Speaker 1: 0:00

Well, I am so glad you guys are hanging out with us. Today. We're going to continue our three-part series called Keep the Change, and so we're going to talk about finances for the next couple of weeks, and last week was so awesome. I encourage you to go back and watch it on our podcast if you missed it. But here you go. If you do what culture tells you to do with money, what's going to happen? You're going to get the results that culture says, but if you do what God tells you to do with money, you will get God results. You'll get God results. So what are those God results, though? What should we be looking at Today? What I want to do is I want to walk through four lies that our culture tells us about money. Okay, jesus says this kind of. To set this up, though, jesus says this he says I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness. That's good news. That's good that when we follow Jesus, when we spend daily time with God, he begins to light our path. So, no matter what darkness that we have, no matter what uncertainty that we feel, no matter what anxiety tries to tell us when we can keep our eyes the best we can on Jesus, he will begin to light a path. He'll light a path for us, jesus continues. He says they will have the light of light.

Speaker 1: 1:21

For money, for a lot of people it can be a dark topic. It could be a dark topic in our world. You know, based on what your money story is, it can have some trauma laced to it. Sadly, for some people it can represent a place of bondage, feeling like they're stuck or they're never able to get ahead. Money can represent shame Growing up maybe you didn't have what others had and you always felt kind of embarrassed or ashamed about things. Maybe, for some people, it can represent guilt. You know you're working so hard to provide for your family to make ends meet, but at the same time you feel like man, I'm not giving enough time with my kids, I'm not there like I want to be. So there's that guilt with it. And then there also can be embarrassment because of, maybe, poor investments, or careless spending, or money that went down the drain because of an addiction. Here's the thing, though. Here's what I want us to know when we filter everything we're talking about through the lens of scripture, it changes everything, and we can see that even our biggest mistakes, even our biggest messes, god can take and shine his light on it, and there's hope for it. There is hope for the future. Here's the thing when you are walking with Jesus and he is lighting up your path, no matter how dark it has been, there is a future hope. Come on, that's good news. That's good news. So here's the thing. When it comes to money, money can be a tool used for God's kingdom. It could be a good tool used for God's kingdom.

Speaker 1: 2:56

The Apostle Paul says the love of money. Again one of the most misread verses in the Bible money is not the root of all evil. You know, money is neutral. It's neither good or bad. It's what you do with it. It's what you do with it.

Speaker 1: 3:09

Paul says the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil and some people eager for money have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. And again, when we hear that verse when I hear that verse when Paul is talking about money, what we hear is money is a heart thing. It's about our heart conditions and as everyday people who are learning how to become Jesus followers, we always want to address matters of the heart, because there is an enemy who is relentlessly pursuing your heart, relentlessly going after your heart, trying to discourage you, trying to darken your days. But, man, I'm going to look to the light of life, I'm going to look to Jesus, and so we're going to do that. Okay? So, whatever your money story is, no matter what it is, we want to look at the matters of the heart and discover what lies we have believed. Okay? So I'm going to give us four lies today, four lies that the culture tells us about money.

Speaker 1: 4:02

Lie number one is this You'll be happy when you buy blank. You'll be happy when you buy that PS5. Nope, You'll be happy when you buy blank. You'll be happy when you get a newer car. You'll be happy when your house just gets a little bit bigger. You'll be happy if you can just buy that new swimsuit for the summer. Come on, somebody. You'll be happy if you can just buy that new swimsuit for the summer. Come on, somebody. You'll be happy if you can just buy this.

Speaker 1: 4:30

And this is a lie that has completely taken over our culture, because we live in a culture that worships stuff. We live in a culture that worships stuff. And remember what's worship, jacob? That's a big word. What is worship? Worship is whatever you have and whatever you lift up highest in your life and fix your eyes on. That's what worship is. And so when we lift up God, that's how we can worship God. But when we lift up stuff, that's what we worship and we really do and our culture really does believe that the newness of stuff, it can drive our happiness. And if that is your foundation, man, you're never going to find contentment. You'll never find contentment.

