Don't You Want More?

In this episode, Kevin  explores the idea of wanting more of God beyond just performing religious duties and serving in ministry. Kevin emphasizes the importance of knowing God intimately and growing in relationship with Him. He challenges listeners to go deeper in their pursuit of God and not settle for a surface-level understanding. 

Transcript

Kevin (00:00.148)
This is Beyond the Benediction. Thank you for joining me again on another podcast adventure. Make sure you like, share, and subscribe to my YouTube page, Beyond the Benediction Podcast. If you haven't subscribed, what are you waiting for? We have a lot of great things we talk about here on the show. I have a lot of things in my catalog, great episodes that will help you and your growth to Christ as you try to do here. My tagline, Dealing with the Deficits in Discipleship. That's what we're all about here. So again, make sure you like, share, and subscribe. Comment. You know, if anything that we talk about here that...

blessed you and encourage you even if you disagreed. That's okay. We don't shy away from disagreements. We're not perfect here. None of us are. So by all means, comment, like, share again, to stay in the loop of everything we got going on on the show. Now this week, as you can see, I'm solo this week, solo dolo as they say. This week I had an episode. This episode really was birthed a few weeks back.

And this is something I wanted to talk about, but I just hadn't had the time to do it. But this episode is told, as you probably said in the title, in the tagline is, don't you want more? And just to give a brief backstory, this came really from, all my episodes are personal, but this came from Easter or Resurrection Sunday. For those of us who have been following me,

I had the privilege and the honor and the blessing to bring the word on Resurrection Sunday. So the first time ever in my life I was ever able and blessed to do so. And by all accounts, it went very well. People were very complimentary. I felt like God had given me the right word for the right people for the right time. And again, by all accounts, it went well, smashing success. But when I got home,

that evening, and I'm sure a lot of preachers have maybe gone through this to some degree, I didn't feel satisfied. Now, by that I mean, it wasn't because I thought I didn't do a good job. And it wasn't because I felt like I let the people down, I felt like I let God down, I was disobedient. No, everything was in line. The Holy Spirit used me mightily. But I just didn't feel as satisfied about it in the sense of, wow, good job, Kevin.

Kevin (02:23.7)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just, there was something amiss. There was something awry and that really led me down a path of just introspection and thinking. And I was, you know, I really said to myself, okay, you prepared for weeks because you knew in advance you're going to have this word. God gave you the word. You gave it well. And it still left you feeling not empty, but still not.

fully satisfied. And I came to myself and I thought to myself rather than I said, is this what it's all about for you as a minister, teacher, preacher, whatever? Is this it? Is this just performance? Is this just going to grips with just doing what God has called you to do? Do it, rinse, repeat. And I thought about it and I was in prayer and really just seeking the Lord and what

What came to me was again, the title for this episode. Um, I had been selling for less in the sense of that's, is that all I wanted to know God from the perspective of just the God who prepares me to do his work. So yes, I have a relationship with the Lord. Praise God. Praise God for that. But have I relegated it to just being his servant?

have I relegated to just me being the one who teaches and preaches and pours out? And I do that with passion. I do that with love. God gave me that gift. I love to do it. I'll do it 24 seven. But after giving that word and being used, again, I want to make sure I reiterate this. I didn't feel dissatisfied with the results. The results were great, but I felt like something here was missing. And I always believe.

that nothing that happens in our lives is inconsequential or happenstance or coincidence. I believe that God is very much hands on in our lives. And I came to the conclusion that, you know, I needed more of him. And it wasn't just in the context, like I said, of me just learning about him to share his word.

Kevin (04:50.388)
or learning more about him to teach someone, or learning about him to prepare for a lesson, things of that nature. And it made me really, again, go down a rabbit hole of thinking about not just for Kevin, but for a lot of Christians who only know God on that baseline level of church or just those creature comfort blessings. So I go to church, I pay my tithes, I serve in ministry.

And we know God on that level. But if you ever think about the vastness of God, is there ever a way when we should feel like we know him completely? Because we can, obviously. But let me give you an example. And let me just say this off the bat. I have some scriptures, but this is kind of prepared slash rambling. So it's going to be a combination of the two. So bear with me. You're probably saying, Kevin, you're rambling already. But bear with me. I do have a couple of scriptures. But.

