Wednesday Night Bible Study

Thank you. Praise team. Why don't we give them a hand? Praise team, man. They did an awesome job tonight ushering in the presence of God tonight and I'm incredibly thankful for them and all that they've done. I'm going to go and let y'all be seated. This is a first for me uh in a couple of areas. It's the first time I've had the opportunity to preach in front of this incredible congregation where I cannot express this enough. Many, many, many, many, many, many, many greater men than I have stood behind this pullpit and preached to you all. But it is also the first time that I've wore a suit on a Wednesday. So, there's a couple first for us tonight. The first thing I want to do though is I want to give honor where honor is due. I give honor to uh to Bishop, Pastor Mark, Pastor Nate, Pastor Anthony. I also want to give honor to brother Steven, uh brother Steven Sloan, and brother Alex Cross as well. Everything that this pastoral team does and everything that these guys do, they do it to pour everything they can into this church and into this youth group. They leave absolutely nothing on the table. Every aspect of their life, they do it and they do it with excellence to pour into this church. I am always honored to speak in any capacity. Thanks, brother Jeremy. I am always honored to speak in any capacity, whether it be preaching, teaching, any other ministry, any form of ministry. I'm always honored to do so. But I am especially honored when I am given the opportunity to speak specifically to the youth of our church. I'm especially honored when I'm given the opportunity to speak to the youth of our church. I was talking to someone the other day, it was a couple weeks ago now, and they asked me a question. I said, 'What do you think for you, not for anybody else, for me? What is the most valuable thing in our church for you? What is the group of people that you believe is the most important group of people? My answer is very simple and it will always be this. It is our youth. It is our kids and our grandkids. You are the future of every single thing that we do. Everything that we do. You will lead this church one day. Many of you already are. You will lead this youth group one day. Many of you already are. You will lead your families one day. Many of you already are. So everything that we do is an investment into you all. So I'm always honored to speak specifically to this group of young people. I feel like many times You're good, Logan. I'm going to be talking for a while. Sorry, buddy. I feel like many times when I'm uh preaching or teaching, the place that I'm coming from is is very autobiographical. You can ask the students in my Bible classes. It seems to always be that way. It always comes from a a place for somewhere I've been, something I've dealt with, something I'm dealing with, something I've had done to me, something I've done, something I've experienced, some aspect of my life, past or present, that I have experienced in some way. It always, I don't know why that is, just always seems to be the way that God works for me. And a few weeks ago, I was at NAYC and began to ask myself the question, what did I need to hear when I was 16, 17, 18? What did I need? What did that version of Preston need to hear? What was he dealing with at that age? What was he going through at that age? When I was a sophomore, junior, senior, freshman, when I was going to Bible college, what would have benefited me in my life to be told? And after prayer and fasting, consideration, this is what I felt like God laid on my heart to express to you all going into this school year. some of the some of you guys being your last school year, some of you being your first semester in college coming up and different aspects of your life. This is what I felt like God had laid upon my heart to express to you all. So, with that being said, we're going to get right into it. 2 Samuel 6 and 12. And it was told King David saying, "The Lord hath blessed the house of Obedom and all that pertainth unto him because of the ark of God." So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obedom into the city of David with gladness. And it was so that when they that bear the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed oxen and fatlings. And David danced before the Lord with all of his might. Not half praise, not some praise, not a little two-step. Everything that David had to offer in that moment, he offered. He gave everything he had to the Lord in his praise. And David was girded with a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet. And as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Mckel, Saul's daughter, looked through a window. She wasn't next to David. She wasn't beside David. She wasn't experiencing what David was experiencing. She was looking through a window. We don't know if that window was next door or two miles away. All we know is she wasn't getting what David was getting. She was looking through a window and she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord and she despised him in her heart. And they brought in the ark of the Lord and set it in his place in the midst of the tabernacle that David had pitched for it. And David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. And