Speaker 1: 5:09

The majority of scripture around money, whether parables from Jesus or Old Testament, a lot of times it's warning signs. They're kind of like warning signs from the story of the rich young ruler, from a man who builds bigger bonds but doesn't count the cost. So he wasn't able to finish Even James's letter to the church. He's calling out the elitists within the Jerusalem church because they've forgotten the poor and they're hoarding their wealth for themselves. So here's the thing. There's a lot of caution lights around the subject of stuff, of luxury and money.

Speaker 1: 5:42

But I got to say something. I am by no means against stuff. Stuff is good, stuff can be fun. I like stuff. But here's the thing. Here's the thing. It's okay to have nice stuff. Just don't let your nice stuff have you, just don't let it have you. And when it has you is when we do things like go unnecessarily in debt for something, because at that point your stuff owns you and there's a bondage to it. You're held down. And it's true what the proverb writer says the rich rule over the poor. And the borrower is a slave to the lender. And your stuff can own you when your identity is attached to your stuff, when your contentment is attached to getting the next thing, when your joy is only found in a paycheck or your peace is only there when you get the next thing and when you believe all of that stuff. That's when it is ruling over you and your stuff can own you at an emotional and at a heart level as well.

Speaker 1: 6:48

Jesus says it like this. He says no one can serve two masters. Either you hate the one or love the other, or you would be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Now why did Jesus say God and money? Like he could have said God in whatever he could have said God in politics. He could have said God in whatever he could have said God in politics. He could have said God in career. He could have said why did he say God in money? Well, the reason why is because money can represent security for so many of us. And what Jesus is saying there is your security, your hope, needs to be in God alone, needs to be in Christ alone.

Speaker 1: 7:21

Here you go. So what do we do with this? What do we do with this? We live in a culture that says your stuff is your everything. Your stuff brings security, your stuff brings you status, your stuff brings you control. But when stuff becomes our foundation, when we build our lives on stuff, what begins to happen to us, what creeps in slowly? What begins to creep in slowly in our lives, is we begin to compare ourselves to others, we begin to compare ourselves to others. And when we compare, we compare when we say if I can just have that thing, if I can just have what they have, if I can just go on that vacation, if I can just, then everything will be fine.

Speaker 1: 8:04

Now there is these two young adult women that Aaron and I used to pastor, and they both kind of come from different spectrums of life. One was single in school, making some tough decisions right now, but had the long haul of a leader, to kind of where she wants to be in life. The other young lady had a boyfriend and on the outside she looked like she had the perfect life. She looked like she had the perfect life but on the inside she suffered from extreme depression. It's really bad, very bad. So the single girl once told Aaron and I I don't know why that other girl always complains about her life, I wish I had her life. Then, when we talked to the girl who was in the relationship, she would say to us I don't know why that single girl always complains about her life, I wish I lived in the city and I wish I had no responsibilities other than myself. Both of them wanted each other's lives, but you want to know what they really wanted. They wanted the idea of each other's lives. They wanted what they thought that other person had.

Speaker 1: 9:13

And this is what happens when we compare our lives to others. We want someone else's good without knowing their struggles, and we think their grass is greener than ours. Craig Rochelle says it like this. He says to compare will either make you feel inferior or superior, and neither honors. God See, when we compare and we say, well, I'm just better than those people. That doesn't honor God. Or when you compare, you say, man, if only I was like them, god made you, god designed you. If only I was like them, god made you, god designed you. See, here you go.

