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We have a word for 20, 25. Every year, our church has a word, and our word for this year is planted. Planted. We believe that we're going to flourish because we're planted in the house of the Lord. So to remind us, every single Sunday, we declare Psalms 92, verses 13 through 15. So let's read it together as one big family with uplifted voices. Y' all ready? Come on. Here we go. 1, 2, 3. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord, they shall still. They shall be fresh and flourishing. He is my rock. Come on. Y' all sound good. You sound good. It's amazing. I hope you don't ever take for granted the power of reading scripture together and declare that our team, some of our team, was at a prison just yesterday. And it's amazing how many people who are incarcerated watch our service on a Pando app. And they went into the verse of the year, and they knew it. I'm telling it was incredible to hear these men of God declare our scripture of the year. So I'm just saying we're part of a big global family, and God's doing awesome things. You're in for a treat today. Somebody who has been a friend to me for years is gonna bring God's word today. This is his first time here at Social Dallas, and he is one of the most incredible voices that God has raised up for this time. His name is Ryan Leak. There's so many things I could say about him. He is a New York Times bestselling author. God is able to use him uniquely in both sacred spaces and in secular spaces. This dude will preach at a church on Sunday. Then on Tuesday, he'll go speak to, like, Wells Fargo's team. He is brillian, yet he's amazing. But I'm just so glad that he's here today, and I want y' all to make him feel welcome. Come on, Social fam. Put your hands together for my brother, Ryan Leak.
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Let's go. I appreciate you, man. Social Dallas, it is such a privilege to be with you today. What an honor to see what God has done with your church. I would be remiss if I didn't take a moment to honor your pastors, who are incredible human beings. They have been good friends. They have been confidants. And, you know, one of the things that I always say is if you have somebody in your life that you admire, you should always ask the question, what does it cost to be them? And when I think about Robert and Taylor Madu, I think about Some great human beings. But then I always ask myself, what does it cost to be them? And I just wanted to take a moment to just honor who you guys are and the prices that you've paid to be who you are, the dedication to your craft. You know, PR is so good at what he does. He makes it look easy. It's not easy. That, that's dedication. That's late nights, that's early mornings, that's studying the word of God. To be able to provide a meal for this house so that you have something that can go inside of your heart to change your life. And so, on behalf of a bunch of thousands of people that may never get to have a one on one conversation with you, I just wanted to say thank you for being dedicated to the Lord and everything that you do. I am praying for this house. This is a good house. This is a good place to be planted. And I'm praying that every person that is supposed to come here and serve would show up. I'm praying that every dollar that's supposed to be given would be given. I'm praying that today somebody's gonna give $6 million in Jesus name. Who knows what could happen? But super, super honored to be here. Can we all just take a moment and pray before we get started? Father, I thank you so much for the opportunity to preach your word. We don't take that for granted. We don't take for granted the fact that we get to gather and lift up your name. And so, God, I pray that you would wake us up on the inside today that purpose would come alive, that we would be the church on the move. That everywhere we go today, we would be an example of who you are. May we not leave the same way that we came in. In Jesus name we pray. Everybody said amen. Go ahead and have a seat. Thank you so much. I'm honored that your church would break the bank to fly me in all the way from McKinney. My family and I reside in the Frisco McKinney area. And the helicopter ride here was very, very short. And this is a picture of my family. This is the Queen, Amanda. And our oldest is Jackson. And our youngest is Roman. Roman plays one sport on his way to quitting it. That would be basketball. Our oldest, Jackson, plays two and a half sports. He plays basketball, football, and we started family golf lessons yesterday. That's our half. We're not good enough to tell people we do it. Nevertheless, I love being a husband. I love being a dad. I'm jealous of my kids. They Got more options than I had. They have a life that I've provided them. And then I'll get mad at the life that they have that's been provided by me. I should be mad. Mad at myself, not them. And the photo you just saw was our Easter photo. Okay? They put those suits on for a day. Okay? Now I'm gonna show you this next photo. This is me growing up, okay? This was a Tuesday. This was a Tuesday prayer meeting, okay? Like, this wasn't even church. Okay? I grew up in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. If you don't know what African Methodist Episcopal means, just