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God, as we worship your holy name, may our hearts be open.

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We know there are so many times we are clinging to things around us,

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feeling that there is nothing, nothing there for us if we don't just hold on.

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But God, you are the one who is our plenty.

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You are our blessing.

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You are our joy.

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You are our birthright.

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So God, we ask that instead of holding on to the things and the people around us

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that we would abide in you and that our hearts would be open to what you say and what you do.

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Now and always.

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Amen.

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Howdy.

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And for those who don't respond well to a good Texas greeting,

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maybe we can just hook them with the word of God.

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It's about the best I can do without shriveling up and dying.

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Alright.

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But with that attempt at loving our neighbor,

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I have to tell you that sometimes we get a little bit bored when we are hanging out at home.

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And you know, sometimes you just want a little bit of background noise.

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Just something playing in the back, you know?

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And you are not really sure what you want to actually watch.

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Like lately I have been on Tubi because I can actually watch old Doctor Who episodes,

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like 1970s old.

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Yes, I realize I just dug that hole.

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I'm going to put the shovel down next to it.

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But with it is to realize that in so many ways is that our opportunity to be able to just sit and listen to nothing,

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sometimes we end up getting tricked into things.

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So what we realize is that I'm sitting there and all of a sudden I start hearing playing

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the Disney opening.

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You know, the little tinkerbell is coming up over behind there with the castle.

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And I go to grab something to drink and I'm like, I have no idea what's actually playing.

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Well, it turned out that Tubi decided I needed to watch Invincible.

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So 2006 movie I think it was.

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And it's this movie about Vince Papali.

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And yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Kind of cool.

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Now granted, the movie kind of abbreviated some stuff, but it got the gist of it for the most part.

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30 year old who had not gone through the typical route of getting into the NFL,

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but with open trials was able to join in as a wide receiver.

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Well, with that is that we end up seeing that he brings a lot of heart and character,

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but also this hopefulness to the team at a time when they were really struggling.

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And later on, the coach would finally be able to lead the Philadelphia Eagles to the Super Bowl later down the line.

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But with that, what's interesting is that there is a character in there who is very, very upset at Vince,

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played by Mark Wahlberg.

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This is before he went to go fight against the Decepticons with the Transformers.

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But what happens is that he constantly undercuts him, undermines him,

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and keeps saying, you can't do it.

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You won't be able to do it.

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You're going to fail.

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And Mark Wahlberg's character, Vince keeps trying to figure out, why is it that you keep trying to cut me down?

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Why are you like this?

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And the bartender is saying, you do realize that he doesn't feel like he has anything to look forward to.

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Anything that you're just going to leave.

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And what it was reminding me of is this idea that oftentimes whenever we see things that are good or going well for somebody,

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that oftentimes we just insult them or cut them down.

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And that's just a movie though, right?

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Whenever we see something that is good, we don't always have to try to cut it down, right?

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But I kept getting these little advertisements in my mail that was saying that I needed to see this article about some football player.

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I say football in the other sense, as in soccer, named Kaka.

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And I didn't know him before, all right?

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But it was saying that apparently, like he had gone to the World Cup and everything,

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well, he had married his childhood sweetheart and they had two kids.

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And then after 10 years, they got divorced.

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And it was this strange thing, like what happened?

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And the reason why it came back up again, even though the divorce was like a decade ago,

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is because his ex-wife finally said, well, the reason why I divorced him is because he was just too perfect.

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Now, divorce happens for any number of reasons and usually you never get the full story no matter what.

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But it was interesting that the idea of something being that good ended up being the very thing that caused it to be cut out from under them.

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See, the thing is, is that oftentimes what is good doesn't always get rewarded.

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Sometimes what is good can be punished for its own sake.

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See, oftentimes we find that it's easier to bring others down rather than asking how to rise to the level that we know we need to become.

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Whenever we see something going well with somebody or for somebody, it's very easy to spend the time just trying to pull them down to where we feel we are,

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instead of asking, what can I do to learn and to grow?

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And pastors, we're not immune. We still struggle with this too.

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There will be times where I'm almost afraid to watch other pastor's sermons because it's this feeling of, if I see them doing something well,

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am I going to spend the whole time just trying to find a flaw rather than trying to ask, how could I actually do something like that and improve?

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Because it's easier to just try to see how others are failing rather than seeing how we could grow.

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But how does the gospel actually change this?

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See, it's one thing for us to say, you need to do this, you need to be better at not cutting people down.

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Yeah, you could say that.

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But why is it that the gospel ends up changing our perspective?

