Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hey, guys, this is Naim, and you've reached the Mosaic Church Podcast. So excited that you're part of our listening community and love for you to be even more connected. So check out our website. There's more content there and there's more opportunities for you get connected in our ministries and events as well. Also, love for you to share this content. If this is blessed to you. I know that God wants to use you to bless other people with it, so share this podcast you will. Lastly, would you consider supporting this ministry? This is made possible by other people's generosity, and I'd love for you to pay it forward. Join us to reclaim the message and the movement of Jesus together. So would you consider giving to this ministry? I know that God is able to do immeasurably more through us when we come together. Thank you so much. God bless you. Enjoy.
[00:00:55] Hello. Hello. Don't you just love Jeff, man? He's the best hype guy there is. Love him. Love him. Love. Okay, so if you guys are wondering what I've got here, it's my name. And my least favorite thing right here is. Can you read it? It's okra. Okra. Anybody else ate okra? Okay. Thank you. I feel like, Sherry, you've been waiting your whole life to see that.
[00:01:19] Your whole life, my friend. Your whole life. Yeah. Wow. Okay. Any okra lovers in the house?
[00:01:27] Okay, there's the door. So you can. You can just leave. Just. Ow. Get out of here. No, this is. So. I hope you've been playing along, and if you're not playing along this week, guess what? It's gonna show up next week, too. So we're gonna keep on asking these questions because our truth, our deal is, is that we want to invite all of us to create home and to be. Have a sense of home. And so we wanna talk about that, because not everybody's great at relationships. You know, some of us, we have good, deep relationships, and others of us, we're not. Not so much. We've got friendships. We've got little superficial relationships where we're just not good at making friends. And the reality is that we live in a world and a culture right now that it's very hard to have deep, meaningful relationships because it's so divisive sometimes. And what do we do? So we have got to be. We have got to be different kinds of people. We just have to. And that's why we are wanting to have this conversation, because this conversation is not one that a lot of people are having, but it's so necessary. And here's why. Because you would think that people are like, you know what? There's so many lost people, and they need to become Christians. I believe there's so many Christians who are lost, who need to be found. I mean, they're wandering around and they're homeless. They're, in fact, homeless Christians all over the place. They have no community, a sense of family, a sense of belonging anywhere. Because the problem is that sometimes they've tried. They've tried, but something doesn't work. It doesn't work because there's a sense of like, hey, yeah, yeah, we're all family. But the values, describing the culture and shaping the culture of that church or all that all over that place, they're not just that great. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna challenge ourselves to be the people, to be the people that create home. We are good at creating home. We might be good at other things, but we're gonna be good at creating home. A home that's welcome to all kinds of people. How do you do that? How do you create a culture in your home? How do you create a culture in your workspace and this church that there's a sense of home? Well, it's a challenge. It's going to require a lot of things. And today I'm gonna ask you a question, and that's going to be the question that's going to haunt us a little bit. And here's the question. It might be silly, but we're. Put it up there on the screen for you. And here's the question. The question is, are you. Are you. Help me out. Are you a. What soft place to land when people fall? You're like, okay, what does that mean? What does that mean? Well, I believe that God wants to speak to us and challenge us. Are you and I, people that are soft? You're like, I don't wanna be soft. You know what I'm saying? Don't poke me. Okay. I don't wanna be soft. I wanna be rough. I wanna be tough. I wanna be strong. No, no, no, no. Are you a soft place, though, when people fall?
