In Romans 12:1, the message centers on ascend | a life fully surrendered to god. What does it mean to offer your whole life to God? Explore Romans 12:1 and the call to worship, surrender, and a life fully devoted to Jesus. Rather than treating the passage as abstract theology, the sermon traces what these truths reveal about God, the gospel, and the way followers of Jesus are called to live.
A major emphasis is the believer's response to God through prayer, surrender, worship, and spiritual hunger. The message challenges passive Christianity and invites listeners to pursue God intentionally, trusting that transformation grows as we bring our desires, habits, and decisions under the authority of Scripture. The goal is a faith that moves beyond information into communion with God and obedient action.
Along the way, the message engages themes including Romans 12:1, ascend | a life fully surrendered to god, romans 12, 1 call to worship. These ideas help place the primary passage within the larger story of Scripture and show how its theology speaks to real spiritual formation. At its heart, the sermon helps answer questions such as: What does Romans 12:1 teach about ascend It also considers a life fully surrendered to god?
For someone studying this passage, exploring the Christian faith, or looking for practical biblical teaching, this sermon offers a clear path from the text to everyday discipleship. The invitation is to hear what Scripture says, receive it with humility, and take the next faithful step in following Jesus.
What does Romans 12:1 teach about ascend | a life fully surrendered to god? | How should ascend | a life fully surrendered to god shape the way Christians live? | How can believers apply Romans 12:1 in everyday life?
Romans 12:1, ascend | a life fully surrendered to god, romans 12, 1 call to worship, a fully devoted to Jesus
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I I I have some thoughts. I'm going to kind of do a sort of just a one-off message. I love series. I love going expositorially through scripture. Uh but today I want to kind of share some stuff that's really been stirring in my heart for uh the better part of the last few months through the summer as we've been in Ephesians as we looked at the biatitudes. And so a lot of the things that I want to hit on today are going to feel familiar, but it's going to call us to a higher level as we ascend the hill of the Lord. And my title today is Ascend. Um, but this last week, I uh I was reminded of the story of Moses. Um, we were talking about it in our small groups a little bit and we had uh my kids and I Have y'all seen the movie Prince of Egypt? Have y'all watched it? That's a banger of a movie. I mean, the soundtrack is incredible. Deliver Us. I mean, I I still have all the songs stuck in my head right now and like I'm watching it through and I probably watched it, you know, 10, 20 times growing up. We didn't really have great TV when I was growing up. We had great movies, you know, and it was just popping the VHS tapes all the time. Some of y'all have no idea what VHS is, and that's okay. But we get to the final scene of in the movie, and I don't mean to spoil it for you, but uh they get out of Egypt. uh if you hadn't read your Bible or or seen the movie, but they get out of Egypt and uh they kind of go through this moment and you see Moses, he's walking down from the mountain and he's carrying the the the Ten Commandments, you know, the two tablets and all the things. And it's a really cool moment and the music is like deliver us like it's it's it's awesome. Yeah, that's this is why I'm not on the worship team anymore, guys. I love it. But it was such a such a cool moment and I was just reminded of the whole idea of the mountaintop. And I think a few it was a few weeks ago during our Ephesians series, I broke out the whiteboard and I I drew some things and I even talked about how, you know, when when it comes to our our journey with the Lord, it can often seem like we're climbing a mountain of some kind, right? And and we're we're ascending. we're we're moving upwards towards the Lord. And I and I really want to talk about this in the context of worship and in the context of of biblical worship and what God calls us to do, not just on Sundays when we gather, but on a day-to-day basis as we continue to become more and more like Jesus. So again, this is going to feel like a compilation of things, but I just I went back through and then started reading in Exodus. Again, that's not going to be my text today, but if you go through and read Exodus 19 through31, you'll kind of see this moment when Moses is on the mountain. He's receiving the law and all of these things. And what's so powerful is Moses gets to be, as scripture tells us, face to face with God. Now, he wasn't physically face to face with him, but it was this relationship, this closeness. And uh God even says, I think it's in Exodus 33 where he talks about, you know, as a friend, we converse together. As a friend, there was communion, there was connection. And aren't you so grateful today that we can call God a friend, and that he calls us friend, and that we can commune together with him. But how do we how do we do that? like what does that look like when in our relationship with the Lord? And and again, I've been in this place where I I've looking back at all the laws and Moses brought together this tabernacle and there's the holy of holy places in the middle and that's where the presence of God would come and dwell, right? And then there's the the inner courts. Then there's the outer courts. And there's all these different levels, you know, that you have to pass through. All