Speaker 1: 9:47

So again, when we're looking at everyone else and seeing what the Joneses are doing, Come on them, joneses. Newsflash about the Joneses. Though the Joneses? They're broke, they don't have money. They look like they're good, but they ain't doing it. 78% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. 40% of Americans can't cover an emergency of $400. So when you're comparing your life to people that can't afford the life that they're living, and then, on top of that, what do we have? Social media. And social media, what Magnifies everyone's good spots? It magnifies everything that's going good. And then we carry the Joneses in our back pockets and our cell phones, comparing our lives to them and comparing who we are to them. And that's what can happen to us. A couple months ago maybe a little bit longer than that happened to us A couple months ago, maybe a little bit longer than that my niece, nora, she learned this crazy trick at gymnastics.

Speaker 1: 10:54

Okay, she's super, super athletic and she learned this trick that she can basically do this matrix-style back bend bridge. Okay, she can like stand straight and just like bend all the way back and then bullets start flying past her. It's crazy and you know it's really cool, her it's crazy and you know it's really cool that she can do it. And so, anyway, she was showing everyone that she learned this trick, that she really practiced for a long time to do. And then, you know so, later that day my daughter, kingsley, was like I wish I can do that bridge trick like Nora. And I said to her, I said to her well, she practiced a lot and it takes a lot of time.

Speaker 1: 11:23

And then Kingsley was like well, I don't know, I mean, I just can't do stuff like Nora. And she was comparing herself to her cousin and I was like hey. I was like hey, if you want to learn how to do it, you just got to practice and just learn how to do it, just practice. And then she said to me she said no, dad, I can't do that. Can't is a trigger word for me, I can't man. One word I don't like is can't. You know I can't do this. And I said, okay, girl, we're going to figure out how to do this. Okay, I said Kingsley, it's easy, watch, I'll show you.

Speaker 1: 11:59

This is where the mistake happened. So I got on the floor. I said watch what I'm doing. I got on the floor, laid all the way down, I put my hands by my head like this, put my legs out, sat up, and then I said, kingsley, you ready, I'm going to show you how to bridge Watch. I'm going to get all the way up One, two, crack, crack, crack up up my butt, cracked my lower back, my shoulders, every part of me.

Speaker 1: 12:28

I was rolling on the floor like ah, and then Kingsley said Dad, you okay? And I said no, I'm not okay. I said stop comparing yourself to your cousin. You want to see the real one. And the truth is this.

Speaker 1: 12:48

The truth is this. I was like don't compare yourself, just ask your aunt to help you, she'll show you. But the truth is this when we compare ourselves to others, we get hurt and we hurt others. And so when you compare your life and your lifestyle, I'm telling you the level of emptiness that can come when we compare, because most of the time, what we're comparing our lives to man it's not even reality. It's not even reality. But people will spend money. People will spend money. They don't have to keep up with their lifestyle. They think everyone else is living, and the truth is people don't really even care that much about what you're doing.

Speaker 1: 13:30

So how do we break this cycle? The cycle that the world says if you can just have blank, you will be happy. The first one is this, this one, this is profound. You ready for this? The first way to break this cycle gratitude, gratitude, having a thankful heart. Did you know that thankfulness isn't only for that one holiday in the year where the turkeys drive? You can have gratitude every day of your life. You can be a person of gratitude.

Speaker 1: 13:58

When the Bible talks about stewardship, a steward is a manager, and what does that mean? We are managing what God gives us. So, no matter what God gives you, whether it's your job, whether it's your investments, whether it's your income, whether it's your kids or your education I don't care, whatever it is you are managing it for God. You are God's manager. Let me put this in you. So he has entrusted you with these things, okay. He's entrusted you with your family. He's entrusted you with your workspace. He's entrusted you with with this city that you live in and the reason why we have to reach more everyday people for Jesus is because God's put us here for a reason, and so our neighbors and our community.

