Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Bad Advice, Part 3: How to Commit Adultery

Episode Date: June 27, 2016

“How did I end up here?” Behind every mess of harmful habits and rough relationships, we can look back and see where we got on the wrong track. Let’s untangle our lives by learning how to avoid Bad Advice. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We are Life Church, one church meeting in multiple locations, and reaching around the world with the help of church online. If you'd like to learn more or if you have any questions, all you have to do is visit us online simply by going to life.com. Coming up today, our senior pastor, Craig Rochelle, will help us understand that when we find ourselves in compromising situations and rationalize those decisions, that's a very quick way for us to find ourselves in an adulterous relationship. And we want to know how to avoid that. And today, we'll learn just that in part three of the message, bad advice. What we're actually doing is we're looking at some bad advice. Who goes to church to get bad advice? The honest thing is when you actually look at your lives so often the way that we actually

live implies that we are taking bad advice. What I want to do is I actually want to show very direct bad advice in the context of the church to illustrate just how bad it is. Then we're going to take some good advice or some godly advice, apply it to our lives, and I believe that God will make a big, big difference. As we dive in today, I need a little help from all of our churches.

How many of you are married? Would you lift up your hands right now? You're married? Fantastic, fantastic. How many are not married, but would maybe not mind being married one day lift up your hands, if you will, leave them up, leave them up high, put them up high,

scan the room. Just go ahead and look around right now. Just scan the room, look around. You may make some eye contact, and we may. have a connection today. If you are married or wouldn't mind being married, here's one more question. How many of you have a goal to commit adultery one day?

When I come adultery, mess around, fool around on the side, get a little action on the side. How many would say, I plan on doing that one day? Interesting. Interesting. How no one would say they actually plan on committing the sin of adultery. and yet people do it all the time. The fact that none of you say,

well, this is something that I actually plan on doing, I think one day, you know, I am going to potentially risk losing my marriage and losing the respect of my children and hurting my reputation and ripping the name of Jesus through the mud. The fact that none of you plan on doing this would probably imply that you embrace the truth

from Exodus chapter 20 verse 14. one of the Ten Commandments when God said, you shall not do what, somebody help me, you shall not commit adultery. In fact, even if you go outside of what we would call the Christian world, and you just take the general population, even including people that would not consider themselves religious, even 90% of the general population agrees that adultery is always wrong. the vast majority of people, whether Christian or not, believe that adultery is a sin. And yet, according to one study I read, according to the Journal of Psychology and Christianity, up to 65% of husbands and 55% of wives will commit adultery. If you want to say wow, go ahead and say it. Wow.

Okay, that's painful. That's a lot. that's devastating to see. There are a lot of different studies, and admittedly that one is more extreme, but that will cause you to pause and to get your attention. That's a lot of people.

Now, my intent today is not to induce fear or anxiety. Oh, is my spouse going to cheat or this or that or the other? Instead, what I want to do is I want to teach a message that, unfortunately, I really wish I didn't have to, but as a pastor who works with people all the time, this is a massive, massive, massive problem. And even though you don't plan to do this, the vast majority of so many people actually do,

I want to address this today, and I want to give you a little bit of bad advice, so the godly advice will really, really stand out. What tends to happen, if someone says, I'm never going to do this, and yet they do, what tends to happen? Well, what might happen is I'm married and I'm kind of happily married, and then one day I'm taking my marriage for granted. I don't really value my spouse as much as I used to.

I kind of drift in my heart. I read something. Maybe I shouldn't read, see something I shouldn't see. I meet someone else who's kind of interesting, but, you know, no big deal. We find common interest. We start enjoying time together. I start anticipating my time with this person. We get a little bit excited about it.

We invent reasons to meet, spend some more time together. where suddenly we accidentally kind of brush and touch, the next thing you know we're doing something else. And one day you wake up and you travel a long, long distance. You didn't ever mean to end up over here. You didn't ever plan to move in that direction. But somehow, some way, you crossed several lines and woke up in real, real, real trouble.

