0:00

Now , have you ever done something

0:03

crazy in the name

0:05

of love Dang

0:08

? No one has . Okay , all right

0:10

, it's just me today . All right Now

0:13

, I remember when Aaron and I first started

0:15

to get interested in each other , it

0:17

kind of came out of left field

0:19

because prior to us dating

0:22

, aaron and I knew each other for a long

0:24

time and I drove

0:26

Aaron crazy . I

0:28

mean , I don't think she liked me , but maybe

0:31

she did . But I remember

0:33

. It's a long story , though it's a long

0:35

story . I drove her crazy until this one

0:37

summer that Aaron came back on

0:40

summer break from college . She went to George

0:42

Mason and she came back for summer break and

0:44

when she came back that summer , I put on

0:47

the good old Gaines charm

0:49

on her , stirred it up

0:51

and won her

0:53

over . Okay , it didn't really happen like that

0:55

, but I like to think it did . Okay

0:58

, but for real , I remember the summer she

1:00

came back from break . She

1:04

came back from summer break and Aaron was home , and

1:06

at the time I was a worship pastor

1:09

assistant at our church in Virginia Beach

1:11

, virginia Beach Vineyard , and so

1:13

I didn't sing songs though you

1:16

don't want me singing , okay and

1:19

I remember standing by our sound

1:21

booth and the service is going on . I'm

1:24

standing by the sound booth and the double doors are over there

1:26

at the entrance way , and I see Aaron

1:28

walk in and I look over and she's

1:30

wearing this beautiful red dress , which

1:32

made her red hair pop even more , and

1:35

I said to myself oh my gosh , I'm in

1:37

love with Aaron Corey . It happened just

1:39

like that , okay , and so what

1:41

ended up happening ? That summer we

1:43

started to hang out a little bit more , but

1:46

the funny part was I told her

1:48

, I said I'm training for a half marathon

1:50

and she said Aaron , you should run with me . You

1:53

know you should run with me . And Aaron

1:56

said yes . Aaron

1:58

said yes , so we would wake up early , meet

2:00

up at a park nearby and go for a run and train

2:03

for this half marathon . Now , what I didn't know until

2:05

much later down the road is

2:08

Aaron at that time in her life hated

2:10

to run . She did not like

2:12

to run . Now she likes to run . She's a runner now , but back

2:14

then she hated to run . But because

2:16

she liked me so much , it

2:21

was a perfect excuse to hang out every

2:23

morning . And for me I was

2:25

training for a half marathon , which I ended up never doing

2:28

, but one day I'll do it . But

2:31

the idea of seeing Aaron every morning

2:33

was much better of a motivator

2:35

than running a half marathon . But

2:37

love makes you do crazy things , doesn't it ? It

2:39

makes you act in different ways . Now that's a story about

2:42

romantic love which worked out

2:44

, which ended up working out three kids in a church

2:46

later . It worked out . But

2:48

love moves us

2:50

. Love moves us . Love

2:53

for a friend is what moves

2:55

you . When you get the dreaded text

2:57

message from your friend , hey

2:59

, moving next month , want to help

3:01

, you

3:04

always got to say , yes , I'll be there . Love

3:08

is what makes you try to

3:10

find the best school for your kids

3:12

or the best daycare , the best environment

3:14

for your kids to wait to

3:17

grow up in . Love is

3:19

what beats in your heart when

3:21

you see injustice , when

3:23

you see something wrong , when you see

3:25

someone in need , and it moves

3:28

you to want to make a difference . It

3:30

moves you to want , to quote Bob

3:32

Goff love does

3:35

. It does stuff . Love

3:38

is an action word , it's an action statement . So

3:41

today we are in part two of a series called

3:43

Live in Grace , where we

3:45

, as everyday people , are learning

3:47

how to live in the free gift

3:49

of grace that God gives us . Last

3:52

week we talked about how grace can give us confidence

3:54

to walk in faith , and today

3:56

we're going to talk about how , when we live in grace

3:59

, we can walk in love . We can

4:01

walk in love Now . A

4:03

few things we discovered last week is

4:05

about grace is that grace is not

4:07

justice , grace is not

4:09

mercy . They're different things . And

4:12

grace is not just the prayer

4:14

you pray when you're about to eat some fried chicken . Lord

4:17

, bless this fried chicken and make it healthy to me . You've

4:20

done bigger miracles than that . You know

4:23

not to be a cool miracle . No grace

4:25

, that was funny . All right , thank

4:27

you , all right . Grace is

4:30

the undeserved favor of God . It's

4:32

beyond earth , like the song we just sang a moment

4:34

ago . It's nothing I did

4:36

to deserve it , I couldn't earn it , but

4:39

God's grace comes after me and

4:42

I just want some people to know today that

4:44

God's grace pursues you , god's

4:46

grace chases after you . Where

4:48

the world wants to say you never and

4:50

you can't and you won't and you'll always

