Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hey, guys, this is naive. And you've reached the Mosaic Church podcast. So excited that you're part of our listening community, and I'd 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 to 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 if 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.
[00:00:39] 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 and enjoy.
[00:00:58] Good morning.
[00:01:01] Yes. Good to be here. Obviously, the great weekend to come to church because you're kicking off a brand new series. Like we said, pick a side. Yeah. Now, not to trigger anybody, you're like, all right, I've already had to pick sides. It feels like everything we do right now is picking a side. But listen, we're going to have some fun with this. And also we. We got to talk about this. For example, we all love picking sides, right? Okay. How many of you would say you're like more of a dessert? You know, like sweet. Sweet versus salty. Any. Any salty people in the house?
[00:01:32] Any sweet people in the house?
[00:01:35] Any. Both people in the house?
[00:01:38] Yeah. You guys just like to eat? Who likes just to eat?
[00:01:41] You're like, I don't even care. I don't even care. I don't even care. Yeah, we love picking sides, though. I mean, we have our teams and. And because picking aside, you know, we get to, like, there's a little friendly competition. Feels like we're part of a community. It also gives us a little bit of identity. Right.
[00:01:55] I'm this people. I'm this kind of. This is my team. There's a sense of community, identity. The problem, though, is that because our culture baits us to big sides and we love it, sometimes it puts us against some things or makes us pick sides either when it comes to power politics or. Or policies, when it comes to doctrine or religion theologies out there. And then it makes us, like, get into groups, and it's not that great because when you pick the wrong side or you pick a side, it becomes your identity. And the problem is that it's like picking A side is fundamentally, when it comes to those kinds of extremes, like opposing the teachings of Jesus. And so here's what we're going to do, actually. We're not going to talk about politics or talk about theology and all that. What we're gonna do is we're gonna talk about what side would Jesus pick? And we're gonna go to Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith, and we're gonna lean into, like, his teachings and his ways. And how would. What side would he be on? And what would he actually come against? Like, if there was. If he was gonna come against something, what would he pick? And today I want you to pick love, because we're gonna be talking about.
[00:03:06] This is the. This is what you need. You to pick. Pick either fear or what? Or what? Love. Okay. How many? Team fear.
[00:03:14] Yeah. No one would. Right? I know. Yeah. Thank you. One honest guy. Yeah. Stressed out. Yes.
[00:03:22] Anxiety people. Who. My Anxiety people in the house. Okay. Okay. Okay. No. Okay. This is going the wrong direction. Okay.
[00:03:29] Okay. Team love. Team love.
[00:03:31] Yeah. Of course you would. Of course you would. Of course you would. You don't do it, though. You don't pick love. We don't pick love. Listen, listen. I love the idea of love. I'm Pakistani. If you don't know anything about Pakistan, we're next to India and we're next to Bollywood, and I grew up in Bollywood. And if you don't know anything about Bollywood industry, it's all about love stories.
[00:03:52] And every movie is a musical.
[00:03:57] Every movie is a musical. Okay. So we love. We got this. Actually, you want to learn this cool word in Urdu?
[00:04:04] Yeah, a couple of words. Okay. The word for love in Urdu is piar.
[00:04:09] You want to say it, say it. Piar. Pierre sounds French.
[00:04:15] Okay. And the word for fear is hof.
[00:04:19] I know, right? Just kind of gives you that vibe. Like what?
[00:04:23] Yeah. So my question is, do you. Even though we want to pick love, do we pick love? And some of us. We do. We do. You're here. You want to learn. I get that. But I think we're challenged by it. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to go through a couple of scriptures.
[00:04:37] We're going to be kind of not all over the place. We're going to be in the New Testament. The good thing is it's all the scriptures are in the app and you can follow along. In fact, there are resources for this series as well at the end of the. The verses in the app. And so you can look at those. Because we want to resource you guys in the topics that we talk about. So we're going to talk about fear versus love. And the first passage of scripture. We're going to go to is First John, First John 4:18.