If you want to have a great marriage, if you're very, very blessed. And one day you want to potentially risk it all, Let me give you some really bad advice and show you in three quick steps how you can commit adultery. Step number one, if you're taking notes, it's very important. I want to encourage you to neglect your marriage. If you don't want to have intimacy in your marriage, you want to potentially lead yourself to do something stupid. Neglect your marriage.

It's very simple. Just find something else to give your best to. It can be anything else at all. It can be a hobby. It can be your job. It can be your yard. It can be social media. You can obsess about people.

You don't even know. It's so exciting and easy to do. You can get all into fitness where it's all about your body. It can even be your children. This is a great thing because children are a good thing. And you can obsess about your kids. Just whatever you do, neglect your marriage. I also want to encourage you to let yourself go.

You know, if you used to take care of yourself, just don't do that anymore. Take your spouse completely for granted. Don't talk. Don't have any kind of emotional intimacy whatsoever. Don't share your feelings. Don't open up. And physical intimacy, if you have to do it with each other, make it boring. Make it predictable.

Same approach. Same whatever. And that's all I'm going to say, because there may be kids in the room. but you know what I'm talking about. Just be a dud in the bedroom and neglect your marriage. What's funny is somebody wants to say amen, but that would be very, very weird. Because this is bad advice.

How do you commit adultery? Step number one, neglect your marriage. Step number two, this is great. Enjoy common interests and form an emotional bond with someone else. Okay? Form common interest and an emotional bond with somebody. else. So what you want to do is find someone who might possibly be interesting or attractive and do a lot of things with them. It could be a project at work. It could be that you're in some fitness class together.

That's a really great place to meet people and connect. And what you want to do is you want to just spend time with them and tell yourself, well, he understands me. She likes my jokes. My spouse doesn't enjoy me or get me in this way. And so you start to bond with them emotionally, which is so easy because you've been neglecting your spouse and you've got emotional needs, right? And this person is starting to meet them. Okay? Now, whatever you do, hide this from your spouse. Don't let your spouse know about the other person. And then what you want to do is you want to anticipate time together. Start thinking about, if I go there at this time and walk by the desk, they're always there. They always get coffee at this time and you anticipate the time together with this person.

If you don't mind, maybe dress a little bit, you know, show something. Guys, suck in the gut. Walk by with a little, show some stuff. Flirt a little bit. You know, ladies, do the hair thing. Guys, I don't know what it is, but you know what I'm saying. Flirt, make it interesting. Accidentally brush, you know, grab the pin and, ooh, ooh, okay, make it really, really fun.

Text after work. message them is really, really fun. Hey, if you want to make it spiritual, and this is really, really good for Christians, tell them, I'm praying for you. I've got you on my heart. Oh, God is just leading me to care for you spiritually. Oh, this will really, really work. Okay, neglect your marriage.

This is kind of gross, isn't it? But anyway, just work with me. This is bad advice. Neglect your marriage. Enjoy common interest in form an emotional bond. And number three, make excuses. and rationalize your actions. Make excuses.

Blame your spouse. This works every time. Well, he would meet my knees. Well, if she would pay some attention to me, well, if I wouldn't have it to put up with this kind of, you know what, all the time, and just blame your spouse, and that helps you to feel better about yourself.

Tell yourself that, well, I'm not happy anyway, and God wants me happy no matter what, okay? That this is the highest and best calling is that I would be happy. Tell yourself this. This is really, really important when it comes to adultery, tell yourself, you'll never actually go through with it. This is really just harmless. This is just playful.

