All right. So, as he said, If you don't know me, I'm Josh Warner. I was associate pastor here under brother Carl. I learned a lot about loving people from Brother Carl and so, and then a lot about loving people from you guys. And so you guys have been a blessing to me and my family, whether you know it or not, you've been a blessing to us over the years, and we're thankful for that. You guys helped us out a little when we were in Boston. I'll tell you a little bit about that in a second, but we're grateful, so grateful to be here, so grateful for y'all prayers. I know that some of you guys say that you haven't stopped praying for us since we left, and it has been an awesome ride. It's been some ups and down. There's been some. It's like we're on a roller coaster right now, but we're enjoying life. We're enjoying what God is doing in and through us. And yes, there are parts of West Memphis. We're in Marion, Arkansas, is where we live, and I serve as a Bible teacher, campus pastor and a football coach. Bless me. I'm trying as a football coach at West Memphis Christian school. It is. It has been a blessing. It really has Yes, we get the chance to be a light in a dark community, a community that I would not have ever set. I would have never headed in that direction from here, had God not taking us up to Wakefield, Massachusetts first. And so God has got plans, and sometimes his plans are not our plans. Are they? Well, I mean, oftentimes His ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. But every time we look back, we see that God had something good in store. And every every time we look back, we see that God is working in us to shape us to He wants us to be. The problem we have sometimes is that we fight against that, don't we? Okay, God's trying to do a work in us, and then we start fighting against that. Because we think sometimes I'm not going to speak for y'all. I think sometimes that I know better than God, right? And so, but all all that to be said, God has been doing an amazing work. God has been growing us in grace, and that's what we're going to talk about today. Is how we're supposed to respond to growing in God's grace. If you have your Bibles, turn with me to Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four, as I just talked about, there have been many transitions in my life from a fire department. You guys know some of my story that I was a firefighter. I got saved at the fire department. Then I was a coach and teacher at Hillcrest Christian schools. God led me there to teach different subjects, and mainly for me, it was to preach the gospel there in that community. And then God led me here to serve underneath brother Carl and to help his ministry here, and to grow actually here in my faith and grow in my ministerial gifts and my preaching gift and things like that. And so he spent I had a transition that took place there. Also had a transition when I left there to I bit off something great, which was pastoring a church. God used that time at Raymond Road Baptist Church. It's where he called us from here to Raymond row Baptist Church to serve as a senior pastor, which I never really looked forward to doing when I was first getting into ministry, I thought I was just going to go around and preach, but God used us there for about three years, and so that transition was difficult for me, but during that time that I was there, God began to kind of stir our hearts. I'm sitting behind a desk, and I'm looking out the window and I'm seeing people walking up and down the roads, and I'm preparing a sermon for Sunday morning, right? Because the people need to be equipped for the work of ministry. I'm pounding the pulpit saying, hey, you need to go and to be involved in ministry. Yet what was burning desire of my heart is for me to be out there doing that. And so halfway through that time, God began to stir our hearts again. The people were awesome, right? The people loved us greatly. We loved them greatly. Raymond wrote, is amazing church, amazing people, but God was doing work in me. And I just had to go during that time through COVID, I was like, Are you? Are you calling me away from this situation? And so sitting there on the steps of Raymond row Baptist church praying one day. It was like, on a Monday or something like that, I'm in there and I'm praying. I got a clear vision. It wasn't anything weird, right? But it was a clear vision of me loading trucks. I don't tell many people that, because I don't want to think I'm crazy, but I was like, Look, I'm going to go back into the workforce, and I'm going to rub shoulders with some of the same people that I'm longing to tell Jesus. Tell Jesus to tell my story to and so that began a process that led us, it's a long story for a different day, maybe I get a chance to come back, if y'all don't stone me here. But that led us up to Boston, Massachusetts, right outside of Boston, Massachusetts, Wakefield, Massachusetts, where we just kind of explored this being missionaries, first thing I did was went and got me a job at FedEx loading trucks. I started off that job as a package handler, right? Package handler is a simple it's the job description, load the trucks, right, scan the box, put it on the truck. That's what my job description was. Yes, but it was a very chaotic, very toxic, very physically taxing job that most people don't want to be in. And so we come in at night. I would go and I would clock in, I would grab me a scanner, and I would out there, and I start stretching. They stretch us. The managers