means a black church. I could try and, you know, finagle that a little bit more, but that's what it was. Small church. One service started at 8:30ish. The reason we say ish is because it started when we got there and nobody was in a hurry. At our church, you get out 2, 3pm, you need to bring a snack to our church, okay? No children's ministry. You sat on the front row with your mama, okay? That's all you had. The reason church is so long was because of two reasons. Number one, we had choirs on deck, okay? We had a choir for everything. We had a choir. We had a men's choir, women's choir, elderly choir, young adult choir, children's choir, divorced people choir. We had a choir for every kind of segment you could think of. And they all had a B and C selection. And then my dad would get on the stage. He preached for 50 minutes an hour, no big deal. But before he would preach, he would say, this is the time in our service where we're going to have testimony time. Now, I don't know if you've ever been in a church where there is testimony time. If you don't understand that, allow me to explain. It's open mic on a Sunday, okay? Anybody is viable to hit the stage and share how God has been good to them in their life. And so my dad would stand on the stage and says, hey, God is good. And all the time, why don't you go ahead and come on the stage and tell us how he been good to you? And then all of a sudden, there'd be a line of people, and that would take a good three hours, okay? So that. That was how I grew up in church. And then, unfortunately, when I was in the fifth grade, my father suffered a stroke and we couldn't no longer. My dad could no longer pastor that church. And so I was going to this private school that was connected to a predominantly Large white church. So my parents said, hey, why don't you just start going to church with your friends? I said, okay, cool. Listen, I will never forget the first day I went to white church. Okay? New ball game. Okay? When they said service started at. And they wasn't bluffing, okay? That was not a joke. That was at 9:00'. Clock. That click track started ting, ting, ting, ready to go. I walk in, you know, 8:59. Oh, we good. And then they had something I had never seen in church before in my life. They had a cafe. I said, y' all got snacks here? What's going on? Walk into the building. Probably about 9:07, worship was over. I said, what's going on? And then Something happened at 10 o' clock that I had never experienced before in my life. The pastor said, hey, y' all have a good weekend. I said, where everybody going? Y' all got intermission at your church. What's happening? I had never had free time a day in my life on a Sunday. I was like, I don't even know what to do. What do people do on Sunday mornings with free time? They said, we're going to brunch. I said, what's brunch? They said, you can get chicken or waffles or chicken and waffles. I said, I think I'm ready to give my life to Jesus right here at this brunch. Then I went to. After high school, I started going to this church that was a mixed church. And they had black people, they had white people, Hispanic people, Asian people, all singing the same songs to our Heavenly Father. And I thought, it kind of looks like heaven, kind of looks like social Dallas, a little bit of everything. And then when I went to college, I started going to this church that my friends categorized as a prosperity gospel church. They said, ron, you better be careful going to that church because you know, it's one of those prosperity gospel church. I said, man, people seem pretty nice. I don't know why you yelling at me. It ain't that serious. That following Sunday, a gentleman walked up to me. He said, sir, you don't know me, but God just put it on my heart to give you $100. I said, this is my favorite church I ever been to in my life. What you talking about? Everybody talking about they blessed to be a blessing, but don't never pull out. They Venmo. No cash app, no Apple pay. Be about it. You gonna talk about it, then be about it. Show me something. QR code. Show me. And I'll never forget at that church, one Sunday, they were celebrating their one millionth person giving their life to the Lord. There was a guy on staff who would literally walk around Minneapolis talking to people about Jesus. And in that moment, I realized that at my dad's church, my friend's church, the mixed church, and the Prosperity Gospel Church, they all had one thing in common. They gave people an opportunity to have an anchor for their soul. And that was the day I fell in love with the big C church. And I realized something about the church is that meant for a lot of us, we're very comfortable with our faith inside the four walls of the church. But the minute we get outside, man, it just gets hard. And it's interesting. It's like the thing that's the most important to us is our faith, but it's the thing that we feel like we're gonna show the least. And the scripture tells us this. You've heard this scripture before. It's found in Matthew, where Jesus gives what we often know as the Great Commission. And it says this. