Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Overcomer, Part 1: Overcoming the Curse of Comparing

Episode Date: May 14, 2017

Stare down your fears, shatter your insecurities, and shake off the apathy that tries to hold you back. You’re not a prisoner—you’re an Overcomer. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Thanks for hanging out with us and joining us here at Life Church, where we are one church meeting in multiple locations and reaching around the world thanks to what God is doing at Church online. If you ever have any questions or you want to learn more about us as a church, you can always check us out online simply by going to life.church. We'd love for you to stay connected throughout your week and everywhere you go with the Life Church app. It's free and it's available wherever you download your apps from. You know, today we start a brand new message series that will help us overcome the habits and mindsets that can so negatively define us. And our senior pastor Craig O'Shell will talk to us today about comparison and how it can leave us with such an

unhealthy view of our self-worth. But with God's help, we can find contentment and joy in who we are in Christ. And we'll find out how in part one of Overcomer. You think you own me, but you don't. You think you can destroy me. You can't. Your labels do not contain me. Your lies do not intimidate me. I will not be less than what I was created to be. And I will not run in fear. Time and time again, you've held me down,

but not today. Today, I win the battle. Today, you run from me. Because I am strong. I am courageous. I am an overcomer. It's great to have all of you with us today. All of our life churches, our open network churches, our church online family.

I've just kind of got the feeling today that I'm talking to some people who are overcomers. Are there any overcomers in the houses today? Scripture teaches us that through the power of Christ we are actually more than conquerors. And today we're starting a four-part message series talking about overcoming some of the struggles. that so often entangle our lives. I'll tell you about next week, out of the four weeks, I think next week is my favorite subject to talk about. Next week we're gonna talk about overcoming apathy.

In fact, so many people have said that this is the apathetic generation, or they say there's an epidemic of apathy. And next week, I promise you, God's word will spark a fire of passion in so many hearts. We're gonna talk about overcoming apathy. Today, I want to talk about overcoming something that, quite honestly, I think this is probably in this year, maybe the most significant personal work that God is doing in me. So I'll be a little bit transparent today is something that I've really been focused on,

praying about, and it is probably the number one area of spiritual progress that I'm making in my life this year. And I want to talk about overcoming the curse of comparisons, overcoming the curse of comparisons. And chances are pretty good that at some point in your life, you find yourself satisfied until you look over to the left and someone else has something a little bit better than you do and you're like, ah! And you find yourself a little bit miserable.

For me, I think the first time I really remember as a child, getting hit by the curse of comparisons, I was playing a practical joke on my little sister Lisa. My sister Lisa is three years younger than me to the day. Three years to the day. So my birthday is December 2nd. Hers is December 2nd three years earlier. I don't know what's nine months before that in my parents' life,

probably an anniversary or something, but we're born on the same day. And so my grandmother would send us a check for our birthday, you know, from across the country, and I think it was $20. It might have been $10. I can't remember. But we'd get the same check in a little card.

It would come on the same day. And I would always mess with Lisa, my sister, and I would open up my $20 check, and I would say, $100! And she would open up her. $20 check and run to her room and cry year after year. And I loved her, but that's what big brothers do, that kind of thing, right? And so it happened, I don't know, three or four years, $100, $20, she'd go and cry. Well, evidently, grandma got wind of my little prank.

And sure enough, the very next year, Lisa opened up her $100 check. and screamed $100. I opened up my $20 check and ran to my room and cried. The curse of comparisons. I'll say it this way. The fastest way to kill something special is to compare it to something else. This is going to talk to somebody. The fastest way to kill something special is to compare it to something else.

It's like when you love your home, you love your home, You're thankful for your home. Your home is really special until your friend gets her Joanna Gaines Farmhouse update. And you're like, hashtag slapwood, you know, or shipwood or whatever. I can't even say it right. I actually was afraid I might mispronounce ship lap. Ship lap. Sounds like something you step in, but ship lap.

How's this way to kill something special is to compare it. to something else. Write this down. If you're taking notes, where comparison begins, contentment ends. Wherever comparison begins, contentment ends. It's never been easier to compare in the history of the world. Social media. You can be having a really good day. You pull up Instagram or Facebook or whatever, and you see everybody else is out having fun. You're like, hey, why didn't you invite me? Why wasn't I invited? Why don't I get to go here? You see her friend, like, she's on her second vacation of the year.

