Life is short, and we aren't promised tomorrow. How will you choose to live today?
The Remnant Church
Dash - AJ Noel
Father, thank you so much for this day. Lord, thank you so much just for your grace, your mercy, Lord, thank you so much for sending your son to die on the cross for our sins, Lord. I mean, I just ask that Lord, give me words to speak today, and God, I just ask that you open everyone's hearts right now in this room, God, open their ears, let them hear the message today. And Father, just please help me not get in the way of that and just help me to speak clearly. Thank you so much. Father, pray, amen. How are you guys doing? Nice. I was going to do a Todd thing where I go like, I did it anyway. So today's message, as you see, there's no words on the screen. And I wanted to do that intentionally, because I don't know if anyone is familiar with what that is on the screen, but that is a dash. That is what that is. And that is what my message is called today. It's called dash. And I want to kind of give some background as to why this message is being, why I'm doing this message today. So Friday, I had some unfortunate news, my stepfather passed away and talk about like a moment, right? Like, man, life just kind of stops, screeches do a halt and you go, whoa. And so that's the main reason behind this message was because when that day came and that happened and I learned this news, I was coming home because I was with my sister. And on the way, on the drive back here to Columbia City, I had a couple of songs come on and I thought I was like, I think God's trying to tell me that you should do a message on this Sunday if I'm able to. So luckily here I am, I'm able to do it, so I'm excited to do it. That's why I, you know, for the prayer I was like, give me words to speak, man, because tough, tough subject today. But one of those songs that came on, I don't know if you guys are familiar with Crowder, you know, great artist, love that guy, a friend, Grant, he had sent me a song, weird timing. He sent me this probably two or three months ago, it was called dash, that's what the song is called. It's essentially just about how, you know, you have a day where you're born and you have a day where you pass and all your life is is that little dash between. You have this state to this state and you got that little dash in between. And so that was another thing, that was one of the songs that came on, on my way back and I didn't even mean to click on, like I didn't click the song, it was just on shuffle and I was like, all right God, I see what you're doing here. Another inspiration for this message was just when that, when I learned that news and on that drive back, I realized like, man, I'm so distracted, man, so much happens in life that you don't like, it takes moments like this to really make you slow down and go, okay, what is life again? It actually takes something like a death to go, okay, like, I got a, like, what is life? What am I doing? That's really important. So to start, I kind of wanted to just go over a couple of these lines in this, in this song by Crowder, it says, "Life's a mist, it's just a breath. We're only here for a little while." He talked about his daddy's grave, it read 1910 to 1998, but the years between were just a little line and that really hit me. You know, I'd listened to the song before, you know, I thought, that's pretty cool, man, like cool lines, you know, I like songwriting, I'm a big, big fan of it, you know, and I always appreciate good songwriting, good lyrics, and you know, it took a whole new meaning Friday. And he says, the chorus of the song says, "There's a day we're born and a day we pass. In between, there's just a dash, what on earth am I doing?" And at first glimpse, you may think, when he's saying, "What on earth am I doing?" You're probably thinking like, "Oh, he's probably, "What am I doing?" No, I think he's saying, "What on earth am I doing? What am I doing in this life I have right now?" 'Cause I remember when I first listened to it, I kind of thought it was the first one. I thought he was saying like, "Oh, what am I doing?" I was like, "No, man, like, that's not a crowder, like, that doesn't make sense." You know, he's saying like, "In this time, in this moment right now, what on this earth am I doing?" This led to another song, this one's a little, little different. And once again, this is all crazy timing because I had referenced this song probably a month ago, just in casual conversation, there's this band called "68" and they have a song called "Death Is A Lottery." And I literally, Luke's laughing because I literally was talking about this song like a month ago. And I was like, "Yeah, man, it's an interesting concept about death and like how like, you know, I kind of went into it." I was actually wrong about the meaning, by the way, 'cause I reread it. So the chorus, one of the lines in the chorus, that song is, "Death Is Quick, but it can last so long." And once again, that had a whole