Life To The Full | Caleb McMains | Full Service

See, Jesus lived a life that if any of us were to read any of the four gospels, which is an account of Jesus' life, we would not look at Jesus' life and be like, man,

that was a cool like, we would all say that's a cool life. We would love to have that life. Like, Jesus was with people all the time. He was sitting down and having meals with people, hearing their story. He seemed to never be in a rush or in a hurry and he was always calm and collected and he was patient and he was kind and he was generous and he was loving with people. You look at the life of Jesus and you're like, man,

that seems nice Because we live in a day and age where it's like we go, we go, we go, we go, we get sucked into the rat race and we have to just keep working and grinding and getting it done so that we can get all the things we want to get and get to the places we want to get. But we forget that Jesus lived a life

very different than the kind of lies we tend to see today in most people. And so if we want the life of Jesus, if we want life and life to the full, we must take on the ways of Jesus.

And we're gonna spend some time talking about that. I'd love to pray for us and then we're gonna dive right into it. So let's bow our heads and let's pray. Dear Jesus, thank you so much that we get to be here. I pray that our hearts and our minds and our souls and our bodies are ready to receive

your word today. Something powerful happens when we are in your word and we are together as a community worshiping you and getting teaching from you. So I just pray for this space that we are filled with your spirit and you begin to do a work in us. Transform us, Jesus. In your heavenly name. Amen.

Okay. So I would love for you to open up your bibles to first Corinthians chapter nine. First Corinthians chapter nine.

I'm gonna give you some time to get there. I want you to get there. If you have the bible app on your phone or you got a physical bible, like get it out. Not just gonna say go to this verse and then read it really fast and then you're like, I couldn't even get there. No. I want you to get there. Get the word of God in front of you. It is powerful, life changing. Get the bible app, whatever, like just get it in front of you. It is powerful and amazing.

So before we read anything and while you're getting there, the author of this book, first Corinthians, his name is Paul and he is a master follower of Jesus and he has been following Jesus faithfully and fighting the good fight and he has been going and planting churches.

And the church of Corinth, is what this book is, it's a letter to that church, is for them because the Corinthian church was really wrestling with something. They were really wrestling with life similar to, I think, we wrestle.

And in this wrestle because the Corinthians, they were a prosperous city. They were They had like all the trade and starting all these businesses and people wanted to live there, very similar to the Queen Creek, Gilbert, Santam Valley, the East Valley is just blowing up and businesses are coming here and people are moving here. That was life for the Corinthians. It was just prosperous and growing and getting wild and crazy and everybody was so busy and they were just going and going and going and going and they were getting tired and the church

of this place, the Christians within this city, Paul was getting reports

of them just being like, Man, we're trying to follow Jesus but we're getting sucked into everything else. We're getting just like, I can't rest and if I take a break then everything's gonna fall apart and I have to work my business seven days a week, twenty four hours a day and if I don't then it's gonna fall. They were feeling it.

They were experiencing it. They were growing and on the outside of the for all intents and purposes, this was a very thriving environment. But for some reason, the Christians at the time were struggling because there was a life that Jesus had on offer and they were wrestling with, is that really it?

And so this is Paul's encouragement to them. This is what he starts to share with them that if you want to experience the kind of life that Jesus has on offer, this is how you do it. So first Corinthians chapter nine. I hope that was plenty of time for you to get there on your bible app or your physical bible but it is

going to be great. I put a little bookmark. Look at that. Got there so fast. I knew ahead of time. First Corinthians nine chapter 24 says this. It says, Paul is writing, Don't you realize that in a race everyone runs but only one person gets the prize? Not unless you're a millennial. We all got prizes, right? Participation

trophies. That was me. I loved it. I think my parents still have like a box with all my participation trophies on it, so they're proud of me.

Paul continues to write. He says, so run to win. All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away but we do it for the an internal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I'm not just shadow boxing. I discipline my body like an athlete training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others, I myself might be disqualified.