as soon as David had made an end of offering, burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of Hosts. I don't hope to be too long. Hope to be fairly swift tonight. I don't hope to keep you for very long. But I do want to preach for a few moments under the title extreme ownership. Extreme ownership. How many of you guys have ever heard of John Gretton Willink Jr.? Nicknamed Jo. Have you ever heard of the name Jaco Willink Jr.? A solid five. Okay. It's usually pretty split 50/50. I can see where we're at tonight. We are not in that ratio. Probably not many of you guys have heard of him. It's always very split tonight. Five to, you know, 200. Anyway, some of you might know him. Most of you probably don't. He lives on that side of Instagram and the Okay, I wrote this sermon for like kids. So, if you're not a kid, you're not going to understand some references, and that's okay. Just ask your kids later. He lives outside of Instagram of like the you don't know me son, burn the boats, David Gogggins, everything's to the extreme, everything's to the max, run 10 miles a day, those type of people. So if you have a normal Instagram and Facebook with normal things where your for you page is like golf or cooking or traveling or whatever Shader Sanders is up to, then you probably haven't heard of Jaco Willinks in your lifetime. But Jaco was born September 8th, 1971 in Torington, Connecticut. He served 20 years in the US Navy Seals, rising from enlisted to lieutenant commander. Came from enlisted all the way up to Lieutenant Commander. He commanded Seal Team 3's task unit bruiser during the Iraq War. His leadership earned him the Silver Star, the Bronze Star Medal, and other accommodations. But in 2015, Joo wrote this book that I got here entitled Extreme Ownership. The objective of this book was to instill in critical instill critical lessons learned under life and death situations into the daily lives of other peoples. It was to instill things that he learned in a battlefield into the lives of other people. The number one rule, the number one rule that is instilled in this book is that you are responsible for what happens in your life. You are responsible for the direction in which your life is heading. You have to take responsibility for what you're doing. And you have to take responsibility for all of what's going on. Whether that's good or bad, the mistakes you made, the good things that happened, good or bad, you take responsibility up for it. No excuses and no blaming others. It is your responsibility to take responsibility. If you want something to be successful, if you yourself want to be successful, then you must take responsibility and you must own it. Extreme ownership by definition means taking absolute responsibility for everything that impacts one's life or area of influence including success. It mean success and failures. It means taking responsibility of your life. It means taking ownership of your circumstance, the circle you have around you. It means setting an example. Means taking accountability. It's a scary word in 2025, but it means taking accountability for your mistakes and failures and not just staying there, but working towards improvement. The Bible paints a very descriptive image of what the life of David looked like. He was in the Old Testament perhaps the most emotionally, I would say, is a good word. Relationally, at times morally inconsistent people in the Bible. He had mistake after mistake after mistake after mistake. Downfall, downfall, downfall. One moment he's blessing God, the next moment he's asking God for fire to rain upon his enemies. He's going back and forth, but we only know him as really one thing as a title outside of King David. We know him as a man after God's own heart. Despite all these failures and all these mistakes, he's known as a man after God's own heart. David didn't always get it right. David didn't always make the right decision, but David was swift to know when he got it wrong. David knew when to take responsibility for some mistakes that he had made. What people have to understand about David is in this moment in 2 Samuel when the ark is brought into Jerusalem, he was not leaping and dancing and praising for no reason. He was taking ownership >> of the direction in which his life was heading. He was taking ownership of some things. He was taking ownership over his life, his future, his relationship, the direction in which his spiritual journey was going to be going. He was taking ownership of his life and the future of the people around him. Leading up to this moment, we have two straight years following the death of Saul that Israel split into two nations. We have David and Ishboseth. We have David on one side, Ishbash on the other, Judah and Israel. We have one that has the ark and one that doesn't. One that has the presence of God and one that doesn't. When you're coming against an adversary, there's only thing that only one factor that matters when you come against an adversary. Who's got the presence of God? >> Who's got God on their side? David wasn't too concerned with Ishbos because he understood I might go through some things. I might trouble with some things, but as long as I've got the ark, as long as I've got the presence of God on my side, you