new meaning Friday. And upon first glance of that song, you know, when I listened to it, I went back to lyrics and in the conversation I had with Luke, I said, "Well, you know, I believe they're saying like, 'Death is a lot of reason, like, yeah, man, like, if you're a believer, man, it's kind of like you hit the lottery in a way, you know, like, you're in heaven, you know, you're with the Father, you know, it's all good now." That's not what it meant. Death is a lottery, what it meant was is it's random. There's a lot of people that play lottery, only a few win, same with death, man. You don't know when that time's coming, there goes my water. You know, it's played by money, played by many, there's only a few that win in a day. It's unexpected. I'm sure you probably have never spoken, anybody that's won the lottery and they knew they were going to win. You know, same thing with death, man. You know, you may, you know, there's times where people may think they think the time's coming, but they don't actually know that time when it's there until it's happening. It's quick, but it lasts long. What does that mean? Because again, I like good, I like good songwriting. Death is quick. It's just a moment from when you have, on this time here, to when you're gone, gone. You're gone from here. Why here? Because there's more after this. That's why he said, "It can last so long." Because once this life passes, there's an eternity to be had, it lasts forever. Put into perspective how fragile and short life is for me. If anybody knows me, I like to think. I'm a thinker, probably to the worst sometimes. I can overthink and I can just kind of hyper-focused on things and like overthink and overanalyze and before you know it, I haven't done anything. I'm just sitting there going, "What if life?" And it's interesting because even as that, being an overthinker, when something like this happens, man, it's still, it's a whole different ballgame. I think it's because you can sit and think of these concepts all day, but then when you're actually faced with something like mortality and actually you see it and you experience it, you're like, "Man, it really makes you stop and think." It made me rethink life. I had to sit there and I had to really take a step back and rethink, "What is this life that we're living? What is it for?" Life is short, it is. One of the most impactful things in my, when I was young in my church life before, I don't even think I was saved yet, but I was coming to church and I was hearing the gospel, our pastor Todd, he used an analogy and it stuck with me and it still sticks with me, he still uses it now. And every time he used it, it still almost gives me chills because I'm like, "Man," which is, I remember he was preaching a sermon and he said, "Hey," he said, "The life that you're living right now, this one that we're all aware of sitting here, it's this big." And he goes, "After this, it's from wall to wall. It doesn't end. It goes past those walls." And that just, man, that hit me. All those years ago, eight, seven, eight years ago, that hit me and I realized that was some of the beginning stages of wanting to give my life to Christ, it was, but again, it takes on a new meaning when something like this happens. It doesn't matter how old you are, whether you're a kid, you're a teenager, or if you are elder in your 70s, 80s, it doesn't matter how old you are, you don't know when that time's coming. I preached a sermon, I think, two, I want to say it was two years ago, I think, it was either a year or two ago, it was called urgency. And essentially, the message behind that one was, "Hey, why do we wait to want to tell people about Jesus? Why do we wait to want to tell people the gospel?" And again, that sermon kind of came back into my mind as I was preparing this one because I was going, "Well, purpose, what is purpose?" Because right now, I'm setting up that life is short, but there's more after this. Stick around. Why do we live the way we do? You know, because you hear it a lot, raise your hand if you heard the term life is short before I said it today, yeah, literally every single person in the room. Me too. I've heard it a ton. I've said it a ton. If you guys know me, I'm like the time guy. You'd be like, "Aji, how are you doing?" I'm like, "Life short, time man, just keeps going." I'm that guy. So I'm with you. If you're like that, I'm with you. So yes, life is short, but why do we live the way we do? One of the first things that came to my mind as I was preparing this was denial. We don't like to think about that. We don't like to think about how short our time is here, or how short maybe someone we care about how short their time is. Whether you're just thinking about that or because of the situation. You know, I guess going back, I haven't really, I don't think I didn't really preface much. My stepfather, I had learned that he had had cancer, I believe, Wednesday, maybe Tuesday, and he was gone Friday. So when it comes to denial, that's