Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Good morning, 945.
[00:00:07] I want to introduce you to our series. We're in a. It was a three week series called Hinge Points. But next week, we decided to add a fourth message to it. So it's now a four week series called Hinge Points. And if you're new, I want to define what a hinge point is. A hinge point is a critical moment of decision, a fork in the road that determines the trajectory of our future. So one of the responsibilities and privileges that we have as pastors and elders is we get to kind of take stock and inventory of the church. We listen and what's going on and what are some of the needs and the challenges in the community. And we want to make sure that we're able to, especially as there's, like, some pretty consistent challenges and needs to open up God's word and speak to those things pretty directly. And so in any church, in any family, there are always so many challenges and things that we have to work through. But we did, in this series, we kind of highlighted a few of these and said, we really want to open up God's word on these subjects, and we want to speak wisdom and life into our church family. And so three huge challenges. Not just three, but there are three very big challenges that have emerged. And so two weeks ago, I preached a sermon called hinge point decisions. The reason we did this is because since COVID the amount of people who have had to make major life altering decisions has been just astronomical. And so one of the things that I know benefit of the doubt is, like, we just want to know what the Lord wants and to do what he wants us to do and go where he wants us to go. And figuring that out can take a bit of work. So we wanted to open up God's word and just say, let's talk about how do we make some of these big life transitions and decisions. And so we did that two weeks ago. Last week, the sermon was called hinge point discussions. So we've seen post Covid as never have more people in and outside of the church had more broken relationships and hurt feelings than we have seen in the post Covid era. In fact, never have I seen, in all my years of pastoral ministry more hard conversations happening from one person to another. And so one of the things we focused on was, how do you receive hard feedback? Because what we've learned in Covid is that how you receive hard feedback really is a hinge point for the relationship, for the person who's talking to you about this. So we have just watched a whole lot of heartache and turmoil, and it is not just in this church. And it's a spirit of defensiveness that is all over our culture. And we kind of want to rise above the spirit of defensiveness, and we want to just be humble and receptive. And so now to this morning's message. I want to teach on hinge point relationships.
[00:02:41] Specifically, I want to address three key relationships, friends, love and romantic relationships, and our relationship with Jesus.
[00:02:51] I went back to some of my earliest teachings on this, and I have been teaching on these subjects for 25 years. Interesting. A quarter of a century, I have been opening up God's word with students, young adults, adults, and trying to help people. See, here's what God's word says on these issues and what I love. In 25 years, God's word has never changed. It always says the same exact thing. His wisdom is eternal. And so it is just my joy to kind of step back and say, we're going to address these relationships from a biblical perspective.
[00:03:21] Never in the history of my time at village church, which has been over 20 years, have I seen more people uprooting their lives and starting over.
[00:03:32] Now, to illustrate this, I want to ask you if you would be so willing to respond to this question with raising your hand. Okay, if it's true, obviously, how many of you have moved on from a church or moved away from your core community in the past four to six years ish and have had to start over? Would you raise your hands?
[00:04:03] Guys?
[00:04:06] So what I want to talk to you about is happening across the board. And every time you start over, there's like this core question that people ask, who are my people?
[00:04:19] Like, I can probably go anywhere as long as I know who my people are. And during, over the course of most people's lives, probably you're going to have a hard reset on who your people are, where you live, who your community is, about two to three times over the course of a lifetime, sometimes more. And so whatever has happened in the last few years where kind of all of our lives are flipped upside down, it won't be, statistically speaking, the last time that happens to you. And so what we wanna do is we wanna make sure that when we are all in this season of, like, starting over, upside down, left is right, we're just trying to figure out, where is the ground? How do we land? I just wanna open up God's word and speak to three of the most important relationships in our life. Now, for each of these hinge point relationships, what we're gonna do is something a little bit different.
[00:05:08] We're gonna call this an inventory sermon, where we're gonna take inventory kind of on our own heart, in our own life. So if you've got a pen and paper or your phone, I really want to ask you to think about your life, your heart, your future, your past, and it's just good to take inventory of where things are at now. One of the things I need to be clear is that the point of this message is not to be exhaustive on any of these subjects. I do not think that is possible in the short period of time that we have. What I want to do is I want to be more provocative. I want to provoke your heart and your mind. I want you to think. I want you to ask yourself hard questions. And really, here's our desire, Jesus. We want to bring you glory. I want to bring you glory and honor in my relationships with my friends and my love life and my relationship with you. And so to that end, we're going to study these, and if you are maybe a little bit older and you think to yourself, I've got my friends. I got my people. Let me just tell you, if you have a younger person in your life, I think the scriptures have so much beautiful wisdom, and I want to arm you with wisdom that you can share with the generations to come. Sound good?
