Presence Over Perfection - Pastor Kristin Mockler Young

[00:00:01] Speaker A: 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. [00:00:10] Speaker B: So check out our website. [00:00:11] Speaker A: 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] Speaker B: Good morning. Good morning, Mosaic. So glad to be with you. Not just because it's my birthday weekend. Thank you, Queenisha, shouting that out, but also because I wasn't actually sure if I was going to make it today. So just a few hours ago, I was actually in Ohio at the Ohio airport. Yep. Literally just a couple hours ago, praying that nothing would happen to the flight that I was on from Cincinnati to Charlotte, as it was the only flight from Cincinnati to Charlotte, and if I missed it, I would have had to drive literally all night. So luckily, the flight was fine. I made it. I'm here. Really glad to be with you guys today, but I cannot believe. I always. When my birthday hits, I'm like, oh, it's August this week. Like, what happened to Summer? What happened to Summer? I don't know about you, but maybe it's the teacher brain in me, but when August hits, I'm like, well, back to school. Summer's over. I guess I missed my opportunity to do all of the things that I wanted to do this summer because I've done none of them. Anybody feel that tension between, like, the things that you want to be doing but then also being pulled to the places where you need to be? Have you felt that this summer, this morning, you are in the right place that you need to be? So congratulations. Round of applause for you. That's good. We are in our last week of the series, you probably missed this, where we are talking about misunderstood texts in the Bible. And so today we're gonna be in the Book of Proverbs. And the Book of Proverbs is a book of wisdom. It is called Wisdom Literature, and it's gonna help us to navigate the tension that we feel between doing and being. And it's really important that you understand that Proverbs is a book of wisdom literature, because I need you to think about the Bible as a library, okay? There are lots of different types of writing, different types of books in the Bible. And sometimes you will hear people talk about reading the Bible literally. And what that means is they open it at Genesis, they read it all the way through to Revelation, applying it the same all the way through. That is not actually what it was intended to be used for. And so what we want to do instead is read the Bible literarily according to the type of literacy, the type of book that it is, not assuming that it all has the same intention. And so this book of Proverbs has an accumulation of insight that God's people have passed down through generations. And it's written up in these, like, fun, catchy little catchphrases, because that's how we get the point across, right? We come up with things that are a lot easier than just, like, rambling off a paragraph of something so that when people need wisdom in real time, the hope is that then they can tap into that catchy little phrase. So, as Proverbs 26 tells us, for example, a proverb quoted by fools is as limp as a. What, wet noodle? Y' all are like, you made that up. I didn't. You can look it up. Basically, what this means is without the right interpretation, these sayings are kind of useless. So it's really important that we look at them in context. And maybe you understand this. Maybe you have your own collection of sayings or phrases or things that you use. I know in our house, I use the phrase read the room quite often. And what I'm not saying to my children is literally look around and, like, start citing off the signage and, like, reading the text that you see. But I really wish you would, like, pick up on the vibe that your sister is having a meltdown right now, and maybe we could show up with a little bit of grace and not so much the sass, right? Read the room. We have these little sayings to help people tap into the wisdom that they need in the moment. And so hear me clearly. I'm not saying that the Bible is not helpful or applicable. It very much is when we apply it the right way. Are you familiar with Dr. Seuss and the book Green Eggs and Ham? Are you, after reading that book, going to go around to everyone that you know insisting that they eat weird breakfast in really odd places? You are not because that is a fiction story that you're not going to apply literally to your life. Much of the Bible is written in just the same way. So as we will see, the book of Proverbs was never meant to be a checklist or a to do list. The Hebrew word for wisdom is actually Kokmah. Say Kokmah. Kokmah. You can say it with some like, you mean it. Kokmah. What this means is not just wisdom that people would know or memorize, but it actually is an applied knowledge. And so I want you to keep that in mind as we go through Proverbs and we're gonna go to the very end. We're actually gonna go to Proverbs 31. I wanna know how many of you are familiar with the Proverbs 31 woman. Any familiarity. I know those noises are all from the ladies. Here's my next question. How many of you have been sat down and like the Proverbs 31 passage was, like, taught to you for right living? Can I see a raise of hands? That is exactly the half of room that I knew was going to be familiar with this. Okay, so here is the thing. Some of you in this room were never taught the Proverbs 31 Woman be because you are like, I am a male. And so no one was ever. This was never taught to you. For others of you, you have stayed far away