[00:05:08] It says, There is no fear in what love, but perfect love. What drives out fear?
[00:05:16] Because fear has to do with what punishment. And the one who fears is not made what perfect in love. Let's break this down just a little bit. What is he talking about? What's he saying here? So I was thinking, as I was thinking about this, I thought about the fact that, like, I don't know if you have this, but I have. I have a. I have a couple of pieces in my closet. Okay. You know, clothes. I have a couple of things in my closet that.
[00:05:42] That I walk by. And I know this. I know they don't fit anymore. They don't, they don't.
[00:05:48] But I just feel like one day they will. You know what I'm saying?
[00:05:52] Anybody else can relate to that? Yeah, you can. Yeah, you can. You got something. And it's too.
[00:05:58] It's too. It's too tight, sweetie. It's too tight. It's too tight. But you're like, I'm gonna make it work.
[00:06:05] I'm gonna make it work.
[00:06:06] You know, Spanx it up. I'm gonna make it work. I'm gonna put it on. I'm gonna. Going to figure it out. It's going to work, it's going to work. It's just too tight. And you know, the thing with tight clothes is that even though they look fine and all that, sometimes they're actually cozy because they kind of make you think about a memory or something. Or you're like, I like the way they kind of look. The problem with that, though, is that they're very limiting.
[00:06:28] Very, very limiting. Like, they're very limiting. I mean, honestly, when something is a little too tight and you know this. You know this sitting, just sitting around doing nothing is still, what? Uncomfortable? You're like, get me out of this. And then when you just get a little hot and a little sweaty, oh, my goodness.
[00:06:48] Now it's like caked on. You're like, ah, I can't get it out. Why am I talking about this? I feel, I think, I believe that fear is like that.
[00:06:58] Fear used to be something that fit.
[00:07:02] When you were younger. Fear fit.
[00:07:04] Fear was necessary.
[00:07:06] You needed some kind of fear, you know, stranger danger. We kind of need fear. But now you're older, it doesn't fit anymore.
[00:07:16] It feels good. Though you're like, ah, it makes me, it gives me sense of security. For sure it does.
[00:07:23] Because I worry. Worry actually helps me, I don't know, manage my anxiety. I don't know, you kind of put it on a little bit. But the problem is with fear, it's not a stretchy material. You know what I'm saying?
[00:07:33] By the way, God bless whoever made stretchy material.
[00:07:38] It's not that it's confining and in fact, fear is the one thing that it's limiting your potential, your reach, your extent.
[00:07:46] It's limiting you. You might think it's opportunity or people in your life. No, it's actually fear.
[00:07:51] And fear is something that we subconsciously pick and we don't even realize it. Why? Because it seems to be very comfortable, it seems to be very familiar. And we just take it on because it gives us a sense of feeling of like, oh, but it's not. And here the scriptures tell us that fear, the only way to get rid of fear, is not what you think it is. Like, for example, like, how do you take out fear? And in religious circles we've always been told that the way you remove fear, the way you take off fear, is you take it with faith. You take it out with faith. No, man, no fear. You gotta have faith.
[00:08:30] You got the T shirt. Fearless, fearless. We gotta do that. Why? Because people go, hey, you just gotta believe.
[00:08:37] You gotta just believe, man. You gotta trust. You gotta have faith, man. Faith. Because in religious circles and especially in Christianity, sometimes it seems like faith is the solution to fear in our lives.
[00:08:52] But it's not. Faith is sticky. It's sticky. Have you ever tried to take a T shirt off that's tight and you're sweating?
[00:09:01] It's impossible.
[00:09:03] It's like you need someone else to help you. This is a two man job here. You gotta be like, get this out of here.
