(music)
- Well, hey Grace!
It is good to be with
you wherever you are.
Thank you for joining us.
We taught you this song last
week, so if you were here,
hopefully you've learned it
and are able to sing along,
but if not, you'll catch on.
So why don't you join us as we sing.
(music)
♪ Oh ♪
♪ Oh ♪
♪ Oh ♪
Come on sing this with me.
♪ Oh ♪
- It is so great to sing and
be reminded of those truths,
that especially now, God
is a light in the darkness.
We're so glad you're joining us.
If you are new to online services today,
or maybe you started joining
us in the last few months,
we love the opportunity
to connect with you.
In fact, if you go to our engage page
and click on the connect with
us, and fill out the form,
we will actually send
you a $5 Starbucks Card.
And listen, it's prime PSL season,
so make sure you fill that out.
Last week, we announced the
start of our group season.
And at Grace we feel it's so important
for you to join a circle of people,
where you can grow and
stretch in your faith
and participate in the community.
We have so many options available for you
that are in person or virtual.
We have groups of are
women, men, married people,
single people, plus, we
have great opportunities
for our high school or
middle school students.
You can go to our engaged page
and find out all the opportunities.
And we even have an option there
where you can ask us for help.
We would love to help you get connected.
As you're getting ready
to hear the next message
in our series, SQUAD, I wanna let you know
that we are so excited
to launch the remote
learning centers this week.
Right now, we have 153 students
that are going to be coming to
our various church campuses,
where they will have a safe
and structured environment to learn.
And I wanna remind you
that this is only possible
because of the people who
give to the Ministry of Grace.
It's because of you
that we have this incredibly
unique opportunity
to serve our community.
And right now, I just wanna
take a minute to pray for that.
God, we love you so much,
and we're so thankful that
we have the opportunity
to step up in real generous ways
to meet the needs of our community.
God I just pray for the start of that,
that people get to
experience you in real ways;
for the volunteers, for
the people putting it on,
and for the students interacting with it.
God, we love you, and we
pray, thanks in your name.
Amen.
(upbeat music)
- All in one!
It's all in one!
(cricket chirping)
Hello, all in one!
(cricket chirping)
(upbeat music)
Nice!
(upbeat music)
Marco.
(upbeat music)
Marco!
Marco!
Trust fall!
(falls with thud)
(upbeat music)
- Well, whether you are joining us online
or at one of our campuses,
I wanna say welcome.
Thanks for carving out some
time in your Labor Day weekend
to connect with us today.
My name is Rothen Bedford.
I'm the Director of our sixth
to eighth grade ministry
here at Grace, called 678.
And maybe you've had the
opportunity to connect with me
or my wife LaMarRue before.
We've attended Grace
now for almost 10 years.
I've been on staff now in
my role for over five years.
And the truth is,
and I hope anyone who's
ever interacted with me
while I've been doing my
job would say, this is true.
I love my job.
I love getting to work with
the students here at Grace.
And one of the things that
I love to be able to do
is to teach them biblical truth
from the authority of scripture.
And I am excited to be
able to do that today.
But I'm not in 678, I'm with us.
(all laughing)
And so I am excited to
teach us biblical truth
from the authority of scripture.
And to do that in the second
week of this SQUAD series
that we're in.
And I think it's important
as we start this out,
that we get a reminder of
what we're talking about
when we say squad.
Because when we say squad
we're not talking about
that neighbor you wave to
when you take the trash out,
but you're not sure what their name is.
We're not talking about that relative
that sometimes shows up at holidays,
or even those people in the office
that you make small talk with
as you're waiting for
the meeting to start.
That's not your squad.
(indistinct) we said it this way,
that your squad, they're the
people you're doing life with
that are shaping you,
and that you are shaping.
We said it last week, we're
saying that again this week.
That your squad is the people
you're doing life with,
that are shaping you and
that you are shaping.
These are the people you
want to hang out with.
These are the people that you
call over to have for dinner.
You have game nights,
you might even go on vacation with them.
This is your squad.
And we said that in this series,
we have a couple of goals.
That our goals would be these:
that we would examine our squad,
and we'd examine what type
of member of the squad
that we are.
That our goals for this series
would be to examine squad
and examine what type of member
of the squad that you are.
