Relationship Goals // Career Goals // Ephesians 6 // Pastor Josh Evans

Amen. Amen. You guys can have a seat.

Wow. What tremendous worship here today. So grateful for that. That's why we're here today is to worship our Father in spirit and in truth. That's why we gather each and every week to worship. Listen, it is so good to see you at church. If you're excited to be here, can you say amen today?

Amen. Listen, it is so good to see all of you here. It's a great crowd here today. I do want to echo what Pastor David said earlier. Each and every week, we always tend to have people who slip in from time to time that are possibly brand new with us on the weekend. I know in a group this big and in a gathering this big, it's hard for us to really connect specifically with you.

I just want to say thank you so much for being here. If we haven't met before, my name is Josh and I'm the pastor here. I would love the opportunity to meet you. Maybe after the service, if you can, maybe come down front.

I'll be down here as well as some of our other pastoral staff. We would love the opportunity to be able to connect a little bit more with you as a result and things like that. Well, listen, it's a good day to be here because we are kicking off a brand new series today.

It's February. A lot of times when we come into February, we talk about relationships. We are entitling this series, Relationship Goals. Now, here's what I'm going to tell you up front just to help you out. This is not a series all about marriage.

If you're not married in here, don't be like, man, I don't have to come for the next few weeks. We're actually going to be looking at three important relationships through Ephesians where many of us have. So we're going to look at today our work relationships and then we are going to spend a week talking about marriage and relationships there. And then we're going to talk about family relationships.

And then this morning I added a fourth one and we are going to talk about relationships with Carolina fans. And believe it or not, I was studying this morning and the scripture talks a lot about them. It actually calls them a word reprobate. And so, but no, I'm just kidding. And many of you will get a kick out of that. If you're a new person here today and everything, don't hold that against us. Okay. And so, but I'm probably the only pastor in America that pulls for a devil, but whatever. And so, but listen, we all have our flaws. So don't laugh at me. Okay.

You got your own. And so, but no, we are talking about relationships and I really am hoping in every time I preach, every time I get the opportunity to be able to stand in front of you and share God's word. I want you to know that that I consider this very, I take this very seriously and I'm hoping that through this series over the next three weeks, I'm hoping that it will be practical to you because all of us have relationships and it's hard sometimes in those different dynamics to relate to people and to be able to have relationships the way that God intended. And the reason that I wanted to talk about this here is because is what I find in a lot of ways is that the problem that we have in our relationships is that we allow the world to define our relationships and how we interact with one another way more than what the scripture says. And so that's why we're going to be looking at this. So like I said, for three weeks, we're going to talk about work relationships. We're going to talk about family relationships.

We're going to talk about marriage relationships. And I know pastor David mentioned this and this is just something for you to, to know if you didn't do this on the way in is we're going to do something that we don't do this a lot. We did it a couple of years ago just to provide something fun.

I believe church can be fun and stuff like that. And so in the welcome center, if you didn't do it on your way in is we're going to give away in three weeks a basket. And, and so we're going to give away a couple of different baskets back there and you can go and actually put your name in for a chance to win the drawing. And the good news is, is if you come every week, you get to put your name in every week. And so you say, is that bribing you to come to church?

That's exactly what that is. Okay. And so, and that's a joke and, but no, just something fun that we're going to do with this series on relationships.

And so I think you'll be grateful for that, but make sure you stop by the welcome center on your way out today and do that. Ephesians chapter six, if you have your Bible, Ephesians chapter number number six. And here's what I want you to know this big idea for the series.

And so if you forget anything that I say over the next few weeks, here's what I want you to know. The goal of all relationships is Christ's likeness. What you're going to see in Ephesians chapter five and Ephesians chapter six about relationships is this, the goal of all of the relationships that you have in your home with your children, when you're at work, the goal of all those relationships is Christ's likeness.

Okay. And here, here's what, what is difficult when you think about that statement. And that's how I want you to approach the next, the next few weeks is this idea and ask yourself the question, are my relationships with the people that I work with are my relationships with, with the person that I call my spouse or the, or with my children and our families and things like that are my relationships reflecting Christ and all of those different things.

Now this is a tough pill to swallow because if you evaluate and think about your relationships, the reason why this is difficult is because in a lot of our relationships, this is not what they look like. This is not a lot of times how you relate or think about the people that you work with or, or the people that you call your kids or your spouse and stuff like, like that. Because if you think about the way Christ treated us, that's how we are supposed to treat one another. And so, so when you think, wow, Christ loved everybody, right? He loved us so much that he gave himself for us, gave his very life for you. When you think about that and you try to take in his attitude towards all of us, towards all of mankind, and you try to implement that into how we, we relate with people at work and at home and things like that, it actually becomes somewhat different than the way that he told us we are to, to treat people.