[00:09:10] Sometimes fear in our lives is stuck so much and becomes so much part of our identity. Because we were raised in it, we were parented by fear. It's so tight around us and it's like it's just part of who we are that you need something else. And here the scriptures tell us what it says. Perfect love casts out fear. Tammy, can we go back to that verse again? I want to refocus on this again. It says there is no fear in love. But what perfect love drives out fear. Fear. The only way you're gonna remove kick out fear is not by faith. Because faith is the opposite of fear. It is not the solution.
[00:09:48] God's Love is the solution to our fear. It's God's love that removes fear in our lives. And the verse here is talking about the fact that we need to understand something, that sometimes we worry about things. It's connected to the reality that we do not fundamentally believe that God loves us. He says perfect love drives up fear, but the problem is that some of us are not made perfect in go God's love. In fact, the writer keeps on going and he says something else in the next verse, and let's put that up, and he says, we love. We get to love because what he what first loved us, the effect of us being loving person was caused by God. God loved us and awakened love in us, and now we get to love.
[00:10:40] Parents do that. You awaken things in your child.
[00:10:43] God loved us first, and it awakens love. And for so many of you, you're like, I just want to get rid of fear and I just gotta believe and I gotta have faith. No, no, no, no, no. Sometimes you need something not inside of you. You need something bigger than you, and God's love is bigger than you. And fundamentally, you gotta wrestle with this. Do you believe that God's got you?
[00:11:04] Cause if you don't, then you and I will consistently pick fear, worry, anxiety in our lives. Even though. Even though we want to pick love, we will pick. When it comes to our conversations, people in our life, we will continue to do that. So how do we do this? How do we. How do we figure this out? Well, we gotta define what love is. What is the kind of love that God is talking about? So let me read you a passage in First Corinthians 13. And some of you guys are like, I know this passage. Some of you guys like, it was the last time I read this passage. Well, it was on my wedding. We read it in my wedding. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what it was. Okay, Forgot about it. But let's just read this.
[00:11:46] And this is. This is painful. This is painful because it seems like, oh, it's so sweet. It's so sweet. Right? But let me just read it. It says God. Sorry, love is what? Love is what? Patient. Oh, right. So sweet.
[00:11:59] Love is what?
[00:12:02] Right? It does not envy.
[00:12:06] It does not boast well. Oh, it's not what.
[00:12:13] It does not dishonor others on social media. Okay.
[00:12:20] Is it is not self seeking.
[00:12:24] You picked love, by the way. I just want you guys. You guys are team love. I'm just reading you the fine print here. This is what you picked. Okay. Says it's not easily. What?
[00:12:33] That's not fair.
[00:12:36] Right?
[00:12:37] Some of us were born angry. Can I get an amen? We were just born ticked off.
[00:12:42] It was traumatic coming out of there. Okay. Anyways. Okay. Okay.
[00:12:46] It keeps no record of what.
[00:12:50] This is ridiculous.
[00:12:51] What are relationships for? Like, what.
[00:12:55] What. How are we.
[00:12:57] How can I win? Then keeps no records of wrong. There's no scoreboard.
[00:13:03] I don't play this game.
[00:13:06] Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.
[00:13:10] All right, I can do that. Okay.
[00:13:13] Okay, now, extreme language here. It always what?
[00:13:19] Always trusts, always hopes, always what perseveres. Love fails. Oh, you still want to pick love?
[00:13:33] Fear is so much easier.
[00:13:36] Pick love. This. This is tough. And you know what's. What's really great about this passage, though, what gives me a little bit, like, you know, comfort, is the guy who wrote this.
[00:13:45] Here's why. Because when I read this, I'm like, ah, this is going to be really hard for me. This is. This is tough. This is tough. But then I figure out, then I realize who wrote this. This guy who wrote this was named Paul. He was actually named Saul back in the day before he converted to Jesus. And back before that, he was Saul, the guy who persecuted the church. He was okay with causing pain to other people. He, in fact, was complicit in a murder as well. He was all about eradicating. It didn't matter how he did it. He. He was okay with violence. He was like, I want to get rid of this Jesus movement. He did this so much that he was feared. He was feared by the early church, this guy. Definitely. When they thought of Paul, they didn't think, oh, he is the love guy.
