traveling about 150 miles to Damascus for the sole purpose of imprisoning believers. And you think about how far 150 miles is, especially when you don't have a car, right? Or a plane or a train, anything like that. He was so passionate about stopping the movement of Jesus that he was willing to travel six days on foot just to arrest believers. He thought that he was living for more. But in actuality, he was completely wrong. He thought that he was noble in his pursuit to God. He was a Pharisee, a religious leader. He thought he was doing what God had called him to do, but he finds out that he was completely wrong. He had been building his life on all the wrong things. His life had direction, but it was the wrong direction. He had purpose, but it was the wrong purpose. So as the story goes on, it says, As he traveled and was nearing Damascus, a light from heaven suddenly flashed around him, and falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Who are you, Lord? Saul asked, I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting, he replied. But get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do. So Paul uh Saul, Paul is he's getting close to his destination, and then all of a sudden the Lord just kind of breaks in. Right? There's this divine interruption. Saul was heading down this path, building his life the way that he thought he should, and then Jesus stepped in directly into his path. And this is where everything changes for Paul. Up until this point, he had created this name for himself. You can read through Philippians 3 where Paul literally says, I don't want to brag, but this is everything I've done. And he lists out all of the things that he's accomplished, this pedigree, this reputation that he has built up. And in this moment, when he encounters Jesus, everything changes. Among the Jewish people, Saul was the best of the best. But after he encounters the glory of Jesus, this proud man is now lying in the dust, humbled before a glorious, a glorious God. He's flat on the ground, and as Jesus appears out as a great light, Saul has nowhere to go but his knees. And this little idea, it's a little cheesy, but made for more always starts on the floor. Made for more always starts on the floor. If you want to live in the purpose that God really has for your life and live in the fullness of everything that Jesus offers, it has got to start on the floor. It can't be overstated enough. It's constantly throughout Scripture that there will not be proud people in the kingdom of God. There is not proud people in the kingdom of God. The constant theme that you read is that God opposes the proud, then he gives grace to the humble. The world will teach us that bravado and confidence, self-promotion are the pathway to influence, right? That if you want to have influence and have your life count for something, then the world's going to say, you got to be the loudest, right? You got to be the greatest, you got to be the richest, you got to be the most successful. You have to have the most impressive resume. The more people that are following you, the better that you are, the stronger you are, the more impressive you will be. But the kingdom of God operates on an entirely different set of values. And this is the constant message that Jesus was trying to get through to his disciples, but it's greatness always begins with humility. There's a story in the Gospels where the disciples are literally arguing with each other behind Jesus about which of them is the greatest. And I just I can't fathom what you know what they were thinking. But as Jesus hears them arguing, he kind of asks him, Hey, what were you talking about? And he tells them that if anybody wants to be first among you, he's got to be last. If anybody wants to be greatest, you got to be the greatest servant to all people. This is the message of the kingdom of God. Your influence will always be in direct correlation to your level of surrender, to your level of humility before God. And this is exactly what happens to Saul on the road to Damascus. This proud, powerful, religious man who thought he had everything figured out is suddenly flat on the ground before Jesus, recognizing in this moment that he is no longer in control, right? He's no longer in control, but it is all in the hands of Jesus. And for a lot of our students, this past weekend was a bit of a Damascus Road experience for them, right? They they rolled into this weekend, probably, you know, no telling what they were expecting. But for some of them, they encountered the power of Jesus for the first time. And whatever mission and purpose they thought they had in life, they were stopped dead in their tracks. Their eyes were open to the beauty of the gospel and the idea that Jesus is worth everything. He's worth everything. And for some of you, you've had this moment in your life where it's just a bit of a wake-up call to you. Understanding that maybe you've been walking in the wrong direction for so long, and after an encounter of Jesus, you can't help but walk in obedience to him. But if we're going to live out the mission of God that God has given to us, it always starts in humility and it always starts in surrender, falling down before him. The story goes on in verse seven. It says, The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the sound, but seeing no one. Saul got up from the ground and threw it, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing. So they took him by the hand and led him into Damascus. He was unable to see for three days and did not eat or drink. So Paul is not only humbled before the Lord, but now he's humbled before the men that he's traveling with. These men who probably just looked up to Saul with everything that they had, wanted to be just like him, place all authority, all responsibility on him, looked up to him as the leader, and now he is completely dependent on them. He can't see anything, and he's having to be led by the hand into the city. But we again we see this once powerful man. Um he's so weak that he's unable to survive on his own. He was completely dependent. And I'm sure the thought went through his mind that that this might be what the rest of his life looked like, right? I can't imagine just instantly your vision's taken away. Instantly so weak that you you can't eat or drink, whatever that was. But Paul might have thought that this moment was punishment for his past, right? Maybe that realization of, oh my gosh, I've had it wrong for so long, and this is my punishment. This is what God has for me. But it wasn't punishment that God was bringing on Paul's life in this moment. It wasn't punishment, but it was preparation. And God's not destroying Saul's life in this moment, he's rebuilding it. He's preparing him for something greater, something more than he could have ever possibly imagined. So you cannot live for God's purpose while you're clinging to your own power. And God knew that Saul was going to cling to his own power as long as he could. So you had to bring him into humble him in the most exaggerate way possible. Paul had spent his life trusting in his education, his reputation, his religious pedigree, his own righteousness, but now he's helpless, completely dependent on God, and as we're about to see, completely dependent on other people. You cannot live for God's purpose if you're clinging to your own power. As the story goes on, it says, In verse 10, there was a disciple in Damascus named Aeneas. And the Lord said to him in a vision, Anias, here I am, Lord, he replied, Get up and go to the street called straight, the Lord said to him, To the house of Judas, and asked for a man from Tarsus named Saul, since he is praying there. In a vision he has seen a man named Aeneas coming in and placing his hands on him, so that he might regain his sight. Lord, Anias answered, I've heard from many people about this man. Anias, who knew who Saul was, how much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem, and he has authority here from the chief priests who arrest all who call on your name. So the interesting part about this story, and really all throughout Scripture, is we know, we know that God is all powerful, right? We say it all the time that without God, we can't do anything. We can't do anything. But without us, sometimes God won't do anything, right? So we see this paradigm all throughout scripture that God is all-powerful, but at the same time, for some reason, he wants to use us. He wants to use his people to carry out his mission and his work here on this earth. And in this story, he speaks to a man named Anias that we see one time. This is the only time we see this character in Scripture, and his responsibility is to pretty much pretty much go and be the first one to lead the one of the greatest apostles that ever lived to Jesus. So God wants to use this man named Aeneas and tells him to go and lay hands on Saul so that his sight might be restored. And again, this is so interesting that the Lord, one, that the Lord would choose to use people. I mean, going into this weekend, that was really what I wanted our students to grasp. Again, that idea that that God has entrusted us with this with the gospel message. Why? I don't know. I don't know, but I want to be faithful in it, right? So we see in the story that that one, why in the why in the world does God use us to do incredible things? But two, the Lord doesn't show up to one of the famous apostles at this time, right? He doesn't call up Peter or John or anything like that, but he shows up to this unknown disciple who lives in the city of Damascus and wants to use him. And I think we can learn from this that God isn't God isn't looking for impressive people, right? As we as we live in his calling and his purpose in our life, he's not always just looking for impressive people, he's looking for available people. You hear the expon the response of Anias when the Lord calls out to him, what does he say? He just says, Here I am, Lord. Here I am. And if we could wake up every day and say those four words, our life would dramatically change. If we just woke up every day and said, Here I am, Lord, whatever it looks like. This is the response of someone who has surrendered their life to Jesus. There isn't a question about who's in charge. Jesus calls out and we say, Yes, here I am, whatever you want to do. And I want all of us to have the same response. But what God is going to call him to do is something unthinkable. So all this to say, there's a bit of a warning that when you wake up in the morning and if you were to say, Here I am, Lord, be prepared, right? Be prepared for what God says after that, because Paul, God says to Anias, go for Find Saul of Tarsus. Are you here? Are you ready? Are you available? If you are, go find Saul of Tarsus. And remember, Saul wasn't