You can't even afford to go to Grandma's house. She's like, oh, there she is, sitting by the pool, reading a book, taking a picture of her feet overlooking the pool. You know, why do they always do that? Here's my book, by my feet, overlooking the pool. Like, I hate your feet and your book and that pool. You know, it's like, you know, your friend's out to eat, they're having a perfect dinner, you know, and, you know, there's a ring, and lobes. You know, and you're at home. He's playing video games.

You're eating TV dinners, you know. And it's just, it is so easy to lose contempt when you start to compare. My friend, Pastor Stephen Ferdick, he says this. He says, the problem is we're comparing our behind the scenes with everybody else's highlight reels. We know our everyday life and everybody else is like, hey, here I am on the beach. You're like, ah, my life sucks because you're doing all this other stuff. And before long, we find ourselves really, really miserable.

but because wherever comparison begins, contentment ends. I want to dive in and look at a few different portions of Scripture today, and I really, really believe, and I pray, that God's going to work in some hearts in a very powerful way. I want to start with Paul in 2 Corinthians, and Paul was saying this, he was saying, we don't dare compare ourselves with other people. He said this in verse 12 of chapter 10,

he said, they're only comparing themselves with each other, using themselves as the standard of measurement. He says, you know what? How ignorant it is to say, well, look how their kids act all the time. Well, you know, look how much money he's getting paid in his job and I'm not. Look at their relationship and what I don't have. How ignorant it is to find yourself comparing. In fact, one of the problems, if you're taking notes, is this.

Comparing it does two things to either make. you feel superior or inferior, and neither honors God, right? It makes you feel better than or less than, and neither one of those results honors God. You know, she got breakfast in bed and flowers and pampering from her kids all day for Mother's Day. All I got was to make my bed and make breakfast, and I don't even like them or my kids.

You know, it's, I feel less, less than because of what someone else got. Or I got the nice car because I worked hard and God loves me and I've been faithful and look at that little piece of junk things that he's driving, you know, because obviously he's love God like I do and then work as hard as I am. What does he do? Makes you feel inferior or makes you feel superior or inferior

and neither one honors God. What I want to do today is dive in and really be transparent about how this impacts me and let God's word really hopefully speak to all of us. My friend Andy Stanley is a pastor and he did a message on this subject. He called it the land, the land of er. His big line was there's no when in comparisons. There's no win in comparisons. And what Andy said is that everybody simply wants er. Whatever someone else has, they want that plus er. They want to be rich er. be er, better, more superior, and that's what we're all stronger, faster, whatever it is, with er. I want what you have plus er. The problem with Andy is, I don't just want er, I want est.

Anybody know what I'm talking about? If we're running a race, I don't want to be faster, I want to be fast, est. I don't want to be just great er, I want to be great est. If we're talking about churches. I don't want to just have a bigger church. I want to have the big S church. Can I be that honest with you? Is there anybody else in the house today that can be honest like that? You guys just sit there, polish your halo all day long, act like you're holier than now. But I want to be retweeted est, whatever it is. I want what you have and more. And this is a very bad sickness that we often deal with in our lives. I want to look today at a portion of scripture that to me is just not only incredibly powerful, but it's hilarious.

Whenever you read the Bible and you recognize that, you know, we're reading about very real people that are just like us, that have very real struggles, it actually can be pretty entertaining. So what I want to do is show you in John chapter 20 about a little conflict apparently going on between two of the disciples, Peter and John. Back when I was in seminary, I had a seminary professor who said, Peter and John didn't like each other.

Like, how are you not like each other? They're disciples. They're next to Jesus. And the more I look at it, the more I think, I'm not sure they didn't like each other, but I actually think there was some quiet or maybe not so quiet competition between the two. In fact, if you just even look at, you know,

kind of all through the gospels, like, hey, I got to sit next to Jesus. I was closest to him. You know, who gets to be here? Who's his favorite? There's kind of this little competition between disciples because they're regular people. John, in my opinion, was probably annoying.

Just my opinion. I'm going to tell you why. If I was Peter, I probably wouldn't like John. One of the reasons is whenever John writes in his gospel, he refers to himself in third person. That's annoying. That's just plain annoying. Anyone who refers to himself in third person, that's an annoying person.