Let's say you were in the company of a billionaire with a B and this billionaire said, Hey, you know what? I'm going to slide over a blank check and you can fill out whatever amount you want. And I will give you that amount, whatever it is. I mean, I'm not going to give you all my money, but within reason, you fill in the blank and whatever amount you put, you can cash it. And the money is yours.

Right? Imagine that happened to you. And on that check, you wrote $1.

You say, right Kevin, there's no way in the world with this economy, oh, there's gonna be a lot of zeros behind that one. I'm with you, me too. But imagine you just put a dollar. That would sound asinine because why would you only ask for one dollar for someone who has a multitude of billions of dollars who won't affect him at all to give you the money. It's offering you some money that can change your life and your family's life, but you're only asking for a dollar. You see what I'm going with this?

Kevin (06:59.764)
That's what we do with God. And I learned that for myself. We seem like what God is offering so much of him and we're content to know him on a dollar tree, dollar store level. So, and I think part of the reason is that a lot of us, we grew up in church, but we're not growing in Christ.

Again, we get caught up in the things that happen in church service, the things that the church says, the preaching, the teaching, the singing, the praising, the worship. You come dressed in your Sunday batch, your fellowship, you have your little lunch after the service, you go to brunch with the people, you do all that stuff. And then every Sunday it's over and over and over again. And what should be a relationship becomes routine. And now we're not trying to learn more about the God we come to serve every Sunday in church.

It's an indictment of us using that analogy again. This billionaires giving you an option, but you're selling for a dollar. Now, what's the point of me saying this episode? Because again, I told you it was half rambling, half scripture. This is something that was dear to me and this is why I want to do a solo because I want us to have a mindset of first of all, understanding who God is. And I say that and it sounds like a cliche, but do we really know?

who God is because we confuse church culture with knowing Christ. Those two things are totally different. You can know everything that goes on in service. Let me just keep it, keep it a buck. The church I went to back home years ago, um, I could know the order service with my eyes closed. Whenever I stepped foot in that, in that edifice, I knew what was going to be first.

I knew the order when we was going to pray, when we was going to do the offering, when the service was going to come. I knew all of that stuff like the back of my hand. I could have been blindfolded and sat in the back of the church with my back to the front and I could tell you what was going to happen next. That's how familiar I was with the service. Some of you probably have that same, same thing, but is that the same as knowing Christ? Is that the same as knowing Jesus and not

Kevin (09:27.956)
just knowing Jesus, but knowing him intimately and knowing him at a level more so than you did when you first met him. Think about it in any relationship, as you spend time with person, well, a person and you grow with them, there are things about that person you would never begin to learn and know you learn nuances of their personality, the way they laugh, the things that they make them smile, their favorite food, their favorite color, things of that nature. There's no different with us in Christ.

When we spend time with Christ, the more time we spend with him, the more we should know about him, because he already knows us. So the key isn't for him to get to know us. The key is for us to know him. And we do that when we intentionally have a desire to know him. Hence my title, Don't You Want More? And that's why I felt so.

Uncomfortable is a better word after I preached that Easter sermon because I got to the point so you know what Lord there's got to be more to my relationship with you than just performing. Granted yes I am a servant dare I say slave of Christ. Scriptures are replete. I am totally giving away to him. It is not about Kevin.

I do not determine what I do. If I'm a Christian, I'm sold out. Lord, you tell me, you direct my steps. I am at your beck and call. So that part, we just got to set, if you're a Christian, you belong to him personally, period, point blank, full stop. But so because we're sold off of him, he wants us to know him more. Now that's the part where the onus is on us because he gives us the opportunity. He gives us the bandwidth.

And we don't take the opportunity that we have in front of us to get to know him better. We don't take the opportunity to try to find out more about this God that we serve. I want to show a scripture and this is the first one. I think I have three. And this is Job chapter 42, starting at verse three. And it says, you asked,

Kevin (11:50.036)
Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance? It is I, and I was talking about things I knew nothing about, things too far wonderful for me. Now that scripture in Job, this is Job after God had questioned him. And he asked him, he asked him, after Job, after God had questioned him, and.

