Week Three

So three years ago this month is when the search committee from Cherry Hills Community Church reached out to me and my family, my wife and I started praying about coming out here. And so we’ve been here almost three years. And here’s what I’ve learned, that growing up in Colorado, there are some inherent benefits that you have about understanding Colorado that, that us transplants do not know. And it takes a few years to figure some of those things out. Like one of those things is, is just simply the seasons because we do have four seasons, but how long a season lasts is really dependent upon the year. So for example, this year, our spring was two weeks. That’s how long our spring we had winter that lasted a whole lot longer. And next year it could be that we have four months of spring and you just don’t know until that year.

And Colorado doesn’t know until, it just kind of fills it out as it goes, and the weather just throws whatever is going to happen to you. We also found out that in living in Colorado, you really don’t have to spend as much money to go see family outside of Colorado because people outside of Colorado like to come to Colorado. And so we are the benefits of lots of family coming to visit us here. And our very first year here, we had some family that came in town, my brother and sister-in-Law and their kids, they came in town at Thanksgiving time, the month of November. And they, they really wanted, they said, Hey, we’re in Colorado, let’s go skiing. And we were new to Colorado, so we didn’t realize that that November’s a terrible time to ski in Colorado because the snow is awful in November.

But we went up, so we drive out and because there was, there’s so many people we were in two cars, so, so I was driving one car, my wife was driving the other car. And so we go up and, and if you’ve taken little kids, and especially outta towners skiing, it’s like, it’s a whole thing. And so it, it takes it’s noon before we’re actually up on the mountain which means that, that, like we, we were there till it closed at four o’clock, and then it takes, of course, we had some outta of towners, so they’re turning it in their gear. And then by the time we get back to the car, I mean, it’s, it’s dark, it’s late. And we’re, we finally piled back into the car and my wife is driving the other car. She’s just gonna follow me wherever I go.

And I, I pull out my phone and, and what, what I’ve come to learn now is that if you’re going up and back in one day skiing, you don’t, you don’t ski till four o’clock because it takes you seven hours to get back from the mountains if you ski till four o’clock. But that day we didn’t know what we were, we were new. And so I pull out my phone and for the first few months, this is what I did. Everywhere I went was just wherever my phone tells me to go. So I put in our address and I hit go, and we start to drive. Now, if you’ve been to Keystone, coming outta Keystone there’s this road that leads two different directions. One of those directions is back to 70 and God bless 70. It’s an amazing road. It’s a straight road.

You go through some cool tunnels on that road, not a lot of winding. There’s not a whole lot of edges that, that look down to death. And that, that’s one direction to go outta Keystone, but there’s another direction to go. It’s the path towards Mordor. And if you’ve gone out that path that’s called Loveland Pass, it looks like this has a lot of these turns on it. There’s no guardrails on Loveland Pass. When people say, why did they build 70? It’s because of Loveland Pass. Now, I know some of you, some of you’re like, Hey, we used to not have 70, we’ve only driven on Loveland Pass, and I get that. But we built 70 because Loveland Pass is a death trap. That’s why they built, you know, you know, just for inflation, it would cost a billion dollars to build the tunnels now, but it was worth it.

Why? Because of this. That’s why it’s worth it. But I didn’t know any better and my phone told me to go that direction. And so I went that direction and it was late, and it was dark, and it started to snow. And my wife just followed me because she figured that I knew where I was going. And it was about five minutes into driving Loveland Pass that I realized this is not the way that we came. This is a different road entirely. And my poor brother who struggles with kinda stress and anxiety in general I mean, he, he’s looking down the edge and he’s like, what just happened? And I’m trying to play it cool, like, I’m, I live in Colorado. Like, no, this is no big deal. It’s just, I’m sure we’re gonna get back to 70 in no time. And the entire time that we were driving, he, he had one hand up on, on the bar he had one hand holding the middle console, and then he had his left foot braced up against.