can do and say whatever you want to say about me. You can do whatever you want to do, but I'm going to win because I've got the ark of the covenant, the presence of God on my side. That is the only factor you have to be concerned with when you're dealing with an adversary. who's got the presence of God. >> So when David unites Judah and Israel, he defeats the Jebusites. He establishes Jerusalem, the city of David as the capital of Israel. So when the ark of the covenant is brought into Jerusalem, David begins to realize some things. I've got a responsibility now. I've got everything I want. I've got Israel united. I've got the ark of the covenant. I've got to take responsibility of some things in my life. I've got to take a responsibility not just as the king because I'm more than a king. I'm a servant of a God. I'm the servant of God to set an example and establish what kind of person and what kind of people and nation we're going to be. He takes some responsibility. He asks himself, you can almost see it now. Am I gonna be the kind of person that is going to allow me and the nation below me to be dictated and my relationship with God to be dictated and my life to be dictated by my wants and my needs and what I think is wrong and what I think is right and how I want to feel? Am I going to be the kind of person that's going to come to the house of God that is going to be engulfed in the house of God, come to the tabernacle and never truly touch the presence of God, never truly experience what the presence of God feels like? Am I going to be the kind of person that is called and sanctified and led and know that I've got a plan on my life from God, but never see the fulfillment of that calling? How comfortable are you going to be, David? How comfortable are you going to be going through these things? Or or am I going to be the kind of person that understands the magnitude of the moment that when the presence of God steps into the room, I'm not going to allow anything else to hinder that relationship. I'm not going to allow anything else to hinder that relationship. I'm not going to allow people, opinions, family circumstances, mistakes, failures, things I've done, things that try to hold me back. I'm not going to allow anything to hinder the relationship I have with God to define the kind of person that I'm going to be and the kind of relationship that I'm going to have. But I'm going to step out. Macuel may be looking, but I'm going to step out knowing that as long as I serve the Lord. We sang it a minute ago. As long as I got breath in my lungs, as long as I got breath in my lungs, I'm going to serve the Lord. I'm going to magnify the Lord. I'm going to glorify the Lord. I'm going to dance for the Lord. As long as I'm breathing, >> I'm going to serve the Lord. >> Not for anybody else, but I'm going to take ownership of my relationship with the King of Kings. 2 Samuel 6:19 moving down. And he dealt among all the people, even among the whole multitude of Israel, as well as to the women as men, to everyone a cake of bread and a good piece of flesh and a flag and of wine. So all the people departed, everyone to his house. Then David returned to bless his household. He came home to take care of his family, take care of what he had going on at home. And Mikuel, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet David. She said, 'How glorious was the king of Israel today. Very sarcastic. She wasn't building them up. She was trying to level him down. She was trying to take away some things from him. How glorious was the king of Israel today who uncovered himself today in the eyes of handmmaids and his servants as one of the vain fellows. It's one of the normal people, the ordinary people uncoverth himself. Mikuel says to David, "How glorious were you today. How glorious you must feel. How glorious you must be having taken off the king's robe. Having taken off the king's robe and worshiped like ordinary people, worshiped with ordinary people, having danced in the street." Listen, this is something that has bothered me for as long as I can remember because something when I say autobiographical, I mean I've dealt with this as well. But I'm going to say this because again, this is something we have to think about. There cannot be any prejudice. There cannot be any arrogance or pride in the kingdom of God. There cannot be any arrogance or pride or separation in our youth group. We can't have any discontentment with one another. that cannot seep into what we do. Because the second that we think we're too good to worship with one another, the second that we think we're too good to come to this altar, the second that we think we're too good for this right here. Oh, I'm not going to get down on my knees. I'm not going to praise in front of everybody. I'm not going to do what everybody else is doing. No, no, no. The second that we think we're too good for this right here is the second that we find out how fast that we can get off the path that God has set for our life. how fast that we can get off the path and the plan that he has played out for us. That is how fast things can begin to go and crumble for us is when we begin to think, I'm too good. I'm too holy. I'm too high and mighty. >> Amen. >> That is how fast you can get off that