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. We're very familiar with the Great Commission, but it can feel like a great anxiety sometimes, you know, like, especially if you have, like you're sitting next to them on a plane or you at a restaurant or you're at work and you're like, I mean, do it. And you feel like if you bring up Jesus, they gonna punch you in the throat. And you're like, I don't know what to do right now, but this is, this is what I want you to know. The Great Commission has nothing to do with you being extroverted. The Great Commission has nothing to do with your personality type. The Great Commission is not for people who went to Bible school or people who are talented or people that preach the gospel on the stage. No, no. The Great Commission is for all of us. We are all in full time ministry. We are called to go. And the reason that Jesus gave us the Great Commission is not because of our talent. He gave us the Great Commission because of our proximity to people in pain. And there's people you work with, people you live next to, people in your complex, people at your gym who may never walk through the doors of the church, but the church is going to walk right past them with you every single day. And so I want to guide us with some scripture today that I think is going to help us begin to share our faith outside. Colossians 4, verse 5 says, Walk in wisdom toward outsiders. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders. Making the best use of the time. I was at a Mavs game and there was a guy with a megaphone on the corner screaming at people, turn or burn. You're sinners, you need Jesus or you're going to hell. And I just thought to myself, man, I hope somebody does give their life to Jesus through this medium. But I'm not sure it would fall into the walking in wisdom toward outsiders category today. I want to help us lean on the side of walking in wisdom. I'm not passing on any megaphones today. Please don't go order them at home and start going to soccer games screaming at kids to turn or burn. Okay? Please don't do that. But I do think that it would be awesome for you and I to pause and consider, Lord, how might you use my life to point somebody to Jesus? By the way that I work, by the way that I treat people, by the way that I love, by the way that I show up in the spaces that I'm going to go, lord, would you help me be one of those people that have a Jesus inspired life that points other people to you? I think about this woman in the scripture found in Mark, chapter five. We might be familiar with her story. She's got one of the most infamous Jesus stories. She's the woman with the issue of blood. She's been to many doctors. She's given up. Except she hears Jesus is walking by, but he's got a crowd. She dives through the crowd and has this thought, if I could just touch the hem of his garment, I could be made whole. And she does. Jesus turns around and says, who touched me? And then he finds out it's her. And he says these words, daughter, your faith has made you whole. I wish that her story ended there, but her story actually continues in another chapter. It's actually at the end of Mark, chapter six. And it says this, and it says, it says, and wherever he went. Talking about Jesus. Key word here. Wherever. Do you know wherever is. That's everywhere. Okay. Everywhere he went into villages, towns or countryside. They placed the sick in the. Wait. Where? Where did they put Jesus? Where do you work? It's interesting. It says they would place the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak. And all who touched it were healed. My friends, this woman's faith is trending on Twitter. Touchthehim. Okay? Like, she is trending on TikTok. People are making videos about. Okay, if you gonna dive into a crowd, this is how you want. But literally, this has changed the ministry of Jesus Christ everywhere. From now on, when you read the scripture, wherever you find Jesus, I just want you to imagine right before he does, whatever you read about, before that happens, somebody said, hey, Jesus, we're so glad you're here. Hey, could you just. We just want to bring you to the marketplace so that. That. And here's what the scripture says. All who touched it were healed. This blew my mind. In fact, it made me study the scripture a little bit more. I went through all four Gospels and I wanted to study the miracles of Jesus. And I didn't just want to study what he did. I wanted to really zoom in on where he did them. And here's what I discovered. Did you know that only 8% of the miracles that Jesus performed in scripture happened inside the synagogue? 8%. That means 92% of the miracles that Jesus performed in the scripture happened outside the gathering of God's people. It's almost as if Jesus knew for us to reach outsiders, we might actually have to go outside. If you're taking notes today, the title of today's message is entitled we Outside. I want you to look at five people right now and say, we outside. We outside. We outside. Hey, if you find yourself employed today, if you find yourself in the marketplace today, here's what I want to communicate to you loud and clear. Miracles can happen there. Breakthrough can happen there. You and I have some friends that no matter how many times we invite them to church, they haven't come. I'm not sad about that, because the church is on its way to them. Before they ever experience the church in the building, I pray that they would experience the church in you. I just have to wonder whose healing is waiting on you to open up your mouth. I have