4:53

be this , or that God's grace

4:55

comes after you and says you are a new

4:57

creation in him . The old is

4:59

gone , the new is here . There's victory

5:01

and freedom for your life . Feeling

5:05

happy today , guys , st

5:07

Patrick's Day , here we go . God's

5:10

grace is it ? Grace is God's

5:12

undeserved favor . Ephesians 2 says this

5:14

for his . By grace you have been saved

5:16

through faith , and this is not from

5:18

yourselves . It is the gift of God

5:20

, not by works , come on . Not

5:23

by works , not by trying harder , not

5:26

by trying to do the best I can , not

5:28

by works so that no one can

5:30

boast . Grace is a gift

5:32

from God , not based on anything

5:34

you do , not based on your credentials

5:36

, not based on your bank statement . It

5:39

is a gift from God

5:41

to us . And so we also discover

5:43

is that God's grace is aggressive

5:46

. Now , I'm not aggressive in

5:48

the sense of a bully knocking

5:50

you down , trying to make you do what it wants

5:52

you to do , but God's grace pursues

5:55

us and reaches out to us . Romans

5:58

5 , the message paraphrase , puts it like this

6:00

but sin didn't and doesn't

6:03

have a chance in competition with

6:05

the aggressive forgiveness we

6:07

call grace . When it's sin

6:09

versus grace , grace wins

6:12

, hands down . I

6:15

love that man . I love that because

6:17

I think sometimes , like I said last week

6:19

, sometimes we hype up sin and we hype

6:21

up our problems , and they're real and they're true

6:24

and they hurt , but God's grace is

6:27

more aggressive for you than sin ever can

6:29

be . God's love

6:31

for you speaks louder than

6:33

what that bad habit wants to speak to you . God's

6:36

grace is real . Here you go . God's

6:38

grace moves you to become the person he has

6:40

caused you to be , because you are forgiven

6:42

and you are love , and that love is unconditional

6:45

. It's unconditional and we can live from

6:47

that place . Okay , so , okay , we're going to learn how to live

6:49

from grace . Walk in love . Today , when

6:53

I was kind of a funny story when I was a youth

6:55

pastor down in Virginia Beach , I

6:57

would often have the opportunity to speak to

6:59

the weekend service . We used to do three

7:01

weekend services down there . It was a lot , and

7:04

when it was my opportunity to speak I got to do it a few

7:06

times a year I was

7:08

really excited and so I said you know what I'm going

7:11

to do . I'm going to invite the

7:13

guys from the Barbershop . Because I had

7:15

to go to the Barbershop because I knew I was about to speak in front of people

7:17

, so I had to look fresh to death . You know how

7:21

to get that fade . I'm

7:23

trying to hurt nobody out here . Okay , here

7:25

you go , here you go . So I went to

7:27

the fellows at the shop and I don't know if you've ever seen the

7:29

movie Barbershop ? My Barbershop

7:32

was just like that . Okay , people

7:34

be joking each other . It was great , it was awesome

7:36

, anyways . So they already knew

7:38

I was a preacher . They used to call me young preach

7:40

and I would go and I came in

7:42

and so I said , hey , they know what I do

7:45

. This is going to be easy . I'm going to invite them to Sunday . This

7:47

is going to be awesome . Okay , so

7:49

my barber , terrell , who used to be ex-Navy Seal

7:51

, and he had these massive

7:54

big hands , and every time that Terrell

7:56

would cut my hair he would palm my whole head . I'm

7:59

like Terrell man , get your finger out of my face , you

8:01

know . And I was like Terrell man

8:04

, you should come out to church this Sunday

8:06

. I'm speaking to the

8:08

main church , you should come out . And it's where

8:10

I was like oh yeah , yeah , for real , mate , check that

8:12

out . What are you talking about ? Now

8:15

? Our church was in a series at that time

8:17

called the Power of Love , and

8:19

so I said to him oh

8:21

well , our church is in a series called the Power

8:24

of Love . And before I even finish

8:26

my sentence , every guy in

8:28

the Barbershop was like love

8:30

man , I don't want

8:32

to hear about love , I don't

8:34

need love . Let me get out of there with that . And then they started

8:36

joking me and I never got a haircut again

8:38

. After that they

8:40

did start joking me , but I was trying to tell them no

8:42

, it's not just like love , love , it's like love . And they

8:45

didn't want to hear it . And so , anyways , I

8:47

leave the Barbershop a little discouraged Still

8:49

look fresh . A

8:52

little discouraged , but I asked God

8:54

before . I asked God in that moment to

8:56

never let me forget that , to never let

8:59

me forget that moment , because one

9:01

thing about being a pastor that can happen

9:03

to you people kind of kind

9:06

of dump their life problems on you when you're not

9:08

even expecting it . I'm getting a haircut and they're

9:10

telling me about things like whoa , I didn't know . I wanted to know

9:12

that . So I knew

9:15

