The Danger isn’t Sin - Pastor Naeem Fazal

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, guys, this is Naeem 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 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. 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. Good morning. How we doing this morning? Good. Very good. Hey, so if you're a guest here, we're in a series. This is week three, week three of our series called Margins. We're talking about creating space for what matters most. And today we're gonna be talking about relationships. And so to illustrate that point, I want to talk about actually your aim. Like, for example, let me ask you this question. What is your aim when it comes to relationships? Right? What's your aim? What are you aiming for when it comes to relationships? And I was thinking, I think some of you guys, like, I'm just aiming for a relationship. That's what I'm aiming for. Yes, but what are we aiming for? I mean, when it comes to it. And do we. Do we have the margin to really develop the relationships we're in right now? Like, can we go deeper in the relationships we are in right now, or. And can we enter into new relationships that possibly God's wanting us to enter into? Do we have the margin for that? So what are we aiming for in our relationship? So to illustrate this point, I've got this thing right here. This is an axe throwing situation and I'm going to figure out how my aim is. Okay? But to illustrate that, I've got my friend who is Australian and Welsh. Could you give it up for Ben, please? Ben Wood. Mr. Ben Wood. He's also obviously worship leader. Yeah. [00:02:11] Speaker B: Yes. [00:02:12] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Okay, so you're. Okay. Clear. Clear the deal here. Are you Australian or Welsh? [00:02:19] Speaker B: This is not on. [00:02:20] Speaker A: This is not on. It's hard to tell. Okay, here. So the. [00:02:25] Speaker B: The clarity that everyone needs. Fifteen years of my life in Wales, where I was born. Fifteen Years of my life in Australia. Okay, so dual citizenship. [00:02:38] Speaker A: And an expert. Expert ax thrower. Yes. Can we give him a mic that works? That'd be awesome. Let's do that. Yeah, let's give him one of those. And then. Well, right there. All right, perfect. All right, so are you guys ready for this? Okay, so. Okay, so last service. Here's the thing, guys. Last service, it was bad because we threw. We tried to stick an ax on that thing and did not work. We were terrible. [00:03:02] Speaker B: It was shocking. [00:03:03] Speaker A: It was shocking. It was shocking. [00:03:05] Speaker B: I'm now not distracted because the mic works. I just. [00:03:08] Speaker A: Like. [00:03:08] Speaker B: I'm present. I'm back. [00:03:10] Speaker A: Okay. [00:03:10] Speaker B: And I'm ready to go. [00:03:11] Speaker A: You're ready to go. Why you picked the red? [00:03:13] Speaker B: Because the Welsh flag, if you did not know, has a red dragon on it. [00:03:18] Speaker A: Really? Okay. [00:03:20] Speaker B: Okay. [00:03:20] Speaker A: This is the red dragon versus the blue Pakistani. The blue Pakistani. [00:03:26] Speaker B: It's kind of racist. [00:03:28] Speaker A: Is it racist? No, I don't think it's racist. Blue. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. This is brown worship. That's what Racist. [00:03:36] Speaker B: I hope we just do better than us. [00:03:37] Speaker A: Okay, okay, okay. You guys are known for this, right? [00:03:41] Speaker B: I'm known for it. The Celts. [00:03:42] Speaker A: The Celts are known for it. [00:03:43] Speaker B: Known for X. [00:03:48] Speaker A: All right, so I'm done. Thank you, everyone. My culture, we're known for throwing rocks, so I don't know if this is going to land. Okay, let's do this. [00:03:56] Speaker B: David and Goliath. [00:03:57] Speaker A: You guys with me? You guys with me? Okay. Okay, okay. What are you doing? [00:04:03] Speaker B: I'm encouragement. [00:04:05] Speaker A: That's not encouragement. [00:04:06] Speaker B: Okay, perfect. [00:04:08] Speaker A: Okay, we're good. Okay. [00:04:10] Speaker B: We only needed one service to warm up. [00:04:13] Speaker A: First service was terrible. [00:04:14] Speaker B: Naim nailed those baffles. [00:04:17] Speaker A: O. You're just showing off now. Get out. [00:04:21] Speaker B: I gave you a lucky go. [00:04:23] Speaker A: Okay, listen. Is that on the red, though? [00:04:25] Speaker B: Yeah. Look at that. [00:04:26] Speaker A: What? Yeah. Okay. Right. Right here. Oh, hello. [00:04:35] Speaker B: I would. I'd like to know, did you say in Jesus name before you threw that one? [00:04:40] Speaker A: I did, in my mind. Yeah. [00:04:41] Speaker B: Yeah, I thought so. I don't want to hit the drums. [00:04:49] Speaker A: I feel like we should bring the other service back. Yeah. Because the first service, it was just. We hit the. We hit the drum set we had. [00:04:57] Speaker B: Maybe because of your message in the first service. My aim is now better and it's on target. Yeah. [00:05:05] Speaker A: Don't get my head. Don't get in my head. [00:05:07] Speaker B: In Jesus name, hallelujah. [00:05:09] Speaker