And so if you missed last
week, I wanna encourage you,
find some time this week to go online,
find the message and give it a listen.
Pastor Keith did an incredible job
setting up this whole series,
and talking about how we
were designed for community,
and how our friends can
really be a gift from God.
And we're gonna continue to
talk about that community,
friends, our squad, today.
I don't know about you,
but when I was growing up,
I had a group of guys and we
did everything together, right?
We were the boys.
And on any given weekend,
we would all be together.
Here's what I know is true, individually,
us that made up this group;
and you would look at
us and you would say,
"Oh, they're kind, helpful, mature,"
maybe even you would say
responsible young men.
And then we would get
together and we became morons.
(congregation laughing)
And I don't know why that happened,
I don't understand the science
behind it, but it was true.
When we got together, we did damn things!
I regularly, this is not even a joke,
I regularly think God, that
ring doorbells were not a thing
when I was growing up.
(congregation laughing)
Because I know my friends
and I would have been blasted
on a couple of community
Facebook pages, guaranteed.
And I can remember this time,
hanging out in my basement,
all the boys are there,
two o'clock in the morning,
middle of July, my friend Keegan,
turns to the group and he says,
"Let's do something stupid."
(congregation laugh)
Important for us to know,
that what we would say is
stupid, my friends and I,
that would have just been normal.
For us to call something stupid,
yeah, we knew we were in for a treat.
Yeah, we knew that what
we were about to do
what would one day become a story.
So I remember my friend Keegan said,
"Let's do something stupid."
We, without hesitation, got
up, went to the hall closet,
put on snowsuits, middle of
July; might've remind you.
And we went out to my neighborhood,
looking for something stupid to do.
And we'd come across this house,
it's throwing out four mattresses.
And we think we can work with this.
And so we grabbed the first mattress,
we walked it across the street,
just set it up against the front door
of some random person's house.
We rang the doorbell and went
ran away to some hiding spots.
After a couple of moments,
we see a light turn on,
we see the doors start to open,
we see the mattress gently
get tilted to its side,
only to reveal the largest,
most Arnold Schwarzenegger looking person
you've ever seen before
in your entire life.
So Schwarzenegger moves the mattress down,
steps out onto the porch,
he's looking around,
he's very confused;
and eventually gives up
and he goes back inside.
My friends and I,
did that same thing with
the second mattress,
and then again with the third mattress.
(congregation laugh)
Every time, Schwarzenegger
get a little more angry,
and a little louder.
In fact, after that third mattress,
he is standing in the middle of the street
and he is yelling at the top of his lungs.
All of the ways he's going
to kill us when he finds us.
(congregation laughing)
Then he storms back up the
driveway and he slams his door.
Here is the problem guys,
there's still one more mattress.
(congregation laugh)
My mom always taught me,
once a job is once begun,
never leave it till it's done.
(congregation laughing)
So we got that fourth mattress
and we started walking across the street.
We get to the bottom of the
steps before we realize,
we're entering a life or death situation.
(congregation laugh)
Remember we get up those
steps, my friend Joel,
backs away from the mattress.
We look at him like, is everything okay?
And he gives us these reassuring signs.
Like I'm fine, you keep going,
I'm gonna go to my spot.
So we take all of our
attention, off of Joel.
It was a bad move!
'Cause what we didn't
see was my friend Joel,
back off the mattress,
take off his drawstring
bag that he was wearing,
open it up, pull out a burrito,
he chucked it out the
door and he sprinted away.
(congregation laughing)
That burrito smacked the door.
And before it hit the
ground, the door was open.
And there was Schwarzenegger,
I was making eye contact with him,
two o'clock in the
morning, middle of July,
on his porch, holding a
mattress, wearing a snowsuit.
(congregation laughing)
I don't know if you've ever
had one of those moments
where you begin to rethink every decision
you've ever made in life.
But that was one of those moments for me.
I remember being on
that porch and thinking,
I don't wanna be here right now.
This experience that I'm about to have
is not going to be fun,
it's not gonna be pleasant,
it's not going to be enjoyable;
man, I have some intense regret
about some choices and decisions
that led me to this place.
And I remember thinking, how
in the world did I get here?
And then I remember looking
around, and seeing my friends.