After Job had questioned God and God came to him and was like, okay, well, let me ask you some questions. If you're questioning me, let me ask you some questions. So once God asked him all these questions that obviously Job could not answer, that was Job's response. You know, you say who comes to you without not, it's me coming to you asking about things I don't know, talking about things I got no idea what I'm talking about. Basically, Job was like saying, my bad, I was tripping. Here I am questioning you and I got no idea what I'm talking about. I don't know the

the beginning of the depths of who you are and the things you created and why they do what they do. So that scripture is letting us see how deep God is, how much more to Him there is to Him than just the God who blesses me, but just the God who woke me up this morning and started me on my way. I'm not the one who's gonna make sure I'm blessed in the city, blessed in the field. We relegate God to cliches and...

bumper sticker idioms, as if that's all there is to him. And I'm speaking to you, but I'm speaking to myself. I want more of him. There's so much more to God. And can you, again, using that analogy I gave earlier, can you just imagine how much more we're missing out on sitting in front of an eternal billionaire and selling for a dollar? And I think that's part of the reason why some of us leave the faith.

is because we get a taste of God and we think that's all there is. And then when life starts life and then we feel like, okay, what happens now? And God is saying, now I need you to get deeper in me, but we don't want to do the work. We get comfortable and complacent in the regular and there's nothing regular about God.

Kevin (14:12.596)
There's nothing that should be regular or routine about relationship. Again, remember who we're talking about. God is God and he wants to know you. He wants to have a relationship with you. He desires to spend time with you and he's not doing so because he's missing out. He does so for our benefit. We are blessed from our relationship with Christ.

He does this stuff for us. It's for our benefit. God will be perfectly fine if Kevin didn't worship him. God will be perfectly fine if Kevin never regarded his name. If none of us on this building, on this planet ever worshiped God, God would not have an inferiority complex. He would not be in heaven just beside himself with anguish because these wretched.

creatures that I made out of dust don't regard me. He does not have any issues with his self -esteem at all. But everything he does is because he loves us and he wants us to know him. Now the question is, why don't we want more? Why do we settle for just the surface level stuff?

I mean, that's the question that I don't know if we're necessarily going to answer. I'm going to give my best step ahead. I think because we get distracted by the things in the world and the pool of the things of the world. And we look at those things and think those things are more advantageous or more desirable than God himself. I saw this video. I was on, I was scrolling on TikTok and saw this video. I'm not going to say who the artist was, but they're

they were performing one of their hit songs. Now, they're older now than they were in their, I guess, their prime. I mean, they're still around and they're still relevant, but, you know, like all of us get older. So they're maybe a few years old. They're a lot quite a bit older than they were when they first initially did that song. So they were singing the song and doing the thing. And their...

Kevin (16:33.876)
their physical appearance had changed because they gotten older like all of us have. Now I looked at the comments and the people were just tearing this person to shreds saying, Oh my goodness, why they're wearing that outfit. Oh my goodness. They let themselves go. Oh my God. They look huge. They just, and it just was tearing down and they need to sit down. Now, why am I bringing up this particular artist in this situation? I'm bringing this up because this thought came to my mind.

Whatever you live for, you will die to keep. Let me say that again. Whatever you live for, you will die to keep. In this case, this artist live for the adulation of the crowd, for the adulation of the public, for people to tell them how great and wonderful of a performer they were. Now, like all of us, you get older.

And you can't do it the same way you did when you were 25, when you're 45, when you're 55. It's just the fact of life. You may, you have a wear exception that can kind of hold on, but at some point, whether it's entertainment, whether it's sports, whatever it is, even me, it's going to be a certain age where I can't be behind this camera. It's just, it might be too old. It just, y 'all might say I'm too old now. I know I'm not. But my point is,

If that's all you are living for, look at what you're selling for. You're selling for less and the same people that these artists and these athletes and people want the claim and the adulation from, they're going to lose it from those same people. At some point, you're not going to get the applause. At some point, I saw this other story. I saw an interview with, um,

with Shaq Shaquille O 'Neal. And those of us who, everybody kind of knows who Shaq is. And he gave an interview about what happened when he finally retired. And what he said was, which is interesting. He said, what really hurt him was because he realized at the end, he was not the same guy anymore. He said, I remember I used to be Shaq. I was an all star 13, 14, 15 years in a row. Then after all of a sudden, I'm not getting the all star game anymore.