[00:14:31] No, he is the, what, fear guy. He is the guy who everybody's afraid of. In fact, they were hiding from him. In one instance, this guy who's Jesus, God tells him to go see the. This guy. And he's like, do you know who this guy is? Like, he's telling God. I don't know if you read the memo here, but this guy, like, he's known. He's known for killing people. He's known.
[00:14:55] He's okay with violence. This is the guy who pens this.
[00:14:59] Cause something happened one day, and Jesus showed up on a journey that he was on and told him this and asked him, why.
[00:15:11] Why are you persecuting me? Why are you okay with causing pain?
[00:15:15] Why are you okay with that? And Radley changed his life. And then he writes this.
[00:15:20] He writes this. So if you feel like, oh, I'm a name I'm not. I don't know if this is. This is tough for me. I get you. There are some people you're like, I get this because some of you were just born nice.
[00:15:32] We don't like you. You were born nice.
[00:15:35] You're just nice. You're just nice.
[00:15:39] You know, I'm saying, you're just nice.
[00:15:44] Your face always is what. It's a resting nice face.
[00:15:49] Others of us not gonna say it, not gonna say it. We're just. It's just tough for us. It's tough for us. Good news.
[00:15:57] We can pick it, though. We get to pick it.
[00:16:00] So here's the big question. Then here's what I want you to wrestle with.
[00:16:05] Knowing that God's love awakens love in you. Knowing that God's love, when you understand it, when you realize that he's got you, he loves you unconditionally. When you have that big question is, when it comes to how you lead, how you do business, how you interact with people, how you interact socially on social media, what does God's love require of you?
[00:16:32] The way God loves you, what does that kind of love require of you?
[00:16:37] What would God's love do?
[00:16:39] What would it do?
[00:16:41] How would it change the moment? How would it change the conversation? How would it. How would it reframe the kind of things that you're thinking about right now? The decision you have to make concerning these people or this person?
[00:16:53] What would God. What would God's love say?
[00:16:56] I mean, you're team love, right? So what would God's love say? What would it. How would it act?
[00:17:03] What would it do?
[00:17:05] The great thing about Jesus is, is that when he talks about these things, he's actually pretty practical about him. So let me just go through a couple of things. The first thing is, is he tells us how to act, how to pick love when it comes to strangers. So with strangers. With strangers, I believe God says, hey, here's how you pick love. You pick. What's that word? You pick what, Empathy. You pick empathy. Empathy is an interesting word because it's not like sympathy. Sympathy says, I've been in the same. Similar situation. I get you. I've been there. I've done that. It's hard. I get it. Empathy says, I don't get it.
[00:17:41] I don't get it. I don't know you. I'm not in your world. You're different. Different.
[00:17:46] You know, I'm not Pakistani, Naim.
[00:17:48] You know, I'm different, but I get it. I understand. I'm leaning in a little bit. I have empathy for you. I'm moving towards you regardless, even though you are strange to me.
[00:18:00] Fear says, stranger, what danger?
[00:18:03] Get away, stay away. So Jesus tells a story explaining how to love people who are different from you, who are distant from you. And the guy asks him, what about the greatest commandment? He says, you know, love your neighbor as yourself and God. And the guy says, well, who is my neighbor? Because he's talking about, he wants to know, what do you do with strangers? What do you do with people who are not in your circle?
[00:18:27] And Jesus tells the story. He's like, well, here's a story for you. He makes up a story. The story is that there's a guy who gets robbed on the road, on a journey. And religious people, Jewish people. He's Jewish. The Jewish people walk by and they're like, because they don't know him.
[00:18:42] And then a Samaritan, a guy who's different from them, he walks by and he actually helps him, even though he's kind of a world away from him there. He's not in the same circle, he's not in the same class. He's not in the same neighborhood, a different part of town. Yeah, he's different. Okay, he's different.
