Developing a Spiritual Vitality Plan

January 1, 2017 ()

Bible Text: 2 Peter 1 |

Series:

Developing a Spiritual Vitality Plan | 2 Peter 1
Del Fehsenfeld III | January 1, 2017

What a great way to begin the New Year. He leads us and He’s faithful to us. Happy New Year! Good to see everybody this morning. And I think it’s really need how God builds into the rhythms of our lives, renewal. The most obvious way that this happens is night and day. We get a new beginning. But, also our calendaring, things do pass, right? And we have newness. We get to begin again. And in a big way, on New Year’s Day, obviously we’re starting a new year and it should fill us with some optimism. And also a chance to reflect on what’s most important to us and also to plan for what’s ahead.

And so we’re going to do that a little bit this morning from the scriptures. We were in a series, for weeks, toward the end of the year on discipleship. Brian finished that up a few weeks ago. I asked him if I could reopen it, for one more.

And I think it’s appropriate in the sense that discipleship is never something that we finish. Brian reminded us that a Christian is a disciple. And we define discipleship throughout the series as simply this—a disciple is one who is learning from Jesus how to be like him. And then I would like to add, by being with him. Let me say it again. A disciple is someone who is learning from Jesus, how to be like him, by being with him.

And everything in our journey in the Christian life, flows out of that connection that we have to Jesus and in Jesus. Right? Everything flows out of that. And we can say that everything of strength and of value and of goodness and what is gonna last for eternity, ultimately flows from the inside out. It flows from the power and the strength that Christ provides. And so this is why we never move past discipleship. And I want to talk to you a little bit about a particular dimension of following him this morning.

Before I do that, though, I do want to review. I spoke a few weeks ago, on the process of change. Some of the things I laid out in that talk, I think, are vital to keep in mind as we move into the next building block here. Or else these things get twisted in a way that I don’t think helps us.

Okay, so I want to point you to a key text that I spoke on then. Galatians 5. And what I mean by this dimension of discipleship that is being with Jesus is, we have, obviously, Jesus resurrected and ascended. He has left us His Spirit. Okay? So, we are with Jesus by attending to His Spirit, who resides within us. So, we have this text, “walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”

From that, the last time I spoke here, we identified a number of key principles of the Christian life, of discipleship, and the process of change. The building blocks. The first one here is this:

I. The goal of change is Christlikeness

The reason I say that, is we know from Romans and other places, Romans 8:29, that says that God has predestined us to be conformed to the exact image of the son. Okay? Now, it’s easy to get a little bit confused in our targets. If we set our target on the wrong destination, we’re going to end up off course.

Let me just contrast some of the things that can easily become the target. Did you know that it’s possible, as a Christian, to be thinking that the goal actually is to be nice? People who are Christ-like are also going to be virtuous, right? They’re going to be kind. They’re going to have the fruits of the Spirit. But, a Christian is not fundamentally someone who is attempting to be nice. We want to be like Christ. We want the transformation of our character.

A Christian is not someone who simply wants to be right. Sometimes when you talk to people who are very committed to Christ, you get the idea that being right is more important to them than anything else. Do you know that it’s possible that some people think being right is actually more important than being loving. And this is part of the distaste, I think, in our generation of the message of Christ, because fundamentally being a Christian is not simply about being right.

Being a Christian is not about gaining more knowledge. Even knowledge about the Bible. So sometimes we can get the wrong target in mind. Right? The goal is Christlikeness. Not simply increasing in our information or knowledge.

Or being a Christian is not simply someone who goes to church. Or attends to certain religious practices. And according to the scriptures, the goal of our discipleship is actually the character of Jesus himself. Okay?

Being a Christian is not simply the goal of going to heaven when you die. Now, Jesus told us that all who are in him will be with him forever. He is going to renew all things. And so, we can say, in this sense, that heaven is thrown in on the path of discipleship. But the goal of the Christian life is actually not going to heaven when you die. It is being like Christ. It’s developing his character. It’s knowing him.

So, the goal of the Christian life is Christlikeness. Now, some would say to me, “Now, wait a second. Is that goal really possible?” In other words, is it really possible for ordinary people like you and me to become the exact image of the one that we follow—Jesus himself.

