Amen. We take a second and pray together right now. God, thank you. That, that you are always doing a new thing. Thank you God, that you know our past. You know what we're facing this moment. You know our future. And God, you are moving. You are calling us forward. You say, forget the former things, don't dwell on the past. You're doing a new thing. And God, I pray that we would see it and experience it today in this time together. It's in your name that we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, uh, great to see you all crossing. So good. My name is Jart. Uh, I've been able yep, for these seven people. I am so glad. Nope, nope. It's too late now. Nope. Now it feels weird. I am, uh, so honored to be back here. Oh, thank you so much to be back with you. Uh, this is, as Diego said, my 16th time in a row this summer preaching. That's wild. I feel like, I feel like we should do like an ERAS tour or something. I mean, this is like, this is a lot. And uh, it really is. I say this every single time I'm here, but I, I really can't say it enough. This staff, this church have become friends to me and partners in, in ministry to my wife Jean and I, and there, there's not a, a month or two that goes by that someone doesn't come to our church from here, from the crossing and say, Hey, look, you know, we're in Chicago for the weekend to see the cards get beat. And we just wanted to, I'm just re I'm, that's what they said. I'm just telling you what, that's not me, that's them that said that. But we'll be, we'll see people from your church and there's people who are part of our church that were a part of this church and people from your church that are part of, it's just a beautiful relationship. And I, we don't have that with any other church. And so I am so grateful for Pastor Greg for this entire team. What an honor it is for me to be with you. And thank you again for, for having me back. I got one thing I want to share with you today. I'm gonna say it like 20 different times, but it's basically the same thing that I hope, I hope, I hope you would open your heart to receive, to hear from God. You know, the, a couple weeks ago I was, uh, cleaning out my closet. I was doing some spring cleaning, a little late obviously, but I wanted to clean some stuff out, things that, you know, I don't really wear anymore. Things I could donate and give away. And so I'm cleaning out my closet and coming across old things like, oh, I remember this outfit. I used to look good in that. And like, I was just going through, putting stuff away. And then I came across some things that, that I'm like, why are these in my closet and why are these in my life? And one of those things that I do not know how it got into my life, where it came from or when is in my closet for some reason, there is a pack of new kids on the block trading cards. Now listen, some of you are old enough to know who knew kids on the block. There're a band from the 19 hundreds and they were, uh, it's technically true. Uh, l look, uh, new kids on the block had to crawl so that one direction could run. I mean, that's basically, that's who they are. I don't know, I don't know how these trading cards came into my life, but I do know this. There have been multiple times that I have moved over the years, and for some reason, every time I've brought these cards along with me, something in me said, you're gonna need these one day. And so I've kept them, I don't know how many, I don't know how many years. And I, I don't know about you, but you probably have some things in your life that you have kept around or you keep doing that maybe you don't even know why there are things from your past or maybe your childhood that you're still so into. Maybe it's a sport that you love to play in high school. And now everyone's like, please stop playing that. It's not gonna be good. It's not gonna end well. Like, you know, we have things that we still try and, and, and hold onto and look like for some people. Um, we're into comic books. Like some people, maybe you're into comic books as a kid. Uh, there are lots and lots and lots of people who are into comic books as adults, and I'm not here to judge, but a lot of them get together and dress up as those comic characters and show up at conventions. And I'm sorry, I don't need to see my accountant dressed as Aquaman. I don't need to see. 