SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_02: My prayer for the next few minutes is not that I just dump another load of words on you, but it would reinforce, I think, the beauty of what we've already seen together today.
SPEAKER_02: Um, none of this was scripted.
SPEAKER_02: This is, I believe, an example of how the spirit's at work to do the work he wants to do among his people, um, and sometimes in spite of us.
SPEAKER_02: But if if we pay attention, it's a beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, Pat, man, that was just incredible.
SPEAKER_02: Just seeing you be a dad, even though you're not dad.
SPEAKER_02: Um and uh Luke had to say and Ryan had to say, they all kind of dovetail, I think, on what the Lord wants us to hear today.
SPEAKER_02: And Neil has referred to it already.
SPEAKER_02: We're in the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_02: We're just kind of getting started with it this summer.
SPEAKER_02: We'll probably pick up on at another time.
SPEAKER_02: And uh, we want to talk about what it looks like to be salt and light this morning.
SPEAKER_02: And I hope that as you leave, you can have a handle on these are more than just words from Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: This is the way of life he invites us to live that actually helps us to hit on all cylinders.
SPEAKER_02: That when we embrace what he's called us to be, um, it does something in us, it pops in us.
SPEAKER_02: And as I was thinking about how to get us um even our minds in this kind of what does it look like for us to be salt and light in 21st century terms, I was reminded of a way that it doesn't work so well.
SPEAKER_02: Um my grandmother's funeral a few years ago.
SPEAKER_02: Um, I come from a very large Irish Catholic family.
SPEAKER_02: My dad was the 11th of 14 kids, and so when my grandmother died, I think I'm grandchild number 30 of about 50-something grandkids.
SPEAKER_02: And and uh there, so obviously big Irish wake, matriarchs gone, everyone from around the country gathers in St.
SPEAKER_02: Louis um for this, and it's a beautiful service.
SPEAKER_02: And then it with my family, it always ends at the VFW hall.
SPEAKER_02: And um, those of you who know how that works, and especially Irish Catholic families from St.
SPEAKER_02: Louis, um, there's beer and lots of it.
SPEAKER_02: So that was there to toast our grandmother and enjoy time together reminiscing.
SPEAKER_02: And I had a cousin who had just come to know Jesus uh about a year or so before my grandmother died, and in his passion and zeal, he decided this is not what we should be doing.
SPEAKER_02: So instead, he at the entrance to the VFW hall began a prayer tried to begin a prayer meeting, and he told all of our relatives who had walked by him that they're going straight to hell if they go in there instead of stopping to pray.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it was that good.
SPEAKER_02: And um, so I I was in town, I didn't live in St.
SPEAKER_02: Louis, so it was good to see all my family.
SPEAKER_02: I'm looking forward to reconnecting with everyone, but instead, um I was one of the outliers at the time in my family.
SPEAKER_02: I'm the not only a Protestant, but I'm a Protestant pastor.
SPEAKER_02: And so where I thought we would be catching up turned into me getting peppered with all these questions, trying to explain and defend our crazy cousin.
SPEAKER_02: And I thought, ay, ay, ay, this is not helping.
SPEAKER_02: This is not helping, right?
SPEAKER_02: And I think we've all come across people that while they're very well intentioned, end up repelling people from Jesus more than they attract him, them to him.
SPEAKER_02: People like my cousin, who um are in your face kind of Christians, they always want to launch into an awkward kind of spiritual discussion or or look to have this confrontation at what is almost always the most inopportune time, right?
SPEAKER_02: You're at the movie theater and somebody says, I'm sorry, is that seat saved?
SPEAKER_02: And you're like, Well, actually the real question is, are you saved?
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_03: Like, right?
SPEAKER_02: Or holier than thou, Christians who paint themselves as being much better than they actually are, and what they have kind of their spiritual gift is pointing out the sins of other people, right?
SPEAKER_02: And acting like they've always got their act together, and people are like, seriously, you're gonna go with that?
SPEAKER_02: Or cosmetic Christians who have skin-deep spirituality where they look really good on the outside, but the more you hang out with them, you're like, ah, there seems to be some disconnect here.