Kevin (18:57.556)
I'm not getting votes all started again. My last year, I averaged less than 10 points a game. And he said that, but it hurt me and humbled me. And I realized I don't have anymore. And there was a sense of depression and it's something that a lot of athletes go through when they can't play anymore. Now I'm saying all that to make the point that if we're living,

in trying to find value, contentment, and meaning in anything that happens on this planet, you're never going to be satisfied. It may keep you for a while, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, but at some point, whatever it is on this side of heaven is going to not fulfill you. So now, why don't we look for the one?

who's not going to ever go out of style, who's not going to be someone that retires and leaves us on the lurch. God is eternal. And there's so much more to him that we can learn and more and get established and to be satisfied in. If we put our faith in satisfaction in knowing him, we would never get to the point where we're doubting and we're feeling like I can't do it anymore. Because there's so much more.

to him. And it's one of those things guys where for me it's a personal pet peeve of mine when I see Christians or people who call themselves Christians who have no desire for growth, who have no desire to learn more about God, who have no desire to want to get into his word and just man like for me I read the scripture and something

jumps out at me like these scriptures I'm sharing with you guys. Oh my goodness, I had never seen that before. That's exciting to me, man. I'm learning more about God. But how come we don't have more Christians that have that perspective? How come we don't have more Christians who don't care about what song is being sung on Sunday? Who don't care about the gossip that goes on in the church? Who cares more about when I leave this building,

Kevin (21:22.484)
And I go home and during the week, I'm still communing with God. I'm still learning about God. I'm still growing in Christ and not only growing in Christ, but Christ is convicting you and stripping things from you that are imperfect because it's a process, sanctification, right? It's like we're content to be stagnant in our growth of knowing God, which means we're stagnant in the growth that God can do in us.

Those two things come together, family. Because think about it. If you're not growing in your pursuit of God, you're stopping God's pursuit of trying to grow you. Maybe that's why you're still struggling in some areas. Because you're not even going to God for him to reveal you that that should be a struggle for you. Maybe the reason why, let me go there, maybe the reason why some things, some habits,

you still have, it's not because you want to do them, it's because you're not growing in Christ for him to help you realize that maybe you shouldn't do them, or maybe he can help you with them. Maybe he's saying to you, when you come to me, now I can begin the stripping process. But then we're comfortable in knowing God strictly on a baseline level.

We do so to our detriment. And again, God is not affected. It hurts him because he loves us and he wants the best for us. So just imagine how much that hurts us. Let me give you another scripture. This is Daniel chapter two, verse 22. And it says, he reveals deep and mysterious things and knows what lies hidden in the darkness, though he is surrounded.

by light. Think about that. He knows the things that are in the darkness, even though he's surrounded by light. That's the God that we serve, and that's the God we don't act like we wanna know. Think about it, if he's surrounded by light, but he knows the things in the darkness, God, I wanna know what you're seeing. What are you seeing? What darkness do you see in me?

Kevin (23:51.668)
What issues do you see in me? What proclivities, what habits do you see me? Because when it comes to us, we walk around with personal blinders on. Cause we don't see the stuff we're doing wrong. We see the stuff everybody else is doing wrong. But the stuff Kevin's dealing with, we try to downplay. It's not that bad. At least I'm not doing what they're doing.

But God is saying, I see all of it. All the dark stuff, all the stuff that's in the mud that you try to push down and press down and suppress when you get around, folks. I see all the stuff you do when nobody else is around. I know what goes on in your mind that people can't see. I know how you really feel when you talk to that person at work. I know how that person really feels about you.

Because think about it guys, we're talking about people who are humans, who are flawed and evil and greedy and vindictive and selfish, all of us are. Could you imagine if, you know, when someone's talking to you and they may be someone who you like or you got a relationship with, you really could read their mind on how they really feel about you. You really knew what they thought about how they view Kevin, how they view Susie, how they view Mark.

When you walked up, hey, how you doing, man? Hey, man, I'm just having a conversation. You're having a conversation in their mind. They're thinking, man, I can't stand that Kevin. Okay, here comes Kevin. Let me go ahead and, oh, he about to talk to me to death. Let me go ahead and, you probably had those same conversations. Oh, here comes Joanne. Let me get my mind right, because she about to talk me to death. Okay, she about to tell me about this guy that she dating and I been talking to her about it for 30 years. She ain't gonna break up yet.

Just imagine if we could hear those conversations that people have about us. Some of it may be good. Now I said that to say, God knows all those things. He knows all the intricacies, all those unheard and unseen words that people have about us. Don't you want to know the God who has that level of insight? Who is available to tell you, he may not tell you what they're saying.