[00:06:17] Yes. All right. Hinge point, relationship number one. My core friendships. So let's take some inventory together. Question number one. Have I chosen my friends carefully?
[00:06:32] Proverbs 1226.
[00:06:35] The righteous choose their friends. What's the word?
[00:06:39] Carefully. But the way of the wicked leads them astray. Now, here's a thought for you. You don't get to choose your family, do you? But you do get to choose your friends. And anytime we take inventory, one of the things that I have a high value of is just being honest. Let's just take a look at it. Let's just be honest about what's going on. Who are the people around me? What's going on? But the second value I have for this is we have to take full personal responsibility for whatever the status is around our life. And so I am fully responsible for the core friendships in my life.
[00:07:16] I made these decisions, and I am fully responsible for the decisions I've made.
[00:07:24] And I also have the freedom to make adjustments and shifts if I need to.
[00:07:30] And so I am fully responsible. But what I want to be is I want to be righteous and wise with how I choose my friends. Now, this goes sort of quick, so if you're taking notes. Keep it up or keep up with me. Question number two. Are the majority of my core friendships pointing me to Jesus? I want to introduce you to, I think, one of the most important friendship rules. It goes like this. It's called the 80 20 rule. 80% of my core relationships should explicitly be pointing me to Jesus, and I must be stronger than the pole of the 20% or create gentle distance until I am. Now, can you create gentle or distance by being a jerk? You can. I'm not advocating that, by the way, and so I'm advocating for you to be loving and kind in the way you do this, but if you yourself do not have the inner strength to not be pulled away from people who might not love Jesus a whole lot, then you gotta figure out how to be gentle in this process. Why is this so important?
[00:08:29] Because your friendships are the steering wheel of your life. They're the rudder of your boat. Like, I can tell you what your future is gonna be by just looking at the people who you are spending time with, who these 80% are. Proverbs 1320.
[00:08:41] Whoever walks with the wise, I love this. What do they become?
[00:08:45] Wise and the companion of fools. What happens to them? They suffer harm. And so here's the deal. Your future, whether or not wisdom is set for you or harm is set for you, is actually pretty contingent on the people that you surround yourself with here and now.
[00:09:04] Here's inventory. Question number three. On friendships, can I go to spiritual war with my core friendships? Now, if you're here, we have people who are not christians all the time at church, and this might not, like, be your highest priority, but for believers, here's what I know. I know that we live in a spiritual war, and there are so many forces that want to pull me and you away from Jesus. And so when I'm looking at my 80%, here's kind of my question.
[00:09:30] Can I go to spiritual war with them? Proverbs 20 717.
[00:09:33] Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another. Now, what is the most dominant case in the ancient near east where somebody is going to be sharpening iron? What's the reason? The reason is going to be to go to battle.
[00:09:46] And so this idea is that there's going to be men and women around you in your life. There's going to be friends, these core friends. And what I need to know is that we are going to sharpen each other so that we are ready for the spiritual battle that is going to face us in this life. I have personally. I'll share mine, you might have your own list. I have some pretty specific questions that I have. If someone is going to be kind of a core friend in my life, and here they are. Number one, are they on a positive spiritual trajectory?
[00:10:17] I want to be clear with this. I don't need my friends to be perfect. I don't need them to be in a good season right now, because I can tell you that I have, like, if you look at the trajectory of my life, there are seasons that are low. There are seasons that are high. There are seasons of struggle, there are seasons of triumph. Right? But I want to know, like, am I kind of up and to the right as a general trajectory spiritually? That's going to be really important for me.
[00:10:41] Number two, can we say hard things to each other?
[00:10:47] Can I say hard things to you? Can you. Will you say hard things to. To me? Proverbs 27. Six faithful are the wounds of a friend.
[00:11:02] And so what I want to know in these core relationships is, will you tell me the truth? And can I tell you the truth? That's a requirement for me. And number three, is our friendship natural and easy? Have you had those friends? You're just like, man. This is labor and work. I think there's something about core friendships that there should be something easier about it. And don't get me wrong, all friendships are hard at times. It's like marriage. But there should be this sense when you're finding your 80%, like, is there a general ease to this, or is it constantly 24/7 labor and work? So what I want to do with you is I want to share with you a rubric that I've used for over two decades now. I have found it very helpful for students. And then as I became a senior pastor years ago, I found out, you know what? Adults are just big kids. They're just a little bit harder of heart. And so here we go. I want to share with you kind of a rubric that has been really helpful. Four kinds of friends. Number one is you have your work, school friends. Life has brought you together. You enjoy each other. That's great. Maybe sometimes you go to work parties or hang out on the weekends, but by and large, you're together a lot. So you're going to make the most of this. You might laugh together, eat together at meals, but really, if you put them in a bucket, you're like, it's good. They're great. It's school or work friends.