A: Oh, shoot. [00:05:10] Speaker B: All right, last one. [00:05:11] Speaker A: Last one. [00:05:12] Speaker B: People really don't care about me throwing this seven times. [00:05:19] Speaker A: You can't do that. See? See? [00:05:22] Speaker B: Okay, this is it. [00:05:23] Speaker A: You know, Jesus blocked you. You got Jesus blocked. [00:05:26] Speaker B: I feel like Krista needs. [00:05:27] Speaker A: I don't think that's a thing, by the way. Jesus. There is no such thing as Jesus block. Okay, here it is, right in the middle. Oh, we both got GS blocked. Pride comes before the fall, apparently. [00:05:39] Speaker B: This one. [00:05:39] Speaker A: Okay. This one won. One. All right. [00:05:41] Speaker B: Well done. [00:05:41] Speaker A: Fair game. Fair game. Awesome. Thank you, my friend. Thank you for having me. Give him a hand, friends. [00:05:46] Speaker B: Give him a hand for having everyone. [00:05:49] Speaker A: So. So here's the thing. We just thought we might just have some fun. Okay. Because here's the deal. We're going to be talking about relationships, and this is a complicated conversation. Here's why. Because when it comes to relationships, some of us were like, I guess I'm doing pretty good. And depending on your relationship, like, depending on, like, if you're in a marriage situation, if you are in a situation situation, if you are, like, you've got friends and you don't know what's going on, you've got family, there's all kinds of things. Because relationships are complicated. Can I get an amen? They are what? They're super, super complicated. And then how do you grow into them and get deeper? And where does. What does margin have to do with it? And does God really care about those things? So we're going to cover all those things today, and we are going to get to. We are going to get to volunteering the card and all that jazz. But let's just get into the scriptures. If you got your Bibles. If you don't, if you got an app for Mosaic. App. We're going to jump into it. We're going to put the screen. We're going to use the screen as well to put some scriptures there. Matthew 25. That's where we are. Matthew what? Matthew 25. Okay, so here's Jesus. He's talking about. Jesus is known for telling stories to illustrate a point, but he's talking about some stuff here which is really interesting. Let's dive into it and see what does that mean? What does it mean for us? So here he's talking to a bunch of people, and he says this. All the nations. All the nations one day will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate people into. As a shepherd separates sheeps from what? Goats. And he will place sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on the right, on the right, not on the Left on the right. Come, come, come. You who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. Okay. Awesome. Okay. Why? Why? For, he says, for I was what? Hungry. And you? I was thirsty. And you? I was a stranger. And you? Yes. Keep on going. I was naked. And you what? I was sick. And you? I was in prison. And you. Now, this is what's interesting. He's talking about a group of people. He said, okay, there were people who had all these different experiences, and they were going through different seasons in their life. And here's what you did. You stepped into this. He's talking to the people on the right, and he's saying, hey, you guys invested in your relationships. You guys were there for the people who. Who were in prison, who were naked, who were lacking, who were going through pain and suffering. And you stepped into those moments and you had space and you were going for it. And if you were aiming on something, aiming at it, you hit the target. You hit the target. And he keeps on going. And in the story, Jesus says, well, the people on the right, right, the righteous ones, they replied. He says, like, ha, ha ha. When did we see. When did we see what? You, Jesus, when did we see you naked? Like, when did we see you hungry or thirsty and give you something to drink, or a stranger or show you hospitality or naked and give you clothing? Like, when did we ever see you? Or sick. When did we ever see you sick? You were healing all kinds of people or in prison or visit you like Jesus. I mean, when did we ever see you? And then in the story, Jesus says, and the king will say to them, I tell you the truth, that when you did to one of the least of what these, my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me. So here he says that you guys hit the target, and the people on the left did not hit the target. Cause the people on the left right there in his story are confused. So Jesus is telling the story of, like, okay. And so the King says, hey, when it came to a relational target, you did it. You stepped into these moments. You knew these people, and you saw me in them. And when you serve the people around you, when you invest in the people around you, when you serve the least of these. The people who are getting the least amount of attention, people who feel least secure about who they are, they feel least, you know, like they're really winning in life. The people who are least, they're