SPEAKER_02: I know you might be able to quote a lot of scripture, or you might give a lot of money or serve here or serve there, but the more I hang out with you, the more I realize I certainly don't want to cut you off on the Grand Parkway.
SPEAKER_02: Have you ever met anybody like that?
SPEAKER_02: Worse yet, have you ever been somebody like that?
SPEAKER_02: There's honestly, there's times I have been like that, right?
SPEAKER_02: And tragically, I think um Sheldon Van Auken, you know, several years ago, he made an observation that was spot on.
SPEAKER_02: He said the best argument for Christianity is Christians.
SPEAKER_02: Their joy, their certainty, their completeness.
SPEAKER_02: But the strongest argument against Christianity is also Christians.
SPEAKER_02: When they're somber and joyless, when they're self-righteous and smug, when they're narrow and repressive, then Christianity dies a thousand deaths.
SPEAKER_02: See, friends, despite our good intentions, sometimes we, if we're not careful, inadvertently repel people from Jesus' and his ways instead of attracting them to them.
SPEAKER_02: Not because we don't know Jesus or don't know the truth, but because of how we proclaim it.
SPEAKER_02: We don't do it Jesus' way.
SPEAKER_02: And I suspect there are many of you, and I can tell by the way, you're nodding your heads, that you share my aversion for this kind of obnoxious in-your-face, holier than now, skin deep, I'm right all the time, Christianity.
SPEAKER_02: You don't want to get lumped in with Ned Flanders or the church lady, I'm dating myself a little bit there, or certain TV preachers or ultra-religious right caricatures of Christianity, or these people who are even like give a nod to the man upstairs to help me win the game.
SPEAKER_02: You're like, ugh, really.
SPEAKER_02: See, the problem is though, in our aversion to these less than desirable expressions of Christianity, if it is indeed Christianity, I'm trying to be kind, um, what we opt for instead is a complete overreaction where we just keep to ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: We stay undercover and we depre we default to those that ancient wisdom uh preach always, use words when necessary.
SPEAKER_02: Which is true, but that does not mean never use words.
SPEAKER_02: And before we know it, people don't even know that Jesus is central to who we are, to our identity.
SPEAKER_02: We orient our lives around his kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: And I know that, and I can overreact that way, and I realize I don't want to be that guy.
SPEAKER_02: I want to be the guy who helps to break down these pseudo-secret, sacred secular barriers that people tend to live with, where we compartmentalize our lives and think, okay, I'll do Jesus on Sunday, but he's gonna have to get put on the shelf because I got work to do.
SPEAKER_02: As opposed to recognizing that all of life is spiritual and Jesus wants to meet us in every single step, no matter who we are or what we're doing.
SPEAKER_02: He wants to be with us in that.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, the truth is, and this might sound weird, but I consider it a great compliment when people are just surprised outside the church to discover that I'm a pastor.
SPEAKER_02: It's people change when they find out I'm a pastor.
SPEAKER_02: They talk to me differently, they kind of gets really weird.
SPEAKER_02: I remember once playing golf, and a guy got thrown into my foursome, and he was a Delta pilot on a layover, and he was obsessed with golf.
SPEAKER_02: And so he he joined us in through the first nine.
SPEAKER_02: He's a scratch golfer, he's incredible, and also um he cursed like a sailor.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, is that how it was?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, he was as belligerent as they come, and and finally he talked so much that uh when we made the turn to the back nine, he asked me what I did for a living.
SPEAKER_02: And uh the next three holes, he tripped over himself, apologizing.
SPEAKER_02: He triple bogeyed the next three holes, and and I finally said, dude, if you need to curse to feel better about your golf game, it's not gonna, it's not gonna ruin my day.
SPEAKER_02: He's like, Oh man, I'm afraid God's gonna strike me dead.
SPEAKER_02: You know, all those kinds of things.
SPEAKER_02: But the see people change.
SPEAKER_02: And while I I kind of like it when they're like, oh, I'm surprised.
SPEAKER_02: You don't you don't fit the mold of what I think of a pastor.