I remember thinking, I
got here because of him,
and I got here because of him,
and I got here because of him,
and I got here because of him.
I mean the truth is,
the force that pulled me
and put me on that porch that
night, it was peer pressure.
And what I had to learn over time,
the same thing I'm sure you've
learned over time is this,
we put it in your notes this
way, peer pressure is powerful.
I know, for those of us listening,
all of us can think of
things that we've done.
Situations we've been a part of,
choices we've made, things
that we've said to people,
and things that we've said about people;
that we regret, that we
wish were not true of us,
that if we could go back
and change, we would.
And why do we make those decisions?
Why were we in those circumstances?
It was because of peer pressure.
It was because peer pressure is powerful.
And now listen, I get it.
I'm the student guy talking
about peer pressure.
I have seen you,
some of you have already
like elbowed your son,
you're like, "You're not
sleeping for this one.
This one is for you."
You've slapped your daughter on the leg,
like get off your phone.
This is gonna be good for you guys.
Listen to me, this is
gonna be good for us.
This is gonna be good for you and for me.
Because the truth is,
peer pressure is powerful.
And that means the people
around us, what they talk about,
what they post, what they
celebrate, what motivates them;
all that stuff has an impact on us.
And then here's what else I know is true,
the closer the people are,
the greater that impact is,
the more powerful that
peer pressure becomes.
You didn't want the new phone
because you saw someone
on TV with the new phone.
You wanted the new phone
because your best friend
got the new phone.
You didn't decide to start paying for loan
and car treatments
because you thought that'd
be a good use of your money.
You pulled into your
driveway one day and said,
"This doesn't look good.
My neighbor has a better yard than me.
I better do something about this."
You were fine with your car,
and your brother came
over with a better car.
Here's what's true, peer
pressure is powerful.
And the closer the people are to,
the more powerful that peer
pressure becomes to them.
And when we dig deep into that truth,
and that means your inner
circle has immense influence.
And if peer pressure is powerful,
and if the closer the are
the more powerful that
peer pressure becomes;
and that means your inner
circle has immense influence.
And listen to me, parents, I
know you know this is true.
I know that you have conversations
where you call your son up
from playing video games
and you go, "Hey sport, listen.
You know that kid?
Yeah, the new kid on your soccer team,
the one you've been
hanging around with a lot,
I've noticed, the more
you hang out with him,
the more that you act
like him on the field.
Yeah, you're not gonna
hang out with him anymore."
You've called your daughter
downstairs and you said,
"Princess, you know that
new girl that moved in,
that you've been having sleepovers with,
I've noticed that the more
you hang out with her,
the more your attitude
sounds like her attitude.
You're not gonna hang
out with her anymore. "
I know you have these conversations
because I hang out with your students.
And they tell me,
I hear from six, seven,
eight students all the time.
My parents said I couldn't
hang out with that kid anymore
because they're a bad influence.
But we're not just
protective about our kids
when it comes to this stuff,
I bet when you met who
would be your brother-in-law
for the first time at the cookout,
you saw what he was talking about.
His priorities, the jokes he was making,
the things that he was celebrating.
And you say, "I don't like this.
This isn't gonna be good for my sister,
this isn't gonna be good for our family.
I don't like where he could lead them."
I bet you had feelings like this
when you met your spouse's
boss for the first time.
And you thought to yourself,
and I hope after five or 10 years
of my spouse working for them,
they don't begin to act like them.
They don't treat people
the way they treat people,
they are not as materialistic,
they're not as greedy.
See, we're really good as people,
at seeing the influence
in other people's lives.
The influence of other
people's inner circles,
but are we as good as seeing the influence
in our own lives?
Because here's what else I know is true.
I bet that for some of us,
we've left family functions
only to break down in the car
because we were asked again,
"When are you guys gonna have a baby?
When are you gonna get married?"
And we feel this pressure
or this influence
to do something that we
don't feel ready yet to do.
I bet for some of us,
we're just not in a
good place financially.
We have a significant amount of debt.
If we are honest,
it's because the influence
in our life at that time
told us our degree didn't matter
unless it came from that school.
So we had to drive that car.
So we had to live in this neighborhood
in this type of house.
I bet that for some of us,
when we look back at
seasons in our families,
we notice some really rocky areas, why?
