Do you see God in your every day life?
The Remnant Church
Fountain Drinks - AJ Noel
How are you all doing today? Nice. Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for this day. God, just thank you so much just for your grace, Lord, and for your mercy. Lord, I ask that people can just walk out here differently today, that God, they can just hone in right now on the message. Woo. And that God, we can just focus on you, Lord. Get all distractions aside, even the mics sound, get out of here right now. And Father, we just pray that, man, man, that you just, Holy Spirit, come over us, Lord. Thank you so much. You know, Holy Name, we pray. Amen. Ooh, that was a wild one there. All right. My name's AJ. If you guys have never been here before, I get the amazing opportunity to preach every once in a while. It's a huge blessing, also terrifying. So I'll just dive right in. Today's message, it's called Fountain Drinks, and I just want to take a second to brag on my own photography skills because the background image is from my phone. I went to the local gas station here in town and I got myself a drink and I was like, you know what? This is what I need. Because you'd be amazed, if any of you are in the design world at all, you know that we use, you know, I don't know if you guys have heard of the term stock images, well, you can't find a stock image of a fountain drink anywhere. So if you want to make some money, just go take some photos of those and I'm telling you right now, you can sell them for who knows how much money. There you go. Less than a day, just kidding. In life, guys, I don't know about you guys, but in my experiences, I've learned that sometimes it's the smallest things in life that tend to stick with you. Those little moments that seem irrelevant, maybe you're not even conscious of during them. But years later you realize those are the moments you miss or maybe those are the moments that hurt the most. And today, it's going to be something I'm going to reflect with you and we're going to tie it into faith today. So for any of you that have known me for a long time, you know, I didn't grow up in church and, you know, there might be a couple of times where I get emotional today. So I apologize ahead of time if I end up having to, you know, wipe tears or can't speak for five seconds. Excuse me, God is good. So yes, for those of you who don't know me, I didn't grow up in church. And the big thing, man, is you don't realize how, you don't realize how small things add up, first in a good way. Before I was saved, which was about seven years ago, I got saved when I was 21 years old, never really went to church before that, I didn't realize all these little moments in my life before I was saved or God was trying to reach out to me. He was going, I'm here, son. I just didn't know. And just like in those moments of being able to look back and see the good, I've also been able to look back in my life and see the moments where I realized, wow, those things still affect me in a bad way too. And that's what Fountain Drinks is all about for me personally. So I have a former girlfriend, and this relationship was really big in my life, it was. I got saved during this relationship, and there's a lot more to that, and I'll go into it here in a moment, but just to preface here, I got saved in that relationship and had just moments of huge conviction in this relationship, and you'll see why Fountain Drinks kind of ties into why I'm talking about that relationship. Yes, so I met this girl before I'd ever really been to church. Before that, I'd probably been to church a total of maybe five times, ten times in my life. My family didn't go to church, you know, if we ever did, I was probably like, you know, the ages between like six to ten probably, and it was on like Easter, and I would go in there, and like, I would see these people, and they'd all glare at like little AJ, like, what are you doing here, and I just wanted to leave. So I was never not open to God, but I was not, I was not open to church as much because it just felt off to me. But that's the thing, man, God kept moving in my life even before I had known him. And so, you know, I saw this girl in the mall, I used to work at the mall, for those of you in Glenbrook, worked at a little skate shop, I was one of those skate kids who actually didn't skate, which is funny. I could make a skateboard, but I couldn't skate. And so there was, there was a specific shift one night, we were about like ten minutes from closing. I mean, we were, we were shutting down, getting everything done, and she walked in. And it was interesting because I just knew in that moment, I was like, this, like, we're going to be together, didn't really know why, I just knew it. And, you know, I made some jokes, we both had like an iPhone 4S at the time, even though it was like an iPhone like eight or something crazy, so I kind of made a joke, like, oh, you have an iPhone 4S, that's lame, me too. And so, you know, eventually, you know, and then I did like the modern, the modern dating thing, like, hey, what's your Instagram? It got her Instagram that, you know, messes her on there, and about a couple weeks later, you know, we started talking, you know, and eventually she invited me to church, and, you know, we weren't even officially dating yet, but she invited me to church. And it was in a little town called Columbia City, I've never heard of it before, I wasn't originally from around this area, so, you know, at the time, I was living in Fort Wayne, so I was like, 40 minute drive, because I lived on Southside, I was Southside Fort Wayne, so it was a John, and, you know, I was like, you know what, I'll go. And so, you know, I came, and I immediately just, I was always open to church, man, like, I didn't always understand, like, the people in church, I didn't really know who Jesus was, but I was always open to the idea of there being a