SPEAKER_02: While that might be something I like, I think the worst thing that could be said of me is somebody is surprised that I'm a follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: That there's that I want there has to be something different about me in a peculiar, attractive way, because that's what Jesus calls us to be here, to show who he is in an attractive way in all that we do and say.
SPEAKER_02: So, how do we relate to and influence this world that that's pulling us in these different directions, often than we don't want to go, or on a week like this, in the face of senseless violence once again, without being obnoxious and pouring gas from the fire on the one hand, or on the other hand, retreating into our little holy huddle, and then the outside world never notices and isn't influenced by us in any way.
SPEAKER_02: There has to be a way to be a follower of Jesus who fulfills the great commission to go into all the world, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and making disciples without being obnoxious or being a chameleon.
SPEAKER_02: And that's what Jesus talks about here in Matthew 5.
SPEAKER_02: So if you have your Bibles, turn to Matthew 5, verse 13.
SPEAKER_02: The good news for us today is that we can be a people through whom God brings grace and healing and wholeness to our world.
SPEAKER_02: But he does it through us as we embrace Jesus and His way.
SPEAKER_02: Matthew 5, 13, and this is a familiar passage to most of us, so I chose to share it with us today in a different version, so maybe you'll have new ears to hear it.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus says this, let me tell you why you're here.
SPEAKER_02: You're here to be salt seasoning that brings out the God flavors of this earth.
SPEAKER_02: If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness?
SPEAKER_02: You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.
SPEAKER_02: Here's another way to put it: you're here to be light, bringing out the God colors in this world.
SPEAKER_02: God is not a secret to be kept.
SPEAKER_02: We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill.
SPEAKER_02: If I make you light bearers, you don't think I'm gonna hide you under a bucket, do you?
SPEAKER_02: I'm putting you on a light stand.
SPEAKER_02: Now that I put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand, shine.
SPEAKER_02: Keep open house, be generous with your lives.
SPEAKER_02: By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus says, the posture I want you to take in this world is to be a man or a woman who is my agent, my instrument, my conduit of grace, healing, and wholeness.
SPEAKER_02: And that begins as you see yourself as salt and as light.
SPEAKER_02: Salt and light.
SPEAKER_02: Which to us, these metaphors can get lost on us a little bit because they're not as central, at least in our minds, as it was, you know, 2,000 years ago when Matthew recorded these words.
SPEAKER_02: But if you think about it, salt and light, what they have in common, is that they have a radical influence on whatever it is they come into contact with, right?
SPEAKER_02: Think about salt.
SPEAKER_02: Salt makes people thirsty, right?
SPEAKER_02: Boy, these pretzels are making me thirsty.
SPEAKER_02: It makes people thirsty.
SPEAKER_02: It spices things up a bit, right?
SPEAKER_02: It enhances flavor, it can serve as a preservative.
SPEAKER_02: And where I moved from, northern Indiana, it was a staple from the months of October through March because we had to melt the snow and the ice.
SPEAKER_02: Salt can melt what's frozen.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is saying, live the kind of life that make life that makes people thirst for the truth about me, that spices things up by stimulating people to think about what they value and who they really are, that retards the state of moral decay in our society, that shows people that following me actually enhances their life.
SPEAKER_02: Live in such a way that you melt people's defenses.
SPEAKER_02: And then there's light, right?
SPEAKER_02: Light illuminates, it exposes, it guides, it actually draws people in, like those searchlights, right?
SPEAKER_02: People are like, what's going on there?
SPEAKER_02: We've had it this week.
SPEAKER_02: Star fireworks.
SPEAKER_02: Everybody looks at fireworks.
SPEAKER_02: It's that beautiful light in the sky.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is saying, live the kind of life that illuminates me, shines its light on me, which is another way to say that brings me glory.
SPEAKER_02: We shine the light on Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Live a life that shines my compassion in dark places of despair.
SPEAKER_02: Live a life that attracts people to me because I'm the ultimate light of life.
SPEAKER_02: See, in both cases, salt and light, in order to be effective, need to be shaken, get out of the container or shown or uncovered.