[00:04:18] Several years ago, I was doing a workout. It was a ridiculous workout, but it was like, you have to climb a rope. Okay? You climb a rope and then come down and do a shuttle run. Okay? So like 10 of those. So you climb a rope, come up and all that. And the last round, man, I was, like, doing so good. Last round, I came down the rope, but it was. It was. I was so tired so tired. So I just kind of left the rope a little bit and I fell. Now, the problem was. Problem was it was not how far or how high where I fell from. It was not that it wasn't that high. The problem was where I fell, where I landed. The damage, my friends, was determined by where I landed. And I landed. My foot landed on part of the rope. You know what happens? A sound pop. A pop sound happens. That's what happens. And you break your ankle. That's what happens. Okay. I almost fractured it really bad. I was like, oh, my gosh. Here's the deal. The truth is, some of us, we've all fallen. We've all fallen. Anybody ever fallen? Tripped a little bit? Yeah. Yeah. Come on. Let's be honest. Yeah. Since we're being honest, how many of you like to watch people fall?
[00:05:24] Okay, now, okay, okay. I'm not talking about real life, because that would be. We would be monsters. I'm talking about on video. Like, we just.
[00:05:31] You put them on video. We'll just repeat that again and again. We're like, oh, my gosh, look at that. Okay. Oh, my gosh. Real life. Oh, my God. I'm so sorry. But we have an interesting relationship with falling. Some of us were like, we don't like to fall. We pretend we fall down, we do a push up. We're like, well, I'm good, I'm good. I didn't fall. I didn't trip. Nothing happened to me. Everything good. Cause we don't like it. Society, our world, where you grew up, where you grew up, the idea of you and I falling. And what I mean by falling, I mean failing. I mean like you promising something and you didn't deliver. I'm talking about like, you fall in a relationship, you have a failed relationship.
[00:06:12] You fall in college, you fall in. In your studies, you fall with friendships, you just have these moral falls, in a sense. You just fall. You do something that you were not supposed to do, and you do. You left the rope prematurely. Or some of you, you just were not planning on falling. But something happened. You weren't planning on getting on debt, and you weren't planning on having just terrible environments or a job, but it was just. You just keep. Like you feel. I keep failing and falling in life. So my question is, when you fall, where do you land?
[00:06:51] See, it all depends on where you land. And for some of us, we grew up spiritually. We grew up in a church. We grew up in a home, and it was called a home.
[00:07:05] And when you fell, you didn't land in a good soft place.
[00:07:09] And see, the reality is that religion is a very hard place to fall and land. It's a very hard place. It's not a soft place. Like, so when you fall and you land on religion, it might even mess you up even more. Even more. And so what do we do? What is this idea of, like, a soft place to land? What does that mean then? See, with Jesus, he moves us from this idea of having religion, the place where you fall. Like, I've sinned and I've done some things and I feel guilty and shamed and all that. And you keep on falling on religion again and again and again. And what we don't realize is that it's not that just religion is what we practice. It becomes us. And so our houses, our relationships are religious. What I mean by that is they're not soft places at all. They're hard places to fall. And so what we'll see is the life of Jesus shows us how he wants to move humanity from religion to a relationship with God, move us from this hard space of landing always on religion to falling and landing on him. Because Jesus is a very soft place to land when you and I fall.
[00:08:25] His life portrays that. And so let me show you. I'm gonna go to a passage now. If you're with us and you're watching online, you know, we have an app and our sermon notes are in there. So if you wanna pull those up, you can do that. We'll put the screens, we'll put the verses up in just a minute. But I wanna give you the context. Okay, so we're gonna be in the book of John. The book of what? Book of John.
[00:08:47] It's an apostle. I'm sorry, it's a gospel. And there are how many gospels? Anybody know?
[00:08:55] Yeah. Yeah. So what's interesting about John is, is that it's very unique. The gospels are very unique to the person. And John is a guy who puts a lot of detail in there that you are not really. You don't expect. Like, for example, John is the only guy in there who doesn't refer himself to John, but he actually puts in there because he wrote the book. He wrote the disciple that Jesus loved the most.