going through some things. They're in prison, they're lacking some things. They're sick. They're not. Well, when you step into moments like that with people, that's when you're actually serving me. You're in your relationship with me, it seems like. But the people who you. Who on the left, they're like, okay, hold on, hold on. Why are we the goats? What's going on? And basically, Jesus says the same thing to them. So here, just stopping right here, what we realize is there are a couple of things that we can learn from. Number one, this idea of busyness. Busyness causes. Causes. I gotta put up. Cause what, it causes blindness. Now, what I mean by that, it causes you to not be able to see the people around you. See, I don't know about you, but if you move so fast in life, if you have no more. If you don't have capacity in relationship to slow down, not just emotionally, not just spiritually, but relationally. If you're just going through people, you have such. In one sense, most of your relationship is so transactional. You're just. You won't. You can't really see people. You can't really see people. And these days, relationships are hard because we find ourselves in so many relationships that are not necessarily relationships. Here's what I mean by that. Some of you have. You, like, if I ask you, how many friends do you have? You're like, oh, I got a lot of friends. Okay, if Instagram shut down, how many friends do you have? If Facebook shut down, how many friends do you really have? Because the problem is. The problem is, is that if you count all those people as friends. No, they could be, but they don't have your number. Like, if you're in trouble, if Instagram freezes, which it has before, okay, the end is near. You know, that's when you know Jesus is coming back. Okay, if they don't have your number, they can't text you. I don't know, do you really have a real relationship with them? I'm not quite sure. Are you just going through so many. You just. You're busy managing those relationships, but you're honestly not being able to really see what's going on in their lives. So here Jesus, when he answers the people on the left, he tells them this, okay? He tells them this is the conversation in the story. In the story, he says, the people on the left, they said, verse 32, he says, then they will reply, lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and not help you? Basically, they're like, hold up, hold Up. When did we ever see you? When did we. They have the same somehow. They go, we never saw you in these positions. We never saw you in need. We never saw the need. And then he will answer. I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these of my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to do what? You were refusing to help me. You know, this past week, if you're on Instagram and if you follow us, I. Or follow me, I made a video just inviting people to come to Mosaic and encouraging all of you guys to invite people because people need a church like Mosaic and talking about how. What we're going to talk about. So I said, hey, today, a few of them, starting today, like on Sunday, we're going to be talking about what's more worse than sinning. That's what I said. I said, what's worse than sinning? Okay. If you saw it, you're like, okay, what's. What's worse than sinning? And I said, hey, we'll talk about it on Sunday. So my buddy, a friend of mine, a pastor, he texted me. He goes, hey, what's worse than sinning? And I was like, dude, it's not for you. You know, I didn't tell him that, but he was like. I said, thinking that you're not. And he was like, oh, that's just unbelief. And then I sent him this verse, and I was like. And then he went, okay, thumbs up. And here's why. Because for religious people, for people who are like, you focus on your relationship with God. You just focus on the fact that you're like, hey, hey. My goal in life is to not sin. That's my goal. So the people on the left over here, they were like, hey, what are you talking about? We never sinned against you. We never did all the bad things. We never did all. What are you talking about? Because so many times in our faith journey, all we focus on is, like, managing our sin. Am I doing less sin here? Am I. Am I sinning there? It's. And here's the truth of it. The truth of it is, is that the greatest danger, the greatest danger to your faith isn't the sin you commit. It's the people you owe it. Like, based on this story, Jesus is like, I'll tell you something. There's gonna be a day where Judgment day and all that, and people are gonna be like, when do we ever see you? He said, when you ignored the people. So what if your spiritual life is connected to not how much sin you resist, but how many people you ignore. And so here, Jesus is like, I know you're all spiritual people, but I'm just gonna let you know there's gonna be a day where you're like, ah, you missed it. And he's like, well, how do we miss it? How do we not see you? He's like, yeah, when you refuse to help these people, when you refuse not because you're bad, possibly maybe because of the lack of margin, you just don't have time. You