from the Proverbs 31 woman because it was taught to you potentially in the context of a women's conference or something where they wanted to teach you biblical womanhood. Sidebar. Just because we put the word biblical in front of something doesn't make it great. That doesn't mean actually that we should even recreate it. There are a lot of things in the B that we should not now pull out and be like, hey, let's do this. We should not. Adding the word biblical does not change that. So unfortunately, this passage has been used out of context and the meaning has been manipulated often to control women and kind of keep them in a particular box. It's been used to tell us what we should wear and not wear, how we should look, even the type of work that is good for us, the type of home life that we should have in order to be right with God or a biblical woman. Guys in the room. Has Scripture ever been used to confine you and put you in a box? No. Weird. So weird. The problem with this interpretation, right, with having this, like, epitome of the Proverbs 31 woman to strive for, or if you're looking for a wife to try to find because she does not exist. This interpretation doesn't set us up to live in the freedom of Christ, to live fully into our unique imago DEI reflections of God in our lives, however they look, whether that is by choice or otherwise. Instead, what this interpretation did was it gave many women an inferiority complex of an unrealistic standard that they were never, ever going to measure up to. So we are going to remember that the Proverbs 31 woman is an ideal. She is a model of wisdom. She is not a real person who existed. And so, like the rest of the book of Proverbs, these verses that we're going to read were never meant to be a checklist for doing the right things. And it was never meant just for women, any more so than the stories of Moses or Abraham or Jesus were only written and meant to be applied to the men. You with me. Proverbs is for all people. So today we are all gonna learn how to root ourselves in Godly wisdom, not to complete a checklist, but to fully show up in every area of our lives. So this section of the Proverbs 31 is titled a Wife of Noble Character. And we're already gonna stop right there. We're already gonna stop the Hebrew phrase. I'm gonna teach you one more Hebrew phrase today, because wife of noble character isn't exactly the right translation. Say eschat chiel eschet chayel is what this means. And it actually translates to a woman of valor, not a wife and not noble character. So already this removes the qualification that is meant to be. You need to be a wife or a mother in order to be worthy of praise. We have already included so many more people into this wisdom. By eliminating those two roles, it also changes the meaning, because being virtuous is great. It's great to have moral excellence and embody things like kindness and honesty and goodness. But valor is something completely different altogether. Other places in the Bible where the word valor is used in Scripture, it is used to describe or armies, battles, warriors. It talks about a force and a strength in battle. So a virtue, while great and fantastic and we should have them. It's personal and it's more passive. Valor, on the other hand, is courageously active. And you know it. When it shows up, you will recognize it. I also want you to remember that this was written in a patriarchal society. So if we read this with the Hebrew intention, we will see that there's no way this woman could have actually existed. Because half of the Things that we are going to see her do, she would not have been allowed to do. She would not have had legal standing or agency or authority to do half of what we're gonna see her do and accomplish in the time and the culture that this was in. All right, so let's read now that we're all on the same page, right? Let's go ahead and read the celebration poem and see what we can learn from Lady Wisdom. It says, a wife of noble character, a woman of valor who can find no one because she's not real. Okay? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life. Her worth? Already what we're seeing is that her worth is immeasurable, not because of what she does, but because of who she is and the lives of people around her and the way that she lives her life. All right, let's keep going. She selects wool and flax and works with what kind of hands? Eager hands. She is like the merchant ships bringing her food from afar. She gets up while it is still night. She provides food for her family and portions for her female servants. Remember, we don't want to recreate all the things in the. The Bible, okay? She considers a field and buys it out of her earnings. She plants a vineyard. Now, listen, our girl, our Lady Wisdom here, she likes to work, okay? But this is not busyness. She's not doing busy work just to keep her hands occupied. What we see here is purposeful action. She isn't waiting for perfect conditions. She is showing up. She is taking initiative, and she is doing what needs to be to be done. She's not waiting around for someone to give her direction, and she's not waiting around for someone else to give her permission. She is a decision maker, managing resources, taking responsibility and risks. And there's purpose in all of it. It says that she considers a field before buying it. Do you know what you have to do in order to consider something? You have to slow down, maybe stop. You have to process. You have to think about it. And then it says, out of her field, which