path. >> Matthew 7:13, "Enter ye in at the straight gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadth to destruction." It's not hard to find destruction. It's not hard to find it. You don't have to work at it. You don't got to take ownership of it. It's easy. It's comfortable. It's not hard to find your life crumbling into pieces. And many there that go, which be in there at because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadth into life, and few there be that find it. It is a straight gate, and a narrow path that we are following, and there is no room for arrogance or pride on that path. You were never too saved. You are never too lost to come to this altar. We are never too good, nor are we too bad to come to this altar. We are never too far gone, nor are we too holy to find a place in this altar. We are never too high nor too low to worship and to praise and to magnify and to find ourselves in the presence of God. We've never gone too far to have a relationship with him. >> I stress this because it's important to me. Because there is something and there is a worse and more dangerous position to be in than just lost. There's a dangerous position more dangerous than just lost. It's when you think you're too good to be lost. It's when we find ourselves in a position where we don't even recognize it. We don't even remember last time. I've been there. I've been there where there's moments in time where I come to the altar and I can't even get words out of my mouth. I try to praise and I try to pray. I try to glorify and I'm being held back by an adversary. You are never too far gone for that. But if you convince yourself that you are too good to be lost, that I've been coming here my whole life. I'm seventh eighth. Praise God. Thank you. That's awesome. That's a great testimony. I love that. Don't think that that's going to carry you on to the next thing. How great you must feel, David. Having taken off the king's robe, having worshiped in front of everybody, having praised in front of everybody, having danced in front of everybody. What will everyone else think now that they've seen the king worship in the street? What will everyone else think now they've seen the king praise in front of everybody? And I absolutely love David's response because David's response is an honest one and it's the most subtle backhand to MueL in this moment because he isn't trying to tear her apart. He's just being honest. Verse 21. And David said to Muel, "It was before the Lord. It was before the Lord. Don't think you're special. It was before the Lord. It wasn't before you. It was before the Lord who chose me before your father who set me above your father's house to appoint me ruler over the people of Israel, over Israel. Therefore, will I play before the Lord? It wasn't for you. I don't care that you're up in that wherever you are in my window. It was for the Lord. Muel, do you think that I was praising for you, that I was glorifying for you? That I was worshiping and dancing for you? No. No. No. No. And this is something all of us need to take in heart because David's response is a prime example of what we need to do sometimes, which is David didn't allow Muel's criticism to ruin his praise. >> He didn't allow Mikuel's criticism to ruin his testimony. He didn't allow the criticism of somebody else to take away from the moment that he experienced. We're going to have moments in this life where we got experiences in the altar and you're going to walk out the doors and have some mo just look at it and go it wasn't for anybody else but for the Lord because I'm not going to allow the world to take a testimony. I'm not going to allow the mckels of the world to tear me down when God has built me up. >> He's very honest in his answer. I didn't do it for you. I did it for God. I didn't do it for anybody else. I didn't do it for some pat on the back. I didn't do it for some affirmation. I didn't do it to please you. I didn't do it to please somebody else. I did it because when the presence of God steps into the room, I'm not going to allow anybody else. I'm not allow any voices, any negative voices or opinions of anybody else to dictate my relationship with God, but I'm going to take ownership of it and I'm going to give him the praise that he deserves. I don't ever want the influences. I don't ever want the laughter and the scorn and the negative influences of society and what social media tells me is good enough as a Christian or good enough church. I don't want anyone to ever any of those opinions, any of those voices to ever be louder than the voice of God in my life. I don't want society's voice that I might hear to weigh me down more than the relationship I have with God picks me up. I don't ever want those things to tear me down. I'm not talking about good voices. I'm not talking about voices that'll pick you up. I'm not talking about saints of the church. I'm not anybody that's trying to pick you up. Praise God. Take it. I'm talking about the ones that are trying to tear you down. That are trying to keep you grounded from what God has intended for your life. God can only do so much for certain things. I don't want the mckls of the world to ever weigh me down more than my relationship with God picks me up. Some of us