Or how about this? Not only did he give his life for us, he was kind, right? He was compassionate. He was merciful.

He's graceful. All of these things, he's forgiving. When we think about this idea that the goal of all of our relationships should be to reflect Christ, that can be a difficult pill for us to swallow because when we think about the way Christ related to us, sometimes our relationships look far different. And so today we are going to talk about the first relationship. It's our work relationships, work relationships, people that you work with, you know, your career, the people that you go to work with.

Now, how many of you in your whole life, this will kind of be all of us who have ever had a job at some point, how many of you have had a boss or someone at your job over the years at any point in your life that was difficult to work with? Raise your hand. Okay. Pastors come, Pastor Bailey, like what is this supposed to mean my friend? Like, man, you're not supposed to talk about Pastor David that way, but whatever. And so, but no, but listen, here's the thing. We all have from time to time people that are just difficult, right? Difficult to work with.

We have them. And that's something that for all of us, we have to be able to relate and treat them the way that God intends for us to treat them. So as we jump into Ephesians chapter six, I want you to understand, and as a way of introduction, it's important for you to understand how Paul's letter to the Ephesians breaks down for you to understand why Ephesians chapter six is written the way that it is. If you do a study on the book of Ephesians, Ephesians chapter one, Ephesians chapter two, and Ephesians chapter three are actually Paul's deep dive into the gospel. It is a deep dive into who you are in Christ. It's talking specifically about identity and how because of the gospel, Jesus saving you and Jesus dying for you, once you trust in him as your savior, how that gospel that he really defines in chapters one, two and three, it actually starts to affect how you live. And that is what chapters four, five and six are about. And so the first three chapters all about the gospel chapters four, five and six are all about what it looks like when the gospel takes root in your heart and how that should be lived out in your everyday life. And so as we come to chapter really five and six is where we're going to be at for the next couple of weeks is we're going to see these different relational dynamics that every single one of us have.

Every single one of us have these and every single one of us are going to encounter some of the challenges with these different relationships. And in chapters five and six, Paul is saying that when the gospel takes root in your heart, it will affect how you or it should affect how you relate to the people around you, how you treat the people around you. It's all about the gospel changing the inside, which will be affected in your relationships on the outside. Ephesians chapter six, verse five says this, servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling and singleness of your heart as unto Christ, not with eye service as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart with goodwill, doing service as to the Lord and not to men. Verse number eight, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free and ye masters do the same things unto them for bearing, threatening, knowing that your master also is in heaven.

Neither is there respect of persons with him. All right, so Paul is, he's talking as he's kind of really wrapping up, this is so amazing to me, he's wrapping up some of his letter to the church at Ephesus. And just before he starts to talk about the armor of God that he's going to tell them you got to put on each and every day, he spends chapters five and six talking about once the gospel has changed you, it's going to actually show out in the way that you treat one another. And so it's going to show out in the way here in chapter six of how you treat those that you work with. He mentions three specific attitudes here that we should have in the way that we relate with people that we work with.

Now, here's what I want you to know up front. This is all of our work relationships. So if you say in here today, I'm not in ministry, does this affect me?

Yes, it does affect you. This is everybody, whatever job you have. If you're a young person in here, and you're sitting in here and you're like, man, I don't have a job, I can just kind of zone out for just a few moments, I want you to know that this is going to affect you one time one day, when you actually get a job and you start to have to work with difficult people from sometime, how is how is the gospel going to affect those relationships? Paul gives us three specific attitudes. If you take notes, maybe this will help you that he states here that we should approach with the people that we work with. And it's all about our our heart. And so the first thing is this, we should at work with our bosses and those that are over us, it's very specific, we should obey with a cheerful heart, obey with a cheerful heart. Now, verse number five, here's what he says, is servants. That's us that you know, have somebody over us, right? Be obedient to them, obey them that are your masters.

Now that's difficult, right? None of us we always think we have what you know, we know best and everything like that. And what Paul's saying is this is once the gospel has taken root in your heart, it will be affected in how you approach the person that actually gives you orders. So it says, be obedient to them that are your masters, according to the flesh, with fear and trembling and singleness of your heart. And then he says this phrase, as unto Christ. Now, when you think about your relationships at work, that phrase unto Christ is going to actually be the truth for all of us in all of our different relationships.

