LOOK AGAIN

0:55 I got to tell you, I am so grateful for Pastor Ed and Pastor Lisa Young. And the day that God just gifted Jennifer and I their relationship and just their investment into our life was such an incredible moment. And we are just better because of it. And I know God gets the glory, but I just want to honor you, Pastor Ed, and just say so grateful for you. Can we just thank him for your leadership, your servanthood? It's good to be with you. I want to, if I can today, talk to you about vision. I think a lot of times people get vision partially right. And what I mean by that is so often somebody will think about vision or they think about a visionary and in their mind, they're thinking about futuristic thinking. They're thinking about when they talk about a visionary, someone who sees a preferred way. And it doesn't mean that they're wrong when they think that way.

1:50 They're just not complete. That's one third of the equation. And so today I want to kind of push, push against this definition of vision being just, you know, someone who is able to see it before it's built or is able to like, you know, feel it before it's even felt. I want to kind of come around and look at a biblical definition of it. Uh, and what I'd love to do is to look at the way that the apostle Paul defined it. Now, when you talk about the apostle Paul, you talk about a guy who certainly as a human being had his own affinities on how he communicated in his communication styles. Uh, if you, by the way, like get around pastor Ed, uh, you're, you're going to get a lot of basketball, you know, uh, what people don't know about him by the way, is that he was a D one. He played basketball for Florida state. Uh, I looked it up by the way. I found it. I found, I actually found the program. I was, I was out looking for it. Um, 94 schools offered this man a full ride. He ended up at Florida state. And so when you hang with him, you get a lot of basketball. He doesn't really care about football. I told you he went to Florida state.

2:55 I'm a Bama fan. We ate dinner last night during the Florida state Bama game. He didn't even know because he doesn't care about football, but if it was, it had been basketball game, we would have not been eating dinner. He'd have been watching the team. So when you, when you hang with Ed Young, you get a lot of basketball. When you hang, I teach at two churches in town. One of them happens to be a baseball player pastor. And so you get a ton of baseball illustrations. He's also a fisherman. You get a ton of fishing illustrations. Another church I speak at 12 times a year, the guy was a D1 level receiver on the football team. So you get a ton of receiver illustrations. When you, when you hang out with me, you get a lot of tennis illustrations. It was the one sport I'm decent at. I say tennis and you start laughing and you're I thought pickleball killed it. It still exists. All right. Not all the courts have been transformed into pickleball courts, but, but I love tennis. And I say all that to say, when you get the apostle Paul, you get a lot of field and track. The man was obsessed with field and track, actually with track seven times in the epistles that, that Paul was in the Pauline theology that gate, that Paul gives us, he talks about running a race and, and that was certainly his sport. And today is no exception. He's going to give us field and track here in the sense that he wants us to know that life to him is not so much about a basketball game where you got to like the locker room culture and the bench culture and the, or our life today is not so much about, you know, tennis where you gotta, you gotta ace it in life and not double fault in life. Life. He wants us to know is like a track where we go on the track and there's a starting line.

4:35 There's the track that we're running and there's a finish line. And Paul's gonna use that kind of verbiage here today. And I really believe hidden in plain sight is this definition of vision. That's tri-perspective that I think will help us in life. Philippians 3, Paul says, I haven't obtained all of this or I haven't arrived at my goal. Now he's about to give us the definition. He's about to charge us on. But before he does, I love the footings he sets with humility. He's saying, hey, what I'm about to tell you, I don't have fully figured out myself yet. I want you to know I'm not batting a thousand. What I'm about to give you is more of a prescription sometimes than a description. Does that make sense? Like some of you need to hear that because you've sat out on the race because you're just like, I'm disqualified because I'm not batting a thousand. I want you to hear that one out of one people that preach to you, including the apostle Paul, including David Nasser, including the guys right here in the bench in the front that are like your normal pastors on any given Sunday here. They'll be the first to tell you, like, we have a passionate, authentic pursuit to live what we're preaching, but none of us bat a thousand. None of us have this figured out. So often you're going to hear a sermon. And when you're hearing a sermon, it is a prescription and not a description of like, only I'm getting to say this because I've I nailed it every single day, 24 seven in my life.

