Long after him. Lord, we thank you so much for our faithful brother, but mainly, we thank you for Jesus. Amen. Amen. Thank you, my friend.

Well, if you have a bible, go ahead and find John 15. We'll be there in just a little bit. John 15. Hope you have a bible. If you do, get it out.

I cannot take time to tell you what God is doing in Kenya because I want to preach this morning, and you guys put me on a leash. There's a countdown on the back wall, and if I have to choose between bringing a mission report and preaching the word of God, that would be no contest ever for me. But I want to thank you for what you're doing and partnering with the work in East Africa and Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania. The gospel is being preached to the rich and the poor. People are coming to Christ literally by the thousands.

It's not evangelistic talk. I'm not a big numbers guy, but you have to measure things and keep up with things if you're going to be accountable. And I checked before I came because I know you'd want to know. We're sitting at 4833 baptisms so far this year. That's way above average.

That's way above average. We have a one church that Kyle and the guys got to go with me up into the desert, and so they'll be able to tell you more about that. But the problem we have there, not reaching people for Christ, it's baptizing, because for some reason, God didn't put any water in the desert. And if you're going to baptize somebody, you got to have some water. And the river dries up.

There's just no water. There's no water. It's the desert. That's why they call it the desert. So I had to bring an idea that what we needed was a baptistry, which does not solve the water problem, but it does give you a container.

And so if you want to see an act of faith, if you're ever in Kenya, if you'll travel up to the desert just inside a lode wire and walk around long enough, you'll stumble upon one of the most beautiful concrete baptistries you'll ever find in your life. It's gorgeous. We literally poured a concrete baptistery in the middle of the desert. Everybody gathered around and told us just how crazy we were. And so now, every few weeks, when our evangelist there, Florence sends me an email.

I made a deal with her. I said, I'll build the baptistery. And every time you get 25 people that have accepted Christ. And they want to be baptized. Then I'll pay the water truck.

Water truck will come out, fill the baptistery up. You baptize the people, preach the gospel to all. Everybody comes. And here's the trick that we play. I tell them now, the people cannot have the water out of the baptistery when we finish.

Because if we didn't say that, they'd bring their buckets and they'd be getting the water that we just ran 25 dirty people through to baptize. And so I said, no, we don't want to kill the people. We want to help God, save the people here. I said, but we will give the water away to the herdsmen. Now it's goat herders all over that desert.

That's who lives there. So that's who you evangelize. And they won't come to church because they're always tending their goats, but they will come get water. So while they're waiting on the baptism to get through, it's a chance for the evangelists to preach the gospel. We give them the water for their herds.

And we are. For the first time in 14 years, we've been doing ministry there, seeing large numbers of men and significant numbers of Muslim Mendenna come to Christ simply because they get to hear the gospel. That's what your gift does. That's just one little piece. We've got 63 churches scattered over East Africa.

We got five feeding stations. You guys help us feed 1750 street children every day. The schools are doing amazing. The miracle in Madera. You don't know what I'm talking about.

Go to the website, wander around there. The website's just my name, mikecurry.com dot. You can look that up. Talk to somebody in the church who knows me and knows about our ministry. They can guide you to those places.

But if you have a passion for what God is doing in East Africa, you can get the information. If you're really serious and you're a member of this church and you want to pray for what God's doing through one of your missionaries, you've got many. We're just one of them. If you want to pray for us, then connect to us. Okay?

We're old school. We send out a piece of mail every month. Okay. I believe that people treat printed material different than they print email material. We'll send you an email if you want that.

I just don't believe you read your email. I know you don't. My wife has 362 on her phone right now that have not been opened. So we send printed materials to you once a month. If you want that, I need your name and address.

If you don't want that, don't give it to me. We won't send you anything. But if you just write your name and address down, my wife sitting right here, she's the beautiful one here in the blue shirt. Lay it down beside her. She'll be sure that it gets in our database and we'll send you that.

All right? If you don't want me to have your contact information, I don't blame you because I will bother you to death until you give something to God so that we can do better with the gospel. If you just want to follow us, go to the website. It's mikecurry.com dot. You don't even want to do that.

If you're an x person. If you do twitter, it's light ministries, you can find us there. Okay? So if you want to know, you can find out. If you don't know, it's on you.

Amen. Is that short enough? All right, let's get to the scriptures. All right. John, chapter 15 will be right there.