would take us through this cheesy pre sort meeting talking about making everything safe. We need to be safe. When we're out there on the dock, we pump us up. And he'd say, go out there and make a difference, and all that sort of thing. And so we walk up there on the dock, and we begin to load the trucks. What starts off, all nice and everything. It's an easy, simple process. As I said, you're seeing you hear the sword starts. It starts. Box starts moving down the belt. I come and I scan the box, and I walk it through the truck, scan the truck, put it up on the shelf, and I head back. Well, about 30 seconds later, it's a sea of boxes coming down the belt, and it never stops. And matter of fact, it seems as if it gets faster and faster and faster. Boxes are falling off the belt. It's not a safe environment at all. People are getting pinned up against trucks. I'm getting walled in. I'm like, Man, I better do something. I survival of the fittest out here. It was a very caustic, very toxic environment. The people acted as if they didn't care about you at all. And we're screaming, help us. You got to stop this belt. But the unload is we got to make production. We got to make production. And so the package handling position is not something that's glorified. You're living in that, but you end up getting very, very good at that. I was like, I'm boing up. I'm getting this done. I'm a physical dude. I'm going to take care of this. And so I start loading this trucks as fast as I can. I clean my area up, and I get really, really good at doing that job. The problem with that is it's going to come back, and it's that's part of who I am, that's part of my comfort zone, that's part of what I'm used to doing on a daily basis, and it's going to cost me in the future. And so as I'm loading those trucks, I get so good at it, the management team comes up and they say, Hey, do you want to be part of management here? And I said, when, where do I sign up? Why? Because every single night I'm under the stress of this, I'm getting cussed out by Mary. I'm getting cussed out this lady. I'll tell you about her later. I'm getting cussed out by people. It's just a toxic environment. So whenever this awesome Pearl of Great Price shows up, they're like, Hey, take it. I said I'm in. Signed up. They put me in this program called breaking ground. Anybody been fed ex here? And they teach me how to be a man of manager. So I'm looking at, I'm looking at the job description the guys teaching us from this PowerPoint presentation, and I'm looking at the roles and the responsibilities of a manager. And I'm sitting there going, Man, I'm really good at package handling, and I don't see any of that here. What I'm actually seeing is something a little bit more, you know, more hats that I'm going to be wearing, more responsibilities, more roles that I'm going to be taking on that I'm not used to, but it seems exciting. And so I have a little FedEx notebook that they gave me. I had my job description, and I was fired up. Listen, positionally, I'm a manager, dude. I've got the pay, I've got the benefits. I'm ready to rock and roll. And so I get out there and I'm like, let's go through our pre sort meeting. I'm like, I got my buddies sitting out there with me. I was like, Hey, we are going to make every FedEx experience outstanding. I'm saying all the right stuff. I'm doing all the right things. I've got the management scanner, not the package handler scanner. I'm not even supposed to have that thing on. And I'm walking up and down the docks. And I said, let's get going, guys. And so I'm like, Hey, you want to pick these boxes up. Hey, you want to put these on your truck? And I'm walking down, I'm like, Hey, you got to pick those boxes up. The same thing that I'm used to doing. And I would clean that thing up. Man, I would have that on my truck. I'm not piling those boxes all around me. And so what ends up happening is I switch gears from manager to package handler. I start picking these boxes up. I start going to the truck. You got to put them on the truck. Corrine, you can't just leave them out here. Just leave them out here, because you're going to get pinned up. It's going to be a bad situation. Somebody sees me helping. I pick up my clipboard. I go back to management stuff. I see somebody working over here. Can you help me? Josh, can you help me? Yeah, I got you roll my sleeves up. That's the kind of person I am. And so I put those things on the truck. Well, the next thing you know is, like, it's just easier. It's getting real messy out here. Let me grab me a scanner and do what I do best. And so I'm rolling up and down that dock, and I'm keeping my area clean. Before long, I've got this manager coming up to me at the end of the sort who hasn't seen this process, and he's like, Josh, you're doing an excellent job. You are keeping your belt clean. I'm like, thank you very much. I'm a heck of a manager. It took somebody coming to me in the middle of a sort a guy, I'm gonna be honest, I really didn't like I didn't like him because he seemed to me lazy. He wasn't out there doing the physical labor. He was doing all the manager stuff, all the all the paperwork, and he was one of those people I felt like didn't care about all the other people. He's a good guy. I'm glad he came up to me that night, but he walked up to me, he got on the dock, and he said, I'm in the middle of the heat of the sort man, and I'm throwing boxes and I'm cleaning my area up, and this girl is just standing there crying because of how difficult