'cause now I can't unsee that image. I can't not see that image anymore. And so these are a lot of people who are going back to somebody from their childhood. And I'm not here to judge. I've been to one of those cons before, but they're still, they're holding on to a thing from the past. They're unwilling to let it go. A couple years ago when we were on vacation, my son and I were flipping through the TV and we came across something, I'm not sure if you're even aware exists, but there is right now an adult tag league and there is Tag Champ. Yeah, tag the game that you played as a kid. There is lit, it's televised where adults run around chasing each other, trying to tag each other. And the crazy thing is, is whoever wins the championship wins $50,000, which is crazy. That's not even enough to cover the ACL surgery. But the point is, they're still playing tag all these years later and getting paid for it, which is incredible to me. Uh, maybe for you, you had Legos growing up. Anyone here have Legos growing up? I love Legos. Maybe you still have Legos. Our son is a big Lego kid. Well, there are a lot of adults who just cannot let go. And in fact, there are whole communities of adult Lego builders. In fact, it has become such a thing for adults that Lego has tracked this. And they now have found that just under 20% of their annual sales internationally are to adults, not to children. Because, you know, people just can't let go. Like, oh, I love this as a kid. I don't wanna let go of this. I'm gonna keep doing it as an adult. Take the music that you listen to, please explain to me why it is that I continue to listen to the same exact music that I listened to when I was this guy when I was in college, still listening to the same songs. He was, whatever was on my tape player back then. I'm still listening to today. If it was nineties or early two thousands, hip hop. That's what I'm listening to. And I'm not saying that there's not other music, but until you make better music than that, I'm gonna keep listening to nineties and two thousands hip hop. I'm just saying, I'm sure some other stuff exists, but I got that playlist on repeat for me. Same stuff I was listening to many, many, many years ago in college. Why is it we have these things in our life that we, we hold onto, we can't seem to let go of. Whether, whether it's a fashion trend that you can't seem to let go of, whether it's your adult dodgeball league that you're a part of, whatever it is, we all kind of have these things that, that we hold onto that we can't let go of. And what I just wanna explore just for the next couple minutes together that, that we have is what if that thing that you're still holding onto, that thing you're holding onto is actually the thing that's holding you back? What if that thing that you're still holding onto from your past, from a maybe when you were growing up from many years ago, from a former relationship, whatever it is, that thing that you're holding onto, what if that's actually the thing that's holding you back from experiencing all that God has for you? In fact, I I want to specifically frame this around the idea of a relationship with God. What it means to be in a relationship with God. I don't think you would be here today and all of the locations if, if you didn't want at some level a relationship with God. But what if there are things in your life that you were still holding onto from your past that are actually holding you back from experiencing all that God has for you in a relationship with him, still holding onto things that require faith, but you'd rather just go with what's familiar, what you've always done the way you've always done it. Maybe it's, uh, habits, patterns in your life that you're just unwilling to let go of. Could be an addiction, could be anger. It, it, it could be sort of how like your self-control. It could be anything from your past that you are still holding onto that is actually holding you back from moving forward into the life that Jesus has for you. And, and what if the reason that, that you maybe have felt stuck before? For those of you who'd call yourselves Christians, if you've ever felt stuck or felt like you were in a rut or felt like you weren't growing, what if that had less to do with God and had a whole lot more to do with the things that you are still holding onto from your past? And what would it look like for you this weekend to actually finally, truly let go of those things, to lay them down so that you can take a hold of the life that Jesus has for you. And, and if you are someone like me who's still trying to hold onto some things from my life outside of Jesus, I'm still trying to hold on. You are not alone. I guarantee you every person at every location is doing that at some level in their life. And there are multiple stories in the Bible about people who are invited into new life and still wanted to go back to their old life. And we're gonna look at one of those today, someone who literally came face to face with Jesus and had an invitation into true life, into real life with him and decided to go another way. So what I want you to do is I want you to grab a Bible and open up to Mark chapter 10. So at all locations, if you brought a Bible with you, mark chapter 10, um, make sure we mark them down for extra credit for bringing their Bibles to church this weekend. We're gonna put it up on the screen in a minute. So you're gonna have an opportunity to join us by reading up there. But we're gonna go to Mark chapter 10. We're gonna look at someone who had this moment with Jesus specifically. Now at this point in Mark chapter 10, Jesus is well into his ministry, years. He's teaching, he's healing, performing miracles, and there's a