Into the Unknown - Gull Lake Sunday

[0:00] Good morning and welcome to our service for Sunday, May 16th, 2021. My name is Kent Dixon and I'm the lead pastor of Bramard Baptist Church here in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

[0:11] Welcome here this morning. However you're joining us, whether you're joining and watching live on Facebook this morning, or you're tuning in later in the week, or you're listening, video or audio only, or whatever you're doing, however you're connecting with us, welcome to this place and in this way.

[0:27] You are welcome here this morning. If you want to connect with us, please send us an email to info at bramardbaptist.com. We send an email newsletter around as well as a weekly message from me.

[0:41] So we'd be happy to add you to that list, that distribution. If you want to check us out and learn more about our church, visit us at bramardbaptist.com and you can find us on the web.

[0:54] So God bless you as you join us this morning, wherever you are, however you're connecting and tuning in. Let's pray. Father God, we humbly come before you this morning, recognizing that you are the creator of all things.

[1:10] You are all powerful, Father, all knowing, everywhere at the same time. Lord, you are infinitely beyond our understanding and you are so utterly, utterly different from us.

[1:24] And yet you made each one of us. Lord, you did that with intention and design, with care and consideration. And above all, Father, you did that with your amazing love.

[1:39] Father, thank you for the opportunity to gather in this time, in this place, in this way. Thank you that in the middle of an often chaotic present and an uncertain future, you are our hope.

[1:58] You are a provider and sustainer and you see us. Father, we recognize that there are needs in our congregation. There are health needs, financial and employment needs, broken relationships and frayed nerves.

[2:16] We need your help, Lord. We need you so desperately. Father, we are lost without you. And without you, we have no hope.

[2:28] Lord, we ask you to answer the prayers of your people. We ask you to provide and meet needs as you have always faithfully done, in your time and according to your will.

[2:41] Lord, thank you for the honor of being your people. May we reflect the same unconditional love that you offer to us. May we offer that to others in our own lives.

[2:54] Father, may we love and care for one another, not with an agenda or personal preferences in mind, but as you are calling us to love, as you first loved us.

[3:10] Father, open our eyes to opportunities to build and to heal relationships. Use us to make a difference in the lives of others, that we may be a source of encouragement and care for everyone we meet.

[3:26] And Lord, we ask all these things in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. We're going to join together in worship singing this morning, and we're going to sing two songs, At the Cross and Immortal Invisible.

[3:43] And so these may be familiar to you, or they may not. They may be something that you've heard all your life, or they may be relatively new. So engage in these in whatever way you feel comfortable.

[3:55] And you'll be able to follow, as always, the lyrics on the screen. And following our songs, we're going to transition directly into our guest speaker, and that is Steve Roadhouse.

[4:07] Steve is the executive director of our denominational camp, Gull Lake Center. So Steve is a good friend. He's a brother in Christ, and it's a joy to welcome him.

[4:19] We generally connect and have someone come from our camp to give us an update on camp. Give us an update on how the camp ministry is going, what some of the highlights are for them.

[4:30] And so Steve is here to do that this morning. And so I'm hoping that you'll be blessed by Steve's update, by what he has to share by his heart, and also be blessed by Steve's sermon, Into the Unknown.

[4:46] And that's the theme of the camp. That's the theme of Gull Lake Center's camp season this coming season. And Steve is going to unpack that for us, and give us a sense of what crisis in our lives can reveal about our character.

[5:05] So I encourage you to listen closely, and get a sense of what God is trying to tell you through Steve's words this morning. He'll be in the book of John, and he'll highlight some of the passages for us as well.

[5:20] So God bless you as we sing together now, and God bless you through the message. And once we're done, go in peace, and have a great week. The sunshine in Alberta is looking really positive for this coming week, and a certain pastor's hockey team is in the playoffs.