to wonder whose breakthrough is waiting for you to simply go first to say, you know what? I'm gonna be one of those people that just decides, I'm gonna be outside today. I'm gonna give you three things. Three things that I believe can help us share our faith with the world outside. Number one, I believe we share our faith through our wounds. We share our faith through our wounds. John 4, verses 15 through 19. Jesus is having a conversation with a woman at the well. They're talking about water. And then Jesus changes the conversation from a Fiji conversation to a no, we're gonna talk about living water. And we Pick up in the story. And it says the woman said to him, sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water. He told her, go call your husband and come back. She says, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is you have had five husbands and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is quite true. Low key Jesus, let her know you a side piece right now. Her response is, sir, I can see that you are a prophet. You think? And then in a matter of moment, Jesus changes her life. So much so that verse 39 says many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me everything I ever did. Literally everybody around town like, oh, we know this woman. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She got a reputation and it's not good. And she's going around, she goes, let me tell you about a man who did not take advantage of me. Let me tell you about a man who called out everything I had ever done and still loved me anyways. Let me tell you about a man, they go, wait, whoa, whoa, he knew everything you have ever done? Well then this man must be the Christian. This man must be awesome. And people in droves started coming to know Jesus. Jesus turns a five time divorcee plus side piece into an evangelist in one moment. And let me just tell you what I love about this text. What I absolutely love about this text is that Jesus didn't say hey before I could use your life to tell people about me. I actually need you to change first. Get it together. Come on. Hey, I actually. You know that guy that you're dating who's married? That's so wrong. And I actually need you to break up with him after that. I can use you. And what the text shows me is that sometimes your calling comes before repentance. Some of you might be here today. You're going, Ryan, cute message, buddy, but this one ain't for me. You don't know what I did last night. You don't know the websites I've been on. You don't know who I've lied to. You don't know. You don't know. You don't know. You don't know. Guess who does know. God knows. God knows your list and calls your name anyways and says, hey, I could use your life. And who knows if your calling won't produce repentance if you're just willing to say God, I'm willing to bring my pain to you. And I have to wonder how your pain might become your platform. The longer you're a Christian, the more you are tempted to hide your past. The longer you're Christian, the more you're tempted to go, I don't have any issues. What are you talking about? I don't have any anger issues because some of us, we have not been able to reconcile how a Christian can be depressed. And some of us find ourselves with mental health challenges, and we're too embarrassed to tell anybody because we go, well, if they find out I'm depressed, they might think Jesus isn't who he says he is. And so I'll just pretend to be happy. Yes, blessed and highly favored. That's true. But imagine if you could just be honest. You want to share your faith. Sometimes what you have is a scar, which means God freed you from something, and there's a scar there for you to remember it. Sometimes it's a wound. It's open right now. It's not, I used to have anger issues. It's, I threw a coffee cup last night, and I've got to give that to Jesus. The reason that my hands are up in church isn't because I'm super spiritual. The reason my hands are up in church is because I still got some things I need to surrender to Him. So if you're here today and you're looking around going, it looks like these people, like, know what to do, and they know the song, and they, like, the hands go up and then they all go back down. It's just like, no, no, no, no. Those aren't perfect people on your right and your left, what? They are people that just took their mess to God and said, lord, would you use my life to point other people to Jesus? And so I have to wonder for you, for the breakups you've had, for the friends that ghosted you, for the jobs that you lost, and you go, man, I had a. I was in a dark place. Or sometimes it's, I'm in a dark place. And what makes me special as a Christian is it's not a get out of a dark place free card. It's that, hey, sometimes I don't have the light at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes the light's in the tunnel with me. And I can just trust that God is going to guide me to my next step and that I'm a work in progress and I'm going to be all right, because I got an anchor for my soul that's what it means to be a Christian. And so I have to wonder if you and I were the kinds of people that go, man, I'm going to hide my pain. It's. No, let me tell you what I've been giving to God lately. I'm no better than you. I got issues. And, man, I take those to God. I don't have