Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Breaking Free From a Trapped Mindset

Episode Date: March 9, 2025

It’s natural to rely on ourselves when things get hard. But what if the hope we’re looking for isn’t dependent on what we do? Let’s find out how it’s already ours.NEXT STEPSHave you made the decision to follow Jesus? You might be wondering what’s next for you. We want to help! Check out these resources to ​​discover what saying yes to Jesus means: https://www.life.church/yesGET TO KNOW YOU—NEW!You get to hear our voices—now we want to hear yours! Check out this special survey for podcast listeners. It’ll allow us to get to know you better and hear how we can support you. Find the survey at: https://www.life.church/podcastconnectABOUT THIS MESSAGEWe’re all chasing something—success, worth, another chance. But what if the need to prove yourself is just a mirage? In The Greatest Illusion, we’ll uncover where true worth comes from—and why you don’t have to earn it.ABOUT LIFE.CHURCHWherever you are in life, you have a purpose. Life.Church wants to help you find your next step. Our hope is that your journey will include joining us at a Life.Church location throughout the United States or globally online at https://www.live.life.churchFind locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/appFIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/life.churchInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/life.churchTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifechurchYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@life.churchCONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIG GROESCHELYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/craiggroeschelFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschelInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschelTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@craiggroeschel#lifechurch #dustintavella  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We have something very, very special and admittedly very, very different. I'm invited a friend of mine to come and join us. He's a dear friend of our church and of you version. He is the winner of America's Got Talent. Dustin Tevella is a world-class, world-renowned magician, but guess what? Today may be his first sermon ever, but he's got to do magic because he's one of the best in the world. but this isn't just regular magic. Get ready. This is magic with a message. Please help me. Welcome to Life Church, Dustin, Tebella. Yes, thank you, bro. Thank you, bro. Love you, man. Thank you guys so much. Thank you, Life Church family for having me. This is awesome. We just got to get this out the gate, like, first. We're just doing this first. Because some of you guys are like, this is church. Who brought the sorcerer? I am not a sorcerer. I don't have powers. I do magic tricks.

and illusions, and I love doing these because I love adding visuals to a story or to help drive a point home. So now that's out of the way. There's another group of you guys that are like, all right, magic boy, then let's see something. So let's do something. I'm going to use three people. We're just going to start right out the gate with a little magic trick. And actually, we're just going to make this quick. I'm going to use you two here on the end. If you come up here, yeah, you guys could come up these steps. Welcome these three up here with me. Yep. We got some tables. We're bringing out. We're going to set those down. and you guys can stand right behind the tables.

And I kind of wasn't fully honest. I said, I was going to do a magic trick. You three are going to do a magic trick. I'm going to have you stand behind that table right there. Yeah. And then you can stand behind that one. You can stand behind this one. Awesome.

Here's what's going to happen. All three of you guys, which, by the way, gets your name. Kaylee. Kaylee. Deidre. She's excited. My name's Lawson. Lawson.

Cool. And it's important, too. You guys have no idea what's going to happen. We haven't like set something up. Okay, cool. You guys all have blindfolds on your table if you could pick those up and put those on. And what I want you guys to do is I want you guys to think of a number between 1 and 30. You're going to take your right hand.

You're going to put it on top of the table in front of you. Yep, just right here on the table. Yep, perfect. And then each of you has a list of 30 different snacks. There are 30 different snacks on each of these lists in this hand. You're going to take this list. You guys obviously have no idea what snacks are on this list. You're going to hold that.

You're going to hold this one. Lawson. And here's what's going to happen. I said you guys are going to do a magic trick. You guys all have 30. She looks like she's reading it with the blindfold on. That's just, that's a magic trick right there. What I want you guys to do, you're thinking of a number between 1 and 30. You guys all have a number. Yes, cool. We're going to start over here. Can you please shout your number out? Eight. Can you shout yours out? 23.