Because there was some
influence in our life
that told us we needed
to prioritize our career
at the expense of our family.
I bet for some of us, we
wake up every single day,
fighting an addiction.
It's taken our time away from us,
it's taken our money away from us.
It's hurt ourselves,
it's hurt our families.
And why is it there?
Because at some point in our life,
we gave into some bad influence.
And I know for those of us listening,
for some of us, we carry around the scars
of the places we've been and
the things that we've done
because of the influence
of our inner circle.
Maybe some of us feel like
we are just now putting
the pieces of our life back together.
Maybe some of us, if we're honest,
we look at our life and we
go, "I'm not in a good spot."
Man, I know that things
I'm doing are not okay,
and where I'm at is,
I'm not, it's not good.
And maybe as you're even processing this,
you're thinking to yourself,
how in the world did I get here?
Can I encourage you?
Look at your inner circle,
look at your squad.
I bet if you did, you could look and say,
I'm here because of him,
and I'm here because of her,
and I'm here because of them.
Because it's true.
Your inner circle has immense influence.
And this isn't a new thing by the way.
Like we've known this
for thousands of years.
In fact, we're gonna
look at something written
by a guy named Paul.
And if you know about Paul,
this is what Paul's life was kind of like.
Paul would spend time going to a town
and teaching people about Jesus.
And then people would believe in Jesus,
they become Christians.
And Paul would kind of form
a church with those people,
and then he'd go do that
again at another town,
and then another town,
and then another town.
And he stayed connected to
those churches through letters.
In fact, a lot of what
our New Testament is,
it's those letters from
Paul to the churches.
So Paul did this in a town called Corinth.
Preached the gospel,
people became believers,
he built up a church and then he left.
And then he got some back
that those people were
fading away from God.
They weren't prioritizing
the things of God.
They weren't concerned
about reaching lost people.
They were too concerned about
their own social status.
So Paul writes a letter,
what is the book of 1st
Corinthians in our Bible.
And in this letter, Paul
addresses all of those things.
And in doing so, he says this,
is very simple, very deep statement.
If you have your Bibles,
I wanna encourage you to get them out,
open them up or turn them on,
to the book of 1st Corinthians.
We're gonna start reading
chapter 15 verse 33.
It says this, "Do not,"
I'm gonna stop this here.
They teach you in Bible school,
that when the Bible starts
a sentence with do not,
what comes next?
We shouldn't do.
(congregation laughing)
I just saved you $30,000
and an eight hour lecture.
(congregation laughing)
Truthfully though, Paul saying, "Do not."
He's saying, okay listen, warning lights,
I'm gonna tell you something important.
I'm gonna tell you something
that you need to hear.
I want you to lean in, don't miss this.
He says, do not do what?
He says, "Do not be misled."
Other versions say, do not be deceived.
Why does Paul say this?
See, Paul, before he gets to
what he really wants to get to,
feels like he has to say, listen
to me, don't believe a lie.
Be honest with yourself.
Don't be misled.
Don't be deceived, why?
Because he knew it was possible.
That what he was about to say next,
people were being deceived about.
People weren't believing.
People were believing a lie about it.
He knew it was possible, that
what he was gonna say next,
was gonna cause some tension
in the souls of some people.
That they were gonna hear
it and they were gonna say,
"Well, that's not true for me.
That might be the case for
them, but I'm strong enough."
He, okay, yeah, yeah;
but I'm the exception.
And Paul says, any effort
on your part to discredit
what I'm about to say next, listen,
is evidence that you are being misled.
So lean in and heed this
warning, do not be misled.
Then he goes on to say,
"Bad company corrupts good character."
Ultimately Paul says, in a very short way,
"Do not be misled: bad company
corrupts good character."
When Paul says company, he's
talking about your squad.
He's talking about your inner circle.
The people that you would
choose to spend time with,
the people that you would spend
the most amount of your time with.
And he says it's possible
that company could be bad.
He says it's possible that
company could be filled
with the right people or the wrong people.
Then he goes on to say,
and the wrong people are gonna
take you to the wrong places.
But the right people are gonna
take you to the right places.
They're gonna lead you to good character.
And what is good character?
That is us living out,
what it means to love God and love others.
It's us spending time
with God and His word.
It's us having a healthy prayer life,
it's us connecting to church.