[00:09:22] I kid you not, read it for yourself. He never is like, oh, just John. No, no, no. It's not just John. It's the guy that Jesus loved the most, you know? And I'm writing this book and I can do that. So John also puts in a couple of stories that you might not are familiar With. And one in particular is a story that is not found in any other gospel. And I don't know why, I honestly don't know why, but it's found in no other. And it's a story of Jesus interacting with the disciples after he's been resurrected. So here's what happens, okay? Before we get into. And read the actual text and read what Jesus did, what happens is Jesus is, as you know, he creates home. He gathers his disciples and he walks with them for a couple of years. And they see amazing things, miracles, they see healings take place. Jesus teachings. I mean, it's been going on for quite some time now, three years. And by the time it's ending, Jesus starts talking about the idea that he is going to give his life for them. And they don't really quite understand and they don't think that this might really happen. We just don't know what, what's up. But what we do know is that it does happen. And we also know when Jesus is on the cross, no one is there except his mom, because moms show up to everything.
[00:10:47] And, and one other guy, the disciple that Jesus loved the most. See what I'm saying? He shows up, but no other disciple shows up. Which is something that's very, very interesting because. Because before he got, before he got crucified and he. And before he actually got arrested, there was a conversation that took place. Peter, who started the conversation, he was like, you know what, Jesus, I just want you to know that you. I know that you're thinking that there's gonna be all kinds of persecution. I know there's all kinds of opportunities that are gonna take place where we might have, we might be tempted to fall away from you. And I just wanna let you know, I just wanna let you know, I'm not going to do that. You're my boy. I will never, never, never, never deny you. You guys remember that? Never, never deny you. What happened? Cock a doodle doo, Denied you. You know what I'm saying? We know that story. If you don't know, that's an amazing story. He says it, I'm not gonna deny you. But. But also his other guys, his other disciples say the same thing. So I want you to know before we go into this passage of scripture, what has happened is, this is. The disciples have said we were not gonna deny you. We will be there. We will be there. We're sticking with you till the bitter end. No, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. We will give our lives for you and then they didn't show up.
[00:12:14] They did not show up.
[00:12:17] And so Jesus gets resurrected, right? Easter story, we know the story. Who finds him? The women find him, right? He shows up. He shows up in front of them, and guess what happens? The disciples are there. The guys who did not deny him are there. But does Jesus bring it up? No, he doesn't. He doesn't bring it up. Next time he shows up again, he shows up in front of Thomas, okay? And they're all there again. And they have this whole conversation about different things. But does Jesus bring it up?
[00:12:46] He doesn't the third time, which is really interesting because again, there's a symbol of three. Like, why. Why is three most? Why. Why is everything happening in. In. In three times? Because in the Scriptures, three is this number of wholeness and harmony and completeness. And so Jesus shows up the third time, and then the third time he wants to have a conversation about Peter denying him. How many times? Three times. And then if you already know the story, you know he asked the question to him. How many times?
[00:13:22] Three times. So here's what happens. Let's read the first passage. Okay, so it says here after breakfast. So the third time Jesus shows up, he makes breakfast, which is amazing, right? He's a breakfast guy, people. He's a breakfast guy. Okay? So he shows up and he looks at Simon Peter, and he says what? He says what? He says, simon, I mean, son of Jonah. Do you? Do you. What does it say here? Do you what? Do you what? Do you love me? Which is interesting question because Jesus is now having a very hard conversation and he's talking about. Talking about what happened. So I don't know about you, but, like, are you good at, like, bringing up awkward things?
[00:14:01] I'm not. I'm not. I don't wanna. I mean, I don't anybody love. Just love conflict in relationships. You're like, that's what my specialty. If that is your specialty, we don't like you, the rest of the world, because you're comfortable with conflict. Jesus was comfortable with conflict. But the way he. He's approaching this is very interesting because how is Jesus a soft place to land? Because he starts off and he says, hey, hey, Simon Peter, do you love me? Do you love me? And then he says, what? More than what?
[00:14:31] More than these. Because you know what Peter did? You know what he did? He said, I will not deny you more than. I love you more than these guys. I won't deny you. These guys will, John.
[00:14:43] No, I will not. And so Jesus says, do you still Love me more than these. Like, is your love the same? Like, he wants Peter to confront the truth.