could not see them in me. See, friends, if we move through life so fast and that the people that serve us every day, from the person who gives us coffee to the person who checks us out, to someone in traffic, to our clients, to people on the phone who they be engaged with, with all the people around us. I mean, if we forget that they are made in the image of God, that God lives in them, then here's what happens. You begin treating them as a tool to get to where you wanna go. And so what happens is we begin to have transactional relationships, which means is that you're not a person. You're just a person who does this for me. So you're not the wait staff. Like, you go to lunch today. They're just the wait staff. They need to do their job. Because I just care if they do their job. I don't care about who they are. And Jesus is like, hey, I just want you to know that you could live a life where you're so fat going through life, you have no relational margin and you're focused on the wrong things, and you don't see me in people. It causes us to be blind. And the second thing in this passage is this idea of eternal significance. Like, there is an eternal significance that's hidden in temporary service. Like, Jesus is. Like, they did. They were. They needed this. You showed up. You showed up in prison. You showed up with clothes, you showed up with food. You showed up in their life. You showed up in different things. You showed up as a. As a. As a. As when they were a stranger. You just showed up as a friend. You showed up in different people's lives. And here's what he's saying is there is an eternal significance to your temporary moment of temporary service. And so the question here becomes, is that, are we doing that for people? Are we doing that in the people that we love? Here's a hard question for me, for all of us. Are we loving people by serving them? And are we serving people that we love? Are we physically just meeting People's needs. Are we doing that? Are we thoughtful when it comes to the people around us? And I've got to be honest, there are some people, they're so thoughtful, they're annoying. Do you know what I'm saying? They're like, I'm like. They're like, I was thinking of you. I was like, ah, I have never thought of you. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm like, you know, I'm like, oh, okay. Thank you. Okay. And so I'm like, I've got to stop and go, oh, my gosh, do I think of anybody else besides me? It's tough. It's tough. Why? Because, well, I got stuff to do. I got no margin to stop and go. How can I be thoughtful? What does this person need and require? How could I make this person smile today? What kind of nonsense is that? Right? We're like, we don't have time for that. Exactly. We don't have time for that. And that's what God says. Hey, there might be a point where you live your life so much, you get to the day and you're like, hey, you're not even aiming at the right target. You ignored. You omitted. You didn't even see people that are. That I'm working in. And you couldn't partner with me to help and be there for that moment with them. There's power, power to that. See, Ephesians 2 says this. Ephesians 2:10 says, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in the them. So God's saying here is like, I made you. I created you. You're my workman. Like, in other translations, it says masterpiece, a work of art. You are a work of art to do works of art in people's lives. See, friends, we are called to serve each other. And that's how we. Because there's an eternal significance to that. There's a eternal deposit that we put in people's lives when we do this. And we end up honestly, like, not being so busy that we can't be bothered. See, the truth is, sometimes divine moments, divine opportunities with people show up in my life as annoying inconveniences. See what I'm saying? Like, I'm like, this is, this is. Or this annoying interruption. I'm like, I don't want to be interrupted. I don't want to be this. And then when I allow myself to be interrupted, I end up being in a moment where I'm like, oh, my gosh I cannot believe that I was. I almost missed this moment to just be in someone's life in a powerful way. So I wonder if we're guilty of that. We're guilty of that. We're moving too fast. The other thing that this passage tells me is that relationships. Relationships require. What's the word up there? Require what? Availability. They just require availability. I mean, it matters if you were there or not. It matters. And for a guy like me, I mean, I just like to be there and do things. You know what I'm saying? How many of you? Like, if I'm. I need to do stuff, okay? If I'm gonna be there, I need to help out. I need to fix something. I need to do something. Like being there. It's hard, but some cases, I understand just being there and is so important. In fact, this is kind of crazy, but this weekend we took my daughter Nura. This yesterday, we took her to Greensboro for, you know, as a freshman and dropped her off. And it was a very emotional day. And we got back and then Nasher left for college as well. And. And by the way, those of you who have been