these procedures that you have to go through to get to the Holy of Holies, right? But here's what's so cool. When Jesus came, >> come on, >> and laid his life down for us, the veil that surrounded the Holy of Holies, you know what happened to it? It was torn. And now we have access to the Holy of Holies that we can be in the presence of God. Even like we read in Isaiah 6, I can stand before him in the throne room now. >> I can stand before him and and and see him and speak to him and converse with him and he speaks to me and calls me higher, >> calls me into deeper things. We have access to him now. But many times it's like we want to pull the veil back over in our hearts and in our lives. And I've again I've been so overwhelmed with this desire for more and more of his presence, not just for myself, but for us as a church that we can ascend this mountain for ourselves. See, the Israelites, they needed Moses to talk to God for them. Right? Even Even the Lord said, "You can't come up this mountain or else you would die." If you look at it in Exodus 19, you can't you can't go up the mountain or you're going to die. But now there's this invitation to us that we can ascend the mountain for ourselves. And again, it's so funny. We have this this veil separating and and during that time, priests had to purify themselves. Um, I talked about it this past week with someone in Israel. There are um archaeological digs where they would actually show they they had these these pools of water with stairs that you would step down into and the priests would have to purify themselves in different pools of water before they could enter the Holy of Holies. Again, there was a procedure that they had to go through to purify themselves, you know, their their bodies and all these things. But now for us, he says, "Come. Come as you are. You don't need to sacrifice animals and all these different things. You just come." And we get to pursue God in worship for ourselves because Jesus gave his life as a perfect sacrifice that we no longer have to sacrifice in this way. And this worship is laying down our lives as we ascend the hill of the Lord. It's giving ourselves away so that God can use us for his glory. Amen. >> And I've been having all these I've been having so many of these moments with the Holy Spirit where I I I've talked to some of you about this there a few weeks ago. I had I literally had to pull over on the side of the road because the grace of God hit me so hard and I just began to weep to the point where my tears kept me from seeing which lane of road I was in. And there's moments like that for each and every one of us that God wants to speak his plans and his purpose and begin to call things out in us as we continue to grow. But if we don't embrace the access that we have, no wonder we're not growing. No wonder we're not becoming who Jesus saved us to be. And again, there's so many moments where I'm reading his word. I'm turning everything off. And he begins to point out these areas in my life that I need to surrender. Surrender my desire for control with with my marriage, with my job, with my my kids, with my future. I need to lay it before him and stop trying to control it on my own. And this is not just something that we do on Sundays when we come together. It's a daily occurrence. Amen. I know I know some of y'all I'm preaching to the choir. But how many times have we forgotten that we're saved? How many times have we forgotten that we've been cleansed? How many times we've forgotten that we have access to him and we think that we have to go through some procedure. We have to play some favorite worship song or we have to try to recreate the last encounter that we had with God. >> Yeah. when he wants to do a new thing, >> when he wants to to meet you in a place where you have not yet before. I love this because it's so it's it's it's not complicated. In Romans 12:1 says, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This This is your true and proper worship. It's giving our lives. That's what true worship is. Worship is not the slow song at the end of the set list on Sunday morning. >> Even though the last song was awesome. Holy, let's go. We can sing that all day long and we we can go home and be good, right? But it's not the slow song. It's not the the the hit song that you love listening to. And and on top of that, it's not passively coming into a church service like this and saying, "God, change me and then I'm out." There's something that has to happen. There's activity and being active in prayer and fasting and pursuing God as we read his word and sit and listen for him to speak to us. It's daily choosing to be with God. And it's intentionally sacrificing our lives to become more like Jesus. And I love this the next verse in Romans 12. And many of you have heard this verse before. Verse two. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. And I think it's really funny because I've I've I've studied this verse before with other people and I think sometimes we get so fixated on how do I renew my mind? You know, we just lock in on this one verse. When you're studying scripture, context is key. Y'all read the verse before, right? What did it say? It's to lay your life down as a living sacrifice. And that is when you start to lay things at his feet and say, "I'm really worried about my job right now. I'm really worried about my future. I'm I I I I I've got all this stuff going on in my marriage or my kids are out of control or, you know, I'm dealing with this conflict or that. Lay it at his feet. >> Begin to to sit with it. Hold it in your heart and begin to release it to him. And then your mind begins to renew. Right? I mean, I I I've I've read books on people who are saying, "This is how you renew your mind." And it completely negates the fact that we're supposed to lay our life down first. When we read the scripture, this is what it's saying. If we want to know the will of God, our mind needs to be renewed. And if we want our mind to be renewed, we need to lay our life down. I think many of us are going, "God, what is your plan?" And he's saying, "Give me your life. >> God, what do you have next for me?" He's saying, "Give me your life. I'll change your mind. I'll change what's going on within you. just lay it down. But it's the last thing we want to do. We want the plan before we change. >> Yeah, that's true. >> Again, I I love this verse because it it speaks to what happens when we pursue God. He changes us. And it's not some magical thing. It's we get so in love and fixated and locked in on him again like in worship. God, you are holy and woe is me. God, you are perfect and I'm not. Lord, you have plans and my plans mean nothing compared to what you have. It's that lowering of oursel and laying our life down on the altar that he begins to reveal his perfect plan and will for us. I need an amen for that one. Come on again. Just like Moses got the plans for the Ten Commandments when he was up on the mountain, God has a perfect will for each and every one of us. He has plans. He has purposes. A renewed mind. And it's good. It's good. We get this by experiencing God's presence. And it's fun because we we've been hitting it in Ephesians and even coming out of the biatitudes, you know, in Matthew 5, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. And what happens? They'll be filled. And then blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. When we pursue righteousness and we desire to become more like him, he will fill us up and things will begin to shift and be transformed within us. And I and I and I'm saying all of this because I'm I've been meeting with so many different people, not just in this church, but even outside, and we're frustrated with the fact that, you know, I want to do all of these different things. And it's like, okay, but first you have to look at your heart. I want to fix this or I want to level up or I want to see these changes happen. It's like great do that. But first, where's your heart? >> Do we have a pure heart? Do we have pure motives? Are we trying to change so that we can gain or are we trying to change to glorify God? >> This is the the shift that needs to happen within the church. And I love this in in Psalm 24 lays it out so beautifully. Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? Says the one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god. They will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God their savior. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, God of Jacob, that we would be a church that seeks his face. This is the generation. And I have to ask this because I' i've just been feeling. Do we have we stopped praying to see God on Monday or on Tuesday or whatever the weekday looks like? Are we just trying to get a glimpse of him on Sunday morning and take that and try to stretch it out throughout the week? Have we stopped praying to see God? Have we stopped on the mountain maybe thinking that there's nothing else left to see and experience? You know, we shared this in uh our small groups this last week about how pursuing God is something that we do consciously, right? It's something that's intentional as we pursue him. But many times drifting from God is something that's done unconsciously, right? We wake up one day and be like, "Where am I? I've drifted away." I I can remember like going out on the lake and and years ago on one of our friends had a boat and you know we're we're banging around on the tubes and all this stuff and you fly off and the boat comes around and then they cut the engine but then the boat just keeps drifting and drifting and drifting and I can't catch up. Right. And unless I'm going and unless the motor is actually on coming towards me, it it's it's going to continue to be too far out of reach. And so we have to be intentional in our pursuit of the Lord and recognize when we've unconsciously drifted, right? We drift when we stop. We coast when we put things into neutral. And I and I ask this as well. Do you feel like or and I and and I've struggled with this as well because I've I've felt this way. Do we feel like maybe there's some kind of barrier that is keeping us captive in our pursuit of God? >> You don't have to raise your hand or anything like that, but have you ever been in a moment where you feel like you've hit a wall as you're pursuing the Lord? You're reading the Bible and it's just dry as can be. you're you're in the presence of the Lord on a worship gathering and you're like, "Is God even here? Is God even real?" And we start dealing with these moments and and trials and barriers where we can't just enter the presence of God and seek him. We have to see something again. The veil was torn and now everyone has access to the Holy of Holies. And it's the spirit of religion and the spirit of the Pharisees that wants to hold up that veil again and say you cannot go any further than this, right? Or you need to change something in order you in order for you to get to this next level, right? It's that legalistic attitude that begins to to come out in those moments. But here's what's so beautiful. Everyone has access to the mountain now. Everyone has the ability to pursue God for themselves as much as they want. You all have that ability. You all have that access. We're blessed to have the the word