[00:14:57] He's challenging Peter's truth, and we love to speak our truth, and that's good. But he's challenging his truth and says, hey, hey. Do you love me more than these? And then Peter says, what? He says, yes. What? Yes. Yes, Lord, you know I love you. Like, he's like, I know what you're doing here. This is the time, the third time we're having this conversation. We're. We had breakfast, okay? He set the mood. Okay, okay, okay. And then he says to him, feed my what? Feed my lambs. Feed my lambs. Then Jesus told him again. He's like, Jesus repeated the question. Hey, by the way. By the way, Simon, son of John. John. Yeah. So let me ask you again. Do you. What? Do you love me? What's happening? Like, when isn't it?
[00:15:48] If you're really having a conversation with a person and they're like, hey, you like me? Yeah, I like you, man. No, but do you like me? Like me?
[00:15:56] Like, how much do you like me? Like, are you gonna be annoyed by me? Like, how long? Like, it's like, what's happening? What's happening? He says, do you love me? He's like.
[00:16:08] And he said, yeah, God, yes. Yes, I love you. And then he says, take care of my sheep. And then Jesus, Third time, Third time, right? And so when he does it the third time, Peter knows what's happening. The disciples know what's happening because they're listening into the conversation. He's like, oh, gosh. He's pulling out the three.
[00:16:30] This is the third time. So he says, third time says, hey, same question. Same question. How about a different question? You know, do you like breakfast? No. No, that's not it. Favorite food? No, no. Hey, do you. What?
[00:16:45] Hey, do you love me? As if he was saying is, I want you for just a minute to sit in the weight of your failure. Just for a minute.
[00:16:57] Just for a minute. I want you to know. You fell. I want you to know this third time means the third time. Because three times you said, I don't know him. I don't know him. I don't know him. And now from your mouth, you are saying, I love you. I love you. I love you.
[00:17:14] I want this to happen.
[00:17:16] I want this to happen. And then Simon says this. He says, he was hurt. He was hurt. He understood what's going on. And what did he say? He says, lord, you know, everything. And I love that because he's like, Basically saying, you know what? I don't know.
[00:17:32] I don't know. I think I know. You know what I'm saying. I think I'm brave. I think I'm honest. I think I'm all these things. And when it happens, apparently I'm not dependable. Apparently, I'm a liar. Okay, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Because in my head, and you've done this, and I've done this, we wanna be these kind of people, right? And then the situation happens and we're like. We just back out. We're like, ah. He's like, I don't know. Like, you know, okay, you know. You know that I love you, and you probably know if I don't love you. And then Jesus says pretty much the same thing. He says this again. He says, then feed my what?
[00:18:13] Three times he tells him the answer. He's like. The answer to his question is always like. The response to his question is always like, feed my sheep. Take care of my lambs. What is Jesus doing?
[00:18:26] What he's doing is he's restoring Peter, but he's reminding him that his failure and his fall fall did not determine and did not disqualify him as being the guy that Jesus believed in. He was like, you doubted me. You didn't believe in me. You denied me. I just wanted to let you know I still believe in you. You know that thing I said about you're gonna be the rock, and on this rock I'll build my church, and the disciples, and I picked you guys and follow me, just to let you guys know, all of you fell, all of you didn't show up. I just want you to know that is no excuse of you not now, moving forward like, so. If you fell and you betrayed me and I was hurt by the fact that no one was there when I was being crucified.
[00:19:21] I just want you to know your worst moment of you not showing up does not define the rest of your life.
[00:19:29] Your calling and what I've called you to and what I believe about you does not change. Peter, you're still that guy. I know, but I'm such a liar. Yeah.
[00:19:43] Yeah. I'm such a coward.
[00:19:47] You said it. I didn't.
[00:19:49] But I'm still. I'm still. I just don't. I. Yeah, but you're still called.
[00:19:56] You're still that guy. You're still that person. It does not disqualify you.