her job is, and I'm doing her work for and he comes up to me, he says, Can I offer you suggestions? And I said, What? And I wasn't very Christian, like, I said, Dude, what? It's in the middle of sort what? He said, You're a package handler. I mean, you're acting like a package handler. He said, You're a manager. He says, If you you're not doing them any favors by continuing to do their jobs for them. He says, You're not doing them any favors at all. You're actually hindering their progress in doing what they're supposed to do, hindering their career, if they're trying to make a career out of this. And he says, and you're actually hindering your progress as a manager, because you're never transitioning into this role and actually learning what managers actually do. And I said, Get off my dock. Like, how about you go to your belt and do your Oh, that's right. You're not on a belt. Go back to the office. I had some kind words, and by the way, I was a missionary up there, so I failed a lot at the end of the sword. I had to think about things, and I said, Look, Manny, was his name. He was right. I had to go up to him, and I had to apologize to him. I said, you know, Manny, I'm very sorry. You know why? Because you're absolutely right. FedEx pays me to be a manager. FedEx expectation and calling for me is way different than a package handler role, and I'm continuing every single night to go in here, get a scanner and be a package handler. But that's what I signed up to leave, ain't it? And the management position is what I signed up to embrace. That's what I signed up to live. And in the same way, as we're called out of darkness into the kingdom of His Son, as we give our lives to Jesus, we put our faith and trust in Him, He transfers us from the kingdom of what darkness into the kingdom of His Son. Positionally, that's where we are, and we're living our lives here in this toxic and taxing environment. We're struggling greatly and being pulled in every direction. But God calls us, and he says, you've got a life that you gotta leave, and you've got a life that you have to live. Ephesians, chapter four, briefly this morning, Ephesians, chapter four, it says, Now this, I say, verse 17, now this, I say, and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of heart, they have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy, to practice every kind of impurity. But this is not the way you learned Christ, assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus. Put off to put off your old self. There it is which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. As believers, each and every one of us in here who have given our lives to Jesus. We have a life. Paul says that we have to leave. We have a life that we have to leave. Paul knew these believers very well. Let me say this. Jesus says it this way, and you guys all know this. He says, If anyone would come after me, what does he say? Let him deny himself. Let him take up his cross. Well, that's the death part. He says, if you're coming after me, if you want to be everything that God has called you and set you apart to be, there's a process that has to take place. First and foremost, you put your faith and trust in Jesus, but if you want to be who he's created you and called you to be, you got to come away from that old life. You can't live in darkness anymore. And this is what Paul is saying, because Paul knows these believers well. He led many of them to Jesus. If you go back to Acts, chapter 19, Acts, chapter 20, you see that Paul spent a lot of time in Ephesus. He led many of them to Christ who were following John the Baptist. I think it was 12, as it talks about there. He says, Have you heard about the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Have you heard about the baptism of Jesus, and they end up getting saved. They end up following Christ, and end up being a church there. And as time goes on, they begin to confess publicly their sin, don't they? They repent publicly. He was there when that took place. He was there when they became new creatures in Christ, Jesus, he says, These are believers, but he also knew the culture that they were living in was a toxic environment. The culture that they were living in was caustic. The culture that they were living in would constantly pull on them and cause them to be tempted to conform back into the ways of the world, rather than being conformed into the image of Christ, which is what we're called to. He says, These people watch they don't know God. These people are separated from God. They're alienated from God. Paul spent a lot of time as a missionary, didn't he? Paul saw what the Roman world was like. Paul saw the sexual immorality. Paul saw the paganism. Paul saw the idolatry. Paul saw all of these things. He says, Even these people in Ephesus that pride themselves on being good at business, successful in life, isn't that what grabs our attention? You flipping the channels, and you look on the news of that guy's really successful. I want to be like that person. And you start buying their books and start taking their philosophy and taking their mindsets, right? You take it in. You're like, I want to be like this guy, right? Right? He says he knew these people thought that they were successful in business. They prided themselves on being intelligent. Anybody follow intelligent people on TV, and you try to take that into your life, and you take that into your mind, and it begins to kind of conform you to those ways. Paul knew that they were like