of God. We're blessed to be able to hear from him. We have the Holy Spirit, the manifest presence of God. And yet so many of us are content to just listen to a bald preacher on Sunday. You don't need a Moses to encounter God. And I've been overwhelmed in this last week with with the amazing vote of confidence and making me the pastor of this church. And it's awesome. But I didn't get some special VIP access card to the to the green room of heaven. And I've been overwhelmed with the the feeling. And even the enemy has come in and said, "You're never going to be good enough. you're never going to be enough. You're never going to be able to lead. All these different things. And here's the deal. He's right. >> Cuz I need the Lord. >> It's good. >> I I may be a shepherd, but I'm not the shepherd. I may be a source, a voice, but I am not the source. And it's time for us as a church and as as a body, and there's no accusation being thrown or rebuke here, but I I pray and hope that it's our heart's desire to access the Lord for ourselves. >> And recognize that we have a relationship with God that is not dependent upon a leader. >> It's not even dependent upon a a church or a movement. It's it's dependent upon my desire to be in his presence and to become more and more like Jesus. This is what it's all about. He is our source. We've been cleansed by the blood of Christ. And because Jesus is on the inside of you, you can come boldly into his throne room like it says in Hebrews 4:16. And it's in that place that we receive mercy and we'll find grace to help us when we need it most. We don't have to go to a a pastor, a preacher, a podcast, a high priest, whatever. You don't have to do any of these things to have access to God. You can drop to your knees and say, "Lord, >> I need you. >> I need you." >> Like, let let let's get American independent here for a second. Like, we don't need anybody. We just need God. >> Now, let me backtrack. We need community as a church. We need iron, sharpening iron. And here's what's so cool. I'm jumping ahead of my notes, but as we are ascending this hill, as we're as we're climbing the mountain, we get to encourage people along the way. Like, I'm going, you're going, you're going. And I'm seeing what God is doing here in your life, and I'm like, "Hey, let's go. Let's let's knock this out. Like, let's begin to pray together, you know, cuz I'm believing for this just like you are." It's it's it's us choosing to to continue to go and not just go by ourselves. You may be able to go fast by yourself, but we can go further together. Amen. >> Again, Jesus, he is the good shepherd. >> And I can't, as a pastor, I can't fill your cup like he can. I can't fill your heart and your life like he can. I can't satisfy you. But Jesus, he can. It says in John 4, "Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." In John 7, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, "Anyone who is thirsty may come to me. anyone who believes in me may come and drink. For the scriptures declare, rivers of living water will flow from his heart. And I love this add-on that John makes. He said, when he said living water, he was speaking of the spirit who will be given to everyone believing in him. Notice it says everyone. It doesn't just say the apostles. It says everyone. Not just the pastors, the preachers, and all these different people within the church. Everyone has access to this living water. And again, I know for a fact many of you have been in that place with the Lord. You've been in the Holy of Holies. You've had encounters with him. You've heard from him. You continue to to get into the word and he's speaking and the Holy Spirit is coming is bringing things alive within your life. Amen. And it's amazing and it's powerful. We don't stop. We continue on. We continue to to come to him because he is our source. It's great that we gathered together as a church body. But the purpose of this is to be equipped as saints, not to come to church for our source because he is our source. Many of you, you've tasted and you've seen that the Lord is good. You've drank from the the water of his presence. You found refuge in him. And now there's a living water flowing out of you. And this is where it gets fun in in my opinion because can you imagine for a second if we as a church would stop seeing church as our source? We'd see God as our source. And can you imagine us coming together already full of his presence? What if what if all of us came and our cup was already full? What if all we did was pursue him every single day. We lean on him. There's there's wisdom. There's knowledge. There's all these areas that he's calling us higher to grow in. And what if we came together with our cup full of his presence and we just begin to pour it out into others around us? the testimonies that we would begin to share, the the prophecies and and prophesying over one another, the the way that we could start praying over others because you know what? God is doing such a great work in me. I have faith to believe that he can do the same for you. >> Let me pray with you. Let me cover you. Let me come alongside you. That every single day, we're seeking his face. We're experiencing his peace. And then we come together to worship and pour it out and give our lives to him and to one another versus having to be taking because we haven't gone to the source. If we came together to give, we came together to weep, to seek God, to rejoice, testify of his goodness, and that passion, your passion for God will begin to encourage others around you. Because again, here's what I've I've come to grips with. I cannot give you passion for God and I can't fill