[5:40] So that's exciting as well. So God bless you as we sing, and as we hear Steve this morning. Oh, God bless you as we sing, The beautiful crimes that I had done He groaned upon the tree Amazing pity, grace unknown And love beyond degree

[6:42] At the cross, at the cross Where I first saw the light And the burden of my heart rolled away It was there by faith I received my sight And now I am happy all the day Well, might the sun in darkness hide And shut his glories in When Christ the mighty maker died For man the creature's sin At the cross, at the cross Where I first saw the light And the burdens of my heart rolled away

[7:42] It was there by faith I received my sight And now I am happy all the day But drops of grief Can never repay The debt of love I owe Here, Lord, I give myself away Tis all that I can do Immortal, invisible, God only lives Immortal, invisible, God only lives

[8:43] Enlightened, accessible, hid from our eyes Most blessed, most glorious The ancient of days The ancient of days Almighty victorias Thy great name we praise Unresting, unhasting And silent as light Nor the wanting, nor the wasting Thou rulest in my Thy justice like mountains Thy soaring above Thy clouds with a fountain Of goodness and love Great Father of glory Your Father of life Thine angels adore Thee

[9:45] All veiling their sight Of all Thy rich graces His grace, Lord, impart Take the veil from my faces The veil from my heart Oh, Lord, what a render O help us to see Tis on the splendor A light hideth thee And so let thy glory Almighty impart Through Christ and His story Thy cries to the heart Hello church

[10:53] My name is Steve Rodehouse And I am the executive director here at Go Lake Center Your friendly neighborhood camp And it is a joy to be with you Kind of, virtually Yeah, what a crazy season And filled with kind of weird silver linings That we can be together Even though we're apart And in different times I'm recording this on Monday, May the 10th So we are separated by space and time And yet in the midst of all this Christ connects us And that's a really cool and beautiful thing That as a humanity we've never experienced before I mean, I have kind of a deep belief That God exists outside of time And here we have kind of this really weird And cool and interesting way That kind of symbolizes that That while I'm here You know, days ago Speaking to you I have full belief That Christ is connecting us And that's a really cool thing So wherever you are Whenever you are I pray for the grace and peace of Christ

[11:55] To be with you today In the past And always in the future May you know that you are important And special to Him Yeah So I'm here to talk A little bit about camp And to give a message And both the theme for the camp And the message for today Is into the unknown Which is a very fitting topic for this year Which is why we chose it Everything about this year Seems to be into the unknown And camp is definitely no different than that A month ago There was an update that I was watching From the Premier Where he was talking about how You know, once we get to You know, immunity up to I think it was about 64% A little bit over 60% Then hopefully we'll see You know, potentially no restrictions And my ears perked up I thought, really?

[12:44] That seems crazy And he was like, yeah You know, I didn't get to ask him a question But as he kept talking He was saying that By the end of June We expect to hit this number And, you know Hopefully by summer We can expect to see You know, drastically reduced Or even no restrictions whatsoever And he even alluded to the fact That, you know, maybe something like Stampede could happen This was only a month ago And kind of right before that I thought, there's no way We're running camp this summer We've got to make some other plans We started making plans And we were getting ready To announce those And then he announces this I'm like, oh Well, maybe we can run camp this summer We should start adjusting to this So we made some new plans We released them and all that And then, you know, a month later We're in stricter lockdowns It's like, oh gosh What do we do?

[13:27] But also vaccines are happening You know, at a great rate And all of this So it's this weird mixed bag Of into the unknown Where I'm like, okay I'm kind of optimistic That maybe with the vaccines We'll be able to do some this summer And I'm also like We can't even gather With more than five people outside There's no way we can do anything This is very difficult So we have kind of Several plans in place And we actually And this might be foolish But we opened registration last week And it's kind of A different registration We're not collecting any money At this point But you can basically register And save your spot in line So if we can do something We know who's registered Who's signed up And then we can do it So if we can have 150 people on site Great If we can only have 50 people on site So be it We'll run camp with 50 If we can only do day camps So be it We'll do day camps Like we did last year Our hope is to be able To at least run Our leadership programs So we've got plans for that And yeah So if you would like a spot Save for you At camp this summer At least your spot in line Save for you At camp this summer Go to