Paul is going after it in this moment. He is speaking language that the Corinthians would have understood. He is using the metaphor of athletics and training and being disciplined

in order to help the Corinthians see that to follow Jesus is to look like this. Now this kind of language would have just hit home for the Corinthians because the Corinthian city, Corinth, was home to the Isthmian Games. Now if you know anything about the Isthmian Games, that's awesome like nobody does, but it was second to the Olympics.

So it was this grand time for everybody to come together and cheer on their favorite athlete for their favorite event in the games and it would just be amazing and everybody would have a blast and it would happen every two years and it was wonderful. So the idea of athletics

just rang home for them as I think it does for you and for me. Like we love our athletics here. We are in the middle of or the start of the NFL and football, but you guys are here at this service which means you probably don't care too much about football.

Cause it's like all going on right now. Some of you guys are probably checking the score. What's going on? No. Listen up. But we get it. Like when it comes to discipline and training, that kind of language, it hits home for us. Just like an athlete would train themselves and discipline themselves

to be an incredible athlete in the the field that they're in. He is saying, to follow Jesus is to train and discipline yourself in the faith. Now, over all of church history, this idea of disciplining yourself in the ways of Jesus has been referred to as the spiritual

disciplines. Now if you spent any time in church, you have probably heard this before, but if you are new here and that does not ring home for you, that is okay. If you are new to your faith or you've never given your life to Jesus, we are not trying to just get this lingo out there like I don't even really love the phrase spiritual disciplines and so for that reason, I'm going to stick primarily to practices of Jesus or practicing the way of Jesus. The reason for that I think is in today's day and age, the word spiritual

seems to be this thing that is more out of body. That it is kind of this mystical realm, the spiritual world and we kinda We can't see it. We can't touch it. Like it's not physical and so it's just kinda like ominous and we're trying to figure it all out. But for Paul,

in his writings, he is so very clear that our body is as much a part of serving Jesus and practicing the ways of Jesus as would any athlete who is disciplining themselves and training their body to be able to do the things that they need to do. So that is why I'm going to stick with more of practices of Jesus because it helps you and I understand that it involves our physical. It involves our bodies

and it is not just something kinda like mystical and we don't really know how it all works. Okay? So we're gonna stick with practices of Jesus or practicing the way of Jesus. But if you're old school and you don't like that, spiritual disciplines.

Spiritual disciplines or practicing the way of Jesus, my working definition is going to be this, a practice based on the lifestyle of Jesus that gives you access to the power of the holy spirit and in doing so, be transformed from the inside out. One more time. A practice

based on the lifestyle of Jesus that gives you access to the power of the Holy Spirit and in doing so, transformed from the inside out. Practices of Jesus, practicing the way of Jesus is our way of opening ourselves up to the spirit of God to transform us into the likeness of Christ.

In other words, our big idea, if you want to live the life Jesus lived, you have to take on the ways of Jesus. And so what I wanna do is I wanna kinda just go through a list of some common tried and true practices of Jesus that over all of history have proven to be absolutely wonderful for connecting with Jesus and opening

up yourself to the power of the spirit in your life. I was just talking to a middle schooler this past week and he was telling me, he's like, my mom and I were really trying to figure out how to connect with God more.

And I was like, dude, you don't even You don't have to like try to figure it out. I got you. The bible makes it so abundantly clear all through scripture. Paul's writings, he is saying, discipline yourself in the faith and there are ways to do that and that is to do the things Jesus did. To practice the ways of Jesus.

Our faith, the faith in Jesus, following Jesus is not a mystical thing where we just kinda go through life wondering how it works. He has made it clear. He modeled how to live. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus put it all on display for you and for me so that there would be no confusion. So some

common practices of Jesus that are tried and true and great. It's gonna be on the screen as well. Silence and solitude. This is when you kinda remove yourself from everyday craziness and you kinda get alone and you kinda sit in silence and that's really awkward and weird because none of us like silence.