Need to ask you a question. You've probably heard this question last few days. Are you better off today than you were four years ago? Oh, I saw a couple of you flinch back here. Now don't go to the door.

It's okay. It's not a political rally. It's a legit question. Are you better off today than you were four years ago? How many times you heard that?

Just every time you turn tv on, every time you have your radio on, every time you check your phone, are you better off? Are you better off? And there's somebody, regardless of where you land on the political fence, that's telling you what they're going to do to make sure that you're better off this time than you were four years ago. Of course they told you that four years ago, and then they told you that four years before that, and they told you that four years before that, and here we are.

But it's not a political question this morning. In fact, the better question is not are you better off than you were four years ago? The better question is, is the kingdom of God better off today because you're a part of it than it was four years ago? See, I'm talking about our marriages. I'm talking about our relationship with our children.

I'm talking about our relationship and our involvement and our commitment to the Church of Jesus Christ. I'm talking about our community. I'm talking about our friends. I'm talking about our neighbors. I'm not talking about a Bible study.

I'm not talking about a religious theory. I'm talking about the very pragmatic, practical issue of is what is changing in our life, through our life, around our life, as a result of our life, because of what God's doing in us. There's nothing magic about the four years. I'm just playing off the obviously he obvious heat of the political climate right now. It's what's on all of our minds.

We need to address a hard question and this question of why is the kingdom not advancing? And in some cases, it's not. It is worldwide. We're not talking worldwide this morning. I know I'm the missionary, and I'm supposed to focus on worldwide.

I came to talk to you about Olive branch. I didn't come to talk about somebody else. I didn't come to talk about another neighborhood. I don't want to talk to you about my neighborhood. I want to talk to you about your neighborhood.

I don't want to talk about my lost family. I want to talk about your lost family. I don't want to talk about my lost neighbors. I don't want to talk about my lost friends or my lost partners. I want to talk to you about those people that God has put you in contact with, the people that your skin brushes up against day after day.

That's where God wants to do the work and advance his kingdom through you. And so I ask again, is the kingdom of God better off today because you're a part of it? You see, we have to retrain our minds. We don't even think that way because we are born as consumers. We're born that way.

Nobody had to tell you that you need to become a consumer. Have you ever been around a baby? If you've ever been around a baby, they are born as a consumer. Amen. They consume everything you got.

They literally suck the life out of you and then send you the bill. We are consumers. Why? Because when we're born, can't do anything for ourselves, can't feed ourselves, can't acquire anything, we don't have any resources. We don't know where to go, wouldn't know what to do when we got there.

We simply have no ability. We are absolutely born totally dependent on someone else. Now, hopefully we break out of that, and some of you are doing well. Now that you're in your forties, fifties, you're making a little progress, but it's too slow. We've got to move out of this consumer mentality and understand that God doesn't need consumers in his church.

We're not church shoppers. We're not. What's in it for me? Some of you are sitting here. You're visiting here today.

I'm glad you are. I'm not the pastor. That's good news for you. I'll be gone next week. There'll be a man standing here.

There are people who stand here regularly who will open the word of God and teach it accurately and help you walk through those things, pray with you, love you, minister you when you need those things. I'm leaving. I'm in. I'm out. That's not what I do.

But some of you are here and you came and you're shopping for a church. I don't really know how you do that. What is it that you're looking for? Do you want us to entertain you? Do what?

What dance do you want us to do you want us to lie to you? Churches will do that. Did you know that? We'll lie. Is that what it takes to.

If that's what it takes to get you to come, we'll do that. You know why? Because we. I'm talking about us spiritual leaders. I'm not talking about the staff here at this church.

I'm just talking about me. I don't know how that, well, I actually do know how they are, but I. I'm talking about me right now. We'll do whatever it takes to make sure that we feel significant. And the thing that makes every preacher feel significant is to look out and see a room that's filled.

Because we get this idea that you're here because I'm here. That may or may not be true. In fact, some of you knew I was going to be here. You just slept in this morning. But if you're here to just consume the word of God, if you're just here to consume the worship of God, if you're just here to consume the resources of goddess, God bless you.

They're available. He'll do that. He'll give you what you need. These people in this church will give you what you need. You don't have any clothes.

They'll find some clothes for you. You have financial stuff. They'll pray with you. They might even give you some money. I don't know.