God. So when I came, which is this church here, it's the remnant, if you guys haven't figured out yet, it's this church, so I came here, and, man, just the coolest thing, man, like, I came in, I just, something felt different, and I knew, like, these people, like, aren't looking at me weird, and, like, they know NSYNC, and I know Backstreet Boys, and I know all these, these things, I wouldn't expect church people to know about, or even talk about, and I was like, this is kind of cool, I can think, I kind of fit in here, 90s boy bands who would have thought, that's why I know God's God, though, he knew how to get me. So anyway, he's moving forward in this story, so, yes, so I met this girl before church, we started actually dating, we were together, you know, kept making the drives every week, I kept getting more plugged in, it was cool, because I found myself wanting to be more involved, you know, kept making the drives, even if it's on a Wednesday, and for those of you who remember OGs, you remember Edge, I went to Edge, the life groups, like a life group/study thing, it was pretty cool, but, so I kept coming, and in the midst of this relationship, man, I want to say it was probably about a year later, or maybe a year and a half, something along those lines, I got saved, you know, the Lord, just, I remember being in this relationship, but I remember, like, thinking, like, I was listening to these messages, and I was like, man, something's just inside me, man, it's just like, I knew that I, for one, I wasn't living right, for sure, I knew that immediately, you know, if there was one thing that, before I was saved, if there was one thing I knew, I was like, well, this guy who says he's a savior, I know I need one, I know I need that, you know, I was willing to see, like, I'm gross, and I need him, so that was one thing, but I got my first dose of real heavy conviction in this relationship, you know, I'll try to not be, you know, overly vulgar, you know, like, you know, in this relationship, you know, like, there was sex before marriage, that kind of thing, you know, and, you know, at first, you know, I didn't even think about, you know, how that would affect me, and then, the more I kept coming, the more I kept hearing the message, I kept hearing the gospel, I realized that, like, something was eating at me, and I was like, oh, look what I'm doing here, this is a giant, here's a big target, and so, in the midst of that relationship, you know, I had to go through that, you know, we had to struggle through through, hey, like, how do we stop doing this, and that was hard, real hard, you know, imagine trying to, you know, you get so used to something, all of a sudden, like, I'm gonna cut that out, we had a pregnancy scare, that was horrifying, you know, if you would have asked me then, you know, I think that I was open to the idea of it, but everything was still so new, I was around all these people that I didn't really know too well yet, and it's crazy because, even though, like, and we had some really cool people, man, like, they took care of us really well in that time, because, like, you know, they were like, hey, like, it's gonna be okay, and like, there wasn't any, there wasn't for a minute any ounce of, like, condemnation in it, none, and it was really cool, man, because once again, I started to see, like, what this Jesus is all about, you know, because here I am, you know, a new believer, thinking I understand things, no clue, and here he is showing me more and more in my life, hey, here's these lessons of like, what I'm about, this is what I do, this is what my people do, and it's funny, man, because when I look back on this relationship and I see all these moments, because those are what I would call some big moments, right, I don't know about you guys, if you would agree with me, now, those are some big moments, but now it's funny when I look back, I see a lot of little moments, and I realize those little moments are what affect me the most, those are the moments that actually make me stop and think and go, whoa, and then I go, man, these are little things maybe I miss, or these little things that like, these are little things that meant more to me than I realized, fountain drinks, that's where fountain drinks comes in. So for people, you know, for those in a relationship, been in a relationship, you know, if you're married, you know, maybe you guys will remember like a car rides, you know, car rides together, those are sweet moments, you know, just on the road jamming out to Britney Spears, or, you know, or maybe you remember, you know, that the night skies, you know, you know, out in the field on the car, you know, whatever that is, however you can relate to that, or or maybe it's just the kisses goodbye, right, those little moments, you realize that you hold on to those so much more than say something big like a pregnancy scare. And for me, it wasn't just those things, but it was fountain drinks. In this relationship, one thing that we used to do a lot is we would go to gas stations and we would go get fountain drinks, fountain pepsies, a lot. And so, you know, it was funny because I found myself, and this was inspired probably like a month ago, I was, I went to a gas station, so I guess I'll kind of fast forward here for a second. I went to a gas station and I looked over the fountain drink machine, I was like, hmm, and I had that moment, you guys ever had that moment where all stops and like zooms in, and you're just like fountain pepsy. And then like, I was like, wow, I don't want to get that fountain pepsy. I realized that something was blocking that me, like I didn't want to do that because it reminded me of that time. And I thought to myself, how ridiculous is this? I was probably wondering what the clerk was doing because they probably saw me like, go. And they're probably like, what is this like, is this guy like one of Pepsi or