23. Yours? 23. I'm done. That's it. I told you. They were going to do a magic trick. It looks like you were the only one who guys. wrong, but that's okay. Cool. I'm going to have you guys take off those blindfolds, and we're going to go one by one. You can take off the blindfold. You guys are going to tell us what that number is. You said number eight.

What is number eight? Bananas. Bananas. Number eight. Bananas. I told you you were going to do a magic trick. You could have picked any number, any snack. Yeah, let's we're going to keep this going. You said 23. What is 23 on yours? French fries. French fries?

It was close. I mean, they're both like a fried. potato, we'll count it. I mean, it's close enough. And yours, you said 23 as well? Cucumbers. Cucum. That was just, that's just, nope.

Well, this would be a great time to just, you know, give some kind of message about second chances. We're just, it's okay. I mean, we literally went from like, nailed it to pretty good, to just total failure, Austin. Let's just, it's okay, look, this is a message I'm supposed to probably give some kind of meaningful tie-in here. this. Maybe because, you know, second chance, we don't really get a second chance always. Sometimes,

God, maybe we don't need one. Right? Sometimes life gets a little bit messy. We have messes and mistakes and all kinds of shortcomings and we're like, God, I need a do-over. And sometimes God can do something with those messes. It just takes the ability to see past what we see with our human eyes to believe that maybe there's something deeper happening. You guess bananas, and you are my favorite volunteer. By the way, thank you for not making this weird. You almost got it. But what if we looked a little bit deeper. You said French fries. You could have picked anything on this list. Like I said, sometimes we don't need second chances. We just need to look deeper. Is there water? Because that is the driest, staleest French fry ever. And I'm so serious. Do we have

water real quick? That is crazy how stale that is. Those have been in there since earlier today. I didn't plan on that. I can't breathe. You guys remember the Cinnamon Challenge? There's not like the dry French Fry challenge. Those are crazy. Don't buy French fries from Walmart. Cucumbers. Who pull up this camera here. That's for you. Those are yours. Give it up for these guys.

That's for you. You can take the bananas. You got to sit down. Thank you. That was legitimately the driest French fry in the world. Look, I love this. And this is why I love magic tricks, because, again, I think that sometimes we don't always get second chances. And we live in a culture that is obsessed with impressing people, right?

You look through people's social media feeds. impressing people with our meals, with our vacations, with our jobs, with our friends. Everything is just like somehow trying to define our worth to everyone else. And I think that this becomes a problem. For me in my life, I struggled a lot with depression. I don't know if you guys have dealt with depression in your life, but the biggest part of depression is you believe you're not enough. You believe that maybe somehow you can save your own life.

But no matter what, you are constantly confronted with the truth of, I am not my savior. I can't be a savior, but depression tells you that maybe you can be. For me, my depression came from having to inform myself, even if people love me, all around me, people loving me, people giving me their all. But my brain tells me that still it's not enough, it's not enough, it's not enough, because this is what we do as humans. We crave more validation from our pages, from our performance, from our jobs. And for me as a magician and as an illusionist, my job is to create something that looks one way, but really something else is happening, right? That's what an illusion is, is you think

you're seeing one thing, but you're seeing something else. And one of the greatest illusions of our time, of all culture, all through humanity, and one of the greatest illusions that I fall for every day is this idea that my strength can save me, that my own strength can save me, that maybe if something is good enough, my strength can save me, my job can save me, this relationship can save me. And the problem is, is that when things start going wrong, Things are good for a little while, but when things start going wrong, the depression and the anxiety and the hopelessness that follows, it's crippling. When we forget who God is, it is crippling. And it's because we're looking somehow for hope and we're trying to find it within ourselves.