It's us being a part
of a group or serving.
It's us being kind to people,
and patient with people,
and forgiving people, us
trying to lead people to Jesus.
And here's what I think is interesting,
Paul says, you can have
the good character,
you can build up the right habits,
you can have a solid
foundation, but guess what?
The wrong people will corrupt that.
But the wrong people will destroy
those things in your life.
Paul says, listen, bad company
corrupts good character.
Ultimately Paul is giving them
and us a charge, for believers.
The thing that he really
wants them to get out of this,
it's the same thing that I really want you
to get out of this weekend.
It's this, as believers,
we have got to find our few carefully.
You have got to find your few carefully.
I know that in a talk like this,
there are some questions
that start to pop up like,
so does that mean I shouldn't be friends
with non-Christians?
Does that mean I shouldn't
spend any time with them?
That person in my life who
just reached out to me,
I should just ghost them,
if they don't know Jesus?
It's not what I'm saying.
In fact, I would say this,
if you're looking for
examples of how someone
who is sold out for God interacts
with people who are far from God,
look to the person of Jesus.
Who is He kind to, who did He serve,
who do He show love
to, who did He forgive?
I'm not saying that you
cannot have non-Christians
in your life or you can't connect
with people who don't
believe the same thing
that you believe.
Here's what I'm saying
is, your squad though;
your squad, should be
made up of believers.
Your squad should be Christians.
And here's what's interesting
as Paul saying that,
that's not the first
time they've heard that.
It's not even the first time
that's really written in the Bible.
If you were here last week,
then you heard Keith talk
about the book of Proverbs.
And how is this book full of wisdom.
Look, a couple of hundred
years before this even,
and the book of Proverbs,
it tells us this.
"Walk with the wise and become wise,
for a companion of fools suffers harm."
See Paul is just pulling from this,
and I'm sure he heard
growing up ;from his parents
said this, if you wanna become wise,
do you know what you need to do?
Hang out with wise people.
And it goes on to say,
do you want to get the
end of what being a fool
will get you to,
you wanna suffer those consequences?
Hang out with fools, you'll get there.
Ultimately what this is saying
is something a principle
we already know to be true
and it's this, your few is
a picture of your future.
And the people that
you would connect with,
the people that you would call your squad,
your few, they're a
picture of your future.
And listen, we know this is true.
It's why when we wanna build a vocabulary
or our personal library,
or we just wanna enjoy reading more,
do you know what we do?
We join a book club.
We hope that time spent with
people who love to read,
who read a lot of books, time
spent with them intentionally,
it's gonna rub off on us.
It's why when we look at
our own bodies and we go,
I don't like what I see.
We go hire a personal trainer,
we hope that with some
intentional time spent with them,
what we've got, we'll start
to look like what they've got.
That's why students who
study foreign languages
find opportunities to study abroad
in those countries where
the languages are spoken.
Because we know, that time
spent with those people
over and over again,
that language will rub off on them.
Even subconsciously,
that they would be able to
speak the language better.
We have an understanding as people.
And that our few is a
picture of our future.
So then what does that mean for us?
We have got to find our few carefully.
We have got to find our few carefully.
And how do we do that?
I mean what are the steps?
I think the first one is simple,
we just have to heed Paul's warning.
We have to make sure
we're not being misled.
We say it this way in your
notes, we have got to be honest.
We've got to be honest with the idea
that the people around you have influence.
You are not the exception.
You don't influence them
more than they influence you.
You can't be the only
Christian in your inner circle.
Listen to me, the people
around you have influence,
do not buy into the lie that they don't.
My wife and I, we really
like to go on trips.
In fact we save money every month
into a special bank account
so we can go on the type of
trips that we like to go on.
And last year we had this trip
that we were so excited for.
It was a road trip from
Ohio to California,
and then we flew back.
We made all these different
stops along the way
that we were really pumped for,
places we had never been to before;
but the one place we were so excited for,
was the final destination.
It was San Francisco.
We had been to California before,
but we had never been to San Francisco
and we were pumped to do all the things
that one does in San Francisco. (chuckles)
I also remember we were
super excited about the hotel
that we had booked.
We had found this great hotel online.
The pictures were beautiful,
all the amenities you could ever want,
the location was right in the
middle of all of the action;
and we're reading the description,
we're looking at the
pictures and we're like,
"This is going to be gold."