5:58 And so if you're here today, we're just a bunch of mess ups. And Paul's saying, I haven't figured this out yet. But just because I haven't figured this out yet, it doesn't mean that the enemy gets to whisper in my ear and call me disqualified. And so I'm going to get in the game. I'm not going to sit it out. So he says, I haven't figured this out yet. I don't have it where I've arrived at my goal. But one thing that I know is I press on. and I take hold of that for which Christ Jesus has already taken a hold of me. Then he reminds us, this is a family conversation with brothers and sisters. This is a family talk. He says, brothers and sisters, I don't consider myself yet to have taken a hold of it, but one thing that I do, I forget what is behind and I strain towards what is ahead and I press on towards the goal. That's the three facets, the three sight lines of vision. I forget what is behind a strain towards what is ahead, right? And I know that I'm pressing towards the goal. Now, what is the goal? He tells us right after that. The goal is to win to win what the prize, which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us then who are mature should take such a view of this.

7:21 And if one, some point you think differently, then that too, God will make clear. So three sight lines that we want to know about vision. Vision isn't just thinking of a picture of a preferred way. Vision is try perspective, three sight lines. And the first one is this, in vision, we want to be refined by the past. When Paul says, I forget what is behind, he's not saying I've got this spiritual amnesia where I don't even remember what's happened. He's saying this. I'm remembering it, but I'm not reliving it in life. We want to be refined by our past. Now notice if you're taking notes, I didn't say defined by our past, but refined by our past. We don't want to waste the past. We want to learn from all the things that have happened to us in the past. We want to be forged by it. We want to, in one sense, be chiseled by it, but we don't want it to become everything. It's one thing to remember the past.

8:16 It's a whole other thing to wake up every day and relive it and relive it and relive it. Somebody's hearing me say this in one of our campuses here at fellowship. And as you're hearing this, you know what I mean when I say every day you wake up and you're defined by your past. And I'm sorry. You know, I'm sorry if he made a promise and he walked an aisle and he told you he was going to be faithful and he wasn't faithful. I'm sorry if he broke your heart. And I'm sorry that right now here you are in your mid forties and you're divorced. But I want you to know that you've maybe decided to let that be the primary label over you. But God is not seeing you primarily as divorced and done with. You can be refined by that past. You can let those tests become a testimony. You can let them become something where you didn't waste the hurt and all of those things. You can be scarred, but not smarter. You don't want to be defined by the past. and the enemy loves to whisper in your ear, you're always going to be a porn addict.

9:11 You're always not going to let your temper get it. Did you see what you said? Did you see what? The enemy loves to remind you of your past, but you're never going to get to where you're going if all you do is just stare with the rear view mirror. You got to stop being defined by your past. It's not just, by the way, don't be defined by all the hurt in the past. It's also like, don't be defined by the victories of your past. Some of you, you live out what I call, you know, Bon Jovi theology. You know, it's always, you know, remember days of skipping school, racing cars and being cool with a six pack and the radio. We didn't need no place to go. Never say goodbye. Or Brian Adams. You know, I got my first real six string, bought it at the five and dime, played it till my fingers bled. it was the, yeah, it's not 69 anymore. You're 45 years old and you're selling aluminum siding, quit living in your high school years. You're still in like Friday night lights. Like one day me and the guys, we did this and we did this. You're retaining fluid in your knees. Get over it.

10:22 And some of y'all just live in your past. You live in your past. I heard Kirk Herbstreet the other day say this. These guys were going in the locker room after they upset this team, a couple of weeks ago. And Kirk Herbstreit said, I hope they have a good time. I hope they can get their phone out. I hope they can memorize. I can remember this moment. It will be the greatest moment of their life. And I thought, wow, I hope these guys that are 19 have a lot more living to do and to always have to remind someone. When I was 19, the corner of my finger blocked the ball. and it yielded in a moment of glory. Quit letting your past define you. By the way, if you let it define you, things go good and at best it yields pride. Things go horrible and at best it yields pity.