what I mean. It's those kinds of situations. Maybe you learned about something in your life and you go, "I don't want to deal with that. Something to just deny, deny, deny." It made me think of the curse, right, and the garden. You know, it made me think of Adam and Eve, you know? Death wasn't meant to be here. It wasn't meant to exist. We were supposed to just live in perfect harmony with God forever. And then when that original sin occurred, you know, what did the enemy say? He said, "I'm going to make you aware, essentially," right, paraphrasing. But he essentially said, "I'm going to make you like God." Think about animals, for example. Animals don't think about when they're going to die. That's kind of how we were before that. God made us in His image, so we were, you know, a lot more, I guess, aware in the sense of, you know, He gave us minds, but like, we were just like them. We weren't worried about when we were going to die. We weren't worried about what our next bill to pay, like, we weren't worried about any of that stuff then. But now, so that's what it made me think of, it made me think of, "Why, why do we act out the way we do? Why do we go about life just like kind of skating and being caught in the motions? And it's because like that awareness, man, we don't like to deal with that awareness we have." One of the things that's messed with me most of my life is that there's only a few things guaranteed in life, and death is one of them. It is. But yet, any time it comes, you don't know how to handle it, it messes with you. It's interesting, and to put in perspective, you know, in the U.S. alone, this is a statistic I looked up, and this is just, this is in 2024. So just to give you some thoughts to think on, in the U.S. alone, 8,000 people die every day, not in the world, just in America, 8,000. Now when you think about America as a size, go, "Oh, that doesn't seem like a lot," but that's 8,000 people that are gone today in this moment. I think I saw some other statistics, I think they broke it down by hour. It was like, it was alive, it was like two, three, four hundred, something like that. So that means within the hour, there's going to be three or four hundred people breathing in the last breath, so yes, life is short, but why do we act the way we do? I don't know, man. I think that it's because of that awareness we have from that original sin. To back up what I'm talking about, I found a couple of verses I was reading through James and then I saw a song that I really liked that I thought would put it in perspective about life, with the first one being James 4, 13, and 14. It says, "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit, yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring, what your life will be, for you are like a vapor that appears for little while and then vanishes." I'm sure if you're Christian in here, you've been a Christian for a little while, you've probably heard the term like life's a vapor, like life is vapor, this is where that comes from, it's that rarest verse, "Isn't that so like us too? We will travel to such and such city and spend a year there and do business and make profit. We're just thinking about, we're just going through life, we're going to do this, we're going to do that, not taking time to slow down to realize, man, life goes fast and it doesn't stop. We're only here for a little while, Psalms 103, 15 and 16. As for man, his days are like grass, he blooms like a flower in the field when the wind passes over it, it vanishes and its place is no longer known. Man, once again, we're here for a little while. The world keeps moving, life keeps moving. I think there's two places that people can kind of land when we talk about this, which is you're kind of like me where you're like panicked and you're like, man, like, oh, we're thinking life all the time and so then you don't like you don't move and you're not doing anything or you're kind of the other person who that first verse kind of explains what you're just so like, you're so driven of doing worldly things that you're not slowing down to realize like, man, in the grand scheme of things, this doesn't matter. What really matters, what's really important? Purpose, right, we're searching for purpose a lot of the time. I know for me, I spent many years before being saved searching for purpose. I had a lot of things I ran to, you know, when I was a kid I love sports, I played sports all the time, that's kind of what I wanted to do, that didn't last long, what came after that, music. I was in the music. I was in a band, played some metal music, you know, it was fun, rowdy, wanted to do that. Still there was a void there that I couldn't avoid, couldn't do it. It didn't matter what I did, it didn't matter how cool the show I played, didn't matter, you know, if people liked what I was doing, didn't matter if people said, good job, something was missing still, it was all empty, everything I did. I had brief moments of feeling