That's where we get the big idea that all of our relationships should be Christlike. In other words, we are to treat the people around us the way that Christ has treated us. And so the picture that you get here when you talk about your masters and the people that are over you at work and things like that, is he doesn't say obey them if they're reasonable. He doesn't say obey them if like they give you exactly what you're supposed to or what you want to do. Now, you know what he says? You're supposed to obey them that are over you with fear and trembling as unto Christ. In other words, what he's saying is the same way that you submit to Christ and when we are submitting to Christ, it's going to be reflected in the way that we submit to the people at work.

Think about that. Like, that's the point. That's what he's saying. And so if for you, if you're at work and you're just like, you know, I'm not going to do what so and so tells me to do. Yes, God's appointed them over me, but I'm not going to do it. Here's what he's saying is that you cannot, if that's your attitude, you cannot be in full submission to Christ and not be in full submission here. That's what unto Christ literally means.

He goes on and he mentions these two different words that are super important. He says we should obey them with fear and trembling. With fear and trembling, you say, what in the world does that word, the word fear here is a Greek word. It's actually pronounced phobos and the word actually means reverential fear. It means a fear out of reverence or out of, out of respect. In fact, you see this same word mentioned throughout scripture in the New Testament. You see it in Acts chapter two.

If you remember when the Holy Spirit came and indwelled the church for the very first time in Acts chapter two, here's what happened is when the Holy Spirit came with a mighty rushing wind, here's what came upon everybody. Fear, habas came around everybody. Now the fear that he's talking about, it's not the way that you and I would define fear. In our English translation, it's not the same word. It's not the idea of being afraid or being frightened at what something could be done or something that someone could be done to you, but it carries on this dread of not pleasing God. The word trembling here is very similar. In fact, if you look up that word in Greek, it carries on the idea of that anxious feeling that you get when you displease God. About an anxious feeling that you get internally when God is going to be possibly displeased with you. Let me illustrate it this way because we talk about this word fear all the time and we're always like, what is this?

What does this literally mean? Let me explain it to you. I'll ask you a question. How many of you, or if you have these right now, if you're a kid in here, a teenager, how many of you had or you have strict parents?

A few of you in here. I had strict parents and I'm grateful for it. I have a great relationship with my mom and dad.

Don't nudge the people next to you. Listen, if you got your kids in the room, well, you just lost them here in a little bit. Here's the thing, I had real strict parents. I was raised very, very strict.

My parents, they had rules and a lot of times they would make up more rules for their rules if you know what I'm talking about. I had all these different rules. As a teenager, I got into some trouble. I had gone away for a basketball tournament.

When I was going away for this basketball tournament, my mom, who was going to go to the tournament that evening, I was like, I don't know, 10th or 11th grader. I had my license. I kind of drove to school on my own and that kind of thing.

Here's the thing, I'm embarrassed to say this, but it's fine. She was still doing my laundry at that stage of my life. Those were the good old days. She was doing my laundry. She showed up in my room.

Remember, I'm at school and after school, I'm headed straight to this basketball tournament in Raleigh. She shows up into my room. I had one of these, we used to call them boom boxes. You know what I'm talking about? How many of you had a boom box in your room or something like that?

Yes, they were awesome and everything. I had this boom box there and I had a burnt CD. Now, if you're young in here, you might think, what, you accidentally poured, you got fire on it or what?

No, a burnt CD. Here's what that meant and I'm talking to all the young people in here, is when you couldn't go out and buy a CD, what you would do is you would get somebody else who had it and they would burn or they would record those same songs onto a blank disc. There's a lot of young people that are like, what?

What in the world? They're like, hey, listen, let me just say it was a weird time that we went through. So I had this CD and the music on it, the reason why that I had it on a burnt blank disc is because I knew that what was on it would not be pleasing to my mom and dad. So if I had gone out and bought the CD or something like that and I got it, there were some bad words on it and things like that. I knew that if my parents ever found that, they would know what it is, but I figured that I could hide my sin by just burning it on this blank disc. Well, this particular day, I left the CD out. So my mom's putting away my laundry and she sees that CD. And so my mom, it just decides, I don't know why she decided this, I still don't, but she felt, wow, this would be a great opportunity to find out what my son is listening to. Now, I know what some of you are wanting to know is what was on that CD. I will tell you, if you come and ask me afterwards, I would be happy to tell you what was on there.