If you do it, God loves you, but you're annoying and you need healing by the power of Jesus. It's just annoying. And so John not only refers to himself in third person, but you know what he calls himself? The one that Jesus loved. How ridiculous is that? The one that is his favorite. The one that Jesus loved. That's funny.

You should read your Bible. The Bible is funny. It's powerful. It's kind of like Moses in the Old Testament. Moses, you know what he called himself? The most humble man alive. That's funny, too. I'm the most humble person.

around. That's funny. John, in third person, is the one that Jesus loved. And so evidently, and this is just my opinion, there's some tension, some competition. Peter's comparing to John, John's comparing to Peter, who's the favorite, who's the best, who's the greatest one in the eyes of Jesus? Context of John 20 is this. It was three days after Jesus had died. He was supposed to be in the tomb, but when Mary got there, the stone was rolled away, and the tomb was empty and she didn't know what to think. Was he risen? Did someone steal his body? Where was he?

And so Mary went running to the disciples and here's how the story goes. When I read this, what I want you to do is I want you to notice how many times the Apostle John tells you who is faster in a foot race between him and Peter? Watch this. It's right here in the Bible. You're going to be so glad you came to church today. This is amazing.

Watch this. Okay. The tomb is empty. Christ is risen. And John is all excited that he's faster than Peter. Watch this. So, Mary came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, watch John. The say it with me.

The one that Jesus loved, you jerk. They had taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don't know where they put him. So watch this, Peter and the other disciples. So Peter and John, Peter and the other disciples started for the tomb. Both were running, but who, John? The other disciple, that's me, that's John. The other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. How much of a guy is this?

Just in case you're wondering, Christ is risen, and I beat Peter to the tomb, okay? Both were running, the Bible says, but the other disciple outraged Peter and reached the tomb first. Then Simon Peter came along. Now, where was he? If you're wondering, he was behind him. That's number two time. And went straight toward the tomb.

Watch for number three, verse eight. Finally, the other disciple who had what? Who had reached the tomb first? Also went inside. Is that not the most ridiculous thing that you've ever? seen in your whole life. Three times. Christ is risen and I'm faster. Christ is risen and he was behind me. Christ is risen and I won the race to the tomb. You can only imagine how it starts off. The tomb's empty like, they're off. Who's going to win this race? When you read on, this kind of

continues. You go into, there's John 20, then there's 21. And now the disciples were out fishing and you know, Peter says, let's go fishing and they're out fishing and they're not catching. And they're not catching anything. Some guy walks up. It's Jesus. They don't know what's Jesus. And Jesus says, why don't you throw the nets on the other side? And they throw the nets on the other side. And then what happens? Well, John says, I recognized him first. I was the one who saw him. And then he almost talks bad about Peter. Then Peter dove in the water to go swim for him. Like, I'm fastest on land. Maybe he beat me there on water, but it was kind of undignified, but he did anyway. You can almost read into it that way. Then what happens next is where the power of the story is.

Peter has a very powerful encounter with Jesus. You have to understand the backstory. Before the crucifixion, Peter was very bold in his love for Jesus. And again, he almost took shots at the other disciples. Peter said, I love you. If all these other losers aren't faithful to you, I will always be faithful to you. I've got your back. I will never leave you.

I'm going to stand by you. And Peter is really, really bold, even implying the other guys would deny him. But he would never deny Jesus. Little girl comes up to Peter and says, hey, are you one of the disciples? He's like, oh, don't even know who you're talking about. Three different times Peter denies Jesus. We actually see in scripture that Jesus looks on and sees Peter deny Jesus.

And Peter is crushed. He's brokenhearted. He's devastated. He's humiliated. He's embarrassed. Jesus, the one who they believe might be the Messiah, was crucified. Now he's risen and he's encountering Jesus again. And Jesus says, Peter, do you love?

me. And Peter's like, you know I do. Yes, I do. And Jesus says, then feed my sheep. Jesus says it again, do you love me? Yes, Jesus, I love you. Then feed my sheep. Then he says it a third time and he actually changes the word in the Greek language and uses a different word and says, do you really, do you really love me? And Peter says, of course I do. And that's where we pick up the story. Verse 20, Peter turned around and saw behind him, who did he see? The disciple that Jesus loves. So he's having this encounter with Jesus, and then what does Peter do? There's John. There's my competition. Peter asked Jesus, what about him, Lord? What about him? You told me to feed the sheep. What about him? What's his assignment? Jesus replied to

