Feeling overwhelmed by the constant demands of those around you? We're about to unpack a fresh perspective on how to navigate relationships with those who always seem to need something. This episode is a journey of understanding, compassion, and most importantly, setting healthy boundaries.
As we delve into the biblical story of Peter and John, we draw insights on how strategic and prayerful response to needs can transform lives. We challenge the notion of guilt-driven or selfish reactions, emphasizing the role of strategy in giving. Think about this, is it more beneficial to simply give a hand out or rather a hand up? We also uncover the significance of disconnecting and self-care, following Jesus's example. Trust us when we say, caring for yourself is not selfish; it's essential to serve others effectively.
In the final part of our discussion, we reflect on God's unconditional love and the profound lessons from the story of the Prodigal Son. We explore how in our lowest moments, God's voice becomes the clearest, teaching us to trust and surrender. Using the metaphor of building our lives on a rock, we explain the importance of firm faith in Jesus. So join us, as we navigate these deep waters, learning, growing, and trusting together.
Made a decision to follow Jesus? We want to know about it! Fill out our connect card here: https://local.churchcenter.com/people/forms/115766
Thank you for your generosity. For information on how to give, visit https://localvineyard.church/give.
Feeling overwhelmed by the constant demands of those around you? We're about to unpack a fresh perspective on how to navigate relationships with those who always seem to need something. This episode is a journey of understanding, compassion, and most importantly, setting healthy boundaries.
As we delve into the biblical story of Peter and John, we draw insights on how strategic and prayerful response to needs can transform lives. We challenge the notion of guilt-driven or selfish reactions, emphasizing the role of strategy in giving. Think about this, is it more beneficial to simply give a hand out or rather a hand up? We also uncover the significance of disconnecting and self-care, following Jesus's example. Trust us when we say, caring for yourself is not selfish; it's essential to serve others effectively.
In the final part of our discussion, we reflect on God's unconditional love and the profound lessons from the story of the Prodigal Son. We explore how in our lowest moments, God's voice becomes the clearest, teaching us to trust and surrender. Using the metaphor of building our lives on a rock, we explain the importance of firm faith in Jesus. So join us, as we navigate these deep waters, learning, growing, and trusting together.
Made a decision to follow Jesus? We want to know about it! Fill out our connect card here: https://local.churchcenter.com/people/forms/115766
Thank you for your generosity. For information on how to give, visit https://localvineyard.church/give.
Now, have you ever been really needy before? Like, come on, have you ever been a little too emotional, a little needy? I remember when I was 16 years old and in love it's a good time and I was in love with the girl. I never told her that I was in love with her, though, so I sat this big crush on her and I did some stalker-ish things. I got a job where she worked so I could be around her, and hindsight, that's really unhealthy, you know, don't do that, but I did it, you know. And here you go. I was in love with this girl and I wanted to go out with her, but I didn't have the courage to talk to her.
Speaker 1:But then there was this one particular day that I was on MySpace. Yeah, come on, I was friends with Tom. He made my top eight and I was on MySpace and there was a bulletin that she posted. And the bulletin started and says I'm in A and I was like what? And I clicked on it. And when you open the bulletin, it said in a relationship. And my heart went down to the floor, because I know she wasn't in a relationship with me.
Speaker 1:I was devastated, I was emotional, I was so sad, and so I walked up to my room and I was in need of some encouragement. I was in need of someone to tell me it was going to be okay. So I laid in my bed, I grabbed my phone, I called my friend, alex, and I said Alex, did you hear? He's like hear what Jenny? She's in a relationship, and I can't believe it, man. I thought she was the one for me. That's what we say when we're 16. I thought she was the one for me and I can't believe she's going out with someone else. I can't believe this is happening. And then Alex, with all the compassion of another 16-year-old boy, says to me Jacob, you're being a little too emotional right now. Call me back when you're over it. Then he hung up on me. I was like, dang man, I needed someone in my time of need. Okay, he was right, I was being emotional, but still I needed someone. Here you go.