This is flirting. It's not any really big deal. And then if you really get close to it, tell yourself, well, maybe this other relationship is what was meant to be. Maybe this is what God really intended for me. May I pause for a moment in case anybody walked into church late and say that I was being very sarcastic. and that was bad advice. Someone just leaned over to their wife. I heard about these New Age churches,

these swinger churches, everything I heard about life church is true. This is bad advice. This is bad advice. This is bad advice. But cannot, we all admit, that none of us plan to betray the one that we promised before God

to do life with for better, for worse, rich or poor, sickness and health? None of us plan to do that, and yet what happens? People do it all the time. Why? They're actually living this bad advice. What I want to do is I want to turn the tables, and I want to talk about some godly advice,

and give you a few things to put into your heart that I believe can be very beneficial to some people. You may be 16 years old, and this may come into play 10 years from now. And so I want to give you three thoughts to do whatever it takes to avoid adultery. Thought number one, if you're taking nose, I want to encourage you to do whatever it takes to radically reduce the risks, to radically reduce the risks. In fact, when we talk about sexual

sin, it's interesting to me that every other type of sin in the Bible tells us, like, to fight it, and to resist it. With sexual sin is the only sin that doesn't say fight or resist. You know what the Bible says with sexual sin? Flee, run, run for us, run. Don't stand around and try. Don't stand around and try to fight it, don't resist it, but get your hind in out of Dodge, is what the Bible says. Flee from sexual immorality. Why? Because all other sins, Paul says, you commit are outside the body. This one is actually different. This one is very, very different, and so we flee from sexual immorality. In fact, in Proverbs chapter 5, the father is speaking to his son about the adulterous woman. And here's what the father says to his son to radically reduce the risk. The father says,

keep a path. Somebody help me on it. He says, keep a path far from her. Do not go near the door of her house. Essentially, what's he saying? A lot of times say, well, I'm not really doing anything wrong. I mean, this is kind of innocent. Well, I didn't really mean this. Well, this is just kind of fun. Well, this is harmless. Nothing's really going to happen. Well, this is okay. Well, everybody understands. Well, everybody does this. And what happens is you end up crossing line after line after line after line. And you think, well, I haven't committed adultery yet. The line is way over here.

But we need to understand that the line for sin actually exists right here. The line for sin starts before we commit an action. It actually starts in our minds. And it starts in our hearts. Even before we do something, it starts with a mindset. For so many people, the line of the line of things, The sin is in the wrong place. We need to make sure we know the line starts in the mind and in the eyes and in the heart.

That's why Jesus said in Matthew 528, he said, I tell you that anyone who does what, let's say this aloud, anyone who looks at a woman lustfully, what is that man already done? He's already committed adultery with her in his heart. Where does the line start? It starts right here. It starts in the heart. It starts in the eyes. It starts in the mind.

long before you ever act, it's all about what's in the heart. So, those of you who are married, I asked early if you were married, you raised your hand. Here's kind of a good litmus test. If your spouse were to see a video of everything you do all day, everything is recorded, guess what? It probably is, okay? There's video cameras everywhere. But if they saw everything that you said and everything that you did all, day long, would they be blessed by your interactions or would they be hurt? It's really a powerful thing.

Did you kind of laugh at a joke that you shouldn't have laughed at? Did you say something sort of inappropriate to someone at work? Were you being entertained by something that would be hurtful or all day long? Were you honoring God and honoring your spouse in a way that your spouse would look on and say, I am so thankful for my wife, the way she had. I'm so thankful for my husband. He obviously treasures me and honors God and all that he does. Now, for those of you that are not married, you're like going, oh, easy week at church, I so get a pass. Okay, sick it on those married people.

No, no, no, no, no, no. Let me come up on your business for a second, okay? If your future spouse saw the way you interacted with people today, would your future spouse be blessed and pleased? Because some of you are doing some things right now that a future spouse may look on go, oh, it's kind of painful. Ask yourself, if the line of sin starts way back here, am I rationalizing all types of sin, or am I recognizing that sin actually starts in the eyes, the mind, and in the heart? So here's just a few kind of bullet point thoughts to help radically reduce the risk. If we want to stay far away from temptation, here's some bullet point thoughts to do so.