your cup and I can't feed your hunger for God. And it's really interesting. I was I was looking at these studies and I I'm kind of a history buff a little bit and I love the history of the church and it's interesting how since the first century church things have kind of shifted with the clergy or the pastors or the priests sort of elevated higher and higher to this level and then the people are are sort of lower and lower and there's this we we sort of again we see pastors here on the top of the mountain or we the men of God, people that we see on TBN and all these television shows about Jesus and whatnot, they're all up here. There's some kind of special something that's on them, right? And then we're all we're all down here, you know, and maybe someday if God calls us, then we'll get to go to the mountain, too, you know, then we'll get to go up to this higher level or or God will speak to us in this special way. And and really it's it's happened just because of you know politics and and all the things but it's sort of become this subconscious deal where members of the church actually lower themselves and think that we have to go through some mediator to get to God. And it's interesting how we we can see how this relates even back to the Pharisees and the priests where it's I can't go into his presence. I need some kind of priest or pastor or or somebody to to to get me there or share the wisdom. And that's great. There's counsel like I'm here for that all day long. But the credentials, the education, the platforms for clergy hold them to this high standard. And in the eyes of the people, they're elevated above everybody else. And then the requirements for members decreases. And it's no longer that we have to have a relationship with God. I just have to sit my butt in a seat on Sunday morning. And now I'm a Christian. Like that was I'll be real. coming from from coming from New York and and Massachusetts 20 plus years ago, like I was trained to evangelize as a kid because everything was pretty black and white up there. And and you were either unsaved or you were Catholic. That was pretty much the majority of of people that we rub shoulders with. And we come down here and everyone that I talked to, fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, they're like, "Yeah, I go to church." And I was like, "That's not what I asked you. I asked you, "Do you follow Jesus?" And they're like, "Yeah, I go to church with my with my family." And that's the that's the requirement for so many believers. I go to church. Where is the standard? Well, my pastor, you know, he's really great. My pastor has a doctorate. He's got all these credentials. Like, he studies the word of God for me and then teaches me what I need to know. How is this not Old Testament? And again, I'm not trying to throw shade. I'm not trying to be whatever, but how many times have we even followed this pattern where we say others can pursue God in this way and then I'll just hear from them on what they discover. Like, oh, this dude, he he does all this research on this podcast, this YouTube or whatever. He does all he knows all the things. I'll just listen to it and glean from it and not discover it for myself. And we do it. I've done it. There's been so many moments where I'm like, it's so much easier to just sit back and let somebody else find the answers. I can chat GPT this right now, you know, but again, it's the Old Testament repeated. And we subconsciously put ourselves in a place where there's now separation from us and God. Are you hearing me today? And I know all of y'all are perfect Christians and you you you don't got to worry about any of this stuff. You know, you're daily in your word and you're doing all the things, right? Sure. Thank you, Rita. Appreciate you. But for many of us, and my myself included, there's just this itching inside of me that I I have to experience him more. I don't know if you feel that. I don't I don't know if you've sensed what's happening even in worship. It's it's almost as if if there's if there is a a thin level or some kind of level between heaven and earth. I feel like it gets thinner on Sunday mornings when we encounter him. I feel like heaven is just coming and invading earth every single time we begin to lift up the name of Jesus. And it's so beautiful when we do that. But I I keep imagining what would it be like if we all came in and we had been pursuing God all week long. And this was just the crescendo moment where we all get to pour out what God is is doing in our lives in this moment. Again, we go back and we look at the the priests and think that, you know, we need a pastor, we need a church, we need all these different things. And we do equipped, but not the source that should sustain us as followers of Christ, right? Like men, you are priests of your home. You are like parents, guess what? Like if the only time that your children are hearing about Jesus is on Sunday mornings in Life Kids in Sunshine Park, that's not good. They need to see that you are the priest of your home. They need to see that you're on your knees praying, that you are the example. Husbands, wives, are we making time to spend with the Lord? Are we making time like some there's many times in my home where I have to get the kids riled up like hurting cats in one room and say, "Babe, you need to go spend time with Jesus cuz you're cussing me out and you got to stop doing that." No, I'm just kidding. She doesn't do that. But are we being intentional within our homes or are we just being intentional for an hour and a half on Sunday morning? And this is this is the call that as we begin to move forward in this new season with a new