Peter, if I want him to remain alive until I return, what's that to you? What's that to you? you. Why are you wasting your time on him? I'm talking to you. And Jesus says, as for you, say it with me, follow me. Your assignment is follow me. Your lane is feed my sheep. I told you to feed my sheep. This is what I want you to do, feed my sheep. Don't worry about him. Do what I called you to do. your assignment is to feed my sheep. We have to understand that we cannot faithfully follow Jesus if we're always comparing ourselves to somebody else. We can never be who he fully calls us to be

if we're always looking over our shoulders saying, what about them? What do they have? What are they doing? Where are they going? Why are they getting the attention? Why are they more blessed than I am in this area of their life? We can never fully follow Jesus

if we're always comparing ourselves to somebody else. Why is it that we do this? Because by nature, we are sinful human beings. Our sin nature takes us away from the heart of God toward ourselves. And we are trying to find some external win to satisfy an internal longing. And there is no external accomplishment, blessing, relationship, amount of money, satisfaction, that ever quenches the inner spiritual longing that we have. So we want more er, and we want to be the est.

And you need to understand there's not enough er, and there's not enough est in the world to satisfy the spiritual brokenness that we have inside. You can't have enough money. You can't get enough likes. There aren't enough followers. There's not enough attention. There's never a right relationship,

a good enough house, the perfect vacation. You can look for it and look for it, look for it, but there is nothing on the outside designed by God to satisfy you on the inside beside the God who created you. And this is why it's ignorant. It's stupid. It's useless. It's a waste of time. It's destructive. It's hurtful.

It makes you feel superior or inferior and neither honors God. There is no extra. when that will ever satisfy the internal longing that we have. What do we do? I need to look to the outside. Am I worthy? Tell me, did I do good enough? Do I belong? Do I have enough popularity that I finally matter? Do I fit in? Do you think I'm kind of cool now because I'm wearing this? Do you think did I live up to your expectations? Was I what you wanted me to be? There's never an external answer

that ever satisfies and meets that internal need. And that's why we have to answer this very important question and we have to get it right. Or we will be miserable and we will be dissatisfied for the remainder of our life. And this very important question is so simple, but it is life-changing to, get it right. The question is this, who or what is going to define my worth? Who or what is going to

define my worth? Because if I can get up in your business just a little bit, some of you, you're living for a dad who's no longer alive. You're living for a mom who will never give you what you want. You're living for an ex-spouse. I'll show him, I'm getting whatever. He's not even thinking about you. You're living for your friends. You're living for them, whoever them is. just got to please them. Who's them? I don't know them, them. You know, I got to live up to their expectation.

Who's them? I don't even know. Who or what is going to bring meaning and define your worth in this life? And if you're a Christian, you can probably guess where I'm going with this. The answer is obvious, but it is powerful and it is important. If your answer is anything besides Jesus, if your answer is anything besides Jesus, you are running a race that you will never ever win. You'll never win it. You'll never win it. Who or what is going to define my worth, my value. If your answer is anything besides Christ, you are running a race that you will

never ever win. That's why I love Hebrews chapter 12 verses one and two when the author of the Hebrews tells us this. Let us run with perseverance. The race marked out for us. Do you realize, there's a race marked out for you. There's a calling for you, a purpose for you, a mission for you, a lane that you're to run in, run the race that's marked out for you, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of our faith.

What do we do? We run the race that's marked out for us. We run the race that's marked out for us. We stay in our lane. We fulfill our purpose. We do what we're created to do. And we keep our eyes focused on Jesus. If you ever ran track, you know what I'm talking about.

The fastest way to lose the race is what? To do this. You never ever look to the side. You just keep your eyes on the finish line. You keep your eyes on the prize. You keep your eyes on Jesus. You run with perseverance. You stay in your lane.