[14:27] GoLegCentral.ca And make sure you register Your kids Your family Right away We had over 300 people Register on the first day So that's great And we have no idea How many spots We're going to have This summer So we'll see how it goes But that's our plan And we're looking forward to it And this is a really Important summer for us Because last year Actually we should have Been our 100th And it kind of went Our 100th But what a What a kind of A whimpery of a Of a summer To have our 100th Where it was just day camps But we've been doing A lot of work Over the last two years We've had our Road to 100 campaigns We've got new cabins We've got a new Playing field And Toboggan Hill And playground And all this really Cool stuff And we cannot wait To break it in And to run Because it was finished Literally the week Before COVID hit So we've just been Waiting in eager Anticipation To have hundreds And even thousands Of people out To come see it And we're hoping Maybe if the Restrictions are lifted We had to cancel The big 100th celebration

[15:27] Last June And we're hoping That maybe on September the 18th We'll be able to Have a giant party Celebrating God And all of his Faithfulness And celebrating the Camp in 100 years And hopefully 100 more years And also just a big Celebration that COVID's over And we can gather together And hug and see each other And chat And how wonderful That would be So it's tentative But break your calendars For September 18th And we'll make it happen Hopefully If not then Sometime in the future But I want to say A big thank you Because the only reason That this is possible Is because of you As individuals You as your church And other people Like you Who have been Supporting the camp With real generosity And care and love Over this past year It's been tough We've had essentially No user revenue We basically haven't Had people here For over a year And we're still Keeping by We're able to pay Our essential bills And keep the lights on We've been able To receive enough donations That we actually Have enough money To cover our bills

[16:27] Through the summer Which is incredible We've received grants From the government To help cover staffing So my salary And some of the other staff We've received 33 grants To be able to hire Summer staff this summer Which means that we can run Whatever program We're allowed to run So we're all set And the reason We've been able to do this Is because of your generosity If we were scrambling To figure that out Or having to cut You know the power And things like that Restart would be So much more difficult But we know that right now Whatever the rules are We can you know Kind of flick the switch On the program And we can run it Almost immediately And we couldn't have Done that without you So thank you for caring Thank you for supporting And thank you for helping Create a space For campus to get with Christ Whether that has been This past summer Or this summer Or in the summers of the future We don't know when that When those seeds will bear fruit But I have the deepest And most sincere faith That that will be the case So thank you for caring And yeah If you'd like to keep donating And keep supporting You know this feels a bit

[17:29] Like a begging thing But that would be That would be very helpful We yeah We don't know What the future brings And we need help to get there So thank you for caring The past And please continue to care Now and into the future As well You know And all this is Is kind of this This crisis Of COVID And I know that That COVID has affected Us all differently Like drastically So I actually had COVID My family got We've been so careful We followed all the rules And my oldest daughter Got it from Our classmate in school Just happened to be The one sitting beside her She's the only one In her class that got it He didn't know we had it We didn't find out For six days That she was a close contact And by that time It spread to the family And we got it And it We were okay Like we didn't have Any breathing problems It was still kind of miserable And yeah I won't get into the details On that But COVID has affected Us all differently Whether you got it Or the economic impact Of it Or the emotional impact Of it Or the physical impact Of it Like it's It's all affecting us Differently And that's kind of How all crises are

[18:29] They affect people Differently Even though And maybe you've seen Some memes Or images about this We're all in the same storm But we're all in different boats And it affects us Quite differently And I want to talk a bit About crisis today And going into the unknown And I'm going to use COVID as a placeholder But any crisis You know Can do in this situation Or in kind of this teaching Because I don't know What your specific experience Has been during COVID Or what other crises You have been in before Or are going through now But I do know That a crisis Doesn't actually create values A crisis Exposes values And there's a quote That floats around a lot On memes On the internet That Eleanor Roosevelt Said frequently She says Women are like a tea bag You never know How strong it is Until it's in hot water And I really love this quote Because You know It talks about the strength Of women It talks about like