[00:12:13] Number two are what we call social friends. And, like, we hang out, we're around each other, like each other, enjoy each other, stuff like that. Probably not in my 80%, but, yeah, just enjoy being around you. And we have a lot of social friends. That's good. You can't be everybody's best friend, right? There's a lot of people you're just kind of in orbit with, and you enjoy each other.
[00:12:33] Number three is what I call core friends. And this is what we've been teaching on. These are the friends that, in the current season, we are going to figure out how to do life together. These are the people that we're going to cry with, we are going to rejoice with. These are the people we're going to call when things are hard. These are the people where, like, it's a Friday night, and I'm like, this is my instinct is to be like, hey, what's up? Can we get together and hang out? Right? These are the people that we can tell truth to, and this is really, really special. And what you're going to find is in most seasons of life, your core friends can shift, and that is normal, and that is fine. But there is a fourth category of friendship. It's called soul friends.
[00:13:11] And I need you to hear me when I say this, because it usually takes a while, like years or decades, to figure out if somebody is a soul friend.
[00:13:20] But you will be lucky to have two, three, or four soul friends over the course of an entire life. That is how rare, special, and beautiful soul friends are.
[00:13:37] Proverbs 1824. If you haven't noticed, this is largely based in proverbs. A man of too many friends comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
[00:13:50] There's something about soul friends. Even when you kind of move away, you just kind of keep in contact. And it's like, even when you try to get away, like life, you're magnetically connected to them. It's like I've tried to get stuck together, you know what I mean? And years and decades will go by, and this is where, like, these kind of friendships are going to be. There's going to be tension and stuff like that, but that's like a soul friendship. And they're really beautiful, and they're really special, and they're really unique. And if you want a really beautiful example of this in the scriptures, go to the story and study the story of King David and Jonathan and the nature of their friendship, where their hearts were knit together. And it's a beautiful story. That's another sermon series for another day. But if you want to go deeper on soul friends. That's a really, really great group of friends. Set of friends to study.
[00:14:38] All right, hinge point. Relationship number two.
[00:14:40] By romantic relationships. Guys, I'm going to be really invasive, so prepare yourself.
[00:14:46] This is not about marriage. Okay? That's a different set of messages. Also, this is primarily about those who are not married. Now, I want to share with you a demographic data point about village church. I think it's going to surprise you.
[00:15:02] More than half a village church is single.
[00:15:06] Just let that sink for a minute. Some of you are like, what? I don't know why people do this. They're like, when they count how many people are in a church, they don't count kids. I'm like, they matter, right? And so when you start thinking about the couple hundred kids in fourth grade and under that attend village church, let alone the fifth and 6th graders, 7th and 8th graders, high school students, young adults, and then singles, it is a massive group of people at village church. And we want every single person to do is to know what is God's will in my heart for this season of life? So here's the first inventory question.
[00:15:42] Am I really counting the cost of being romantically involved with this person? So yesterday I was having lunch with some friends, and one of them shared this quote with me, and I. I just thought it was so apropos. Choose your life's mate carefully. From this one decision will come 90% of all your happiness or misery. H. Jackson Brown, Junior and one of the things I was processing when I was preparing for the sermon is like, when I think about my wife, or when my wife has to think about me.
[00:16:17] Let's say we get to live to be 110, because technology, bionic stuff, it's going to be great.
[00:16:23] Every single day we have the ability to create misery or blessing for one another.
[00:16:29] Every single day. We have the opportunity to tear each other down or to build each other up.
[00:16:36] Every day, 365 days a year, year after year, decade after decade, over and over and over and over again. And the amount of people who are like, I mean, but it feels good. Now, guys, when you were seven, a lot of things felt good, but they weren't actually the right thing for you every day for the rest of your life. Amen.
[00:16:55] Examples are going through your mind.