to pretend to be more spiritual than I really am. I just have to wonder who in the building might relate to somebody that doesn't have it all together. News flash. None of us do. We just dress really nice. Sometimes I have to wonder what would happen if we started sharing our faith through our wounds. And secondly, I have to wonder what it would look like for us to start sharing our faith through our work. Through our work. Did you know Second Corinthians says this? It says all this from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore, Christ ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. My friends, we are all ambassadors of Jesus Christ everywhere we go. I Love what Colossians 3, verse 23 says. It says, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord. Whatever you do, work it with all of your heart. And here's the deal. Some of us, we don't work that hard at our job because we don't like our boss. And we're like, well, my effort will be to depend on who I'm working with and do I really like this job. I'm looking for another one. But I just. I got news for us. Your boss ain't the boss you think it is. Listen, wherever you work, pretend Jesus is your boss. Not pretend, he is. If you valet cars, you act like you driving Jesus car. If you babysit, then you act like you watching Jesus's kids. By the way, you are. If you run the social media account, then you running Jesus social media account. If you in accounting, then you count numbers for Jesus, okay? Like in whatever you do, you go, man, I'm doing this as if it's unto the Lord. Because some of us, we work and hope our boss is watching so that he will give us a promotion. But if you have a mindset that says, God's watching me, God's in charge of my elevation. So guess what? I'm gonna walk into a job that I cannot stand and give my best because I'm giving God my best. I'm not here to give other people my best. And when you do that, you'd be surprised the places you find yourself in. All of a sudden people go, man, the way that they work, the way that they show up, the way they volunteer for stuff, man, the way, man, all of a sudden, you're showing before you tell them. By the time you invite somebody to church, they should go. Of course. This person, I'll go. Anywhere they go. They're the best we got. I'm gonna give you some fun stuff today. I'm Gonna give you 10 things. 10 ways to share your faith at work that don't require being extroverted or talented. Okay? We're gonna put one up each on the screen, one at a time, and then you can take a picture of it. Okay? Take it home. Okay. You do these 10 things, I promise you, you will make sharing the gospel at your job 10 times easier. Number one, be on time. You're like, that ain't spiritual. Yes, it is. Be on time. It shows respect to the people that are meeting with you. Be on time. I'll be there when I be there. No, be on time. Number two, give your best effort. You should be the best there is. You should be remarkable. You should be studying to get better. You should be so hungry that go. I want to be excellent at this. I want to be the best that they got. I'm not trying to be better than somebody else. I'm trying to be better than I was yesterday. Yes, I am trying to give my very best every single day. Number three, watch your body language. Some of us go to work like this every day. Mm. Mm. I ain't say nothing. Really? Look at yourself. Okay, you're saying a lot. Some of you zoom camera off. Okay, you like, Like, I don't even really want to be here. Okay, we know you don't really want to be here because your body language tells. What makes you say that? Well, what makes you say that? Well, look in the mirror every now and then. Number four, be prepared. Showing up to meetings. What y' all talking about? What you mean? You send it in the email that really long one. Man, I ain't read all that. Email like, what? No, no. Be prepared. Number five, keep a positive attitude. Keep a positive attitude. I wrote a book called how to Work with Complicated People. Strategies for Collaboration with Nearly Anyone. We said nearly because some people are certified crazy, and you can't work with Everybody. Nevertheless, we did a national research study on this subject. To understand complexity in the American workforce, we asked a few questions. One, we asked working Americans, how many of you work with a complicated person? 82% of working America said, yes, I work with a complicated person. I'm curious, in the watch party room and in the building right now, how many of you would say, I work with a complicated person. Don't look at them, okay? In case you brought them, like, okay, look up here. Okay? If your hand's not raised, you might be the complicated person. Okay? Just so you know, it wasn't your question. You're like, yeah, he got you, he got you. And one of the questions we asked in our survey is, we said, hey, what makes a person complicated to work with? I thought number one would be politics. It was dead last. You want to know what number one was? Attitude. That was the difference maker. You want to be the kind of person that people get to work with instead of have to work with. Fix your attitude. Walk in and say, you know what? I don't match the energy. I set the standard. Yeah, you come in here with your funky attitude, that's fine. But I'm coming in with my positive