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Because the gospel shows us a desire that everyone and everything is a part of God's kingdom.

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See, rather than it being this idea that somebody else has done well,

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it's rather to realize that we are all meant to be a part of this community of doing good, sharing the gospel, bringing people to know who God is.

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So that we realize that their success is ours because we are meant to be serving together.

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If somebody already has that figured out, if they're already doing well, guess what that means?

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That's one less thing that we have to figure out because they already have it dealt with and we can focus on the things that need it.

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But we don't really do that very well, do we?

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We spend a lot more time focusing on rivalries and who can be better and who can win.

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You see, whenever we see in 1 John, and it talks about Cain and Abel,

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this is the kind of sibling rivalry that's kind of difficult to get past at the Thanksgiving table.

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I mean, this isn't the sort of thing where you're like, oh no, he got a raise at work.

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Oh, well, great. Well, you know, could I get a raise at work?

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Or, you know, you were always mom and dad's favorite.

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Stephanie, I know you were.

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But rather is now we have one that is so difficult that it's basically, I grew some cabbage, God doesn't like sauerkraut, so now I'm going to kill you.

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And how ridiculous it is, because this is essentially who should have been the very people that could have been working together.

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When you have only a few people in the world and that once growing crops and once raising animals,

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wouldn't it make the most sense that they'd be able to work well together and to build up that community?

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And instead, what has to happen? They have to kick Cain out of the community.

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And from then on, the communities could never seem to get along.

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But is that also the way that we act today?

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You see, we can look back on Cain and Abel, and we can realize that that rivalry led to so many different places around

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that we're constantly at warfare with one another.

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But what is it that in the next few generations, people are going to look at us and wonder, why could you just not get over yourselves?

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How many ways in which we find ourselves divided in our own country when we're all trying to somehow do the same things,

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but can't allow somebody else to take credit for it, even if it was originally our idea,

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and we're afraid that somebody else might get the glory for the idea.

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Or many of the struggles that are happening with so much raging warfare happening in Central and South America,

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that people are trying to get away from that even now.

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Or the times whenever we look at Europe, and because one country is their own place and does not want to secede to another,

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or be annexed to it, that now they're going to be conquered.

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Or even whenever we see the struggles that are happening in the Middle East right now,

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where people are even just trying to figure out where to live and how to live,

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and then it all comes back again to us, and we need to somehow be angry with each other throughout our country,

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just on whether or not we want to agree that people should be allowed to live.

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And that's the thing with this, is that we keep hating each other for things that don't need a rivalry,

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that if we could just pause enough to bless one another as a part of our community.

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But it's even more than that.

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Because another thing that stands out is the idea of whether we're willing to give of ourselves for others.

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I was talking not too long ago with somebody about a tool that I realized I didn't need,

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so I gave it to somebody else that I knew was going to need it.

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And they said, oh man, but what if I realized later on that I would need that tool?

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I can't get rid of that tool, I can't lose that tool.

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And then it's like, okay, but if you pause long enough to say, yeah, but you're not losing the tool,

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you're putting it in the hands of the person who needs it even more.

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But we're so afraid of the just in case, and it was funny because even after the first service,

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and I stepped out in the foyer and the first thing that somebody said was, you know,

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I've got a tool just like that, had it for 30 years, never used it.

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There was no mention of actually giving it away, by the way.

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But the thing with it is that the difference between giving it to somebody versus throwing it away

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is that we are continually holding on to things in our lives,

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or just wasting what we never really needed just in case.

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You see, we know we'd be fine with sharing, but what's interesting is that

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you even see sometimes that a person may be willing to hold on to something,

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they're not going to give it to anybody, but they're going to hold on to it until it annoys them.

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And then by time they do decide that it's annoyed them,

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they're not even going to bother to give it to somebody, they're just going to throw it away.

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How often is that what we do with things and what we do with people?

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How often do we hold on to relationships?

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Not because we think that this is actually the person that's going to bring joy to our hearts,

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but just because we're like, well, but they're really, really great,

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and what if later they change,

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instead of realizing that maybe they'd be wonderful just the way they are for the right person.

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Or maybe we have this boss that realizes that we are struggling with where we're at,

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but instead of allowing us to move into a position that we'd actually be able to do well with,

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instead we'll go behind and to make sure that everybody knows every single flaw about us,

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and even some that aren't actually true.

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But sometimes the opposite happens too,

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is that we're so desperate that we'll hold on to a job that we know is going to kill us slowly or quickly,

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just because we don't want to risk not having something at that moment.

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But then what happens?

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Whenever we realize that this isn't the right person or the right place or the right fit,

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what do we oftentimes do?