that. Paul knew that they were religious, as they had all of these gods and goddesses that they would follow. But he says they can be successful in life, successful in business, successful in all this, and call themselves religious and still be wrong. And he says, in a matter of fact, they are the culture that you're living in. Church in Ephesus, it's caustic, it's taxing on your soul, and it's toxic to your lifestyle, and it says this is what you actually wanted freedom from, right? It's like me as a package handler, right? I was sitting there every night, every single day that I came in. I'm not gonna be I'm not I like working out, right? I love it. I actually enjoyed going in there and taking the boxes and losing the weight and being lean and all that sort of thing. But every night, feeling as if I was not cared for, feeling as if I'm having to do other people's jobs for them. I was like, please give me a way out of this. I was praying, God, let there be a management position open up for me. And guess what? This guy comes up and he says, you want this? I said, Man, I want those benefits. I want better for my family. I want better for my life. I want those better benefits and better pay. Bring it on. And I signed up to leave that life. And it took Manny reminding me, didn't you want to get out of that? That's not who you are anymore. So come away from that. Paul is doing the same thing here. He's saying to this church, he says, You were called out of darkness. Go back to chapter two. Didn't it say that in chapter two? Go back to chapter two in Ephesians, he says, You were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the ways of the world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now alive, and the sons of disobedience. And he says, and by nature, your objects of God's wrath. That's who you were before Jesus's Grace came to your life. Right? Just like each and every one of us, walking in darkness, habits, hang ups, hurts caused by our rebellious heart separated from God, we're religious. We're talking God stuff. We're Hey, we pray, we say our prayers, we say our blessing, we do all those things, but living life completely wrong because we don't know Jesus until God's grace shows up in our lives. He says, That's the life that you're in the middle of. And he knew their carnality, their propensity to sin, and he knew that that would sway them, and there's going to be a temptation for them to go back in those old ways, he says. But you were once darkness, but that's not who you are anymore. Now you're light. Chapter Five, you once were children of darkness. You once following the ways this world and destined for wrath, going nowhere with your life. But now you're children of light, and we're here to speak Jesus to people, right? So don't go back there. See, it's a difference between what we just sing about speaking Jesus, right? We talked we're going to tell of his story. We're going to tell of Jesus. But we know this, that we don't just tell of Jesus by the songs we sing. We don't just tell of Jesus by the preaching that we're doing right now. I can sound really preachy right now and sound really good. We don't just do that. We tell of Jesus by our lives. Amen. People believe what they see now. They gotta hear about it, but they believe what they see. And so we can't continue to walk in darkness. Actually go back to First John. He reminds us that this is not gonna happen in us if God's grace is with us, because he's going to constantly pull us back to himself and helps us stand. I was listening that this morning the reason that I'm standing is Jason crab stands in front of me right when the reason that I'm standing stands in front of me. He says, like, basically, I'm going to give him praise whenever I see Jesus face to face one day. Why? Because it's not his own strength that he's going to stand. We constantly need Him to help us out of this darkness. We have a propensity week to go back to that darkness. We have a we constantly are pulled in that direction. And guys, as Paul says, There is nothing good that dwells in us that is in our flesh, right? And come on, let's let's be real here, as religious as we get, as churchy as we get, as those good words that we use, and, you know, we will pray for your brother, all those things. And we're just, you know, trying to be God's children. Don't we struggle sometimes with falling back into our old ways. If you ain't doing it publicly, you're doing it in here, aren't you? You're doing it in here, aren't you. We all have the. This ability to fall back into our old way of life. But let me tell you what Paul is telling you today. That's not who you are. That's not I'm saying, Hey, that's not who you're going to be if you keep trying really hard. He goes, No, that's not who you are. Go back to Ephesians chapter one. He says, You got a life. You got to leave, but you've got a life to live. You know why? Because if any man is in Christ, he is a what new creation, the old will go. No, the old is gone, and the new has come. Ephesians, chapter one, and he goes back, and he says this, look. He says, That's not who you are. You were adopted. You were chosen by God in Christ, you were bought by the blood of Jesus. Amen, in Him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. You were united with Christ, bound with him, made alive with Him, and seated him with Him in the heavenly places. And you were sealed and marked by the grace of God, by the Spirit of God given to you when you repented and put your trust in