SPEAKER_02: Otherwise, they're no good.
SPEAKER_02: They're no good.
SPEAKER_02: So how do we how do these metaphors help us imagine what it looks like to live the Jesus way?
SPEAKER_02: Kind of in 21st century terms.
SPEAKER_02: What does it mean to be salt and light?
SPEAKER_02: And there's a lot of things we could talk about, and I don't have a lot of time this morning, so I'd like to focus on two, probably one and a half, but two, that I think are a good place to start.
SPEAKER_02: And the first has to do with my title here.
SPEAKER_02: Um my responsibilities here is I'm the connections and teaching pastor.
SPEAKER_02: You kind of get the teaching part when you hear me on Sundays, but the biggest part of what I do around here is to help people connect with each other, but also it's not just with each other, it's we connect with God so that we can together become who he wants us to be so that we can connect with the world who needs him, right?
SPEAKER_02: It's kind of that flow.
SPEAKER_02: So I described that in the past as I'm the with pastor around here.
SPEAKER_02: That's what connection means is with.
SPEAKER_02: And I think with is the one of the most powerful um prepositions in the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: God made us to do life with him and with one another.
SPEAKER_02: And when we don't embrace that, um something's off.
SPEAKER_02: So the first thing that I would say that I think might be obvious but needs to be said is if we want to embrace this call to be salt and light, we need to practice the art of withness.
SPEAKER_02: It's kind of a word I invented, but withness is an art.
SPEAKER_02: It's not just being in the same room with somebody.
SPEAKER_02: There's something more to it.
SPEAKER_02: Salt and light do no good if they stay in a bucket or hidden, right?
SPEAKER_02: Salt only works when it's taken out of a container.
SPEAKER_02: Light is only effective when there is some degree of darkness.
SPEAKER_02: Light does no good to shine into a light, a brightly lit room.
SPEAKER_02: We don't need more light in the light.
SPEAKER_02: We need light in the darkness.
SPEAKER_02: That's why we gather for worship here, right?
SPEAKER_02: We don't, the point of our worship is not simply to gather so we can show each other our salt and our light.
SPEAKER_02: The way to think about it is when we gather here, it's kind of like halftime.
SPEAKER_02: The real game is when we leave this campus and live our lives Sunday to Sunday.
SPEAKER_02: What we do here helps us to get recalibrated and refreshed and reoriented around what God is doing in our lives.
SPEAKER_02: See, the only way salt or white has any positive impact is if it is taken to those who need it the most.
SPEAKER_02: So, in light of that reality, I have to regularly ask myself who in my world could use a dash of salt?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, not too much.
SPEAKER_02: Too much is like gross.
SPEAKER_02: But a dash of salt.
SPEAKER_02: Some preservation, some flavoring, some melting.
SPEAKER_02: Or where is it dim?
SPEAKER_02: Not where can I hang out with all the other cool flashlights?
SPEAKER_02: With whom and how can I be present with those who have yet to experience the kind of life that Jesus has offers us?
SPEAKER_02: And and and I'm a fix-it kind of guy, kind of intuitively.
SPEAKER_02: I want to just, if you have something going on, just do this, do this, do this.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, aren't you glad you met me?
SPEAKER_02: I'm God's gift to you.
SPEAKER_02: Go on and have a happy life.
SPEAKER_02: And that's not always helpful, is it, guys?
SPEAKER_02: So um, a woman by the name Brene Brown's done some writing and speaking on on how to be with people in a way that is actually helpful.
SPEAKER_02: I would say redemptive.
SPEAKER_02: And so I discovered this little clip um a couple weeks ago, and it's about two minutes long.
SPEAKER_02: So I'd like for us to look at it together, and maybe it will stir something in this.
SPEAKER_01: So, what is empathy and why is it very different than sympathy?
SPEAKER_01: Empathy fuels connection, sympathy drives disconnection.
SPEAKER_01: Empathy, it's very interesting.
SPEAKER_01: Teresa Wiseman is a nursing scholar who studied professions, very diverse professions, where empathy is relevant and came up with four qualities of empathy.