Kevin (26:19.668)
But he can tell you, Hey, maybe, maybe John ain't the one person that you think he is. Maybe Barbara ain't the person that you need to really tell all your business to. So these are all things that God can help us with. If we have a desire to be more in him, we have to get past this idea that God,

exists for us that God is only his only job is to bless Kevin his only job in life all God wants to do is bless you and it doesn't matter what you do he's gonna make it happen think about it we relegate God to to Santa Claus or something like that but don't you don't you want more?

Don't you want more of God? Like I said, I gave that sermon and I just remember sitting in my bed and just like, why don't I feel good about this? And again, I want to reiterate, it wasn't anything sacrilegious. It wasn't anything where the sermon was bad. I just felt like there was more and I felt like I had to pray and I felt like God was telling me.

because I'm giving you a desire for me and you should want more. You should want more of me than just to preach my word or just to teach or just to do a podcast. Yes, these are things that I'm calling Kevin to do, but I don't want you to do those things at the expense of knowing me.

I tell you guys all the time about my park that I go to and I walk and I spend time with the Lord and I try to go as much as I can. But what's your...

Kevin (28:30.996)
Where's the place that you've designated where you just spend time with God? Now when I say spend time with God, I don't mean necessarily praying in the sense of asking here for something. And I'm gonna try to make it a distinction here as well. And I don't mean necessarily worship while we should worship Him all the time.

I mean, spending time with him, speaking, talking, fellowship, no, just being in his presence. What's your park where you go and you and God just commune together. That's something, if you don't have that, you need to find a place, find some time.

Find an opportunity, find an area in your life because your relationship with God is too important to just leave it to where I'll get to it when I get to it. What if God told you that? Or I get to your request when I get to it. You coming to me asking for life, health, and strength. I got these other five million people. When I get to Kevin, Kevin, you number five million and one. Let me take you to these five million. Then when I get to you, I'll make sure you got life.

What have God gave us to push off?

Don't you want more? You should because there is more available. There is more that can be had. There is more that God has placed at our table. This is available.

Kevin (30:25.268)
I got one more scripture. Philippians chapter three, starting at verse seven. It says, I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord. For his sake, I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage so that I could gain Christ and become one with him.

I no longer count my own righteousness through obeying the law, rather I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God's way of making us right with him depends on faith. Verse 10. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him sharing in his death. This is Paul.

Now, the first being in the scripture, he talks about how he was a Pharisee. He had all these accolades. He had been well regarded in the temple and all in the faith. But he said, none of that mattered because I want to know him. All that stuff that I thought was important, all the stuff I thought was great, all the stuff I thought that I needed. Now I say to myself, I don't need any of that stuff. None of that stuff matters. What matters is knowing Christ.

And I gave the example earlier about the singer and athletes in Shaq. They thought all that stuff was important until they didn't have it anymore. The person lived for the adulation of the crowd and the singer, give it up for singer X or singer Y or performer B. And then now when they get older and people look at them like, you don't sing like you used to. I remember when they used to, man, man, they ain't, they ain't, and I got old now.

I went to such and such as concert and oh, they need to go ahead and give it up because now that person is crushed because now that's what they live for.

Kevin (32:36.212)
But we don't have that issue if we go to Christ because there's never going to be a level where we're just, okay, now you're let down because you don't know him on this level anymore or because you can't do it anymore.

Where is your true desire?

In what way can you say you are really trying to know Him and pursue Him daily? Now all of us to some degree fall short in seeking God every day. We all don't do it like we should, myself included. But like I told you guys, when I had that sermon, after that sermon, it changed for me. And I'm still a work in progress with this, very much so. But...

I just know there's more to this life than just waking up, going to work, taking care of kids, taking care of family, going to church, get you a nice hobby with your friends, family. All that stuff is great. But is that what God wants me to have as soon as my life here on earth? Is that the full extent of my life? To live 70, 80, 90 years working, planning, doing this stuff, and that's the extent?

Or does God have more for me? Not just in heaven, which is the ultimate place, but while we're here on this earth, in this life, in this earthly human flesh vessel.

Kevin (34:13.62)
Doesn't God have -

And when I say more, I don't mean more things. I don't mean more experiences. I don't mean more excursions and things of that nature. God is great enough and wonderful to give us all these great things.