And I’m looking, I’m like, I, that’s not gonna help if we go off the edge. As a matter of fact, it’s probably gonna make it worse if that airbag comes off your legs coming right into your face. But I didn’t tell him that. My, my wife was driving the other car with my sister-in-Law. There’s a lot of screaming going on in that car. And of course, there’s a line that’s 75 cars behind us because we were going slow because we’re from Texas and everybody else is ready to go 75 miles an hour around those hairpin turns. And here’s what I learned that day, that just because your phone tells you to go a certain direction in Colorado does not mean that that’s actually the best way to get there.

And that’s a hard lesson to learn, but it’s an important lesson to learn. I just blindly did what the phone told me to do, and it took me in a terrible direction. Guess how many times I’ve ridden Loveland past one time? That’s enough for me for the rest of my life. I think I’m, I’m good. We’re good with that in life, sometimes we go a direction, not because we’ve really thought through direction or we’ve processed the direction. We just go the direction because everybody else is going the direction. And sure, okay, Hey, that’s where it says to go. And so I’m gonna go with everybody else. We’re studying the book of Acts, and in the book of Acts, we see the early church and the way that they function. And here’s something fascinating that we find that when culture in the first century was all going a certain direction, all said, this is normal pattern of behavior.

It looks like this. Here’s what happened. The early church went the opposite direction. They started behaving in a way that was very counter-cultural to everybody else at that time when all of culture was zigging. This way, the church zagged the opposite direction. And it’s a testimony to us about what it looks like to really take the principles, the values of Jesus, and live them out both in our lives individually, but also in our lives as a church collectively. If you’ve got a Bible turn with me to Acts chapter two. We’re gonna start at the very end of Acts chapter two, starting in verse 42. And then we’ll flip over and look at chapter three today as well. A little bit of context on Acts. So Peter and especially early on in Acts, is really the hero of Acts that God is doing amazing things and Peter becomes this really key figure in the early church.

So Acts chapter two, we talked about a couple days ago, excuse me, a couple weeks ago was Pentecost. So Pentecost was a Jewish festival. You had all the Jews that were gathering together in Jerusalem, and God uses that moment to send down his Holy Spirit. And then Peter gets up and proclaims the gospel. He preaches that Jesus had died on the cross for their sins. He preaches that Jesus was alive, that he arisen from the dead. He ascended. Last week Gary talked about the ascension powerful message if you didn’t get to hear it. And then after he proclaims the gospel, it says that 3000 people respond and are baptized. And so the early church is a lot of people. We have 3000 people that respond to the gospel, get baptized, they’re fallen after Jesus. And then at the very end of the chapter, it describes the local church.

And here’s what it says. It says, and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of breads, talking about communion, which we just participated in as a church. And the prayers and all came upon every soul, and many wanders and signs were being done through the apostles and all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. And now to understand the first century, you have to understand a little bit about what culture looked like at the time that the early church is doing this.

There’s, there’s a, a, a word that describes the culture in the first century, and that word is reciprocity. The first century very much exhibited a culture of reciprocity. Here’s what that word means. If you look it up in a dictionary, reciprocity is a mutual exchange between at least two participants in which each party receives an immediate or future benefit. So reciprocity in general is this idea that I’m gonna treat you a certain way I’m going to give you certain things I’m going to allow you to do certain things because my expectation is you are gonna turn around and do also those same type of things back towards me. And, and reciprocity, reciprocity really existed in these different circles. So if you, with your family, the way that you interacted with your family was different than you, the way that you interacted with somebody outside your family.

So it would mean that, Hey, if you’re in my family, I’m willing to do things for you. I’m willing to make sacrifices for you that I wouldn’t be willing to do with somebody else. And so in some ways, you get that ’cause we still function that way. If you had a random stranger come up to you today at church and says, Hey, I don’t know you, but do you mind driving me to the airport as soon as church is done? Probably you’re like, Hey, that’s a weird request and I’m going to really, in a polite way, say, no, I’m not going to do that. But probably if your a family member today comes and says, Hey, I really am in desperate need. I’m in, I need your help. Can you take me to the airport? Here’s why. Probably you say yes, say, of course.