SPEAKER_01: Perspective taking, the ability to take the perspective of another person or recognize their perspective as their truth, staying out of judgment, not easy when you enjoy it as much as most of us do.
SPEAKER_01: Recognizing emotion in other people and then communicating that.
SPEAKER_01: Empathy is feeling with people.
SPEAKER_01: And to me, I always think of empathy as this kind of sacred space when someone's kind of in a deep hole and they shout out from the bottom and they say, I'm stuck, it's dark, I'm overwhelmed.
SPEAKER_01: And then we look and we say, Hey, you climb down.
SPEAKER_01: I know what it's like down here, and you're not alone.
SPEAKER_01: Sympathy is it's bad, uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01: You want to see what?
SPEAKER_01: Empathy is a choice, and it's a vulnerable choice because in order to connect with you, I have to connect with something in myself that knows that feeling.
SPEAKER_01: Rarely, if ever, does an empathic response begin with at least.
SPEAKER_01: I had a yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And we do it all the time.
SPEAKER_01: Because you know what?
SPEAKER_01: Someone just shared something with us that's incredibly painful, and we're trying to silver lining it.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think that's a verb, but I'm using it as one.
SPEAKER_01: We're trying to put the silver lining around it.
SPEAKER_01: So I had a miscarriage.
SPEAKER_01: At least you know you can get pregnant.
SPEAKER_01: I think my marriage is falling apart.
SPEAKER_01: At least you have a marriage.
SPEAKER_01: John's getting kicked out of school.
SPEAKER_01: At least Sarah is an A student.
SPEAKER_01: But one of the things we do sometimes in the face of very difficult conversations is we try to make things better.
SPEAKER_01: If I share something with you that's very difficult, I'd rather you say, I don't even know what to say right now, I'm just so glad you told me.
SPEAKER_01: Because the truth is, rarely can a response make something better.
SPEAKER_01: What makes something better is connection.
SPEAKER_02: Being with people in a redemptive way is powerful.
SPEAKER_02: And it's a hard lesson, especially for us guys, to learn, right?
SPEAKER_02: It took me about 25 years into our 29 years of marriage to realize when my wife is frustrated, she's not asking me to fix it in three steps or less.
SPEAKER_02: And that's not that's probably true of most people.
SPEAKER_02: Now the fixing might come later, but we don't always need to start.
SPEAKER_02: So I have to ask myself, who in my world is in this proverbial hole?
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: What would it look like for me to be with them as Jesus would be with them if he were me?
SPEAKER_02: Without the first words out of my mouth being at least.
SPEAKER_02: See, being salt and light starts by being with those who have yet to experience the Jesus way.
SPEAKER_02: We join Jesus by getting out of the salt shaker and following him into very dark places, and our prayer is, God, make me an instrument of your peace, your wholeness, your grace, your healing.
SPEAKER_02: Being with the least and the lost and the hurting as conduits of grace, healing, and wholeness.
SPEAKER_02: That's where being salt and light starts.
SPEAKER_02: But it doesn't stop there because it's one thing to be with people.
SPEAKER_02: I think just as important to learning the art of withness is actually how we are with them.
SPEAKER_02: Paying attention to how we are with them.
SPEAKER_02: That's kind of already alluded to here.
SPEAKER_02: So, secondly, as we follow Jesus' way by being salt and light, we need to not only be with people, but we need to give ourselves permission to be real.
SPEAKER_02: To be real.
SPEAKER_02: Now, have you ever encountered kind of the fake version of something?
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: Um, I remember once we were trying to be budget conscious and we got like the off-brand Oreos.
SPEAKER_02: I think we ended up throwing them out.
SPEAKER_02: What's the point, right?
SPEAKER_02: Well, you're gonna go in, go big.
SPEAKER_02: Or once I tried to make queso, you know, you get that rotel and it says the slice up Velveeta, which I think by nature Velveeta is probably not real, but um you you know what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_02: But so we got this knockoff Velveeta because it's like half the price, and the more we microwaved it, the harder it got.