attitude. I'm going to have a good day today. Somebody going to say something smart to me today. Somebody going to do a little smart comment online today. That's okay. I woke up ready for your little smart comment. Okay, I'm going to have a great day today. I'm at social Dallas Cowboys about to get this dub. I'm good. You ain't gonna ruin my positive attitude today. You know what you wanna know? I travel a lot, right? Let me tell you where the angriest, worst attitude people go on the planet every single day. DFW airport. And then they get on metal tubes together and expect it to go well and just be yelling at each other. I go there, I'm like, I'm gonna have a good day today. We're delayed. What did you think was gonna happen, huh? It's a hurricane outside. You wanna go flying away? I don't. I'm good. I've already decided I'm gonna have a good day today. I've already chosen my attitude. And you'd be surprised how far a positive attitude will turn you into a complicated person to somebody that go, I get to work with this person. Number six, you really gotta write this one down. This is huge. Check on people when you don't need anything. You want to make a difference at your job. Check on people when you don't need anything. Why? Because everybody needs something. You'll be the one person at the job they always. They call for no reason. They don't even know what to do with it. It's like, what's up? What do you need? Nothing. I'm just calling to check on you. You know how many people live in this world and they have this mantra, nobody cares except you. They work with you. And now you get to be the church. Number seven. Follow through. Do what you say you was gonna do. Some of y' all got projects, you said, yeah, I'll get to it. That was in 2023. What's going on? Talk to me. Be coachable. Be the kind of person that says, I'm willing to learn from anybody. You go, man, But I work with some idiots. You can learn from idiots if you're trying to learn. Anybody with a pen and pad can learn anything. I'm a lifelong learner. I'll never arrive. Stay coachable. Number nine. Talk positive about people behind their backs. I call it grapevine glory. People should be going, I heard through the grapevine that you're doing a great job. Who told you that? Yeah, Tanya. Yeah. I mean, it is what it is. I may have sent the reply all and told them all about you, but you just decided I'm not gonna be a gossiper. No. I'm gonna be somebody that speaks positive about people behind their backs. They're gonna find out a month later. Hey, man, I heard you been talking about me. I have been. You're doing a Great job, number 10. Do more than what's required. Why? Because of who your boss actually is. Some of us have this mantra that ain't on my job description. You don't pay me enough to be doing all of that. But remember, who's watching. God's watching you. You do this. Let me just ask you this question. Wouldn't you want to work for this person? Wouldn't you want to date this person? Wouldn't you want to marry this person? Imagine if we all were this person. Yeah. This changes the game. And then by the time you share the gospel, it's like, I would gladly hear the gospel from this person versus the person that's late, unprepared and only calls me when they need something I love what first. Thessalonians 4, verse 11 through 12 says. It says, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, you should mind your own business. Another message for another day. I'll be back. Okay. Mind your own business and work with your hands. Just as we told you so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders, it is going to be difficult to share your faith with somebody who does not respect you. And so if you're going to earn their respect, earn their respect. That is the gateway to be able to share the gospel. But they should look at your life, they should look at the way you treat people and go, I respect this person enough. Even if I'm not a Jesus person, I would gladly have a Jesus conversation with them because I respect them so much. The third and final thing that I think we can do is we can share our faith through our words. We got wounds, we got our work, and we've got our words. Oftentimes you don't know what to say. Opportunities don't always come with warning labels. Hey, you're about to have an opportunity on Tuesday at 2 o' clock to share the gospel. It's not like that. It's not a calendar invite. It happens in a moment. You go, man, something's going on with them. And you're like, okay, what do I say? And I love what First Peter, chapter three, verse 15 says. It says, always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have church. I want to encourage us today to be prepared. Oh, you should write down something in your notes. You should have something in your phone. Some go to statements to go, man, what is the reason for the hope that I have? I'll give you a couple of examples from my own life. I talk a lot in corporate America about how to work with complicated people. I talk about giving grace to people and giving them the benefit of the doubt. Every now and then I'll go to the place Delta called me and said, hey, could you come talk about forgiveness? I said, you want me to talk about forgiveness, like at your office? They go, yeah, it's the biggest problem we have. People holding on to bitterness