[00:19:01] And then Jesus says this, he says in Luke 10, he concludes, he says, in your opinion, which one of these three acted like a neighbor towards the man attacked by robbers?
[00:19:14] And the teacher of the law answered, he says, well, the one who was what?
[00:19:18] Who was kind.
[00:19:20] Empathy, who was kind to him. And Jesus replied, this. What he say. He says, you go then and what?
[00:19:29] Do the same. You want to. You want to pick your teen love, then pick love. Do that same thing. Do the same thing. Malcolm Gladwell, he's a well known writer, researcher, scholar, I would say. And he wrote a book several years ago called Talking to Strangers. Great book. And in fact the book addresses a lot of things. But one of the things that I got from it is because he was talking about how does law enforcement interact with just civil society?
[00:20:04] How do you train officers? How do you train law enforcement people to interact with people or certain people groups in a way that doesn't turn into like mass chaos, which we've seen that there's so much miscommunication that takes place because tensions are very high and in stressful situations and their job is so stressful because. Because they don't know. And fear plays a big part of it. Why? Because it's like, there's a lot of like, I'm not quite sure, I'm not Quite sure. And they're. Everybody's coming together. And how do you do that? And we know. We know that in our world there are times where, like, it's gotten really bad, really bad when it comes to law enforcement and people.
[00:20:44] And so he presents this premise and basically says that it's not really the better training.
[00:20:52] He says it's not procedures, it's not policies, it's not like programs that we need to fix.
[00:21:01] He makes the case that it's proximity.
[00:21:04] Proximity changes everything. He said, if you can get two of those groups together, just together, the problem is distance.
[00:21:14] Because when something is strange, it's other than you. It's easy to. To have doubts about them. See, that's what happens, right? So when you and I look at strangers out there and we're like, they're not in my world. I don't know anything about them. They're so different from them. I have no. I can't have any sympathy for them. It says, pick empathy. Picks leaning in. Move towards them. Figure out what's going on. Because proximity changes the deal. Because distance does the opposite. Fear says, go away, stay away, stay away.
[00:21:46] Mind your own business, do your thing.
[00:21:48] It's not your problem to solve. You just do your thing and you keep on going. And distance creates doubt, Doubt creates distrust.
[00:21:58] And distrust friends justifies my prejudice.
[00:22:05] It does, it does. It. Justifies it. Why? Because I don't know, you like your world. You guys are Americans.
[00:22:13] What are you guys? What are you doing?
[00:22:15] If I keep my. If I stay in my own world here, if I don't stay in my own world, I just. I have this idea of, like, eventually I can justify why I prejudge you, but if I change the distance, if I'm now in your world, if I'm walking towards your pain, it changes everything. So picking love means you pick empathy. And empathy means you move towards the stranger, the other, the person who's not in your world and not in your circle, not in your neighborhood.
[00:22:47] Secondly, I think when Jesus even talks about, how do you pick love when it comes to your enemies?
[00:22:54] Enemies, yes. How do you pick love when it comes to your enemies? So when it comes to enemies, God wants you to what?
[00:23:04] To pick what?
[00:23:05] Pick. To reflect. Let's see, reflect what? Who?
[00:23:10] Okay, you guys are like, I don't want to even say it. I don't really want to say it. I am totally ignoring that. I can't see with your enemies. I have a blind spot. I don't rage. That's it. Like with my enemies, kill Them all. Like, what. What. What is the deal here? What's the deal here with the enemies? See, what's interesting about this is, like, do we really have enemies? Some of you guys are like, yes, I do.
[00:23:32] Yes, I do. I know, bro, but you think everybody's out to get you, and they are. Okay, you see what's happening here?
[00:23:40] See what's happening here? And you know what's interesting about this is, like, is that we don't understand that this is a great opportunity for us to be so different, to stand out so much as the people of Jesus.