So we treat family different than we treat strangers. But then in the first century, outside of your family unit, you had this next level, which was your town. And how you treated people inside your town was different than how you treated people outside your town. Your town was your community. You were locked arm in arms, and how can we survive and how can we progress together? And so if someone in your town wanted to purchase a good from you that you were selling, you would give them a certain rate because they would later on do certain things for you. But if an outsider who didn’t live in the town came in and wanted to buy the same item, you would charge them more. Why? Because I’m not gonna benefit from you later on, and so I’m gonna charge you the outsider price. Then beyond that, you have these different ethnic groups.

So for example, in the New Testament, you see the Jews and the Samaritans. So there, if a Samaritan came and asked a Jew for something, that interaction would look different than if a Jew interacted with the Jew. So simultaneously, if a Jew came to a Samaritan city and wanted something they would be treated different than if it was a Samaritan coming to a Samaritan city. Outside of that, you had the nation of Rome, that if you were a citizen of Rome, there were certain rights and privileges that were afforded you as a citizen of Rome, that if someone was not a citizen, they did not receive those same rights. That if you really wanted to understand, kind of in a nutshell of what culture looks like, it’s this, the culture in the first century would say this, how I value others is dependent upon how they can help me.

Now, there’s an element of that that still exists today, isn’t there? Like, let’s just imagine that you are a car salesman and you work at a really high end shop. Let’s say that you’re selling Lamborghinis and a 16-year-old and a Honda Civic pulls up and they’re wearing shorts and a T-shirt, and that 16-year-old walks into your car room and they start looking at the Lamborghinis. You might go over and talk to ’em, but you’re probably in the back of your mind thinking this 16-year-old kid’s not buying a Lambo today. But if somebody else pulls up a business person and they’re dressed nice, and they, they pulled up in a really nice car and they walk in the showroom, that the level of attention that you pay to that person probably significantly higher than the level of attention that you pay the 16-year-old kid. Why? Because you see the 16-year-old who say, they’re not gonna benefit me.

They’re not gonna buy a Lamborghini. But you see that business person, you say, I bet, I bet that person can afford one of these. And so I’m gonna give them a little bit more attention. Because you see the relationship for your personal benefit. In some ways, we experience this all the time when we’re in a crowded area, that if someone who’s really affluent or someone who has celebrity status walks into a room so that you’re at a party, all of a sudden people start congregating around that person. And why? Because there’s some part of knowing this person or talking to this person or, or spending time with this person that is going to add credibility or value in my life. Therefore, I want to associate with them. Maybe you’ve been in a public space where you’re talking to someone and they’re looking right past you.

They’re not valuing you, they’re looking around and, and you maybe are interacting with ’em in the moment, but they’re really looking on for the bigger and the better thing first century, that that defined almost every relationship until the church you see inside the early church, instead of valuing others based off of how they could benefit them. And the early church, they said, how I value others is dependent upon how Jesus saved me, radically, radically different. But what’s interesting is that Jesus taught this over and over and over again to the disciples, and yet the disciples don’t get it until after the resurrection. How do we know that? ’cause Scripture tells us that, look what it says in Mark chapter nine, it says, and they came to Capernaum. And when he talking about Jesus was in the house, he asked them, what were you discussing on the way?

So here’s the picture that they’re walking everywhere they go, they’re walking. And as you’re walking with 12 guys plus Jesus, they’re kinda spread out kind of in clumps. And when Jesus is off to the side, when the disciples think that he’s out of earshot, they start having this conversation about who amongst the disciples is the greatest. Now they think that Jesus can’t hear him, and maybe Jesus couldn’t hear him, but he’s Jesus. So he knows what they’re talking about. And they’re about to get caught red handed because here’s what it says. It says, but they kept silent. So Jesus says, Hey, what were you talking about on the road? And they got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. And so they don’t say anything. It’s nothing. And then it says what Jesus responds with next. It says, for on the way, they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.

And he, Jesus sat down and called the 12. So he calls ’em together knowing that they had just had this argument. And he said to them, if anyone would be first, he must be last of all, iner of all. And he took a child and put him in the midst of them and taking him in his arms, he said to them, whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. And whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me. Now in the first century a child was, was practically worthless, had had almost zero value whatsoever. So Jesus takes a very marginalized individual, brings them to the center of the disciples, and, and he gives them this teaching. He says, look, in my kingdom, the first shall be last, and the last shall be first. He says, in my kingdom, if you wanna receive me, you also have to receive the least.