allow I've done it. We all done it. Some of us allow chirping in our ears to determine our relationship. We just allow chirping, negative chirping to determine how I'm going to live my life for God. to determine our worship and determine whether I truly believe the God that I serve. To determine if I truly have value in the kingdom that I serve. Listen, I want to talk to the youth because this was written for the youth. I'm I'm thankful that everyone else is here and it I hope that I'm doing a good job for you guys. I can't sing. I can't play an instrument. I can only kind of preach. Kind of. Bible students will tell you there's been a lot of times where I didn't know where I was going. So, I can't really teach either. But that never ever made me believe for one second that I did not have value in this kingdom. >> That never made me for a second believe. Do not let anybody tell you, you know what? Who I have people all the time, they come to me and they say me like that, I don't have any talents. I got nothing to offer. I can't do this. I can't do that. Serve because I guarantee you that you can. God will find a place for you to serve in this kingdom if you come to him with a willing heart. Do not think that you can't because frankly I have people tell me that and I asked them, "Who told you that? Who spit that lie into your ear that said you weren't good enough for the kingdom? That you didn't have the talents for the kingdom? Who told you that?" Cuz I guarantee you who didn't tell you that. Nothing in this book will ever suggest nor make you believe that you are not good enough for the kingdom that we serve. Every single person in this room, whether you are young or old, you have a calling and a plan and you can be sanctified for that calling and plan and fulfill it in Jesus name. But every single person in this room has an adversary. And if you're going to beat them, you got to start taking some ownership. You got to start taking some ownership of your life. You got to take taking some ownership of some things. You're going to have to make up your mind about some things. I'm going to take ownership of my prayer life. I'm going to take ownership of my worship. I'm going to take ownership of my family. I'm going to take ownership of what I allow to influence me. I'm going to take ownership of my relationship with God. Because I'll tell you something, if you don't take ownership of your relationship, something or someone will take ownership of you. If you don't take ownership of your spiritual walk with God and say, "I'm going to live for God no matter what the circumstance," then something or someone is going to find their way into taking ownership of you. If you do not take ownership of it, the world will take ownership of you. A lack of a relationship in your present will lead to a lack of his presence in your future. A lack of a relationship in your present will lead to a lack of presence in your future. Everything's going good right now. Got the job I wanted. I got the the, you know, the car I want. I'm on the volleyball team. Brother Huff is killing it. We're winning games. was on the basketball team. Brother Muffin's doing awesome. Everything in my life, I got the car, the job, whatever it might be, is going good. Okay, thank God everything's going good. What's going to happen when I get to this point and from point A to point B, everything's crumbled and I went through some stuff? Have you built the relationship required from point A to point B to bring you through the storm that you're dealing with? Have you built the relationship from when things were going good to things were going bad to bring you up when you are down? >> You have to build the relationship. There may come a point when you need his presence more than anything, but you have not built the relationship required. David did not just dance when the ark of the covenant was brought into Jerusalem because some box had entered the city. wasn't because some physical box that that served nothing. But it's not because that was the reason. He danced because he understood the magnitude of what it meant to have the presence of God be around him. He understood that nobody else can worship for me. Nobody else can dance for me. Nobody else can praise for me. One of the hardest lessons I had to learn was that I could not ride the coattails of my family. I couldn't do it forever. My mom will tell you this. There's many times when I was younger, I don't know if this is still allowed to be said. There's many times when I was younger, I didn't want to stand up when when pastors stood up. I didn't want to stand up when people started singing. My mom would take her high heel right in the big toe. She would let me know how we act and how we do things in church. Right there, I had a many a lost toenail upon Bob's high heel. She'll let you know that. But she understood something. She couldn't worship for me. She couldn't praise for me. She couldn't magnify for me. One day there's going to come a day where I'm going to have to answer for what I've done. Not for what she's done. Not for what my grandma did or my grandfather did or seven generations ago did. I'm going to have to answer for how I live my life and the kind of relationship that I had because I can't ride the