accomplished, brief moments of feeling like I'm okay, but I wasn't, and the crazy part is when it comes to something that, like, purpose is, even after being saved eight years ago, I still struggle with that sometimes, not about you guys, but you guys ever struggle with purpose? I know I do, even after I've been told many times what purpose is for being a Christian, I still struggle with it. Again, there's two camps I feel like we kind of landed. We make something everything, so it's our identity, whether that's, you know, your role's a husband, your job title, I don't know, your 401(k) amount of money that's sitting there, whatever, you identify yourself as something, or you're on the other side, which is, you strive for nothing, you're just paralyzed, you're just sitting there doing nothing, which I understand, I was there myself. You find no meaning in life, so you just kind of skate by, you do the bare minimum because you're like, "There's no point, this doesn't make any sense, so I'm just gonna keep scraping by until I can, you know, until this is over, really, until life's over." I felt that way at one point in my life, I don't know if any of you have, but I did. A lot of time can be wasted, there's a lot of time that can be spent well. I have moments in my life just using myself, or I had both of those many times, but a couple specific ones came into mind when I was thinking through. As far as time wasted, you know, I lived in Fort Wayne before I moved to Columbia City in 2018, and before that I was not saved, so when I was living in Fort Wayne, I was not saved, didn't know Jesus, and I had an apartment with a friend of mine, and I remember countless nights, so many, where I would go two or three days without even seeing him or anybody. I wouldn't talk to people, I worked two jobs just trying to make ends meet, trying to do that minimum thing I was talking about a second ago, and what's crazy is, I just remember going on my back porch and taking a cigarette, light the cigarette up, and just kind of look at the sky, and I just remember sitting there, I could even put myself there now, and I go, "What is this? What am I doing?" I don't even like, I haven't seen anybody, like, and I just remember feeling alone, I remember feeling like I had no point in my life, I had no purpose, there was no mission, there was nothing, and I remember sitting there countless times, you know, early in the morning, two or three in the morning just standing out there staring at the sky going like, "This is nothing." I had no hope, that was a lot of time wasted. Thank God for Christ though, because then I've also had a lot of time since then that were spent well, you know, one that came to mind, you know, again, keeping the idea of purpose in mind as I share all this. We had, I think the year was 2019, we had something called Read Night Week, really cool little week we put on, that's how this stage got built, some stuff you see in the foyer, that was the week, some of that stuff got built, it was really cool, man, and one particular day we had made this, we had this idea of going to different places in the community and just blessing people, I think we called it Remnant Rush, and it was cool, man, it was a cool story, I had, you know, we had a guy here, he was like, "Hey, he gave me this money," and he said, "Hey, I want you to give all this to somebody," he said, "Don't split this up," he said, "Give it to everybody," like whoever, like, "Pray on it, give all this," and it was a good amount of money, I was like, "Okay." So I went to Walmart with, I think I had like a group of four or five people, we all just kind of spread out, and I saw this woman, and she was, she was shopping, and she had like four kids, you know, like one was like hanging off of her, and she's like trying to like, turn the corner, and I was like, immediately, just something like, "Holy spirit," he was just, that's the one, she's the one, and so, you know, I lost her for a minute, I couldn't find her, I was like, "No, I was freaking out," I was like, "No, I gotta find her," and you know, once again, thank God, I found her, like, as she was like, pulling around, I like chased her all the way around the store, trying to find her, and I found her right before she was about to check out, and I just, you know, I took the money out, and I gave it to her, I said, "You know, hey, this is for you," and I just said, "Hey, like, Jesus loves you, like, God loves you, you're not alone," and she just started crying, and I was like, "Oh boy," and it was, it ended up being a really cool moment, but, you know, she was like, "Hey, like, you have no idea how much this means for me and my family, my husband's in the military, he's overseas, and we're having a hard time," and it was just cool, man, because once again, time well spent, why? Because I was, I had a purpose in that moment, I wasn't thinking about my life, I wasn't thinking about death, like, today, I wasn't thinking about how good enough I am, if I'm, if