just unpopular among the Christians, but he was terrifying. He was terrifying. Anias, who might have been hiding out in his house, knowing that Paul was headed his way, is now called to minister to the one who is trying to kill him. And this gives a new meaning to one saying, Here I am, Lord, but to what Jesus tells us to do in loving our enemies. So we have to, we we want to be available, but you better you better be ready. And Anias pushes back a little. He says, Lord, this man has a reputation. Do you know what? Do you know what he's coming here to do? He has come to arrest followers of Jesus. So Anias kind of he pushes back, not out of disobedience, I don't think, but it but it's probably a little bit more of a clarification statement, right? Just Lord, did I did I did I hear you right? And what I think we see here is that he's really just bringing his fear and maybe even some of the insecurities that he might have had himself to the Lord to make sure that this is what he was actually supposed to do. I don't necessarily know if it's Lord, are you crazy? That's Saul, but it's more of like, Lord, are you crazy? Who who am I? Who am I to go and do something like this? And I think a lot of times we we kind of think the same thing about ourselves, that we don't have a lot to offer to the Lord. That if we don't have a lot of education or know everything there is to know about the Bible and know all these different worship songs, that that we might not have a lot to offer to the Lord, or we might think because of our past, because of our failures, the things that we did in the in the old life, that because of those things we might not have a lot to offer to the Lord. Maybe we think because of the family that we're a part of or the upbringing we had that we don't have a lot to offer to the Lord. You might not think that you have a lot to offer to the Lord, but again, the Lord's not looking for impressive people. He's looking for people who are available, who say, Here I am, whatever it is. The kingdom of God is often advanced through ordinary people who are simply willing to say yes. And Ananias, he wasn't famous, he wasn't powerful, he wasn't even well known. We see him one time. But he was he was a disciple of Jesus, willing to obey. So as the story goes on, the Lord reassures him that this is his plan. It says, But the Lord said to him, Go, for this man talking about Paul, is my chosen instrument to take my name to Gentiles, kings, and Israelites. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name. So Saul was gonna be the Lord's chosen instrument, and I can't imagine what was going through Ananias' head when he heard God say that, right? When God says, Saul, he's gonna be my chosen instrument. I'm gonna use him to carry the name of Jesus to people who have never heard the name of Jesus before. I can't imagine what was going through his head. But this is a very important phrase, this chosen instrument. This word literally means vessel or container or just something that is used by someone else for a purpose. And think about this for a moment that in this moment when when this is really God's commissioning over Saul's life, he's not commissioning him to be the hero that he kind of ends up being, right? He's not commissioning him to go and do all these incredible things off the get-go, but Jesus and Jesus isn't even choosing him because of his background. Jesus isn't just hoping to get this high-caliber leader on his team by recruiting Saul. But Jesus says he's just gonna be, he's gonna be a chosen instrument, he's gonna be a vessel. In other words, Saul's life would not be about his own greatness, but it was gonna be about what God did through him, about God working through him. And it would be easy to think that Saul's past would keep him from ever being useful in the kingdom of God, right? In a moment where he's pursuing and chasing after followers of Jesus to arrest them and um pretty much vote them to death, you would think that that that would keep him from ever being useful for the kingdom of God. But in reality, this is what made Paul perfect, a perfect candidate, a perfect vessel to be used by God. This is what Paul says in 1 Timothy 1. He says, This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and I am the worst of them. I'm the worst of them. But I receive mercy for this reason, so that in me, as the worst of them, Christ Jesus might demonstrate his extraordinary patience as an example to those who would believe in him for eternal life. This is how the kingdom of God works, right? That God doesn't look for perfect, he doesn't look for impressive, he is looking for surrendered people, people who are willing to say, Lord, my life belongs to you. Use me however you want. I am yours, I'm available. Jesus has something kind of even a little surprising, too, if you if you caught it. He says, I will show Paul how much he must suffer for my name. And this really isn't, I mean, it's not really the the calling that you would expect. Jesus isn't promising comfort, right? He doesn't promise Paul fame. He he promises him suffering. I'm gonna show him how much he's gonna suffer for my name. And the reason for this is that following Jesus isn't about building our kingdom, it's about giving our lives for his. Following Jesus isn't about comfort, it's about surrender. This road to impact. If we want to be impactful for the kingdom of God, it comes