Speaker 1: 14:39

It's not just here by accident. You're here to be a light of the world, okay, so he's entrusted you with these things and then, when that goes from your head to your heart and to your soul, it changes the way you view your stuff and your money and your luxury. And suddenly you do this, suddenly, you live a life like I'm open-handed to you, god. So, god, if you tell me to give it away, I'll give it away. God, if you tell me to enjoy it, man, I'm going to enjoy it. God, whatever you tell me to do, I'm going to do it, because I'm just the manager, you're in charge, you entrusted it to me and that's what I'm going to do.

Speaker 1: 15:16

Because, again, it's so easy with our culture when you got to hoard things and your stuff means you're great. It's so easy to do this to God. Oh well, this is my thing and these are my kids, this is my career and this is my stuff. Man, you live free and open. God, come what may. Oh, man, that's where freedom begins to happen. That's where life begins to get exciting. That's where life begins to get adventurous, because I'm not living thinking I got all the answers. I'm living knowing that the one who does have all the answers is calling me to something even greater, something greater. Okay, here you go. So, when you have gratitude for what he's entrusted you with, the thing that will happen next is you'll move to humility. You'll choose a heart to be humble.

Speaker 1: 16:09

I love what CS Lewis says in his masterwork Mere Christianity. He says, because the's not humiliation, it's not putting yourself down. But you start to realize, okay, okay, my life, well, it's actually not all about me. It's not all about me. And don't we live in a world that says your life is all about you. Don't we live in a culture that tells you that it's all about you and you got to take care of you because no one else is. We live in a world and a culture that says it's all about your happiness, it's all about me, centered.

Speaker 1: 16:47

But humility, what humility does? It looks up and humility looks out, and humility looks around to see others. And you begin to see that, god, you've given me gifts. God, you've given me abilities, you've given me resources to not just hold to myself but to give away, because you, god. You, god, are the ultimate gift giver that you, god, gave your one and only son so that I can have freedom in my life, I can have hope in my life, that I can be in relationship with you. And so, god, since you are the ultimate gift giver, I want to follow suit. Am I preaching to anyone today? And I'm going to give away. I'm going to give away so you begin to give to others and when you go from gratitude to what he's entrusted you with and you be able to walk and step in humility, and then your final step, you really do believe you have contentment.

Speaker 1: 17:41

Contentment follows, and contentment is not apathy, contentment is not laziness. You still have goals. You can work hard, you can strive, but you can be content along the way. Contentment, here you go. Contentment is a peace that the Holy Spirit brings to your soul and to your heart and to your spirit. Will you say? I am here for a reason.

Speaker 1: 18:03

Paul says it like this. He says godliness with contentment. That's great gain. That's great gain when I'm learning how to walk and step with God and I'm starting to see that everything might not be where I want it to be, but it's not where it could be and I'm going to live my life every day thankful for what he has for me and I'm going to look up and I'm going to look around and I'm going to bless others and I'm going to see that God wants to work in my heart and there's joy there, even though everything isn't perfect. Then I can walk. I can walk and step and be the light of the world.

Speaker 1: 18:39

See, when culture says, if you just have this, you'll be happy. Actually, no, because we also know that people who have a whole bunch of stuff oftentimes are just hiding behind their stuff. Here you go. Next lie that culture tells us that was our longest one. Next lie that culture tells us that was our longest one. Next lie that culture tells us is this you don't need anyone else. Culture tells us that you don't need anyone else.

Speaker 1: 19:01

In America, we applaud self-sufficiency. If you do it on your own, people are ready to applaud you and, trust me, I love a go-getter. Nothing wrong with being a go-getter. Go after it. If you got dreams, be a go-getter. But when you look at scripture, not only are you known by God, but God wants to work with you. He wants to work in step with you. He knows every single part of you. You are known by your creator, and what a gift that is for us. Scripture also says that we are to be known by people, have community, other believers that we are walking life with Married couples.