[00:16:58] And so we have to kind of pull back from this and be like, all right, listen, is this really the right thing? Am I counting the cost? Now, the book of proverbs does speak very bluntly to the subject, so let me prep you with a little bit of insight on the book of proverbs. Much of the Book of Proverbs is a father talking to his son, trying to give the sons wisdom about what life is like and how to live. Okay, now I'm going to read you a bunch of proverbs from fathers to sons, and I want you to just remember this. The same wisdom from fathers to sons also applies to daughters as well. Okay, so this cuts in every direction, but the context of proverbs is fathers to sons. And what I want to do is I want to start off with the negative warnings from fathers to sons in the book of Proverbs about the person they're going to marry. You guys ready? Buckle up, ladies. Proverbs 1913. A wife's quarreling is a continual drip of rain.
[00:17:52] Proverbs 21 nine and 25 four. This comes up twice, so it's doubly important. And so it comes up identically in those two sections. It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.
[00:18:09] Proverbs 20 119. It is better to live in a desert than with a quarrelsome and fretful woman. By the way, does this apply to men as well? Yes.
[00:18:19] You guys are awesome.
[00:18:23] Proverbs twelve four. She who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones.
[00:18:29] Proverbs 20 715 and 16. A continual dripping on a rainy day in a quarrelsome life are alike. To restrain her is to restrain the wind or to grasp oil in one's right hand. If she is quarrelsome, fretful, and shameful. Now. If he is quarrelsome, fretful, and shameful. Now, do you guys think marriage is going to make it better? Nope, it doesn't. Now, on the positive side, there are a whole bunch of proverbs where these men are looking at their sons and saying, can I just encourage you and give you a vision of what to look for? Proverbs twelve four. An excellent wife is the crown of her husband. Proverbs 1822. He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. Proverbs 31 ten to twelve. This is my favorite. An excellent wife who can find she is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not harm all the days of her life. The wisdom of God and men and women from generations and millennia past would look at all people who are single and plead with you. Choose wisely. Inventory question number 02:00 a.m. i. Seeing this relationship clearly or am I chemically disoriented?
[00:19:58] Did you know?
[00:20:00] Desire, love, infatuation, even obsession. They are all chemicals called hormones.
[00:20:06] I'll share with you a few things about these chemicals. Number one, chemicals create our perception of reality for us. So two books that have changed my life, not by a christian author, but as a dad, a husband, a father, raising two daughters and a son.
[00:20:25] I mean, every relationship I have in my life as a dude just living in the world with human beings, these two books have changed my life, written by the same author. One is called the female brain. The other is called the male brain. And what they do is they look at the female brain in that book, in the male brain, the other book. And they look at the biological development of the brain from conception all the way to death. And they also look at how hormones impact the brain, its development and life from conception all the way to death. Fascinating. My empathy for teenage girls is through the roof. My empathy for every demographic is just through the roof. But I'm raising two teenage girls. My empathy for young boys under the age of twelve just through the roof. Reading these books helping me understand how hormones in their bodies are actually creating reality or perceptions of reality for them. And I want to read you a couple quotes from this book from the female brain. And by the way, she says the same thing in the male brain. So I'm not picking on you, ladies. It's just this is the most direct. The female brain is so deeply affected by hormones that their influence can be said to create a woman's reality.
[00:21:31] She says this also during times about romantic relationships, during times of physical separation, when touching and caressing is impossible. A deep longing, almost a hunger for the beloved can set in. We are used to thinking of this longing as only psychological, but it's actually physical. The brain is virtually in a drug withdrawal state.
[00:21:53] Number two, chemicals aren't always honest about reality, are they, guys?
[00:21:59] Anxiety and depression are chemical realities. But are they telling you the truth the majority of the time? No, they're not. And I have really good and hard news for you. Feelings are liars. Often feelings are chemicals. And they're not always aligned with reality and truth.
[00:22:21] And so we have to sometimes step back and say, how do I ground myself in something bigger, better, and more real than what I'm feeling in this moment? But number three, chemicals, they bond us to the wrong person when we do things backwards, but also to the right person when we do things God's way.
[00:22:43] What I love is that God has built and designed us so that when we disobeyed his word. Biologically, hormonally, chemically, judgment is built into our system.
[00:22:55] But we also, when we obey God's word, biologically, hormonally, chemically, blessing is actually built into our system.
[00:23:03] Let me illustrate with the subject of sexual immorality.
[00:23:06] So when we are with somebody, sexually intense hormones are released into our body, creating a sense of reality. And so here's just a top five list of the hormones that are released. Dopamine gives you feeling of pleasure, excitement, motivation. Serotonin.