But here's the thing. So she popped this blank CD right there into my boombox. And when she popped it in, I can only imagine, remember, I'm at school, it had some like really, really vulgar stuff on it. So later that evening, she obviously, I was a parent, she's thinking, I mean, Josh is headed off the worst road in the world at this point. When I go to school, I don't think anything about it. I didn't know anything had happened. So I go that evening, my parents are in the audience of the game, I play in this basketball game, I get in the car, we lost, and I get in the car, and we're headed back from Raleigh to Ashboro home. And because I lost, I wasn't really in the mood to talk anyway.

But on the way home, nobody said one word from Raleigh to Ashboro, which didn't bother me because I lost. So I go in to my house, nobody said one word to me at this point. I go into my house, and I go into my bedroom, and I had this big box thing that we called TVs back in the day.

And I had that and I had a Nintendo there, I had my boombox and I had some different things. I go into my room and everything that was an electronic device was completely gone. Remember, nobody has said a word to me at this point. So I'm like, okay, what in the world has happened, you know, and that kind of thing.

And so is this some new rule that they're making, whatever. So I go downstairs, and the very worst thing that could ever happen happened. I go downstairs, and I walk into my parents' bedroom, and I said to them, I said, Mom, Dad, where's all my stuff? And here's what happened, I'll never forget it.

My mom broke down and just straight crying in that moment. Now, how many of you, be honest with me, because you're not fooling anybody, how many of you would say you are a momma's boy? Raise your hand, okay, you better do it. Just raise your hand, just call it out. My hand's with you, don't, hey, patch your hand up, buddy. And so put it up, man.

So here's the thing. You know what I wanted in that moment when she started crying? Yell at me, do something, spank me, I don't care. The only thing I don't want you to do is cry in disappointment in this moment. Tell me everything, take it away, yell, do whatever you need to do, but in this moment, crying is not what I want to happen, okay?

And here's what I want you to know. The reason why that broke me as the son more than anything else in that moment is similar to the words that you get here with fear and trembling. The point is, is this, I have a great relationship with my parents. I was not worried one bit in the world in this moment about the punishment that would happen to me. I wasn't worried about, you know, like, are they going to disown me because of a CD that I had or anything like that?

I wasn't worried about any of those things, but I had this incredible anxiety that filled up in my heart when I could tell that what I was doing displeased them. The point that what you get here is Paul is saying this to the church, is he's saying this, is that in our relationships with people and with bosses at work and things like that, we should have a very similar response in how we do with the people around us. In other words, that fear and trembling that we approach God with, it's not like he's going to disown you. If you're a follower of Christ, you're safely in the palm of his hand. You have nothing to worry about, but at the same point is out of the gospel at work in your heart, it's going to respond with this incredible feeling of wanting to please the person, your master.

He says this, and this is wild, and don't get upset with me. You can get upset with Paul and his writing to the church here if you want to. That's between you and God, but here's the point. The picture that we get here is that the way that we respond with fear and trembling to God when you're doing that correctly, it's going to be overflowing in the way that you respond to the people that you work with.

That's the kind of response that you want to please them. He says obey with this cheerful heart, but then he says in verse number six, obey with a ministry heart. Now, the word ministry I'm just going to put in there because I think that'll resonate with what you mean. Look at what he says in verse number six. He says not with eye service. In other words, when you go to work, don't try to do things to impress everybody around you as those who are men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart.

Now, remember, I want to be very specific. He's not talking about missions work. He's not talking about pastoral ministry.

He's not talking about those things. He's talking about every single one of you that's ever worked a job regardless of what it is. He's saying when you go and work, don't do it with eye service as men pleasers, but as servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart. In other words, don't work for the applause of men.

Don't work for the attaboy. Paul was saying that you shouldn't be working for those around you. The point that he's making is that for every single one of you that go out to work each and every day, here's what he wants you to know. You are a servant of Christ.

Every single one of you. And so when you go to your workplace, regardless of who's around you, regardless of who you work for, regardless of if it's a Christian company or not, that does not matter. He says that when you go to your place of work, your place of employment, here's his point is he's saying that you should show up as someone who is there for ministry.

Someone who is there on mission by God. In other words, the way that you work and carry yourself at work, it reflects how you approach God. The way that you show up and do your job, it really affects and reflects how you approach God. And so in other words, if you make work all about you, I bet you, you can trace that back to you making your relationship with God all about you. What he's saying is those two things go hand in hand.

Those two things go hand in hand. So the way that you approach God should be reflected in the way that you approach your work relationships. So if you make your relationship with God all about you, that's going to be exactly how you make your job. If you make your relationship with God all about material possessions and God give me this, God give me that, and that's your extent of your relationship with God, then all you're going to do is probably show up to your job as a place of you just trying to get ahead in life and make money and things like that.