That's more of him. That's available. That scripture I read, Paul says, I consider these things garbage. Do you think when a person's at the end of their life,

They're going to care about how many people cheered them on. They're going to care about how many people said they were great. None of this is going to matter. But God is saying, I have so much things that are better for you here. That yes, heaven is to go, but I'm preparing you for heaven. And in me preparing you for heaven, I'm showing you more of me.

It's a good thing God does not have an inferiority complex. Or he has an issue with his self -esteem because he has a right to take us all out. The way we disregard him, the way we don't even acknowledge the great things he's trying to do, the things he's offering of himself.

Kevin (35:43.572)
And I think I missed this in the last episode I did. Maturity in Christ turns into wanting more of Christ, not the things of Christ, not the things that Christ can give you. You start to realize what a blessing really is. That if you know Christ, you're blessed already. We say that cliche all the time in church. If the Lord don't do nothing else for me,

We say that, do you really mean that? What if God really didn't do anything else for you? Would you still serve? Would you be content? If your relationship with the Lord did not get any better, it did not progress from where it is right now, do you think you know Him well enough that you'll be satisfied?

Maybe you do. I don't. I don't have that level of complacency. I don't have that level of comfort, of stagnation, you know, because things that stand still don't grow. And things that stand still tend to rot. Is your walk rotting?

Does your walk have the stench of stagnation? Or is your walk vibrant and green with growth? Are you sprouting different views and different thoughts and different mindsets? My mindset now about how I see God is totally different than it was four years ago.

I see him differently now than I did four years ago. And it's not about Kevin. I'm not some great guy. I'm still jacked up like everybody else. But can you say that? Can you say you know God more now than you did two years ago? If you were to do a chart of growth, you know when you were a kid, people had a little chart they could mark off three feet, three foot three. You grow inches, you mark off. Can you chart?

Kevin (38:02.804)
your growth with Christ? Or are you spiritually a midget?

And even though you full grown and you don't have any kind of physical ailments, you just refusing to grow. You are still the same height you was at 25 that you were at seven.

Think about that. If that was the case, medically, okay, something's wrong. Okay, Kevin, you are now 25 and we checked you out. You don't have any disorders. Your bone structure's fine. Your muscles are fine. Your organs are fine. Everything is works fine in your system. And you are 22 and you are still three feet tall. Something's wrong. There's no way you should still be three feet tall at 25. You should not be three feet tall spiritually in Christ and you've been walking with him as long as you.

And it's not God's fault. That's our fault. Because we don't want.

And I say this, I'm far from where I want to be, far, definitely far from where I need to be. But I can say, I'm definitely progressing. And I'm thankful for that. But I'm not comfortable where I am. And you shouldn't be either.

Kevin (39:25.236)
When you read the scriptures, and hopefully you do read the scriptures, when you do read the scriptures, what goes on in your mind as you read the Bible? How do you approach?

How do you approach God in prayer? How do you approach moments of worship? How do you handle disappointment? How do you handle blessings? How do you handle people who disappoint you? How do you handle loved ones that hurt you? How do you handle forgiving people who misled you or mistreated you? All of those things,

are going to be indicators of your growth. Because from when you just became a Christian to now, some of those things should be totally different. Not gonna be all of them. There may be some areas you're still growing in and developing and God is moving in you, but in some of those areas, you should be looking more like Christ.

Don't you want more?

I know I do. And I want you to want it. I want more too. But I can't want more for you. So I don't know what this episode is. You're like, OK, he even talked this long and he still don't know? Yeah, I still don't know. This may be just, again, something I just wanted to kind of get off my chest. Hopefully in some area, it was encouraging and maybe even convicting.

Kevin (41:10.996)
to where you would decide, okay, you know what? I hear you, Kevin. And I have to start asking myself, am I comfortable in Christ? And comfortable in Christ is not what you should be. You should be confident in Christ. You should be secure in the foundation of Christ, but you should never be comfortable in where you are.

Being confident and being complacent, two different things. And only one of them helps you grow.

That's it for this week. I thank you guys again. Hopefully you didn't think I was rambling too much. But sometimes as preachers, we don't know how to stop. But I thank you for watching, listening, and I hope this blessed you. But as always, make sure your light shines brightest for the Lord Jesus Christ beyond the benediction. Until next time, be blessed.