Speaker 1:All of us have moments in our lives that we're a little needy. We have some big emotions, we have some big things going on and we can get overly emotional. Today, as we conclude our message series called Relational Vampires, what in the world is a relational vampire? Well, we all know what a vampire does, don't we? They want to suck your blood. What does a relational vampire do? They want to suck the life out of you. They're the people that are over critical. They can be draining and some people can be overly needy. So today I want to talk to you.
Speaker 1:How can we love those who are overly needy, the people that we really do care about, but they always need a little bit more than what we're able to give them. In fact, there's a spiritual principle in every group and every family and every small group, on every team, on every work team and in every group of people, there's at least one crazy, emotional person. I think the scriptures say it like this where two or three are gathered, there's at least one crazy one. Okay, that's not what the scriptures say, but it's right. There's always one that's a little bit more needy. So how do we love those who are in need? How do we love those? How do we love and care for those who are a little bit extra? And you know the people I'm talking about. You know who I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:When they walk up to you, you know the conversation is going to be a little bit longer than what you want. They often dominate the conversation. They may tell the same story over and over and over and over and over again. They tend to be a little bit more. They tend to be a little bit more negative and not solution focused. You know, and somehow, in some way, no matter what, they are always the victim. Something's always happening to them, and when you do something for them, it's not often enough. You give and they want more. And it could be your relative. Don't look at them. It could be your relative that you love, but you know, but they need a lot of support. It could be that buddy of yours who's always asking for a little extra bit of money and they can have a little bit more. You're like what are you even using this money on? Or that insecure person at the office that's always kind of fishing for compliments Did I do this good? How am I doing? They're always a little bit more needy. Or it can be your friend who is always a hot mess and always on the struggle bus and you don't want to tell them there's other buses you can hop on. You don't got to be struggling every day. So.
Speaker 1:So then, what do we want to do? You know, because, as Jesus followers, we know we want to care for these people. We want to help people. We want to, we want to do, but sometimes it seems like it's not enough. So sometimes we will pull back and we'll try to regroup, but then we what? We feel guilty, we feel bad, because it's like we're leaving some people that we love stranded or in need. We want to help them, but if we help them the wrong way, it ends up actually hurting us and them. It ends up hurting both of us. So how do we love those who are always in need in a way that actually lifts them up without hurting them? And that's what we're going to talk about today.
Speaker 1:I got three big thoughts that I'm going to give us, and the first one is this when it comes to helping people, the first one is this when we give, we want to give strategically, we want to give strategically. And now the compassionate people in here because I'm one of them you're like Jacob. Come on, man. You know we can't give like that. We got to just give out the overflow of our heart, don't we? We just got to give it up. Here you go. Let go with me here for a second. Go with me here.
Speaker 1:Okay, we want to help them strategically, because most of the times we do not help people strategically. We help them emotionally. We respond to emotional need, we see a need and, because we care, we just react and we do, and we do the first thing that seems easy, convenient or something that actually makes us feel good, but it's not actually really helping them. Because, emotionally, we engage when someone's in need and when we do that it makes us feel good, it makes us relieve our own guilt. But what do we want to do? We want to give strategically. So, instead of focusing just on what they want or what leaves our guilt, we want to ask the question what do they really need? What does the person really need? This is an emotional given. This is prayerful and strategic given.
Speaker 1:In fact, there's a story in the Bible about two guys named Peter and John. They did this in a great way, in a brilliant way, when one day they were walking to the temple gate and there was a man there in serious need. He was unable to walk, he was a cripple, and every day he would have people take him up to the temple gate called Beautiful, and he would sit there and he would beg for money. He would beg for money, and this was his routine, and people would what. People would give him money, people would give him what he wanted. They would give the guy exactly what he wanted. And then, when Peter and John come along, this is what happened. The guy is there, he's sitting there, he's in his normal spot and his normal routine, and when he saw Peter and John about to enter, what does he do? He asks them for money. Then Peter looks at him and so does John, and then Peter says look at me. And so the cripple man looks at them with a handout, expecting to get what he always gets from people who walk into the gate.
Speaker 1:Because he did what most emotionally needy people do. I want you to hear this he did what most emotionally needy people do that if you ask long enough and if you are consistent and persistent, eventually there's someone who will emotionally respond to you and they will give you what you're asking for, even if it's not what you really need. Even if it's not what you really need. Because this guy had learned that every single day, that if he just relies on others to carry him to the gate and if he doesn't ask for money, some people will feel guilty enough to give him a little bit of money. And here's the thing. This is the crazy part. Here's the thing People would see this guy every day and they would give him money.