[00:23:58] Like, it's the one thing we can do. You're like, no, no, we can.
[00:24:02] No, it's not about our prosperity or how cool we are, how excellent we are, how smart we are. No, the one thing that changes the game, the one thing that tells the world that we know Jesus and follow Jesus, that we're his disciples, is the way we love one another. It's the way we love.
[00:24:24] And so Jesus says, hey, I want to change the game for you. And see what he did here. I want to read you. This passage really did ruffle some feathers here because back in the day, they were okay with enemies, and I feel like we are also okay with enemies here.
[00:24:40] In Matthew, Jesus is recorded saying this. He says, you have heard the law that says, love your neighbor and what, Hate your enemies. And you're like, amen, Amen. I like that law.
[00:24:56] That is Old Testament.
[00:24:58] That's Old Testament stuff. He's like, I know you've been taught that with your Torah, with your Bible.
[00:25:05] And this is what this. This is what ticked off some people. He. The next word after that, he says, what?
[00:25:12] But I say, ho, ho, ho. What do you mean, what you say?
[00:25:18] The whole our old Jewish Bible says, hate him, kill them all. I mean, we justify killing all kinds of people.
[00:25:26] He says. I say, what?
[00:25:30] Love your enemies, Pray for those who persecute you, who cause you pain. Pretty much in the same way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight both to the evil and the what good. He sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love those who love you, whoop de do.
[00:25:55] Oh, sorry, that is not it. How do you spell whoop de do anyways? Okay, okay.
[00:26:01] It says, what does it really say? It says, what reward is there for that? He said, you want a consolation prize?
[00:26:10] You want a participation award?
[00:26:13] What do you want to do? What do you want?
[00:26:16] Big deal. You love the people you love because they love you. Back.
[00:26:21] He says, no, you're different. You want to be like God. You want to reflect God. You want to pick love, be different.
[00:26:27] Being different means you love your enemies. Here, my friends, here's the problem. Problem is that when we become people who are led by our enemies led by our enemies, we are people who are always guarded.
[00:26:38] We always have preloaded responses. We're always on the offensive or the defensive. Have you met or have a conversation with people? They just want to fight.
[00:26:47] You're like, why you want to fight with me? They want to argue about everything. You're like, dude, I'm good.
[00:26:53] Because somehow it makes sense to them. Because here's how, what motivates them.
[00:26:58] Like, they need an enemy, whoever it is, maybe Satan, maybe you one day, I don't know, the world, the government, the man, whoever, they need an enemy to motivate them.
[00:27:13] They need to get mad about something before they will ever make a move.
[00:27:18] And they need to get upset, really upset before they take the next step.
[00:27:25] I don't.
[00:27:27] You might be. You might be being. You might be being led by fear.
[00:27:34] I don't think it's love doesn't. Love doesn't do that.
[00:27:39] Love does something different.
[00:27:41] Loves, and it's complicated, but God does it.
[00:27:46] You gotta, you gotta, you gotta. You gotta pick that. You, you, you have to do that.
[00:27:52] And God doesn't have something to prove. That's why he doesn't want to fight with you. Because if he fought with you, he would win. Every time he does, he walks away from fights.
[00:28:04] I got nothing to prove you are wrong. But I don't need to tell you you are wrong.
[00:28:12] But I'm not going to tell you. I don't need to tell you.
[00:28:15] Sometimes we just feel like we need to pick love, reflect God. All right, third in uncertainty.
[00:28:25] Uncertainty.
[00:28:28] Uncertainty. How do you pick love?
[00:28:31] The most loving thing to do in uncertain situations. How do you do that? The reason why this is important is because when it comes to uncertain situations, the one thing that really wants to lead us, really wants to lead us is. Is anybody know fear? Fear, anxiety, stress in our lives?