coattails of everybody else. I'm going to have to learn how to lead for myself and dance for myself and praise for myself because I've got to take responsibility of that relationship. It isn't anybody else's. It's my responsibility. Nobody else's. Muel, I see you. I see you looking through that window. I see the hatred in your eyes. I see the disgust on your face. I see the snarl. I can see it in the heart. Everything that she is, I can see her through that window. and she is just despising David. But if Muel if you could ever understand what God has brought me out of, you may not understand why I'm doing this, why I'm worshiping. You may think it's a waste of time, but you don't know what God's done for me. You don't know what God's brought me out of. You don't know what I deserve. There's a million places I deserve to be tonight, but the house of God ain't one of them. There's a million places I deserve to be, but the presence of God, Muel, ain't one of them. I've made mistake, mistake, mistake. Got it wrong. Got it wrong. Got it wrong. So, excuse me if I'm going to worship when the presence of God steps into the room. Because Mikuel, you don't understand it, but I don't deserve to be here. >> David did not deserve to be in the presence of God based on the life that he lived in many aspects, but he was going to praise God when that when it entered into the kingdom. I don't need anyone's affirmation, anyone's approval because I'm not dancing. This is something all of us got to realize because we're not none of us do this. None of us serve God. None of us praise God, come to this altar and worship God and magnify God and glorify God. None of us do it for an audience of millions. We do it for an audience of one. >> An audience of one mentality will take you a lot farther than anything else. I'm not coming to this altar so anybody will pat me on the back. I'm not living my life for Christ so anybody will pat me on the back. I'm living my life and I'm coming to this altar and I'm going to praise because I'm going to dance and I'm going to leap and I'm going to shout for an audience of one. Not an audience of millions. Not because of anybody else, but because the relationship I have with God. If we could ever get into an audience of one mentality, God knows where we could go. An audience of one mentality. I'm dancing for the King of Kings. Maybe the king of Israel. Mikuel, I'm dancing for the king of kings. Perhaps the most beautiful thing about the opportunity that we are provided. Perhaps the most beautiful thing about the relationship that we get to have with the God that we serve is that his presence didn't stop with the ark. His presence didn't stop and stay in Jerusalem. His presence didn't stop with the disciples. His presence didn't stop on the day of Pentecost. Romans 8 and8. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If so be that the spirit of God dwell in you, if it dwell in you. Now if any man have not the spirits of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, the spirit of Christ that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you. If it dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal body by his spirit that dwelleth in you. The same presence that dwelt in Jerusalem. The same presence that dwelt on the ark of the covenant. The same presence that dwelt and was felt on the day of Pentecost is the same presence in 2025 going into another school year that you get to feel and have dwell in you and have a relationship and an experience with. First Corinthians 6:19, "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, and which you have from God, and that ye are not your own? The exchange, perhaps the greatest trade you will ever make in your life, is the fact that you take ownership of your relationship. You take ownership of some mistakes and where you are. You take ownership of direction and in exchange, he takes ownership of you. >> You take ownership of the things that you're going on. You take ownership of some things and he takes ownership of you. I've seen a lot of people in my life that makes me sound old. Some of the ACS students will tell you I am old. I've seen a lot of people in my life live their entire life and base their entire relationship with God under the wrong narrative. See a lot of people and I, you know, I see it. One of the biggest downfalls of social media for me is the fact that I see a lot of people I used to go to school with a hundred years ago. I see a lot of people that I went to school with in high school, in college, and I ask myself, and it it it really does it breaks my heart. What could they have been? What could they have done? I say it to myself all the time, they got 10 times more talent than I could ever have. What could they have been? What could they have done had they lived their life and based their relationship under with God under the right narrative? What could they have done had they have lived their life under the narrative that the relationship I have of God have with God requires some ownership. It doesn't. It's not one of those relationships where it requires nothing of me. They live their life thinking that the relationship they have with God and we got to be careful not to do this is thinking that my relationship requires no