I'm able to do this, I wasn't thinking about any of that, all I was doing was just being faithful, I was just trying to do what God wanted me to do, it's all I was doing, and that's one of the most fulfilling moments in my entire life, was just giving money to a lady in Wal-Mart, but you know what, she needed it, and God knew she needed it, and he used me to do it because I was willing to listen, time well spent. God has a purpose for you today, he has a purpose for you in the life you're living, he has a purpose for me, and every single one of you, he created you, he created you with a specific mission and purpose in mind, he's gonna work all things out that are good according to his purpose through you if you're willing to. Now, you're probably thinking, you know, maybe some of you in the room are going, "Yeah, but I don't know what that is, I don't understand, I'm gonna give you a couple of things, a couple more verses." John 10-10, it says, this is kind of more like John 10-10-B, I think that's how they say it, because the first part it's there, but I'm more focused on the second part of it. It says, "If thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance," that's Jesus talking, "I have come so that they have life and have it in abundance, abundance full to live life full." Has anybody heard the term living life to the fullest? That's his promise right there, he's promising you can live full. He probably may be some of you still ask yourselves, "Okay, what does that mean?" Okay, like, he can promise me life to the full, but like, "How do I know I'm doing that? How do I know how?" Matthew 28, 18-20, this is called the Great Commission. Since Jesus came near and said to them, "All authorities have been given to me in heaven on earth. Go therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always to the end of the age." He just gave you a mission in this moment right now. If you're a believer in the room, you believe in Christ, he just gave you purpose from that verse itself. This struck me too, because I go through life a lot, just thinking about myself, thinking about what I'm worried about, thinking what I got to do. And then I realize why I'm feeling miserable sometimes, why I can't muster up energy to go do things. It's because I'm not living in purpose. I'm not saying you have to abandon your family, I'm not saying that you have to quit your job today. I'm saying that all you got to do is listen to God, listen to the Holy Spirit, and as you're going about your life, make some disciples. What does that mean? That means tell them about Jesus. That means tell them about how He changed your life. Tell them about why how He saved you from your sin. And the reason why this means, and this hit me so hard is because I'll kind of bring it back. I'll kind of backpedal a little bit. My stepfather, I never told him the gospel. I never did. And so when this all came about, I realized like, "Man, that's an opportunity I missed. I didn't do that." And I was like, "I wasn't on mission. God gave me purpose. I didn't fulfill it." But that's the amazing thing about God, man, is He still gives you opportunities because even in that direct situation, I didn't tell my stepdad the gospel, but God still gave me an opportunity because I was asked to do that funeral. And you bet I'm going to tell them the gospel, that funeral. He's given me a chance to have redemption and go, "You know what? Okay, maybe I didn't do for Him, but all those people, man, I'm going to make sure they know that there's a choice you've got to make. But life isn't over after it's over. This life has a lot more coming after this. You've got only two places you're going to go, and I'm going to make sure they understand that." Tomorrow isn't promised. I know I kind of said that throughout this entire thing, but it's not. We hear that all the time. That's why it sucks that it takes somebody dying for you to actually go, "Okay, tomorrow actually isn't promised." Because again, you can even hear the stat that 8,000 people die every day. You can hear that, and you still go about life going, "Oh, not me. I'm still here." Or, "My family's still here." But when does it get to come when that 8,000 is you or someone close to you? It's coming. It's a matter of time. Not to scare anybody, but it's true. I wasn't thinking about that, and then when he passed, he was one of the 8,000. I realized that we pitter-patter through life, man. That's what I do. That's what I know many of you do. You just pitter-patter through life, not thinking about the purpose of our mission, not thinking about how important it is, not thinking about eternity, not thinking about other people's eternity. You can settle for your own and go, "Oh, I'm saved." That's not what God told you to do. We've said that a lot here at the remnant, whether it's during the gospel presentation, but we don't know what's coming in 10 minutes from now. You could be out driving and someone swerves in front of you, and you have no control