What's up? Free Church. Well, great to see you. It's good to be at God's house and good to be back after last week. And what a great weekend. We watched online and had our own little worship time with all of you from our vacation spot and we appreciate your prayers and your thoughts as we were traveling. But it's good to be back in God's house. Listen all the great things on news. I hope you pay attention to it.

It's not just something we do as a filler in service. That's really to help you know what's happening in church life. And immediately following service today, if you're interested in leading a small group, many of you have already signed up, but we are meeting with small group leaders today right after service, as we get ready to kick off another season of small groups. And we're not just a church with small groups, we are a church of small groups and it's really we believe. Small groups lead to developing greater relationships and relationships lead to discipleship, and so we want to help you take those steps through this fall season. And if you want to be a part of those small groups, maybe you have an idea to lead a group, maybe the Lord's been speaking to you about it and maybe you're not really sure what to do about that. Join us for this info and leadership session and we want to help you get plugged in and lead groups. It's going to be a great season of small groups. Well, listen, I'm ready to preach God's word. Are you ready to receive it? Today?

The year was 1993, and Urshan and I had been married just for a few weeks and I was fresh out of college with a marketing degree, thought I was going to make millions in research and development and marketing new products, and every single door that I was going through to interview would be. They were great interviews. I think I'm pretty good at interviewing. I like to answer interviewing, I like to answer questions, I like to talk, and if you've ever done an Enneagram, I'm a three, which means I like to get stuff done and I like to look good doing it, and so I was pretty good in that process. But none of those doors were opening and so I was just still working my college job. I had two jobs in college.

During the summers I worked in a factory that made Lifesavers and Bubble Yum. That was a pretty cool flex all my life. That was a lot of fun. I would go through the Bubble Yum side of the factory and grab just a big chunk of gum and take it home. The freshest gum I ever had in my life was during that time. And the other job I had was I worked in a department store. So I had that job even after I graduated and was working pretty much full-time hours. But you know, it was retail. It didn't pay a lot, especially back then. My God, my sons make more in just a few days at Chick-fil-A than I did an entire week in a department store.

But I came home one day and Roshanna was like so you know, any interview success, any job success and I was like no, it's still the department store. She said, well, you need to do something different because I don't think that's going to provide for our family. She didn't say it quite like that, but that's just how I interpreted it and so she didn't say it like that. It's just I just maybe that's what I was feeling inside, more than what she said.

And so I went out on the interview trail again and I took a job as an insurance salesman and primarily it was like it wasn't. It was kind of like it was. It was kind of like accident insurance, so like if you were to get in an accident or if you were to not be able to work. It was like extra insurance beyond, like life insurance or health insurance. And so I took this job. I thought, well, I could do this, I can sell, and so it won't be that big of a deal. And I didn't know. But it was just all cold, all cold calling, that's all it was. It was literally to walk through a neighborhood and knock on the door and try to sell insurance to people that probably either couldn't afford it anyways or didn't know they needed it or whatever it might be. But I just spent all these days. So the first week I would knock on the door and it was terrible. I had zero success and I went back in the office and I was kind of complaining. I'm like I don't know if I'm cut out for this. This whole door knocking thing. I'm not very good at it and I'll never forget the manager.

The guy that was running the office said here's the thing You're going to have to change the way you think about what you're doing, because you think you're selling something and you think it's difficult to knock on the door of somebody you don't know. But if you can change your thought process and begin to think about you have something that they need and maybe they don't know it yet. And you have something that they need and maybe they don't know it yet. And you have a product that you're offering you're not trying to sell it to them, you're trying to provide something for them, a service to them. And then if you can get past the thought of, hey, it's really hard to knock on doors and just start saying, like I'm really good at knocking doors, I can.

I really enjoy meeting new people. I enjoy the challenge of like seeing if they'll open the first of all and then seeing if they'll let me in. And, by the way, a little trick is, if you introduce yourself, say why you're here and point down, when they look back at what you're pointing at, they step back and you can just step right in. So if a salesman knocks on your door and points down, don't move, just a little inside, help there. But I realized it was my whole thought process changed after that meeting and when I went back out I realized the idea was, if I knocked a certain amount of doors, a certain amount of doors were going to open. A certain amount of those open doors would be appointments and a certain amount of those appointments would be sales. And I changed the way I thought about it and that changed the outcome entirely. It's the year I learned if you change the way you think your thinking, can be the key to victory. So why don't you turn to your neighbor and just say, if I can think like Jesus? And to the one you just ignored all service, say I can be like Jesus.