And often the reason that we want a second chance is because we want to prove to ourselves or to the world that we can do it. It has nothing to do with actually even finding hope. It's just this thing that we need to prove to ourselves. that we're able to do this. I want to prove that I can actually accomplish what I'm wanting to accomplish because somehow I think that doing this thing successfully defines my worth, and it's the measurement of my worth. And what's funny is that sometimes we don't even actually care about what the actual task is. It's just we just care about actually being able to do it and to know that we did it. I think about like when I was younger, just these girls, I didn't really

want to date them, but I wanted them to want to date me, right? And you find yourself in these horrible relationships just because you want to feel wanted. And you might not care at all, but they always say, right? Like, if you want to try and win over that person, you got to play hard to get. Why? Because people want to feel wanted. We're addicted to feeling wanted. We will chase a bad relationship just because that person doesn't want us and it makes us want them more because we don't want them. We want them to want us. Is this making sense? We literally fight to matter to ourselves over and over. and over again. We do this with our jobs. Some of you guys hate your job. And you're like,

man, I really wish my boss would give me more responsibility. And you don't want more responsibility. You just want to know that if there's more responsibility to be had, that you're the one that he would pick, right? Because what happens is you complain, like, nobody notices me. Nobody cares. And then your boss is like, I'm going to give you this job. And you're like, I hate this place. And it's like, you just instantly, everything has nothing, it has nothing to do with what you actually want, what's actually good, it has everything to do with how these situations, how these people, how these opportunities inform you of your own worth. And I think what's really, really crazy about this is that this sets us up for complete

and utter destruction and sadness and emptiness because I don't care how good your life is now at some point something bad will happen. Sorry, that doesn't sound like good news. But the reality is that something bad is going to happen. The Bible says that in this life, the Bible says that in this you will experience trouble. That's just a promise from the Bible. Some of you guys are like, I don't think I want to be a Christian anymore. But that's what the Bible promises us, that you're going to have problems. But then it says, Jesus says, but take heart for I've overcome the world. I've overcome those troubles. And if we're looking to eliminate trouble in our life to give us value and to give us hope and to give us peace, then we're just going to be

disappointed. That's not how this life works. And one of my favorite scriptures that I read, I want to pull up, 2 Corinthians 12, 1 through 5. This is, both amazing and powerful and hilarious. So we're going to read through this. This is from Paul. He says, I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I'm going to go on to the visions and revelations from the Lord.

I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven, whether it was in the body or out of the body, I don't know. God knows. And I know that this man, whether the body or apart from the body, I don't know, but God knows. Like I love how he's trying to be like, this isn't up for theological debate. I can't explain it, but God knows. He says, but God knows he was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell.

He said, I'll boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, but I'll boast about my weakness. Right? So check this out right now. Paul is like, I'm not going to boast about my own strengths. I'm going to boast about this guy because this guy had some amazing experiences, but for me, I'm going to boast about my weakness for this guy. I can brag on him because that's somebody else. And I was like, man, that sounds really cool.

I wonder who Paul's talking about. You know who he's talking about? himself. He was talking about him. That would be like me saying, listen, guys, I'm not going to brag, but I know a guy who he won America's Got Talent, and he's awesome. I'm just going to, I'm going to brag on my own weakness, but there's this guy, this magician, he won AGT, and he's incredible. This is what Paul is saying right now, which I think is so funny. We're going to move on to verse 6. He says, even if I should choose to boast, I wouldn't be a fool because I would only be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so that no one will think more of me than is warranted

by what I do or say, or because of these surpassingly great revelations. You guys realize this hallelit, like, he's bragging. He's like, I'm not going to brag by telling you how much better than you I am, surpassingly way more awesome. This would be like, can you imagine like somebody literally walking onto a basketball court and talking like this? Listen, guys, I would tell you how much better than you I am. I can tell you how I'm going to destroy you. I'm not going to just. I'd be telling the truth if I said that. I'd be telling you the truth because I can destroy you, but I'm not going to say it. This is literally what Paul's saying.

He's like, I'm not going to brag about it, even though I could, and I'd be telling the truth. And what's really, really funny about this is that Paul continues to go on in this. And the reason I think is not because Paul was like, I should invent the humble brag, which I'm pretty sure he just did with that scripture. But the thing is that Paul's getting to here is that Paul knows who he is and he knows who God is, and he's smart enough to know the difference between the two, right? Paul, Paul knows the difference between what he has to offer and what God has to offer.