through surrender. And carrying the name of Jesus, it will always come with a cost. In our culture today, sometimes that's that's just not the message we hear, right? That we we don't hear the message that following Jesus comes with a cost. We hear that it's gonna get easier and more joyful, which it which it does, and more peaceful, which it does, but at the same time it comes with a cost. It sometimes comes with suffering. And this we know that this the this message that um God will make your life comfortable and successful, we know that's not the message of Scripture. Jesus says in Luke 9, he says, then he said to them all, if anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. So Jesus doesn't sound like he's preaching this message of of comfort, because the cross isn't about comfort. It's about death to ourselves and being surrendered to God. Being more doesn't mean more comfort, more applause, more recognition. It means your life becomes part of something bigger than yourself. It means your life gets poured out for the mission of Jesus, and that will always cost something. So as we kind of come to the close of this story, this is what it says in verse 17. It says, Ananias went and entered the house, and he placed his hands on Saul and said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, you were traveling, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And at once something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight, and then he got up and he was baptized. And after taking some food, he regained his strength, and Saul was with the disciples in Damascus for some time, and immediately he began proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues, he is the Son of God. So God uses Ananias to heal Saul, empower him to be filled with the Spirit. These blinders fall from his eyes, he regains his strength, and he goes and starts preaching that Jesus is the Son of God. The same message he came to persecute, he's now proclaiming in Damascus. The man who once tried to stop the message of Jesus is now advancing it. The persecutor becomes the preacher, the enemy becomes the missionary. The man who started the story trying to destroy Christianity would later become one of the main people that God would use to spread the good news across of the gospel across the world. He traveled thousands of miles planting churches, preaching the gospel across the Roman Empire, writing letters that now make up nearly half of the New Testament. You could probably make the argument that we wouldn't be sitting here today if it wasn't for the legacy, the faithfulness, the obedience of Paul. But again, here's what I want us to see that it all started when Jesus knocked him to the ground, and Paul just surrendered and surrendered his life, having no idea, no idea what God had in store for him or what he would go on to do. But all he knew in that moment was that Jesus was the Son of God and he surrendered his life in that moment. The road to impact runs through surrender. Everything changed about Saul's life on the road to Damascus, but his life wasn't marked by this one-time decision, this one-time moment to surrender. The same way for us, we I mean, we we may have encountered moments like Paul on this road to Damascus where Jesus just stops us right in our tracks, understanding that we were walking one way, but now we're gonna follow Jesus. And we surrendered him. Some of us have kind of that one-time moment, but in reality, following Jesus is this constant daily process of surrender. Surrender is a way of life as we follow Jesus. And it was a way of life for Paul. He writes this in Romans 12. It says, Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, to surrender holy and pleasing to God. This is your true worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. Paul's learned firsthand and teaches here that a life that honors God is really a life that's placed on an altar, being available to be used by God, however it may look like. A life that's marked by surrender, a life that says, Jesus, my life is it's not my own anymore. I am now a living sacrifice to you. Everything I have, everything I am belongs to you. It's been bought by your blood, and I'm now yours. My life is not my own anymore. Being made for more doesn't start with a platform, but it starts and continues through this constant posture of surrender, of living as a living sacrifice to the Lord. Jesus, my life belongs to you. Use me however you want. Here I am, Lord. And again, we you know, for our students, a lot of them had that moment this weekend, but now the question is what that we're gonna kind of hit them with a little later is what are you gonna do with your life now? And a lot of y'all have already encountered the living God, and you've been you've been walking with him faithfully for years, but it's still the question, what what are we gonna do right now? How are we gonna walk in obedience right now? How are we gonna surrender right now? Are we gonna keep going throughout life the same way we always have through the mundaneness, the rhythms, going along with the ways of the world? Are we gonna place our life on the altar and just say, Jesus, my life belongs to you? I'm not made for this world, I don't really belong here. So while I'm here, I'm used, I'm I'm here to be used however you please. Being more, it starts with surrender. It's saying yes to Jesus in whatever he