You pull up to the hotel,
and I realized immediately,
I had been misled.
To start, the hotel was above a 7-Eleven.
(congregation laughing)
This isn't gonna be a good,
this isn't a good first impression.
Anyways, we went inside the hotel
to the second floor where the office was.
We got our code to our
room, not a key a code.
I remember going to the room quickly
because it was a road trip and
I had to go to the bathroom.
So I remember typing in the
code, I get into the room;
there's no bathroom in the room.
(congregation laugh)
So I leave my wife in the room
because I have to find a bathroom.
And I'm looking down the hall,
and I see these two, thin
doors right next to each other.
One of them just had one single toilet,
one of them had a bath
tub, half full with water;
either swim trunks or a
Kroger bag, just floating;
(congregation laughing)
Just floating in the water.
I remember about a minute too late,
that there was a window next to the toilet
that led into somebody else's room.
(congregation exclaiming)
And so then I am processing
now how I'm going to tell my wife,
hey, I know it's not in the budget,
but we are leaving now.
We have got to get out of here.
And I remember as I
walked back into the room,
it didn't take much convincing.
(congregation laughing)
She was standing in the exact same spot,
she was still holding her bags,
she had not sat on the bed,
she had not put her things down;
but here's, what's true,
we bought into the lie
of that advertisement.
We bought into the lie,
that hotel was selling us.
Can I ask you a question?
What lie are you buying into
when it comes to your friends?
When it comes to your influences?
Is it that you can be the only Christian
in your inner circle?
Is it that you are strong enough
that they don't really influence you?
Is it that you can date
that boy or that girl,
that doesn't love Jesus?
You're thinking Rothen, I
can make him a Christian,
I can't make him cute.
(congregation laughing)
What lie are you buying into?
Because listen, you've gotta be honest.
Peer pressure is real.
Your inner circle has immense influence.
And you have got to believe that
so that you can find your few carefully.
And the next step after
you're honest with yourself,
that the people around you
actually do have influence,
is you have to go through a process
of what we called, ruthless examination.
This is the fun part where
you get to figure out
who is even in your squad,
who are the people that you do
spend the most amount of time with,
who are the people that do
have influence in your life.
And then you have to ask
yourself this question,
are they the right people?
Or are they bad company?
See, Apple does this really well.
If you're familiar with Apple the company,
I'm sure most of us are;
you would say that they
do a really good job
at creating the right
products and staying on top.
And one of the reasons why they do this
is because of their product strategy.
One of the steps is called
meticulous attention to detail.
I would call it ruthless examination.
That's when they take their product
and the product of one
of their competitors,
and they ask themselves
a series of questions.
Those questions are:
what are the strengths of these products?
What are the weaknesses of these products?
What are the opportunities
that can come from these products?
And then what are the threats
that could arise from these products?
And by them ruthlessly
examining those products,
and ruthlessly examining the
answers to those questions,
Apple, make sure that they continue
to make the right products,
they continue to stay on top.
Can I just say we as Christians,
we've gotta go through this
process of ruthless examination
when it comes to our squad.
And we have some questions
that we have to ask.
Our questions look a little bit more like,
who are the people that
we go to for advice?
Whose opinion in my life matters the most?
Who's the first person I
call when life gets crazy?
Who do I try to impress with what I do?
Who do I spend the most
amount of my time with?
And you have to ask
yourself the question, why?
Why do I go to them, why
do I get advice for them,
why do I share what's going
on in my life with them?
Is because they give me
the right information,
they put me in the right direction,
they keep me close to God,
or is it because they make me feel good?
They give me permission to do things
that I know I shouldn't be doing.
So we have to do some ruthless examination
to figure out who's actually in our squad,
and then, we got to do
some ruthless examination
of those people to figure
out, should they be?
And what's their character like,
what are their motivations in life?
How are they influencing you?
Do they love Jesus?
And after you're honest with yourself
that people around you,
they do have influence your
squad has immense influence,
you have to go through this
process of ruthless examination.
And then once you've done that
in order to find your a few
carefully, you gotta do this,
you gotta act accordingly.
One sure honest with yourself,
I'm influenced by my inner circle.
The people around me matter.