11:11 But you got to stop being defined by your past and be refined by your past. Now, beyond that, you don't just want vision to be, I'm refined by my past. You also want it to be where you're resilient in the present. resilient in the present. You're resilient in the present because you've seen God's faithfulness in the past. Amen. That's what makes you get up today. You're like, I know because God was faithful in my yesterdays. God is faithful today. I don't know what today holds, but I know who's holding it. I know right now that this, this is going to be all right because it's not on me. Why? Because we just sang it a minute ago because by the blood of Jesus, I found victory from my past. By the way, we were just singing that a little minute, a minute ago. that by the blood of it's only hallelujah hallelujah it's only by the blood it's only by the blood think about this that your yesterdays were covered by the blood so if you're right now looking back on your yesterdays what you see is the blood of jesus let's say you want to peek in through the shower curtain of blood god's going it's gone it's paid for so my resiliency my endurance my building an immune system for the circumstances around me and in the moment that I'm in is that I'm clear. I'm clear headed and what's going on in the present and I'm resilient, not based on my power, but based on the power that carried me through it all. There's something internally going on in the moment that's bigger than what's going on on the outside. I want to remind you of something. We're reading Philippians. They call this the epistle of joy. 17 times this man, this man is obsessed with joy in this epistle this letter that he's writing but you know we know Paul's the author and we know he's writing to the church in Philippi but the location of the letter is interesting Paul is literally sitting in the in the mammertime prison he's literally in Rome at the forum sitting there he is in prison after having spent 10,000 miles on foot declaring the glory of God after being shipwrecked after having been beaten after being misquoted all of that stuff. How is it working out for him? He is literally in a prison cell,

13:19 chained to a centurion, and he's writing, and he's dripping with joy. He knows any minute, they're going to take me out. He knew. This wasn't like, oh, this might happen. He knew. He knew at that moment that he's sitting in that prison cell, any moment they're going to pull me out of this day, out of this prison cell, they're going to take me outside the city walls. That's what they would do to a Roman citizen. They would afford a Roman citizen, a swift death. That was a gift and not a torturous one. He knew they're going to take me outside the city walls. If you've ever been there, there's literally a place right outside the city walls of Rome called Tre Fontana. Tre Fontana is a monastery where our Catholic friends say that that's where Paul was beheaded. And when he was beheaded, his head bounced three times and three fountains is weird. But anyway, So if you go, Paul knows he's sitting in the Mamertine prison. He knows that any minute now they're going to take me outside the city walls.

14:15 And when they take me outside the city walls, they're literally going to turn me upside down physically. They're going to behead me. All the blood is going to rush out of my body. And then they're going to sew my head back on and put me in a catacomb. And he has resiliency in the moment. Because literally in that moment, you know what his response is? Bring it on. You know what he literally says? He goes, for I have already been poured out as a drink offering.

14:44 He's like, you're trying to kill me. I died on this place, you know, right here called the Damascus Road. I'm already there's nothing you can do to me because what is internal is driving what is external and not the other way around. Some of you have lost your resiliency because the outside is constituting the inside and not the other way around. a buddy of mine was telling me that he flew to this place to to go to Cuba to go see this church that they had planted this work that they were doing he said we get to Cuba he goes I get picked up we're driving to the place it's about an hour and a half drive he said the whole drive over everybody's outside and so I tell my guide I asked my guide I said man why is everybody outside and they said well we haven't had electricity for three four days there's been no everybody's outside because that's cooler than being in these buildings where it's so just hot. And he said, in my mind, I thought when we get to the place we're going, I've been asked to speak to over a thousand people. There's not going to be a sound system that's working because there's no electricity. He goes, we pull up, we go inside, lights are on, air conditions going, sound systems going. He said, I look at the guy and I go, how do, why do we have a, I thought there's no power.