Speaker 1:And the reason why they would give him money is because, as they're about to enter the temple gates for prayer, they thought if they gave to this guy, god would love them more. So they're not given to the guy because they feel compassion for him, because they want to help them and they have a selfish motivation to give to him. And so here you go. But this guy took advantage of it. He knew what was going on and so he sat there every day and he received what he wanted, but never got what he needed.
Speaker 1:And I want us to get this picture in our head real fast, because this picture is insane. Here's this man. He's a crippled man in need, sitting at a gate right outside the temple courts, right outside the church. He's broken and in need and he's right outside the temple court. He's right outside the church and the church. People are going to church for a time of prayer, for a time of prayer, and instead of meeting the guy that what he needed, they gave him what he wanted and they just went and did their thing.
Speaker 1:And, friends, lvc, my hope is, as a church, we never miss the needs of the people out there and just do our church thing. I hope it's never our heart that we're just going to do our church thing. We'll do our prayer thing, we'll do our singing thing, all while there's people in need that we never help. My prayer, church, is that we will always see the people in need and we'll give them what they need. So what do we do? Often, though? We just kind of do often what's easy and what makes us feel better. We will sacrifice, as long as the sacrifice doesn't inconvenience us.
Speaker 1:Think about it this way what did the guy want? The answer is easy he wanted money. What would have been the easy thing to give him? The answer is money. You don't even want to lose change, you don't even want your nickels and dimes. Anyways, you just give it to him.
Speaker 1:But what Peter and John did was something extraordinary, because they didn't respond to him emotionally. They were led by the Spirit of God and responded to him in that way and they gave him what he needed. Check this out Acts 3 says this. Then Peter said silver or gold, I do not have, but what I do have, I give you the name of Jesus Christ in Nazareth walk. Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong. Scripture says they helped him up in this way. It's a miraculous healing that happened. So what did he do? Instead of giving him a hand out, peter and John gave him a hand up. I want you to get this. I want you to get this.
Speaker 1:Our job isn't always just to give a hand out to people, but our job is to give people a hand up. It's kind of like the classic saying teach a person. Give a person a fish. They eat for a day. Teach a person where Popeyes is, they can eat every day. Wait, that's not how it goes. But you teach someone how to fish, they can eat longer. It's easy to give a hand out, but what may take more time, what may take more faith? What may take more effort? What may take a little bit more prayer may take a little bit more sacrifice. It's not just giving a hand out, which is easy and it feels good, but rather we should actually start meeting the needs that people actually have, and this is hard, though.
Speaker 1:This is really hard when dealing with the people we love the most, when dealing with our kids, with our spouses, parents, relatives. See, I don't know about you guys, but sometimes, after a stressful day, I don't want to play with my kids. I don't want it's either for me to pass them the iPad. Right. It's either for me to say, hey, man, take the iPad, or whatever. Or maybe for you, you feel the same way, but just watch some TV. Or you have teenage kids, just scroll on Instagram, tiktok, whatever you're doing, and you're just. That may be given what they want, but you want to know what they really need. Well, it's a parent to engage them, but it can be hard.
Speaker 1:And another thing another thing that can be hard maybe you have a loved one, maybe you have someone close to you that you know they're on a destructive path, they're doing things they shouldn't be doing, they're heading in a direction that's going to hurt them, and sometimes it's hard to confront the people that we love. It's hard to be confrontational sometimes, because what if it doesn't go well? What if they get mad, or what happens? And so what do we do? Sometimes we will become an enabler and enable someone's destructive behavior and all the while we're hurting and we're leading them into a pathway that's not good for them.