from 20 years ago. I said it would be my pleasure. And so when I talk about these things, they'll say, hey, so Ryan, like, how do you, how do you do this? Like, how, how do you have this mantra that says you should move towards people and be gracious and give them the benefit of the doubt and leave margin for people to make mistakes. I say, well, it's not because I'm a great person. It's not because I'm a kind person. I've had an encounter with a kind God. The reason I encourage people to give grace is because I was given it. The reason I Encourage forgiveness isn't because I'm a forgiving person. I am a petty person, Okay? I promise you, high key. I am a petty person. I'm not a forgiving person. I'm a forgiving person. And the forgiveness of God has wrecked my life. And so when I tell you to give grace to the people in your life, I'm telling you to give away what you didn't deserve. Yeah, I won the eternal jackpot. That's what I won. And so because I was given something that I didn't deserve, it makes me want to give away what I don't deserve. Yeah, because you could go, Ryan, they do not deserve my forgiveness. I know. I agree with you. They're terrible. But so were you. And your name made the list anyways. That's the God we serve. Another one you can use. John 3:16. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son. So maybe your prepared statement is, hey, I don't know what you believe about God. Maybe you've been told he's mad at you or he's got a lightning rod at the end of his finger ready to judge you. But I just wanna let you know, he loves you so much, he tipped the odds in your favor. Yeah. He sent his son to trade places with us. Isn't that amazing? Yeah. You think about the greatest trade in human history, it's not the wildest one. Isn't Luca getting traded to the Lakers? No. No. The wildest trade in human history is that Jesus switched places with us. And it's crazy, it's scandalous, it shouldn't have happened. But we're grateful that it did. It was all a part of the plan the whole time. God's got a plan for your life. And I believe that. I want you, as you, as you go through the scripture, I want you to have your own prepared statements that you say, man, I want to be the kind of Jesus follower who's prepared to share the hope and healing of Jesus Christ in any minute. And I'm going to give you one last statement, one last statement that I think is going to change your life. And it's simply this. I want you to ask anyone who serves you one simple question. Is there anything going on in your life that I can pray for? The reason it's anybody who serves you is because they're already paid to pay attention to you. So anybody who serves you, ask them a very simple question. Is there anything going on in your life that I can pray for? They are required to engage with You? Yeah. Anything going on in your life I can pray for. I've been doing this for about 10 years. It's absolutely changed my life. It's changed my life so much. My kids asked strangers, is there anything going on in your life that I can pray for? The principal at our son's school called us the other day and he said, hey, your son's awesome. I said, well, you don't know him that well. Nevertheless, just kidding. He's awesome. He goes. He walked up to me and he said, hey, Mr. Thomas, anything going on in your life that I could pray for? He's like, man, it just touched me. That's a fifth grader making an impact at a school. So I believe it could happen for any one of us. I'll just give you a few. And literally, I could do this all day long. We can literally all day. I could just tell you stories. I was renting a car at National Rental Car. I said, hey, ma', am, anything going on in your life that I can pray for? Her name was Claudia. She said, pay for. No, ma', am, I already paid for the car. Okay, we're done with that part. I said, pray with a R. Pray for. She goes. And tears began to well up in her eyes. She says, I'm four and a half months pregnant and I just had three miscarriages, and I'm worried that this is going to happen again. I said, well, hey, let's pray. And I began to declare purpose over her life. I said, I think more is going to be birthed in your life than just a baby. I think a renewed spirit is going to be within you, and sometimes you just got to go there. And her co workers are looking like, who? What? What did. Didn't you just give this guy just a car to rent? Nah, we're not just renting cars today. We're living life on purpose. Wherever you go. We. Outside. I was at Cracker Barrel. Older lady. I said, hey, hey, man. Anything going on in your life I can pray for? She said, yeah, my. My son? No, her grandson. She said, my grandson has Huntington's disease and there is no cure. And I said, so you say, but I serve a God who specializes in incurable diseases. So let's pray. I was at a hotel one time. I was hungry, just wanted some pizza, ordering some Papa John's. Guy showed up with a pizza. I said, hey, man, thanks for the pizza. You got anything I can pray for? He was like, what? I said, yeah, you got anything I can pray for? You gave me pizza. I Want to give you some prayer. What you got? He said, are you serious right now? I said, yeah. Tears began to well up. He says, my brother, My brother's not doing well. I said, what's going on with your brother? He goes, I can't get into it, but he