I’ve had many people tell me, even after giving a talk like this from the scriptures. They’ll say, “I’ll never really be like Jesus. I mean, he was Jesus. How is it really possible for an ordinary person to develop his character? To be conformed to his exact image?” I want to point you here to our text, but also to this principle. The power of this possibility resides in the Spirit of Christ.

II. The power comes from the Spirit

And this happens in two really fundamental ways to every person who is a disciple of Jesus. Number one: we are told that we are reborn.

A capacity that was lost because of sin and brokenness in this world and in our lives is restored. The apostle John put it this way. He says that we have to be born again? Remember this conversation with Nicodemus? This happens by, you know, he was confused, this is not a natural process, it was by the Spirit?

And the Spirit actually makes us new in a fundamental way to God. Makes us alive to God--restores the capacity that was lost. The apostle Paul puts it this way. His language is a language of new creation. Remember he said, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed and the new has come!” Everything has become new. He’s speaking to this fundamental restoration of possibility. Okay? Inside of us because of the Spirit.

The apostle Peter puts it this way, slightly different language. He says, “We’ve become partakers of the divine nature, being given everything that is necessary for a life of godliness.” Again, speaking to what’s possible for us because of a new identity. A new identity that we have as reborn, new creations, partakers of the divine nature in Christ.

So, it’s possible to be like Jesus, to be transformed to be like him, because of this fundamental change in our identity. But, not only that, Jesus, when he left, promised to give the gift of the Holy Spirit. To pour it out on all flesh. And to pour it out into every person who came to him in confidence and in faith. That we would never be alone and that we would have his Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, to be with us always. To lead us. To teach us. To guide us. To literally, if we choose, to be moment by moment with us in every aspect of our lives. In a way that is possible to attend to him, to respond to him in ways that change the landscape completely. Okay?

So we have new identity, but we also have indwelling. And all of that is from the Holy Spirit.

Third principle that we covered last time:

III. Our participation is absolutely necessary

Our participation in this process of change, this transformation into Christlikeness, is absolutely necessary. This transformation will not happen against our will. It will not happen without us. I developed this idea with you that grace, while it is unmerited, unearned, while it is a gift of God, while there is nothing that we can do to conjure it up from within, it’s something that comes to us supernaturally from God, that it is not a passive principle. Grace is opposed to earning, but it is not opposed to effort. In fact, grace itself is power. It is energy. It is desire. So that anyone that has the Spirit of Christ, that is giving himself to the Spirit of Christ, will find a resource of power and of new desire. And of inclination. And of renewal.

It’s like a stream, Jesus said, of living water on the inside of a person, (John 7) that runs in a ceaseless supply. What we have here is this idea that grace is fuel. Your spiritual transformation will not happen by magic formula. It will not happen by osmosis. It will not happen by sleeping on your Bible, or near it. Or even bringing your Bible to church.

Spiritual transformation will not happen one day when you suddenly wake up and it’s happened. It involves every step of our volition. Which is a wonderful thing because what God wants in this world is not robots. He doesn’t want automatons. He is after friendship. This is a real relationship with God and he wants glad friends. It’s what he’s after in life with human beings, is his glory established in the joy and the aliveness of human beings.

And so, this is exiting on one hand, but it is worth absolutely all that we are. So, in other words, Christianity, discipleship is not a pastime. It’s not a religion. It’s not something that we tack on to improve our lives. It is fundamentally what you were made for as a human being and it demands, then, all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, all of our strength. It demands our volition.

IV. We are changed by Jesus, by being with Jesus

That text, Galatians 5:25, is this idea of keeping in step with the Spirit. If the goal of our Christian life is Christlikeness, it happens through a fundamental reworking of our identity that filters into every part of us. It demands all of our heart and volition and attention. And it’s born out of relationship. This step-by-step, moment-by-moment connection to God that makes all of that possible. Okay. That’s what we talked about in the process of change last time.

Now, I’m sorry for the long introduction, but I’m going to give you a piece of wisdom here to the Christian life. Our text will be 2 Peter 1.

2 Peter 1:3-12 “His divine power has granted to us all the things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. By which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleanses from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fail, for in this way there will be richly provided for you, an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Therefore, I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think this is right as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder.”