the story and a lot of these guys . I knew a lot of these

9:17

guys' stories and I knew in that moment

9:19

, even though they said , oh , who needs love ? Who needs

9:21

love , I knew that they really

9:23

encountered the unconditional love

9:25

of God . It would change their lives . It would change

9:27

their lives . And so my counselor

9:30

once told me this . My counselor once told

9:32

me behind every door of

9:34

an addiction is a person

9:36

looking for love . Behind

9:38

every bad habit , behind

9:41

every sense of brokenness , is someone

9:44

looking for love , and I truly believe

9:46

church . It is our job to

9:48

be a demonstration of God's

9:50

love to the world . John 316

9:53

. We all know it . John 316 says

9:55

what for God so loved the world

9:57

that he gave his one and only son

9:59

that whoever believes in him shall not perish

10:02

but have eternal life . That's what we're celebrating

10:04

on March 31st , isn't it ? We're

10:06

celebrating the gift of grace through Jesus

10:08

Christ . But God loved his

10:10

creation so much that he gave what was

10:13

most precious to him , and through

10:15

this gift of love we can have

10:17

life . Now Jesus says

10:19

this , though . Jesus says this , and these

10:21

are one of these things that you can read it

10:24

and you can kind of glance over it and not really

10:26

think much about it . There's even something that you can put

10:28

on a nice Hallmark card . But Jesus says

10:30

this , and I'm going to say it to you today , and

10:32

I wanted to bother you . I

10:36

wanted to bother you like the poison ivy

10:38

I got two weeks ago . I

10:41

told you Jacob's janky yard service

10:43

. You don't want

10:45

it , but my yard looks good , but it came at a

10:47

cost . But

10:50

I wanted to bother you in the sense of I

10:52

wanted to rub on you , I want

10:54

you to think about . Jesus says I wanted to challenge

10:57

you , I wanted to encourage you . This is

10:59

what Jesus says . He says a new command

11:01

I give you love one

11:04

another . To

11:07

that you may say well , how so , how

11:09

so you know when they're nice to me , when

11:12

they do what I want them to do ? Is

11:15

that when I post no , no , no , no . That's

11:17

what Jesus says . As I

11:19

have loved you

11:22

Well , dang

11:24

. That's a whole

11:26

lot of love . That's

11:29

like dying in your place kind

11:31

of love that's

11:33

laying down your life for someone

11:36

else kind of love . That's

11:38

a love that when someone doesn't deserve

11:40

it , you still show up and glove them anyways

11:42

. That's the kind of love that

11:45

when someone makes you mad and you want to

11:47

tell them what you're really thinking , you

11:51

pray about it first . That's

11:54

the kind of love that , even though

11:57

you are guilty , even though you

11:59

did the crime , that love says I'm

12:01

going to take your place and you can walk out free . That's

12:04

a grace kind of love . And that's the kind

12:06

of love that Jesus is saying that we need to have

12:08

for one another . So then he says so

12:11

you must , I love it . He said

12:13

you must say

12:15

well , I just kind of maybe suggest this to

12:18

you . If

12:20

you're just feeling good today , do that , he

12:25

said . He says I

12:29

promise I haven't had any Guinness yet this morning . It

12:33

says you must love one another

12:36

by this , by what , by

12:39

what ? By this , by this

12:41

thing , by that thing , by

12:44

the way you love people , by the way you take

12:46

care of people , by the way you show up for

12:48

people , by the way you put others first

12:50

, by the way you take care of yourself so you

12:52

can love people responsibly . By

12:54

this , by this , everyone

12:57

will know that you are my disciple

13:00

. Another word for disciple there is apprentice

13:02

. You will know you're my apprentice

13:04

, my student . You will know this if

13:06

you love one another

13:09

. This is amazing . This

13:12

is amazing by this , by this , everyone

13:14

will know . But is it just

13:17

me ? And maybe it's just me ? But

13:20

when I talk to people who don't come to church

13:22

, about church people most

13:24

people who don't come to church , when I talk to them about

13:27

church people , when they think of church

13:29

people , they don't think of people , of love

13:31

. They

13:36

think about a lot of other things , but

13:39

I don't think love makes the top 10 mark

13:41

. My mom , my

13:43

mom , was a waitress for years , years and years and

13:45

years and one of the best waitresses ever come on . She

13:49

said the worst day to work was

13:52

Sunday afternoon because

13:55

the church people would show up , ask

13:57

her to do the most and leave the smallest

13:59

tip . You

14:03

know , here's one thing I learned in my life I

14:06

can't change everybody . I

14:08

can't change everybody . I can't change everything

14:11

, but I do have

14:13

what God has given me right in front of

14:15

me , and we do

14:17

have this church . So

14:19

