Love Under Pressure: Trusting in the Wilderness

And I thought well, maybe not ever seen, but it was a good wad. I'm just saying. Isn't it? And on the outside, I could see a 20. And I was like, oh, temptation. What am I going to do? What will I do in this moment where there's cash here on the floor? And and what will I do? Well, I went down and I picked it up, and I thought, well, here's my temptation. I could stick it into my pocket, [00:34:16] (26 seconds)  #FoundMoneyMoment

or I could turn around with my backpack on my back and head back to the desk and hand it to the security guard, and I could say, I'm not this was not mine. I found it on the floor over here, and maybe someone has lost their money, and maybe they'll come and and they will get it. And my brother says I made the security guard's night by doing that. But here's what I was thinking. I'm like, here's a test. It's a test right now. What will I do? There are cameras everywhere, and no one hopped out and said, good choice. Nobody said congratulations. None of that. I just had to walk away going, I did the right thing when nobody was watching, and yet there's still temptation. [00:34:43] (49 seconds)  #IntegrityWhenNoOneIsWatching

That is just how it works. All of us human beings will have tempting times where we have to make a decision, and when you're grown ups, people are not going to pop out and say, good job. Good choice. You have to just know in your heart that that's what you're doing. And see, we have all of the ministries at our church, all of the things that are reaching out so that all of us are growing spiritually, so that we are learning, so that when those tempting moments come, it's not even that big of a deal, and we won't be disappointed when someone doesn't jump out and say, good job. Good choice. [00:35:32] (40 seconds)  #ChooseIntegrityDaily

We'll just know it was the right choice. It was the thing that we needed to do. It was what god was asking us to do. Ministry is like that. Every time we serve, we grow deeper in our relationship with god. Every time that we reach out in fellowship, we grow deeper in our understanding of what it is that god would have us to do. The good news is here at the Mooresville First United Methodist Church, we do ministry every single day of the week, not just Sunday morning. We do it every single day, and we need you to be a part of it. We want you to be a part of it. We need you to be praying. [00:36:12] (36 seconds)  #MooresvilleServes

The yeah. I mean yeah. So you could sign up and do that. There are times that we go and serve meals, in Downtown Indianapolis. There are times that we donate toilet paper. There are times that we serve together because just cleaning up the kitchen next to somebody else is just what we needed for our soul at that moment, and we're getting it ready so that someone else can do ministry. See, there are a number of things, and those are just simple things. Those are maybe what we would even say easy things. Maybe the tough ministry is when no one is watching. What will we do? [00:36:59] (39 seconds)  #SmallActsBigImpact

As we continue to think about this first Sunday of Lent, would you continue to search your own heart in ways in which you can serve, that together we can grow deeper with God, that we can celebrate the many ministries that we are doing, and we get to do all of these things because of your faithfulness, because of your generosity. And so I want to say thank you. Maybe you picked up a wad of cash in the hallway at a hospital, and you decided to bring it in and put it in the offering plate. I don't know. Maybe. [00:37:38] (35 seconds)  #ServeFromTheHeart

Sometimes when we think about Lent, some people think that it's spiritual guilt that we're carrying around, or sometimes we think that we have to prove something to god. But what I'd like to share with us today is that Lent is all about spiritual formation. It's about us becoming. It's about our faith walk with Jesus. So let's remember some important things. Lent is forty days, not counting the Sundays. Forty days that we slow down and we pay attention. Forty days that we walk with Jesus intentionally, that we commit to allowing god to shape us. [00:55:50] (47 seconds)  #LentIsFormation

We notice what it is that we trust. We notice what forms us, and we allow pressure to reveal what is already in us. Lent is about letting god form us in this year as we walk through this journey of Lent. We're doing it under this theme, love under pressure because love love is easy when life is calm, but love is actually revealed best when pressure comes. [00:56:37] (41 seconds)  #LoveUnderPressure