[19:30] It's in the crisis That we see how strong we are It's in the challenge And you know These aren't necessarily Bad things You've got to Have them once in a while So you can actually See how strong you are And I'm going to Kind of twist The kind of The mean quote slightly But what sounds out to me As well in this quote Is that A tea bag Doesn't get stronger In hot water The hot water Reveals How strong it already was Crisis doesn't create character Or values Or strength Or morals It exposes them At least in the moment And COVID Has exposed us As a humanity In a radical way It's exposed our financial systems It's exposed our supply chains It's exposed Our value structures It's exposed our You know Our toilet paper Dependency And sharing And all that sort of stuff Right It's exposed us

[20:31] As a world As a country As a province As a community And as individuals It's exposed our leadership It's exposed our servanthood It's exposed You know Our healthcare system And it's exposed Yeah Just so many parts For society It's exposed And some of it Has been really Really good It's really exposed A deep set Of Of A strong value And strong character In individuals And in some systems And it's also exposed Some rot And some things That were not thought through And some things That were selfish And some things That are weak And use an overhaul And in crisis You get to see What's important to you Because your values Dictate your response It's your real values That dictate your response Not the values You like to say you have You know That maybe you write On the wall But it's your actual values In crisis You don't become A better version Of yourself Right You don't

[21:31] You don't actually Rise to the occasion Even though we say that a lot And we often say that In sports too You do what comes naturally You do what you have Practiced doing Rise into the occasion Is actually just Tuning more Into your values Tuning more Into what you've practiced What you've What you've You know Create a muscle memory for And the best Of the best Distance themselves It seems like They're rising to occasion But really They're just becoming Their true selves While other people Who are also becoming Their true selves Are falling away A little bit Now This doesn't mean That you can't change Because you can And as this crisis Has gone on Right As growth has gone We're 14 months into it We've learned And adapted And hopefully we will grow I know I have You know I'm learning a lot And adapting And trying to figure out Camp in a different way And hopefully we'll grow And we'll continue to grow From this over Over many years But that's a different Part of our personality Right When it first hits You're not learning Adapting and growing But first hits You're reacting Right And the reaction Comes from your values

[22:32] The growth Is part of the resilience Part of our personality Can we adapt Can we grow Do we want to adapt Do we want to grow Can we reflect upon And learn from our experiences And if we're wise We will And next time We encounter a crisis We'll be the better for it Right Our values will be stronger And we'll show up Hopefully in a more powerful And slightly different way And To get into Kind of the proper sermon Part of this I want to look at Two stories In the book of John About Peter and Jesus And then slightly Contrast Peter and Jesus And how they respond To crisis And I'm going to read These two sections But I want to just Share really quick A personal discipline That I've been doing The last year and a half Or so Is to read full books Of the Bible In one sitting So each weekend I choose a book And I read the Bible Ideally I read it In one sitting So I sit down Cup of tea Maybe toast And I read the whole book Some books Take ten minutes Some books Take like three hours So if it's a short book

[23:34] I do it in one sitting If it's a long book I might break it up Over the weekend If it's a super long one Like Psalms Which took forever It's actually really hard To read like in one go But really enjoy To read like in little snippets It took me the whole weekend Like start Friday Finish Sunday That sort of thing But it has been such An enriching spiritual practice For me To read the books In context To see the flow And the arc Of the characters And the development And really try and understand Oh This is where that verse fits It's not referring to You know One specific thing Like I thought It's actually referring To something totally different So Highly recommend it I'm going to cherry pick Two stories out of John But this is really actually I'm trying to preach From the whole book here The whole gospel According to John And if you have time Whenever you're reading this Highly recommend it If you don't do it That's fine I'm going to probably Keep harping it on Every time I'm with your church Because it's been Such a valuable thing to me And I know like In most things Like marketing You have to hear it like Seven times Or twenty-one times Before it becomes Something you'll actually

[24:34] Pick up So I'm saying it to you Once now And hopefully you'll hear it A bunch of other times And then you'll pick it up It took me about two years Of a friend hounding me About it Before I finally started Doing it And then I was hooked So hopefully This will be the start Of me hounding you About it And you'll pick it up And you'll get hooked as well So Two stories First one is from Gospel John They both will be This is chapter 18 Verses 1 to 11

[26:00] The second story Is in chapter 21 Verses 15 to 19 When they had finished eating Jesus said to Simon Peter Simon Son of John Do you truly love me More than these?