what would it look like if

14:21

LVC people just

14:24

loved people like crazy ? What

14:27

would it do to our city ? What

14:29

would it do to our communities ? What would it

14:31

do to our families ? What would it do to the future

14:33

generations coming up if LVC

14:35

people just got good at loving

14:37

people ? What if we had this crazy

14:40

, crazy love that we expressed

14:42

from a place of grace in our lives

14:45

and we walked it out ? So this

14:47

is what I want to talk about today how

14:49

do we become people of crazy

14:51

, crazy love ? Come on , crazy

14:54

, crazy love . I'm talking about

14:56

that crazy kind of love . How

14:58

do we become people of crazy , crazy love ? First

15:00

thing is this you don't need permission to love

15:02

. Too

15:05

many of us are waiting on permission to

15:07

make a difference when God is just saying go and

15:09

do it . You

15:11

don't need to wait for permission , you don't need a degree

15:14

, you don't need to be a pastor , you don't

15:16

need to have the whole entire New Testament memorized

15:18

. You can just start becoming like Jesus

15:20

today . When you love the people around you

15:22

. See , love takes

15:25

action . Let me make it practical , though . Let

15:27

me make it practical Crazy love

15:29

is when you bring the donuts to the break

15:32

room . Come on , our apples

15:34

Depending . Maybe

15:36

you work for a health club , you know so . Bringing

15:39

the donuts might do the opposite . They may say

15:41

who brought these donuts ? Satan is here , you

15:43

know so . When

15:47

you encourage that co-worker who's

15:49

clearly struggling , when

15:51

you go out your way to encourage , when

15:53

you give your wife some foot rubs

15:56

come on , because no one

15:58

like feet , but

16:01

you do it for your life because you do it for your wife

16:03

, because it's crazy , crazy love . Somebody

16:05

. Crazy

16:07

love does not wait for permission

16:10

to be the person God has called

16:12

you to be . How

16:14

did Jesus do this ? One of my favorite stories

16:16

in the New Testament is this John 5

16:18

. It says this after Jesus

16:20

returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy

16:23

days . Here's this big Jewish festival

16:25

going on , people from all over the world

16:27

are coming out to this big party , to this giant

16:29

rendezvous . Here you go . It says this inside

16:32

the city , near the sheep gate . I want you

16:34

to keep that in mind . Near the sheep gate , okay

16:36

, inside the city , near the sheep gate

16:38

, was the pool of Bethesda , with

16:40

five covered porches . Crowds

16:43

here you go . Crowds of sick people , blind

16:46

, lame or paralyzed , lay on

16:48

the porches . See , in the pictures

16:50

, in the pictures

16:52

of sheep , sheep

16:54

look so cute and fluffy , don't they ? It's

16:56

like , oh God , it's

16:59

a sheep . They're so cute

17:01

. But did you guys know that sheep

17:03

are actually kind of nasty ? They

17:08

look cute in the pictures , but in real life

17:10

actions kind of like your Instagram I'm

17:14

joking you cute always Sheep

17:18

. Sheep are kind of nasty because

17:21

their fur on their

17:23

bodies . When a sheep uses

17:26

the restroom , it

17:28

stays on them , it gets caught

17:30

up in their fur . When

17:33

a sheep eats , it gets caught

17:35

up on them . Okay , and

17:37

so during these Jewish festivals , people

17:39

were bringing their sheep to sacrifice

17:42

it to God . And you couldn't

17:44

sacrifice a dirty sheep to

17:46

God , so

17:48

you would have to go through the sheep gate , get

17:51

near the pools which were to clean

17:53

your sheep . So I want you

17:55

to see something here . Okay , I want you

17:57

to see something here . All

17:59

these people from all over

18:02

are coming with these nasty sheep

18:04

and they're bringing them

18:06

through this gate to the pools

18:09

where paralyzed

18:11

people were . They

18:13

were paralyzed people late all day

18:15

in the hot heat . Okay

18:19

, and again , I'm not trying to be vulgar here or

18:21

anything like that , but I really want you to understand the

18:23

conditions . One of the cool things about when you really dive

18:25

into Scripture , it's not just like a story

18:27

that you can kind of , but it really happened in this

18:29

real life , and when you can put yourself into

18:31

the actual situation , it becomes even richer to

18:33

read . And so

18:36

here's all these people , paralyzed

18:39

people , and I want you to understand the condition of what's going

18:41

on . These paralyzed people will be left

18:43

here all day , and when they

18:45

needed to use the restroom , no

18:48

one was there to help them . So

18:50

the smell of the sheep gate , the smell

18:53

of this place scholars would say

18:55

it was horrible . It

18:58

was a horrendous smell , for

19:00

lack of a better word . This environment

19:02

was a crappy situation . This

19:06

is not a pretty picture . Here's

19:09