[00:23:22] As that increases, contributes to the feeling of happiness and relaxation. Endorphins leads to a sense of well being and euphoria. Testosterone increases sexual desire. The more you do that, then the more you get. And it's a cycle. And then there's oxytocin. If you have not done a deep dive into oxytocin, called the love hormone, I think it is one of the most fascinating and helpful biological subjects to study. What it does is it promotes bonding, trust, the feeling of connection, enhanced emotional closeness, attachment. I mean, literally, when a mother gives birth to a baby, oxytocin floods through her body, connects her to this baby, when the baby is laid on her chest, when it breastfeeds, oxytocin, creating this unbelievable, biological, lifelong connection to this child. And the same thing happens in sexual activity. And so you can feel connected and attached and obsessed with somebody, but it actually might be terrible for you. Said every drug addict.
[00:24:22] And these chemicals, they're wonderful, awesome gifts when we use them in God's way, according to his word, and they can come back to bite us in the rear as we follow the feelings when we do things out of God's way, and then we experience God's judgment. Now, I want to open up a very serious text of scripture with you guys. If you have your bibles, open up to one. Thessalonians, chapter four. We're gonna start in verse three. This text is not written to singles, but I'll tell you, if you are single in this room, it is one of the most poignant, serious, powerful texts in scripture on this issue. One, thessalonians, chapter four, verse three. He starts off and says, this is the will of God. Your sanctification or your holiness or your christlikeness, because when we do this, all the chemicals work, and we're supposed to be blessed. But verse three tells us statistically what has been the greatest threat of personal holiness for men and women for millennia.
[00:25:24] It says that you abstain from sexual immorality, and this is sexual activity outside of marriage. And for the Christian, this is off limits. Stop negotiating with God and his word. You already know this is not what God has for you. Not because it's bad, but because it is so good and so powerful, because it is actually designed to hormonally, chemically bond you to another person for life. And so we live in this culture where we just bond in these intense ways and then break the bonds. And then bond. And then break the bond. And we're told this is normal. It's actually excruciating. And it is not the way God designed to our bodies, souls, and minds to work. But verse four goes on to explain that each one of you know how to control his own body and holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust, like the Gentiles, who don't know God. And the passion of lust is they just do whatever they want and whatever they feel. I love this definition of self control. To be self controlled is to rise above your feelings and chemicals and to choose to live in God's reality.
[00:26:25] To be self controlled is to say all the things I'm feeling. I'm not going to do those things. I'm actually going to go to God's word, and I'm going to choose to overcome the chemicals and say, God, the chemicals lie. Your word is eternal and true.
[00:26:40] The world has its own way, its own wisdom. Do what you feel you are. Your desires, satisfy your cravings. It's no big deal if no one's hurt. Live together, sleep together, get married if you feel like it. You already know this if you've been following Jesus for a little while, that is not God's wisdom.
[00:26:56] What you notice in verse six, how God describes sexuality outside of the bounds of marriage. It says that no one transgress or wrong his brother in this manner. To transgress means to sin against another person egregiously.
[00:27:15] And so for us, culture says no big deal, but God's word says it actually kind of is a big deal because I didn't make you for lust and for the passions that the gentiles are doing it.
[00:27:27] Verse six then goes on to tell you what God will do in response to those, especially believers, who ignore his teaching and do whatever they feel and whatever they want.
[00:27:38] It says this, because the Lord is an avenger. He's not a superhero. He's better.
[00:27:45] This is a powerful word, y'all. The Lord is an avenger in all these things. As we told you beforehand, and we solemnly warned you, when you live contrary to God's word and God's wisdom. The first line of vengeance is how you have been built. Your hormones and chemicals begin to work against you. But the first line of blessing is obedience. When we follow God's word, our chemicals and hormones begin to work when it comes to love and romantic relationships in a much, much better way. Can I just, like, very quickly give you some wisdom and then we'll move out of this last relationship?
[00:28:24] Wisdom on love. Number one, five things marriage amplifies ten. X what already exists.
[00:28:31] So if there is constant bickering while you're dating, marriage doesn't make it better. It just makes it worse. If there is any kind of neglect or maybe even abuse. Guys, is marriage going to make that better? Nope, it's going to make it worse. If you're constantly annoyed with them while you're dating. What do you think is going to happen when you're married and you have to wake up next to them? It's going to get worse. If they are disrespectful to your family or your friends, marriage doesn't make it better. Marriage makes it worse. If they are mean to animals and kids, guess what? They're not all of a sudden going to get better because you marry them. If they say they don't want kids or a family, marriage isn't going to make them all of a sudden want kids or a family. If they don't love Jesus. Now, marriage isn't gonna make them love Jesus. And if there is sexual immorality while you are dating, I want you to hear me. Marriage doesn't stop it. Sexual immorality is never content with what it has. And so if you think a relationship with your spouse is gonna stop that it is insatiable, it will use that, and then it will continue to grow. If you think that these things are gonna make the marriage, gonna make these things better, you are not hearing God's word or the wisdom of generations before you.