something, what's he doing? And, you know, so I had that moment where I realized like, this still has a hold on me. After all these years, a fountain drink has a hold on me. And it made me realize for good and for bad, the smallest things in your life can have that kind of a hold on you, whether you're riding the high of a small moment or the low of it, it's there and it's got a hook on you. In that moment, I realized, even though it sounds ridiculous, I had a hook in me from a fountain drink. I couldn't get this fountain drink. I didn't want to. I didn't want to think about those times. It's crazy that that was the first thing in my mind rather than like, remember that one time when we had a pregnancy scare? No, instead it was fountain drink. Sounds crazy, but I'm sure you guys, I don't know if you guys couldn't relate, but you probably do that all the time in your life. There's these big moments that have happened good or bad, right? And what happens, you tend to focus on those little things. You forget these big things. So throughout these years, I had all these things happen, these big things, these little things happen. And yes, it's always the little things that have come up for me. Life pulled back. We just take the idea of life for a second, moving on from the relationship part. And if we just take life and just pull back and look at it, I think, I don't know about you guys, but I realize that it's just many moments chained together. It's all it is. Like you have these big, huge moments that happen in your life, you know, I guess I'll talk about something good. So say like having a child, right, having a kid getting married, all these things. These are big, highlight moments in your life, milestones, if you want to call it. And yet life is so much, there's so much more of those chained linked moments. That's what I'm going to call it. It's like a chain link moment. Just one little thing. One little thing. One little thing. One little thing. One little thing. One little thing. One little thing. One little thing. One little thing. One little thing. One little thing. Life keeps going. It's mostly made up of those small moments. Those big moments are far and wide while most of life is the little moments. So what do we do with that? What do you do when you realize that life is just all these little things chained together until you have a big moment and it just keeps going? Especially in our faith, right, being a Christian, what does that look like? I had an article. This is, I had an article where it essentially had the 38 commands of Jesus. It took all the commands. They found Jesus put an article and listed them out. I had all 38 right here. I was going to just list all of them to you. They were like, "Yeah, I probably shouldn't do all of the 38." I was like, "It's going to take a while." I was like, "All right." What we did was is we put together six of these commands that would be considered probably small because that's what this is about today, fountain drink compared to a pregnancy scare. The small things. The fountain drinks. First one I want to focus on today. It's going to be Matthew 5, 23 and 24. I like the way this article went about this because they made it more palpable. For example, it says, "Be reconciled to one another." That's what the command is. "Be reconciled to one another." I still want to read the scripture for each one. Matthew 5, 23 to 24, so it says, "If you are offering your gift on the altar and there you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled with your brother or sister and then come and offer your gift." You've heard this verse a lot even over the past couple months even. The reason why, to me, this is a fountain drink in your life is because you still refuse to do those little things. You still refuse because you know deep down your heart you're bitter. You know deep down your heart that you don't want to go have that conversation with that person. Either way, that's why I love Jesus though because he doesn't give you an option. Because if you're uncomfortable with the fact that maybe someone has something against you, you don't want to ask them because then it's going to make it awkward and you're going, "Do you have a problem with me or the other way around?" Which is usually the other one people struggle with a lot which is, "I am upset." They did me wrong and you don't want to go talk to them about it. You don't want to tell them, "Hey, this hurt." People don't understand. You guys got to understand that when you decide to continually ignore that feeling, that hurt and you don't go to your brother or sister with that, that does create. I don't know if you guys have been here long enough. I recommend a sermon called Weeds, but it creates weeds in your life. It does. Your heart gets wrapped up in these weeds and before you know it, it's like you don't even understand your heart anymore because all those weeds are in the way and then you find yourself feeling empty. You find yourself wondering, "Does anybody love me anymore? Why don't they see this?" You start looking at all the ways people are wrong. Yeah, I guarantee you most you don't think of that throughout the week. Anybody actually think about the idea of, "Hey, be reconciled to one another." Probably not because I know I don't either. If I'm focusing on my faith, that is one thing I don't think about. If anything, for me, it's probably, "Hey, I need to go love somebody." Well, isn't that funny? That's one of the two most important commands because doesn't that fall under love in somebody? Man, it's burning myself. The second one I want to go over is, and this is, again, this is a big one I know for me in my life, but also I'm sure some of you can relate, keeping your word. That was one of the commandments that said, "Keep your word. That's Matthew 5, 37. But let your yes mean yes and your no mean no, no mean no. Anything more than this is from