[26:38] Yes Lord He said You know that I love you Jesus said Feed my lambs Again Jesus said Simon Son of John Do you truly love me?

[26:52] He answered Yes Lord You know that I love you Jesus said Take care of my sheep The third time He said to him Simon Son of John Do you love me?

[27:05] Peter was hurt Because Jesus asked him The third time Do you love me? He said Lord You know all things You know that I love you Jesus said Feed my sheep I tell you the truth When you were younger You dressed yourself And went where you wanted But when you were old You will stretch out your hands And someone else Will dress you And lead you Where you do not want to go Jesus said this To indicate the kind of death By which Peter would glorify God Then he said to him Follow me These are two powerful stories Really intense Kind of like Dramatic scenes In the Bible And you know I come from an acting background So that's when I studied in college So everything to me is like Is characters But that doesn't mean that Like it's lost These are real people That have these real scenes And so trying to like Get in their head of like What are they thinking here?

[28:06] Why do they approach This conversation in this way? And you know Going to the scene In the garden Where Jesus is arrested He's just coming out of this time Of really deep Intense prayer And he's been Communing with the Father And Jesus knows what's coming And this is kind of A personal wrestling thing for me Where I don't really know I don't know how much Jesus always knows Like is Jesus omniscient Like the Father is Where he knows everything And he knows What everybody's thinking?

[28:33] I don't think so Because I think he had to Give up his godly powers To be human Otherwise we wouldn't be able To relate with him And it wouldn't be That big of a deal So I don't think He knows everything But I think he knows a lot Parts because he's very wise And he's figured out He also knows like Man if you poke the hornet's nest You're probably going to get stung And he's been poking the hornet's nest Of you know The temple And things like that And people are upset with him So he knows something's going to happen But he's also been In community with God So I think that God Has maybe revealed some things That's like Yeah it's happening It's happening tonight Or whatever So I don't know exactly How much he knows But he knows enough That he knows what's coming I don't know if he knows The exact details But he definitely knows What's coming He knows that he's The son of God He knows what his mission is And knows he's about to die And he knows it's going to hurt And you know As he's praying the garden He doesn't want it to happen He's obedient to God But he's begging God To take his cup You know Is there any other way And Jesus also knows Where his options are He also knows That he can call down

[29:34] Like all the heavenly forces At once And be like We're done Boom And that's it No more Rome No more temple Maybe no more earth Like Jesus He's Jesus right He's the son of God He can end it all But he doesn't He doesn't He knows his mission And in this moment of crisis Where he's being arrested His character comes out As a character of obedience And of servitude It's of a quiet power That is playing the long game He knows the mission And he knows his role In that mission And he's going to be obedient To the Father And this is the same set of values That healed the paralytic On a Sabbath It's the same set of values That washed the disciples' feet The day before These values Lead him to a powerful submission To those less powerful than he He submits

[30:36] Doesn't have to But he does And now I want to slightly Contrast this with Peter I want to be a little bit Careful here About Peter Because I'm not trying to Badmouth or slander Peter But I want to look at this Kind of like From Peter's point of view So we get to here Peter I think Also kind of knows What's going on Like he knows That they're in trouble But it's You know I don't think he fully gets it But Peter has A really beautiful understanding In some ways Of what's going on And he has it Partly right And he actually has it Almost completely right He has it really close right And he has it You know More right than most people Because Peter believed Desperately And at the core of his being That Jesus was going to be king Right So he got it He understood that He knew that Jesus was there To become king Now the problem is Peter thought that Jesus Was going to be king In a way that made sense to Peter