Speaker 1:So, friends, what do we do? What do we do when people that we love are in need? What do we do? And it's easy just to give them what they want in the moment, but we know we got to give them what they actually need. Well, we got to take time, we got to step back and we just can't be led by our emotions, but we have to be led by the spirit of God. We got to ask God how do you want me to respond to this? God, show me what it is you want me to do. And we're going to give, strategically, as God leads us, and now, a needy person the response to you. When you do that, if you choose to do that, a needy person, in that moment they're going to start saying well, if you love me, you'll give me what I want. If you care about me, if you think about me and I talked about this week one of this message what do people do when they're trying to control a manipulated situation? They use threats and guilt. If you really love me, you'll give me this. If you really care about me, you'll give me that money. But we need to have wisdom and real love to do. What we actually want to do is say I love you and because I love you, I'm not going to give you what you want, but I'm going to give you what you need. Here you go. When it comes to needy people, we want to give strategically. Number two we want to serve wisely. We want to serve wisely. We want to serve people wisely.
Speaker 1:Look at the way Jesus cared for people. What did he do? He served selflessly, he loved authentically, he gave generously, he taught faithfully and he listened compassionately. Jesus did this. He did this all the time, day in and day out. He gave and gave and gave and gave. And then what would Jesus do After? Jesus would give and give, and give and give. Then Jesus would step aside and then he would disconnect from people and reconnect with God. He would disconnect from the people and all the stuff and all the needs and all the stuff, and then he would spend intentional time with God. He spent daily time with God.
Speaker 1:You see this rhythm over and over again in the life of Jesus I give out, I give out, I serve, I help, I give out, and then I unplug and I get refreshed, and then I take care of myself. I receive from my father, so I'm pouring out with a full cup and not an empty one, and this is God filling him back up so that I can continue to give. What do we need to know? What do we need to know In order for you to serve the people you love wisely, in order for you to serve your kids and your spouse and your workplace wisely and most effectively? You got to get good at disconnecting. You got to get good at disconnecting from the noise, from the constant people trying to get your attention. You have to make a disconnection. Let me put it this way If Jesus, if Jesus needed to get away from the people that he loved the most you do too you got to get away. You got to step back for a second. Here you go.
Speaker 1:This is how the scripture. This is how scripture puts it in Mark 1. This is Jesus. This is what Jesus did. It said very early in the morning, while it was still dark. Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place where he prayed. It was just him and God. Then check this part right here. Simon and his companions went to look for Jesus.
Speaker 1:What I'm about to tell you right here is exactly what happens to every mom who's watching her kids and she's just trying to get some privacy in the bathroom. She's been playing with the kids. She breaks away. I'm going to take him to the bathroom. Here you go. This is what happens. Jesus is out in the morning doing his thing. He wakes up and says where did Jesus go? Everyone, you see, jesus, jesus. Where are you, jesus, jesus, where did you go? They start looking for him. Then check this out. Scripture says when they found him, they exclaimed everyone is looking for you. This is what moms do, don't they? What do you do? You finally get away for a second. You're just in the bathroom, you're trying to get a private moment. Then all of a sudden, you hear mom, mom, mom. Then you sit there and you don't breathe, you don't make a noise. And then you hear the little footsteps and you're like, if I don't make a noise, they won't know me. And then all of a sudden, like from a scary movie, you see little fingers come from underneath the door. Mom, everyone's looking for you. This is what happened with Jesus. He was just trying to get some time to himself. But then everyone started looking for him. Here you go. I want you to think about this way If you haven't been on a plane, what do they tell you to do?
Speaker 1:In case of the altitude, in case of the messes up, oxygen masses fall. What do they tell you to do? Put your mask on first, right, they tell you, put your mask on first and then put the other mask on whatever kid you like the most Second. No, no, you got to put your mask on first. And why is that? Why do you have to put your mask on first?
Speaker 1:Because if you're not healthy, you can't help anyone else. If you're not healthy, you're only going to be given from a place of empty. And that's why you get a little bit more angry when your kids do some things. That's why you get a little bit more ticked off when your wife acts a certain way or your husband does something, because you're running on empty. And, friends, we were never designed to be empty. And I'm going to tell you this If you want to love your spouse effectively, if you want to love your kids efficiently, if you want to live the life that God has for you, you got to take care of yourself. You got to take care of, we got to Guys, and I'm not talking about, oh, just self-love, and I'm just going to love myself and I'm just going to do my thing and just love me. No, no, no, don't be selfish, but be responsible, because no one's going to take care of your health but you, and no one's going to take care of your relationship with God but you, and no one's going to know when you're at a break-in point but you, and no one's going to know when you need to talk to a friend for some help but you and I'm going to tell you this, if Jesus did it, so should we so? Should we? So, when we serve people, we want to serve them wisely, because sometimes, when we're dealing with needy people, we want to uppercut them, because we're operating on our own strength and not a strength from the Holy Spirit leading us and guiding us and helping us navigate. Here you go.