the best part . The word Bethesda in the Hebrew

19:11

means mercy , and

19:13

all these people aren't experiencing that though , are they

19:15

? So here's

19:17

all these sick people , ill , paralyzed

19:19

, laying on the pool of mercy , but

19:21

in the same condition they were in yesterday . But check this

19:24

out . One of the men lying

19:26

there had been sick for 38 years

19:28

. When Jesus saw him and

19:30

knew he had been ill for a long time

19:32

, he asked him would

19:34

you like to get better ? Would you like to get well

19:37

? Now ? I want you to see something here . I love

19:39

this . Jesus is with his crew . He's with his

19:41

disciples . He hears about this one particular

19:43

guy that's been here for 38 years . That's a long

19:45

time . That's a long time

19:48

to be in the same spot . That's

19:50

a long time to be in the same spot , wishing

19:52

you weren't in that spot . And for some of us

19:54

today , you've been in the same spot for a

19:56

long time , wishing you weren't in that spot , and

19:58

God wants to bring freedom to you right now . Here

20:01

you go , here you go , jesus . Jesus does something

20:03

. I want you to see this . I'm going

20:05

to wait for permission to step into

20:07

this man's crappy situation . Jesus

20:12

sees this man . He's been there for 38

20:14

years and Jesus is like I can't sit

20:16

back . I can't sit back and just

20:18

watch Again . I want you to see

20:21

the aggressive nature of grace

20:23

. Grace

20:26

is not passive , grace pursues

20:28

. Grace does not sit back

20:30

and watch things go bad . Grace steps

20:33

up , grace goes out there . People

20:35

check this out . I can't

20:37

, sir , the sick man said , for I have

20:39

no one to put me into the pool when the water

20:41

bubbles up . Someone else always

20:43

gets there ahead of me . Now , legend had it

20:45

that an angel will come and stir

20:48

the waters of the pools and

20:50

the first person to get into the water would be healed

20:52

. Now what would happen ? Because

20:54

of this legend , evil men would

20:57

come and manipulate the sick and say

20:59

, for a certain amount of money , they would put them into

21:01

the water . And so

21:03

here's this man , for 38 years

21:05

in the same condition . He can't

21:07

even trust people anymore . He's

21:10

stuck in his junk , he's stuck

21:13

in his problem , he's stuck where

21:15

he is . And

21:17

Jesus told him come on . I like this part . This

21:20

is my favorite part of the story , because

21:22

this man comes with an excuse and

21:25

Jesus replied with his excuse . He

21:27

said yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah . Go

21:30

ahead and stand up and

21:33

pick up your mat and

21:35

go ahead and get up and walk . And

21:38

then the man . Then

21:41

the man . Instantly the man was healed

21:43

. He rolled up his sleeping mat and

21:45

began to walk . Wait , wait

21:48

, wait , wait , wait , wait , wait , wait , wait , wait , wait

21:50

, wait , wait . Hold on a second . This

21:53

man came with an excuse and Jesus

21:55

came back with a healing . This

21:59

man came with an eye can and Jesus

22:01

came back with an eye can , and

22:03

it's kind of like sometimes

22:05

God heals not just because of faith , but

22:08

sometimes God heals because of grace . Sometimes

22:12

God moves just because His grace comes

22:14

after us . His grace is

22:16

not based on . It was nothing

22:18

what this guy did . This

22:21

guy didn't say the right prayer

22:23

, he didn't have the right devotional , he

22:25

didn't have the right shoes on Jesus

22:30

, and His love for Him saw

22:32

Him stepped into His

22:34

crappy situation and

22:36

healed Him . And friends

22:38

, I gotta say something we

22:41

have to quit waiting for permission

22:43

to do what God has called you to do

22:45

go and love people . Go

22:48

and love people . Go

22:51

after people . Cause love

22:53

takes action . What I'm about to

22:55

say right here I'm speaking

22:57

to Jesus followers . If

22:59

you're with us today and you're kind of trying to figure

23:01

out your faith and trying to figure out maybe

23:04

you're not sure about this thing . First of all , I'm so

23:06

glad you're here . I hope LVC is always

23:09

a safe place for people to discover faith

23:11

. But this one particular

23:13

moment , I wanna talk to Jesus followers for a second

23:15

and I wanna ask you something . If

23:17

you're a Jesus follower , if you're an everyday person

23:19

learning how to become a Jesus follower , I wanna

23:21

ask you this question Are

23:27

you getting into people's

23:29

crappy situations in bringing

23:31

love ? Hold

23:35

on , I want you to get this . Are

23:37

we stepping into people's situations and

23:39

not bringing more drama with us , not

23:42

bringing eyes of judgment , not

23:45

saying , oh well , they deserve to be in this spot

23:48

, they deserve to have this

23:50

happen to them . Well , they did this and that as

23:53

Jesus people , it

23:56

should be known of us that we