I'm not making any promises, but I've seen them do it on occasion. If you need someone to love you, if you need someone to care for you, that's all available here. But somewhere, somehow, someday, your life has to change as a child of God, from being a consumer to becoming a contributor. And until that happens, the kingdom of God can never be advanced any farther than this platform. However good Trevor is, and however good your staff is, is how good your church is going to be.

I want you to ponder that for a moment because that's a scary thought.

Trevor's a gifted preacher, a wonderful leader. I know your staff, they're godly men and women. But if they are your hope for advancing the kingdom in Olive branch, then there's going to be a very, very short line of growth that's called great commission church in Olive branch. God wants to extend that line where it reaches to every community, every home, every business, every family, every relationship in this entire county, spill out into the next county, spill out into the world until the gospel has been preached to every Christian. That's the game plan.

It can't happen. If the driving question of my life is, am I better off because I came to church this morning, now the question is, is God's kingdom better off because I worshiped him and spirit and truth is God's kingdom advance because of the gifts that I brought, not just financially, but the spiritual gifts that I brought, the skills that I bring to the table, the things that I do. So if those things are true, and they are, and if God wants to grow his church, and he does, and if the kingdom must be advanced, and it must, then why is it not happening at the levels that it's going to have to for us to see the return of Christ in a timely fashion? You know he's waiting on us. Did you know that?

Did you know that? He's waiting on you. Some of you are holding this deal up.

Bible says when the gospel's been preached to every person on every continent and every corner, every village, every hut, every shanty, every street, once the gospel depreciation everyone wants, everyone has had a chance to respond to the gospel of Christ. Then Christ will return. Quit holding this thing up. You can't convince me you're that much in love with what you've got around you right now. Oh, I love my family.

I'm a blessed man, I'm a wealthy man. I live in a wonderful house. I live in a wonderful. I don't live in a wonderful neighborhood. I live in an okay neighborhood.

We bought a dish towel the other day. It's hanging on our ice maker and the dish towel simply. And I got it so that people can see it when they walk past our front window. It says, Mister Rogers did not adequately prepare me for my neighborhood.

God has entrusted to the church. That's us. That's not an organization, that's an organism. It's the body of Christ. Not the committee of Christ, not the meetings of Christ, not the structure of grace, the body.

The living body of Christ. Living things grow. Amen. I'm going to need to know if we're on the same page. I got very little time here.

Living things grow, right? Living things mature and living things reproduce. That's just a fact. That's everything doesn't matter. We're talking grass, soybeans, corn.

Doesn't matter, people, it doesn't matter. We grow, we mature and we reproduce. When any of those things don't happen as a person, as a human being, if you're not growing, if you're not maturing, if you're not reproducing, then you are making a beeline to the doctor. Why? Because something's wrong.

Something's wrong when you're raising a child. If they're not growing, that's why. That's why they weigh people. You know why? That's not torture.

I know what it is for me and for you at this point in our life. You know, I always tell them, you know, why do we have to start with this? You have no medicine for this. But the first thing to do when you take your baby to the doctor is what? They weigh them, they measure them, they check things, looking for those vital statistics.

Why? Because if your baby's not growing, something's wrong. We got to do something different. I'm not talking specifically about great commission, but you are not exempt from this teaching. I don't believe that.

There are many churches, if any, churches in America that are growing and maturing and reproducing at a biblical rate. Do you believe that? Now, immediately, some of you went into defense mode, and if you did, you're the problem.

This is not a confrontation between us, okay? This is a conversation from people who are like minded, like hearted. We have one goal here. We're trying to advance the kingdom of God. We're trying to see the loss come to Christ.

We're trying to see those who know Christ continue to grow and build in their lives with each other. If that's going to happen, we have to become contributors to the church instead of consumers of the church, and we have to be willing to mature. How do I know if I'm maturing? Well, there's a lot of things I don't have time to teach them number one, I think if you're maturing, you will pray. I think it's just a mark of intimacy.

If I don't talk to my wife, you know what she thinks? Something's wrong. You know what she's right when something's wrong, I don't want to talk to her, and I don't want her talking to me. Amen. That's why some of you don't talk to God.

It's just that simple. It's because the intimacy has been broken. I don't have time to teach about that or why it happens. If that's happened to you this morning, I suggest you fix it. Because you cannot live apart from Christ.

I'll show you in scripture. Scripture in just a minute. I think when we have a mark of maturity, then we will see the presence of God. How do I know God is present in my life? Is it because of the dance I do or the way I lift my hands?