pastor and all the things, there is a high standard that God wants to see us begin to rise to that we could ascend the hill of the Lord. And we're already cleansed because we're forgiven. But now we need to look at our hearts as we ascend the hill and say, "What are my motives? Am I coming to church or am I coming into your presence just to take and get something or am I coming to give my life to you? >> This is the call that that God has for each and every one of us. God is desiring participators in his church and not just spectators. When we can gather together with one voice, with one unity within our hearts, with clean hands and a pure heart and we've all been on the mountain, we're all hearing from him. We'd become like Jesus. We'd grow the kingdom. Generations of our children's children would know of the wonders of God that we've experienced. We would hear from God. We would begin to to prophesy. We'd begin to see signs and wonders and miracles. Not just here on Sunday, but everywhere that we are walking. Our lives would be bringing glory to God. So, here's what I love. This is this is I'm going to have to erase this a little bit, but there's a really great book that I've been reading. How much time do I have? There's a really great book that I've been reading called uh Barbarians to Bureaucrats. Have any of you read it? It's like an old business book that they wrote back in the 90s. Have you read it before? Yes, sir. Yeah, totally. I got you. But there's these stages that we see and and this kind of is shaped like a bell in a way, but there's the this bell curve where at the bottom of this bell curve, you have what's called, you know, a prophet. and there's this vision that they end up receiving and they're casting this vision and they're excited. And for us, it's get just getting a a a moment in an encounter with God where things begin to change where our lives begin to be set free. And in the process of of rising, we kind of get to this halfway stage and then we have the what's called the barbarian. And this barbarian, he's willing to burn down anything for what the prophet says. And hear me today. I'm going to connect the dots here in a second. They're just burning everything down. They're destroying everything in the process of building something because then we get to this builder. And then we begin to build the thing that God has called us to. we begin to create something beautiful and powerful. And what I love so much is this really looks like the journey that many of us go on as as followers of Christ. We we hear from God and we recognize that he saved us and we we start up the hill and we ascend the hill. We we desire to to go into this holy place with him. And in that process, as we spend more time with him, he begins to point out the things like you need to burn this down. Like this is an area of sin in your life. You need to lay this down. you need to repent. You need to you need to say yes to me and no to this. Right? There's that calling higher. And then we begin to build something beautiful. We can we begin to build something that God has has called us to begin building. And it's it's amazing and it's incredible. And and I and I even in this process, like I said earlier, we can be at many stages in this pursuit of the Lord, whether we're we're burning things down or we're and and growing in our faith or we're building something and to glorify God or we we continue to hear from God in this ascension, right? But here's what ends up happening. Many times we'll end up stopping in our journey and or coming over on the flip side, we get into this place where we become bureaucratic and we want to keep things that's not how you spell bureaucrat. We want to keep things the way that they are. We want to keep things in this place where I don't want to grow. I don't want to change. And again, maybe it's a drifting. Maybe it's something that we don't even recognize that we're doing. But we end up criticizing and tearing down others that are in this process of building. And so on this side of this ascension of the mountain, we have purpose. God is purpose for each and every one of our lives. We're we're growing. We're hearing from him. He's speaking to us. And there's there's purpose and plans that are being passed on to each and every one of us. But once we get to this other level, at any point that we stop in this journey, we're over here and we begin to criticize everybody else who's not doing as good as we think we are. Cuz how many times, again, I I was seeing it happen so often within the church. I saw even this this this a few weeks ago when they had the Charlie Kirk memorial. All these people are lifting their hands and the comments that people are making. I was like, "Oh, they're lifting their hands now in this moment, but let's just see. Let's see what comes out of this. Let's see if they're really going to change. Let's see if they're really going to grow." And my and my my heart immediately goes like, man, you're over here thinking that you're hot stuff, but really you are descending down the mountain. When we begin to bring division within the church and division within people and begin to criticize, oh, this person's not serving God the same way that I am, who cares? >> What is God calling you to do? Ascend the hill of the Lord. It's so easy for us to to point the finger at what everyone else is doing wrong in their pursuit of God, but what are you doing? >> What am I doing? What is God calling us to step into? It's unity. >> It's unity. It's it's saying, "Hey, I see that you're you're struggling here." Or maybe, you know, this is the first time that I've seen you lift your hands. The first tim