Speaker 1: 19:37

I want to talk to married couples real fast. Okay, married couples, when it comes to finances, do it together. I know some couples who combine finances, others who don't. That's fine, whatever works best for you, aaron and I. We have all of our bank accounts combined. Regardless of what you do, there needs to be unity when it comes to finances. You need to create a plan together, agree together and execute it together. One spouse might be more money savvy, you know. One may be better at tracking things and maybe a little bit more into Excel sheets and stuff like that, but both spouses need to stay accountable to each other.

Speaker 1: 20:12

And honestly, can I be honest with you guys? Honestly, it doesn't matter who makes more money. Erin makes significantly more money than me. She's my sugar mama. You know I make less than like an average. You know long-term substitute teacher, but that's okay because I know God has called me to something and we actually have a very generous church, because our church is only being four years old. We have two full-time workers and two part-time workers. Man, we have a great church. We have a generous church. It's a blessing.

Speaker 1: 20:42

But I say that because Aaron and I, we come together. We don't say, oh, here's Aaron's money, here's Jacob's little bit. No, we come together and we have a goal for our family and our futures and we make financial decisions based on that. It's not about who makes more or less. The Bible says this that when you are married, it's the two becoming one, and that includes your finances. That includes that. So, last thing I would say about money and marriage okay, finances is one of the main reasons why people get divorced in America. One of the main reasons, not the, but one of the main reasons why people get divorced in America. One of the main reasons, not the, but one of the main.

Speaker 1: 21:16

When Aaron and I got our financial coach and we made those tough decisions to get out of debt, reinvesting into the church beyond our tithe, starting to invest in beyond our 401k and things like that for our kids, it actually started to become really fun, as we did. At first it didn't feel fun. Then it became fun and it actually made our relationship, believe it or not more intimate. It made our relationship more intimate Because what we do is we have a weekly marriage meeting. We do it every Sunday night, only like 15 to 20 minutes. We do a checkup for the whole week. What do we got planned? And part of that we go over finances. And when Erin is like, hey, this week, babe, instead of buying that $7 Starbucks, I just put it into my digital envelope and saved up for my new cell phone. And when she says stuff like that to me, I'm like dang girl, that was hot, I love it. When you talk to me like that, you know it starts to get a little steamy. So you want to know how to increase the romance or intimacy with your spouse. When you look at your budget and you see more green than red, that begins. That begins to help. Okay.

Speaker 1: 22:22

So I'm saying for I'm saying the enemy wants to split marriages up because because of money, let's get intentional. Let's get intentional and get ahead of that. And if you're single in here, you need to be known as well. You need to be known as well. So have someone in your known as well. So have someone in your life. If you're not good with money, have someone in your life who is good with money, and talk to them about it and say, hey, I'm struggling here, I'm on Amazon way too much, I eat out too much, whatever it is. Bring people in your life so that you are known and they can know you.

Speaker 1: 22:50

Here's my soft plug-in Get into a summer small group. Get into a group, even if you can't I know people are out in and out of town all summer. Even if you can make it to one or two or three of them, that's better than none. Just get in one of them and get some good people around you. Even our church, everyone's next step at our church, if you're new with us, it's not giving money or whatever. Your next step, if you feel led to, is to get into community, because I believe our church will grow, not with just a whole bunch of lavish things, but when we have authentic community. That is helping people be with Jesus, become like Jesus and do the stuff that Jesus did. Okay, so here you go. So here you go.

Speaker 1: 23:32

Point number three and I'm about to close right here the third lie that the culture tells us is this you are your mistake. You are your mistake, the mistake you made. That's your identity. That's who you are. But the Apostle Paul proudly and boldly says this to us. He says Therefore if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old has gone, the old is gone and the new is here.

Speaker 1: 24:04

And when it comes to finances, if you're over the age of five, you have made a money mistake. You just have, for example, my daughter Kingsley. She has this little mason jar that she drops chains in and we give her a little money when she does stuff around the house and so she's very proud of it and stuff like that. And there is this one particular day that the ice cream truck came by, which for some reason, our street gets like the most janky ice cream truck. It's like man dude. I don't even know how old this ice cream is in here, but his bumper is always like falling off. I'm like man, when his music comes it hurts your ears. You're like, oh you know, but anyways. So we go out to the ice cream truck and they normally have these like dollar sour, wower popsicle sticks and that's what they typically get.