Jesus. And you became children of God. That's who you are. That's who you are. Now, he says you gotta live that life. Jesus says it this way, If any man would come after me, he's gotta deny himself, take up his cross and then do what you gotta follow me. Paul says, you know Jesus not just know about him. You didn't just go to church and learn all these things about him. He says, you know Jesus, that's who you are. It's up to you're not doing them any good by walking in darkness. You've got to come out of darkness. You've got to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and start living the life that he's called for you and set you apart to live. Ephesians, two, once again, doesn't he say that dead in your trespasses and sins on the way to destruction, living a you know purpose. You have no purpose in life when you're walking apart from God. But God brought you back to your purpose to glorify Him. He made you alive with Christ, and he set you apart as his artwork, his masterpiece, created in Christ, Jesus for good works, which he prepared in advance for you to do that you may walk in them. And so he says, You got a life to leave, and you got a life that you need to what live. In other words, positionally, that's who we are, children of God, children of light. Positionally, he's done something in us, gave us a new heart, gave us a new spirit, and he's made us new creatures in Christ, Jesus, and he says, now it's time to believe that and to walk in that, because that's who you are. Imagine this. You're driving down Highway 18. You see a guy walking down the road, and he's got some pants on that's got some green and white stripes on them. He's got a green and white shirt on. And on the back of it, it says, like Hinds County Correctional Facility, right? I think that's what it's called. Still, it's been a while since I've been there. Just kidding, Mama, what are you going to think you see that man walking down the road? That woman walking woman walking down the road with those clothes on. What are you going to think, hey, somebody needs to come get this convict and put them back where they're supposed to be in bondage, right? They're supposed to be in chains. They're supposed to be locked down, locked up. They still got those clothes on. It gives the wrong perception, doesn't it? Who are these people? These there's a convict missing. They're not going to say, hey, there's a free guy missing who found some clothes and put them on. Can y'all come figure out who he belongs to? They're going to say the opposite. Because of the clothes that they're wearing. It would make zero sense to walk with your orange jumpsuit to the front of that place, get your pardon papers. You're released. You're free, and to say, can I just keep the jumpsuit on? No sin, let me. Let me, let me give you one better than that. John, chapter 11, Jesus going to Bethany because Lazarus is sick. Lazarus dies. Mary and Martha are upset. And he says, this death is not going to result in death. This is not going to result in death. It's going to result in the glory of God. And he says, I am the resurrection and life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? And then he goes to the tomb, and he says, move that stone away. He looks at Lazarus in there. Lazarus is dead by this time, he what stinketh If you're a King James, he says, Lazarus, come out. Life enters his lungs. Life, at the command of your savior, enters his heart. His heart begins to pump. He's breathing again. His muscles begin to fire. He gets up. Brain activity is going on, and he starts walking out of the tomb, and he walks straight towards Jesus, which is the right way to walk. Amen. Come on. He walks towards Jesus. He comes out, and everybody's like, Oh no, oh, wow. This is amazing. He says, hold up. I see a problem here. He says, unbind him. What do you mean? He's got grave clothes. Clothes still on. That man is living. There ain't no need for grave clothes. Amen, that man's alive. Take that stuff off of him, because this man is alive. Guys, when we go back to that old way of life that we're so easily tempted to go into that we oftentimes go into, it's like we're putting on grave clothes again. It's like we're putting on shackles. We're putting on chains again when God has set us free to live a life to glorify Him, when we put those grave clothes on, that's not glorifying to him. You know what God calls us to in Second Peter, or First Peter, chapter two, Peter is saying the same thing that Paul is preaching. Y'all know they got the same message, right? Somebody try to tell me, Peter's got something different for the Jews and Paul's got something different for the Gentiles. I'm saying read your Bible. Please read your Bible, not just this little section here and this little section here. Read the whole thing. It's the same message. It's the gospel of grace, the same grace that Paul's preaching to the Gentiles and to the Jews, by the way, because he's going into the synagogues, and he's reasoning with all of these Jewish people and God fearing Gentiles, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, who paid for their sins, who died on the cross, who rose from the grave to give them this life, and people embraced it, and people were redeemed, and people repented and people were saved. Peter says, the same message. And he says, Guys, you're living in darkness too. He says, But let me tell you this. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a people set apart for His own possession. Did y'all hear that you're a people set apart for His own possession? Why that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you and me out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people, right? You've been set free, you've been redeemed, you've received mercy from God. Now, how the other people gonna learn about God's mercy? How are the other people going to learn about his transforming power in our lives? If we continually take that freedom and go right back into the jail cell, and we continually take that freedom and go right back into the shadows and into the darkness and put on that darkness, how are they going to see the light if we're not living in the light? Does that make sense? Man, you're a chosen race, a royal priesthood, set apart. You're His redeemed, adopted, set free in Christ, Jesus, he says you're a new creation. Now go believe this message, stand on this message and live it. If I'm not mistaken, didn't brother Carl say that when y'all built the sanctuary, and y'all put this pulpit here. What's underneath this a Bible. I'm standing on a Bible right now, and it's not because that's got some kind of magical power. I remember when he said that, I was like, you know, alright, be careful. It's not the act of I planted this Bible here underneath this thing, right? That didn't do anything. But what it is is a symbolic gesture of this pulpit is going to preach the Word of God, which is able to save our souls. Amen, this church has gathered here today. I'm hoping that you came here today for a message of hope, that you came here today for this light in your life, so that you can learn to live with your sinful self, to embrace his word by His grace, and to walk this freedom out only by his help and only through his hand and only by his word. It's the only way is God's way. I've tried it the other way. I've tried to live it my own way many times. I tried to be good my own way many times. And you know what I've learned in the last three years is that I'm a sinful human being and struggle greatly with this whole thing called the Christian walk. I live in a toxic world, a taxing world, and all I've seen is that more and more, the more I try to serve God. Watch this without his help, complete dependence on him is where we start seeing the fruit Amen, complete surrender, not I got control in God. Let me get a little bit of your word here to help me know, standing on the promises of God, receiving them into my life, putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, and saying, God, you gotta help me with this. And he says, All right, all I need you to do is die to self. That's what I need you to do, is stop doing you and start trusting in me with all of your heart and lean not on your own in all of your ways, acknowledge Him and He will what direct your paths. So we've got a life that we have to leave because he's taken you out of that life. We've got a life that we have to live because that's the freedom that he gave you to live that life. He has set you free so that you can serve the living God who loves you and who sent His Son to die on the cross and pay for your sins. He says, So, live it. That sounds good for. Future. Live this way. Don't live this way. How do I do that? Well, I'll give you the simple man's version of what I had to do as we sum this up, every morning that I got up as a FedEx manager, I'm headed to work. I had to tell myself this, you know how much. And I really did enjoy cleaning my belt up. I really enjoyed it was a challenge to me. I really enjoyed sometimes going back to that old way. I'm not gonna lie, it gave me some glory. You know, it was a good workout. When I get there, there's gonna be a temptation for me to go back to that old way. I know this is happening on my way to work. I am a manager. It's gonna happen. I had to remember, remember that word, remember I'm a manager. As I'm heading to work, get to work, and I see all the stuff in front of me. It's like, them cookies that you put on the table, right? It's right. I'm like, Man, this is what I'm better at. This is what I need to do. That's gonna happen. I need to remember I'm a manager, and I'm not a package handler. And guys, sometimes you find yourself picking up the boxes and putting them on the shelf and actually doing the job. I got the scanner. I'm doing it. I fell short of the glory of a FedEx manager, right? And I started doing I started doing the old thing, and in the middle of that, you know, something, it's okay whenever you fall into that temptation to recognize it, in the midst of that temptation, in the midst of that failure to recognize it, and then get back up and start doing the right thing, you know that's okay, right? Tommy, what happens if a shortstop misses a ground ball? Is he supposed to just say, You know what? I failed. I quit? No. What happens if you fumble the ball? Do you fail? Do you quit? No, you learn from your mistake. You say that's not supposed to happen, but it happened. We're not dwelling on that. We're dwelling on who we are. Come on. We're dwelling what the goal is, and we're going to press on towards the goal. We have many failures. So I got to remember who I am in that moment, I've got to reflect on what I'm supposed to be. So I've got to look at my FedEx breaking ground, stuff that I hid in my heart so that I may not sin against FedEx. Anyway. I've got my way of doing things, the package handler's way. Now I've got FedEx way of doing things, and so now I've got to understand that this is the right way and this is the wrong way. I've gotta