We always have music going everywhere, even me, like in my house, like I play music every day because like quietness is just like, what's going on? But that's a key practice of Jesus is getting away and opening yourself up to hearing the spirit speak and God speak to you. That's a big one. Prayer. This is one of the ones that we would more think of, like, oh, practices of Jesus or spiritual disciplines like praying, reading your bible. Prayer is one of those. Talking to God and just putting yourself out there for him to hear your thoughts, feelings and emotions.

Simple and sacrificial living. This is like what we would know today as like minimalism or minimalistic living. That's when you've got like one room, it's all white walls and got like one chair in there and it's just like, yes, Jesus is here in this moment.

That's simple simple living. Jesus lived a very simple life. Then you got study and meditation of God's word.

This is anything involving God's word. Whether you're reading the bible all the way through or you're doing it chronologically as we talked about over the few weeks. It'd be cool to do as a church and do that. Or you've got a journal that you accompany next to your bible and you help and it helps you kinda guide you through scripture and maybe you journal about it. Anything involving God's word is going to be vital and amazing and great for your spiritual formation, for you becoming

more like Jesus. Then we have service to others. Serving, helping people, getting away from your own selfish desires and moving into caring for other people. That does not always come naturally. It is something we practice and it is vital to the ways of Jesus.

Fasting, words we don't A word we don't typically use very often but really all fasting is in the biblical sense, is you are training and displaying yourself to not give into bodily desire that would otherwise be harmful, not good for you, things like that. Fasting really opens you up to the spirit moving in your life.

So nothing too crazy there. Community.

Community is so important. We talk about it here all the time. You have to have people around you. You cannot live out your faith in Jesus and practice the ways of Jesus without people. Jesus had His 12 disciples. He had the inner three. He had the crowds that He spent many, many hours with. He sat down with people who were far from Him and did not believe in what He was saying but He had dinner with them. You cannot get away from people when it comes to following Jesus

which is why sometimes it gets really messy but that's great. We need it to be that way. That's how it's been created and so community is huge.

Secrecy, that's when you like do Jesus y things like serve Him without like telling everybody about it. That's like going to feed my starving children and like you don't post about it on Instagram because you for some reason thought the whole world needed to know that you did that. Just do it and don't try to get any recognition for it. Super great.

Celebration, that's throw really good parties. Have people over. Have a great time. Confession, you know, you've wronged someone. Go tell them, hey, I've wronged you. Will you forgive me? You've sinned. You bring it to God and be like, man, I've really I've sinned. God, forgive me. Confession is huge. Teaching,

anything like this, like right here, right now, this is a spiritual practice. You guys are at church.

This is one that I think generally we're all pretty decent at, is coming to church but this is a spiritual practice of Jesus for all. We From what we see in scripture, Jesus was at the synagogue all the time which is just his version of church. That's just what they call the Jewish thing. We call it church.

Worship. When we sing, when we praise God with our voices. Just a moment ago, we did that as a community. Huge practice of Jesus.

Sabbath, again, language we don't use very often but it's in scripture. We see it as something where you take twenty four hour period of time and you completely remove yourself from all the busyness and craziness that you have going on like taking your family take the twenty four hours off and you can't be contacted for work things and you're just with your family and you go to the zoo and it's wonderful and it's life giving and it fills you up. That was a key practice of Jesus.

But twenty four hours is a lot so if you've never tried that before, maybe try like twelve or two. Yeah. Or maybe two minutes. That could help. And then finally, gratitude.

We are not naturally thankful people. We are not naturally people who are looking at our life and our circumstances and things around us and being super grateful for them. It is something we have to train and discipline ourselves in.

And so that's just some. I think if you're anything like me, I'm a type A personality. I've got OCD like crazy and I'm an Enneagram one, so when I see a list like that or I see something, I just wanna do it all.