must take some time to be able to get enough money to then invest in a vineyard. I'm not a gardener, so I don't know how this works, but I imagine she buys a field, she has to plant seeds, pull some stuff. I don't know, wait a while, rake, do something. And it's gonna take time before that field that she purchased has become profitable. All of this is showing planning over time. It's long term planning with a purpose. And I wonder how many of us are so focused on doing and accomplishing things right now that we forget to ask if we are even doing the right task, if we are doing the work that God has put before us, or if we have rushed ahead of God's pace. Because once we started going on the hamster wheel, we forgot that there's wisdom and actually slowing down to reevaluate. Maybe you are actually waiting to start because you know where God has placed you, but you're kind of hoping God will place you somewhere else instead and that's when you will start to do the work. Maybe you're waiting on direction or permission from someone else instead of trusting that if you sought the wisdom in the Lord, you to be where you are doing what you're doing, he's already given it to you. Maybe you find yourself somewhere in the middle, which is also likely and you're just kind of coasting. I wonder what would happen if you invited God in and asked him to show you the purpose in your work. And hear me, this does not matter if you are running a business, if you are a CEO, if you just kind of show up, or you work from home and you don't really interact with anybody all day, or if you are full time taking care of kids. All of these are right if they are right for you. So the work that you do is your choice. Hopefully it's your choice and it is between you and God. But if you're finding tasks that are mundane or maybe even annoying, I wonder if it's because you've forgotten the purpose in them. And I would invite you this week to ask God to show you what the purpose is in the place that God has put you. We'll continue on in verse 17. So she sets about her work vigorously. Her arms are strong for her tasks. She sees that her trading is profitable and her lamp does not go out at night. See, she doesn't sleep. This is not real life. In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers. And we learn from both Sleeping Beauty and Rumpelstiltskin that these are spinning terms for making thread. The point is not what she is doing. The point is that she's doing intense, meticulous, detailed work. So what we see here is an inner strength in this kind of wisdom. She knows what she's doing. Her arms are strong because she's done the work, she's put in the reps not just that CrossFit, but like in her experience, she had to have at some point taken the time to learn her trade and learn her craft and commit to doing it. And this is not just about physical strength. This is also mental and it's spiritual. This is the kind of resilience that only comes from taking care of yourself and women. I am going to call you out for just a moment and talk to you for just a moment. And I am also talking to myself, just so you know. Do you know that over 80% of women statistically prioritize the care of other people over their own health? You're all like, we know, skipping doctor's appointments, sacrificing your needs because all of a sudden someone else needs you and so you need to do that instead. This is not selfless or holy. It's actually unwise. Yes, your inner strength can come from God and hopefully you can rely on the Holy Spirit within you. But a huge part of caring for the people around you is also caring for yourself. It is the only way that you can be resilient and you can keep going to do the work that God has put before you in the place where you are right now. It's not about endurance and it's not about the capacity to do even more. It's also not about dominating a thing or having control, but it's about staying faithful when things get hard and overwhelming. Maybe a proverb of today would be that you can't pour from an empty cup. How many of us know that saying but continue to try to do it anyway? Where are you neglecting your own self care? Be it physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally? Because running on anything other than the Holy Spirit and tapping into the power of God is going to run out. Where is God asking you to courageously show up fully and bring your full self instead of showing up tired and depleted with nothing left to give? Let's keep going. Verse 20 says she opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy when it snows. She has no fear for her household, for all of them are clothed in scarlet. See, godly wisdom is never going to be self centered. Wisdom reflects the heart of God, so it will always turn outward in a compassionate, gentle generosity. The household in the poem and the household of the days would have had a lot of different types of people in there. It would have been not only her and her family and her children, but also the servants and the servants children, maybe other family members, maybe other people that were traveling and just happened to be staying in her household at the time, Friends, that's what hospitality is. It's inviting people into the presence of God by inviting them into what God has already given to you. So she's not just aware of the needs that are around her, but she's moving toward them, doing what she can to see them and to actively provide for them. And this doesn't have to be a big deal. You don't have to make a seven