reflect on what the right way is. After that, I'm left with all this information. Now, what do I do with it? This is where the taking up the cross, dying to yourself to serve God, comes and so I have to receive that word into my heart. I have to say I'm not doing it my way. I'm not doing what I want to do here in this sense, I'm going to receive the FedEx way, so that I can make every FedEx experience outstanding, and I have to receive that. Well, the interesting thing is, when you actually do that, you start resembling a manager, right? Simple enough. I'm a simple person. So in the same way every day that I got up in the most taxing, toxic environment, guess what I did? I failed a lot. I yelled at Manny. I yelled at people when they yelled at me, I yelled back. I was in the most difficult season of my Christian life out there on an island with just me and my family, had the Bible hidden my heart for years. Y'all know, preach the word all the time. Y'all know everybody even said, when you get up there, it's going to be very hard for you. Oh, I got this. I'm close to Jesus. Was not prepared for the mental breakdown that I was going to have was not prepared for, just for that, but the fact that that mental breakdown, that feeling of insignificance, that feeling of loneliness, I'm getting vulnerable with y'all, and I don't care how much time I have left, that emptiness, that loneliness, all of those things, that identity crisis, that I'm no longer a pastor, I'm no longer preaching, and now the enemy's attacking and he's kicking me in the teeth when I'm down. So guess what Josh wants to do? Go back to some old coping mechanisms. Goes back to some old ways. Goes back to some of these old ways of thinking about myself, that's toxic, that's dark. I'm not significant anymore. I shouldn't even be alive. Nobody loves me. Anybody ever been there? It's those moments every day that I got up and I say, No, God, I'm going to remember who I am. I'm a child of God. You are with me. You have not left me. You have not forsaken me, and the mission is still the same, amen, and I'm being conformed into the image of Christ. And the only way that that's going to happen is if I hang on to the little bit of faith that I have and to keep looking to you daily. So I journal daily, remembering who I was hiding his word in my heart, reflecting on what he desired for me, who he is, who I am, and what he's given me to overcome the sin and things in my life. So I had to reflect on. That I had to remember who I was, and then I've got all this information in my head on the way to work, and I'm saying, you know, I'm going to be tempted like crazy to go back to my old way of life, to get involved in these conversations, to get mad at somebody and lash out, to do all of these things and maybe even to quit. But you know what? God's ways, my ways, I had to rely on God's ways and do as James says, and receive the Word of God which is able to save my soul. And the interesting thing about all this, God sets you apart in Christ. God saved you in Christ, God redeemed you with His blood. God pulled you out of darkness. God made you a son. Calls you his son. No condemnation for those who are in Christ, Jesus, and he says that he's working all things out for your good and for His glory, and you are being conformed into the image of Christ. When you actually start abiding in Christ, receiving and relying on his word, and trusting in Him with all of your hearts and dying to yourself, you know what happens? You start bearing much fruit. You start resembling Christ to the people around you. It's an interesting thing. Remember, reflect, receive, reject your ways, and you'll start resembling Christ, which is what He desires for each and every one of us. Guys, I'm thankful for the opportunity to come and encourage this morning. I'm thankful for the grace of God. More importantly, in my life, he's helped me through many difficulties, and I'm only 43 years old. I know there's a lot of lot of more, lot more things coming in my path, but I have learned in this process, I've learned in this journey, how much my ways can get in the way of his ways. And so I'm praying that as I step down from here, that I will continue to remember who I am, but I'm also going to remember who my God is, and I'm going to reflect on him often so that he can help me through whatever life throws at me. Because I would be willing to bet, in the last seven, six years since I've been here, have you guys had trials? Your situation then is way like life didn't look like what you thought was going to look six years. Think about your life. I see a lot of you here that I didn't remember was here, and I'm like, Oh, it's good to see you. But also see a lot of you missing. Some of you are missing because you left, and some of you are missing because God took them home. Trials, tribulations, hardships, and if we're not careful, we can find ourselves going back to the old habits, old hang ups that result in the old hurts that God doesn't want for us. So we trust in the Lord with all of our hearts and lean not on our own understandings in all of our ways, acknowledge him and let him direct our paths. If you don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, all he's asking you to do is put your faith and trust in the fact that he died on the cross to pay for your sins. He rose from the grave to give you life. And life is found in and only Jesus Christ, put your trust in Him today, find freedom and then begin to walk in that freedom by faith, same process you