Speaker 1: 24:53

But Kingsley had her little mason jar and she took out 10 bucks and she said I want that Italian ice thing. I'm like Kingsley man, that thing, it was like $5, like five, you know, a little over $5. I'm like Kingsley, that's expensive for that little thing, man. And I said I can go, I can take you to Food Lion right now. We could buy a whole box of it. And she was like no, I just want it, dad, I need it. And I'm like. And then I said, okay, it's your money, it's your money if that's what you want. And so she pays for it and she's so sweet, she buys the boys a little popsicle and she gets it, runs in the house, opens it, takes a bite and it is disgusting, tastes just like Red 40. And she hates it and she's sad about it.

Speaker 1: 25:37

And I was her dad. I felt really bad. I was like, oh man, that sucks. I feel so bad for her. But then I did do this. I did this, okay. I looked at her and said, hey, that was a bad money decision. You married Jacob, you monster. I said no, no, I told you that was too expensive and you didn't listen to my advice. That's okay, but I want you to know, when it comes to your money, you got to listen to the people around you who are giving you good advice. Then I went into the freezer and we had like the good popsicle and I gave her one of those and that helped. But the truth is this one of those and that helped. But the truth is this the reason why I was kind of intense or direct with her I rather her lose $5.50 as a five-year-old than get into massive debt as an adult.

Speaker 1: 26:17

And it really just starts now. It starts teaching them now, starts teaching them right now. And for some of us we didn't have the luxury of that. We didn't have people coaching us. They don't even teach about finances in school, I don't know why, but people, they don't teach about how to use a credit card in school. So all these kids, they go through school and they don't know how to manage their money and that's why we have so many problems like that.

Speaker 1: 26:37

But anyways, money mistakes is a part of the gig, it's a part of what happens. But for some of us, your money mistakes may have more zeros attached to it than others, and money is one of the things in life that we have a scorecard for, like, for example, when it comes to my marriage, aaron and I's marriage. I don't have a scorecard for it. I can just say man, aaron and I, our marriage is good, we're in a good spot, but there's no score, there's no like, oh yeah, this is how many points we got. When it comes to my relationship with God, I can say man, but with money there's a scorecard, there is a bank account and there is a plus and there is a minus, there's a green and there's a red, and what can happen so often is that your net worth becomes your self-worth, and we got to flip that. Your self-worth is not connected to your net worth. Those mistakes that we have made do not need to define who you are. This is what I want to be, this is what I want to define you, this is what I want in your heart and this is what I want you to know that you are a child of the Most High God. A new creation has come. When God looks at you, he sees Jesus. He doesn't see your mistakes. He doesn't see the things that the world tries to put on you, because the truth is this we all make mistakes, not with just money. I mean, for example, as a parent. I can't tell you how many mistakes I've made as a parent.

Speaker 1: 28:02

I remember there's one particular time I took Kingsley and Jameson to Rockwood. Jameson was probably like six months old and Kingsley was a little over three. And I took him to Rockwood Park and we're playing and Kingsley was in the swing set and I was pushing her and Jameson was in his stroller and you know, kind of doing his thing. And then at one I was holding Jameson and I was pushing, I was pushing Kingsley and then Kingsley wanted to get out of the swing set. So you want to know what I did. I said, hmm, okay, let me put him in. But Jameson just entered like that wiggle all around stage as a little baby. I said he'll be all right, I put him in the stroller, went and got Kingsley to pick her up. In the two seconds it took me to get Kingsley out of that stroller.