might want for us. Um so last night we we gave students just kind of this opportunity, um, really just to listen for the Lord's voice and then just say yes. Um, it's so hard uh to know what it is the Lord might be calling some of you to. It could be a a hundred different things, but what matters is that we're just actively listening, listening for the Lord's voice. We have that same response to as as Ananias had of here I am, Lord. Whatever it is you have me do, whether it's going to the greatest enemy of the Christian faith or it's going to a coworker at work, whatever it is you have me do, here I am. Um and we just gave students an opportunity to listen for the Lord's voice and just respond by saying yes. So we're gonna kind of do the same thing this morning. Um we're gonna do it again with our students till 1145. But I just I just want to create space for you just to listen to the Lord's voice and whatever it is that he might be calling you to surrender, whatever it is he might be calling you to lay to the side, and whatever it is he might be calling you to do, and whatever purpose he might be calling you to, and just the opportunity just to say yes. So um I'm just gonna invite you to posture yourself however you want, if you want to kneel, if you want to just bow your head, um, you want to stand up, whatever you want to do, however you want to posture your heart um in your body physically to hear the Lord's voice. I want to give you that time and just a reminder that that man, gosh, I want to I want to live in the fullness of all that God has for me, but but I don't need a spotlight to do that. We just need surrender. If we want to live in God's purpose, all we need is surrender. If I'm if I'm being honest, I didn't I didn't really want to preach this sermon today. Me and Nathan, we spent a lot of time going back and forth on uh what passage we were going to use, and this is the one he suggested. I had another one that I had in mind, um, but here we are. Um I wanted to kind of empower y'all and even our students just by by firing you up, getting you ready to just run through a brick wall as you left here, living in the purpose and calling God has for you. But kind of as this weekend has gone on, the Lord's revealed to me that the best way, the best way to empower God's people is to really um through a posture of surrender. So again, as we do this, all I want you to say to the Lord is just here I am. Here I am, Lord. And just listen for his voice. Jesus, my my life belongs to you. Use me how use me however you want, whatever it may look like. And again, the constant theme throughout scripture is that before God sends you to go and do something, the first thing he wants is just your yes, your commitment. So before God sends you to your job or your neighborhood or wherever he may lead you, he just wants your yes. Whatever that may look like. Whether it's him calling you to leave behind some sin patterns that have reigned in your life for far too long, to bring those sins to light, to walk in the the power in the new life that Jesus offers. Maybe God's calling you and bringing someone's name to your mind, and you have a little bit of an ananias moment, and you're you're saying, God, are you are you sure? All God wants is your yes. Walk in boldness in that. Maybe God's calling you to serve in a new way, and maybe calling you into ministry in in whatever way that may look like, whether it's something more intentional at your job or um serving in a if it in a different ministry in the community, whatever it may look like. Maybe God's calling you to to go and and do something. And all he wants is your yes. And he'll handle, he'll handle the details, he'll he'll handle the provision and the direction. He just wants you to say yes and take one step at a time. Again, just the posture. Here I am, Lord. Jesus, my life belongs to you. Use me however you want. God, I'm so grateful again for this past weekend and um even just this morning, again to close out this incredible weekend, just as a church as a whole, and we're thankful for the gospel. God, that again, that Jesus, that you've called us to more. Gosh, this this world has nothing to offer us except disappointment and sorrow and pain. And it feels like as soon as we get life figured out, something else happens. God, this this world just it doesn't have anything for us, but it's because you've made us with a purpose, you've made us in your image. And God, I just pray that you would open our eyes to what that is and what it practically looks like for each one of us, knowing that we're all walking through different situations, living with different kinds of people and have different relationships, all these different things, God, but just whatever it looks like for us, I pray that we would just have the heart of surrender, the heart of just saying yes, that we would say, Here I am, Lord, my wife belongs to you. Use me however you want. God, would we as your church just be chosen instruments, empty vessels filled and used by you? God, would we be people who live as living sacrifices, living from a place of surrender? So, God, as we continue in worship and we sing this song, it's it's just a continued prayer, God, that we are available to whatever it is that you have for us. We're expectant and we're excited. Um, and we just give you all the glory and the praise. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.