big crowd. There's often everywhere he goes, there's a crowd that comes to follow him. And yet, in the midst of all of this crowd, there are many, uh, times that we see Jesus having very personal, intimate conversations with people in the midst of that. And this is one of those occasions where there's a whole lot else going on around. But Jesus has this, this one powerful, important personal conversation with someone in Mark 10. We're gonna start down at verse 17. And I should let you know that there are gonna be a couple times where I stop and I would expect you to shout out. I'm gonna ask you to shout out the next word in the verse. So again, the answers are on the board. You cannot fail this test. But, uh, I would ask you to do that at every location. And if you're listening to the podcast in the future at some point, and you're in the Starbucks, I expect you to shout out the word at your table right now. So here we go. Mark 10 17 says this, as Jesus started on his way, a man, what a man ran up to him and what and fell, fell on his knees before him. Good teacher, he asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life? I want you to pay attention to the energy with which he enters the story. He runs in. You can see it right? Falls at Jesus' feet. Tell me, tell me, what do I have to do to get what you've got? Tell me, what is it Now, we don't know this person's name. We don't know their name. All that we've known for the last 2000 years or so is that the Bible will often refer to this person as the rich young ruler. Maybe you've heard the story of the rich young ruler. Imagine that you don't even get your name in the Bible. You get in there, but you don't get your name. You just get three words to describe you throughout all time in history. What would they use to describe you if they had to describe you? You know, like for me, it'd be like in intelligent middle-aged guy or something. Or like, or like handsome, intelligent, middle, like handsome, hilarious, intelligent middle-aged guy with some hair. Like I don't like, I don't know. That's what I think they would say. But the point is, all we know about this person is he's a rich young ruler. What does that mean? That he has wealth, he has influence, he has power at a very young age, probably zero body fat. It's not in the text. But let's just assume that that's true. He has it all. I want you to think of someone in your mind who has it all. That's him. And he runs and falls on his knees, makes a scene. Jesus, what do I have to do to get what you've got? Jesus goes on to verse 18. Why do you call me good? Jesus answered. You know, no one's good except God alone. And then Jesus says, no, look, I bet you know the commandments right? You shall not murder. You shall not kill an adultery, you shall not steal. And Jesus goes on and kinda hits the greatest hits of the 10 Commandments and kind of walks through them all knowing most likely that this guy knew exactly what Jesus was talking about. And I I I, I can appreciate Jesus going through and just kind of hitting all the highlights of the 10 Commandments. And, and this guy goes, well, if that's it, Jesus, then I've done that. All of these I've kept since I was a a child. I, if that's what it means to get this life you have, I think I'm good. Like I think I've done it all. He had as much as best we can assume done it all right. But there's still something that felt wrong within him. And I can completely relate to that. That's, that's my story. Just by a quick show of hands at here in every one of our locations, um, raise your hand if you grew up going to church at some level, you grew up gonna church. We're not gonna talk about the, the gap in the middle, just okay, great. Going to church, great. I grew up going to church. Uh, and, and, and for me it was a big part of my identity. And I just like this rich young ruler. I tried to play by all the rules. I didn't smoke, I didn't drink, I didn't cuss, I didn't chew and I didn't hang out with the kids who do do. I went to church twice a week. I even volunteered get this. I want you just to understand my credentials here. In the eighth grade. In the eighth grade, at one moment in time, I was in our youth choir at the church, the hand bell choir at the church because apparently that was the thing in the eighties. And I ran the puppet ministry at my church. I know what you're thinking. This guy's a real triple threat. You must have been fighting off the ladies at youth group. Yeah, I did. All right. I did all right. I did all right. I did all right. So I was playing by all the rules, trying to do everything right, but it's still like this person in the story, this rich young rule. It didn't feel right to me though. Something felt off, somebody felt wrong. It wasn't, it didn't feel like life. And that's what this person is facing when he comes and falls on his knees before Jesus done it. All right? But something was wrong. And I love what happens in this next verse, verse 21. I just want you to look at this. Jesus has this moment with him. It says