Speaker 1:Jesus tells us a great story about the Samaritan. The good Samaritan is amazing. One day I'll preach on it more in detail because it's so good, but there's basically what happens. This guy gets beat up, left half dead on the road. Then a Samaritan comes along and it's helping. And the guy was just an extraordinary story that a Samaritan was helping a Jewish person. But so, anyway, it's this beautiful story, the Samaritan. Then he bandages him up, the guy who's in need, he cares for him, he puts oil on his wounds and then he puts the injured man on his donkey, takes him to the Hilton Inn. Oh, come on, that's kind of funny. Okay, then they take him to a hotel. Then he says to the innkeeper you know, take care of this guy, I'll pay the money, whatever he needs, I'll come back and help him out. You just nurse him to help. Now I want you to think about this. Okay, now, where did this guy go? Why did he leave the man? Jesus doesn't give us details on this when he tells the story.
Speaker 1:So, with some creative freedom, I'm going to assume a couple of things. Either this man went back to his house, went back to his wife and his kids and his mom, or whatever he went back, or he went back to work. He went back to work because when you work, what happens when you work? You get paid, and when you get paid you can pay for someone else's bill, can't you? You can pay for someone else when they're in trouble. So what did he do? He went back and in some form or fashion, he did what he needed to do to stay healthy so he can go back and serve wisely. I hope you hear what I'm saying here. He went back and he did what he needed to do to be healthy so that he can serve wisely as everyday people who are learning how to become Jesus followers.
Speaker 1:Our job is not to be someone's superman, to be someone's superhero. Our job is to follow God, get ourselves healthy so that we can pour out and make a difference in our world, so that we can love on the people around us. So this is what I'm going to encourage you today. We have to weekly you should weekly designate a day or time that you just disconnect, turn off your phone Everyone will be okay, they can't get in touch with you Disconnect from the emails, from the noise. Us as a family, we do what we call family fund days and it's our Sabbath. So from every Friday dinner to Saturday dinner, aaron and I we turn off our phones. You know TV time is limited and we just intentionally engage with our kids. We stop, we rest, we delight and we worship God for that whole day and my kids this is the best part. My kids they're five, two and one and a half. They look forward to Fridays, not just because it's the weekend, which is always nice, but because the intentional time with the family. They love it. They love it. And so I want to encourage you to do something like that, and it doesn't have to be a full day, maybe it's an hour during dinner, maybe it's just something, but there's some kind of intentional disconnection so I can fill myself up.
Speaker 1:Craig Grichel said it in a great way in the leadership podcast. He said this. He says you can't say yes often if you don't say no occasionally. You can't say yes often if you don't say no occasionally, because people will take your yes and they will use you and abuse you, especially needy people. You should be able to say no and refill Okay. So how do we help someone who's in need? We want to be able to pour out from a full cup, because once your cup is empty, you're giving out of nothing and that's not wise. So we want to give strategically, we want to serve wisely.
Speaker 1:And our third one is this and then we're going to break out and you guys can bounce into bounce houses and number three we're going to trust completely. We're going to trust completely, james. Yeah, you can play something on the keyboard up here for us. Give us a little Ray Charles, stevie Wonder, any other classical music, you know? Music, okay, nevermind. Okay, we're going to trust completely.
Speaker 1:This is the hard part. What I'm about to say right here is the hard part. The trust God completely with the people we love the most. The trust God completely with the people that we love the most. The trust God completely with our dreams, our hopes. The trust God completely. Well, that's the hard part. But what's the word we're going to say? We're going to say, god, we're going to do what you know, we're going to do what you want us to do. We're going to go after your lead and we're going to follow you and we're going to trust you, god, with the results. We're going to trust you, god, with the results, because you have been faithful before and, even though it's hard right now, I know you're going to be faithful again. I know you're going to be faithful again, and so you lead us and we will follow. And, god, we're going to trust you with the consequences.