And what I want to encourage you with is please do not do that. This is not a list to make you be like, oh I gotta go do all these things. This is just to give you and me a good idea what are some of the practices of Jesus Because we don't all know it. I I didn't know it until I really started studying some of this stuff and so please do not do not do not leave here being like, I'm trying all of these. You will not do well.

You will get very frustrated with yourself and that is not the goal. That is not the hope whatsoever. But that is a list and it's a great list and it can be a place where you go and be like, okay, what do these mean and what do they look like? But before we really dive into some of the practical

stuff of how we do this in our everyday ordinary lives,

we gotta understand this idea of discipline. Discipline is all around us. The discipline of brushing your teeth in the morning, that is a discipline that many of us, I would hope all of us have worked into our daily routine. If you have not, please get on it. But like even like flossing,

never floss. I hate flossing. I think it's the worst.

But it's so good for your teeth and your oral hygiene and dentists and hygienists will always tell you, you gotta floss. Right? Like they're always telling you that. Like, I know. Then you come back six months later but really it's a year because you missed the six month mark and they're like, did you floss? No.

The two days before I came here, did. But those are disciplines that we work into our lives and so we have a really good understanding of discipline. Let's think of a hypothetical situation here. Say you run wanted to run a marathon. Anybody in here run a marathon before? Okay. You've run a marathon. Anybody else?

Like, okay. One, two. There's like two people in here who have run a marathon. So as you can imagine, it's not exactly the most common thing in the world. But imagine if tomorrow you woke up and you're like, I'm gonna run a marathon.

And you woke up tomorrow, you put on your running shoes and you just started going. You're like, I'm gonna hit 26 miles. Would you ever get there?

No. You would get to mile three, four, five, maybe you're the more athletic type and you're like, I've made it to 12, but then you would collapse and your body would be done and it would be like the worst thing you've ever did in your life. But imagine if you woke up tomorrow

with the goal in mind that you will run a marathon in a year and tomorrow you put your shoes on and you run a mile. And then the next day you run two. And then the next day you run two again. And then the next day maybe you try three.

And you continue on this journey for weeks and weeks and months and months and months of incrementally adding the amount of distance you run each day and then all of a sudden after months of training and disciplining yourself, running a marathon is well within your reach. Still difficult

but well within your reach. So this is not about trying really hard. We've all tried to follow Jesus really hard. We've all tried to do things but it is about the disciplines of implementing little things here and there over a grand period of time where you begin to experience what Jesus says is life and life for the full.

I was just talking to one of our band members. He plays the drum and I was asking him, I'm like, hey, what are the fundamentals of drumming? And he's like, you have to nail down the paradiddle.

The paradiddle is just like this one, two beat thing that you do with the drums. I don't even know how to do it. I'm not musical whatsoever. But it's like, that kind of thing. Yep. That's really how it works and you have to nail that down if you want to master the drums. That's the fundamentals.

You have to nail those down before you're ever going to be a master drummer. I was talking to Sarah. She plays the violin and she

I was like, what are the fundamentals of that? And she goes, you've gotta learn how to hold your bow. I was like, okay. Like, so is that like a one day thing? She's like, no. You do it for a long time.

And she's like, you hold your bow or like you learn how to hold it or whatever. I mean, something like that. I don't know. All the string instruments people out there are like, no.

But she was like, and then you do these things called windshield wipers. And you just like go back and forth, back and forth like your windshield wipers, you know. Those are on a motor, you're using your hand. Right? And she's like, you would do hundreds of them and you would do it over and over and over again, and once you finally knew how to hold your bow and how to move it around, you could finally start playing the instrument.