this. Jesus looked at him. And what does it say? Jesus looked at him and love at him. That's sweet. He looks at him. Does he look at him and judge him like, oh, you didn't do it right enough. Does he look at him and reject him like, well, you, you clearly missed something 'cause you don't have what I got. No, he looks at him and he loves him not in light of all of this man's credentials, probably in spite of them. He just looks at him and he loves him the same way he looks at you and he loves you. He looks at you and he loves you. He looks at you and he loves you because that's who Jesus is. That's what Jesus does. He sees you, all of you. And he does not reject you. And you may have a thousand reasons why he should, but Jesus still looks at you and loves you just like he did with this person. In this story, Jesus looks at him and loves him. And he goes on to say this in the rest of the verse. Jesus says, okay, here's the thing. You, yep, you missed one thing. One thing you still lack. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to go and sell everything you have and give it to the poor because that's how you get treasure in heaven. Then after you sold everything you have and given it to the poor, then come follow me. Now, just a little disclaimer here. Uh, this is not prescriptive for every person who wants to be a Christian. If someone told you when you wanted to be a Christian, that you had to sell them all of your stuff, that's probably not Christianity, most likely a cult. And so you, you don't have this is, this is what Jesus is going after here is not this person's wealth. He's going after his willingness. He's going after his heart. He looks at him and he loves him. And he says, okay, I wanna see, I wanna see if you're really willing to let go of that old life, are you really willing to let it go or are you gonna continue to hold onto it and let it hold you back from what I have for you? And I want you to look at how this interaction ends in verse 22. It says this at this, when Jesus gave him that challenge, that invitation at this, the man's face fell and he went away. What? He went away sad. He went away sad. 'cause he had great wealth and he wasn't willing to let it go. Like compare and contrast the entrance to the exit running in falls to Jesus's feet. Jesus, whatever it is that you've got, I want it. Jesus says, great, here's what we're gonna do. You're gonna sell all your stuff, give it to the poor, then you can come follow me. And he's like, ah, not that though. I don't know if I want it that bad. I don't know if that's really what I want to do. And he walks away from being face to face with Jesus. Can you imagine being face to face with Jesus and knowing and seeing and experiencing that love that Jesus had for him? And yet still he walked away sad because he had great wealth and he was unwilling to let it go. And I, I can see myself in this story, maybe you can already too, you know, like him. I, I like to come to God and I like to say, God, I like I I want, I want your blessings in my life. God. Like I want, I want your peace in my life. I want your protection over my family. God. I want the freedom that you promised me. God. I want the, I want the forgiveness that I need in this moment. I can come and fall at my knees and ask God for everything. But when God asks something of me, I don't know about that. You want me, you want me to what? You want me to, to give that up? Uh, I don't know that addiction that I've been holding on to. I mean, it's been with me for a long time. You really want me to give up that relationship, that really unhealthy relationship that everyone else in my life knows is unhealthy except me. Really? You want me to give that up? You want me to give up my anger? You want me to trust you with all of my finances? You certainly not all of my finances. And so many times we walk away sad, missing out on the fullness of what it means to have relationship with Jesus. 'cause we are unwilling to let go of those things. And I think this is sort of the great tension of our faith. I think this is why sometimes we feel stuck. We feel pulled between two different lives. And, and if you want to have a growing faith, a faith that's alive, a faith that is full, just as Jesus promised at some point, you're going to have to let go of those things so that you can take a hold of all that Jesus has for you. You cannot live in this spiritual tug of war. That's no life. Let, let me show you what I mean. I'm gonna ask some folks to come up right now. Uh, Diego, David, Anthony, and Chloe I think are coming, I think. Yes. Oh, Chloe. Haha. Chloe, you're lucky. Alright, so let's welcome these human props up. They're gonna come up here and be pros. Oh man. Oh boy, oh boy. Alright. Um, this is fun for Diego. This is a big weekend for you. 