the evil one." How many of you are anxious people? Me too, I'm with you. Big problem that we struggle with, the "I struggle with" is, "I don't let my yeses mean yeses or my no mean no, my no mean no, that's hard to say." I don't let it be just that, I don't let it be that simple. I start thinking about, "What if I think this? What if I do this, and this affects this person over here? What if I do this, and that person does that, and that affects that person over there?" And then before you know, you're overthinking everything, overthinking the smallest things. But how often, again, how often do you think to be, to keep your word on something? To make it mean something. Hey, that's what I'm doing. I'm standing on it. Whether it's a yes, no, anything in between. How often do you think about, "Yeah, I'm going to keep my word on that." I don't. If anything, I run around with a chicken and a head cut off. And someone's like, "Hey, man. You want to do this?" I'm like, "Yep." And just keep going. And then someone else is over there. And they're like, "Hey, you want to do this?" I'm like, "Yep. Come running this way." And then before you know it, I'm just running around in circles. And then I'm on the floor because I'm like, "Hmm, just crying because I'm overwhelmed, because I just said yes to 80 things, and I didn't mean any of them. Because if I meant it, I would have slowed down and said, "Wait a second. Let me consider this." Yes. You know, I would have thought about it. And I don't. Yes, to me, that is a small part of our faith that we don't take seriously. I don't take it seriously. It affects our lives. And then this one, this hits me. Not only does this one in particular affect your life, it also affects other people's lives around you. Because before you know it, you start becoming unreliable. You start becoming, "Oh, we can't ask him anymore." Well, that's just that person. They don't actually, you know, they might say yes to something, but they're not going to do it. Well, that's big for me. Next one. Go above and beyond. And we're going to reference Matthew 540-42. It's all Matthew today, by the way. All these come from Matthew. So it says, "Go above and beyond. Ask for the one who wants to sue you and take away your shirt. Let him have your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him too." Very interesting. Man, give to the one who asks you and don't turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. Man, I like how this is kind of from a different angle. Because it's still, again, it makes it not about you. Because I know for me, when I initially read that and it said, "Go above and beyond." I thought, "Oh, yeah. Like, just do your best." And that's true. There's truth in that. Yeah, I think we should do everything to the very best of our ability. But I like that it makes it about others. Don't turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. "Go above and beyond." I know that probably makes some of you uncomfortable. You don't like that, do you? Me either. Because once again, one thing that I noticed, even about just these six, again, there's 38 of these guys. And I'm only doing six of them. But out of these, they're so... The biggest thing to take from it is none of it's about you. That's the biggest thing. And for any of you that you maybe don't know Jesus or maybe you don't, you're new to the faith or whatever, that's one thing you're going to continually learn over and over and over again. I'm continually learning over and over again that one of the biggest things in this life is that it's not about you. It's not. Never will be. If you're following Jesus Christ, it's not about you. So go above and beyond. This one, this one, we actually just had a message on this from the Kingdom series. Love your enemies. That's going to be Matthew 5, 43 to 44. You have heard that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. I mean, I know you guys don't pray for your enemies. You don't. Here's the thing. What is humility? That's what comes to my mind in this. Are you willing to let your hurt and your pride or are you willing to set it aside for a minute and realize that that person that you're so angry at, that person that did you so wrong, is also made from the same God that made you? You want to see that? Because I think if you want to see that, you might at least do some due diligence and at least pray for them. You guys got to remember the savor that you claimed to put your faith in. You got to remember this guy knew he was going to be betrayed and looked at man in the face as soon as he saw him and still said, you know what, I'm going to love this guy up until the moment he betrays me. That's the kind of love you're supposed to show. Oh, this is another big one. Do not worry about tomorrow. It is small when you think about it on the big scale of things. Hey, just don't worry. It's going to be Matthew, oh, sorry, wrong one, Matthew 634, therefore, don't worry about tomorrow because tomorrow worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. I already made you raise your hand, so I'm not going to make you raise your hands again, but you're a lot of your anxious people. You're constantly thinking about what's in front of you. Actually, no, not even in front of you, what's ahead of you. You're looking both ways. You're either looking about what sucked that's behind you, I'm that guy, or you're looking forward to all the craziness that's in front of you and you're thinking, I don't even know how I'm going to get through this. Don't know how I'm going to do it. I got to schedule this, schedule this. You're not in the moment, man. You're looking right through people. You're looking right through opportunities. You're looking right through moments of God moving in your life because that's one thing that I'm still learning this day. He never stops moving. He's always moving in my life. It's whether or not I'm paying