I just want to focus on one part of this. This is a massive text. But I want you to catch the trajectory of what Peter is saying. What he’s saying is, you have a new identity. You have a new indwelling. You’ve been given a fundamental shift in what’s possible for you. You have been made friends of God.

Now, with this in mind, stir yourself up, make every effort. Add to your faith. Okay? And then he tells you the process of virtue formation. Again, this is a parallel passage to what you could see in Galatians in the fruit of the Spirit. Or all of the qualities that are in Christ himself. He’s describing for us the process of becoming Christ-like in these verses. Specifying the way that Christ functions, what he cares about, what he’s like, what his virtues are. And he’s saying, your task is to add. It is to put your car in gear. It’s to get focused. It’s to shoot for the progression of your transformation. This is an action verb.

What he’s talking about here, and if you were to walk away with one thing this morning, here it is in a sentence: Change requires intentionality. Change requires your intentionality. In fact, what he talks about in this passage is a process of people either moving towards Christlikeness through the adding of these virtues to their faith, or do you notice the drifting away? The hardening? The forgetting?

I want to suggest to you that this is the battle, practically, that all of us are in, in our discipleship, is that we are somehow genetically hardwired to drift. We are incredible at forgetting. We lose sight of the forest all the time, for the trees. We grow busy, we grow distracted. And in fact, what I want to suggest to you this morning is that the greatest threat to your vitality in Christ, the destiny that you’ve been granted, this incredible possibility and opportunity, purpose of your lives, actually for most of you is not a giant flame-out. It is simply a slow process of fading away.

This is incredible to me, how quickly this happens. I was sitting on the front row, singing these songs, realizing that in the weeks since I preached the last time, which was four, five, six, maybe eight—no more than two months—the trajectory of my personal life has gone backward.

And I’m sitting here, like, I didn’t leave my faith. I didn’t leave my family. I didn’t commit a crime. Did none of these things, but I forgot in a lot of ways, what I care about. Two months. I’m forty-five years old. I’m a professional Christian. I get paid, seriously, to be a Christian. And I forgot what I was doing.

Now, there is no neutrality. He’s saying, either you’re moving or you are in the process of forgetting. When you forget, when you go into neutral, when you drift. Listen, it is possible to come apart at the seams unbelievably fast. Those of you who have been around a little bit, you have seen, maybe in your own life, but certainly in the lives of others, that simply starting something does not equate to finishing it.

And the danger of mis-defining the target of Christianity as anything other than intimate connection to Christ, to become like him, forever, simply deceives us into believing that we are moving ahead when we are really going sideways. Because it’s possible to define your Christianity by all kinds of things that simply miss the mark. Do you follow what I’m saying? And so the most important thing that you and I can do is to find a wisdom of life, both individually with God and with others in our families, that helps us to remember. That’s what Peter’s saying. He’s going, “I’m dedicating the last and best part after all these years of walking with Christ. I know my time is short and I’m doing one thing. I want you to remember.”

“But, Peter, you already told us! We already know this.” “I know. And always, I’m going to stir you up to remember.” Why? Because the greatest danger of your Christian life is not flame-out. It is drift. Okay? But, here’s my question for you. Do you have a plan for transformation into Christlikeness? Do you have a plan?

If it is the goal of the Christian life, if the process works by being active, not in neutral, less you drift. If the tendency is to continually forget, what is your plan to remember? How do you stay on track? That is the question.

Now, I mentioned this in the last talk. This is why Brian asked me to do this, it was kind of an aside. But, I said it blows me away when I talk to really smart, confident, mastery-oriented Americans. Okay, that’s what we are. Whether you like it or not. That’s what you are. We have a plan for everything! I mean, like, we have plans for our kid’s education. We have people we pay, that that’s all they do is think about how do you educate a child. A whole profession. So, we’re probably thinking of that as parents. But, we have a plan for that.

We have a plan for our finance. We should, at least we know we should. We have something that resembles a budget. And if you don’t, there’s a financial planner on every corner that will be glad to help you. We have plans for our retirement. We have a health plan. Like, we have whole consultants that insure us all the things that could happen. And we go to the doctor every year to get a physical to get input, professional input on our physical health. So, we plan for that.