[31:36] Or in a way that Peter Had seen it before And that was through the sword That was through force That was through ruling Peter thought Jesus was going to be king Like a king is Right With a throne And with servants And with subjects And he'd probably be a good king Like a righteous king Maybe like David But even better You know Different than You know Than the Roman emperors Or things like that Different than the kings That Peter had seen With his eyes But he still Thought of Jesus As a king In the way that he thought Of kings So then Peter's values Which are Jesus is going to be king And I know what a king Looks like Led him to try and Overpower those Who are more powerful Right A king rules With a sword So Peter Tried to defend The king with a sword That was his world view That's how he understood it to be Jesus took the path Of submission Peter Tried to take the path

[32:36] Of force And aggression And in this I don't want us to make fun Of Peter at all It really bothers me When evangelicals are like Let's make fun of Peter There he is Doing his Peter stuff You know Pulls out a sword Chops off You know The ear of the priest You know Assistant or servant Like That doesn't help anything Peter So he doesn't have Stereo or hearing That doesn't make a big deal But Peter's the man He gets it So many other people Didn't get it And yeah He acted Impulsively Out of his values But remember He's also the only one That walked on water Peter's values Led him to be the closest With Christ In so many ways And I think we need to Respect and honor that And honestly try and be A bit more like Peter In a lot of ways So I think Peter got it I'm not trying to make fun Of him in any way But I just want to show that Like his values And his world view Shaped how he acted In crisis And then You know So we have this scene Of Jesus and Peter There's this kind of Dichotomy of how they act And John's weaving The story together

[33:37] And right after this In John's writings He's kind of Flipping back and forth In the stories Of Between Peter and Jesus Now Peter goes off And denies Jesus three times And he weaves this together With the stories Of Jesus being on trial Before the high priest And Pilate Kind of explaining Who he is And submitting To their authority Which His authority Is way higher So Peter Is trying to deny And basically Save his life And Jesus Is humbly Laying down His life At the same time And this brings me Kind of to my second story It's a bit of a jump here But I'm going to go for it Anyways Which is another crisis point Or maybe it's a continuing Crisis for Peter So now on this scene We've got Peter And Jesus And there's the other Disciple Or some of the other Disciples around As well Oh sorry

[34:39] I just lost my place here As I'm looking at the screen Where I've got my notes It's kind of It's very weird Preaching Into a camera I'll let you know that So they're On the beach And they've just been fishing And Peter calls them In a similar fashion That he did to earlier He's like Hey how's your fish Nothing Go on the other side Blah blah blah But something you have to remember Is that this story Takes place After The resurrection So Jesus has already Revealed himself To the disciples They know That he's alive They know that He died And that was like This crate Like they didn't know What to make of that And then they were waiting And then there's the resurrection And then he's appeared To them as well They know that he's alive But they don't know What to do about it yet So early in the story Peter says I'm going out to fish And five other disciples Join him So they're all fishing

[35:39] They know Jesus is alive They know he's appeared They don't know what to do They have no idea What to do So what do they do?

[35:50] They go back To their values Which is fishing That's who they are They're fishermen In Peter's mind He's a fisherman And that's his identity So when he doesn't know What to do Or where to turn It only makes sense That he would go fishing In crisis We turn to what we know We go back To what feels comfortable What feels safe What feels secure And then Jesus Appears to them again On the beach With these fish And we have this Powerful scene With Jesus and Peter And here we see The invitation For Peter to change For him to get it Right?

[36:35] Where he sees The kingdom of God Differently Where it's not One through the sword But is invited Through the shepherd Where it's not forced But it's received Jesus invites Peter To join him In the role of the shepherd Feed my lambs Take care of my sheep Feed my sheep Powerful Powerful Invictations And commands And we As Christians As humans Have this same invitation And as the world Changes around us And we daily step Into the unknown Of what tomorrow Is going to bring And what age Christ is going to bring We're invited To be shepherds Because we're all Leaders in some ways Right?