You run your race. You don't look at what John's doing. You don't look at what anybody else doing. You just run your race. You run your race. You run your race. You can't win anybody. else's race. You can never win their race. You don't have the tools to win their race. You have

your own race. Paul goes on with this metaphor and he says this. He says, run to win. First Corinthians 9. All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away. We're not running for a temporary prize, he's saying. We do it for what kind of prize? For an eternal prize. We're doing it for an eternal prize. And so this is what Paul says. He says, so I run with purpose in every step. Every time I put a foot down, I'm running toward my divine purpose. I'm running in my lane. I'm running with purpose in every single step. So when someone else wins their race, what do we do? We celebrate them. We celebrate God's blessings. We cheer them on. We may even learn from them. If they're doing something that's a little bit better, we may say,

what can I learn from what you did and apply it to my race in my lane. But we don't compare with the heart that would ever say I'm less than because their win doesn't bring inner validation to us. Jesus, pleasing him, serving him, is the only thing that does, running with purpose in every single step. Purpose in every step. I want to get real honest with you. And I told you, this is kind of like the big,

area that God's doing a work in me. My word for the year, if you're new with us, is kind of different, but we always pick a word and say, this is like one word for the year that helps drive and focus, and we pray toward that word. Amy's word again this year is give, which is an expensive word. It was that last year, is give again. My word for the year is focus. And it took a little while to pray, and God really kind of revealed that focus is my word. And the reason is, if I can just be real honest, I'll tell you a little bit about my world. I hope it's not boring to you. Everybody has their world.

In your business, he's a parent, and your sporting event in college, you have your little world. Here's my world. I'm in a place today where, by the grace of God, I have a lot of opportunities. I have a lot of opportunities to do cool stuff, but I also have temptations to get off of the main course and do other things. And I'll just unpack this for you.

Years ago, 15 years ago, I looked at doing television ministry. I never really liked what that represented. I don't know why. A lot of people do it really, really well. I didn't really feel called to it. And also I thought TV was going to do this. Like it was going to be gone and Internet would do this. Obviously, I was somewhat wrong because TV's still around and doing quite well.

So I was wrong about that, but I said, we're not going to do TV ministry. Well, in the last five years, practically every good friend that I have, a younger generation, is emerging and they're doing TV really, really well. And so what am I doing? I know my calling, but I'm doing this. Maybe I should. Maybe we should. I mean, they're getting this broader influence and traveling.

Most of my peers travel probably 10 times as much as I do. When I'm not on the weekend, I'm at church and I'm off with my family. I do maybe one weekend somewhere else, probably two is the most I've ever done in a given year. many of my peers with integrity and really serve church as well. We'll do 15, 16, 17 weekends at other places. Sometimes I'm at home with my kids thinking, well, I could be out and doing da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And what do I do? Years ago, I made a decision. It may change, but I made a decision. We're not going to do conferences. You know, all the churches flying, we're just, we're not going to, I'm not going to burden the staff. We're not going to

take an eye off the goal. And we're not going to do that. Of the largest 50 churches in the U.S., there's probably 49 that do conferences. Okay, we're probably the only one that doesn't. And sometimes I'm thinking to myself, ha, don't have to get on a plane. They could come here. And I do this. I'm looking around,

and they're doing, ah, da, da, da, da. And then, whenever I am focused and re-centered, I realize I have a lane. My friends, they're in their lane, and they're running it well. I can't run their race they can't run mine.

Let me tell you what my win is. It's three things. It's building a collection of pens, it's building a church, and it's building leaders. Building a collection of pins, building a church, and building leaders.

Let me unpack that for you. Let me start with a church. I believe with all my heart that there is no place where spiritual transformation takes place better than when a person is plugged into a local church. I'm not talking about those of you that come once a month.

I'm glad you do that. There's not much that's going to happen from that, but it's better than nothing. I'm talking about this is home, roots, serving. We don't go to church. We are the church. We're plugged in. We're using our gifts. This is our family.

This is who we are. I believe that life change happens best when we're plugged into the local church. Leaders. For a long time, I squelts this passion because pastors don't build leaders. pastors, pastor churches. I'm no longer squelching it. I'm created by God to help leaders succeed. It's a calling.

I'm going to do it and I'm not going to apologize for it. And that's what we do. We don't just recruit volunteers. We release leaders because volunteers do good things, but leaders change the world. And this is what I feel called to do, to invest in the emerging generation and have them stand on my shoulders

do way more than I could ever do. It's a calling. It's what I was going to do. Building a collection of pens, that sounds odd. Let me explain it to you. Years and years ago, a very well-known person

that many of you would know sent me an engraved pen, Craig Rochelle, 2006, engraved on this very expensive pen. I thought, it's very meaningful, I don't really care about pins, but thank you. And there was a note that said, congratulations, you've served Jesus faithfully for a year. You lived with integrity.