Guys, I know people who have coaches for their golf swing. Do you have a plan for your Christlikeness? It hit me five or ten years ago, and I’m like we live in a culture that values planning for whatever matters the most. Would you agree with that? We do that. Isn’t it interesting that we don’t plan for Christlikeness?

Now again, I think it’s for a lot of reasons. But, I think that somehow we think that Christlikeness is going to have to just happen spontaneously, while everything else that actually matters to us requires planning and effort. I think it’s the misconception of grace. This is why I started this. I don’t think that we quantify this idea that our participation actually is required. God will not do for you, he will not do for me, what he wants me take responsibility for. And the reason is, not because he’s unkind. It’s because he wants friends. He does not want a robot. He wants me to live from my affection. Which he is helping me renew out of relationship. Okay?

And so, do you have a plan? I’m not here to bust. That’s not my point. I’m not looking down, I’m not criticizing. I’m not saying anything like that. I’m just saying, Eureka! Do you have a plan?

Okay, one more concept. Think about this. If you were to think about your Christian life as a journey, toward a destination of life with God, think about what’s involved in taking a trip. First of all, you have to nail down your destination. You’ve got to know where you’re headed. Now with GPS these days, it’s made it easier and harder. Because, my in-laws actually did this. Did you know that there’s more than one Niles? Yeah! I mean, they put Niles in. That was good, but it was Indiana. Or Illinois or somewhere like this and they called me on the way up here and they were like, “We’re gonna be a few hours longer than we thought. Because our GPS took us to the wrong Niles.”

You have to have the right coordinates. This is why we started with what the goal is, to take a trip. Once you have the destination in mind, you need a direction. You need a map, right, of some kind. You might be old school—pull it out. Look it up on your computer, print it out. Put it on your phone, whatever it is, but you need a map. Now, it’s interesting. There are probably many different routes. You know, not everyone has to be exactly the same on the route. But, if you’re coming from Florida up here, you’re gonna have to head north.

So, we can generally agree that north, or whatever. But, you can take a few different ways. It’s not like a script. But, you need a wisdom for where you’re headed. A map. And then you have to choose your means of transportation. And you can fly, you can take a train, you know, whatever. If you’re gonna drive, basically the point is, I’m gonna tell you how to drive. A little extra bonus. Driving is a few big decisions interspersed with thousands of very small adjustments. Would you agree with me? That’s what driving is. Driving is a few big decisions interspersed with a lot of small adjustments.

Now, I want to use that as an illustration of the wisdom I want to give to you. Now, what I’m gonna give you here—this is wisdom, not righteousness. You are not any more virtuous or less because you like my chart, or don’t. I gave you a chart. Everybody have a chart? You pull it out.

This is simply one means of trying to encapsulate the principle. You don’t like my chart? I tell everyone this. You don’t like it? Change it. Crumple it up. Redesign it. The point here is, do you have a plan? And if you don’t have one, I like my plan better. Okay? Alright.

So, let me read this. We’ll read it. It’s pretty self-explanatory, then we’ll talk a few things about it. We use this in the spiritual community at Life Action. This is something we’ve developed there. Christian growth and spirituality is about the whole person. Thus, a spiritual growth plan should meaningfully address our body, our soul, and our spirit. All are involved in following Jesus.

One way of visualizing your overall development is to think of your life as a reservoir comprised of multiple subsections. It is possible to be doing well, to be full in one dimension of your life while neglecting others. Identify activities and practices that are helping fill you in each area, or that are draining you in areas. This graph identifies various areas that require attention. You may want to add areas that are not represented, or strike ones that seem irrelevant to you. The following worksheet includes some simple activities and practices that this one actually doesn’t. This is the short form.

These lists are not inspired or exhausted. They are simply designed to stimulate thinking, prayer and dialogue. Becoming a healthy follower of Christ requires intentionality. Periodically set aside some time to consider various areas of your life and to ask about each of those areas, “What has been going well?” I’m assuming that lots of things have been going well. So, what’s been going well? What’s working? What’s filling you in your rhythm with Jesus? The converse of that is obvious. What’s being neglected? And what are some achievable steps I could take over the next year to replenish this area?

Second question. Who is speaking into your life in these areas? Who could be part of that conversation? Pray for you? Provide accountability?