asking, you know, how Ashley and I are doing and all that, stop, okay? First of all, just stop doing it. I don't. We don't want to know. Don't ask us. Don't ask her, okay? It's already emotional. We don't want to start crying, tearing up. Just knock it off, okay? Just knock it off. We know you care, okay? That's all. Okay. But what's funny, though, is having this moment, and as we're going to do this, and it's all. It's not tense, but, you know, it is something. And we're all four of us in there, and sometimes, you know, I'll just be honest with you guys, sometimes we've been on family trips and I'm like, oh, gosh, please let it be okay. You know what I'm saying? You know, let's just all survive. Okay? But this one was just so sweet. But anyways, they started talking about their birth stories. Yeah. I don't even know why. Okay, their birth stories. Here's what happened. Okay, so Nura starts off. She's like, hey, hey, so. So what's my birth story like? And all that. And. And then I'm like, well, you. You know, Asher, you know, you know, mom labored and. But there was complications. So there was C section. And then you were also just planned. C section. Just because her body and all that. And he was like, oh, okay. So were you there, dad? Were you there when it happened? I was like, yeah, I was there. She's like, oh, so you held us when we first came out. And I said, no, no. She's like, why? Why? Why? What happened? I'm like, well, you were bloody mess. Okay. That's what it was. Okay. You had just. Yeah, yeah, because she's cut off her. They cut open her stomach and. And they took out this alien and. No, I didn't. I didn't. They were like. And they're shocked. They're like, I'm sorry you didn't do it. They're like, so did you not cut the court? I'm like, no, no, I did not. No, I did not. They're like, oh, how could you? You denied us the father's love. The first moments. I'm like, really? Really? Do you remember those first moments? I don't think so. Eyes were shut. You didn't know what you were doing. You look like alien baby. Okay. No, no, no. The first thing I said was, clean them up and then I'll hold them, you know? And it's so funny because they're like, so what did you do there? I was like, I was there. I was holding your mom's hand, trying not to pass out. Okay. I had my own. Breathe. Go through. Get. You can get through it. Ashley was comforting me. You can do this. You can do this. I'm like, I need some pain medicine. But I was there. I was there. It counts. What's interesting, though, is that what I've known now is that all these matter, the availability to just be there matters. Even if you're there and not doing anything, you're just around. It just matters. Because you know what? When loved ones kind of leave for a little bit or for a long time, just their presence is what you miss. You just miss them being around. And for relationships to grow even further, you just need to be present in their lives. You need to. And. Because when you're present in people's lives, when you're available in people's lives, you begin to really know them. Not just do stuff with them, but actually know them. Here's a very interesting passage again. Jesus. He's talking about, like, real, like telling the difference between people who claim to know him versus not know him. Like, basically, he's like, it's going to be hard in the world to. Because a lot of people are going to claim that they know me, but it's not going to be true. They're going to use my name for all kinds of purposes. And we've seen this, right? We've. Throughout the ages, we've seen people and empires use God's name, you know, to do all kinds of things. And here he says, let me just tell you, let me just tell you how this works. He says, a good tree can't produce bad fruit and a bad tree can't produce what? Good fruit? And he says, yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people. Identify people by their what? By their actions. He said, it doesn't matter what they, what they say. What do they do? Are they there? What, what do they do? He says, on Judgment Day, I'll tell you what happened. I'll tell you what happened. People are going to be shocked. Many will come to me and they'll say this, Lord, Lord, we prophesied what in your name. And we cast out demons in your name. We performed many what miracles like, we performed miracles. So we cast out demons. We had spiritual authority. We prophesied in your name. We had the ability to tell people what God was doing in their life. We, we did all these things. We did, did, did, did, did, did all these things and we did it in your name. And everybody, what are you talking? Like we did this? And Jesus says, yeah, there'll be many who'll say, we did this, we did this. Because what they'll say is, is that they'll basically think that I'm going to judge them how other people judge them. As in, we look at people who are like spirit, seem like this seems to be spiritual giants, like success is happening. That's happening, man. Oh my gosh, they're. There's so much like, oh, this power, spiritual power coming from them. Not the idea of just casting out demons, but they're doing some amazing