Speaker 1: 28:40

Guess what happened to Jameson? Fell out of the stroller, fell right on his head, bleeding, and I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm the worst dad ever. Then he was super dizzy and dazed, like for like an hour afterwards Like, oh my gosh, I gave my son a concussion and so then we rushed him to urgent care and he actually just had COVID. So I felt better that it wasn't my fault. But now we make mistakes right. We all make mistakes.

Speaker 1: 29:04

This is what I want to tell you. You are not your mistake. You are only your mistake if you allow your mistake to identify you, if you allow your mistake to define you, if you, if people could say whatever they want, but you got to move forward from your mistakes. Because living in your mistake, man, there's grief and there's shame and there's nothing. But when you get out of it and say you know what, god, I didn't make the best decision, but you are the light of life and I'm going to follow your light when it was dark, I'm going to keep moving towards you. And that leads to my last lie that the culture tells us, and it's you only live once. I don't know if people still say that YOLO, people still say that I'm not cool anymore, but there's truth. You have one life, that's true, but this you only live.

Speaker 1: 29:59

Life mindset is an instant gratification mindset. I want to do anything that feels good right now, in the moment. And haven't we seen how much damage that has caused? Our world Completely takes over your life. Proverbs 13 says this a good person leaves an inheritance for their children's children.

Speaker 1: 30:13

When you're a good person, when you're wise, you're thinking about the generations beyond you, because the generations beyond you are going to know how to handle the difficulties of life based on how you handle it now. Can I be honest with you guys? Can I be real? I love the next generation my heart. I was a youth pastor for a long time. I loved my job as a youth pastor.

Speaker 1: 30:37

I love the next generation, but you want to know what this generation needs. The next generation needs More than just rules and more than just all the different things that we need to get them and teach them this. You want to know what they need, the different things that we need to get them and teach them this and teach them. You want to know what they need. They need you, they need you. Then you need to show them.

Speaker 1: 30:55

How do you handle life's difficulties? How do you handle problems? How do you handle stress? How do you handle depression and anxiety and fear? How do you say I'm going to honor God when life doesn't, when life circumstances make me want to go the other way? How are you going to do it? The next generation is looking at us, and so I'm going to tell you this yeah, you only live once, kind of kind of, because what you do now will affect the next generation. And the question I will ask you is this what kind of legacy do you want to leave? What kind of legacy do you want to leave? What do you want to deposit in your kids or your grandkids? What do you want to deposit in the people that you mentor and coach? Because I'm going to tell you this when you love young people, when you love young people like Jesus did man, it changes everything. Like Jesus did man, it changes everything. It gives you hope and a vision and a future that my life isn't just about me, but it's about those who come after me. And so, in my life, I'm going to learn how to become a Jesus follower so that the next generation would know how to do the same.

Speaker 1: 32:10

Pray with me, church, god, jesus, holy Spirit, thank you for your goodness, thank you for your favor, thank you for your love. And so, god, we say yes to you. We say no to the lies that culture tries to tell us. We say yes that our joy is found in you, not in the next thing that we buy. We say yes that we are a new creation and we are not our mistakes. We say yes to having people around us that are going to get us to the places that we want to be. We say yes to healthy community, us that are going to get us to the places that we want to be. We say yes to healthy community. We say yes, lord, to leaving a legacy with our lives that moves the next generation towards you. We say yes to you, jesus. We say yes to you.

Speaker 1: 33:12

So come, holy Spirit, if you're in here today, you're like Jacob. That sounds good, but I don't know this Jesus you're talking about. Maybe you grew up in church and walked away. That's why the Holy Spirit is saying he wants to know you again. If that's you, if you want to make a decision to trust Jesus with your life, I'm going to pray your prayer. I'm not going to call you out. Have you come up front? Nothing like that. But if that's you, I want you to say this prayer. You can say it out loud or say it in your heart. Say Jesus, forgive me for my sins, make me new Today. I follow you Today. I trust you In Jesus' name. Amen, amen. Let's give God some praise in here today.