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Well, good evening. Welcome to Life Group. So glad you joined together with us tonight at whatever group you're attending.

And uh tonight we finish the series on the book we've been going through called Not Safe, which is written by Mark Batterson. This little book that offers so much good content to help us live the lives that God has in mind for us as individuals, as well as a church family. As this one thing to hear the content being shared on this video, but the real purpose of the content is to give us something to act on that will impact our lives and will result in helping us make greater impact in the kingdom of God.

As the Apostle James taught, you know, it's not enough to be hearers. God expects us to be doers. And the Life Group is about much more than just content.

It's also about relationships. It's about the side conversations. It's about praying together and growing closer together in mutual trust and respect for each other.

So, the real benefit of Life Group is that it has the potential to make our church stronger and much more unified. As I stated previously, the book teaches that Jesus died not just to save us from eternity, but to also empower each one of us to be a threat to the agenda of hell. And the book poses the question, when did we start believing that God is okay with us just living a comfortable, convenient lifestyle?

So, Not Safe really is about us having greater trust in God and truly being willing to walk by faith, not by feelings and not by natural sight. And Jesus didn't give his life to keep us safe. He sacrificed his life to give us new life, but also to give us access to supernatural power to advance his kingdom.

So, tonight let's start off by reading a passage of scripture. Ezequiel 8 and 3 uh from the NIV it says, "The spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and in visions of God he took me to Jerusalem to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court where the idol that provokes to jealousy stood." Notice that phrase there, "where the idol that provokes to jealousy stood." And we've probably all heard it said that God is a jealous God. This means that he does not want a partial commit from from from us.

Excuse me. A partial commitment from us. He's not honored by part-time Christians.

He wants all of us. Now, he may be a jealous God, but let me point out that he is not jealous of anything. He can't be.

He's the almighty, the all-sufficient one. But the almighty God is jealous for everything. Because it all belongs to him.

Every blade of grass, every drop of water, every grain of sand, every cell in your body. He created it all. And it all belongs to him.

God revealed a part of his character to Moses on Mount Sinai. It says in Exodus 34:14, uh "For you shall worship no other God, for the Lord whose name is Get this, his name is jealous is a jealous God." So, we see a double emphasis here. Now, when God says something twice, we need to think twice about what he's saying.

We belong to God twice, actually. We won once by virtue of creation and twice by virtue of redemption. So, actually we owe him a double portion of our devotion and our faithfulness.

Jealousy is is not a character trait that we would normally want to put on display, right? But God's jealousy is a beautiful expression of his love. It's a jealous love that wants all of our devotion.

I think about it like this. I don't believe my wife would be honored or very accommodating to me if I were to say, "Baby doll, I really love you, but I have someone else that I have feelings for as well. I want to maintain my relationship with you, but I'm also going to give some of my time to this other lady.

And I promise you, I will treat you like a queen. I'll give you a foot massage anytime you want it. But I just hope you'll be understanding when I need to share some time with someone else." Now, I think we all know enough about Sister G to know she wouldn't put up with that possibility.

And actually, it would be crazy for me to even consider such an arrangement. Because when I said I do to Nyla Sorrows, it was not a 50/50 proposition. I promised all of me to her and her alone.

It's a commitment I made for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health. Marriage means no longer me, it becomes we. That means if you mess with her, you mess with me.

And I think she feels the same way about anybody who tries to mess with me. So, when we consider ourselves as the bride of Christ, we ought to understand the tenacity of jealous love. And when we consider God's expectation of faithfulness in the biblical context, we need to realize that anything less than a total commitment is the same as spiritual adultery.

Now, most of us know John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son." We may have that memorized, but have we truly personalized it? We know he loves everyone. So, out of 8.3 billion people on the planet, according to current statistics, it may be easy to feel lost in the mix.

And the reality is that Jesus was beaten unrecognizably, and he hung on that cross because of his amazing love for you as an individual. So, if we consider the fact that he proved he proved how much he loves you, I'm asking you to consider, is he truly your pearl of great price? Is he truly more valuable to you than all the other things that can so easily distract us from our faithfulness to him?

I previously read from the book of Ezekiel, and we read that phrase there, the idol that provokes to jealousy. Uh scholars believe this idol was referring to the Canaanite goddess of fertility. It was their sex god.

And it seems strange to me how people would bow down and worship a piece of whittled wood that they had made for themselves. But, really, are we any different? Many, many people today are deeply motivated by lust.

Now, pornography is a $100 billion industry. Lust is worshipped secretly, and it's also worshipped addictively. But, many people who are not addicted to porn are still motivated by lust.

Now, lust does have a sexual context, but lust can be defined also as just an intense desire or a craving for something that brings pleasure or satisfaction. Some people lust after their own independence. They have a strong craving and a desire for authority and autonomy.

They have a strong desire to make their own choice about what I'm going to do with my time, my talents, my treasure. It's mine and I'll do what I want. Basically, we lust after control of our own life.

So, idolatry can be considered anything that keeps God from being your all in all. Now, you can identify your idols by looking at the way you spend your time, the way you spend your money. Because your calendar and your bank account don't lie.

As Mark Batterson stated in the book, idolatry is not a problem, it's the problem. Another way to consider what may be idols in your life is what makes you mad, what makes you sad, what makes you glad. What would ruin your day?

What triggers your strongest emotional reactions? Now, the reality is that in Ezekiel's day, the people were flatline when it comes to their feelings toward God. And their most noticeable daily motivations were for things other than God.

This is not to say that it's a sin to have a favorite team, favorite hobby, favorite preferred way to spend some of your free time. But, it becomes a real problem when the hobby, the team, or your free time begins to interfere with your faithfulness to God and your faithfulness to his church. Mark Batterson said in the book, if we won't hold out on God, God won't hold out on us.

Now, we all want to see God do amazing things in our lives and in our church. But the amazing things really they're not our job. God is unlimited and he desires to do amazing things for you, for me, and for our church.

Every promise in his word is very real and I believe very dependable. So, if the amazing things are God's job, then our job is to fully surrender and live a life of consecration to him. I believe we can trust in a 3,000-year-old promise.

From the NIV, it stated, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you." God wants to do the amazing, but maybe he's waiting on us us for the for the deeper consecration. So, let me ask you, does the way you use your time, talents, and treasure prove that God truly is your pearl of great price? I've got a strong belief that if we do our job, he will do his.

So, now comes the time when you all can engage in some conversations about what you've heard tonight. And then I'm asking each group to take some time to pray together, pray for one another, and again, thank you for joining us for life group. This is the the last life group get-together for this series, and uh we'll not have any scheduled life groups through the summer, so we're planning to start back a new series in September.

Uh some of our life group leaders have already let me know that they will still have some get-togethers over the next couple months, and that that's that's a good thing. Uh we don't have to have an event on the calendar to be able to get together for fellowship or prayer with our church family. So, God bless you and I hope you all have a great week.