[00:20:02] You see, when they fell, when the disciples fell, guess where they did not fall.
[00:20:08] On religion.
[00:20:11] They did not fall on religion. Because if they would have.
[00:20:14] Oh, man. Damage done.
[00:20:18] You fall on. You fall on hard, hard soil. It's like concrete. Do you. Anybody know the difference between falling in water versus concrete? Anybody know? Yeah. Yeah.
[00:20:33] Religion is concrete to us. And some of you have fallen. That's why some of you guys say that I am broken. Because when you fall on something so hard, it's not the fall, it's where you land that destroys you.
[00:20:47] And some of you just landed on just a church culture that just wrecked you. You didn't just fall, you fell. But it destroyed your family.
[00:20:58] It just messed you up.
[00:21:01] And so Jesus is saying, hey, hey, there's another place, there's another way that you need to live your life. This is the kind of people you need to be. Peter, I'm just telling you this. I'm doing this to you so you will do it to other people. People will deny you. People will betray you. People will lie to you. People will not show up. They'll fall short. But, Peter, I just want you to know. Three times. I just want you to know you cannot not be a soft person, a soft place to land when people fall.
[00:21:33] Because this world's gonna fall. It's gonna show up, and it's gonna be showing up broken.
[00:21:39] See, I know this to be true because the scriptures talk about it. Jesus, life is full of that. For example, John, the guy that Jesus loves, you know, which by the way, John, he loves me too. Anyway, so, okay, so John 1:14 says this. Okay, it's pretty interesting. He says this. He says the word, this is. Jesus became what it became flesh and dwelt. Dwelt among us. Like, he's talking about how Jesus has lived and stepped into human history. And he says, and we have seen his glory. We've seen, like, who he is. He's lived his life, and he's like, this is the way he lived his life. The glory of the one and only Son from the Father, Full of. Full of what? Help me out. Full of what?
[00:22:21] Grace and truth. You see, herein lies the answer of what it means to be a soft place for people to lend. This moves us from having a religious home to a Jesus home.
[00:22:35] You have to be full. Full. You have to be full of it. Okay, turn to your neighbor. You're full of it. Okay, no, don't do that. Full of grace and truth. Not one.
[00:22:45] Both. They're inseparable.
[00:22:48] Full of grace and truth. John actually explains it in the next verse. He says this, okay, check this out. He said from his fullness, like Jesus, fullness we have received what grace upon.
[00:23:01] And then he says, reminds the writers, he says this, he says, the people. He says, the law. The law was given what? Through Moses. He's like, remember. Remember, the law was. Moses. You lived under the law. The law is religion. The law is a culture of performance and judgment and punishment and penance.
[00:23:30] That's how it works. He says you used to live by the law. The law was an eye for a what?
[00:23:36] Yeah, it's cut and dry. The law is very clear. You did this. You didn't show up. You failed. You messed up. You've sinned. This is what's going to happen. There is consequences. There's nothing else that's gonna stop it. The law is the law. You. That's it. He said, you grew up in that, and that's what humanity was used to. And law is. Is religion. And some of you, you grew up in a household. It was law. Like, no one said it, but it was law. It was performance.
[00:24:06] It was judgment.
[00:24:08] It was penance.
[00:24:10] It was. It was.
[00:24:13] It was. It was rough because you always felt like you were not. What? Good, what? Enough. Why? Because it's Allah.
[00:24:23] And if your grades don't match up and your lifestyle doesn't match up or you say something this and you do this or you do that, there is what consequences.
[00:24:32] And the law is sometimes like, hey, if you don't like my rules, what? Leave?
[00:24:37] And some of us found church homes like that. You fell and things happen, by the way. Everybody falls.
[00:24:45] You fell and they were like, hey, this is the law. This is the law. You don't like it. It's God's law, by the way, and it's the law. And you're out. And here John is saying, hey, remember Jesus? Remember Jesus? Jesus was not Moses. See, the law was given to Moses. It was given to Moses. But let me tell you this. Grace and truth, what came from who?