I was like, that's insane. But we all get it. It makes sense. It's intuitive to you and to me that we have to train and discipline ourselves in order to be able to do the thing we would like to do, be a master drummer or be an incredible violinist

or be able to play basketball at a collegiate level or a professional level. We get it. Those athletes, they train and this is what Paul is trying to show us, that there is training and disciplining yourself in the ways of Jesus and on the other side of that is what Jesus has on offer,

life and life to the full. I love the quote from famous theologian, Michael Jordan. The minute you get away from fundamentals,

whether it's proper technique, work ethic, or mental preparation, the bottom can fall out of your game, your schoolwork, your job, whatever you're doing. The minute you get away from the fundamentals of practicing the way of Jesus, the minute it all falls apart and you find yourself wondering,

are these just nice words that Jesus said or is it really the life He has on offer? It is so vitally important to our faith and our transformation to practice the ways of Jesus. Not try to do them really hard, not just try and try again and try again, but to train, to discipline ourselves in it.

And that is what Paul is trying to show us all throughout his writings. He continues to talk about this idea of discipline and training yourself and running the race. In first Timothy four seven and eight, he says this. He says, do not waste time arguing

over godless ideas and old wives tales. Instead, train yourself to be godly. Physical training is good but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come. Paul was not afraid to look at the Christians of his time and say, if you are not practicing

the ways of Jesus and you are not disciplining yourself in your faith, then you will not experience the things that Jesus has on offer this side of eternity and it is a really hard thing to teach that and share that because I grew up in church where it was so just

clear and over and over again pressed into you that this is not a works based faith, that you do not earn your salvation and I'm so thankful for that because on the pages of scripture, you will never find anything that says you can earn your salvation.

You cannot earn salvation with Jesus. That is a free gift that he gave to you and to me in and through the work that he did on the cross and conquering death. There is no earning the love of the father. You already have it. It is already with you. It is free and for you to take. But this side of eternity,

your eternity secure, this side of it, is it just we live life and wait for our fateful day or wait until the coming of Jesus again? Like, is that what Jesus said? Is that what Jesus has on offer? No.

He says, come, follow me, take up your cross and I will give you life and life for the full. I love this quote from Dallas Willard. He's a man who has dedicated most of his life and writings to spiritual disciplines or helping people practice the way of Jesus in such a wonderful and beautiful way and he says this, he says, grace is not opposed to effort. It is opposed to earning.

We cannot earn the grace of God, but there is work to be done this side of eternity. And as followers of Jesus, we are those workers. Scripture will talk about the harvest is plenty, but the workers are few. Followers of Jesus, we are the workers and there is work to be done. There's effort to be put in, training

and discipline, not trying really hard, not just hoping you get it all figured out, but to train and discipline yourself as an athlete would athlete would to be ready for the big game.

It is so vitally important, but I want to make sure we know and everybody in here hears that it is not about earning the love of the father. You have it. It is yours. It is yours for the taking and Jesus gives it so graciously and freely. Please please do not walk away hearing anything else. Now

I want to get really practical with us because any conversation about practicing the way of Jesus, I feel like has to get super practical. I know it does for me and getting into some deep study and trying to figure this stuff out and what this looks like for me and my life

is the practical. It's huge. My favorite book of the Bible is Proverbs because it's one of the most practical books in the entire Bible and I love it, but there has to be some practicality to this. I think back to the middle schooler who's like, I just want to connect with God more. Well, here it is. It is practical. It is possible. It is not a lofty goal that you will never achieve but it is actually something that we can train and discipline ourselves

in. So if you're taking notes, you're writing, feel free to write this stuff down. It is all on rockpoint.io as well.

But I want to get into what I'm going to call the balanced approach to spiritual disciplines or a balanced approach to practicing the way of Jesus. I took these points from a pastor who has dedicated the last ten years of his life of helping followers of Jesus really step into what it looks like to practice the ways of Jesus and I find them wonderful and very insightful.

The first one is you need to account for your personality. We are all different. You and me, different people. Obviously, I set my kitchen up at night before I go to bed way different than you do,

and I'm like a raging extrovert and I love people and I could hang out with people seven days a week and it would be wonderful and I could just listen and talk and listen some more and just go and go and go. For some of you, that's not you. You're like super introverted and people like me exhaust you

and you're like, don't hang out with that guy. Like you've just mental noted it, don't talk to Caleb. Do not go talk to that guy. Way too much for me. But we're all different. So I need copious amounts of community.