He says, no, no, no, no. He says, when you go to work, you should show up as someone who is on mission for or from God. You're a servant. You're a servant of Him.

The third thing is this. He says obey not only with a cheerful heart out of fear and trembling and obey with a ministry heart. Remember, you're not there for anybody else. You're there not for the applause of men. You're not there for the attaboys.

You're not there to get ahead. You're not there just for money making and things like that. No, he says every single one of us, when we show up to work, we're there for a much more important reason. We are servants of Christ, which leads into verse number seven. He says, with good will, doing service as to the Lord and not to men.

In other words, the third thing is this. We got to obey not only with a cheerful heart, with a ministry heart, but then we got to obey with a servant's heart, with a servant's heart. Here's what I want you to know. Any of you that go to work and things like that, followers of Christ should see their work and their career differently than someone that does not know Jesus. You got to see your work as an opportunity to serve and to minister and to reach the people with the gospel.

Listen, that's what you are called to do. Whether you're working in a factory or working in a classroom or wherever you are, I want you to know that what Paul's saying is that you are being sent there by Christ to serve those around you. That's what he means when he says good will, doing service. In other words, you should serve at your job and it should make your community better. As a follower of Christ, you should get joy from serving those around you.

And you say, why is that? Why should we get joy about serving those around us? It's all found in the same phrase that you see over and over in all of our relationships, as unto the Lord, not to men.

Does that make sense? In other words, is remember what I started with in this sermon is this, chapters one, two, and three, all about the gospel. When you understand what Jesus has done for you and the lengths of how far he was willing to go to redeem you into a relationship with God, when that changes your heart, it's going to bleed out into relationships that are around you.

That's the point. That's the big idea and so therefore, all of your relationships should reflect Christ. He says, as to the Lord, not to men.

Here's what I'll tell you. Don't work for reward here. If that's why you show up to work every single day to try to get a reward here on this earth, then you're going to always be disappointed. But if you show up every single day knowing that your reward is not here on this earth, but it's actually up there in heaven waiting on you, then you can realize that it's about a heavenly reward and not here on this earth. And by the way, when you realize how far God went to serve you, it doesn't take a whole lot more for you to show up and serve the people around you and the people that God has entrusted you to serve. That's the point. So the point here is very simply this. The way, and I want you to, if you forget anything that I say this whole time, the way that you treat God should be revealed in the way that you treat your boss.

That's the point. Servants to masters. The way that you treat God, remember, he said unto Christ. He says, you're supposed to do all of these things. The way that you have this, it's all unto Christ. The way that we treat God should be revealed in the way that you treat your boss. Now, here's the kicker. I know many of you, you're probably thinking in here, uh, okay, Paul, I get it. All right, I get it.

Ease up on me. What do you have to say about my boss? Because my boss is crazy, right?

And I'm sure that's where some of you are. You're like, you just don't understand when Paul wrote Ephesians chapter five and six, he did not understand who I was going to be married to. He did not understand how crazy my kids would be.

And he definitely did not understand the person that got appointed that I have to work under. Okay. And I get that that's probably a lot of you in here. So in verse number nine, Paul, he kind of says something specifically to the ones that are over you. And so if you're in here and you have people that work for you, you say, how am I supposed to live?

Because this sounds pretty good. Everybody below me just obeys me with a cheerful heart. They obey me with a ministry heart. They obey me with a servant's heart.

I can do whatever I want to do. And here's what he says in verse number nine, ye masters do the same things unto them. What? For bearing threatening, knowing that your master also is in heaven, neither is their respective persons with him. So now he kind of turns his attention from the employee to the person over the employees. And he says, here's what you should do is the way that you treat the people that serve you the way that you treat the people, it should reflect how you view God. So in other words, is that with you, he says all of these things about how we should be serving people. Because it's the will of God, not unto men, but unto unto Christ, all of these admonitions that Paul gives us about our work relationships, he now turns them all and says, Okay, now for you that are masters, you actually should take everything that we just that I just told you, and you're supposed to do the same things unto them.

Wow. And then he goes on in verse number nine, and says, just like in heaven, there's no respect of persons, that should be true of you in your company. In other words, don't show favoritism, because God has not shown favoritism to you. So here's what I want you to understand.