Or the songs that I sing? Or the posture that I'm in when I'm in religious service? That doesn't tell me anything about the religious gymnastics that you've been trained in. I think that the way I know when I'm maturing is when I see the presence of God squeezing my flesh out. Squee.

Cause it's a battle with me. I don't know about you. Literally. It's a picture of the toothpaste tube. And when God fills me, there isn't room for him and me both.

Amen. Something's got to go. When the presence of God grows in us, and it does. It will. I promise.

It does. Through the word of God. It does, through the worship of God. It does. Through all the things that we practice here as the church.

He squeezes our flesh out of us so that we become more like him. We develop an appetite for the word of God. Some of you don't read your bibles. I'm not here to condemn you. I'm just here to confront you.

My question is, where has your appetite gone? If you lost your appetite tomorrow and you didn't have any hunger until Thursday, what would you do? I'm not talking about the word of God. I'm talking about your appetite. If you woke up tomorrow morning and you had no appetite until Thursday, what would you do?

Some of you said I would do the happy dance and praise Jesus. Well, for the rest of us who are not fat, what would you do? You'd panic. Something's wrong. Something's wrong.

I just walked past a pot of chicken and dumplings. And it did nothing. There was nothing. I just drove past central barbecue with the windows down. I didn't even tap the brakes.

My appetite's gone. Something's wrong. My appetite is gone. Some of you, through Covid, you lost your sense of smell, which affected your appetite. It made you terrified, didn't it?

It's like, oh, my God, I. I'm never going another slab of barbecue as long as I live. I can't have this. And you immediately fell on your face in prayer. Why do you not have an appetite for the word of God?

Do you not understand that that's where life comes from? It's the word of life. You eat it. You eat it. It makes you grow.

You'll have a desire for evangelism if you're maturing, you'll tell other people about Jesus. You won't need a training session. You don't need a pep rally. You don't need a motivational speaker. You don't need me to come in and shame you into it.

It'll be a natural response. You know why? Because we talk about the stuff that's important to us. Most of you talk about football. You Tennessee people aren't today, God bless you, you know, but as Arkansas people, we'll talk about football today because we don't get to talk about football very often, but we can today.

Amen. Those things are important, too. We talk about, if you got a beautiful wife, you tell people about her. Amen. If she's not, you don't say much about her.

I mean, if you just got one of those average wives, you don't tell them about your wife.

You got a nice house. You won't tell people. You want people? Come see my house. Evangelism is the natural outflow of a maturing, growing person.

We'll have a desire to give. We won't ever have to encourage people to do what comes naturally. You know, the spirit of God in me just lets me know that everything that I have is not mine. I don't have to do that test, although it's a really helpful thing, you know? I don't have to sit there and go, what's mine?

What's his, how much? What's the percentage? We're talking gross or net. I don't have to jump through those hoops. My natural response is, how much can I give and still support my family and exist?

Not how much can I keep and get God's approval.

See, I just need to tell you that I'm not convinced in my limited understanding of the american church. That the american church is a very accurate picture of what God had in mind for us as being the living vine of God, the living vine of goddess. Look at John 15. No way I have time to teach this. I'm going to read it to you, okay?

John, chapter 15, famous verse, famous passage. You know these scriptures. Jesus is talking. If you have a red letter Bible, send red letters. If you don't, it's in quotation marks.

Amen. Everything in this book is important. Everything in this book is good. It's profitable. We teach it, we live by it, we learn it.

But I don't know about you. When I see the red letters, it arrests me. God with skin on is saying these words out into the same atmosphere that you and I are breathing today. And God with skin on said in John 15, chapter one, I am the true vine. Now, the teaching there obviously is.

There's other vines. I'm not those other vines. I'm the true. I'm the real deal. I am the real deal.

If you write in your Bible and you trust me that I might exegete this closely, that's pretty good translation, right? I'm the real deal. And my father, he's the vine dresser. He owns the farm. I'm the real vine.

My daddy owns the farm. He decides what grows. He decides what doesn't grow. He decides how it grows. He decides how big it grows.

He owns the farm. It's his deal. Verse two. Every branch, is that in your bible? Everybody have the word.

Every. You see, when you have. That's a problem word. That means every.

There's no theological wiggle room in this verse. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away who daddy does, father does. It's his. It's his farm. His farm.

One thing, he will not tolerate non productive vines. Just not gonna have it. Not gonna have it.