Paul knows, like, he has some stuff that he can bring to the world, but what God has is exceedingly greater than what he has. So he's acknowledging, yes, I got some stuff I could brag about, but I'm not going to do it. Let's keep going. It says, therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me.

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. And then he says, therefore, I'm going to boast all the more gladly about my weakness. It's that Christ's power may rest on me. This is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in my weaknesses, in insults and hardships, and persecutions and difficulties for when I am weak, then I'm strong. again Paul's like look I got some weakness I got some strengths and I could brag about them because my strengths are awesome right like Paul knows this he knows who he is he knows what he's been given

but it's also like hey I also have some weaknesses and my weaknesses could define me right how many you guys don't fall into the boasting category but you fall into the insecure category because you're like I think my weaknesses just define me I'm just not strong I'm not good at things I'm rejected I'm lonely I'm all these things and Paul's like my weaknesses don't identify my value but neither do strengths. So even though I could brag, I'm not going to because my strengths can't do anything for you and they can't do anything for me. And I could sit there and be sad about my weaknesses, but I'm not going to do that either because Christ is made perfect in my weakness. He realized that hope comes from God's strength, not his own. And like I said, we don't always get second

chances, but with God we don't need one because what he's able to do with our weaknesses is far more impressive than what we could do with our own strength. And so we're clapping now, but here's the sobering reality. What this means is that hope is most potent when it shouldn't exist. When hope shouldn't be there, that's when it's most potent. Because when everything's going good and the world is looking at you and they're like, well, he has so much hope, his life's so great. It is not near as powerful as when the world looks and be like, yo, that guy has so much

going on right now. That lady is dealing so much with her health, with her job, with her kids, and she's smiling. That doesn't even make sense. Where's this joy coming from? That hope that she carries, that hope that he carries, that hope that you guys have the ability to carry is so much more potent when it shouldn't exist, when it shouldn't be there. And I want you to think about this. This is why I start with this magic trick, because I want you to think of which part is more memorable. After this, if you guys go and tell your friends about the magic trick that you just saw up here, what are you going to tell them? You're not going to be like, oh, he had some snacks, and she said bananas, and then it was a banana.

You're going to be like, this dude messed up the whole thing. Lawson just failed in front of everybody. He was supposed to say Oreos, and he said cucumbers. He was like, I'm feeling cucumbers. And then we looked at it was Oreos. Right? That's the part you're going to remember, because when we open up an Oreo pack and there's cucumbers inside, you're like, that's not possible. That was a failure.

How did something amazing just come from a failure? Because hope didn't exist. It was impossible first. That's why you're going to remember that part of the trick more than the bananas. And I think of this through the Bible and throughout history, we don't talk about the time that a giant fought a giant and the giant won. We talk about the time that a giant fought a little boy and the little boy won. We talk about the time that a whole group of people walked through water. We talk about a time that somebody survived the lion's den,

the time that people, three guys lived through a fiery furnace. This is what we talk about. Why? Because it was impossible first. Because God showed up in the midst of the mess. God showed up in the midst of the heartache and the hardships. And this is why I'm telling you, hope is most potent when it shouldn't exist. Why is Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo? Why are they inspiring? They're inspiring because they looked at the fire and they said, yo, God's got this. Even if I die, God's got this.

Right? And so here's what I want you guys to remember is that stories inspire when they start with impossible. So if you're in an impossible situation, just like Paul, you say, oh, thank God, because this is when God's strength gets shown more than my own. And when you show, when you show the world what can be accomplished in the midst of your brokenness, you show the world Jesus. Come on. When you show the world that God exists in the midst of brokenness and imperfection, the world sees Jesus. This is important because I think we got two little boys and their imaginations are crazy, right? Like for kids sometimes, they can't distinguish between imagination and reality.

And a few years ago, when we lived in Las Vegas, I was working on some stuff upstairs, and I heard Silas, he's the oldest one, he just starts screaming, Daddy! Just that crazy scream. And you know, as a parent, there's just that scream that's like something horrible is happening. You just go running. And I don't know if you guys have ever ran down steps, but you look like a moron when you're running down steps.