You see, in culture, they would look at the child and they say, well, there’s no value that the child, the child adds. They can’t benefit me in any direct way. I won’t make money by being around a kid. I won’t gain influence by being around a kid. And yet Jesus says, these have value in my kingdom. You see the, the disciples in their mind that they think, okay, Jesus is about to be the Messiah, which means he’s gonna be the king over everything. And so Jesus is gonna be the king over everything. But in the first century, you had a seizure that was over everything, but then they would place different people in positions of power. And so the disciples are thinking, okay, he’s gonna be over everything, but I might be over like this huge area. I’ll be a governor in this area. I’ll beit a really important person in this area.

And then Jesus says, Hey, that’s the kingdoms of the world, but not, not my kingdom. That’s not how it’s gonna work. And did the disciples get it? Oh, when, when he did his teaching, did they say Got it, light bulb? No. Why do we know that? Because at chapter later in Mark chapter 10, guess what, they’re arguing about the same exact thing multiple times through the gospels. You see the same thing creeping up, creeping up. It’s ’cause what the disciples thought that they would receive, that they thought that their relationship with Jesus would bring them benefits that were all worldly benefits. Have you ever had an experience where you had certain expectations and then reality was different than those expectations? I’m a fan of, of Amazon reviews. I think some people are just angry in their Amazon reviews. Some people are fake with their Amazon reviews, but occasionally you find an Amazon review that’s just brilliant.

There’s an item that you can buy on Amazon today that looks like this. It’s a giant beach bowl. If you measure it all the way around, it’s a 12 foot beach bowl. That’s the kind of item that I would see on Amazon and say, Lauren, we gotta buy one of these. And she would say, why? And I’d say, why not? It’s awesome. And she’d say, it won’t fit inside of our house, and it would take up our entire backyard. And I’d say, exactly, and we would not purchase it. But here’s a review, a real review from someone named Reed Hamlin. He, he reviewed this item on February the third, 2018. He starts his review. The title says, A Fun Way to Ruin a Weekend and Blow a hundred Bucks. Here’s what he says in his Amazon review. He said, we took this ball to the beach.

And after, after close to two hours to pump it up, we pushed it around for about 10 fun-filled minutes. That was when the wind picked it up and sent it hurdling down the beach at 40 knots. It destroyed everything in its path. Children screamed in terror at the giant inflatable monster that crushed their sandcastles, grown men were knocked down trying to save their families. The faster we chased it, the faster it rolled. It was like it was mocking us. Eventually we had to stop running after it because its path of injury and destruction was going to cost us a fortune in legal fees. Rumor has it that it can still be seen stalking innocent families on the Florida panhandle. We lost it in South Carolina. So that’s something to say about its durability.

And and after reading that, you look at that, that ball and you’re like, yeah, that would crush a small child. So maybe not the smartest family idea, expectations, reality. And that’s what happens with the disciples. And when we think of Peter in particular, when you really unpack his life and think about who he was, he along with most of the, the disciples, they were fishermen. And we, we don’t in our context, really understand what it meant to be a, a fisherman in the first century. But, but here’s what I want you to wrap your mind around. A fisherman in the first century was part of the working class. They were generally poor, they were uneducated, and they were part of the lowest socioeconomic class. And Peter was a fisherman. Just, just unpacking your mind, wrap your mind around the person of Peter the way that that fishing worked in the first century.

That, that Rome owned everything. And so if you were a fisherman on the sea of Galilee like Peter was, that they would place tax agents around that area and that you’d be taxed on every single catch that you had. So he’s already poor. He is already struggling. He’s got taxes that are weighing heavily upon him. He’s looking around and all around him, he sees people that have more than him, that are of higher status than him, that are more educated than him. And you can just, just feel that there’s this, this weight when you, when you don’t wanna make eye contact with other people ’cause you just don’t feel worthy. And that largely sums up the profession of Peter. And then all of a sudden Jesus shows up, and Jesus, who’s this charismatic guy who’s this fantastic teacher who, who who has people starting to buzz around and Peter looks to Jesus, and Jesus says, Hey Peter, I want you to follow me and I wanna make you fishers of men.