15:55 He goes, oh no, your church bought for us. Thank you very much. A generator. He goes, when, when there's power here good when there's no power here good we don't need them we don't rely on the government we have a generator look at me you and I don't rely on the circumstances that we have a generator now that illustration breaks down it breaks down because that's backup but in the upside down kingdom in the kingdom of God our internal generator given to us by the power of the blood amen the resurrection power is what drives us and you need to build an immune system that has resiliency, not because you're awesome, but because he's awesome. Not on your power, but his power. You can't let the circumstances drive everything. You can't say, you know, when my wife got pregnant and she had her first child, she went through postpartum. And when she went through postpartum, she stopped being attracted to me and everything.

16:51 And that's why I'm having an affair with my assistant. Like, listen, I'm not telling you that she shouldn't get treatment. I'm not telling you that that doesn't matter. I'm just telling you, you made a covenant that was bigger and the circumstances. So quit letting the internal quit, quit constantly being a victim, not just of your past, but your present. Like it's that perspective. Your resiliency is like, there's something going on here. I was consulting the other day with two churches back to back. It was interesting because it's back to back zoom call. I sit with this pastor and literally this one pastor of a church says to me, man, when COVID happened, you know, we lost about 3000 people. An hour later, an hour later, this other pastor says to me, it was interesting when COVID happened, we gained about 2000 people saying COVID for one, it was an obstacle for the other one. It was an opportunity. The resiliency is what's God up to you. What's going on? This is, I might be bent, but I'm not broken. I have an internal generator that's driving my parenting, that's driving my marriage, that's driving my decision making. Amen. It's not, if it's, if it's sunny outside, I'll go out and play. It's I'm weatherproof.

18:05 What can man do to me? So I'm not telling you that you can't be oppressed by COVID, but you can't be possessed by COVID. You can't be possessed by the circumstances around you. So we want to be refined by our past. We want to be resilient in the present. And here's the thing. If you're refined by your past and you're resilient in the present, guess what you're going to be? You're going to be rested in your future.

18:30 You're going to be rested in your future. You're going to be resting every single day perpetually in your future. Are you resting in your future? If you're a Christian in this room today, can I just say, you can rest in your future. You win. You win. Have you read the end of your Bible? We win. We win. As a matter of fact, I want you to say this out loud with me. Say, I am. Say, I am. You get to say this, by the way, because the great I am is your I am. Say, I am. All war. Already won. You already won. Have you read? We win. Paul is sitting there refined by his past. Paul is sitting there and he's got vision for his future. And he's like, I'm going to win the prize because he knows the final score. He wins. he wins not because Paul is awesome but because his God is awesome he wins by works but not Paul's works but Christ works on the cross he wins anybody watch the game not yesterday but the game last weekend and I say the game because I'm talking of course about the game you know which one is the game when Kirk Herbstreet decides that's the one I'm gonna go call and not this last Saturday, but last Saturday, uh, Texas against Ohio state, the game, right?

19:44 Any, any Texas fans here? You know what I'm talking about? The game. I'm not a Texas fan, but I watched the game. I had a buddy of mine who's, who's a big Texas fan and, uh, he's a, he's an artist and so a music artist. And so I was just blowing up his phone during the game and, and, uh, and, uh, he wasn't responding. So I figured he had a show. And so the next morning we finally caught up or driving, I'm driving to church. He calls me. He's like, dude, I gotta tell you. He goes, I'm sitting on the tour bus last night. He goes, I'm flipping around. He goes in and Texas is just getting killed. It's 20 to three when they came in my bus and said, hey, we need to get you to come on out. Like they're ready for you. He goes, so I turned the TV off and I thought this game was over at 20 to three. Texas has three points. Ohio State's got 20 points. He goes, I go do my show. He goes, I get back on the bus. He goes, as soon as I put the little code in, the bus opened up. He goes, I walk in the bus and he goes, this guy sitting on the bus. a friend of mine looks at me and he goes, all right, all right, all right.

20:41 He got McConaughey. Do you know what I'm talking about? Matthew McConaughey. All right, all right, all right. He goes, I look and he goes, all right, all right, all right. He goes, nope, it's not all right. We just got killed. I can't, I wonder if they're going to keep us in the top 10. He goes, no, you don't know. He goes, they came back, bro. He goes, your team came back. Then he said, he tells me the final score. He said, and then he leaves because he's got to go start tearing down and everything. He said, I'm sitting there, I'm watching this game and I know the final score. He said there was so much excitement. The word I would use here, since we're, we're looking at Philippians, the epistle of joy is there so much joy in watching a comeback. When you know the final score is we win. Do you believe this? Do you believe as a Christian, you can literally fumble the ball in your marriage. You can, you can lose a lot of battles. You can lose a lot of battles.