The first one is this. Let me encourage you to keep a growing relationship. relationship with Christ. Let's start there. If you're married, what could be more powerful than intimate spiritual time every single day with your spouse? Whether you're sharing what God is showing you in the Word, whether you're praying together before you go off to work, whether you're blessing a meal together, talking about spiritual things with your kids. But when you're sharing spiritual intimacy and you continue to grow, this is a great way to reduce the risks. of you doing something that could be hurtful in your relationship. Another one if you're taking notice is this,

never be alone with the wrong people. Never be alone with the wrong people. And if I can just get off on this, this will offend some of you and you're going to think I'm stupid and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever. Just email me at Craig and I don't give a rip.com. It's a real email address. And there's an auto response that comes back to you that says,

I really don't give a rip. Try it if you want. I don't give a rip. And I know a lot of you will say this is stupid. But listen, in my world, we are simply, simply, I would never be alone with a woman in any kind of anywhere. I just wouldn't be, especially, you know, traveling in a car, going on a trip. And I know that many of you, perhaps most of you, work in environments where this is normal and accepted.

But just because it's normal does not mean this wise. Okay. I mean, you travel with someone, you know, to some other place, stay in a hotel room, go to lunch with someone on a business lunch, and you're sitting across the table, having an intimate conversation, travel in a car. And I know this is very common in the workplace and almost expected. And again, just because it's expected does not mean it's wise. And you're sitting in an environment with someone just talking intimately. Listen, this is foolish, stupid on steroids.

I had two guys in particular in years past come up to me and say, kind of in my inner circle, gross out, that's the stupidest thing ever. You're too extreme, blah, blah, blah. Let me tell you what. Both guys committed adultery. call it stupid. Both guys who made fun of me to my face did this. Listen, you can be wise or you can be foolish and foolish people always often end up in trouble. So what we want to do is keep a path far from it. Another thing is this, never talk bad about your spouse. Just don't do it. Don't talk bad about

your spouse. Well, she may be. But keep it to yourself, okay? And especially, can I just say, just because this is where we live in, don't post something bad about them on Facebook. Okay, don't do, ah, blah, you know, be wise, your spouse is often

becoming what you say about them. If you're saying good things, they often grow into it. If you're saying bad things, you know it is. Another thing is, surround yourself

with strong marriages. You become like those you're around. Surround yourself with people that are growing spiritually. Surround yourself with those that can speak life into you. What I want to do is,

I want to be around people I want to become like. If you're around people that are always, trash talking their spouses, always going out and doing stupid things, getting wasted and putting themselves in bad environments. What you are is you're surrounding yourself with bad company. We know what scripture says that bad company corrupts good character. And then finally, avoid all inappropriate places and situations. Just don't go where you might be tempted.

You might be on a business trip and everybody's going out to the bar for drinks. You know what? You might just sit that one out. Someone might private message you, an X from your, years ago. Oh, I'm in town and just want to say hello. Delete, delete, delete, delete, delete, delete, delete, delete, okay? You might be struggling with looking at lustful images on your iPad or some device. Well, then get accountability for it and block that. You may be in a job right now where you're actually flirting with danger. Someone in there could be a potential, okay? You know what? Ask to be moved. Go to a different department. if you're in danger, I honestly would advise you to get another job if you have to.

It's easier to find another job than it is to rebuild a 20-year marriage after you do something stupid, okay? Be wise, be wise, be wise, be wise, be wise. Do whatever it takes to radically reduce the risk. Number two, I want to encourage you to do whatever it takes to invest passionately in your marriage, passionately. Proverbs 5, verse 18 and 20 says, may your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. a loving dough, a graceful deer. May her breasts satisfy you always. May you be what?

I love this word. May you be intoxicated with her love? Why my son be intoxicated with another man's wife? What is the father saying essentially? Hey, hey, if the grass looks greener somewhere else, it's time to water your own yard. Okay, be intoxicated with the love of your own spouse. In fact, I love the word in the Hebrew that's translated as intoxicated is the word saga.

Everybody say saga? When you say it, you have to say it like this. Saga, you got to have attitude. It doesn't work if you don't have that. Give me some attitude. Saga! Okay, you got it. You got it.