If I'm not around people for a really long period of time, oh, it's not good for my soul. It is not good for my development as a follower of Jesus. It is not good for me. But if you're not that way, like you still need community, right? But you do not need nearly as much time around people as I might.

But I also need silence and solitude. I need to be able to remove myself from people and be around everybody just as Jesus did and get into the word or talking to the father

and not having the distraction and everything around me. Now, I can't do that for five hours a day. No way. I couldn't do it for an hour a day. Right now, I'm really working towards a consistent five minutes a day and it's been going well for me

but I still need it. So take your personality into account. We are all different and God made us all unique and wonderful and beautiful and the way we connect with Jesus is going to look differently based on our personalities but that does not give you an excuse to not practice the ones that maybe are not as natural.

If you are introverted and you love your books and getting in silence and solitude is easy, that is not the excuse to say I'm not gonna be in community. And for me, because I love being with people all the time, it is not my excuse

to not be in the word of God and to introduce some silence and peace and quiet into my daily rhythm. Okay? Our personalities matter and we have to take those things into account. The second is account for your season of life. We're all in different seasons of life. I have a one year old at home that's different

than you who does not have a one year old at home. Some of you guys are empty nesters and your kids finally left the house and the fateful day is here and you are so thrilled and you are just loving all of the freedom. They're 30 but they finally left.

I'm like mentally preparing myself for when will my daughter move out of my house. By then it might be like 40. Hopefully not. But seasons of life are gonna look different. Some of you some of us have just gotten married. Some of us are in the process of getting married. Some of us are single and our lives

are different than the other people around us. You need to take your season of life. People who are single, it is so much easier to run around and have all of the community you could possibly imagine

and working that into your life is fairly easy for someone who is married and maybe you're more extroverted than your spouse and you're trying to navigate that together. That is a season of life and things to figure out. I've got a one year old at home and so silence and solitude looks like a crying baby in the room for me and it's just awesome

and it's okay. It is your season of life. Please take those things into account. Good friend of mine, her name is Andy. She one of the managers over at our toffee shop. She's married to one of our video videographers here.

She gave her life to Jesus when she was in high school and I recently saw that she posted some of this on her Instagram story and I was reading it and I was just so just amazed by it.

She has always struggled with reading the bible. She has always struggled with getting into it because it can be confusing, right? Like anybody who's tried to just like sit down and read the bible, you're like, I don't even know what that just said.

That's okay, but she's always wrestled with that and in this season of her life, she recently got married and they bought a house and now they have their own space and they're finally settling into it all. All of a sudden, this season of life, the window of opportunity opened to really figure out how do I introduce

this kind of discipline into my life. And so she got herself a journal and it helps walk her through some stories in the bible and gives her time to really think and meditate on it. And she was just posting about how life giving it has been for her and how before it had always just felt like, man, I'm reaching here

and I'm just trying. But this time around with some structure and some discipline, it has absolutely filled her up and the spirit is moving and transforming her in ways that she has not experienced in the last few years. And it's so cool. Take your season of life into account. The next one, account for your biggest need.

Recently we had our middle school all nighter, and if you're in middle school and you went, we had a blast. If you're a parent of a middle schooler, you're so glad you weren't there. But I am like extroverted out like crazy, right? So all night at main event with like 700 middle schoolers was amazing.

We had a blast. I know that is like for some of you guys a nightmare. But at the check-in for the all nighter, this gentleman, he came up to me and he goes, hey, you spoke here a few weeks ago. I was like, yes. And he goes, you did a good job. And I was like, thank you. And

he says, I was beginning to think that I couldn't go to this church. And I was like, what do you mean? He's like, well, all of the pastors who have been speaking here are just ripped. They are so strong. And I'm like, keep going. He's like, and then you spoke and I was like, okay, I can go to this church. I was like, yes.