things for God. He says that is going to happen. There's gonna be people who are gonna come in and their resume is amazing. It is. Woo. Hello, LinkedIn for Jesus. It's top notch. But here's what's gonna happen. They're gonna come in and then I'm gonna tell them this. I'll reply and I'll tell them this. I'll. I never knew you. I never knew you. And the Greek word there is gnosko. Can you say that word, Gnosco? Say it one more. Time. To know someone intimately. He says, I didn't ever know. We don't know each other. You used me to get what you want. But we didn't know each other. There was no connection. You don't know me. And honestly, I don't think I know you. I don't know you. Like, get like, I don't know you. I don't know you. Because here's the thing for relationships, you have to actually be available to just be there. I think for some of us, we find ourselves, even with God, in relationship with God, we go, oh, my gosh, we just need to come to church and do the things and do the things we. Which are good things, don't get me wrong. But at some point, you got to be like God, do I know you? Do I know you? Are we close? And here's the question. Do you have time to be around people and in relationships, important relationships, and just do nothing? Like, just be there? Do we do that? Do we have time to do that? And lastly, this passage in scripture, I think it shows us. It shows us that our relationships, they actually reveal Jesus. They reveal to the world. Because Jesus was like, hey, you heard the Ten Commandments? Great. You know the biggest. The number one commandment, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind. Love your neighbor as yourself. You know that one? Okay, let me just give you a new one. Let me give you a new one. I'm gonna give you one new one. I'm gonna just give you one major one. This is it. This is my thing. This is it. This is it. This one fulfills everything. This one actually, in fact, supersedes the Ten Commandments. This is it. This is how you're gonna live your life. Here's how you need to do. Okay, this is what you're gonna do. It says here, I'm gonna give you the new commandment. So John 13, he says, this is the commandment. He says, love each other just as I have loved you. You are to love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. He says, I'm giving you a new commandment. I'm giving you a new commandment. Love each other. And he says, I'll tell you how you're supposed to do that. Not the way you love each. Not the way you love yourself. Because some of us, I don't know if we really love each other ourselves. We might not. We might not. He says, I don't want you to think of how you've been loved before or, you know, by other people in your life. Here's what I want you to do. I want you. I want you. This is my. This is my one commandment. Could you. Would you please love each other? The way what I have loved you. And if you do that. And he's telling the disciples, he's telling the church, he says, church, if you do that, your love, that love, that kind of love for one another, it'll do this. It'll prove to the world that you're my disciples. Your love will be proof of life that I existed. And here's the thing. Jesus was. Before he died, he prayed one prayer. And this same prayer, he says, God, I pray that they, all of us, would be one, just as you and I are one. He's like, I just pray for that. I just pray for that. And isn't it interesting how it's the one thing that we. That the church, Christianity, has the hardest time with, One, loving each other, two being one. We have the hardest time for that. As if Jesus was like, this is the one thing I'm gonna pray, I am gonna pray against. Because they're going to have a lot of excuses. They're gonna have a lot of reasons not to love each other and not to be one. And so we end up spiritually shooting at a target that was never the target. And she's like, I didn't know you. And by the way, you didn't see the people, all the people you ignored, I was in them. So all of this, it's confusing, isn't it? It's kind of like, how do we navigate relationships? So here's what we gotta do. I feel like for some of us, we have to go, okay, do I have time. Do I have time to really invest in the most important relationships in my life? Do I know who they are? Do I know? Not generally, no. No. Who are they? Who are they? Because you might say, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, my family is the most important. But you spend most of your time on Instagram. You may spend most of your time with people that you text with, and they're not part of your family. Like, who are they? I don't even know who they are. They might be the most important people, but identify the most important people in your life. And then, friends, let's serve them. Because they're gonna be in moments where they're going to feel insecure, and you need to step into it. They're gonna feel like they're imprisoned, and you need to step into it. They're gonna feel like they're out of resources, and you gotta step into it. They're gonna feel like they're spiritually or hungry, and you need to step into it. And so all of these