And so I'm like, you know, trying to make my wife. down, like just jumping down 14 steps. I'm like, I haven't done this since I was 14. I just jumped all the way down to the bottom floor. And I run into the living room and Silas is on the floor like, Daddy, help me. And he's just doing this. I'm like, what am I looking at right now? He's like, just, and I'm trying to figure out why do you scream like you're dying? And I just, you're just, and he's like, I told Xander not to shoot me with webs and he shot me with webs and now I can't get out. So now as a dad, I'm like, all right. I can do that thing. I can pick them up.

I'm like, bro, you're good, man. Look, Daddy can get these spots. Daddy's got web-proof gloves. Let me get these webs off, right? And the other part of me is like, listen, dumb kids. Stand up. These webs aren't real. I didn't say that. And some of the not parents right now are like, this guy's a horrible father.

And some of the actual parents are like, I think that every day. So have kids, then judge me. But listen, here's the thing. Silas believed this was real and he's down here like this before I can even say anything before I can even figure out how I'm going to do this Zanner's like, Daddy, I'm sorry!

It was an accident. I didn't know and I'm like, what? And I'm like, looking at size I'm like, what do I do? The next thing you know, Zana, okay, I'm talking about like blending imagination and reality, Zander's like, I'll help him, dad, I'll help him. Zander comes running in with a knife, a real knife. A real knife to cut off imaginary webs To these boys, these webs were the realest thing on the planet.

And I'm like, don't do that, but I'm kind of interested to see how far this will go. Because all that to say, Silas was fine. I stopped the knife thing. And some of you guys are like, how'd you let your kids get to the knives? Listen, I got boys. Those knives can be taped on the ceilings, and they're going to figure out how to get to them. Okay? But here's my point.

This is how real these webs were to them. And for some of you guys, these hardships in your life, these weaknesses that are that you have, the things you're struggling with are so real to you that you are bound up in webs that don't exist. You're like, I'm disqualified, God. I'm struggling with this. I'm addicted to this. My marriage looks like this. I think I'm just disqualified. And for some of you guys are waiting for a hug and God's just like, dude, stand up. I already pay for it. There's nothing on you. But this is the thing. We believe that our weaknesses define us. When we get that promotion, when we get that person in that relationship, when that good thing happens, when we get enough

likes on that post, we think we're valuable. And when something goes wrong, we think now we're not. Let me tell you something, your value doesn't change overnight just because a circumstance changed. You're worth the same. The only thing informing you of your worthlessness is these webs, is these chains that aren't real. So I'm saying that right now, if you're struggling with something, that doesn't disqualify you from bringing freedom to people who struggle with that same thing. If you have problems in your marriage, that doesn't stop you from being able to encourage another person's marriage. If you're struggling in your finances, that doesn't disqualify you from being able to be generous. God says, live outside of those things. I am bigger than your issues,

your messes, your shortcomings. And some of you guys are like, but God, it was supposed to be cucumbers. And he's like, I'm going to make the cucumbers. Just be patient. And for some of you guys, look, this isn't an excuse to sin, okay? I'm not talking to the people who are like, oh, you mean God forgives me for everything, that's cool. Like sometimes in church, we've got people who just want forgiveness passes because they want to do whatever they want. I'm not talking about that, okay? If I, like, my wife's a very forgiving person.

If I cheat on my wife constantly because I'm like, well, she forgives me. You know what that makes me? A bad husband. I'm talking to people right now who want to run the race. I'm talking about the people right now who feel weak because they feel like they can't do it because they know they have a call on their life. But they're like, man, for some reason, I feel this thing. These chains are real to me.

These webs are real to me. And God's just like son, daughters, stand up. Because some of you guys right now, right in here, are struggling with addiction. Some of you guys are watching at home online and it's great. But some of you are watching online because you think you're disqualified from walking into a church building. Some of you guys think that if you can just stay at home, you're going to walk into the church and get struck by lightning or something. Let me tell you something. That is not how our God works.