You loved your church, and you led well with that scandal, and I praise God for you. That's meaningful. The next year, the pin, Craig Rochelle, 2007, with a very similar note. next year, Penn, Craig Rochelle, 2008. Year after year, it started becoming a little more meaningful until probably the year 2013 or so.

When I asked this person, I never talked about it. I said, why do you do this? Who gets these? He said, well, the sad thing is, the list of pastors that got them used to be really big. But every single year, the list is getting smaller and smaller. Because, and you can go through your mind. Unfaithfulness, bad decisions, burnout.

and such. And now, this year, when I get my pen, with this year's date on it, and another year, that is a significant win for me, because it's a year of faithfulness to my wife, to the church, serving with integrity without scandal, lifting up the name of Jesus and doing what he called me to do. That is a win. That is a win. That is a win.

Listen, that's my race. It's my race. all that does is creates dissatisfaction and takes my eye off the prize. I can't win anybody else's race, but I can run my race. You can't win anybody else's race, but you can run your race. I don't know what your race is. You may not build the biggest business, but you may always do it with integrity. And that's winning your race.

You may not have the biggest house on the street, but you may be at every one of your kids sporting events. And that's your race, and that's winning your race. You may not have a big public ministry in a 501s, three or whatever, but you show up every single week at Switch, and you pour your lives into your small groups of students, and one day they will be significantly different because of what you did. That's running your race. Right now, when they're doing this and they're doing that, and you're just doing your best to get through school, that's your race, man. Run that race.

Get through school. That's your race. Run that race. When they're all hooking up with people and you're living pure, you just run your race and trust God to be faithful to you. Nobody can beat you it being you. Purpose in every single step. Purpose in every single step. Not looking to the side, but eyes on Christ running toward the prize. Why? There's no win in comparison. The fastest way to kill something special is to compare it to something else. What does comparison do? Makes you feel superior, makes you feel inferior. Neither honors God. You cannot win anyone else's race. So what do you do. You wake up every day. With your eyes on Christ, who or what will define your worth. Jesus will define my worth. This is who he created me to be. This is the race he called me to run.

I've got a purpose to fulfill. I've got a mission to accomplish. I've got people to love. I've got a family to raise. I've got a church to build. I got some pins to collect. This is my race. Run your race. Run it with perseverance. And run with perseverance. purpose in every step. And when you do, you will not receive an earthly crown that passes away, but you will receive a heavenly crown that never, ever fazes. And that is winning your race. So, Father, we ask today, that by the power of your spirit, you would enable us, God, not to look to the left or the right, but keep our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and the perfector of our faith. All of our different churches, those who say, Craig, I'm a lot like,

you, comparison kind of gets up under my skin sometimes. I feel less than. I feel inadequate. I feel guilty. I long for what somebody else has. I find myself jealous at times, envious of something. It's no fun to admit, but you cannot defeat what you cannot define. Call it what it is. God, I need help in this area. I'm the first one to raise my hand, and I hope someone else will join me. God help me. If that's you, lift up your hands. All of our churches, all of our churches lift up your hands and say, yes, I need your help. Father, I pray today for people. at churches all across this nation and even the world, that by the power of your Holy Spirit, you would do a work. God, we are overcomers. By the blood that your son shed, by the words of our

testimonies, we are more than conquerors. We pray, God, that by the power of Christ, you would help us conquer and overcome the curse of comparisons. God, may we fall so in love with that what you've called us to do, that we're not tempted to look to the left or to the right. But, God, when we can clearly define, this is my lane, this is my win, it makes it so much easier to celebrate other successes and to run our race with perseverance, God. May we not only be satisfied with the lane that we're in, but may we embrace it, running it faithfully to please you, knowing we cannot win anyone else's race. God, nobody can beat us at being us. Help us God to do what you created us to do to find joy in it running to please and to serve you.

As you keep praying today at all of our different churches, nobody looking around. Sometimes when it comes to the things of God, we'll often kind of compare. Hey, you know, I'm probably better than that person. I've never done really, really bad stuff like that person. I hope I'm okay with God because I've never, you know, killed anybody.