[00:28:52] It wants to. It wants to do that. And it's to continually start talking in uncertainty. Your mind starts talking to you more than anybody else. You know that, right? It starts telling you, hey, let's figure this out. Let's solve this. Let's solve this, let's solve this now. Pastor Christian just came out with a book, actually is coming out with a great book called the Other side of Certainty. Definitely get it, okay?
[00:29:13] But the idea Though, is. Is that we want. We love figuring things out. And here's the problem.
[00:29:19] Here's the problem. Here's what happens when you want to figure things out. Because, you know, if I just figure this out, I feel good about it.
[00:29:26] Then you end up thinking a whole lot of things. And have you ever met someone who just loves a good conspiracy theory?
[00:29:33] They just love it. They get off on it. They're like, oh, my God, you know, you know, you know. And you're like, how do you have so much time to do this?
[00:29:44] Really? You're like, I was. This podcast, this doc. I'm like, what the. What are you doing, bro?
[00:29:51] Why? Why? Because they're used to now trying to figure things out. They're trying to figure out ideas. That means they're trying to plan out some things and all that. They are conspiring, and it becomes conspiracy. And it's. The problem is not having theories. The problem is, is that you end up being controlled with what you don't have, what you don't know. Imagine living a life being led by things. Just a lack, always a lack, Always, like, not having enough. And some of you guys know people like that. Some of you guys have walked into that.
[00:30:31] You're just being led by that. And. And love says no, no. In uncertainty. In uncertainty. I want you to pick a word that I made up.
[00:30:41] It's a word. It's called what? Spirit control. Let me explain why I made this up, okay? Second Timothy says here, says for the spirit of God, that the spirit that God has given us does not make us timid.
[00:30:56] Does not make it timid. Doesn't make us naive. No. The spirit that God gives us, instead, his spirit fills us with what power? And then love and self control, which I call spirit control. It gives us that you can choose to be led by the Holy Spirit. So very practical thing to do is when you're walking into an uncertain situation, conversation moment, you're not quite sure what to do.
[00:31:29] Don't be led by fear.
[00:31:32] What if I mess up? What if I say something? Have you ever rehearsed a conversation and then had the conversation?
[00:31:40] And then after the conversation, you're driving and you're like, this is what I should have said.
[00:31:45] This is what I should have said.
[00:31:48] And you just keep on doing that.
[00:31:50] And you're led by your fear and anxiety. You're led by that. And here, all you got to do is, like, walking into these situations. You got to go, holy Spirit, would you just talk to me? Would you take over? Would you take Over.
[00:32:04] I can't tell you how many times I just prayed that prayer. Just whisper it under my breath. Could you just take over?
[00:32:11] Just make this make sense.
[00:32:13] I don't even know what I'm gonna say.
[00:32:15] Just help me. Help me make sense.
[00:32:19] In uncertain times, we can choose to be led. Not by our lack, no by the gift that we've been given. And that's the Holy Spirit. All right, last one.
[00:32:31] Last one. In crisis. In crisis. In crisis. I want you to pick faith.
[00:32:37] Picking love means you pick to believe. In crisis. When things happen and you're like, I'm not quite sure what we're going to do here.
[00:32:48] In crisis, when it just feels like this is about to take you out.
[00:32:52] In crisis, where you're not just stressed, you have a panic attack, you have something like.
[00:33:00] You're like, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do.
[00:33:06] I'm not quite sure. I'm not quite sure.
[00:33:08] Obviously, you can get help for that professionally as well. When it comes to, like, major attacks, when it comes to a crisis, you're like, I just don't know.
[00:33:19] God wants you to pick faith. And I. And when I. When I say faith, here's the context of it. So Mark four, the story where Jesus is on a boat with disciples and a storm hits. A storm hits, okay? And Jesus is not.
[00:33:37] He's not on the boat. He's downstairs or whatever. He's just kind of hanging out. And they figure out that he's sleeping. He's sleeping. So Mark writes this. He says, jesus. Jesus. When they were looking for him, Jesus was in the back of the boat sleeping with his head on a pillow. Thanks, Mark. Jesus had a favorite pillow, too. Okay, got it. Okay. And the disciples did what?