'cause you get to play Jesus in this next illustration. So don't let it go to your head. Uh, you can come right over here if you would Diego, and Diego's gonna represent Jesus. And these people, these folks are gonna represent things from my old life that I'm unwilling to let go of. And so the invitation is to you, it's to every single one of us to have new life with Jesus. Jesus says, take a hold of this life. But lots of times the things we're still holding onto can be like big broad stroke things. Like maybe there is an addiction in your life and you're like, I've tried letting this thing go. I just cannot do it. And yet you feel close. You come here on a Sunday and you feel so close to Jesus, but then like you go back to your life and now you feel pulled back into this addiction and you've just found yourself going back and forth between the two because ultimately you're unwilling to truly finally fully let it go. Maybe for you, it's like I said a moment ago, it's your finances, right? Maybe it's not as something as big and obvious as an addiction, but maybe it's like, oh God, yeah. I mean, I'll, I'll, I'll give here and there, but like, I don't know if I want to give you all of it. I don't know if I want to trust you with it all. And yet you see how God provides for you. You experience his goodness, his favor in your life, and then you're like, yeah, but I got college to pay for for these kids. And so I'm not sure I can really give that up. And so you find yourself with your finances being pulled back and forth between these two lives, your old life and the new life that Jesus promises you. Uh, another one maybe for you is, is something from your past. Now please get this distinction that's already been forgiven, but you keep paying a tax on and you keep going back and, and defining yourself and seeing yourself as that person you were, as that thing you did. And you cannot believe that Jesus would invite you into full relationship with him. You cannot believe that he would actually look at you and love you. You feel like you have to earn it back from him. And you are stuck holding onto a moment, a season from your past that has already been forgiven by Jesus. I don't know what it is that you're holding onto, but I wonder, I wonder what it would look like for you to actually finally fully let that go. You, you, you, you have to leave. Listen, you have to leave that old life to receive the new life, the full life that Jesus promises. You. You have to leave that old life. You cannot stay in between the two. You have to leave it to receive all that Jesus has for you. And look, I would love if it were as easy. Like if, if I were to say to you this weekend, like, here's all you gotta do. Here's all you gotta, are you ready? Just let go and let God just let go and let God. It'd be great if it was that easy. That's not really how it works. The way it really works is I don't just let go. I lay it down before Jesus. I bring it to Jesus. Here's my finances. I'm so scared of. I'm gonna lay it down at your feet. Here's my past. I'm gonna lay it down at your feet. Here's this addiction. I'm gonna lay it all down at your feet so that I can fully take a hold of the life you have for me. And then when you do, you begin to experience the freedom that Jesus promises, the fullness that Jesus promises, that good life that Jesus has for you. And as soon as you start growing, I'm just gonna tell you this, as soon as as you start growing, some of y'all know this, as soon as you start growing this relationship, guess who shows up? These old dudes. That's right. And they try and pull you back and they try and pull you back and they try and pull you back. And so you're constantly having to let those things go to lay those down at Jesus so that you can take a hold and you have to let 'em go again. Bring 'em back to Jesus so that you can take a hold of Jesus. And we do it again. And we do it again. And we do it again. And we do it again. And I know, and I believe that for some of us here, there is a moment in the day you can say, my old life ended and my new life began in Jesus. That's what we celebrated at baptism last week. What I'm here to say is yes, that is true. And every day after is going to be a laying down and a taking a hold of Jesus, laying it down and taking a hold of Jesus. Can we thank these human props? Thank you, thank you, thank you. Did a great job. It it's a pattern. It's a practice. I have to lay it down so that I can pick up this new life. And the reason I know that honestly, this is a daily discipline is because even just this last week alone, knowing what we'd be talking about here this weekend, I wanted to pay attention to how many times things from my, like old life, my other life outside, anything other than God started to pull my attention. And there were lots, in fact, this week we don't, this doesn't happen often at our church, but, but this last week we received a really, really, really harsh and critical email. And this was someone who clearly was, was hurt by our church, at our church and wanted to let us know. And it was an email. What they did was they sent it to all of our staff and all of our elders, but not to me. And Jeannie smart move. That's a great move. You've told me a lot right there. And there was a