He prunes them so that they can bear more fruit. That's a painful process, but it's very necessary. Amen. If you got fruit trees, you know what I'm talking about, you don't want to cut them because nobody likes to cut a tree, but that's how you make them bear more fruit. You're already clean.

Verse three. Because of the word which I'm spoken to you, Jesus realizes these two verses, man, he had just put a weight on these people. They're freaking out. I mean, they're doing what you and I are doing. Oh, my God, we're in trouble.

We're in trouble because the guy that owns the farm father God, he expects everything producing. And you and I both know we're not, not at the level he wants us to. And so we're freaking out, and Jesus just takes the pressure off. You're already clean because of the word which I've spoken to you. Abide in me, verse four.

Relax. Jesus said, quit wondering about what you do. There's not ten steps here. Just abide in me. Abide in me, and I'll abide in you.

As the branch cannot. Is that in your bible? Is that word cannot there? What does that word mean? It means cannot, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself.

Gosh, that's a gift for somebody. Here. If you don't hear anything else, just circle that one, go home and memorize it this week. Whatever it is that you think you're supposed to do, you can't do it.

That's a gift. That don't feel like a gift for an american, right there.

As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. You got no shot. You're wasting your time. You're wasting your energy. All the stuff you're doing is not going to produce what you want.

If you abide in me, verse seven. And my words abide in you, you can ask what you desire, and it'll be done for you. By this, my father's glorified. That's the goal of everything that God does, by the way, by this, my father is glorified. That you bear much fruit, and so you'll be my disciples.

That's what we're looking for. Now, the obvious question, not to shame us, but to wake us up, is that a description of you? Is that a description of your business? Is that a description of your family? Is that a description of your church bearing much fruit?

Well, since it's not, and it's not, what's the root cause of that? Let's move really quick. I think the root cause is simply religion.

I have a very low view of religion. I learned it from my father.

The only problem that my father Jesus had while he was here was with religious people. The drunks didn't cause him much trouble. Prostitutes weren't a big problem. Thieves, no big deal. Tax collectors, he could deal with them.

Religious people, they tried to kill him. In fact, they ended up being pretty successful.

The problem with religion is that all religion is performance based. It just is. I don't care. I'm not picking on your religion. I don't know what your religion is.

They don't have a title on the sign out here, so I can't pick on that. I don't know what it is. I mean, you made it generic, so I'm just going to assume that all of them have the same problem. So insert whatever your religion is. The reason that you have a religion is because there's a group of people that decided there's a group of scriptures that are more important than another group of scriptures.

So we created a set of rules and bylaws and things that we have to do in order to be in the club called Jesus. And so it's based on our external performance. I grew up in the country in Arkansas. That's an oxymoron. The country in Arkansas.

I grew up in a small rural church. And when you walked in the door, it was hanging there in the forehead. You didn't have to worry about what the main thing was. We had it hanging right there. It's called a covenant.

You got to do this stuff, okay? Can't drink alcohol, can't sell alcohol, can't cuss, can't smoke, can't chew, can't go out with girls that do. If you do that stuff, you're in the Jesus club. Now, some of you didn't like that club, so you joined another club and you had some say, well, you can drink, but just a little bit. And you find one say, I will drink more than a little bit.

Well, you can join this club. We drink a lot, you know. In fact, we have to. We're going to move our worship service back by 02:00 in the afternoon because we ain't able to sober up in time for 11:00 so there's a religious club for whatever it is that you want to believe. That particular thing right there is telling you that there's something that you can do in order to be okay with God.

That is an absolute lie from the pit of hell. All religion is performance based, and performers always aim at perfection. Stay with me. Here's the gift for you this morning. Performers always aim at perfection.

Doesn't matter if you're musician, an artist, an athlete, whatever you perform at, you're always aiming at perfection. But here's the problem. No matter what your skill or your craft or whatever you're involved in, there's only 1% or less of those people that are involved in what you do that ever make perfection. 1% of all the athletes in the world ever become professional athletes. And of that 1%, 1% of the 1% ever become the ones that you remember their names forever, and yet that is your goal.

You actually have believed the lie. First of all, that you're part of the 1%. Most of you aren't. News flash.

And if you are part of the 1%, you're not part of the 1% of the 1%. I know what I'm talking about. I wasn't an athlete. I was a musician. I was a great musician.