There is such a thing as
good company and bad company.
After you spend some
time figuring that out,
do I have good company?
Are the people the
right people in my life,
then what you have to do
is you have to do something about it.
You have to act accordingly.
There's one thing that I love to do
that I spend a lot of
time in my life doing
it's whitewater rafting.
I don't know if any of you guys
have spent time doing that.
I used to do it with my
dad when I was growing up,
I've done it with some friends of mine,
I've done it with my wife,
I like to whitewater raft;
but the truth is, if you've done this,
you know exactly what I'm talking about.
They pump you up beforehand,
they give you your gear,
you might even watch a
little bit of a video
to see what it's gonna be like.
And then you get in a van,
and as you're driving down to
what will be the lunch point,
they tell you all the ways you could die
while whitewater rafting.
(congregation laughing)
And it ranges from you could fall out,
or you could get bit by a venomous snake
where we eat lunch, it's a toss up!
And so, I remember every time,
every time they do this thing,
they go through this whole spiel,
and then I remember getting in the boat
and thinking to myself,
whatever the guy tells me I'm going to do.
And when you're in that
boat, you know it's true.
There's some stressful
situations and he'll go,
"You need to go all in.
You have to go in the left side,
you have to go on the right
side, you have to stop paddling.
Make sure you go to the
right side of that rock."
And here's what's true,
and those moments when the
guide says it, I do it.
I act accordingly because I
know it's the right information.
Listen, someone very
wise told me one time,
"What the Bible says
clearly, go and do quickly."
This isn't a gray issue.
The Bible is saying that
people around you matter.
That we need to find our few carefully.
So what does that mean for you?
It means you have to act accordingly.
And for some of us, what does that mean?
We have to write some thank yous.
For some of us, it's an acknowledgement
that we've had some
great people in our life.
They have kept us close to
God, they have encouraged us,
they have motivated us.
They have said hard things to us,
and they have held us accountable.
To those people, you need
to call them this week.
You need to write them a note,
you need to send them a text,
take them out for coffee and
you need to say, thank you.
For some of you acting accordingly,
you might have to come
to terms with the idea
that you don't actually have a squad.
You're really good at keeping
people at arms length away.
You don't let people in,
you don't like to be
vulnerable with people.
Listen to me, we were designed
to live life in community.
You need a squad.
Your job this week then
to act accordingly,
is you gotta find those few.
And listen, for some of
us, acting accordingly,
it means we need to make a shift.
It means that we have to acknowledge
that there are people
in our squad, listen;
who shouldn't be there.
And this week you need
to do something about it.
And I know, listen,
I know you're looking at
me like that is not easy,
that's not fair, how
can you say that to me?
This is what I wanna say,
when I say this to your kids, you applaud.
I get emails telling me, thank you.
I'm saying this to you, what
you need to do this week.
In fact this is the
action step for the week.
It's to act accordingly,
send the thank yous.
Find those people
that you actually can
let close into your life.
Or have the hard conversations
that you know you need to have.
And listen to me, if you're
sitting here right now thinking,
maybe I just need to pray about it,
or maybe I just need to spend
more time thinking about it.
Listen to me, you're just
waiting for another way
to convince yourself to be deceived again,
to be misled again.
Don't do that.
You need to act accordingly.
Because we have to find our few carefully.
Now, I've had so many
great friends in my life.
Who have poured into me and
who have held me accountable
and kept me close to God,
and said hard things to me
that I needed to hear.
And there was one friend
that kind of sticks out,
and his name is Joe, is Joel (indistinct).
Here's what's true, when
Joel came into town,
my life was in a really weird place.
I was at a high school
where I was brand new,
it was freshman year and I
didn't know one kid in my school.
I didn't know one kid.
I remember it was at
that same time in my life
that my family was really processing
some of the most difficult things
that we've ever had to
process as a family.
And I remember because of that,
what I really wanted to
do was never be at home
and always be with my friends.
But it was at that same time
that all my friends
wanted to do was party.
They just wanted to drink,
they wanted to get high,
they wanted to go to parties,
they wanted to mess around with girls.
I didn't wanna do that.
And it wasn't because I was
some great Christian kid,
it wasn't because I had good convictions,
it was because I saw firsthand,
what addiction can do to someone,
what substance abuse can do to someone.