Speaker 1:Here's the problem, especially when it comes to the people that we love. Sometimes we don't want to trust God with the consequences, because we know that the consequences that our loved ones can face well, they can be hard. They can be tough, especially as parents. You see your kids doing something like man. They shouldn't be doing that. We always want to jump in and save, but sometimes we got to step back. We got to step back.
Speaker 1:Here's the problem. It's insulting and dangerous for me to ever think that I am someone else's answer and it's insulting and dangerous for you to think that you are the source that meets somebody else's need. It's just honoring to God to say that we are necessary in every case to see that every need is met. Here you go. We are not someone else's answer. Jesus is the answer. We are just the delivery system that he uses. We are the delivery system that he uses. We are the outlet, he is the power.
Speaker 1:And the problem is, if we think God needs us to fix everyone else's problem, our God is way too small and our problems are way too big. If you think you are necessary in every way, you may be short circuiting the process that God is already doing, because you keep rescuing someone instead of letting them deal with the natural consequences, to teach them what it means to reap and sow. So how often do you think we might interfere with the very thing that God is doing? Let me say this one. Let me say it one more time like this If we think God needs you, if you think God needs you to fix everyone else, your God is too small. We have to begin to trust God. Trust that God loves the people that we love more than we can even love them. Galatians 6-7 says Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reads what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh from the flesh will reap the structure. Whoever sows to please the spirit, from the spirit will reap eternal life. We will help. We will help prayfully and then trust God. Trust the consequences to God and the lives of the people that we love the most. This is a principle that we see throughout Scripture and Jesus told it so beautifully in Luke 15.
Speaker 1:And if you have been to LVC for any period of time, you know one of my favorite stories is the story of the prodigal son, or the lost son, and what happens in the story is that the youngest son walks up to the father and he basically says to him Father, dad, you know, I don't really care if you die or not, I don't really care about you that much. Just give me my share of the inheritance, give me my money, give me what's mine, so I can just leave this place and do what I want to do. And when Jesus you know who is the master storyteller when Jesus tells his story, he says that the father just says Okay. The father says Okay and he gives him the money and then, as the story goes, the son goes out and he starts doing some wild living. I don't really know what that means, but I guess it involves him doing the stinky leg. He's out there doing his thing and he's just going crazy, hitting up all the clubs, doing all the stuff. And what's happening? The whole time the son is dishonoring the father, all the values, all the things that the father represented. The son is doing the opposite of it. But here you go. This is what I want you to get. This is what I want you to get.
Speaker 1:The father knows this and the story that Jesus sets up, this father is clearly a powerful man and so, even though the father knows the son is making mistakes what Jesus says the father doesn't do. The father never interjects, the father never gets in the way, the father never runs and rescues into the spot. Instead, the father from home prays and makes himself available to his son. And so when the son, here you go. When the son gets to a low point and he loses all of his wealth, a great famine comes and he loses all of his money. He has no one who has his back. He's eating and pig food with the pigs and the pig pen, which is dishonoring to a Jewish person in that culture. And so he's at the lowest lows. And then it says when he's at the lowest lows, when he's at his lowest point, when he hits rock bottom, then he comes to his senses.
Speaker 1:Friends, it's got to be hard, I'm going to say. Sometimes it's when we let people get to their lowest moments where God can speak to them. Sometimes we're going to make it personal though. What thing in your life do you keep holding on to that you're trying to manipulate and control that God is saying I want you to let it go, because when you let it go and you feel like you're at your lowest moment, you feel like I got to control this. I got to do this. It's then that God can begin to speak.
Speaker 1:So the son says he's at his lowest moment. And the son says, well, even my father's servants eat better than this. So maybe I'll just go back to my father's house and I'll say, hey, I'm no longer worthy to be your son, but hire me out for his servant. And then, when the son starts making his way back, this is the part I want us to get. This is the part I really want you to have it right here in your heart. The father was looking for his son. Even though he didn't interject, even though he didn't go out to rescue, he was looking for him and I want you to know today that God is looking out for you, that God sees you when you make your way back to him.