[37:23] Some by position And some just In who we are And some just Because we're people And we all have Influence and impact On the people around us We're all leaders In some ways And we're all called To be shepherds In this time of crisis Where our values Are revealed My question to you And to me as well Is who are your lambs?

[37:46] Who are your sheep? And this isn't a challenge Where I'm like You're not doing enough This is more of a I want you to just Think about that Who's following you?

[37:56] Who are you tasked With feeding? Who are you tasked With taking care of? And I think That you should pick The smallest number You possibly can Maybe it's your Friend circle Of two or three people Or maybe it's your family Or maybe it's one sibling Or one neighbor Start small I learned a super valuable lesson About leadership That I've implemented For myself In my job And at the camp And it's from a talk That a guy named Marcus Buckingham Gave Where he said Don't have Any more direct reports Than you can meet with Every single week No more direct reports Than you can meet with Every single week And that changed How I did leadership Because it became About deeper And more meaningful Contact With fewer people I cut my direct reports To three And I meet with them Every week It's also made me Look at my Important relationships And narrow it down To people I want to have Regular contact with

[38:58] So instead of trying To be like Oh I need to see This person This person This person You know It's like Every week I'm like No I want to see The same people Regularly And I'm going to Invest in them I want them To invest in me I want to have A deep relationship Because in today's culture We're tempted to go Wider and wider And wider And wider Whether it's Social media Or whatever We're going wider With a bigger audience Or a bigger crowd Or a bigger following Or whatever While we're going Shallower and shallower And shallower And shallower Until we're vapor thin And we don't have Any real relationship At all So my question is How many people Can you honestly Connect with Each week Start there Maybe you don't have To get with them Every week Maybe it's once a month Or whatever But regularly Who do you want to And who can you Honestly Connect with Each week Or very regularly And maybe that's One person And one is good One is great One's very good That's your sheep That's your lamb Maybe you're in a season

[40:00] Where it's just Your family Right That's your sheep Perfect And pray about it Right Who is Christ Guiding you to Those are your lambs Right now Feed them Take care of them In a season That feels so Volatile And unanchored I encourage you To look at the only Thing you have Control over Which is you How are you doing What values have Come up over the Past year What has gone Really well Do more of that Where the cracks Are in the show Pay attention to that Might be time to Learn or adapt Lean into Christ What is his example Revealing to you And because It's not all about you Help your sheep Feed your lambs Feed your sheep I want to close Kind of a prayer Blessing This is from First Peter

[41:00] So this is Peter Writing So Peter's had This crazy life He's been One of Jesus Inner three He was there You know All these things And then he writes Letters To his sheep Who are now Scattered As the first church And he's their shepherd And it's this Beautiful It's just beautiful That whole arc Of Peter's story Is so phenomenal And beautiful Recommend You should read it Maybe one book Every weekend It's up to you But this is from First Peter chapter 2 Verses 9 to 12 He didn't write this To you specifically But I'll read it As if he did But you are A chosen people A royal priesthood A holy nation A people belonging To God That you may declare The praises of him Who called you Out of darkness Into his Wonderful light Once you were Not a people But now you are The people of God Once you had

[42:01] Not received mercy But now you have Received mercy Dear friends I urge you As aliens And strangers In the world To abstain From sinful desires Which war Against your soul Live such good lives Among the pagans That though they Accused you Of doing wrong They may see Your good deeds And glorify God On the day He visits us We don't know What the future brings We don't know How COVID ends We don't know How this crisis ends We don't know What our next crisis is We don't know Whatever current crisis You're actually going Through this personal How it goes But Jesus does And he is With you Now Till the very end Of the age So in that strength I encourage you To go And feed your lambs Take care of your sheep Feed your sheep And most of all Most importantly of all

[43:01] I pray that you go And that you follow him Who is the Christ And Lord of all May the grace And peace Of the living God Be with you Amen Thanks friends Miss y'all