23:58

step into people's situations

24:00

and say , hey , I'm gonna bring healing

24:02

, I'm gonna bring help , I'm

24:05

gonna bring encouragement . You're going

24:07

through anxiety ? Well , I'm gonna sit

24:09

with you in that moment . You're

24:12

going through fear , I'm gonna

24:14

sit with you here . It

24:16

should be known of Jesus people

24:19

to be moved

24:21

when we hear here's the crazy part . I don't

24:23

know about you guys , but sometimes I get these news alerts

24:26

on my phone and they're

24:28

just so casual . Seven people

24:30

die today On vacation

24:33

. Family kid gets stuck

24:35

in the sand , dies . Anyone

24:38

know what begins to happen to us . We get

24:40

calloused and

24:42

we see a sad news story and we say

24:44

, oh , it's just Tuesday . May

24:47

it never happen to the people of God that

24:50

we hear the troubles of this world and our

24:52

hearts become callous to it . May

24:55

we always look towards the need

24:57

of people and say God , you

25:00

have called me to make a difference , I'm

25:03

gonna go after it . I'm gonna go after

25:05

it because crazy

25:09

, crazy love overcomes

25:11

fear . Crazy

25:14

, crazy love overcomes fear . Now , fear can

25:16

prevent you to

25:19

become the person I

25:24

do , the things God has called you to do . So

25:27

how do we overcome fear ? With crazy

25:29

love , we cultivate a spirit

25:31

of godly confidence . Notice

25:34

, I didn't say self-confidence . I

25:36

don't know about you guys , but I'm too inconsistent

25:38

to have confidence in myself . But

25:41

I can't have confidence in a God who hasn't

25:44

failed and he won't start with me . Second

25:48

Corinthians 12 says like this my grace

25:50

is sufficient for you . My power

25:53

is made perfect in weakness

25:55

. My grace is sufficient . My

25:58

grace will meet you time and time

26:00

again , meaning we can rely

26:03

on his grace in any and all circumstances

26:05

. But that's something we have to cultivate . We

26:08

have to be willing to trust . Second Timothy 1

26:10

, 7 says this for God has not given us a spirit

26:12

of fear , intimidity , but of power

26:15

, love and self-discipline

26:17

. Power meaning that we can walk

26:19

in step with the spirit . We

26:22

can walk with confidence , knowing

26:25

that God is with us . Love meaning that

26:27

we can live our lives encouraged that we

26:29

are loved by the one who sees me and

26:32

in return , I can love people around

26:34

me . The self-discipline meaning from this

26:37

grace and love I'll position

26:39

my habits to move me to

26:42

become more like Jesus

26:44

. So crazy , crazy

26:46

. Love overcomes fear with

26:49

cultivating the spirit of godly confidence

26:51

and and

26:53

getting good people around

26:56

you . Getting good people

26:58

around you , because we all know this , whoever

27:01

you spend your time with , whoever you hang

27:03

out with you

27:05

tend to become like them , and

27:09

I believe the life change

27:11

you want is in the context

27:13

of healthy relationships , healthy

27:16

friendships . It's

27:18

a lot harder to be fearful when you

27:20

have brave people cheering you on . This

27:24

past week , a few guys from

27:26

church came over to my house to

27:28

cut down what I deemed as

27:31

smaller trees in

27:34

my backyard . Now I've got some big trees

27:36

in my backyard . These ones were smaller

27:38

to me and

27:40

so so . So they came over and there was some good male

27:42

bonding time and

27:45

and so my friend Rob , evan

27:48

and Craig came over and and and

27:50

their job was to get the trees down . My

27:53

job was to cook the hot dogs , yup

27:57

, and we were crushing

28:00

it . We

28:02

were crushing it all right . My brother and his

28:04

family coming over , and so even

28:06

my nephews were there helping and

28:09

picking up the branches . We had three trees we

28:11

had to cut down and things are going

28:13

great . They're crushing it

28:15

. All the trees are going down . This

28:17

is wonderful . Just male

28:20

bonding time , which is

28:22

great , the smell of wood in the air

28:24

and I said , yeah , her , it

28:28

is awesome . Then we

28:30

get to the third tree , because

28:33

things are going smooth . Have you ever had

28:35

things going so smooth ? You're like this is going

28:37

too smooth . Right now . It

28:39

is going so smooth till we get to the third tree and

28:43

my friend Rob . He has his chainsaw and he's

28:46

cutting it down . He's doing his thing

28:48

, but then the chainsaw gets stuck

28:50

in the tree , and

28:52

so it's stuck in this spot that

28:55

the tree is either going to fall , the direction

28:57

we want it to fall , or

28:59

it's going to fall on my neighbor's deck , and

29:03

so that's not good . And

29:05

so we actually got a picture of it , kari , you

29:07

can throw that up there . There's

29:10

the tree and , as you notice , that's

29:12

Aaron in the back , and I've got to show

29:14

you something real fast . This