lot of all caps in the email, a lot of swear, like a lot of swear words in the email. And what I immediately began to do, rather than taking a hold of the life of grace and forgiveness that Jesus has for me, I went back to my old way of judging, of dismissing, of getting defensive. Well, they don't, well I don't even know who this person is. I don't even, how long have they really been at our church? I mean, I just immediately began to try and write this person off because that's the old easy way for me is to be judgmental. It's to be defensive. It's to not take any sort of critique or attack rather than seeing this person as someone fully, deeply dearly loved by Jesus, he looks in their eyes too and loves them. And I just saw how easy it is for me to go back. And I had to literally, I'm like, I'm reading the email through the second time. Like here I go, I'm doing it again. Jesus. I confess, I wanna judge this person. I wanna make them my enemy. They're not. They're your child created in your image. And I had to lay it down. I had to lay it down. For those of you who are parents, you know how hard it is to lay control down when it comes to your kids. And we have, our kids are, we're in a season of parenting right now where our son's gonna be a sophomore at Baylor this fall. Our daughter's gonna be a senior in high school. We're in a different phase of parenting. And what I find myself getting pulled back into so often is just wanting to control their lives. If they would just let me control their lives, they'd be so much happier. I have such great ideas for them. They're my ideas my way. And so if they would just let me do that, it would be so Now listen it, the older they get, the harder this gets. And I just wanna say something to you, to those of you who are new parents, you have maybe infants or little toddlers at home right now, I'm about to say something that may make you write one of those emails to this church. And I just wanna say to you, you have it actually easier than you think right now. I know I see some of you looking, I see it. I yes, I know, I remember. It doesn't feel that way. It gets a lot harder when the stakes get higher and the consequences get greater to the decisions that they make. And I find myself all the time wishing, wanting to go back to how we used to parent them. I wish I could put my kids in the pack and play for an hour while I figure it out. But they wouldn't last 10 minutes in there. My son would just crawl right out of it. He's 19 years old. So I can't go back to that old way. And so what I have to do is lay down three different times this week I wanted to pay attention three different times, three different conversations. I found myself wanting to control their lives and their decisions. I wanna lay that down. Jesus, I actually want to receive, I want to take hold of greater trust in you that your plan is better for them than mine. That you hold their future in your hands. So I just wanna take hold of that. Do you see how this is like, this is a regular work, this is like a daily sort of discipline. This is a thing we do over and over and over and over again. I think this is what Jesus was getting at in in Loop 9 22 when he said this. He said, whoever wants to be my disciple, get this must what? Must deny themselves and take up their cross. How often? Daily. Daily. And follow me. See this is a, this is a, a deeper theme to spiritual life. It's a daily sort of thing. I think this is what Paul was getting to in Philippians three 12. He says, not that I've already achieved it, not that I've already obtained all of this or arrived at my goal, but I press onto what to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus has already taken a hold of me. I want to take hold. I need to let go of these things to take hold of that. He goes on in two Corinthians five 17, Paul says this, therefore, if anyone is in cre in Christ, the new creation has come. The old life is gone. The new is here. So why would we keep going back to that old life when we have full life promise to us? In Jesus, you are invited into new life, free life, full life in Jesus. But you will not be able to experience it in all its fullness. If you continue to hold on to those things from your old life, your other life, your old life has to literally die. It has to end for your new life to begin. That old life has to come to an end for your new life to begin. So I just wanna ask you crossing, I just wanna ask you, someone who loves this church and cares about it deeply, what are you still holding onto? If you were to be really honest, what are you still going back to? What are you still finding your identity? And what do you keep secret about? What are you trying to control or manage in your life? What is it that you are still holding onto? And would you, would you be willing today to just bring it and lay it down at Jesus' feet, to take a hold of the life he promises you? And maybe you've done that before, but you need to do it again because that's kind of how this thing works. Would you be