needs. He needs prayer desperately. I said, what's his name? Let's pray right now. It doesn't matter where you go. You don't need a stage to be outside. I was at Starbucks, the last one. I could do this all day. I'm having fun now. Okay, Right. So I was at Starbucks. I pull up in the drive thru, ordered my wife's very complicated order, and I keep it in a text just to read it out loud, right? So I give her that order, and her name's Katie, right? And I was like. I said, hey, Katie, you got anything I can pray for? And I don't know why, but at Starbucks, they need permission to respond. She literally walked back, look for a boss. Came back, was like, yeah, actually, happiness. She said, I would really love to be happy. And I'm just in the car, I don't know what to do. I'm like, do I go inside and give the gospel to her? Like, what do I do? Like, you know, like, did we pray for her? Do we invite her to church? And I just said, hey, Katie, my assignment today, just to pray for you. And so, Katie, I'm gonna be praying that you can have happiness. And so I went home and I just prayed for Katie and came back a week later. And I said, hey, Katie, I'm not a stalker, but I don't know if you remember me, but I prayed for you about a week ago. And then she goes, you. I went, oh, God, where is this going? What's happening? And this is what she does. She checks with her boss again. I don't know why. She goes, hey, I found God and I am happy. I don't know what happened between those Tuesdays, but something powerful happens when we just go outside and just be who he's called us to be. I was writing a sermon in that Starbucks, and the boss that she's been checking with, every time she comes out with a drink, she goes, this one's on us. I said, well, that's very nice of you, thank you. I said, why all the kindness? She goes, you've been changing our Starbucks one order at a time. She says, every time you pull up, people are like, hey, he's here, he's here. We're about to get prayer. I'm like they don't know what I do for a living. I'm just a neighborly guy that goes to their Starbucks. That's why I believe you and I can make an impact when we go outside. With every head bowed and every eye closed, I want to give each and every person an opportunity to make Jesus the Lord and Savior of their life. If you've never made that decision, it's the greatest decision you can ever make. You'll come alive like never before. You'll have purpose like never before. With every head bowed and every eye closed. Watch party room included. Online included. If you're here today, you say, hey, Ryan, I want to give my life to Jesus. Maybe you've walked away from your faith for a little bit and today's the day you come back home. October 5, 2026. Mark the date, it's showtime. If that's you today, you say, ryan, I want to give my life to the Lord. Would you just flip up your hand and say, hey, Ryan, that's me. Ryan, that's me. Every head bowed and every eye closed. I see hands all over the building. This is awesome. Anybody else? We'll wait for you. Anybody else? Hands still going up. This is amazing. I see you all the way in the back. That's amazing. Anybody else? Hey, can we all say this prayer as one big church family? Say, Jesus, thank you for dying on a cross for my sins. I ask now that you would be my Lord and Savior of my life. I surrender my past, my present and my future to you. In Jesus name we pray. Everybody said, amen. Come on. Could you make some noise for every single person that gave their heart to Christ. Best decision you've ever made.
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Come on, church. Can we show our appreciation to Ryan for that word? Ask everybody in this room.
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Watch part of your feet if you guys want to grab mine.
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Again, we're going to officially dismiss in a moment, but how many are thankful for a word that you can start applying right now? We say all the time, this line, I don't know if you catch it in social news. It says when you say yes to Jesus, you say yes to being social. And I realize when I hear a word like we just heard, why I never tell our guest speakers what to preach. I say, listen to the Holy Spirit. This word was for our house. Come on, we gotta be a church. That's outside. That's outside. Again, express your appreciation of Ryan for that word. I'm so grateful if you prayed that prayer. I wanna say welcome to the family. Welcome to the family. And if you could just do us a favor and just tap the seat in front of you and please fill out the following Jesus link Because we want to be the family that walks alongside of you. Inside is real out on the streets outside. You do need people on the inside that help you walk the journey and we want to be that for you. At the end. Our prayer team's going to be up here. If you want personal prayer, we'd love to pray with you. If you can't do any of that. If I were you, I would just keep showing up because if you keep showing up, if you keep showing up, you keep growing up. How many are blessed to be in God's house today? Amen. Social fam we'll see you next Sunday 8:30, 10:30, 12:45 but till then may the Lord bless you and keep you Cause his face to shine upon you Give you grace and peace now and forevermore. We'll see you next Sunday.