You got to shaga. Okay? This word, it can mean to be ravished. It means to be captivated. It means to be enraptured. It means to be consumed. The little word literally means like a bigger animal attacking. and devouring the small animal.

And that's how your love should be. Shagah. Enraptured, captivated, consuming. I'll be real honest with you. 25 years of marriage to my best friend. There's more sagat than there used to be. There's more. And we just celebrated 25 years of marriage.

And I was telling Amy, I said, you know, thank you. I was telling Amy that, And now we were crazy in love when we got marriage. She goes, yeah, that was puppy love. She goes, we got quarter century love. Now, shagah, shagah. Somebody say shagga. Okay, if you consistently invest in your own marriage.

I've got a few thoughts about this. One is make sure you guard your alone time. I'm telling you what, the difference between just taking one night every week and saying, this is our night. No kids time together. It's a total and complete game time. changeer. Get time alone. Get spiritual. Again, you pray together, man, it's a game changer. You talk about what God is doing. It's a game changer. Get alone. Get spiritual. Get naked. Can I say that in church?

At least two or three times a week, okay? And I'm dead serious. In fact, if I could have Amy talk to you about this, it would sound much better coming from her because she talks to women quite passionately about this and says, this is one of the greatest gifts that you can give and receive in sharing all types of intimacy, and it's a massively important part of relationships. You may say right now some of you, well, my bucket's kind of empty. That may be true, okay? Fill your bucket. Fill his bucket. Let him fill your bucket. Start now, do whatever it takes. If you had something special at one time, you can have it again. I promise you, if you had something special, something special and you don't have it now, you were doing something then that you're not doing

now. Start doing again what you once did. Start doing again what you once did. Do whatever it takes to invest passionately in your marriage. And number three, do whatever it takes to visualize the potential destruction if you do stray. You want to be faithful? Just think ahead. Think what could happen if you choose to betray your spouse and commit the sin. of adultery. Proverbs chapter 5 verses 3 through 5. The father says this to the son about the adulterous woman. He says this, for the lips of an adulteress drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, but in the end, she is bitter as gall, sharp as a double-edged sword. She'll cut you up, okay? Her feet do what? They go down to death. Her steps lead where? They lead straight to the grave.

May I just go ahead and switch the sex just for fun and say, the adulterous man does the same thing. His feet go down to death. His steps lead straight to the grave. All you have to do when you're caught up, oh, but this is fun, oh, but this is innocent, oh, maybe this is meant to be. Oh, maybe I made a mistake earlier. Maybe this one just visualize the destruction. Imagine, gentlemen, sitting down with your kids and saying, well, kids. here's why I can't live with you anymore.

Picture that conversation. Ladies, imagine this. Kids, well, you know your dad's best friend, we spend a little bit too much time together. Imagine the conversation. Imagine the conversation. I can honestly say that in 25 years of marriage to Amy, I've never been tempted or even close to betraying her

in this way ever. And the reason is because I've stayed really, really far from it. What I do in my mind occasionally is I just, just to be wise, go down the path of if I did betray her in this way, what would happen? Visualize the destruction. And let me tell you what would happen. I would betray the name of my Savior who gave his life for me. I would crush and hurt, devastate, untold thousands of you who actually believe that there is a pastor who is really trying to honor God with the power of the Holy Spirit and get things right. It would be a national news story for two, three, four days, and everybody would talk about it for a little while. It would be another church scandal. That's the easy part. The more difficult part is one day I would stand before God and give an

account. After all he trusted me with, I would have to look at the woman who's given me six kids and been more faithful to me than I could ever imagine and look into the eyes. I can't even go there. I've six children, two married, and they look to us as role models and examples and say, we want to have a marriage like you have one day. And 25 years of that would be thrown in the trash in moments of selfishness. Visualize the destruction. because Satan is on the prow.