Once you’ve gotten a big picture view of what’s happening in your life, select one or two of these areas to focus on for the three months and then review this exercise quarterly. I actually do it on the back myself. Keep it in my journal or Bible or whatever. So it’s something that I can see my top two regularly and then I want to revisit my aspirations quarterly. To adjust. By the way, when you’re on a trip and you keep seeing the same scenery outside the window, you’re in a cul-de-sac. Get out. That’s the point.

Now, I hope that this is self-explanatory. I want to make a few comments about this wisdom.

1. Spirituality is about the whole person

Jesus was resurrected bodily, forever exclaiming over all creation that your body matters, forever. You are not going to float on clouds, pluck harps and eat M&M’s. Although that would be one version of heaven, for sure. Forever, whatever holiness means will be in a body. It will involve physicality. Now, a new kind, obviously, of physicality but a new creation and a new body. Which means that every dimension of the self matters to Jesus and is a part of your holiness.

Now, where I see a lot of people get off track in this is that they will read their Bible and pray every day—great practices! Fundamental practices of the Christian life and they will ignore their relationships. Or ignore their physical health. Because they’ve defined spirituality as a set of two or three things. And what happens is, now, listen to me, I’m in my forties, you guys that are younger. You guys that are ahead of me, you know this is true, right? You pay the price for everything that you left off. You know what I mean? Like, if you weren’t holistic, it will catch you! It will catch you.

It’s not simpler, it’s actually oblivion. So, it is worthwhile sometimes because all of us are inclined to pay attention inordinately to certain things. By personality, by background, by development—all these things, which is why I’m going to come back in a second and talk to you about “others” in this. But, we’ve got blindspots everywhere and so periodically what I’m saying is take a half day. Sit down with you and the Holy Spirit and go, “God, how are things going? Body, soul and spirit?” I know this is going to be overwhelming, but I’m taking notes with myself and my mind, in reflection but also I’m praying, “God, what do You care about right now? Because I can’t attend everything but I need to know what’s happening. Is there something I’m missing?”

Do you follow what I’m saying? There’s just a wisdom in asking the question. Like, what’s going well? What’s feeding me? What’s fitting my soul? What is not? So, just that exercise, look, I promise you, a half day, that can itself be revelatory. The whole person.

2. The principle of focus

Secondly, there is a principle of focus, a principle of concentrated focus, so, no, you can’t do everything, but be focusing on the 20% that matters most right now, you give lift to the other 80%. It’s the 20/80 rule in all of life. So, a lot of times, we’re burning tons of energy putting out fires on things that relatively to our health and vitality, are way down here, and the things that would fundamentally shift things, we don’t have time for that.

I don’t have time to go into this but this is proven in the social sciences and in work and everything else that the things that are really important and not urgent are the things that we always stick on the back burner and they’re the things that actually would transform our lives. And a lot of times, God cares. Man looks on the outward appearance, where does God look? Think about the David story. Samuel is out there evaluating it like this and God’s going, “No, I care about this stuff.”

So, a lot of times God will surprise you when you just ask him. Where do I need to be putting the attention? Focus.

3. Christianity is not a solo sport

What I mean by this is, you will never do this well by yourself. This idea that my faith, my Christianity is a private matter and I keep most of that to myself because what I believe is what I believe and what everybody believes is what they believe—that is not in the Bible. It wasn’t designed to work that way. God put you in a family. There is stuff that you will never see and never be good at and never identify and never get there from here if you don’t ask for directions. It just won’t happen.

So, if your rhythm of your Christian life is basically you, yourself, and maybe one other person that you let in every other year, you are not going to thrive. And what happens in this is. You start to sit down and you go, “Well, you know what? My finances are an absolute wreck!” Well, guess what? There might be a pastor somewhere that’s good at helping you with that but most pastors are not good with their finances, I’ll just tell you. I’ve been in ministry for forty-five years, that’s not necessarily their strength. But, there are people in this room who know a lot about that.