Not only does he love you and he accepts you, but he wants to work with you and through you in those things you're dealing with, in your messes, in that sickness, in that. addiction. And I know some of you guys too, you're struggling with finances or with anger and you think, how could God use this? Let me tell you something again. Hope is most potent when it shouldn't exist. This is why I love that Paul says, in that verse, he says, I begged three times for God to take this. And he wouldn't take it away. So he says, so God, for your namesake, I'm a delight in this weakness. I'm a delight in these failures. I'm a delight in this persecution. I don't think Paul is some like sicko, right? Because here's the other thing.

Paul says, I'm going to brag about my weakness. I boast in my weakness. Do you know, to this day, there's debate about what that thorn in his flesh was, what that weakness was, what that trial was. There's debate about it. You know why there's debate? Because this thing that Paul was so quick to brag about that he wasn't ashamed of, he never told us what it was.

It's like, I brag about my weakness, but I'm not going to tell you what it is. I don't think Paul was delusional. I think this was Paul preaching to himself. saying, you know what, God, I got this weakness. I'm feeling persecuted. This is difficult. I keep begging you to take it. You're not taking it. But if the world can see my hope in the midst of my struggle, if I can show the world my struggle, and then they can see my hope, maybe they'll understand that hope can exist in a struggle. And in a world where there will be trouble, the world desperately needs to see people who can have hope in the time of trouble.

And I want to remind you of this, your hope doesn't come from your own strength. Your hope comes from the time when you're like, God, I said cucumber, but it's Oreos. And sometimes we just got to be okay being the Oreos. Let God be the cucumber. That's weird. That's just, that's be the name of this message. Let God be the cucumber, okay? Sometimes we have to believe that God can do something in the midst of that mess that will be far more impressive than we would have, like, done on our own strength, on our own anyway. And some of you guys right now are like, yo, I like Oreos. You know what I like? I like Oreos too. You know what's horrible for you? Oreos. Oreos are great for like the three seconds they're in your mouth, and then they go into the rest of your body,

and everyone's like, I don't want these Oreos here. Just because you enjoy it doesn't make it good. Right? Just because you like it doesn't mean it's going to sustain you. And I don't know, I mean, this sounds a little bit like sin. Temporarily is good, but then it does something bad. Sorry, I don't got to go off on that. But Oreos are like sin, people.

That's not the point. That's also not the name of this message. Oreos are sin or God is the cucumber. I don't know. You guys can pick. But look, this is not a normal way of thinking. This takes time. And for some of you guys, you need to walk in the discipline of reading these verses and being like, God, it is scary to show the world my weaknesses. But I can trust you. And if I can, if I can show the world my weakness, if I can brag about how messy my life is, then maybe the world will know that my life's a mess. So that when they see my hope, they'll know that hope exists in the midst of mess. Maybe I don't have to be ashamed of them. my mess anymore. Maybe I don't have to be ashamed of my troubles anymore. Maybe I can believe that God is going to do something even right now in my life and he's done stuff before in my life. He's going to continue to do things in my life. And I can be confident in saying, you know what, if my circumstances are good or bad, I have some things I could brag about, some things I could let cripple me. But I'm taking all that off the table because all I care about is what God brings

to the table. And some of you guys to do that, it takes community, it takes people reminding you. Some of you guys right now got some horrible friends that you just need to kick out of your life. because they're reminding you of all of the wrong things, teaching you all of the wrong value systems. And I think that what's really cool in my life is I look back at the times when God was using me in my weakness. And I look back and like, wow, God, how are you using me then? I was an idiot when I was 18.

Like, I thought I loved you, but I was a, I was just, I didn't get it. I was immature. And God still used me in that. Which reminds me then that right now, God can use me now. So if God could use me then in my mess, maybe he can use me now in my mess. and we can look back at those times when God used us, but it's hard to have that perspective when we're in the middle of that. And this is why it's important, again, to have friends

who are going to remind you of who you are, remind you of who God is, remind you of the things that God has called you to. It's when you're like, yo, I'm struggling right now. I don't want anybody to know this. They're like, yo, tell the world you're struggling, and God is still using you. People can get saved because of the things you're struggling with right now, because you're talking about what you're struggling with proves that you trust Jesus. And so I want to do one more thing.