So we began this series Like Jesus a couple of weeks ago. Last week, pastor Robbie was with us. What a powerful message. I'm leading right, leading like Jesus. I'm leading right, leading like Jesus. We were amening and clapping our hands in the living room as we watched service and such a powerful word. I love Pastor Robbie, I love his heart to lead. He's a great leader, he's a great preacher and, as one of the communicators of this house, he is a great asset and a blessing to this house. Amen, church. By the way, you don't have to like Michigan football just because he comes and preaches, but it'll help.

So we talked a little bit about this idea of being like Jesus and we began this series with thinking like Jesus and we gave you just a few passages of scripture as keys and I did not finish that message before I left and I wanted to come back and finish it. There's ten things that I think, if you can think like Jesus, it will transform your life in these ten areas and I'm going to try to get through a few more today. I really don't feel like I'll get through all of them and we'll come back and close out this Think Like Jesus part of this series next week. And then, as you heard on news, there's student takeover coming for all of our students. We're going to pray for every student, every child, every junior, high, high school student, college student. If you're an adult and you're going back to school, we're going to pray over you. If you're a teacher, faculty member, you work on campus, we're going to pray for you. It's going to be a powerful service. So you want to mark that on your calendar in two weeks not to miss that service. And then we'll have a small group Sunday coming up so powerful time in the season, but if you'll remember the passage of scripture that we gave you, we'll pull it up. This idea, the first things we gave you last week, let's do this. Let's do this. Thank you for pulling that up. Let's do the things we gave you two weeks ago.

If I think like Jesus, I know my true identity. Like you, don't have to question your identity when you begin to think like Jesus, because you know who you were created to be, why you're created to be here, and you understand that you are who God says you are. Then we talked about if I think like Jesus, I will know God's purpose for my life. Jesus came with one purpose in mind. It was to seek and to save that which was lost. He came to give his life as a ransom for many. He knew God's purpose and if you'll get to think like Jesus, you'll know the purpose God has for your life. And then the third thing I'm always aware that God is with me. You'll realize when you think like Jesus, you'll realize you're never alone. And if you'll spend time away with God, you'll realize God is always speaking to you, he's always with you and you're never by yourself.

So look at what the scripture says about thinking in this passage. This is why it's so important for us to get this into our mind so we can renew our thoughts. Watch this Isaiah writes who has known the mind of the Lord? Who has been able to give the Lord advice? Who has known the mind of the Lord? We can't, we can't possibly get to a level where we can think like God. God says my ways are higher than your ways. My thoughts are higher than your thoughts. So how do we get there? Well, look at Paul, says Paul, says. He quotes Isaiah. He says who can know the Lord's thoughts? Who knows enough to teach them? Watch this. But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ. So when you're saved, you actually can be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you have the mind of Christ, you literally can think like Jesus because you have the mind of Jesus. When you're saved and you have to transform your mindset the way you used to think, you can't think like that anymore.

I heard in our team rally this morning. I had to step out and take a call and when I took that call I could hear Julian lead in the final chant. But before he did, he said everybody do this with me. I'm alive, I'm awake and I feel great. It's a phrase that I've been screaming over our kids since they were little and I would make them say it. If they got up whining and complaining about being tired or they didn't want to go to school, I'd be like, get ready for it. Here it comes. And they'd be like, oh, they roll their eyes. But we understand that if we can change the way I think, I can speak my way into something. If I can think it, I can speak it and I can be it. And so Julian led them in that I think it's so powerful. We literally can transform our mind with the mind of Christ by thinking these thoughts. Let's lean in, let's lean in you. Ready, number four.

When I think, like Jesus, I let God help me choose my words. It's a game changer. This is a game changer. Look at John 12, 49. This is a game changer. Look at John 12, 49. This is what Jesus says. I don't speak on my own authority. The Father who sent me has commanded me. Look at this what to say and how to say it. It would be a game changer for you if you would start your day off by spending a few moments with your heavenly father and to pray.

Lord, why don't you tell me what to say and how to say it today? I told you I start that whole deal of saying I'm alive, I'm awake and I feel great. I say that over and over again in the morning just so I can kind of wake myself up and get myself going. And then the other power of positive thoughts that I speak into his instance. I say today I will meet the right people, I will say the right things, I will influence people towards the gospel of Jesus Christ, I will lead my family well, I will make better decisions. Today I speak those things over. And when you ask God, what should I speak today and how should I say it? It will change your world. And let me just say this let every word that proceeds from my mouth be a testimony today. Let it exhort, let it encourage, let it elevate someone's life, let it build his church and let it be for the glory of the Lord.