I mean, Peter starts falling after Jesus, and all of a sudden he’s an important guy. All of a sudden, other people are crowding around Jesus. But he’s part of the inner circle, and he’s not just part of the inner circle of the 12. He’s a part of an inner, inner circle of Jesus and Peter and John that, that he’s really close to him. And yet we see this tendency inside of Peter that he, he can be rash, but also he has this, this part of him that is looking ahead, thinking about how Jesus would benefit him. There’s this moment where Jesus tells the disciples that he’s going to die, and scripture tells us that Peter rebukes Jesus. Can you imagine that he rebuked Jesus? And then Jesus’ response is that famous phrase when Jesus says, get behind me, Satan talking to Peter. But, but in Peter’s mind, it actually makes sense that, that Jesus says, I’m gonna die.

And Peter’s like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on a second. You’re my ticket. You, you’re gonna become king and then I’m gonna become important. And so when Jesus is saying that he’s gonna die, that doesn’t make sense in Peter’s mind. And then we really see it play itself out at the cross, that Jesus turns to Peter and says, Peter, you’re gonna deny me tonight three times. And what’s Peter’s response? No, not me, never me, Lord. And then that night, what happens? Jesus is on trial and it’s going really bad. And the people around Peter start to say, Hey, weren’t you with him? And he denies. He says, no, no, no, not me. I I don’t know him. He denies him three times. And he doesn’t just deny Jesus. It says that he curses Jesus’ name and then he runs away. Why does he run away? ’cause He doesn’t wanna get caught up in that.

He doesn’t wanna get killed along with Jesus. He didn’t know what was going to happen. You see, Peter, at that moment, he was with Jesus because he saw the benefits that Jesus could bring. But now Jesus was about to die. So those benefits were gone. And as soon as those benefits were gone, so was Peter. He left. And then something changes that the Jesus on the beach, after Jesus raises from the dead, he has this encounter with Peter, and he forgives Peter, and then he sends Peter off. And then the, the Peter that we see in the New Testament after the gospels and the Book of Acts is radically different, completely different norms. They that here’s what is true when you look at the life of Peter, that Peter was a nobody who became a somebody but not the way that he expected. If you’re still in Acts chapter two, flip the page to Acts chapter three.

It’s just the very next verse. Acts chapter three, verse one. It says this. Now, Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the beautiful gate. To ask alms of those entering the temple, seen Peter and John about to go into the temple. He asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John. Now, now I want you to pause for a second and understand how valuable and important that is. But so often when we see someone like this beggar that we just look past him, we ignore him. Hey, don’t make eye contact, just, just keep on going by. But that’s not what Peter does. Peter stops and he makes eye contact, as does John.

And they said, look at us. And he fixed his attention on them expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. Peter thought the following, Jesus would give him silver and gold, but that’s not what happens. He says, I, I I don’t have any of that, but I do have something else and I will give it to you. He says, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and raised him up. And immediately his feet and ankles were made strong and leaping up. He stood and began to walk and entered the temple with them walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God and recognized him as the one who sat at the beautiful gate of the temple asking for alms.

And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him while he clung to Peter and John, all the people utterly astounded ran together to them in the portico called Solomons. And we, when Peter saw it, he addressed the people. Now pause for a second and imagine that you’re Peter. Imagine that background of Peter. Like this is the moment that, that he wanted, he wanted to have value. He wanted people to look at him and say, Hey, he’s a big deal. He, he’s an important person. And that moment has come that he heals this man when he heals the man. There’s this stir, there’s this frenzy, and everybody starts to crowd around. They say, what just happened? Did you hear that? Did you see that? Are you watching what’s going on in front of us? And so this crowd gathers around Peter, and this is his moment.