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Do we bless them?

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Or how often do we throw them away?

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Or treat them like trash?

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Because we're not getting something from them.

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But don't we want things to be different in our world?

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See, this reveals much about our hearts.

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Why don't we want our hearts to be open?

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Why do we want to close off,

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even to letting people into our hearts in the first place?

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Why is it that we want to have those who are kept outside?

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Whenever, if we were to discover that maybe somebody else's life,

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maybe it doesn't fit the easy to define boxes in our minds.

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Maybe they don't fit easily into what we think they should be.

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But just because they don't fit what we were expecting them to be,

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why would we need to respond to them with hatred or resentment or judgment

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or trying to decide who's good and who's bad?

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But even more than that,

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is this idea of what it is to sacrifice for them.

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Because it's more than just sacrificing something you have

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or something that you wanted, but also your very self.

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Because here's the kicker about it.

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Is that we're not just called to lay down our lives

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in the sense that we're willing to give of ourselves

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to the point where it may hurt,

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but rather because your old way of being needs to die.

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Whatever it is that gave you comfort when you saw those who were doing well

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but you could somehow bring them down in your mind.

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The times whenever you knew you were being challenged

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to become more than you were, and instead of the struggle

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that it would take to grow,

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it would be easier just to diminish everybody around you.

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Is that that person has to die.

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That part needs to be killed.

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And I know that that's not the thing that we always hope for.

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We always want to spend our time just finding something really, really nice to hear,

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but that's not actually this message.

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This message from Scripture is that the old self does need to go

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if we want to grow.

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You cannot keep the same dead old plant in the ground

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taking up the energy and the strength that is needed

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if you want a new plant to grow there instead.

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One of them's got to go.

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But you see, that's the thing about if we were to open up our hearts.

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Is that it turns out that if we were to spend our time

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saying, what is it that God is doing in this person's life?

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What is it that God is doing in the world around me?

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How can I bless them?

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Instead of saying, what can I get from myself?

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And how can I undermine what I can't have?

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Is that instead if we are open, then it turns out that that is the way

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to find the peace and the joy that we are hoping for.

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Because that's whenever it is that God is speaking to us the most.

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And that's also when it is that our hearts no longer condemn us.

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But the truth is that pruning is not easy.

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This does not mean that now once you have been kind to people

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and treated them and they're good, that all of a sudden your life is easy now.

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You're never going to have a difficult day.

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You're always going to feel so happy about everything.

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You're never going to struggle with envy.

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You're never going to struggle with, well, my life is perfect the way that it is.

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I've never been able to talk to a branch.

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Or at least when I did, it never talked back to me.

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And if it did, I'd probably be very concerned.

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But I'm pretty sure that if it could talk,

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a branch would never say that the pruning process is all that easy.

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But that's the thing about this is that while the world wants to throw us away

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when it can't use us, God is instead pruning us so we can grow even further.

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Maybe there are nights where you're second guessing things.

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You're struggling because you're wondering what you may have missed out on.

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Maybe you've been unable to sleep all night before a weekly presentation

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because you feel that there's the need to feel guilty about something

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that you don't actually need to feel guilty over.

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But that's why it always brings us back to the cross.

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Because in abiding in Christ, it's not about condemnation anymore.

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But rather it's about what God's spirit is actually moving and doing in our lives.

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See the thing is that God doesn't take away the frustrations and the uncertainties.

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But rather is that he's using them to help us grow the way that we need to.

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And that's also where we're going to need to be as a church.

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This is the fourth of our six-part series.

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See we are reshaping the way that we're doing ministry here

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to be focused on things that are for discipleship, for care, and for outreach.

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And the difficulty is that oftentimes we can look at something that someone comes up with

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as an idea that may very well be a great way of doing things.

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But how often is it that we don't want to extend that effort to walk alongside them

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because it wasn't the way that we wanted to do it?

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How often are we willing to stick our neck out for someone else's way of doing things

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when it could very well be strengthening our church because it wasn't the way that we thought about it?

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I can't promise that any of this is going to be easy.

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We are going to struggle and we're going to have some issues with that.

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But what I can say is this.

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Is that whatever God is calling us to let go of is that He's filling it with Himself.

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And that He is the one who is truly calling us to abide with Him so that He can abide with us.

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So wherever it is that your heart has been struggling with trying to hold onto something or someone

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and what you wish that they would be to make you feel better,

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it's to let it go.

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Because only with our hearts opened can God be the one to truly change and shape us on the inside

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and that we can actually become the servants that He's called us to be.

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With that, thanks be to God.