willing to lay down your drinking at his feet and say, Jesus, this is out of control. I see this as an addiction and I don't want to keep going back to that. I'm gonna lay that down at your feet. You wanna lay my finances down at your feet. I keep trying to control the narrative here when it comes to my finances. I'm gonna lay 'em down at your feet. Jesus. I keep being self-righteous. I keep, I keep going back to that. Just, I'm so convinced I'm right in this fight that I'm in with this person in my family. I know I'm right and they're wrong. And yet that feels like my old life. I I want to take a hold of all that you have. Would you be willing to lay it down even if you're need to lay it down again? Am I willing to lay down the fear that I have for our kids' future, the control that I want to have, my own judgmentalism? Am I willing to lay that down so that I can receive all that Jesus has for me? And what we're gonna do here in a moment is I wanna offer you just a little, a prayer, a little mantra that might help you do just that When you sense yourself, when you become aware of like, oh man, I'm just going back to that same old thing again. This is a prayer that you can pray. In fact, we're gonna pray together here in just a second. You may want to like take a little picture of this or write it down 'cause it's really simple. But I think it can open up so much in your life with God. The the prayer is this, Jesus, I'm letting go of. And then you just fill in the blank with whatever it is Jesus, I'm letting go of, to take hold of and just see it as an exchange. I'm letting go of my control to take hold of greater trust in you. I'm letting go of my fear to take hold of greater faith in you. I'm letting whatever it is, I am laying down, I am letting go of this old thing to take a hold of this thing that only you can actually give me. All these old life things made promises they could never keep. You are a promise. Keeping God. Every word you say is true and everything you have for me is available to me if I'm willing to lay those things down and take a hold of you and may maybe for you, that's something we need to practice even right now. So I'm gonna ask if you would to stand, and I want us to pray this exact prayer together right now, to not let what you're holding onto hold you back from all that God has for you in this moment. I just wanna give you an opportunity to lay it down so you can take a hold of what Jesus has for you. And if, if you know us, if you've ever been to Soul City Church, uh, we like to pray. We use our our hands lots of times when we pray to take postures. And, uh, one of the postures I'd love for us to take today is would you be one to kind of put one hand sort of down at your leg and then one hand kind of straight across from your waist, just one hand down and then one hand out. It's just a posture. It's not like Harry Potter. You're not gonna summon anything by doing this. I wanna should be very clear. It's just a posture to pray. And what it represents is the hand that's down is I'm laying it down. I'm letting it go. And you know what it is. And I'm gonna encourage you to keep searching. Maybe there's more. And then this open hand is I, I I want to take a hold of what you have for me. And so I'd ask if you just trust me enough in this moment to close your eyes and just think about your own life and think about the ways, think about the patterns. Think about the places where you keep going back to your old life. You've been maybe promised this new life or you've been exploring this new life in Jesus. And yet you find yourself, you keep getting drawn back, drawn back, drawn back. What do you need to lay? What do you need to lay down right now in this moment? What do you need to bring to the feet of Jesus right now in this moment? He can handle it. He looks at you and he loves you. Don't walk away and miss this moment. What do you need to lay down and what is it you need to take a hold of? I'm holding onto this. I'm believing that what you have for me is better. It's better for me, it's better for my family. It's better for my future. So I'm gonna take a hold of what you said is already mine through you. Jesus. Jesus, we thank you that the, the only reason we can actually do an exchange like this is because of the exchange that you made. You exchanged your life through your death on the cross and being raised from the dead. You made that exchange so that we could have life. And why would we settle for anything less than the full life that you've promised us? Forgive us for when we keep going back to those old ways. Help us, give us the courage, holy Spirit, to seek you out, to take hold of, to not let go of the peace, the forgiveness, the freedom, the goodness of all that you have for us. Help us to practice that again and again and again and again. Thank you for how you love us. It's in your name that we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much crossing church for letting me be here. Let's go for 17. Thank you so much. Love y'all. I'll be down here.