If he wants glory for himself, this is the moment to do it. But listen to what Peter says. He says, men of Israel, why do you wonder at this? Or why do you stare at us as though by our own power or piety, we have made him walk that Peter in the moment that he could have received as much glory as he wanted? He turns it and says, Hey, it’s not about me. Verse 13, he says, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His servant, Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate when he had been decided to release him. But you denied the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. And you killed the author of life whom God raised from the dead to this.

We are witnesses. And his name by faith in his name, has made this man strong, whom you see and you know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health and the presence of you all. Instead of taking any credit for himself. He says, it’s not me, it’s all about him. You see, before the resurrection Peter’s relationship with Jesus was, I have a relationship with Jesus based off of what Jesus can give me. But after the resurrection, it gets flipped upside down. And for the rest of his life, Peter’s relationship with Jesus is, I have a relationship with Jesus based on what I can give for him, because he knew that Jesus was alive. He saw him after the resurrection, and that changed everything in his life. Peter writes in his first letter, the very end of his first letter, first Peter, chapter five.

Towards the very end, Peter writes this, he says, humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that the proper time, he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. So much to unpack there that, that he, he finally gets it. This is what Jesus had been teaching him the whole time. He, he, he over and over say, in my kingdom, the first shall be last, the last shall be first. And my kingdom, the marginalized gonna be pushed to the front and center ’cause they have value. And so Peter gets it and he says, listen, we all need to humble ourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time, he may exalt you. And that’s what we see in Peter’s life. He becomes a key leader in the early church through humility. God lifts him up. And then this profound statement, he says, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.

Peter, when he denies Jesus, I’m sure had all kinds of stress, all kinds of anxieties. Then in that moment when he denies Jesus, he’s saying, what’s gonna happen to me? Where can I go from here? And then he runs away. But, but here’s what we see of Peter in the New Testament after the gospels that we see in the Book of Acts that Peter gets beaten and he gets mocked and he gets tortured for his faith in Jesus. And the church history would tell us that Jesus ultimately sacrifices his life for Jesus. That he’s crucified upside down on the cross. And they, they tell him that if you would just deny that Jesus is alive, we, we we’ll bring you down. But he would not deny it. Why? Because he knew that it was real.

That at that point something had changed. You see, when he was gathering around at the crucifixion and, and he was worried about whatever body else was thinking or saying he had these anxieties, but those anxieties were, were based off the fact that so much of his value came from the opinions of others. But then after the resurrection, exactly what he writes there in one Peter, he says, cast your anxieties at the Lord. Why? Because he loves you, because your value is found in him. You see, the reason the early church was so different is because they didn’t value people based off of what they added to the equation. They, they didn’t say, Hey, we, we want you to be part of our church because man, you’re just so good looking or you’re so wealthy, or you have so much influence, you can add so much.

Come on now. The early church said, Hey, your value is not based off of what you add to the equation. Your value is based off of what Jesus did for you that you created in the image of God. And he is who gives you value. And when Peter really understood that in his life and started living that out in his life, it changed everything. All of a sudden, Peter could boldly do what God had asked him to do. Why? Because he found his worth. Not in other people. He found his worth in his relationship with God. We live in a culture that it’s so easy to get caught up in the current of the culture. So easy to buy into the lie that my self-worth is based off the cultural standards around me.

What scripture teaches over and over, and, and I can just tell you as a pastor what testimony I’ve heard over and over and over again is that is a fool’s errand. You can chase that your whole life and never get there. And when Jesus says is he says, cast your anxieties to me because your value is not in those things. No, your value is in me. And who I made you to be, your value is that Jesus died on the cross for you and that he rose from the dead heaven, father, well, I, I first and foremost pray that we would be a church God that could represent the early church the way that they did, that we look different from culture, that we value people, that, that we with compassion and love and grace. When people walk in these doors, we, we let them know that they are valued and that they are loved, not because of what they add to the equation. ’cause None of us can add anything to what you have already given us. Again, I pray for anyone in this room that’s coming in today like Peter, the way that he was before he really understood you, Peter, who, who struggled with self-importance

And, and struggled with identity and struggle with value. God, I I pray for those in this room that, that are coming in beat up shame. I wanna pray that today can be the day they find their value in you, give their life to you. Experience the grace that comes from knowing you. It’s the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.