21:37 But if you have Jesus, you're a war already won. You can throw a lot of interceptions. You can fumble a lot of balls. You can in life. That doesn't mean that those don't have consequences. But if you know Jesus, say, I am a war already won. You win. You win. By the way, the other side of that's true, too. You can win every battle in life. I win the battle on money. I knew exactly when to buy Nvidia stock before it even started. I went, you can win every battle in life, but if you don't know the Lord, you are a war right now, lost.

22:14 But at 180s, if you know him, your war already won. And so vision is three things. It's refined by the past. At the same time, resilient in the future. Why? Because I'm resting in, I'm resilient in the present because I'm resting in the future. And this isn't just a leadership talk that belongs at the C3 conference or whatever. This is the reality of how life functions every single day. When you realize some of you right now are not everything you could be in the present or everything that you could be in the future, because you just continue to get snagged, the sweater snagged on the past. You keep being defined by it. And God's going, I want to heal that for you. Just to testify to it in my own life. I'm going to tell you like a few years ago, I lived in, I lived in Birmingham, Alabama, and I was driving down to go to the beach to speak the panhandle of Florida. I was driving to Destin, Florida to go speak at a conference and I got in my car and it was like a five hour drive. So I thought I'll just, I'll just drive it instead of flying. It's easier. And so by myself in the car and I'm going down this one highway, the highway is called three 31. And as I'm going down this one highway, I was running late. I was like, I gotta, I gotta get there. Cause they wanted me there by five o'clock for soundcheck or whatever. And so I'm in the car and as I'm driving, all of a sudden I see this big sign that says detour. And I thought, well, that means I'm just going to be even more late. And so it detours me down from this highway 331 down to 231.

23:42 And I'm telling you that part because all of a sudden I'm being rerouted and I end up in a city that I never go to anymore called Dothan, Alabama. Now Dothan, Alabama used to be about 30 minutes away from Enterprise, Alabama, which was a city that I used to live in when I was in middle school. And when I was my, I was a freshman in high school and a junior in high school. And I remember we get to Dothan, I get to Dothan and, and I'm again, all I'm thinking about is like, how do I catch up on some time? I'm running late. And so I, I'm going fast and I get to the south of town. And as I'm on two 31, trying to get there as fast as I can rerouted and everything. I look up and I see the sign and I looked down and I realized it, the sign said Olympia swim and tennis club. And then it dawned on me that like, wow, I've been there before. And I used to be on the tennis team and enterprise. And it dawned on me that I had played tennis there at a tennis tournament for my high school one time. So I drive past it and I thought, Oh, I remember Olympia.

24:44 It's cool to see like all these years later, it's still there. And I drive by it. And, um, And as I'm driving and as I'm kind of in the car, all of a sudden my hands start shaking. And then all of a sudden I just start weeping. And that's not normal for me. Like I've never had a panic attack. I know people who do. But all of a sudden I'm just like, what is happening to me? And I just start weeping. I mean, I'm just like ugly cry, you know? And I see a Wendy's and I pull up in this Wendy's. I'm in the parking lot. I'm just like telling myself what's happening. I'm just crying. And people are coming out of the Wendy's. Like, I'm sure they're looking at me like, are the Frosties that good? You know, it's just weird. I get it. And so I'm just there. And while I'm there, all of a sudden it hits me. It dawns on me that I had blocked out what had happened to me for well over 20 years at the Olympia swim and tennis when I was a junior in high school. So I'm sitting there and then it just comes back to me that when I was a junior in high school, my tennis team enterprises, tennis team had gone to a regional there and we were playing Dothan. And while we were there, all of a sudden this perfect storm had brewed up where literally three to three, three matches against three matches. There was a tie break match and my match had become the tie break match. I was the sixth seed on my tennis team. And then all of a sudden everybody was done with their match. And if I, if I won this one tennis match, three to three tie. I would have broken the tie for us and we would have gone to state. And I'll never forget.