[00:29:34] Two obsessively invite God's wisdom into your life and choose to live by it. Three, do not date non christians. Again, you know this. Stop negotiating with God on this matter.
[00:29:47] Number four, do not date out of desperation. Desperate people, we say this all the time. They do dumb things. And people who are desperate to feel loved do some of the dumbest things, and many of us have been there.
[00:30:00] Number five, hide nothing when you're dating. When you live in the light, you live in freedom. Ugly things grow in the dark. And so we have relationships where we are honest and open about what's going on with people in our life.
[00:30:14] I have 18 sermons, but I condense that to a short period of time. Number three, hinge point relationship with Jesus.
[00:30:23] Inventory question, have I personally trusted in Jesus?
[00:30:29] Romans ten nine says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised it from the dead, you will be saved.
[00:30:40] To be saved, every person can't just have head belief. Even the devil has that. But there has to be heart belief to be truly, actually saved. Every person can't just be, oh, I'm sorry, in my heart, but you actually have to go to God and say, I am sorry, I have sinned. And to truly be saved, you have to believe that Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the dead for your sins. In your place.
[00:31:04] I want to share with you six questions that you have to get right, and you can answer these after I ask them. Be careful on the last one, though, because I don't want to trick you. Does going to church get you saved? Village church? No. Does going to a christian school get you saved? No. Does having christian parents get you saved? No. Does taking communion get you saved? No. Does being good or better than others get you saved? No. Does personally trusting in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins get you saved? And the answer is yes.
[00:31:34] Inventory question number two. What specifically and exactly prevents me from trusting in Jesus? I give you three options. For some, it's, I just simply don't believe.
[00:31:47] You can't make yourself believe something you don't believe. And I have a sincere question for you. If I could prove to you that Jesus was truly God, died on the cross and was raised from the dead, would you believe? There are some people, and they say, absolutely not, but there are some people that are like, yes, if you could prove to me that Jesus is God, he died on the cross, was raised from the dead, I would believe. And I want to give you a simple challenge. For the next 30 days, wake up and pray this prayer, and go to bed and pray this prayer.
[00:32:14] If you were real Jesus, would you reveal yourself to me? And I will trust in you.
[00:32:20] If you are real, reveal yourself to me, and I will trust in you.
[00:32:27] What specifically and exactly prevents me from trusting in Jesus today? Number two, some people would say, I think I believe, but I need some questions answered.
[00:32:37] Go get them answered. We would love to help you. And then for some people, they would say, I believe, but I'm not interested in giving my life to Jesus.
[00:32:46] There are people who actually believe that Jesus is God, died for the sins, was raised from the dead, and they're like, nope, not doing it. I'm doing my thing. I'm living my way. And all I could do is just pray that God intervenes in your life. My warning is, if you're there, God has a habit of bringing people to their lowest place so that they would then call on him. I think that is an unnecessary future for you to have. Trusting in Jesus is absolutely worth it to close. I have one simple. So what? Whether it's about your friendships, whether it's about your love life or your relationship with Jesus, take one next step.
[00:33:23] What is the Lord asking you right now to do in your life? Take it. I could give you a thousand options. I have a hunch you absolutely already know what it is. Be bold and be courageous, Christians.
[00:33:39] Our God loves you, is with you, wants to support you, and help you to become more like Jesus. And so whatever that next step is, let's just resolve in our hearts. We will follow you and do that next thing so that we can become more like Jesus. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, we are so thankful for your word. I mean, the book of proverbs itself is just amazing. It speaks to almost every issue of life with such directness and bluntness and wisdom. And so, God, I pray that we, as a church, we would be people who love wisdom. And we don't just love having wisdom in our head, but we want to live wisely.
[00:34:19] God, I pray for those in the room who maybe they're like, I just don't know what to do with Jesus. God, I pray, if you're real, would you, with such overwhelming clarity, make yourself known to them? And, God, as we all step back, we just thank you for the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is our joy to celebrate communion and what you have done for us. We love you. We pray all of this in Jesus name. Amen.