I didn't want that to be true for me.
But here's what's true, I needed friends.
And my resolve to not do those things
was only getting weaker,
and then Joel came up.
And I remember Joe showed me,
you can be a fun high school guy
and not be all about partying.
To take that a step further, I remember,
Joe told me I could be
a fun high school guy
and I could take my faith seriously.
Joe, he was two years older than me.
I remember him pulling me
aside one day and saying,
"Can we read through the Bible together?"
But if we spend time reading the Bible
and then we met up and we talked about it,
it was the first time
that I remember choosing
to open the Bible myself and to read it,
and understand it, and apply it.
And I remember my friend
Joe went on this trip,
it was a seven week long
ministry training trip
that happened in the summertime.
And where he came back from
this trip, and he said to me,
"Rothen, you need to go on it.
It teaches you how to live
a Jesus centered life.
It'd be really good for you.
You should do it."
I said, "Joe, I'm gonna
not give up my summer.
This is when I get asleep
and it's when I get to do what I wanna do.
This is the summer
that I can actually become
captain of my soccer team.
And if I'm not here for
those first practices,
it's not gonna work out
for me, I can't do that."
And Joel said to me, he looked
me in the eyes and said,
"Rothen, how can you tell me,
you've given Jesus your entire life,
but you won't give Him this summer?"
Can I pause for a second?
How can you tell me you've
given Jesus your entire life,
but you won't give Him your squad?
I remember it was on that
trip that I remember feeling,
for maybe even the first time,
God was calling me into ministry.
I remember calling up Joe
and processing that with him.
I remember when I was
dating my now wife LaMarRue,
and I was thinking,
man, I think she's the
one that called up Joe
and we had a conversation about that.
I remember thinking, I might
work at a church called Grace.
And I called up Joe,
and I had a conversation
with him about that.
And the truth is, part of
the reason why I'm right here
doing what I'm doing right now
is because of the influence
of a faithful friend.
Here's what I'll say I know is true,
I could have said yes to these friends.
And at 10 years ago,
when I had the choice between
Joe and this other kid,
I had no idea that in 10 years with Joe,
I would land here;
I also have no idea what 10 years
with that other group would do.
But I can tell you this, I
am so glad that I chose Joe.
Guys listen to me,
if you are at all trying to figure out,
man, who should make up my inner circle,
what should be the deciding factor,
how can I find my few carefully?
I wanna say this,
who you choose to journey
through life with,
should be determined
by what you're trying to journey towards.
And if your goal in life is
to live a Jesus centered life,
to be closely connected to God,
to be more mature in your
faith and to reach lost people,
then listen to me;
you have to hang out with people
who are doing those things.
You have got to find your few carefully.
Let me pray for us.
God in heaven,
I thank you that you've
designed us for community,
that you've made it so we
should live life together,
and you've made it so that we
kind of rub off on each other,
that we influence each other
and that should be a good thing,
but we know it can be a dangerous thing.
God, I pray that we would take the warning
that we hear in scripture to heart.
That we'd be honest with ourselves,
that the people around us,
gosh, they do have a big
influence in our life.
And I pray that we'd
go through this process
of ruthless examination to figure out,
man, who is in our squad, and
who should be in our squad.
And God I pray, as hard as it is,
as embarrassing as it could be,
as difficult as that step might be,
God, that we would act accordingly.
God, be with us this week
as we go out to find our few carefully.
Lord, we love you so much.
Thank you for loving us first.
It's in Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
(music)
- What an awesome time of worship!
To reflect on the fact that Jesus' name
is the only name that matters.
I hope that that is true of us
and encouraging as we go about our week.
The more we want to
know God and follow God,
the more we want everything in our lives
to propel us toward that.
And it is a powerful reminder today,
that the biggest thing that
can propel us toward God,
or propel us away from God
is the people we surround ourselves with.
I hope you found this
service helpful and hopeful.
And if you are in need of prayer today,
we have volunteers who
would love to do that.
You can simply comment, prayer,
and they'll reach out to you.
Or you can go to our engaged page
and request prayer at any time.
Don't forget to check out
all of our opportunities
to sign up for a group.
I hope you have a great week
and we'll see you next week
as we wrap up our series, SQUAD.
(upbeat music)