So, you go, “God, who do you want me to talk to about this?” Well, so-and-so seems to be doing really well at that. Well, I don’t know them. That would be so embarrassing to like…you know what I’m saying? What if it’s in your marriage? You can pray like crazy but you can’t have a conversation with your spouse. I’ve seen that. And the dualistic thinking is, if I can’t have a relationship with my spouse then I might as well not pray. No. Listen. Your great in prayer, and you’re really bad with your wife. Both. Go get some help. Okay? Or whatever. I’m hope I’m not coming across like I think I might be right now. I’m not trying to be…it just drives me nuts, though, at one level, that we have all these resources in the body but some of us think Christianity is a solo sport.

You’re great at some stuff? Share it! You sit down every year, “I’m hurting here. I need help!” Go get it! Go get it.

We’re trying to develop a culture in our place where coming forward and saying, “I’ve got a major problem in this area of my life,” does not mean that you are disqualified for ministry. Because everybody has gaps. You have places where you’re full, places where you’re empty. Jesus does not transform you uniformly. He just doesn’t. And the stuff that maybe was working in your twenties, you might find, good grief, it doesn’t work at all. In my sixties, I need to have a conversation about what does it look like to follow Jesus in this decade. Or with this set of circumstances, or whatever. We’ve got to have this.

So, what I’m recommending is you do the exercise privately, then you let people in. At least one person who loves you, to see, “Am I even close? What do you see? Here’s the commitments I’m making, would you pray for me? Here’s where I think it’s going to be hard, would you help me? I don’t know anything about that. Do you know anybody who knows that?”

So, this is the way I would suggest it work and you communicate to one person at least, but maybe multiple ones in different areas where you’re getting help. I hope that’s clear.

Last thing I want to say. I’ve got to stop. I want to give you some warnings because people have used this and died. So, let me just tell you where this tool is horrible. Do you see this person up here? How many of you would be inclined, you don’t have to raise your hand, to take an exercise like this, “Oh, my word! Oh, my word! I’m getting a D! I might have an F! Oh! I got an A!!!” You have totally missed the point. Throw this away. It will destroy you. If you’re coming to this as a measure of your value, worth, how God feels about you based on what you’re doing or not doing, this will destroy you. Throw it out!

But, can I also say, before you throw it out, think about that for a minute. Just do a thought experiment. Does your knowing this or not knowing this change anything that God knows about you right now? A thought experiment. If he says what he said and has done what he’s done and knows all that, is it really going to change the way he feels about you? Is that all really in your own head? You know what I mean? Maybe it drives you back to premises and helps you that way. It’s not a grade.

Secondly, there are some of you in here, because you are mastery oriented and because you did get A’s in school, that are going to literally look at every area of your life and conclude that you can fix all of it. You seriously will and you will die trying. And you will die. Okay? Please don’t do that. Do you see where I stand here? One or two areas. One or two. We’re talking about three months here, you can hold off on the rest. One or two. Because if you will give concentrated focus and prayer under the leadership of the Holy Spirit to one or two, what will benefit if it’s the right 20%? What’s going to benefit? Everything else. And then in three months you’re going to revisit and adjust and this is actually how you make progress.

I asked my wife once, she reads lots of books, I’m like, “How do you read so many books?” She’s like, “I read them one chapter at a time.” I’m like, “Shut up! Whatever. Whatever.”

One thing at a time. So, the question is, in your plan for Christlikeness, do you have a focal point for 2017. I know some of you hate resolutions because you make them and fail and all this stuff. I’m just saying, do you have a trajectory? Do you know what you’re shooting at in the most important thing? If you don’t, that would be a great way to spend this afternoon. Think about it.

Alright, here’s the last thing, obviously. This is also the American way. Make lofty proclamations and do absolutely nothing. “Do everything, you get nothing. Do nothing, you get nothing.” That would make me feel bad. Don’t do nothing, okay? Pray about it. Don’t use my plan. Use it. It’s really our plan. I sincerely hope this helps you. Let’s pray.

Lord, I want to thank you for my family here, these friends. This open atmosphere. Seriously, if I offended anyone with my tone, please don’t let that be an obstacle. I really believe that you want us to move forward and glad friendship with you. And I really believe that you have amazing things for those who attend and respond so please let us activate our volition this morning and our intentionality and the wisdom that you give us in this community to become authentic disciples of Jesus Christ. I pray this in Jesus’ Name. Amen.