course meal in order to show up with your presence. Have you ever been in the presence of someone and already just felt better? Like you're like, oh, just being with you is like everything that I needed. That's what happens when we show up with our presence, when we can bring the presence of God into a room or a conversation. Sometimes people are just looking for home. They need to be comforted, they need to be accepted, they need to be affirmed. They just need to be seen in that moment. And that's what we see happening. She was likely tangibly doing things to meet needs, but. But also with her compassion and her empathy and the way that she showed up, the way she engaged and talked to people. I love that line that we just read that said she opened her arms to the poor and extended her hands to the needy. Is this not exactly what we see Jesus teaching and doing over and over and over again in his lived out life? So who Maybe the question we need to ask is on the margins of your periphery that God might be asking you to notice as you look around, Are you tempted to kind of protect your own comfort? Or are you willing to extend compassion and care to the people that need it? Where could God be pushing you to be compassionately generous when fear is telling you to just hunker down for your own? Keep going in. Verse 22, says she makes coverings for her bed. She is clothed in fine linen and purple. Her husband is respected at the city gate where he takes his seat among the elders of the land. She makes linen garments and sells them and supplies the merchants with sashes. She is clothed with strength and dignity and can laugh at the days to come. It's the last line of this one that gets me. I was like, strength. I have that dignity. I'm pretty sure I have that. I think I do. Laughing at the days to come, Laughing at the future. Yeah, okay, we gotta work on that one. I have always been a writer, my whole life, since I was a kid. I've got journals from high school and college, many of which I really should just like rip some pages out or burn Absolutely. Altogether, when blogs were a thing, I had a blog. Then substacks became a thing, and I had a substack. And I'm very excited to tell you that actually this year I now am writing my first book. So excited. Not just because, like, I wanted to, but I actually got a publisher that's giving me money to do it. Yes, very exciting. It's a dream come true for sure. And so because I'm a writer, right? I was like, I got this. I've been writing my whole life. I got this. No problem. No problem whatsoever. I even told my agent when we were working on my contract, I said, tell the publisher to push up that due date. Come on, push up. I'm a writer. I got it. I got it. No worries. It was originally gonna be due at the end of November. And I was like, well, our fall is always hectic. Both my kids have birthdays, it's back to school. Marley's going to middle school holiday. Like, I'm not gonna be doing any work anyway. Tell em I'll get it done by the end of August. She's like, okay. I said, okay, great. Remember I said August is like this week. Yeah. So I've been low key, freaking out about all of the things that I still need to do and all of the words that I still need to write because I'm only just over halfway done and I have to turn this thing in in like four weeks. So I was already stressing, low key, high key, freaking out this week to God about it again. And here's what I felt like God said to me. He was like, I don't want you writing right now. And I was like, well, that's the understatement of the month, obviously, because you keep putting me in other places where I can't be doing the things that I need to do. And so I did laugh at the future. I was like thinking about giving my publisher, like a half. Done. Got it. God laughing at the future. Understand? Understand? And what I felt like God then told me, cause it takes me a couple times sometimes, is that this whole thing is actually about trust. Laughing at the future and the unknown and not knowing what's coming is actually about trust. Doing the work that God has for us is. And it's trusting that God will show up. I have to trust that not only is he gonna give me the time and the capacity and the words to do this, but that if I follow his leading and go and show up in the places that he tells me that his presence needs to be that he's not only gonna show up for other people, but he's also gonna show up for me. We have to trust that God will show up for us. Because, my friends, that's actually what faith is. It's trusting and believing in the unknowing. And so what we see in this whole model of Lady Wisdom is one of faithful presence. Wherever she shows up at the world, whether it's at home in the marketplace, whether she's doing big work or small tasks, she is bringing joy and hope of the Lord. And this only comes from a wisdom that is rooted in the identity of knowing that whoever and wherever you are, if you have the Holy Spirit within you, you have the imago dei, you have the reflection of Christ within you. Your humanity is a reflection of God himself. And so when you do enter a space, you can bring what's lacking. When you show up and you choose to be present, trusting that the presence of God is within you and he is actually going before you, then you can show up fully who you are. You can bring the beauty, the peace, the comfort that is needed in that time. You bring the strength into it with your presence. So what we have to ask is, what is the presence of other people experiencing when they're around us? Are they experiencing peace or pressure? Is it encouragement or judgment? Is it freedom or is it shame? How are we showing up in the places where God has placed us right now? And where maybe do you need to slow down so that you can be fully present instead of rushing through to do the next thing? Let's go to the next section. It says, she speaks with wisdom and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed. Her husband also, and he praises her. Many women do noble, valorous, courageous things, but you surpass them all. Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting. But a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Honor her for all that her hands have done and let her works bring her praise at the city gate. I actually love that this poem ends talking about her spouse and her kids again. Not because people need to have either of those things for value, worth, or a completion of a happy life. But it is a sign of recognition. The sign of recognition from other people is a reminder that we are not alone in the world. You have influence. All of you have influence. Not because of how you look, not because of what you've done, not because there are people around you, but because the people around you are watching you. The people around you don't give you the influence, but because they are there watching and seeing the way you live, you are influencing them with your life. When you answer God's call to courageously show up fully in every area of your life, people around you are going to wonder, how do you do that? And then you get to explain the power of the Holy Spirit and God working within you. Your integrity will elevate others. Your consistency will build trust and relationships with other people. Your wise choices will show people that there is a better way when they are tempted to follow all of the shortcuts of the world. You have influence with your speech and wisdom will help you to know not only when to speak, but when not to speak, what to say and what not to say, and when it is time to say something. How you also have influence with your awareness. Because there are things that the Holy Spirit is going to make aware to you, things that you are meant to look at that you are meant to watch over like lady wisdom. Not to dominate, not to control, and not to say, yeah, yeah, I see this, but now I'm gonna turn a blind eye. No, to watch over, to care for, to provide for, to. To acknowledge and protect. And a lot of the work that you do will go unseen. And I mean both the actual work that you're doing where God has put you right now, as well as the private work that no one knows about. I'm talking about the time that you commit to doing work that you need to do, showing up publicly in the place that God has placed you, but also the private work that is just between you and the Lord, where no one knows how often it's happening, how long it's happening, what it is God is saying to you, what it is you're saying to God back. Those are the moments of private work that nobody else can see. But I promise you, even when that work goes unseen, the impact of it will not go unseen. The impact of you committing to do the work publicly and privately is going to influence the people around you. Jesus came that we may know the heart of God, right? And that is also the reason that we are in this world. We get to show people around us who God is. So again, we have to ask ourselves, if people learn about God by watching the way that we live, what kind of God are they learning about as they watch our lives? What are they learning about God's character in the way that we show up? Whose life is being shaped by your courageous life and a person of valor? Because Again, remember, this is not Women of Valor. We are People of Valor. This applies to everyone. This is not necessarily the person with the best Bible verse in their social media bio. It's not necessarily the person that wears the biggest cross around their neck. It's not necessarily the person that has the title or even does the most outward displays of faith. A person of valor is not always the loudest and not even always the strongest warrior. But people of Valor are people who are courageous enough to be faithful in the ordinary. They are people who consistently show up to show people and the world around them what true faith and trust and belief actually looks like lived out. Let me give you an example of a couple of people of valor and what they look like. People of Valor are Chris and Meredith Miller, who this week I told you I was in Ohio. We unexpectedly had to go to Ohio for a funeral. And so my husband and I didn't know what to do with her kids, and they had to kind of be all over the place. And Chris and Meredith said, what can we do? And they were like, well, we'll take them. Just bring them here. They let us bring them on Thursday night, and they fed us dinner, like, above and beyond. We were halfway to Ohio and they were sending us pictures of the pool and pizzas and ice cream sundaes. And I was like, peter, we didn't even leave them money. We literally just said, thank you. We're so grateful. Here's our children. We have to drive to Ohio immediately. They didn't ask, they just showed up. People of Valor. Lucia also is a person of valor because my kid is one of the kids who's on the youth group trip for the very first time. And I didn't get to be here to give her a hug and to send her away. And she had no idea that I'd already been praying and a little bit, like, nervous about Marley not