29:17

little foot right there , that's

29:20

me , because my hot dog started

29:22

to burn . My

29:24

hot dogs were on the grill . I said , oh , shoot

29:27

my hot dog . Before you start

29:29

judging me , they weren't like ballpark

29:31

Franks , they were Hebrew national , those

29:34

things like 550 a pack , and

29:36

they only come with eight in the pack . They're not

29:39

a lot , so don't be judging me . And

29:41

so here you go . So we're

29:43

pulling this tree , we're pulling , and

29:46

then there's wind blowing in the opposite

29:48

way and I'm like God , don't you even care ? And

29:52

then you go . So me and my brother , my brother

29:54

, my nephews , my wife were pulling

29:56

this tree , and then my friend Evan , with

29:58

this precision work , he's chipping away

30:01

to get the chainsaw out of the tree

30:03

. He was pretty impressive . And

30:05

then so we're all doing this long

30:07

story short we pull

30:09

the tree down in

30:11

my neighbor's yard , but not on

30:14

their deck , and

30:16

it was totally cool . But I got to be

30:18

honest with you . I'm not going to lie

30:20

. Not for one moment was I

30:22

fearful . Not for one moment

30:24

. I'm not going to lie . Not for one moment was

30:26

I like oh man , this is about to work out , this is not going to

30:28

turn out for us . Not for one

30:31

moment . You want to know why . I

30:33

mean , evan and Rob could have the best

30:35

poker faces ever , but their

30:38

confidence gave me confidence

30:40

. Their assurance

30:42

on what they were doing made me feel

30:44

assured , made me feel OK , and

30:47

I'm going to say something about that , because

30:50

oftentimes we

30:52

get people around us that

30:54

aren't cheering us on , that

30:56

aren't encouraging you to become

30:59

the person you want to be , and

31:01

if they're not , you will always

31:03

believe for the worst to happen . But

31:05

when you got people around you , good

31:07

people around you that are

31:10

cheering you on , that are pointing you to Jesus

31:12

, that are saying you got this man , you

31:14

can knock down any tree , you

31:17

can knock down any mountain . You

31:20

can go the distance , you can

31:22

face the scary things in life when

31:25

you have people who

31:28

are joining with you . It's up to that I

31:30

say . First

31:32

again , don't let me do

31:34

your yard . Second

31:38

thing join a small

31:40

group . I'm serious . Join

31:43

a small group . Get

31:45

people around you that

31:48

could cheer you on to be the person God

31:50

has called you to be , because

31:52

crazy , crazy love overcomes

31:54

fear when we cultivate godly

31:57

confidence , getting good people

31:59

around us and then doing

32:02

the scary things . Doing

32:04

the scary things , see

32:07

, I want you to know , to become

32:09

a person of crazy love , a

32:12

person that's not sidelined by fear

32:14

. You got

32:16

to start doing the scary things

32:18

in your life . I

32:21

want you to hear me here today . I want you to hear

32:23

what I'm about to say to you , because I think

32:25

you might need to hear this . We live

32:28

in a world that's all about convenience

32:30

and easy and

32:33

comfortable and

32:35

I think we have mixed that with

32:38

the gospel but

32:40

when we look at the life of Jesus , it

32:42

was never easy , uncomfortable

32:45

and convenient . When

32:48

we look at the life of Jesus , it

32:51

was often not comfortable

32:53

, it was often inconvenienced

32:56

and it was often scary

32:58

. And I want you

33:00

to know today it's time for you to

33:03

start doing the scary things . It's

33:05

time for you to start going to marriage counseling

33:07

and it's time for you to start

33:09

it because you've been sitting

33:11

on the sideline and you've been saying , oh well , I

33:13

got this thing and I got that thing in this schedule

33:15

. You want to know what's more scary than getting

33:18

to marriage counseling 10 years from

33:20

later , when your kids are in counseling , because you

33:22

didn't handle your stuff as a parent and

33:25

I know I'm speaking harsh today , but gosh

33:27

dang it . Sometimes you got to speak a little harsh Because

33:31

people are out there telling you this thing and that

33:33

thing and I want you to know today there is

33:35

freedom in your life , but

33:37

you've got to do the scary thing . For

33:39

some of you , it's going back to school

33:42

and pursuing that dream that God put

33:44

on your heart . For some of you , it's

33:46

getting out of the comfort zone of your

33:48

suburban house and man , maybe

33:50

it's time for you to go on missions . Maybe

33:53

for some of you , it's time to

33:55

look at the scary things to say

33:57

I'm going there , I'm doing that thing

34:00

because I'm convinced , friends , I'm

34:02

convinced , that if

34:04

you want to find where God is in

34:06

your life , it's

34:08

when you step outside and

34:10

you face the daunting or

34:13

uncomfortable things and you

34:15