How different would it be if we allowed all of our words to bring glory to the kingdom of God, instead of tearing things down, tearing people down. Be life-giving in our speech and to speak the truth. By the way, just because you're speaking the truth doesn't mean you can be mean about it. Oh, the truth hurts. Well, it doesn't have to. You can speak the truth in love and a lot of times we sometimes get the idea of when we speak the truth, it means we have a superior idea or a superior motive, or we're better than everybody else. That is not it. We humble ourselves and come before you with the truth of God's word Because it's going to make your life better. So when you think like Jesus, you say God can help me with my words, god help me choose my words.

The next one is this when I think like Jesus, I don't seek the approval of others. I don't seek the approval of others. I'm going to tell you, a lot of the problems we face in our own lives is because we're living for the wrong audience. We like the comments and the likes and the emoji cons, we like the thumbs up, we like all the followers, we like all the trends. We post a picture of ourselves so people will tell us how good we look. And the thing is we're living for the wrong audience. What separated Jesus from others? He understood the audience he was living for, and it was not the people around him. He came to seek and to save that which was lost, but his audience was his heavenly father.

Look at Luke 16 and 13, it says no one can serve two masters. Now, traditionally people take this and and they use it in terms of the pursuit of money, and that's a valid point. But you put anything on the same level of God and it becomes an idol. There is no other God besides our God. I'm reading right now in scriptures, in my daily reading through the book of. I've been in Isaiah and I'm in Jeremiah and, and it's incredible to me how often God's people walked away from the Word of God and began to build their own idols. And God, over and over again in Scripture, says look at, I don't. You're building things with your own hands and you worship them like they care so. So Jesus says this no one can serve two masters. You hate the one and love the other, or you'll be devoted one and despise the other. And he does say you cannot serve both God and money.

But insert anything there, not just finances, it can be anything. Anything you elevate to God's love or beyond Becomes an idol in your life, and whether that's affirmation, whether that's the accolades of people around you, the applause that you get when you make those posts, whatever it might be, anything you elevate, it could be your job, it could be your friends, it could be your relationship, it could be your hobbies. It could be your friends, it could be your relationship, it could be your hobbies. It could be anything. Anything that gets in the way of the one true God becomes an idol. And if you'll start to think like Jesus, you'll realize nothing compares with God. And I know it's easy to say, but we don't live it. We don't live it as easy as we say it.

I thought about this. If you and I wrote this down, if you live for others' approval, you'll die by their rejection. How many times do we find ourselves getting in trouble because we just want somebody? The Jonas Brothers wrote a song a few years ago and it just says this I want somebody who loves me. And so many times we make so many decisions about that just will you like me? Maybe if I do this you'll like me. Maybe if I wear this you'll like me. Maybe if I try this you'll like me.

Listen, you only have to live for the audience of one. If you try to please all people, you'll end up pleasing no one. Jesus says this in John, chapter 5, verse 41. Your approval means nothing to me. No wonder you can't believe for you gladly honor each other, but you don't care about the honor that comes from the one who alone is God. Jesus is like listen, I'm not living for your approval, I'm not living for you to pat me on the back. I am living for the audience of one. The only affirmation I need is the affirmation that comes from God. The only accolades I want are the accolades that come from God, because, listen, if God rewards it, man does not have to. So we have to live for the audience of one. When I think like Jesus, I don't seek the approval from others. And then another one. Let's do another one. If I live like, when I think like Jesus, number six, I depend on God's power. Amen.

Now, jesus, we told you in the series before this Jesus is 100% man and he's 100% God. John 1, 1,. He was God in the beginning. He was the word. The word was with us and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. He's 100% God, 100% man, and even though he's 100% God, he still has to depend on God's power. All the things he did, he did by God's power. John 5, 19.

Then Jesus answered and said to them most assuredly, I say unto you the son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the father do, for whatever he does, the Son also does in like manner. Jesus is like I can do nothing on my own power. There's nothing I can do on my own. I've seen the Father do it and I trust in his power. So I have to ask you today are you tired? Are you lacking joy? Do you currently hate people? I mean, are you living on edge? Listen, I just was on 10 days of vacation. I love everybody, I love all of you, but the reality is, if you're tired, you're worn out, you're lacking joy. People get on your nerves. It's probably because you're trying to do everything on your own power.

And if you can think like Jesus, then you can depend on God's power to sustain you through everything, to take you even to the toughest moments of your life. God's power is able. God's power is able to provide and to sustain you and to lift you up. I mean, we used to sing the song he's got the whole world in his hands and, as powerful as that is, he still cares enough about you to hold you right where you need to be. He still cares enough about you to hold you right where you need to be so we stop living by our own strength and start depending on God. Let's do one more.