[00:25:09] Jesus Christ. He was like, grace and truth is Jesus. So, yeah, you need to. And I need to. And our churches need to live a life and be people that are full of Jesus and not follow the methods of Moses.
[00:25:28] It's Jesus and Jesus way is you have to have grace and truth, and that's how you become a soft place to land. Because a place of grace and truth is a culture that is not about performance. It's actually about possibility. See, grace and truth, if you rethink about it, it's not truth as in your truth and my truth. No, the reality of what is True. It's a place of possibility and growth.
[00:25:56] It allows people to go, okay, this is what happened. This is what happened. It allows us to be people that go, okay, I see you. This is grace. I see you. I see you, Peter. I see this. I see this. Let's just remind, you know, let's just remember, just don't deny the fact that you messed up. Denying is not it. It's not about lawlessness. It's about grace and truth. And grace and truth is about, hey, let's just talk about this. I see you. Let's just acknowledge what happened. Acknowledge what happened. Okay. Okay, this is what happened. And now, now, now, how can we learn now? How can we avoid, how can we do this? It's a complete package. And for some of us, our houses, our families, our churches, our religion you maybe grew up in did not ever have grace and truth because what they' they, they thought is. No, no, no, no. The truth is the truth, regardless. And friends, you cannot separate grace and truth when it comes to Jesus because Jesus was full of what? Grace? What? And truth. Not one or the other.
[00:27:01] And so when you remove either grace from truth, then you get the, you get the law. You get the law. If you remove truth from grace, you get lawlessness. So what does it look like?
[00:27:17] The life of Jesus is very interesting. I, I, I thought about, I thought about wine. It's very interesting. I thought about it. Let me illustrate this. Thank you so much. So what's interesting about Jesus is his first miracle. Anybody remember his first miracle, he turned water into wine. What's interesting about that is that his first miracle, he sits around with his boys. That again, denied him, right? Sits around and they share probably a glass of wine. And it's just ironic to me that then Jesus, right before he dies with the same guys, he sits around and has the Last Supper. And what does he have with them? Wine.
[00:27:57] And if you read the life of Jesus, he always, like, he would call himself certain things, right? He would call himself the good Shepherd. He would call himself like the Son of man. I mean, there was always these, like, these like, hey, I'm like this, I'm like this, I'm like this. One of the things Jesus also said was he was a cup being poured out.
[00:28:20] There was a cup being poured out. In fact, remember before he was going to get tortured, he said to God, he said, I just, please, if you can take this what? Cup away from me, like, maybe I don't need to be this person. Is there any other way? Because his whole life, Jesus Was this cup of wine. What's interesting about this is that grace and truth is what the fullness of Jesus is. And we hear you cannot remove the wine. This would be grace and truth would be the container. You can't remove it. Once it's removed, it's over. It doesn't make sense. So Jesus is this refreshment, is this cup of wine that cannot be separated. It holds the truth, holds what is real. The truth allows us to ask the right questions. Because so often we go, no, no, truth is. Truth is. Let me just give you all the answers. Religion says, here's the truth. Let me give you the answers. Let me give you the answers. Jesus's life because he was a cup of grace and truth. He's always the guy who would ask the question, even with Peter. Wow, bro. Okay, so you don't know me, huh? You don't know me, huh? You don't know? No. He's like, hey, do you love me? Like, he would talk to people who were needing healing, come to them, and goes, hey, what do you want for me to do to you? He's like, what do you mean, what do I want? I'm blind. Like, what do I mean? What are you saying? And then Jesus would say things like, oh, hey, what's better for me to say that you're forgiven or you're healed and people are going, what are you talking about?