get a little uncomfortable and

34:17

you go after it . You go after

34:19

what God has for you . And so the last thing

34:21

I'll say is this crazy , crazy love

34:23

pre-decides to be

34:25

inconvenienced and

34:27

pre-decides . I'm making a decision every

34:29

day that God inconvenienced

34:32

me . I'm going

34:34

to set up margin in my life that

34:36

God , wherever you're doing , I'm going to step

34:38

into it , I'm going to go after

34:40

it , I'm going to go for it . Throughout the Gospels

34:43

we see this with Jesus . Jesus

34:45

is walking somewhere and somebody who

34:47

didn't have an appointment with him , someone

34:50

who didn't ping his Google Calendar

34:52

, comes up to him and needs

34:54

something from him . And most of the time

34:56

, most of the time , they

34:58

come up with their own personal problems

35:00

and want Jesus to fix it . And

35:03

you want to know what Jesus does . Time and

35:05

time again , he

35:07

meets the people in their needs . Jesus

35:09

is walking and 10 left first start calling out

35:12

for him . Talk about inconvenience

35:14

you trying

35:16

to go to Wegmans and

35:19

someone's inconvenienced you . Hey , I need something

35:21

. Jesus

35:24

heals all 10 of them , but only one

35:26

comes back to say thank you . They

35:30

interrupted his schedule and nine

35:32

of them couldn't even send a thank you card

35:34

. But one does

35:36

. One does Another

35:39

one . A woman who's been sick for 12 years

35:41

sneaks up behind him without

35:43

permission , touches his clothes . The

35:46

Bible says it felt like power left

35:48

him . Jesus stops , stops

35:50

the crowd around him and he looks for

35:52

the one who touches him . Jesus

35:55

has something else he was doing that day , but

35:58

he stops for the one that

36:00

touches him and

36:02

he speaks to her . It

36:04

says your faith has healed you . 12

36:07

years gone , in one moment . And

36:10

then Jesus . Jesus will have dinners

36:12

with sinners throughout

36:15

it . And then there's another story Zacchaeus

36:18

, a notorious thug , a tax collector

36:20

. Jesus finds

36:22

him in a tree looking

36:24

for him and Jesus

36:26

stops and says come down , zacchaeus , today

36:28

I will have dinner at your house . And

36:31

Zacchaeus , his whole life , changes

36:33

in that moment because

36:35

Jesus was inconvenienced . Matthew

36:39

, another tax collector . Jesus calls him

36:41

and says you are more than a tax collector

36:43

, come and follow me . Then

36:46

, at third place , they ate . Story after

36:48

story Jesus lives with the margin

36:50

in his life to be inconvenienced . And

36:53

friends , I'm going to end my message with this thought . I'm

36:56

not going to hype us up today , nothing

36:58

like that . I want to end it with this thought I'm

37:04

not sure if we can

37:06

be people of the kingdom without

37:08

doing something scary or

37:11

regularly being inconvenienced . So

37:16

, god , jesus , holy

37:19

Spirit , we

37:23

say we want to walk in love . We

37:26

want to walk in love like you did Jesus . So

37:31

, lord , we start to do

37:33

the scary things . We're

37:37

going to go after it

37:39

. Right now , I even felt like the Holy Spirit is saying mental

37:42

health , that's

37:44

a scary thing To

37:48

start going after that , finding

37:51

healing in your life . Trauma

37:54

come

37:57

, holy Spirit . For

38:02

too long I feel there's a word specifically for somebody

38:04

For too long you

38:07

have allowed trauma to write your story

38:09

and

38:14

I feel the embrace of a loving

38:16

heavenly father saying hand

38:18

over the pen to me . Freedom

38:25

in the name of Jesus . Courage

38:29

in the name of Jesus . Courage

38:31

to do the scary things . Courage

38:34

to fight for my marriage . Courage to fight

38:36

for my dreams . Courage to fight for the

38:38

person God has called me to be . Courage

38:40

in the name of Jesus , for you did not give us a spirit

38:42

of fear and timidity , but of power

38:45

, of love and self-discipline

38:47

. We hold true to your words

38:49

today , lord , and

38:54

inconvenience us , lord , for

38:57

your kingdom's sake . Inconvenience

39:01

us , lord , for what you

39:03

have for us . Come

39:08

, holy Spirit , be

39:11

in this place . If

39:14

you're in here today and you don't know this Jesus

39:17

I talked about , maybe you

39:19

have , but you kind of walked away . If you want

39:21

to make a decision to trust Jesus with your life , I just

39:24

want to pray with you right where you are . I'm not going to call

39:26

you out . Have you come up front ? Nothing like that . Just

39:28

write where you are . If you want to make a decision

39:30

to trust Jesus with your life , just

39:33

pray this prayer with me right where you are . Say

39:36

Jesus , forgive me

39:38

for my sins , make

39:40

me new . Today I trust

39:42

you in my life Today

39:44

. I follow you In

39:47

Jesus' name , amen

39:49

, amen . Let's give God some praise in

39:51

here today , amen

39:54

.