I'm going to kind of summarize this all together. And this is about as practical of a message as I ever preach. But the scripture talks about this relationship and every single one of you have experienced this on the good side or the bad side or whatever, whatever side you've been on. And all I want you to understand is that Christ likeness should be reflected in your relationships. That's the point unto Christ, that's who you are serving. And once we realize that we are serving him, that should be reflected in how you serve one another.

Here's the point, I'll kind of land the plane here. The health of my horizontal relationship with God is always reflected or related to the health of my vertical relationship. Let me say it this way, the health of your relationships with everybody around you, like all these horizontal relationships in your life, like with your boss, the people that work for you, with your spouse, with your kids, with any of your family members, the health of all of your horizontal relationships, here's what I found. It's always related to the health of your vertical relationship with him. Every single time.

Every single time. If your health with God, your vertical relationship, is where it should be, then doing this with the people that work for you and doing this for the people that work around you and treating them the way that Christ has treated you, it's going to be way easier when your vertical relationship is right. When your vertical relationship with God is right, it's going to be way easier to love your spouse.

It's going to be way easier to serve your spouse. When your vertical relationship with God is right, it's going to be way easier for the way that you relate to the other family members in your home, your kids, whatever. It's going to be way easier for those relationships to reflect Christ. But it all comes back and it's all stemmed back to our relationship with Jesus. And that's the point. And so you might be in here today and you say, Pastor, I can't seem to get these relationships right. My work relationships are out of whack.

How do I fix that? It's all found in the gospel. That's why Ephesians, that's why he spent three chapters talking about what Jesus did for you. You see, every single one of us, we were born into this world dead in the middle of our sin, with no breath in you at all.

Dead and on our way to a place called hell. And so God, there was nothing that you could do. The Bible says that there was absolutely nothing that we could do to reconcile our relationship with the Holy God. And so in verse number four of chapter two of this same book, but God, who is rich in mercy, you know what he did? He loved you. And you know what? Out of that love, you know what he did?

You couldn't get to him. So you know what God did? He came to you. He came and dwelt among us to one day die on a cross to pay for your sin so that now you can now have a relationship with him. It's only through Jesus that we can have that relationship. And so the point is, is what God did for you, what Paul's saying is now what we are supposed to do for others. And if you have problems with this or questions about this, here's the thing.

It's all about our vertical relationship with God that impacts all of the horizontal relationships that you have in life. Can we bow our heads? Listen, I don't know where you're at.

All heads bowed, hearts lifted in prayer. I don't know where you're at today. I don't know what your relationship is with the people that you work with.

I don't know that. But here's my challenge to you. Today I want you to understand, if you forget anything, I want you to realize that the success of your horizontal relationships all stem back to where you are with God.

All of it. It's going to be way easier when you realize what God did for you, it's going to be way easier for you to do the same to everybody else. That's Paul's point when it comes to relationships. If you're in here today and you say, pastor, I don't know Jesus as my savior. The gospel's where I haven't really trusted in him. I've got the idea, but I've never put my faith and trust in Jesus. I've never asked him to come into my life and save me. If that's you here today and you say, that's where I need to start, that's where I'm at today, would you be honest before God and before me and just slip up your hands so that I can pray for you?

Not going to embarrass you, not going to call you out. But if you're in here today and say, I do not know Jesus as my savior. If that's you in here today.

Yes, I see that hand. Thank you. If that's where you're at here today, listen today, all you have to do is give your life to him. All you have to do is stop trusting in yourself and start trusting in him because he's the only one that can save you. He's the only one that can reconcile your relationship with God. And if you're in here today, that's where it begins.

You can't start fixing all these relationships around you if your vertical relationship is not where it needs to be. In a moment, we're all going to stand and have what we call here at Union Grove an invitation response time. This is an opportunity for us to do business with God. It's an opportunity for us to really just decide and to respond to the word that was preached. And so for some of you, maybe your response is, wow, I need to treat people at my job differently. Listen, this author is going to be open. You can pray where you are today.

But here's the thing. And all things reflect Christ in all your relationships reflect who he is and what he came to do. Can we all stand at this time?

Nobody's looking around. Father blessing this invitation time. Give us the courage to respond today for it's in your name. We pray if God speaks to you.

The music's playing. The altar's open. Maybe you need to respond. Maybe you're in here and you say I do not know Jesus as my Savior. And that's where I need to right now I need to pray to ask him to come into my life and to change me. Or maybe you're in here today and you say, Pastor, my relationships with the people that I work with have not reflected Christ. I've kind of been selfish, kind of been about me. And I want to make all my relationships about him and what he has done for for me. Give you just a little bit of time to respond.