All state, three years all american my senior year, went to college on full scholarship. I never said anything, but first chair. No matter where I was, didn't matter who was there, I was the best. Just as simple. It ain't bragging if you could do it.

I had one goal in life. One goal in life only. I wanted to be a professional musician. I knew I was the best. There was no doubt in my mind.

Decide how I make my living. No doubt in my mind. I'd be famous doing it. As I was trying to develop my craft, I knew I had things to learn, and so I was trying to develop my craft. And one day I went from my college and flew to Dallas, Texas, and I went up to North Texas State University.

And there's a man that was working on his doctorate degree there who's the best saxophone player in the world. At that particular time. He would take a handful of students. Only a handful cost you a $100 for a lesson. Didn't matter if the lesson lasted 1 minute or 1 hour.

$100 in 1972 was real money. So I went to Dallas, took my hundred dollars, walked in, got my instrument out. He said, play a few things for me. I played. My lesson lasted 45 seconds.

He stopped me. He said, son, I don't know who told you that you could play, but you're wasting your time and your money. You need to find a real job.

And I left furious, thinking, what all of you think when somebody tells you the truth? That guy don't know what he's talking about. Turns out he was exactly right. I wasn't only in the 1%. I probably wasn't in the 10%.

Some of your athletes, and because you've got your picture in your high school or you make the little local paper, you think you're all that. Or maybe you post stuff about yourself, which is really kind of interesting since you're only famous in your own mind.

But then one day you'll walk onto a field in a high, in a college setting, and everybody is you, except better. Then in reality sets in. See, what's happened is in our religious lives, the enemy has done what he's done throughout eternity. He has teased us with perfection. Is that not what he did in the garden?

Isn't that what he did? The garden was perfect, guy. It's perfect. They did nothing except what they wanted to do. They hung out with God.

Didn't even have to wear clothes. Women. I want you to think about that for a minute. Don't go. Don't go to the weird part.

I want you to go to the blessed part of that. My wife, the greatest stress in my wife's life, every day that Jesus sins is standing in that massive closet that God has given us, going, I don't know. I don't. I don't know.

We say two nights in Memphis on this trip. Two nights. Two nights in Memphis. We drive the largest vehicle that is made in America. It's called a land yacht.

It's bigger than my first apartment. For a two night trip, we fill it up with clothes.

Why? So in the morning, we can stand there going, I don't know.

Eve never did that.

That's freedom. Hanging out with God, nothing to do, whereabouts you're gonna wear till Satan shows up and says, you know what? There's one tree over there. Eat that. You be like God.

And we've been trying to be like him ever since, hadn't we?

Well, that's the definition of perfection. God is the definition of perfection.

Unless you can become God. You can never be perfect, and you can't become God, but you can know him. And that's where we are this morning.

I need to apologize to you. As a spiritual leader, I don't know that I've personally done this to you, but as a spiritual leader, I've done it to many. And I know spiritual leaders in some of your past, if church is a part of your past, you've had this happen to you. And so I just want to apologize to you on behalf of all spiritual leaders. Religious leaders and religious systems have lied to you, and they've created external performance things that they want you to do, hoops they've asked you to jump through so that they could feel significant, and you've failed.

And as a result of your failure, you're sitting here today and you're afraid to do anything for God because the bar is perfection, and you can't reach that. And so you just sit and spectate. So you never do anything for God. So all of your gifts and all of your talents and all of your skills and all of your experience and all of your resources is sitting here stagnant, and God can't use you because you're measuring yourself against Trevor or against me, or against whoever it is that you watch on the podcast, or whoever it is you read about in those moldy green books that lived 300 years ago, that had this perfect life that was written by somebody that thought they were perfect people. You're measuring yourself against perfection, and so you are paralyzed.

Let me apologize to you for all of us who have done that to you. In fact, I feel a lot like Marcus Aurelius speaking to his failure son Commodus in my favorite movie, Gladiator. And I just need to say to you that your faults as a son, as a daughter, are our fellow as spiritual fathers and our desire to push you, and our desire to motivate you and our desire to encourage you. We told you, if you do this, then you will get that. If you perform this way, then God will be pleased.

If you will give this, then God will love you. And the fact of the matter is, there's nothing you can do, nothing you can give, nowhere you can go, nothing you can say, nothing you can do in the kingdom of God that will make God love you anymore than he did before you ever knew he existed. Before you were born, he saw you in your mother's womb and he said, what about you? I love you. But not only that, there's nothing you can do today in a negative sense.