I'm glad I'm the guy that makes the average person feel comfortable. I love it. So my biggest need was I went and got a gym membership right after that. I was like, we're doing this.

But just like in that moment for me, it was really like, man, there's a need in my life and it is clearly the gym. There are things in our life that can come up, that can happen that need a little more attention and more attention quickly. There are things that we struggle with, sins that might come into our life

that we need to go after and we need to figure out and just like a doctor would look at a patient who is ill and prescribe a very specific medication for them to take to combat the thing they are ill with,

so can be used spiritual disciplines to help really combat against some things that could come up in your life. For example, if you're struggling with any kind of bodily addiction like an alcohol addiction or a drug addiction or pornography addiction

or you have an unhealthy relationship with food and you've been trying and trying to figure all this stuff out and you really just need the spirit of God to come in and transform you because you've tried to do it on your own and it is only through the power of the spirit that this is going to happen. There are some true and tried fire ways to kinda combat those kinds of things specifically.

For example, with anything bodily desire like that, any sort of fasting is going to be huge for you. That it doesn't even have to be fasting from the thing you might necessarily be struggling with but any kind of fasting is going to be huge in your life to really train and discipline yourself

to not give in to bodily desire. And the power of the spirit as you do that fills you and transforms you and over time easier and easier and easier. So many of us I think have tried to do these kinds of things on our own and with our own power.

It is only through the power of the spirit that we can really take hold of these things. So introduce some fasting in your life. Maybe if you struggle with pride or something, maybe you're more egotistical than you like to be, maybe some people have been pointing that out in your life and you're trying to figure that out.

Just get married. Your spouse is really good at I'm just kidding. No. But if you're struggling with pride, one of the best things you can do is get into community. If you are not in a community, it is really hard to stay humble because you're just with yourself and there's nobody around you to really know you.

Because the reality is none of us are really that cool or that great. And so in my own fight with pride and my

trying to introduce humility into my life, community has been huge. You need people around you who are going to call you out. Not just friends that are nice to be around but the people that know you and look at you and like, Caleb, you are a youth pastor in Queen Creek. You're not that cool.

You know, you need people like that in your life.

Even yesterday, I I tried to make a little homage to people who like sports. I'm not a sports guy. I don't I don't particularly get all jazzed on it. And I had some friends out there who are like, that was fake dude. You tried to like relate with all the sports people and it didn't work. And I was like, you're right. You're right. Thank you.

But you need community in your life. Get community in your life and it is so easy to get it here. We have groups and there's people out in the lobby who would gladly help you find the perfect group of people to really dive in and go all in on being known and cared for and supported. So community is huge for that. Doing things in secret, like doing things for Jesus without telling other people about it. Like I said, like you could go serve on the facilities team and go take trash from this building all the way to the dumpsters. Like that is going to be great for your humility.

It is so awful for the ego. It hurts a ton, but it is wonderful. So in your fight with pride or anything, those kinds of things are great. And so you can do that. If there is a need in your life that we have got to lock this down,

it is so vitally important to do some of those things. There was this middle school girl a year ago and every week she would come tell me about how much she essentially hated people. Seriously, like every week it was, I hate this person. I hate this person. And I finally got to the point where I was like,

you're an angry person. And she kinda asked a few questions but after that, we didn't talk for a really long time. Like I think she just like stopped telling me she was mad at people. But then literally, this past Thursday I'm telling you, this was the work of God.

This past Thursday, I see her and she's like, come here. And I was like, okay. What's up? And she's like, remember when you told me like I'm like an angry person? I go, yeah. Yeah. I remember that. She goes, I think it's gotten better. I'm like, what do you mean? And she goes,

I don't know. And I was like, no. Like, did you start doing something differently? And she's like, well, I've been praying more. Well, I've also been really opening up to my community and the people that, you know, say they wanna help me and just trusting them. Those were her words, not mine. Oh, it was wonderful.