[00:34:00] They woke him up. Come on, man. No, don't wake up people, especially from a nap.
[00:34:05] Like a Sunday afternoon, Saturday afternoon nap. That's the best.
[00:34:09] See what I'm saying? Woke him up. It says, teacher. Okay? And then what do they say? They're like. They didn't say, hey, there's a storm. They say, what?
[00:34:18] Don't you care that we're about to die?
[00:34:22] What?
[00:34:23] What? Jesus stood up, commanded the winds be quiet, and he said to the waves, be still. The wind died down, and there was a great calm. Then. Then Jesus says to his disciples, the last thing he heard from them was this.
[00:34:38] Teacher, what? You don't. Don't you care that we are about to what?
[00:34:44] Die? That is what he heard from them.
[00:34:46] And so he responds after he talks to the Wind.
[00:34:50] He goes, why are you. Why are you frightened?
[00:34:57] And they're like, what do you mean? Why are you frightened? And then he says, do you still.
[00:35:02] Still have no faith?
[00:35:04] The best way to translate that actually is you still don't believe I love you.
[00:35:14] You still don't believe I care about you.
[00:35:17] Because you started the conversation, by the way. I was dreaming.
[00:35:22] It's a good dream. And you start off the conversation saying you don't care. See, here's what happens when we are in crisis.
[00:35:30] The first thing we say to God, either verbally or mentally, you don't care.
[00:35:37] If you cared, this would not be happening.
[00:35:41] You just don't care.
[00:35:45] And Jesus is like, you think. You think that I'm going to watch you drown.
[00:35:55] Like, that's what he's asking disciples. You think I'm gonna watch you drown?
[00:35:59] I mean, I walk on water, and when I nap, I float on water.
[00:36:04] But I'm gonna watch you drown, though.
[00:36:07] See, sometimes we lose all this faith and belief that God loves us, that God's for us, and his word is true, that even though it's a crisis and things fall apart and we have loss to the end, he's gonna make it right, right again.
[00:36:22] So pick faith, pick faith. Pick to believe.
[00:36:28] Not the lies that you don't matter, that God's gonna abandon you. You're not important. You're gonna drown. This thing is gonna take you out. This is gonna be the end of you. Don't believe those.
[00:36:45] Pick love. And when you pick love, you pick to believe that God is true to what he says.
[00:36:53] So what does God's love require of you? How are you going to be people of love? How are we going to be people of love?
[00:37:02] We have to ask ourselves, what does God's love require of me? In this moment, this week, in my conversations, what would love do?
[00:37:14] What would it say? How would it act?
[00:37:17] Because at the end of the day, I want to pick love.
[00:37:22] I don't want to pick fear.
[00:37:24] That's my prayer. Let me pray for you.
[00:37:27] Lord. God, thank you so much for our time. Thank you for this conversation. God, would you lead us, Holy Spirit, would you lead us as we respond this morning as we go to the cross or go light a candle or receive communion? If you just sit and ponder, God, as we respond, would you speak to us?
[00:37:46] Would you allow us to really be challenged by all of who you are?
[00:37:56] Would you move us, God?
[00:38:00] And God, I just pray against all the lies, the war words, the thoughts, God, the fear seems to scream at us at times.
[00:38:09] I pray you silence those with your love.
[00:38:13] Silence those with your love.
[00:38:16] Let your love literally come into our souls. Pick up fear and throw it out.
[00:38:24] Cast it out. God, I pray.
[00:38:26] I pray that, God, you would do something supernatural in a couple of moments, something that will change us forever.
[00:38:34] That's my prayer.
[00:38:37] Thanks for listening to this message from Mosaic church in Charlotte, North Carolina. For more audio and video content, visit us at MosaicChurch TV.