I want to actually bring you through it up again. Can I have these three come up? Can you guys give up for these guys? I want to use you one more time. Can you guys come up? Yeah. I love the idea of looking back and appreciating what God's done, his faithfulness in the time.

And you guys can just stand right over here on this side of the table. You can stand right here. I'm going to have you stand right here. And then you're tall, so you can stand right here. And you can stand right in the middle of them. Yep, you can come over here. You're the only one who got it right. You should be the least scared out of these guys.

guys um listen it's fun it's fun to look back and see the things that god's done in our lives because it gives us confidence to keep moving forward um i have some like random um i don't sure i have some legos some lego pieces we have like some hair some some legs hammer a sword a hat um some weapons some axes um some heads and helmets and legs and arms and hands and stuff i'm i'm gonna have you take just one of those pieces anyone that you want i have your map of the u.s with all major cities I want you to just look at this map and I want you to think of one of these major cities in our country, okay?

And for you, we have some crayons here. I'm going to have you just pick a random color. Pick one of these crayons. You're going to pick one of these Lego pieces. I want you to think of something. You can go ahead and pick that now. Yep, you can go ahead and pick one. It's fun looking back and seeing what God has done.

Yeah, you guys can take those. You can just hold them in your hand for now. Yeah, you can grab it. You can grab it. Did you get a crown? Yep, you can hold those in your hand. I want to bring up a post actually real quick from Craig. There's a Craig Instagram post.

Follow Craig Rochelle on Instagram, everybody. It's like you're promoting my Instagram page. Yes, I am. Listen, I love this picture. It says, now and then. We recently visited the first home that we lived in after we got married. It's interesting how you don't always know you're in a special season until you look back on it. I'm so thankful for this life that we built together. And I think that what we understand Craig is saying here is that sometimes you're looking back at season. When you're in a season, when God is moving and you're struggling, it's difficult, right?

But then you look back and you're like, man, it's so great. We didn't even realize how special it was. We didn't even realize what God was doing in that moment. And I love that this is what you're talking about here, is the value of looking back and seeing what God's done. I'm sure you guys were living in some serious messes when you bought that house. And when you took this picture, you probably also had some serious messes in your life. Right?

But now you get to actually believe, okay, if God did it then, he can do it now. But here's the thing, Craig, because I don't even know when you posted this, if you knew that this moment was connected to this moment. This is what's wild about what God does. He starts connecting all the things in our lives. He starts connecting all the pieces. We start looking back and seeing what God did then, and we see what he's doing now. And then we realize that the same God who is doing it then is doing it now. He's been doing it all along. And God doesn't stop working. It takes us looking deeper, right? Sometimes it takes us being like life looks messy and random. But like, what does this post have to do with Legos and crayons and a map?

So what color did you pick? Blue? What city you could have thought of a city? What city were you thinking of? Los Angeles, LA, and then what pieces do you pick? A little hat, okay. You pick blue, you pick Los Angeles, you pick the hat. This is what's funny, this seems random, but Craig, sometimes God loves weaving moments together. This is one of those posts where it says now and then, because there's actually a second picture here, right? You post you two pictures, one from now and then one from back then.

Can we swipe to that next picture? Do you see what Craig and Amy, when they first bought this house standing in front of the that very house what they're wearing on their heads. You picked blue, you said Los Angeles, and you picked hat. Can we zoom in on that? They got blue LA hats in his photo. What God did then, he wants to connect now to the things that you guys are doing. When Craig is up here preaching week after week, he's inspiring you guys to keep writing your story, knowing that not only are you connected to this place, you're connected to each other, you're connected to the people God's placed in your lives. But there's one more thing that I love about God. When we continue, we continue,

to look deeper. We don't only find French fries in a chip bag and cucumbers in an Oreo pack. We find way more than we ever thought was possible. We just need to train our eyes to see it. And you need people in your life to remind you that you can see it because God is good. In the very beginning, I told you guys, and please, I did not tell you guys what to say or pick. We haven't set this up. You guys have no idea what's happening. Because people are going to be like, they were in on it. Lawson is looking at me like, am I in on it? Listen, you guys could have picked any number in the very beginning. You said 8, and then you both said 23, right?