26:18 Nobody normally cared about what the sixth seed did, but everybody was there. My whole tennis team was there and they were like, you can do it. Nasser, you're going to take us to the final. It's going to be amazing. And normally I was the nerd that nobody like, I didn't get bullied by the bully. I got bullied by the kid that got bullied by the bully. I was the one kid below him in the food chain, but all of a sudden I was cool. The guys on my tennis team were like, come on Nasser. And, and, and then all of a sudden my dad showed up. My dad had never come to any tennis. He owned a restaurant. He was always working, but he'd gone to Dothan to pick up some supplies. And my mom had said to him, Hey, they're playing in Dothan swing by and see it. So my dad, for the first time and only time had come to this. And so you got to understand I'm Iranian military, Iranian tough dad. He's sitting there. And then the girls tennis team that were playing elsewhere had been finished early. They came over, they heard, they came over to support the guys. And this girl was there, this girl that I really liked the police called it harassment, but I called it love. I'm just telling you, I love this girl. And she never noticed me, but now she's being faced to have to sit in the stands and watch me. And in my mind, I thought, man, I'm going to, I'm going to take us to state. This girl's going to like me. It's going to be amazing. My team is going to like me. My dad's here. The one time I get, this is so, this is awesome. We start the match and it's one Oh, two Oh, three Oh, four Oh, five Oh, six. So the biblical term for that is butt whooping. And I'm on the receiving end. He beats me six. So my teammates are no longer saying you can beat him. They're like, you can get a game. So he's won the first set. It's best out of three sets. He's won the first set. Six. So I'm at bagel. He's at six.

28:03 I get up between, you know, towel offs. We're about getting ready to go to the second set. And I stand up. Everybody's there. My dad's there. The girl is there. My teammates are there. I stand up and I'm just so insecure in that moment. Right. So I reach for my bag and I get my, I get my tennis racket. I had like four tennis rackets in the, in the bag. And as soon as I pulled out the tennis racket, I looked at the guy that I was playing my opponent. And I said, Hey man, ever seen the inside of one of these rackets? And he looked confused. He goes like, what? I said, you ever seen the inside of one of these rackets? and he goes no and then I took the racket and I broke it as if to say you might be killing me but I'm so cool I can break a hundred dollar racket when you're insecure you know what I'm saying I just just manifest itself in just these weird ways oozes and I broke that racket graphite anybody can break it and I said this is what it looks like on the inside and I flipped it and I threw it in the bag and I grabbed the other racket like I'm so rich. And I walked over for the second set. And as I'm walking over to the court, all of a sudden I hear David and I turn around and my dad had gotten out of the stands.

29:15 He'd walked over, opened the gate, walked on the court. He's standing there by my tennis bag and he goes, come here. Now imagine Iranian military father. I looked at him I said dad I got a match he goes you come now and I walked over to my dad and as soon as I got to to reach he just reared back and he just slapped me I'll never forget the sound. It was giggles and gasps at the same time. It was 20 people in a stand going, because my dad just slapped me. And I'm just telling you, Pastor Red, the side he didn't slap was redder than the side that he slapped because just shame.

30:08 and embarrassment I felt like, man, normally stuff like that happens. No one's seeing now. Everybody I care about is seeing my teammates. and then he looks at me and he goes give me the racket standing there I'm shaking I remember I'm just so embarrassed and and he um he goes give me the racket I give him the racket he puts the racket down he grabs the one that I'd broken out of my tennis bag he hands it to me he goes play with this I walk back to the place where I'm about to be ready and ready to receive the serve the guys looking at me like, dude, what do I do? I'm just like, bro, just finish me off. He was beating me so bad with a good racket. Now I had a broken racket. It took him like five minutes to finish me off, 10 minutes to finish me off. 6-0-6-0. We got done. Nobody said anything that day. We got in the vans. We went home. A couple of days later, somebody went practice, broke a string, and they broke the barrier. They cracked. Hey, you broke a string. Give it to Nasser. He plays with broken rackets and everybody giggled and a couple more things happened. And, um, fast forward 22 years later, and I've just driven by the place where so much shame and hurt and pain.