And he wants to steal, kill, and destroy everything that matters to God. And marriage really, really matters to God. So some of you will still be in a place and you think, well, I'm going to, you know, whatever, I'm going to go with this, okay? We're going to fall in love and we're going to live happily ever after, okay? I want to show you some statistics of your odds and go ahead and put these in your pipe and smoke it. Okay? You want to go ahead and just do it, do it, okay?

what percentage of people actually marry the forbidden lover? You're going to go leave your spouse and go marry this person. Well, 3% of those who commit adultery actually marry the forbidden lover. What percentage of those marriages end in divorce? A cool 75%. 3 out of 4. There's some good odds for you. So what are the odds of a lasting marriage with this other person?

0.075. You've got less than 1% of a chance. Why? Because what you have is a relationship built on lies and deceit. That's what you have. You do not have trust. You do not have integrity. You do not have Christ. You have a relationship that is built on lies and deceit. That is what you have. Now, I know there's some tears right now, and the whole time I've been talking about this, I'm very aware that there are a lot of people who have been hurt significantly because of this type of. a sin in temptation. And I want you to know those of you who have been betrayed, that breaks the heart

of God and it breaks my heart. I also know that there are those of you that have betrayed a spouse, and many of you are wanting to heal from this and grow through it. And I want to encourage you that the grace of God is very, very, very real. There is no condemnation now for those who are in Christ Jesus. You're not judged. You're not pushed away. That if there is deep and true, repentance, there is absolute and complete healing. The arms of God are open wide if you'll come back to him. In fact, I want to end with some really, really good news because we've talked about some stuff that's very painful and very hard. And the good news is this. If you're taking notes, the really good news is this. Even when we are unfaithful, what is God? God is always

faithful. 2 Timothy 2.13 says this. If we are faithless, what is God? God will remain faithful. If we are faithless, and here's the deal, listen to me, every single one of us, we're unfaithful in some way at some time. None of us are perfect. The good news is God is always faithful. God is always faithful. Whatever our spiritual enemy meant to destroy, our God can rebuild. Our God can rebuild. Our God can heal. Our God can forgive. Our God can make all things new. Even when we are unfaithful, our God is faithful. So, if you're ever heard in this way, you can argue all day long and you would be absolutely correct that adultery is biblical grounds for divorce. True all day long. But guess what? Adultery is also biblical grounds for forgiveness.

Our God can take what the enemy meant to destroy, and our God can make it better than new. So, Father, today I pray that by the power of your Holy Spirit, you would do a work in many hearts. I know, God, for some, this is a painful message, and I pray that as maybe they've been hurt by this, they would understand that perhaps you could use this message to keep others from being hurt in a similar way. God, I ask that your spirit would speak to us, strengthen us, God, to keep us from giving in to the temptations of the evil one. All of our churches today, whether you're married or not, I just want to ask a simple question of those who would honor the covenant of marriage. How many would say, whether now or in the future, always and forever, I want to be faithful to honor my God and the spouse that he gives me in the covenant of marriage. Would you lift up your hands right now, just all of our churches? Father, I want to pray right now for those who are not yet even married that some of the principles

we talked about today would be planted deep within their heart, God, that you would give them a longing to share you with a godly person one day to be blessed in an incredible covenant of marriage. God, I pray for the marriages that are in the room and represented online in all of our churches, God. I pray and I know that there are many that are hurting and struggling right now. God, when the grass looks greener somewhere else, help us, God, with your power, your presence, to water our own yards. I pray God that this week in our life groups that we would talk openly,

share transparently how we need help, where we need prayer. God, for those who may need to reach out for a counselor, give them the courage to do so. For those marriages that are blessed, I pray God, that they would guard what you've entrusted them with, continue to walk intimately with you.