SPEAKER_02: You're like, this is really frightening, right?
SPEAKER_02: Don't even get me started about real toilet paper, but you get the idea.
SPEAKER_02: See, the real make is really is a big difference one as opposed to something that's kind of a knockoff.
SPEAKER_02: Once you've had the real, you can't be okay with the knockoff.
SPEAKER_02: And in our world that looks, I think, suspiciously on anything or anyone that seems too perfect or isn't messy or always is pristine and always has the right answers.
SPEAKER_02: I would suggest that the most effective way for us to be with people as salt and light is when we're with them, is just to be real, to be genuine, to be authentic and transparent and even vulnerable about who I am and what's going on in me.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, what's the standard accusation most folks throw out about church people?
SPEAKER_02: We're hypocrites, right?
SPEAKER_02: That's true.
SPEAKER_02: By definition, a hypocrite is someone whose life is inconsistent with what they say all the time.
SPEAKER_02: That's what a hypocrite is.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know about you, but I'm really good at that.
SPEAKER_02: I can talk a really good game.
SPEAKER_02: And a lot of times it's a lot better than the game I actually live.
SPEAKER_02: And there are times, if I'm not careful, that I don't actually live what I say I believe, which by definition means I don't really believe it.
SPEAKER_02: And people notice that, don't they?
SPEAKER_02: And they see that that's a turnoff.
SPEAKER_02: People are drawn to authenticity.
SPEAKER_02: So what I would say is acting like we're something we're not, or the church version of that is acting like we're something less than we are, this kind of false sense of humility, I think keeps Jesus' way hidden.
SPEAKER_02: And tragically, too many have bought the lie that Christians should never get angry, or never be depressed, or never really grieve, because for some reason it's some sort of sign of a shallow or weak faith.
SPEAKER_02: Yet I found for me, I get angry.
SPEAKER_02: And I get frustrated and I struggle and I hurt.
SPEAKER_02: And just stuffing those feelings creates a bigger disconnect in me, and sometimes it's almost unbearable, right?
SPEAKER_02: And what I'm learning, the longer I walk with Jesus, is those aren't feelings that need to be denied and stuffed.
SPEAKER_02: Those are feelings that need to be tended in healthy, God-honoring ways.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, this is what the psalmists did.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, the Psalms, there's 150 Psalms, and you know a hundred of them are described as Psalms of Lament.
SPEAKER_02: There's a other kinds of under that category, but Psalms of Lament, which is a safe way to say, two-thirds of the time the psalmists are saying, God, what is up?
SPEAKER_02: I love that.
SPEAKER_02: Because that gives me permission to say, God, what is up?
SPEAKER_02: See, honestly dealing with the real stuff of life is a window to how God is at work in and through you.
SPEAKER_02: Because when I mess up, and when you mess up and fail, which you do, I think the best thing to do in order to effectively be with people is actually just to be honest about it.
SPEAKER_02: Because too many of us have mistakenly believed that we need to hide our failures at all costs, as if if anyone knew I'm imperfect, that might be a bad witness and that would drive them away from God.
SPEAKER_02: Like they don't already know that.
SPEAKER_02: Everyone knows you're not perfect.
SPEAKER_02: Let's just be honest and admit it.
SPEAKER_02: See, humbly acknowledging our messes and our failures, I would describe as walking with a limp, I think is the high stuff, is the stuff of high potency Christianity.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not saying be a mess constantly.
SPEAKER_02: What I'm saying is I'm not called to be a perfect follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: I'm called to be a living follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: I'm someone that God's like, no, I know I said be perfect is I'm perfect, and we'll talk about that next week.
SPEAKER_02: But what that means is be covered in my perfection and follow me in such a way, be a living example of what it looks like to follow the Jesus way, and people will see, oh, I don't have to deal with these messes all by myself.
SPEAKER_02: Truth is, I'm a pastor and I get mad and I say really stupid things.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I can't, I lose track sometimes of the times.
SPEAKER_02: I say something as I'm doing, I'm like, come back.
SPEAKER_02: I get frustrated.