31:25 I'm sitting in this Wendy's parking lot. I'm just weeping and I'm just like, man. I wasn't a Christian then. My dad wasn't a Christian then. But man. So I mustered up enough courage.

31:46 And I was already really late. So I thought, so what? And I got in the car and I went back up. I drove two miles back up to the Olympia Tennis Club. And I knew exactly where it was. I knew exactly where I had been scarred. I walked, I got out of the car. I walked right to that spot. And I sat in the very spot where my dad slapped me.

32:09 And I just closed my eyes and I said, I forgive you. I forgive you. I'm no longer going to let this moment that happened 20 something years ago define my relationship with you. it has had its fangs in me. And I forgave my dad. Got in the car, went to the event. Didn't call my dad on the drive home to say, I forgive you. Because he'd have been like, for what? For the time you hit me. Which time? That's how they have. because it wasn't about what it wasn't for him. It was for me.

32:48 And can I just tell you, I don't have the psychology around it, but I can just tell you right now, all of a sudden, no longer defined by that moment. I had more resiliency in these moments. My dad passed away 10 months ago. And that relationship was so rich. Why? Because vision is not getting amnesia. It's remembering, but not reliving. and forgiving. So many tears in this room because for some of you, this went from like a leadership talk to like all of a sudden you're thinking about your dad and you're thinking about the boss that made you promises that he didn't play out. Like your boss told you you're immune to the economy and then you were the first to be let go.

33:33 The fake lifters got to keep their job, the hardest working, got let go. I'm sorry that happened, but I just want you to know, look at me, I want you to know that in this moment, God is saying, this is real, but don't let it rob you of who I've given you. You do the new identity that I've given you the hope that you can be rested in the future. if you're weeping through this, I want to tell you that in these moments, the reality of it for you, I don't know what, what your tears are for, ma'am, like looking at you right here and you, ma'am looking, I want you to know, if you're in this moment, you can do this. I sat in that tennis court and I thought, what happened? Like literally what happened that day? He brought shame. He brought embarrassment that day. He, he got to define my, the label over me with my tennis esteemed. I thought, this is what happened. Then I, then I thought, what did it cost? Can I say what it costs? It costs a, it costs a bit of a governor on the way that I trusted people, not just my dad, but other people, the way that I parented my kids. And so it's like, what happened? What did it cost? If this is you right now, this is for you. What happened?

34:42 What did it cost? And now here's the deal. Now, you know what it costs. Are you willing to give Jesus the bill? oh no no no I want to give the person who hurt me the bill they don't care to pay it back probably you're thinking about them they're not thinking about you they can't even pay it back but are you willing to give them the bill and so vision is this idea that like I have the hope of the future because the healing is there so can I get you just wherever you are just to bow your heads with me some of you this is for you this is real for you this isn't just a talk you're hearing this isn't three three songs and a TED talk this morning this is and God's word God's word today is reminding me the glory years and the gory years whatever they are they've defined me and I need to find resilience in the present and hope in the future because I need what's been snagging my sweater has been the woundings of the past. I wake up every day and I love Jesus and I hate the person who hurt me at the same time. I inhale love and I exhale hate and I'm just tired. I'm tired of it owning me, defining me. If that's you, wherever you are, will you just lift your hand?

36:04 This is for me today. Okay. Anybody else? Do you believe that the power of Jesus resurrection power is greater than the power of the wounded? Trust them in it. Some of you today, what you needed to hear was that generator illustration, like the inside power of the gospel in you. That's not your backup power. It's your primary power. It's bigger than the circumstances. Fight the good fight. Keep running the race. Press on. and man, the hope of heaven. Amen. So good that we know we win or thank you for this moment. Thank you for what you've given us in the gospel.

36:52 The same power that rose Christ from the grave is within me. I mean, never get over it. We pray this in your name.