I've never really done something horrible. There are others of you at the same time as the inverse. You're thinking, well, I'm not nearly as good as that. person. I mean, they're like really holy. After all I've done, how could God ever love me? So often when we think about God, we tend to compare ourselves with other people. And we need to understand very clearly that God is not comparing us to other people to judge our standard before him. The standard that we're compared to is righteousness, its purity, its holiness, and it's perfection. And the bad news is, every single one of us fall short. And listen, there's somebody

who needs to hear this clearly. This is the reason you feel guilty. This is the reason you feel shame. This is the reason why no external win can satisfy that internal longing. There must be something more. I know there's something more, yet I feel so bad, I can't get this to go away. What's going to define your worth? Jesus is the only one who can define your worth.

You have a Jesus-shaped void in your soul that nothing else can satisfy. Here's the good news. God loves you. He sent Jesus who was without sin. who died on the cross, the story we read today, the tomb was empty. The big, the miracle of the story is, Jesus was risen from the dead.

His resurrection purchases, life, forgiveness of sins. He paid the price by dying in your place. Now, whoever calls on his name, and this includes you, whoever calls on his name, and this includes you, your sins will be forgiven,

you'll be brand new. At all of our churches, there are those of you, you're looking for something to satisfy. Nothing will but Jesus. Those of you, who are, who say on the inside I feel so empty, so ashamed. Nothing will forgive you but the grace of God.

And all of our churches, those who say yes. I need his grace. Yes, today I give my life to him. Jesus, I call on you, save me. I make you the Lord of my life. That's your prayer. Lift your hands high right now. All of our churches and say yes.

Both of you up here, praise God for you. Right back over here in this section. Oh my gosh. Right back over here. Others of you today. Lift up your hands and say yes, I call on him right back here. Way back over here to the back.

Somebody ought to celebrate, man. not praying for revival. It's happening right in front of us. Church online. You click right below me. Everybody pray aloud. Pray Heavenly Father, I trust you with my life. Save me from my sins. Forgive me and make me new. Fill me with your spirit so I could follow you. Run my race, living for you. My life is not my own. Jesus, I give it to you. Thank you for new life. now you have mine. In Jesus name I pray. Life Church celebrate big, worship loud, give God glory,

new life in Christ all around. Here at Life Church, it's our honor to play a small part in all that God is doing in and through your life and we would love to continue with you on that journey. You know, when we talk about being overcomers, it's really difficult to be an overcomer on your own. It's much easier when you surround yourself with other people that follow Jesus to be there

to lift you up when times get tough. If you go to one of our live church locations or maybe one of our open network churches, I'd encourage you to talk to your campus staff and see about getting plugged into a life route or another small group of believers that can be there to lift you up and do life with you. Or maybe you live outside of the area

of one of our physical locations. We have a great church online community that would love to connect with you as you become an overcomer and take next steps in your relationship with Christ. You know, you think of Albany and you think about it as being the capital of New York. You think it's this big elaborate city. It's a large city with a small vibe.

The people are fantastic in the way that it's like a melting pot and you can see so many people from different backgrounds and different cultures. It's just a big young professional environment I'd say. It's a very ambitious place. There is a lot going on. With our society today and how it's so focused on so many objects that people are try to put in their life to fill spaces. But I think the biggest need is for real relationships, right, where we're having real conversations and not just shallow, how's the weather, you know, how's your day going? Once you build those relationships, they get to see Christ through your actions, your deeds,

your words. Some of the great things that we can do as individuals to bring that message to people is to be a reflection of God. By us receiving his love, his mercy, of grace, it should just kind of flow right out of us. And I hope that to realize it's Jesus and me and just how he flows out through my character. Just love people. It doesn't matter what kind of background they come from or who they are. We're not just going to church once a week.

We want to build a relationship where the people that we're interacting with trust us to have the hardest conversations. With Life Church popping up and the Word of God to reach people, that's what they need. It's Jesus. It's His Word. It's not about a building. It's not about a city. It's about a community.

It's about having relationships with our neighbors and living life together. We have hope in this world and we can get through things because of Christ. I hope that when people think about me, they see that there is something different about it. and the thing that's different is Jesus. I want to say thank you to all of you that are part of our live church family that give, serve, and pray for our church. It's you that are allowing us to live out our mission of leading people to become fully devoted followers of Christ and helping people around the world.

Find God and find life.