[00:30:03] Because for Jesus, the life that he was calling us to live is a life that's full of realizing the truth of your situation lies not in your feelings. It lies in you asking the question, deeper questions. So if you and I are gonna get to a place where we begin to ask and search the truth, it moves us more away from my truth to, like, what is true. Your emotions are so real and they should be expressed. But we have to move from just what is your reality to what is actually real. So when you talk, when we interact with people, the way we can do this. I know you feel this, but is there a better way? I know you feel like you can never overcome this. I know you feel that there's no way you can surpass this or turn this situation around. I know that you feel like this is it. You've done the one thing, the unpardonable sin. You have done it. It's all over. You're never gonna be worthy. It's never. It's all. You'll always be a failure. You'll always do this. You struggle with this, and you struggle with this again and again and again and you're never gonna be this person. You're never gonna be this person. And is that. That is your truth and your reality. But then there's a truth of Jesus which is filled with what? Filled with what? Grace that says, hey, hey. But you're not your worst moment. You are not your addiction.
[00:31:33] You're not your insecurities. You are more than that, Peter.
[00:31:39] You're more than this. You're more than this. You're more than this. And I'm going to. I'm. I'm going to. I'm going to come at you with grace and truth. I wonder, what would our church look like, right? What would churches look like if we had. We practice grace and truth, and we can't remove. We can't. We can't separate them. We can't be like, oh, no, we're all grace, grace, grace, grace, grace. No, that's lawlessness. Doesn't even make sense. No, no, no, no, no. Grace and truth. And for some of us, you've never lived that way. You never interacted with that way. You don't have language for that. And so this is why we learn together as a church. We learn to be people who go, you know what? We want to be a community that says, hey, we're going to allow people to grow, to grow with us, to be there, man. For some of us, grace is so missing in our. In our relationships, which is so interesting to me because I don't know about you, but, I mean, we're all growing. Like, I was listening to a podcast last week. I was actually listening to my own podcast last week. Just. Just okay. I was. I was okay, because I had started one, like, 2019, and I'm restarting it anyways, but I was, like, going back and listening to it, and I was like, oh, okay, Pretty good. Okay. And then I thought. Then I thought. Then I thought, who is this guy?
[00:33:00] Who is this guy? And I thought, wow, who was I? 2019, do you know?
[00:33:08] I don't know about you, but you're different now.
[00:33:12] 2019, you'd not gone through a global pandemic.
[00:33:16] It has fundamentally changed you. Some of you for the better. Some of you were praying for you.
[00:33:23] It's changed you. Has changed you. We are growing, friends. We are growing. How could we not have grace for each other?
[00:33:32] There is no growth without grace.
[00:33:35] There's no growth without grace. And there is no. There's no reality without truth. And so, friends, how about we do this? How about we. We. We move in that direction this week, allow ourselves to Ask the question, am I a soft place of grace and truth? Because my challenge to you is you need to be a soft place for your kids, for your friends, for your co workers, for your siblings, for strangers on the street. You need to be a soft place of what? Grace and truth. And if you do that, you'll be full of what Jesus is. You'll be full of Jesus. You'll be Jesus to them. And so that's my prayer for us. You pray for us? Can we do that? Let's pray together. Lord God, thank you.
[00:34:34] Thank you, God, that you're challenging us to be people who are like you.
[00:34:39] God, I thank you that you are this God who challenges us not to be who we think we are, but to ask ourselves who we could be.
[00:34:49] You challenge us, God, to think about the kinds of relationships that we could have. Lord God, not the ones we do have. God, you challenge us to move away from this idea of the voices that seem like truth, that there are negative voices that say, you know, you'll never. You'll never. And you'll always. And you'll always.
[00:35:12] God, I pray that you would come in your grace and truth in our lives. Because grace and truth changes us. It changed Peter and the disciples, God, they gave their lives for you after that. So God, I pray as you are restoring us. God, I just pray. I pray. I pray, God, that you would allow us to experience that as well. God, we just thank you so much. We thank you so much. In Jesus name, amen. Thanks for listening to this message from Mosaic church in Charlotte, North Carolina. For more audio and video content, visit us at MosaicChurch TV.