attention. Am I seeing it? Am I slowing down to go, wait a minute? What is this? Why is that person I've seen 12 times this week? I see him a 13th time. Why is it that a certain person, maybe say it's a, I don't know, I'm trying to think of an example. For me, that's what happens to me. I see the same person all the time. I'll just see them over and over again. Whether it's say it's at the gym, see him at the gym, I'm going, man, I've seen this guy like five times this week and I haven't said a word to him. And God's probably going to say something to him. He's there for a reason. Or maybe it's, you see that, you know, you see that person, you clearly know they're sad. You know that they're having a hard time. And what do you do? You just keep walking. Just go by him. Say it's in public. Well, you don't want to be that weirdo to ask a person if they're okay because somehow in society now it's become weird, become weird to care about people. But you don't want to do that. Do not worry about tomorrow. How many of you already think about tomorrow? Stop. I got to stop, man. I get it though. I get it. It's not, it's not easy. But it's a small thing. You don't even think about. I don't know about you guys, but I know for me it's like a subconscious thing. I'm just going through life and then all of a sudden I realize like I'm thinking about 80 things about who knows when. Ten years from now, I want a quick side story. Just hit me. There's people that I know that have worried ten years in the future about their child. He just exposed himself and I'm going to stop it. What would it look like? I want you guys to take a second and think about what would it look like for you to actually be in the moment? What would change? Actually think about that for a second. I know for me, I'm sure somebody priced salt today. I run around. I just run around. I got no reason for doing anything at the time. I'll literally walk in a room and look around and then walk away. I did that about 80 times a day. Walked in different rooms, which is like, what am I doing? You know, like, man, now if I were to slow it down and say not be so worried because that's at the end of that's what it is. I'm worried. I'm anxious. I speak today. Oh man, I don't want to screw anything up. I'm worried. I'm anxious. I was already thinking about being up here an hour and a half ago. What's this going to look like? That's the beauty, man. God still uses you even when you are worried. That's the cool part, but what does that look like? I know for me, I would probably actually talk to you guys, especially on Sundays, man. I'll be honest. I'm not very good at that. I get in that motor run around and I don't think to say, "Hey, do you guys?" I don't think to say like, "How are you doing?" I actually mean it. How would you want to be treated? That's another thing I think of. If I see a person run around, I see myself and then I go, "Man, I know what they're going through." And I go, "Why not take a second to actually make them realize that they're cared about and that they're loved." So yes, do not worry about tomorrow. I think that might be one of the biggest ones for this congregation, is not worry about tomorrow. It's a fountain drink and it's very easy to just slurp that one. It's easy. It's a weird way to say it, but referencing a fountain drink, if we're looking at it as far as a fountain drink, what are you drinking? You're drinking worry, man. That's what you're drinking. Last one I got for you today is, "Treat others as you would like to be treated." I kind of naturally float into that one. Matthew 7, 12, "Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do you also the same for them. For this is the law, this is the law and the prophets." Do you guys ever take the time to actually think about how you want to be loved? I see a lot of you shaking your head, "No, that's a problem." Here's why it's a problem, because you don't want to deal with the fact that you don't believe you're going to get loved that way. In doing so, you don't love that way either. You don't. A lot of the time, we tend to reflect how we feel about ourselves or what we think on others. We do. In this case, if I tell you, "Hey, treat someone like you want to be treated." Well, if you're like, "Well, I hate myself," what do you think you're going to do to other people? You're going to be dismissive. You're not going to care what they're saying. They're going to think they're irrelevant because those are all the things you think about you. Again, life's not about you, man. You can't be thinking that way. I can't be thinking that way. There's a lot of times in life, man, there's so many opportunities, and that's why I told you guys earlier, man. God's constantly moving. He's given you so many opportunities every single day, every single moment to better these things, because he knows you and those things you pray for, by the way, do you think they're just going to be fixed? No. He's going to give you opportunities, man. Yes. Do I believe in miracles? Absolutely, I do. Do I think awesome things happen? Yes. Will you pray for something to get it? Yes. I think that happens. I think it's more often than not. When you say, "Lord, man, help me be strong today," do you think he's just going to make you strong? No. He's going to go, "Here's an opera. Here it is. What are you going to do with it?" You're going to put your faith in yourself for me. We don't want to do that a lot of the time. Yes, treat others as you'd like to be treated. How often do you think about that throughout the week? You probably don't, do you? You don't think about, "Man, how would I like to be loved in this situation?" No. Instead you're worried, you see a situation happening. You think to yourself, "I don't want anything to do that." What does that tell you about yourself, man? You guys got to deal with your hearts. That's a big thing. When it comes to