opportunities that you have to step into. You have to have time for. See the sheep and the goats. The goats, they weren't trying to hurt people. It's just that they didn't have time to help people. And for us, I wonder if we don't have time for the most important people in our life. And secondly, what about the people that God wants you to see him in? The people in your life, people at the mosaic, people around you. And so here's where I want to challenge you. I want to challenge you, your client, your person, whoever you interact with, the waitstaff today, whoever it is, do you have the margin to take a breath and go, this is an actual person with an actual life. This is a person. This is a mother. This is a sister. This is a brother of someone else. This person matters to God so much. How should I talk to them? It'll change your life. It'll change your life. You're like, I'm hungry. I'm just short with people. Nah, no, it's just a, you know, Telemarketer. Yeah, but that's a person. It's still a person, though. It's still a person. Unless it's AI. That's another thing. Okay. You never know. But it's a person. And then lastly, I would say this lastly, I think for us, we know that relationships do matter. And serving Peter people is an expression of love, and it's also expression of worship. Worship is not just singing songs for Jesus. It's serving the people of Jesus. And so we'd love for you to join the team. And what does that mean? You know, BJ talked about that. And what that means is, is that you've got. You've got a card, you got one of these guys right here, and you've got a menu of all the ministries and all the things and all the teams that we can. That we need people for. And yeah, so we need you. We need you to come and serve. So if you. Brand new, you might want to take a break on that. I'm not, you know, but if you've been here for a while or you've been. You're. You're. You haven't been here, but you're back now, or you haven't served for a while, whatever your case might be. Maybe, just maybe you need to create margin today to serve the people around you. Serve the people around you. You know, I got invited to a birthday party this. This past week, and it was interesting because I was looking at who's coming to the party. Anybody do that? Come on you do that. Don't be. Don't. Don't do that. You guys all do that. Okay? You're like, who is the invite? You're like, who is this? Okay. So I looked at that, and I thought, oh, man, this is so cool. Because I looked at the names, and I thought, all these people met each other at Mosaic. I was like, this is so cool. This is awesome. You know? And I'll tell you how they met, though. It's because of relationships. And the best way to get to meet your new friends is actually be on a team and serve with them. And the reason is, is because they create margin to come a little bit earlier to do something for each other. Like, for example, how many of you appreciate the free coffee? Okay, let's. How many of you appreciate the. Make some noise. If you do make some noise. Yeah. Okay. Come on. Come on. You appreciate the coffee more than that. I've seen you drink the coffee. Okay? You do. You do. You do. Okay, here's what's interesting. Someone made that coffee for you. Okay? Someone made the time, took the time, created some margin, showed up and made coffee for you, and you just happened to drink it. So I just wonder, maybe it's time for some of us to just make some time and to serve the people around us. So here's how we're gonna do it. I'm gonna pray for us, and I'm gonna pray over your relationships. But also I'm gonna pray for. If God's talking to you about, wanna join the team? And we would love for you to either just fill out this card and indicate what, you know, team you want to be a part of. You can also scan the QR code and do it digitally if you want to do that. But we'll give you some time to do that as I pray. And then, yeah, we'll sing a last song, and we'll do a response time. Cool. All right. Let me pray for us. Lord God, thank you so much for your love for us. Thank you so much for. Yeah. For your God. For your work in us. God. Thank you so much for that. Thank you so much for, God, how you are working in people's lives even today. God. So, God, I pray for our relationships. I pray, Lord God, for who you are. God. I just pray that you would speak to the people around us. Speak to the people around us, Lord God. And speak to the people, Lord God, that. That. Let's pray that you speak to people who need you desperately. So, Father, I just pray that you would give us the understanding, to know God, what we need to do in this moment. And God, also, I pray for our relationships, the relationships in our life that are they desperately need you to move, make us move. God, there are people, loved ones in our life that maybe, just maybe, we're not really spending the time. God, would you speak to us as we respond? God, would you. Would you do that? In Jesus name. In Jesus name. Thanks for listening to this message from Mosaic Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. For more audio and video content, visit us at Mosaic Church tv.