sacrifice, that it requires no growth, no worries. I'm going to let you in on the secret. Nowhere in this Bible does it tell you that this life is going to be easy. Don't don't don't give into that lie. Nowhere in this Bible does it tell you that life is not going to be hard and you're not going to go through some struggles and some downfalls and some issues. But there is such a greater reward for he that live their life based on this book. They that live their life thinking that this relationship requires no sacrifice, growth, no ownership, no effort. And they say it to me all the time. Well, John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that who I mean, we know it gave his only begotten son, and whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." All I got to do is believe. Thank God that you started believing. But listen, your relationship with God does not stop growing because you started believing. You started growing because you started believing. Your relationship with God does not stop going deeper. When you started believing in Christ, you don't put the brake on because you started believing. you started speeding up because you started believing in Christ. >> We take true growth and we go deeper with God and we take a deeper relationship not predating the belief after the belief. But we don't stop because we started believing. It's when you made the choice, David, of how I'm going to live my life that the blessing started to come to choose to serve God, to choose to stand for truth, to choose to stand for righteousness. to push towards what God has for me. It is not a choice you make once and never make again. The choice to live for God is not something you make once and never make again. I bet there's some elders, some parents, some grandparents, great-grandparents, they will tell you they made that choice to serve God on a Sunday. They made that choice to serve God on a Sunday morning, a Sunday night, a midweek, a chapel service. But they make that same choice to serve God every single day. It is not something they made once, committed and left their relationship. They grow in that relationship and they build that relationship and they commit to that relationship and they own that relationship and they go deeper with God every single day. >> It is not something they made the choice one time and there was never any problems after that. They had to continue to make that same choice every single day. Philippians 3:13. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those which are behind, and reaching forth unto those which are before. I press towards the mark. I press towards the mark. It doesn't say I pressed as in I've made it, as in I'm there, and I can stop. I press towards, it's a continual. I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus. This book never once tells us to stop pursuing. It never once tells us to stop pushing. It never once tells us to stop pressing for a deeper and greater and better relationship with God. It never once tells us that our relationship will ever get to a point where we are good enough to stop pushing for deeper things. Nobody can live this life for you. It's up for you to determine the kind of relationship I'm going to have, the kind of person that I'm going to be. That I'm going to be better today. I'm going to be better this year. I'm going to be better this semester than I ever have been. And then I'm going to take ownership of some things. I'm coming to a close. If you all want to stand here in a second, Pastor Anony's going to come and we're going to do something very specific. Something very, very specific. But before I do, I wonder if we could just lift our hands right now. God, we thank you, Jesus. God, we thank you for everything you've done. God, we magnify your name. I wonder if there's a middle schooler in this place. I wonder if there's a freshman or a sophomore or a senior that maybe even a college student that would say, "This year, this school year, I'm going to take ownership of my relationship. I'm going to take ownership of my prayer life. I'm going to take ownership of the call that God has placed on my life. I'm not going to allow any negative voices. I'm not going to allow anything to hinder that relationship from getting to the point that God has." So, I wish we'd have somebody in our school, maybe a senior that would say, "I'm going to take ownership of chapel this year that if nobody else is going to praise, if nobody else is going to jump, if nobody else is going to glorify the name above all names, I'm going to do it because it's my responsibility to take ownership of it. >> Nobody else is going to do it. I'm going to do it. Nobody else is going to take ownership. I'm going to take ownership. If you're going to take ownership of some things, why don't we lift our hands and pray? God, we thank you, God. God, you're worthy. God, I thank you for everything you've done. God, I thank you for the opportunity that you've allowed us to have, God, that we get to come to your presence, that we get to interact with your spirit, God, that we have the opportunity, God, to experience that every single day, God, I thank you for what you've done, God, I thank you for this school year, God. God, I thank you, Jesus. God, I thank you, God.