Christianity, man, that's why I love it so much because Jesus doesn't give you a choice. He doesn't. You can't hide. It doesn't matter what you do, what you think. He never, he'll expose it all if you let him. We sing a song, everyone, it's called "Relent," I believe. You won't relent. It's like, "Yeah, man, he won't relent until you give it all. He's going to keep coming. He's going to keep poking. He's going to keep prodding until you just give it all." That's the thing. You guys got to take his word for it. That when you actually get to a place where you want to actually just give him your entire heart and just pour out everything you need to, that he's going to have good for you on the other side. What you couldn't do before, you couldn't do now. You can love like you couldn't before because you get past that heart, that heart hurt where you don't think it's possible for you. Get rid of that. Give it up because the moments you do, that's when you can start loving people though you want to be loved because then you can finally recognize how you want to be loved. Instead you're so bitter. You're so frustrated. You're so angry. You want to look at it, you have to. Faith is not, it's not an option man. It's not an option. When you believe in Jesus Christ man, these things are not options. They're commands. Like I said, that was just six of them. Six commands out of what I say, 37, 38, and I didn't want to overwhelm me with 37 of them. Here's the thing. Out of those six, and this is where I want some participation, but it's going to require some honesty, out of those six things, how many of you would say that you didn't do that last week, out of those six? You can choose any one of the six, did you not do one of them? Yeah. You know what that means? You can consciously make the decision to do that this week. You can take one thing from this, one of those six things, and you can just focus on it. That's faith man. You're going, Lord, this is an area that I'm not doing well in, but I'm going to put my faith in you and I'm going to trust you that you can help me with it this week. For the first time in my preaching career, I have a list for you. There's a plot for that. Man, A.J. has a list, what, amen. It's called focusing on the fountain drinks, and I want to put emphasis on focusing because one thing, the quickest side before I even go into the list, guys, that I had to remember this for myself too. It's because the message today is about the quote, the small things, it doesn't take away from the big things, it doesn't, cherish those big things, and then you can also hurt for the big things, the big things that happen in your life that have affected you. It's okay to go through those things and focus on those things, but today we are focusing on the fountain drinks. Number one, how do you approach your faith every day? I don't know about you guys, but maybe you'll agree and maybe you won't. But every day you have to make a conscious decision to follow Jesus. And if you don't, you're not going to do it. So what does that look like? What does it look like for you? Gage that right now. Do you actually make the conscious decision to follow him every day? Do you wake up and go, "Lord, I'm with you." Or do you wake up and go, "What's on the schedule? What am I doing today?" How many meetings do I have? Oh, this person's mad at me. I have 80 messages. That's a cool Instagram photo. It's just my mind, man. I'm just running through my own. What's on TikTok? What's the newest trend? You have to start the right way, guys. Do you pray, do you actually pray? Do you read the Bible? These are things he's telling you to do. Do you actually seek the kingdom first, or do you just succumb to the world as soon as your eyes open? You're leaving yourself open to attack. So, yes, ask yourself, "How do you approach your faith every day?" Number two, "What little things do you ignore?" That's what a lot of this message is about today. Out of those six things, what is the one thing that you ignore? Stop ignoring it, face it today, repent, change it, take an actual tangible step towards doing something different in that area? Because I don't know about you guys, but I get so overwhelmed sometimes, man. I'll hear some of these sermons and I'll walk out like, "Let's go." I do walk out those doors, and I'm just stoked. I'm fired up. I'm like, "Yeah, man. Life-changer this week. Monday." I'm serious. I wake up, and I'm just like, "What is life?" Literally, less than 24 hours earlier, I was like, "This is life." You have to make it conscious, because your feelings are so strong. They are. They can overtake you any moment, man. All the time. I don't know about you guys, but I just come to how I feel a lot, and I'll let that dictate my life. You gotta stop. This is part of it. Where are the things you're ignoring? Where are the things you're choosing not to do? You have to do them. Number three, what is the standard? You guys gotta recognize what you're following here. What you've signed up for. It's perfection. You're probably thinking to yourself, "Well, I'm not perfect." No, you're not. Not even close. Neither am I. But you need to recognize what the standard is, so you can put your faith in Christ and the grace He gives you to keep pursuing this life, to keep pursuing what He wants you to pursue. You gotta let go of the fact that you're gonna fail, because newsflash, you're going to. You're gonna have moments when you walk out of these doors in a couple minutes, and you're like, "Mean," and you're like, "I'm on fire," and then the next day, you're like life's meaningless. You're gonna have those days. What do you do with them? It's bound to happen. You can't stop that. But what you can do is remember the standard. And when you remember the standard, you'll go, "Oh man, thank God for Jesus. Thank God for what He did for me." You want to talk about being able to choose joy, remember what