Speaker 1:And the story Jesus so again, so beautifully tells the story. Because the way that the story was originally told in the Jewish story was that the father, who represented God, would wait for the son to come back and then the father would strike the son down with his hard right hand and dismiss them to the servants quarters. But the way Jesus told this story is that the father looked and waited for his son and then, when he saw his son from a far distance, the father runs to him. The father dashes towards them. The father celebrates them and says you want to know how we love needy people? We look out for them, we pray for them and when they come to home, when they come towards us, we shower them with love. We don't shower them with guilt and shame and say, oh, I can't believe you did this and did that and did this. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. We remember the same way that Christ loves us is the way we love people and we shower them with grace. And the scripture says that he hugged them and put a robe on them and gave them some Nikes and it was great Air Force Woods. He showed the son that he loved him. This is what I want to say Trust God completely. So we're going to give strategically, meaning that we're going to give people a hand up in life. We're going to help them up, we're going to love them where they are, we're going to encourage them. We're going to speak good words over that. We're going to do gentle redirects.
Speaker 1:I've been reading all these parents and books and they always tell my youngest son he always just throws off his food. He has a good arm, he's going to be a baseball player one day, thank you. But he throws his food in the book, said hey, don't say Hayden, we don't throw it, says Hayden, we eat our food. We remind him of the person that we want him to be. We tell him about the person that we want him to be.
Speaker 1:And I'm going to tell you this the people that are hurt, the people that are hurted, we got to start being good at telling them about the person who they really are. They are not that brokenness, they are not that trauma, they are not that fear, they are not that dysfunction. They are a child of the Most High God. And it is, let it be said, of us Jesus followers that are pointing those things out in people. So we got to give certainty. We want to lift people up and then we're going to serve wisely. We're going to make sure we're refreshed, we're going to make sure that we're good, because here's the thing when you love Jesus, your love for Jesus will shine out to everyone else. Serve wisely and then we're going to trust God. God, these are your, these are your people.
Speaker 1:I'm no one superhero, I'm just a delivery person. Call me Amazon Prime up in here. Two day shipping, same day shipping, if you're getting fancy. No, no, no, god, use me. I'm going to trust you. I'm going to trust you with the people and in the circumstances that are hard. So let's pray. God, jesus, holy Spirit, we thank you for your love, we thank you for your favor, we thank you for your goodness. Okay, go with me here, team.
Speaker 1:I know I'm wearing his Charlie Brown shirt, but in that movie he's going trick or treating and he keeps getting rocks. Everyone else is getting candy and they're talking about their candy and Charlie Brown is keeps getting rocks. And that's like the Holy Spirit, gently, is saying some of you are feeling like you keep getting rocks thrown at you in your life. Come, holy Spirit. You're kind of holding up a bag, hoping for something good, but she felt, you keep getting rocks, you're getting a heartache, you keep getting pain, you keep returning back to an addiction that you said you're never going to do again. You find yourself with a temperament, just like someone who hurt you and you swore I was never going to be like that person, but you're finding yourself becoming like that person and that's like the Holy Spirit saying I know this is cheese, you guys, but here to stay with the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:I want you to tune into the Holy Spirit. I play the Holy Spirit saying let go of the little rocks and build your life on the rock Jesus, the cornerstone which you can build your life upon, the rock that, when the winds and waves come, your house will not fall down. Oh Jesus, help us build our lives on you, help us focus on you, help us love those who drain us, love those who at times are difficult. Help us love those the same way you love us. And in the process of loving the difficult people in our lives, teach us how difficult that we are and how much you love us. Despite that.
Speaker 1:If you're in here today and you never made a decision to trust Jesus with your life, maybe you have, but life happened and you want to recommit your life to Jesus again. If you want to trust Jesus or trust him again with your life, I just want to pray a simple prayer with you. I'm not going to call you out. Have you come up front? Nothing like that, just right where you are. If you want to make a decision to trust Jesus with your life, I trust him again. Just say this prayer out loud with me, or say it in your heart. Just say Jesus, forgive me for my sins, make me new Today. I trust you with my life Today. I follow you in Jesus' name, amen, amen. I'm going to praise you here today.