of that. Nothing. You got no control. What are you doing in the meantime? If you're not saved, man, think about this. Think about life. I want you to understand that. If you're in this room and you're not saved, there's going to come a day where you have to answer for your life. There is. You're either with Jesus or you're not. I'm telling you right now that if you're not, it's not good. If you are saved, if you have put your faith in Christ and you are a Christian, "Man, what are you doing in the meantime?" Because you've already right. You've already secured victory. You're good to go. Your eternity is secured forever. But what are you doing in the meantime? Are you actually gathering others with you? Are you taking people with you? Or are you saving it for yourself? Does life feel meaningless to you today? Does it feel meaningless? If it does, you aren't living in God's purpose. Quit worrying about details, man. We've got so many people in here. I know so many of you. You're so worried about all these little things all the time and I get it. It's hard not to. You're anxious. You don't want to screw up all these things. It doesn't matter, man. You don't know when someone that you care about is going to be gone. Tell someone you love them today, for real. That dash, that dash. Between your birth date and your death date is what people will remember you for. It's legacy that you will leave. What do you want it to be? What kind of legacy do you want to leave behind for people after this? Don't wait. Don't wait in many facets of life. One, if you're not a Christian, don't wait to confess your life to Christ. Don't wait. If you're in here today and you don't believe and you feel the Holy Spirit and you feel God talking to you to do this, man, don't wait. Two, if you are saved, don't wait to tell someone the gospel. You're going to be worried more about your own comfort or someone's eternity. Each one you're worried about. I was worried about my own comfort. I didn't get to tell my stepfather the gospel and I had years to do it. I had eight in particular. I had eight years to do it. Never did. Stop taking the moment for granted. This moment in front of you right now because we were always thinking ahead. We always think there's another moment after this. There isn't. One day there won't be another one. It could be 10 minutes from now. It could be 10 years. It could be 50 years. It could be, I don't know, tomorrow. You don't know when your last moment is and you don't know when someone else's last moment is. Man, be in it right now. Quit worrying about what's going on outside of here. Quit worrying about the rent. You're behind on. Quit worrying about all the bills you got to catch up on. Quit worrying about you looking dumb at work because you don't want to tell people the gospel. Quit worrying about people making fun of you, kids in school. Quit worrying about people making fun of you. Do you care about the eternity? Tell them about it. Tell them about Jesus. It's all we have right now. Right now, in this moment, this is all we're guaranteed right now. What are you going to do with it? She's going to come up and play some music. All this to say, man, it's really put perspective for me because you can use this message today in two ways. You really can. You can either make this feel bad about yourself and that you suck and that, oh, I'm not feeling my purpose. Oh, man, I'm not good enough. You can listen to all those lies from the devil and you can just sit in the same spot because I've done it too. I'm with you there. I've done it many times in my walk or you have an opportunity today. Where are you going to make this moment? Where are you going to make it? Where are you going to make it that first one? Or you can make it the second one, which is understand that God loves you. You're his child. He doesn't want bad for you. He would never say those things to you. He would never say you suck. He would never say that you're not good enough. He would say, I have a purpose for you. I have a purpose for your life right now in this moment. You're hearing this message for a reason. I didn't know this was going to happen. He's using me to help you guys see something. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's redemption. That's what I'm getting. Later this week, I'm going to go there, man. I'm going to tell people the truth. You can either sit in your sadness and you can sit. You can sit in those times when you just don't want to move anymore and you think that life's over and that it's never going to get better or you can saddle up because guess what, man, if you're a believer, Jesus said this life wasn't going to be easy and you can still live in purpose. Life's hard, man. It is. If you're a believer in this room right now, this is the time when you tend to check out, tune out because you're ready for the food, you're ready for the rest of your day, but this still pertains to you. The gospel is the most important message in the history of