When I think like Jesus, I forgive my enemies and this is one of the areas that distinguishes a Christ follower from all others is the ability to forgive, even in the very worst of situations. Jesus, as he's going to the cross, as he's facing death and defeat, jesus forgives. In Luke 23 and 34, I think we got the wrong scripture up there. You can pull that one off the screen. Luke 23, 34 says this. Jesus said Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing. He's on the cross, people. He's already gone through the trial. He's been spit on, he's been beat up, he's been whipped 39 times, he's been ridiculed. Even his own closest followers have left him. Then he's on the cross. They're gambling for his clothes, they're giving him vinegar to drink. All of these things are happening. In his first words on the cross Father, forgive them.

We need to think like Jesus so we can forgive like Jesus, not because people have earned it, not because people have deserved it, but because he forgave us of so much, we can forgive others as well. Listen, you didn't earn it and you don't deserve it and he still forgave you. And if we can think like Jesus, we can look at the people who are hurting us the most and say I forgive you. Look what Jesus says in Matthew 5, 44. He says this but I say to you love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. Look if you've got a Bible with you or if you're taking a picture with your phone. These are the verbs you need to circle Love, bless, do good, pray. You want to change your world, learn how to think like Jesus and do these four things to the people that hurt you the most.

I always know where I stand on the journey of forgiving the people who have been rude and hurtful to me by how I feel when I see them or hear from them. It's like I have a bad thought. When I see somebody, I'm like, oh, maybe I've not forgiven them the way I should. Maybe I need to make Lord, holy Spirit, maybe you need to help me forgive them more, because I just had a feeling of like er, can you believe it stirs it up? If it stirs it up, I know I've not forgiven them. Yet, and I'm not saying you can't have that stirred up feeling, because we're human and it's our nature. The Bible says be angry and sin not.

So when I feel that, err, instead of talking about that person, I need to step back and say Holy Spirit, I really thought I handled this back here, but please help me to forgive them. In fact, I'm going to release right now Whatever power they had over me, whatever control has been placed on my mind to think that way. I release that in the name of Jesus and listen when I begin to think like Jesus, I can look at the people who are putting me on the cross and say Father, forgive them. Father, forgive them. Father, forgive them because, honestly, me holding on to it is gonna. They don't even know. They just walked past and they're living their best life and you're over there steaming and like reek, like you literally like crumbled up the water bottle you were carrying and you're like, ah, and they don't even know, and if they don't know about it, then just let it go.

It's a higher standard that he calls us to. He's like I don't just want you to say I forgive you, I release you, I'm sorry. He's like no, don't just forgive them, love them. Don't just forgive them, bless them. And it's not one of those oh bless God If I see that person again. It's not one of those oh bless God, if I see that person again, it's bless them. It's not just forgive them, it's love them, it's bless them. It's do good, do something good, boy, that will test you, that will test you, and then pray for them. And I always feel like, if I begin to really sincerely pray for the people that have wronged me, I suddenly don't have those same feelings that I had a few minutes ago, because the reality is they're just as human as I am and that's what people do. And the reality is hurt people hurt people. So I can't hold a standard over someone else that I'm not willing to hold myself to. So if I can forgive them, I can move on. Who knows what's on the other side, what's on the other side of me forgiving somebody? Let's close there.

I think it's so powerful for us to get into this process of transformed and renewed minds and I wanna just lean into this for a minute because it's something that I say a lot around here and so sometimes, if I say it a lot, you might think it doesn't carry as much weight, but it actually is. I say it a lot because I want it to be in your spirit that the reason why it's so powerful for us to think like Jesus is because everything begins with a thought. Everything, everything begins with a thought. Everything, every situation you get yourself into, began with a thought, because the choices you make are yours and the results are the world that you live in. And so what I always say and I've said this to my boys or Sean and I have rehearsed this in our life is that everything begins with a thought.

And if you sow a thought, you'll reap a word. And if you sow that word, you'll reap an action. And when you sow that action over and over again, you'll reap a habit. And when you sow that habit over and over again, you'll reap a habit. And when you sow that habit over and over again, you'll reap a character. And when you sow that character, you'll reap your destiny. And it all began with a thought. So if we can transform our mind, we transform our lives. If we transform our mind, we find the destiny God has for our life.

If we get into the process of thinking like Jesus, we arrive at the destination God had planned and ordained for us from the very beginning. It's that powerful church, and so I want to just challenge you this week Get into these notes, live out these scriptures, like really begin your day, lord. Help me know what to say and how to say it. Begin your day, god. I'm gonna depend on you, my life depends on me, depending on you. And then, god, I am going to forgive those people in my life the way you forgave everyone who put you on that cross. I'm gonna forgive you, the people, the way God forgave me of my sins. And when we begin to think that way, we speak that into existence, we put it into action, it becomes a habit of our lives, it sows the character that we wanna live by and it sends us to the destiny God has ordained for our life. Can you receive that word today?