If you don't do what Trevor says, if you don't follow the rules of the church, if you don't live religiously and the way that your mama and daddy told you you should, you're not even a good moral person. Do you know something? There's nothing you can do to make God love you lessen. He just loves you.

We have to get to the place where perfection is no longer our master. Progress replaces the impossibility of perfection. Did you hear that? If you don't get to the place where perfection is no longer your slave master and let progress replace that, then you will never see God use you the way he wants to. Read this verse with me.

I'm out of time. Read this verse with me. In one Timothy, chapter four. Or if you don't have time to turn there, you won't. My ribbon's there, so I'm going to cheat.

I'll beat you there. First Timothy, chapter four, verse 15. I use this in all of our training, with all of our staff all over the world. Paul's writing to his young intern, preacher, Timothy, and he gives him a laundry list, which Paul always did. Do this.

Do this. Be sure to do that. Be sure to be diligent about the doctrine, study, pray you need to do. I mean, if you're with Paul, if I'm with Paul, it's just exhausting.

Paul realizes what he's doing to this young preacher, and he says, timothy one. Timothy, chapter four, verse 15. Meditate on these things. What does that mean? Think about everything I've said to you.

Give yourself entirely to them. Be committed to this stuff. But watch this so that your progress, your progress can be evident to everybody.

If I have to be a success in order to be accepted by God, I quit.

I quit. Now, I can do better than you can, but that ain't success.

That's just me winning against the same level of talent. If I change the level of talent and I get in a room with spiritual giants, I can't win. I stop chasing perfection. And when I did, I made it stop chasing me.

I began to learn that what God wanted for me every day of my spiritual life was progress. And so I want to end with where I began.

Are you better off today than you were four years ago? Four months ago, four days ago, four minutes ago.

The spirit of God lives in you. If you are born again, the power of God is available to you. You can follow him if you will say, yeah, but I've done everything I know to do, and, you know, you're just talking about that kid that doesn't grow, doesn't mature, they don't reproduce. I'm that person. None of that stuff's happening to me spiritual.

Well, pay close attention. If you're not growing, if you're not maturing, if you're not producing, it's one of two problems. Are you ready? Simple. Number one, you may be dead.

Dead people don't grow.

Dead people don't mature. Dead people do not reproduce. No matter how many horror movies you watch, they just don't. Some of you are sitting here as well, meaning, church going, morally conscious people, and you can't figure out why it ain't working. And it's because you're trying to get the deadness in you to produce the life that only comes from Christ.

You may be dead, turn to Christ. Turn to Christ. If you're not dead. It's the other problem. You're sick.

If you're sick, what do you need? Not a trick question. What do you need? You need a doctor, don't you? I do.

I'm not a doctor. I doctor myself, but I usually make myself worse. I need a diagnostician. I need a doctor. You know what I pray if you're physically sick, that you will get a doctor, a real good one.

But if you get the best doctor, he will not be a great physician. And what you need is someone that can heal your soul. And that only comes from Doctor Jesus as he brings new life to you. And so I ask you this morning, why in the world would you live a life of performance and competition against yourself and your perception of what success means in God's eyes? Why would you not come to him and just throw your hands up and say what he knows already?

You can't do this. John 15. I'm the vine. You're not the vine. I'm the vine.

You can't do anything without me. Now, here's how you respond to that. You ready? Here's how you respond to that. Look at me.

When Jesus says to you, you can't do anything apart from me, your answer is, I know. I know. Would you give me a gift? And he will. He will.

He will. Father, I pray for us this morning.

We're performers by nature. It's just in us.

Hard to break. We look for acceptance everywhere but from you. We look for approval everywhere but from you. We just deceive people. Mostly by ourselves.

Sometimes by religious leaders, but mostly by ourselves. I pray this morning for a gift. I pray that heavy religious loads would be untied, that burdens would be lightened, that people whose jaws are clenched and fists or in balls would open their hands to you and walk out of here totally relaxed, knowing that apart from you, we can do nothing. But with you in us, we can do everything that you ask us to. In your power, in your grace and your mercy.

There's lost people here today, Father. Save them. Just let them have the courage to admit what they've known a long time. They're not sick. They're dead.

They can't resurrect themselves. They need a savior. There's folks in here who are spiritually sick today. They need a doctor. I pray they wouldn't do what I do and wait until it's too late, then have to go through some painful treatments in order to get their health back.