SPEAKER_02: And I used to hide these emotions or beat myself up for feeling that way.
SPEAKER_02: I should know better.
SPEAKER_02: But I'm learning, but to be honest about what's going on in me is truthfully, that's the only place where God's going to meet me.
SPEAKER_02: Good, bad, or ugly.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: See, God doesn't hit rewind and say, let's go back and re redo that one.
SPEAKER_02: I wish he would sometimes, but that's not how he works.
SPEAKER_02: He's like, oh, I can use that.
SPEAKER_02: And nor does he say, Rick, let's wait till you calm down and get your act together, and then we're gonna do something about it.
SPEAKER_02: No, God says, Let me meet you right in the middle of this mess.
SPEAKER_02: What I've learned, in fact, is that the only place God meets me is exactly where I am.
SPEAKER_02: Exactly where I am.
SPEAKER_02: And then beyond that, I would simply say, not only do I need to learn to be real with myself, but I need to learn to be real with the people around me, especially, I think, people that don't know Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Because I think that's the turnoff.
SPEAKER_02: I can remember um a couple years ago, my two sons, they're four years apart.
SPEAKER_02: One was a senior in college, one was a senior in high school, and and um they were they're really good football players.
SPEAKER_02: You know, part of it is they grew up in Texas and they moved to Indiana, so the scale got changed, right?
SPEAKER_02: Um but they were good, and um, and within two weeks of each other, their beginning of their senior years, both of their careers were ended by injury.
SPEAKER_02: And um, as hard as that was for them, it was even more difficult for me.
SPEAKER_02: I'm so thankful somewhere along the line, they picked up their primary identity, wasn't tied to their performance on a football field.
SPEAKER_02: And God did great work in them.
SPEAKER_02: But I I what I failed to recognize was along the line, I picked up this thing of boy, I really like being known as the dad of two good football players.
SPEAKER_02: People talk to me.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, I saw in the paper your son scored some touchdowns.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, I saw your son's on this watch list.
SPEAKER_02: I love that.
SPEAKER_02: I loved it.
SPEAKER_02: And then it was gone.
SPEAKER_02: And I remember talking with a couple of the other dads because you know, you if any of you who grew up have kids in sports, you know that becomes an extended family of sorts, right?
SPEAKER_02: So um talking to these dads, and my boys were hurt, and I was like, man, they're like, How you doing?
SPEAKER_02: How's Ryan doing?
SPEAKER_02: How's Ty doing?
SPEAKER_02: And I found myself saying, you know what, they're on the mend and they're doing pretty well, but I'm really struggling with this, man.
SPEAKER_02: I didn't realize how much it bothered me.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm struggling with saying to my son, come on, it's only a concussion.
SPEAKER_02: What's your problem?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I didn't say it, but I thought it, and I'm like, what is wrong with me?
SPEAKER_02: What is wrong with me?
SPEAKER_02: And I said, I'm just trying to figure out and say, God, what's going on with me that I'm this is that important to me.
SPEAKER_02: Now, these guys weren't Christians, they didn't go to our church, they weren't in a small accountability group of mine.
SPEAKER_02: They were just guys that we hung out in the stands and we traveled on road games together, right?
SPEAKER_02: So I think providentially within the next month or two, two of these guys, their sons had season-ending injuries too.
SPEAKER_02: And while we never really talked about spiritual things before, even though they knew I was a pastor, they found me.
SPEAKER_02: They said, Man, I'm feeling the same kinds of things you were talking about.
SPEAKER_02: I can you help me figure out what that is?
SPEAKER_02: And I can't say the heavens parted and the spirit descended like a dove, and they prayed this incredible prayer, but I can say both of those guys, my friends, that were we were just friends because we liked each other and our boys were friends, they took a step toward Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And they got a picture of how what God's really like, and that He wants to meet them in that.
SPEAKER_02: I I I'm not judge of her, they are completely spiritually, but I know something happened in them.
SPEAKER_02: And I would like to think it's in part because I was honest about something happening in me.