What a cool moment for someone so young to realize that a little bit of prayer and opening up to her community has absolutely changed her heart. So cool. Account for the biggest need. The next is not afraid of hard work.

It's going to take some work just like any kind of discipline in our lives. Like if you want to play an instrument, you want to play the violin, the drums, the piano, you want to play a sport, football, soccer,

basketball, anything like that. If you want the washboard abs that you've always wanted in your life, you're going to have to put in some work and it's going to be difficult. It's going to take some time. Our worship pastor, David Brun, he has been working out since I don't even know how long and for him,

he's like, dude, it's so easy. I just go to the gym every day. I was like, do you know how hard it is to get to the gym every day? But what his point is is that over time, it does not become that difficult and it becomes a regular part of your routine.

And I'm like, you're the man, David. Like, I want you I want your body like it is I wanna look like that. Then people won't tell me I'm the average guy. Or something like getting into the word of God has always been difficult for me but I recently just restarted doing something that David

and our other teaching pastor Daniel Goulding had told me about and it's this journal and it's called the Lectio Divina Journal. And it's That sounds super fancy and everything but really it's just a way to read scripture

and it lays out a passage. You read it and then you write your thoughts on it and then you write down a prayer based on what you read and then you're done.

And that has been life giving to me. It has been absolutely wonderful and it has been great in transforming me and opening myself up to the spirit to do the kind of work that he needs to do in me

and it has been wonderful and it has been so small and sometimes I miss a day and do you know what I do? I don't get mad at myself. I don't get frustrated. The whole goal of the spiritual disciplines is not to just do them. It is to open yourself up to the power of the work and the work of the spirit in you.

You have the same spirit that Jesus has. The spiritual disciplines are our part to play in our formation. The spirit of God does all the hard work. It is our responsibility to just do the small little things and over time see what they become. The last one is create repetition.

You need to be repetitive in these things. It won't make a difference if you do it once and then wait six months and do it again. It is small

little things over time that will make the difference. It's like Mr. Miyagi and the Karate Kid, you know, the wax on, wax off, you know, in that moment it's like this is doing nothing but in reality, he is becoming a Karate Master.

It's when we look and we read our bible for like five minutes in the morning and then we go to work and our boss says something to us and we are immediately ticked off and we're like, Jesus, I read my bible today. Why am I mad? It takes time. It is not going to happen overnight. The transformation

that Jesus talks about and experiencing life and life to the full is something that takes time. It does not happen overnight. And so my final thoughts for you would be this, be patient with yourself. Do not get frustrated. The tendency

with talking about anything like this is that we have to go out into our day and leave this room and we have to do all of the things that is not the case. Where are you at in your life and what are some small

little disciplines that you could introduce into your life? If you are new here and you just gave your life to Jesus, making here and being here on a Saturday or Sunday a consistent part of your week to week schedule and rhythm,

worshiping is going to do wonders for you. If you have been following Jesus for a really long time, something like introducing silence and solitude in your life is going to be life changing. If you have never given your life to Jesus and you are just trying to figure this out, this is the way of Jesus.

He has life and life to the full on offer for you. It is the ways of Jesus in which we get there. Please be patient with yourself and start somewhere. Do not leave this place and just go. That was a nice message. Please go and enjoy what Jesus has on offer for you.

You guys are wonderful. I want to pray for you and then we can go watch some football. Dear Jesus, thank you so much for who you are. Thank you that we get to be here. Thank you for the teaching of your word. Thank you for worship through music and song. Thank you that we get to be here as a community.

It is you who have brought this together and we are so thankful for the way you've created us and you've made us. I pray for everybody in this room. There is a starting place and I believe it is your spirit that will show and direct each and every one of us into

what is our step. Jesus, you offer us life and life to the full. May we step into it. May we do our small but very important part in our transformation. We love you, you're amazing, and we pray the cardinals are doing well. In your heavenly name, amen. You guys are wonderful.

Thanks for joining us online this weekend. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Make sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on rockpoint.io for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.