having a mom hug. And she told me this morning, not knowing that I'd already had this thought, hey, I saw Marlee and I got to see her before she left, and I went over and I gave her a mom hug. Person of Valor. Chrissy Torres, Anna Turpin, Quinisha, Megan, Martha, Asha. They came in this week on an evening, not because I asked them to, but they came in and spent a good number of hours cleaning all of the mkids toys, all the things that those babies chew on, all the stuff in, like, the dark little corners, the floors, all of it, organized it, labeled it. Oh, my gosh, our mkids team is so grateful not because they were asked, but because they saw a need. They were aware of something going on around them, and they decided that they could take care of it. Jess and Dennis. Sorry. You guys always make me cry. Jess and Dennis and Shelby, who was here at first service, both have sons that are in the ICU right now. They are people of valor because they are doing whatever they need to do to pray faithfully, scripture and prayers and all of these things over their sons. Also, those of you who have never even met Shelby or Jess and Dennis, but have contributed financially or provided meals, you are also people of valor because you saw the need and you were like, hey, there's people in our community, and I don't know them yet, but I know that this is what it means to be the church. And so any of you that have contributed, also people of valor, Dee and Ellen and Jay are working hard to care for immigrant communities right now. And people who are scared of about their futures, those are people of valor. Lynn has been praying over these chairs for over a decade, and no one ever sees her do it. She walks every single aisle, every row. She prays over every single chair. You have never sat in a chair at Mosaic that has not been specifically prayed for. You to come in and sit in in that day. That is a person of valor. Laws, lives in livestream, lives in Malaysia. That's where she lives in my heart. I only ever see her on livestream Laws, lives in Malaysia. She's one of our livestream hosts. She stays up past midnight to pastor and care for our livestream community and be there in the chat to pray with people and to talk to them and to build community. Person of valor Ashley Fazel has been faithfully praying for this church for over 20 years, behind the scenes when she wants to do it and when she doesn't. When it's fun and when it's really not fun. Faithfully praying for this church for over 20 years. Eschet, Chile. Person of valor. Right there, guys. You are already doing this. This is my point. I hope you can understand. You are already becoming people of valor. Eshet. Hail all of you. You are bravely fighting for what matters. You boldly carry strength and grace into everything that you're doing. I see Christlike wisdom lived out in you because you courageously show up to the places that God calls you to. You're already doing it. You're doing it. We just get to commit, to continue to do the same thing, to ask God to show us the places where maybe we need a little bit more presence. Or we need a little less doing and a little more being. And this is not gonna be prescriptive. It's not gonna be the same for. For all of us. Just know that it's already happening, so it doesn't need to be overwhelming. And God will just continue. As long as we show up in humility, ready to listen and ready to learn, he will continue to show us how to represent him well in this world. This series has been full of stories of people that have leaned on God's wisdom, people who didn't just hear it, didn't just memorize it and commit it to memory, but who wrestled with the truth, who worked it into their daily lives and have figured out how to apply it into all aspects of their lives, not just on Sunday, and not just when they're praying to God, but in every conversation, making every conversation spiritual. These are people who, in everything that they did, in all of the places that they showed up, decided that they would be people of valor in Mosaic, we can commit to continuing to be this kind of people as well. If you were stand, if you're able, I would love to pray that over you. God, we thank you for who you are. God, we thank you that you decided that you were gonna put a little piece of you inside of us so that we could walk around in this world and show people true meaning and the true character of your heart. Heart, God, I pray that you would help us to wrestle with all of these questions this week, Lord, knowing where we need to show up more and where we need to do less, God, because it can sometimes feel contradictory to think that we have to do both. But, Lord, because you are complex, we are complex, and our lives are complex, and it doesn't make it wrong or messy. God, help us to see the places that maybe we're working too hard, God, to strive to earn from you, Lord, because we don't help us to remember the truth, that yes, there is a place that you have placed us, and yes, there is work that you want us to partner with you in doing. But, God, that you loved us, and you do love us and you accept us, and you are just happy to be in our presence, and you're happy when we sit in yours before we've ever done anything. God, help us not to strive, to have to earn what you've already so freely given to us. And, Lord, would you help us to become the church, God, as we take the same things that you give to us out into the world, Lord, to show people who you really are 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.