He did for you. Number four, what are you living for? You're living for the big moments, extreme highs. What is life to you? Sorry, I just had a creed song coming my head. What is life for? What are you living for today? For real. I know I have all funny things, but like I actually think about that. What are you living for? You're living for what you want. Are you living for the world? Are you only engaged in what the world has to offer you? Are you living for the big moments I talked about earlier? Are you only focused on the milestones? We talk about it a lot. "Hey, I want that house. I want that wife. I want the kids. I want the cool bathtub." I don't know, man. You guys like bathtubs, right? What are you living for? What about the extreme highs? You're only living for the moments when you feel on top of the world. You guys know what I'm talking about. It comes in many moments. Maybe it's in softball when you win a championship. Maybe it's when you're illegally going 120 down the highway, what are you living for? What are you living for today? What is life all about to you? What is the meaning to it? Why do you ask yourself that? Why are you focusing on those big moments? Why are you focusing on getting that extreme high, that moment where nothing else exists besides this moment, it's awesome. It comes and goes, guys. It's gone. Comes and it goes. So are you living for those moments or are you going to actually put your faith and put you all that living in a foundation that lasts forever? What are you basing it off of? Number five, God is found in the everyday. Who do I mean by that? He's constantly moving, man. All the time. If you actually decide to choose to wake up, even tomorrow, give tomorrow a chance, put it to the test, wake up tomorrow, and say, God, move today. Show me how you move. Guarantee is going to do something crazy. Guarantee it. And when I say crazy, I mean something nuts, like airplane flies over your head, crashes, and you save 20 people. That's not what I mean. What I mean is he's going to put, say, someone who needs to hear his gospel in front of you. He's going to put people in front of you that are hurting. He's going to put your enemy in front of you and go, you're going to love him. He's going to give these, he's found in the everyday. That's one thing that's beautiful about putting your faith in Jesus Christ, and I will say this to the day I die, is that he gives you purpose in everything now. When you put your faith in him, there's purpose to everything. Before I was saved, I didn't think there's purpose anymore. I want to know why, because I was that guy. I lived for the big moments. I lived for the extreme highs. I was on the sports teams. I was in the rock music. I was playing with the big bands. I was doing all that cool stuff, man. Extreme highs. But what happened when it went away? Nothing. I didn't think nothing mattered anymore. Then I found Christ, and he said, "Nah, man, there is purpose in everything you do." Remember that this week, God is found in the everyday. You have to seek him. Find him. Number six, don't let the little things spoil your life. This can come in many forms, many, many forms. Love your toe on a chair. Don't let that spoil your life. Don't let it make you come bitter. It's okay to be angry for a minute. It's okay. Pain sucks. Don't let those little things get in the way. When I think of, that's a funny one, but when I think of what little things, I let spoil my life. I always think of asking questions. That's a weird one, but it's true. I let those little things spoil my life, because as soon as I want to ask somebody something, I feel that moment come in where I have my chest gets heavy, and I'm like, "Man, what if I ask it wrong? What if they're mad at me?" Because I asked all these dumb things that come through my mind, and it hinders my life, spoils my life, because I'm not willing to get past this small little moment, and I do it over and over and over again, and it stacks up before I know it. And I don't talk to anybody anymore, and by myself, I hide up in a room and don't come out for 12 hours. So, yes, don't let the little things spoil your life, guys. I want to take a moment. That's the list. That's everything, by the way. So, six things you can take away is focusing on the foundry, because there's your six. One thing I want to talk about next is repentance. You guys have got to come to a true, harder repentance. Like I said, out of the six things that I talked about today, most of you said, "Yep, one of those things I know I don't do." That's great. You're willing to see it. Are you willing to repent and actually change? Let me explain something. Repentance is not just saying, "Sorry." Repentance is not just saying, "I repent." Repentance is not just saying, "I'll do better next time." It's none of those things. Repentance is actually taking an action in your life, doing something differently. That can come in many forms, guys. Don't overthink it. Out of those six things, let me think here. I'll even give you one. Be reconciled to one another, okay? Is there someone you're mad at right now in your life? Is there someone in this room? You mad at someone in this room? You mad at someone at your work? You mad at someone in your family? Talk to him. That's repentance. Because you know you're not doing it, because you know you don't want to. And God honors that, man. That's the beautiful part of all this. He's not even mad at you that you're going against him right now. He actually just wants you to get over this so you can keep living free. That's what he wants. So, when you actually take repentance seriously, and you actually change something in your life, and you do something tangible towards it, he's very proud of you. That's what he wants for you. Because he knows now, hey, my kid just did that, now he's going to be able to realize he can keep going. He can do other things. So, yes, you