SPEAKER_02: See, we're invited to be living examples of the Jesus way, to put Jesus kind of life on display.
SPEAKER_02: And our primary calling is simply to authentically be with people, as Jesus would be with them if he were in our place.
SPEAKER_02: And I believe as we are real with people, what we do in essence is put ourselves in a position to be conduits, to be these agents of grace, healing, and wholeness.
SPEAKER_02: That's where being salt and light begins.
SPEAKER_02: And that's the Jesus way.
SPEAKER_02: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_02: Father, we just invite you now to speak to us.
SPEAKER_02: Um, and we need somebody to meet us there.
SPEAKER_02: Some of us we're afraid to go in the hole with somebody because we're we're not sure we have what it takes to be helpful.
SPEAKER_02: In either case, Jesus, we need you.
SPEAKER_02: So we just ask you to come by your spirit and speak to us, to bring healing to us who need healing, to extend your grace to us, and also to begin to show us a next step into being salt and light.
SPEAKER_02: Who is it you want us to be a reflection of you to?
SPEAKER_02: I said you give us a name right now as we listen.
SPEAKER_02: Father, we come to you now as your people, and we expose our wounds to you.
SPEAKER_02: We ask that you would meet us right where we are.
SPEAKER_02: We need your healing, we need your grace, we need your mercy, we need you to make us whole.
SPEAKER_02: So would you begin to do that, God?
SPEAKER_02: But not just for our sake, but for your sake, that your kingdom might come in and through us, that people might see you as they see us.
SPEAKER_02: Help us to be a peculiar people in the best possible sense.
SPEAKER_02: Help us to become a people when others are around us that don't know you are like, what do you got?
SPEAKER_02: How can I get that?
SPEAKER_02: God, I know we can't fake that, we can't prescribe that.
SPEAKER_02: That comes from a very real encounter with you.
SPEAKER_02: So do your work in us and make us the people you want us to be.
SPEAKER_02: We pray in your mightest name, Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: I want to invite you to stand before we leave.
SPEAKER_02: Um, as a benediction, as a blessing, I want us to pray a prayer together.
SPEAKER_02: That's a prayer that's hundreds of years old, uh, that was penned by St.
SPEAKER_02: Francis of Assisi, Assisi, and um, and it will be familiar to you.
SPEAKER_02: And we're gonna pray this, but before we do, I want to first invite those who would like for someone to pray with you.
SPEAKER_02: After we prayed, if you'd like for someone to pray with you, you're you're the one in the hole right now.
SPEAKER_02: And you say, God, I need healing, I need grace, I need I need you to break in.
SPEAKER_02: Um we want to just help you meet God there and see what he does.
SPEAKER_02: So we're here to pray with you.
SPEAKER_02: Um if you are new with us, thanks so much for being with us today.
SPEAKER_02: We really are honored that you would take a Sunday morning out to pray and just to meet with us and so we meet with Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: I hope and pray that you got a glimpse of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: You you had a sense that he was with us.
SPEAKER_02: I think he was, I think he still is.
SPEAKER_02: Um, and then you can tear out a connection card if you let us know you were here and place it in the offering boxes on your way out, which is where we worship God in giving.
SPEAKER_02: So if you're part of our Grand Parkway family, we want to urge you to continue to be faithful and worshiping God in that way.
SPEAKER_02: And then, as I see these, as Don mentioned at the beginning, not everyone was in the room.
SPEAKER_02: We have a team heading to Costa Rica this week, and these are the team members.
SPEAKER_02: If you'd like to come and get a card to pray for them through the week, um, that would be awesome.
SPEAKER_02: All right.
SPEAKER_02: So let's pray this prayer together as our benediction.
SPEAKER_02: So if we could open our arms and receive from the Father as we ask him, Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
SPEAKER_02: Where there's hatred, let me sow love.
SPEAKER_02: Where there's injury, pardon.
SPEAKER_02: Where there's doubt, faith, where there is despair, hope, where there is darkness, light, where there is sadness, joy.
SPEAKER_02: O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love, for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.
SPEAKER_02: I bless you now to go be salt and light in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Have an awesome week.