8, 23 and 23. Do you know what's really fun about Jesus? Is we get to keep looking and finding more and discovering more and discovering more of his goodness. I want to do something. Can we zoom back out and scroll down? I want to look at when Craig posted this picture. You said 8, 23 and 23. When Craig posted this, August 23rd of 2023.

23, 23. Thank you guys so much. You guys can sit back down. Thank you so much. Thank you guys. You guys are awesome. Thank you for helping out. You guys are amazing.

Listen, God wants to exist in your mess, in your strengths, and your weaknesses. Just trust him in every space of your life. You guys have been incredible. Thank you so much. Oh, come on there. So, I, uh, so, like, I'm supposed to pray, and I just kind of want to be mind-blown. I mean, I don't even know what. to do with that one more time, not just for the magic, but for the word.

Justin, thank you. And I pray that speaks to you, and I pray that you remember it, because hope is most potent when it shouldn't exist. And some of you right now, you're in a place where you're in a mess. And guess what? We can have hope in one who is good and always faithful. So, Father, thank you for your living word. Thank you for this message that would build our faith.

All of our churches, if you're in a situation, right now where you need some hope when you lift up your hand. Lift them up. All of our churches lift them up. There's more of you than that. You need some hope for a loved one. You need hope for healing. You need hope for provision. You need hope for a miracle. You need hope for restoration online.

Just type in the comment section. I need hope. I need hope. God, we thank you that in our weakness, you are our strength. We depend on you. We call on you. May our hope be in you, our identity in you. God, our love. life in you. God, we thank you that as we look back, we can see your faithfulness. And as you've

been faithful, then we know you'll be faithful now. So we trust in you. God, reveal yourself as we put our hope in you. As you keep praying today at all of our churches, some of you, my gosh, if you knew Dustin's story, and we may just have to have him back and tell you his whole story, going from a home of brokenness to a home of hope and from being lost to being found, redeemed and saved by Jesus, the Son of God. If you find yourself maybe broken, maybe no hope for a better life, a different life. You don't know where you stand with God. Hope has a name, and his name is Jesus.

Who is Jesus? He is the Son of God who came not for the righteous, but he came for sinners. He came for broken people. He ate with those that the religious people rejected, and he's here for you. What do you do if you're broken in your sin? If you're dead, if you're internally, you're far from God. You call on the name that is above every name. His name is Jesus.

And at the name of Jesus, one day, every knee's going to bow and every tongue's going to confess. He is Lord. So you might as well do it right now. You might as well call on him and just say, Jesus, I need you because when you do, not only does he forgive your sins, but he makes you. knew when he moves into your life and he gives you hope and power for today and he gives you eternal strength and well-being today at all of our churches those who say I need that I need Jesus you may feel weak you may be broken you may be lost and your sin you're ashamed and you don't

feel worthy none of us are call on him step in he loves you he's here and say Jesus take my life if that's your prayer today you need salvation you need forgiveness you want his life you want hope in today at all of our church. You say, yes, Jesus, I want to give you my life. That's your prayer. Would you lift your hands high right now? Just lift them up all over the place and say, yes, Jesus, I surrender my life to you as we have people at all of our churches. Praise God for you. Online. Just type in the comment section, I'm putting my hope in Jesus. I'm putting my hope in Jesus. Pray with me, please pray Heavenly Father. I trust in you. I trust in your son. to save me, to forgive me of my sins, to make me new, please fill me with the power of your spirit

that wherever I'm weak, you will be strong. My hope is in you. I need you. I trust you. I surrender to you. I give my life to you. Thank you for new life. I give you all of mine. In Jesus' name, I pray, could you worship God today? Hey, welcome those morning to God's family.