I pray, God, that every marriage that is represented here today would be blessed in a special way as you do a healing work. even if we have to work through some massive challenges, we're willing to work through those. Why? Because we promised you, God, for better or for worse, richer for poor and sickness and health, God,

we will be faithful and stay together as long as we both shall live. Bless those today, God, with your supernatural presence. We ask for healing where there is hurts, forgiveness, and new life. As you keep praying today at all of our churches, I recognize this is a really heavy subject, and if you'll bear with me, I'll let it be heavy for just a few minutes more. The truth of the matter is, if I can just be blunt,

is that we've all, in a sense, committed adultery against God, spiritual adultery. Every single one of us we've sinned against God. The verse that Jesus said is very sobering that if we look lustfully, we've committed adultery in our hearts. I don't know very many people who didn't have a lustful thought.

The reality is that all of us are sinners. And in a quiet and private moment, you're going to recognize, I've done some things very wrong and very hurtful. Many of you right now, if I ask you, how do you stand with God? Where are you spiritually? A lot of you would say, well, I'm not really sure. You know, I don't know. I hope I'm okay. I might be in trouble.

I did some bad things. Let me just tell you, just point blank. Without Christ, we're all in trouble. Without Christ, every single one of us, we have all sinned. And we all fall short of God's standard. And this is why the good news is such good news that even when we are unfaithful, God is always faithful.

And in the faithfulness of God, he did something for us that we couldn't do for ourselves. He sent his son Jesus, who was without sin, to become sin for us on the cross, to die in our place. And he rose again so that anyone who calls on his name would be saved. And all of our churches, there are those of you you recognize, I need spiritual help.

I need forgiveness. I need His grace. If I can be honest, that's why many of you are here today, and you know it. At all of our churches, those who say, yes, I need the forgiveness of God. Today, I turn from my sins. I put Jesus first. No longer do I put anything else ahead of Jesus. I want him to be the Savior and the Lord of my life.

All of our churches, those who say, yes, I need his forgiveness. I need his grace. Today, by faith, I surrender my life to Jesus. That's your prayer. Lift your hands high right now. all over the place and say yes. As a church, it's our honor to play a very small part in all that God is doing in and through your life.

And we would love to continue with you on that journey. To find out what your next steps could be in your relationship with Christ, all you have to do is go to life.church slash next. You know, our work here around the world at Life Church is rooted in partnership with Christ-centered organizations. And recently, I had the chance to check out

the work of one of our global mission partners, tier fund and the work that they're doing to ensure that people stuck in poverty have a way out in communities around the world. Hey life church, I want to welcome you to 9,000 feet. I'm here with a small team of people from our church. We're going to go check out some work of our newest global mission partner tier fund, some of the amazing work they're doing to bring restoration to people in impoverished communities all through the local church. I'd love for you to come along with me as we learn more about it. Check it out. We're so excited about working with life church. You see the partnership that we're doing together isn't about giving things to people, but rather it's about

working with the local church here in Uganda and across the world in poor communities and helping those churches reach out to some of the poorest people. It's true that people are poor, but it's also true that people have resources. Because we believe that where God has placed his people, he has also given them resources. When people are empowered, they're able to identify those resources. and use those resources to make their life better. So one of my favorite things I've noticed is how much Tier Fund puts the local church

at the center of everything they do. It is development, but it's not just about money. It's about the heart, and it all starts with the local church. Well, what we try and do is put the Bible at the heart of development and help people learn who they are in God, what resources they have to deal with their problems, and what the role of the local church is. Tell me, like, what's one of your favorite stories

that you've seen from the people you've moved? My favorite story is a guy named Kenneth. Over 16 years ago, he was an alcoholic, dropped out of school years later, committed his life to Christ, and then decided to go back to school. He persevered, he finished, and now he's pastoring a church back in that same area, reaching those same people that he used to drink with all those years ago. Just a connectedness and a shared vision and mission, even though we're worlds apart in the United States and Uganda, we both are coming together as the church, the hope of the world. Life Church, thank you so much because of your irrational generosity. We're able to lead the way together to enable the local church to be the hope of the world. To learn more about our mission partners and how you can connect and support their work,

all you have to do is go to life.church slash life missions. It's our mission to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ, and it's the reason behind everything we do, all because we believe whoever finds God finds life. Thank you.