the world. Whether you're saved or you're not saved, this is still important for you to hear. If you're not saved, I hope your ears are open. And like I said, man, don't wait either way. Whether you're saved or not, do not wait. So this is the gospel. God made everything perfect. He created us. We lived when we walked with Him every single day. Sin did not exist yet. Death did not exist yet. And it was good. He made us in His own image and He said it was good and He loved us. We walked with Him every single day. Some are down the line. We got tempted. The enemy, Satan, He tempted us to sin. We wanted to be God instead. We were told, hey, don't do this. We did it anyway. Therefore, that's when death was brought into the world because the wages of sin is death. So now we're born into sin. We're born to die. There's nothing we can do in this life that can make up for sin. It doesn't matter how many good deeds you do. It doesn't matter how nice you look. It doesn't matter if you're a deacon. It doesn't matter if you're a pastor. It doesn't matter anything. It's not good enough. A perfect and holy God cannot come to one who's in sin. If there's sin in that person and that being, God cannot be a part of it. But God never stopped loving us. He never stopped loving you. And that's why He created an opportunity. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, God made flesh to live a perfect, sinless life. Why? What was the purpose in that? So He could be the perfect sacrifice for us, for our sin. By not committing a single sin, He became the sacrificial lamb. He died on the cross, experienced what it was like to not have God for three days, overcame death, came back, overcame death so that your penalties were paid for. What does that mean? That means that even though you're not good enough, you have someone that's standing in the way of your sin. You have someone who is going to take the punishment for you. Well, how do I know I can have that? You put your faith in Jesus Christ. Romans says that if you confess with your lips and you bleed in your heart that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He says who He says He was, that He was raised from the dead, that He died on the cross for our sins. You'll be saved. That's it. It doesn't say that you have to stop sinning in this moment. It doesn't even say that you have to have your life completely together to make that to do that. You can do that right now and be assured of eternity. Reflect in this time. Be in the moment. You don't know who needs to hear this. If you're a Christian in the room, tell someone the gospel this week. Be focused on the kingdom. Quit boringing so much about your own life. Care about someone else's. If you're not saved, if you're not a believer in this room today, you can be assured of eternity today. We have people that will be up here willing to pray for you. You can pray and you can be saved today and know that it doesn't matter how bad life gets after this. It doesn't matter if things feel like they're never going to get better. I'm telling you right now that no matter how much suffering you go through in this world after you put your faith in Christ, you have no idea the paradise that is coming. Romans 818. Look that up. I don't know guys. You know, life is easy to skate through. Stop it. That's all I have to say. Stop skating through it. Quit thinking about yourself all the time. Think about others. We've been given a purpose and a mission. How long are you going to contend enough to fill it? What's it going to take? What's it going to take for you to come back in that mindset of thinking about the gospel? Thinking about salvation of others. Thinking about all these things other than yourself. What's it going to take? I guess for me, it had to take my stepdad dying for me to come back to that mindset. Don't let that be you. You have an opportunity today to go about this moment and going forward with that mindset. I have to call it kingdom minded. You can walk forward going kingdom minded for now on. There'll be people up here willing to pray with you whether you want to be saved today or if you need something to confess, if you need to confess something, you know, if you need prayer for something that's going on in your life, this is your time. But man, guys, the only thing I ask you today is really take a minute to just reflect and go, okay, why it's only in front of me. That's all I got is this moment. What am I going to do with it? Beyond mission. Tell people the gospel. Show people love. Show them Jesus. And whatever you do, guys. Man, stop walking out of here the same way. That's what we do all the time. I do it. I'm guilty of that. I know you're all guilty of it. We've all done it. You hear a message. Maybe it's pretty cool. You get excited, but then Monday rolls around and you it's already out of your mind and you don't do anything. Stop it. Move forward with purpose today. Thank you so much for listening. Love you guys. God bless. (gentle music)