guys have to have a true, harder repentance for this. Choose a change. That's my other point. Choose a change that gave you 6 out of 38. Don't get overwhelmed. Maybe all six of them apply to you. Choose one. Just choose one. Don't change your entire life. Like I said, that's how I am. I walk out of here going, man, life's different. And then before I know it, because I thought about the 80 things I got to change in my life, I'm just laying on the ground crying. Just pick one. Pick one thing to do differently this week. And I promise you, God is going to move in that. You're going to see things differently and I promise you, man, you're going to understand that you're capable of more than you can imagine. Even in just one of those six, man, he's going to come out and play some music. This is an opportunity for you guys. This is an important moment, man. This is, we call it ultra time, people come up here to pray for you so you can either ask for prayer, you can repent. I think, again, I encourage you guys to repent today. I saw a lot of you raise your hands that you had one of those six things apply. Come repent. That's another way of showing your faith because I already know you guys because I am you. I sick back there, whether I'm doing the stream, whether I'm in the congregation with you guys listening to a message, I am with you. I understand that voice in your head that says, I don't want to be weird. I don't want to be the guy that walks down the middle and comes up and asks for prayer. I don't want to be the guy that people have to see up there every week praying or whatever it is that is told in your mind, it's a lie. That's your faith. Showing faith, take the leap, take a step. It's a special moment between you and God here in a couple minutes that you get to go, "Lord, I want to change." Take it seriously today, there'll be people up here to pray for you. There'll be people, I don't know, I'll be roaming around if you want to pray. If you need some prayer in the back, I don't know. Go to each other. That's another thing. I encourage that even during this time. If you know in your heart, if you know that you have a problem with somebody, even if it's in here today, go find them. Why would you not? Show your faith today. How much do you really believe this? Are you willing to put your feelings aside for five minutes, for ten seconds? However long it is that you need to get past it. Are you willing to do that today? For those of you that maybe you don't know Jesus, you're new to all this. I was with you too. There was a moment I walked to these doors for the first time as well. I didn't understand who Jesus Christ was, I didn't really know what the gospel was, but I'm here telling you that it's real for one. I can tell you right now it's real. God is real, Jesus Christ is real, He existed, He lived a perfect, sinless life for you. Didn't send a single time, and we killed Him for it, because we couldn't understand how this guy can live perfect. We just couldn't handle it, so we killed Him, and then He did something incredible. He rose from the dead three days later, He overcame death, and when He overcame death, He gave us an amazing opportunity that if we put our faith in Him, we can restore relationship with God, that we can walk with Him again, we can talk to Him again, that we are in favor with Him again. What does that look like, does that mean I got to quit drinking? Nope. Does that mean I got to quit smoking? Nope. Does that mean I got to quit punching people? Nope, it's preferable. You don't have to clean your life up today. You can't. It's like why I just had a couple of minutes ago, even if you're not a believer in the room right now and you want to put your faith in Jesus Christ today, you are not capable of cleaning your entire life up today. Even this moment, you can't do it. That's not what God's looking for in this moment. He's looking for you to say, "You know what God? I trust you. I put my faith in you. I put my faith in the fact that you sent Jesus to die for me, and I believe it." That's all He's asking for you to do today. If you confess with your lips and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is Lord, you are saved. What does that mean? We all die. I know it's hard to come to grips with. It is. It doesn't matter how young you are, it doesn't matter how old you are, you're dying. It just depends. After that, it's just where you're going, because it doesn't all just go to blackness after that. There's more after that. There's a lot more after that. Hell's real. It is. If you don't, and again, Jesus says to himself, He says, "If you're not with me, you're against me." He makes it clear-cut. If you don't put your faith in Him, you're against Him, you're an enemy. Don't walk out of here. Not being guaranteed the fact that you're with Him today. Like I said, it's all it takes. If you don't believe today and you want to know that you're going, come up. That's what these people up here for to pray for, for your salvation in this moment if you're not a believer. You can have that today, and I want to make this clear as well. I said, "Hell's real, but so is heaven, and it's going to be a wonderful place where no pain exists anymore." All these things you're feeling right now, the hurt, the anxiety, all those things, it's going to be wiped away, it's going to be gone, non-existent anymore. All you have to do is follow Him. Get the step today. Thank you guys so much for listening. People are going to come up here to pray, take this time seriously. It's all real, Jesus Christ is real, He existed. Holy Spirit is also real, that voice in your head that's telling you not to go is the enemy trying to tell you to do something that God wants you to do. Listen to the quiet voice, listen to the one that's peaceful and He says, "Hey, I'm here." Do it. I love you guys so much, hope you have a great day, God bless. (soft music)