Jesus at the Center | Week 2 | The Filter | September 27, 2026

Hey, friends. Welcome to the City Hope podcast. My name is Bobby Thompson and I have the privilege of serving as a lead pastor. I pray that today's message would inspire you, it would encourage you, and it would also challenge you in your walk with Christ. Enjoy today's sermon.

Amen. Can we thank our worship team for leading us so well? Good job, ladies. Well, once again, let me just say good morning and thank you guys so much for being here. Cam's trying to turn the lights on.

There we go, Cam. Good job. We are so, so, so thankful that each and every one of you are here. And if this is one of your first times, man, we would love to meet you, we'd love to connect with you. And as Brian said, there's a little circle tap on the back of your chair.

You can tap that. You can come out to the tent at the. Into the service, and we'd love to meet you face to face and just to connect with you. Before I get started today, I want to make you guys aware of one thing. It's probably my favorite thing that we do.

Once a month, we do what we call a prayer room, and we gather together for one hour and we just get together and pray and we just seek the Lord. It's not really a service. You can kind of come and go as you please. If you can be there for 10 minutes, come for 10. If you can stay for the whole hour, come for the whole hour.

This is it. Wednesday. This Wednesday, I think, is the 30th. Is that right? And my dates right at 6:30am over at the Hope Center.

This will be the first time we've been able to do it at the Hope Center. So we're excited for that as it's officially open now. And so we'll get together, we'll pray, and we believe that God comes where he's wanted, and we just are going to get together and pray. And so if you got any kind of just stress or needs or life or just want to seek the Lord and be alone in his presence, come with us. And we would love to have you this Wednesday morning at 6:30.

I love that last song. It fits perfect with this series that we're in called Jesus at the Center. And what we're looking at over these next several weeks is we're talking about how do I live a life, not just have knowledge, but how do I truly live my life with Jesus at the center? And last week, if you weren't here, last week's message is the most important decision you'll Ever make it is number one in your life if you're ever gonna even attempt to live a life for the Lord. Last week's sermon was all about making Jesus Lord of your eternity.

If I don't have my eternity settled, that's the foundation. That's what I have to know. And I realize Jesus wants to know you. He wants to get to know you in a personally intimate way. And so making him Lord and Savior of your life is decision number one for all of us.

If you missed that, let me encourage you to go back and check that today. We're gonna get practical. All right? We're gonna get really, really practical today because here's the deal. This is what I believe.

Believing Jesus should be first in my life is different than actually living like Jesus is first in my life. Okay? Believing it is one thing. Yeah, I believe in that. I know that.

I trust that. But actually living it out is very, very different than just knowledge. And so I want to start today a little bit different. I want to start with a number. All right, look at this number on the screen.

10,080. Does anybody have any idea what this number represents? Anybody? No, Nobody. All right, well, y' all gotta go back to school.

I'm just kidding. I didn't know it either. Alright, this represents how many minutes that you have every week of your life. Every week has 10,080 minutes. Now, if you came to church today, you're going to spend probably 75 to 80 minutes right here in church.

And if you're a regular church attender, you probably spend about 80 minutes a week. We plan for like 70 to 75. But sometimes the worship team goes long and the host stalks too much. And so sometimes we go longer to. Just kidding, it's usually me.

But that leaves. If you come to church in a regular, that leaves about 10,000 minutes per week of your life where you get to make decisions without a worship leader in the background, without somebody teaching you, without a scripture up, without maybe your Bible being open. 10,000 minutes at work. 10, 10,000 minutes at home. 10,000 minutes at school.

10,000 minutes with your spouse, with your kids, with your family, with your teammates, your roommates, your co workers. 10,000 minutes deciding, what am I gonna watch? What am I gonna do today? 10,000 minutes in the car. 10,000 minutes for some of you on your phone.

What am I gonna scroll through? So my question to you today, and this is a good question, I want you to think about it. Who or what is deciding for you during those 10,000 minutes, what in your life so let's just. We're all great Christian people, right? And we're going to spend 80 minutes a week in church.

What about the other 10,000? Who or what is deciding for you how to spend those other 10,000 minutes? Something is. Somebody is. Is.

Something sits right in the middle of every single decision that you make. Something is calling the shots in your life. For some, maybe it's your comfort. Man, as long as I got my comfort, as long as we're safe, as long as I got. For some, it's your ambition.

Your ambition is the thing that makes all the decisions in your life. For some of us, it's our hurt. Our hurt is the thing that is making decisions for us. Maybe, maybe it's what everybody else thinks about you. Maybe that's what helps you make your decisions.

Maybe in your life it's your bank account that helps you and leads you in making decisions. Maybe for some, it's just whatever feels right in the moment is what helps you make those decisions. Maybe, maybe for some of you, it's Jesus. Some. And that's what I want to.

I want to talk about. Because if I'm going to be honest with you, if I look at really just like, let's unpack the 10,000 minutes in Bobby's life. I can see a lot of time in my life where Bobby's making the decisions, not so much Jesus, right? And it's not that I don't love Jesus, because I do. I love him with all my heart.

It's not that I'm against him, but sometimes I forget to include him in this decision or I just make the decision and move on. As I was thinking about this and writing this, it reminded me of my wife. And so many of you know, my wife Shira, she's very free spirited, doesn't enjoy a rule, doesn't enjoy people telling her what to do. And I mean, I've tried for 22 years. It's just not gonna work.

Okay? And so whenever Shira and I ride in the car, or really whenever she rides in the car, she's what I call directionally challenged, okay? She has lived here for seven or eight years now. Still doesn't know how to get anywhere. And so she has her gps, right?

Well, the thing about Shira and her GPS is she'll put in where she wants to go, and then the sweet lady will come over the phone and tell her where to turn. And when she gets to the turn, it's a 50, 50 shot if Shira's paying attention. Number one, number two, if she feels like turning where the lady told her to turn, she might do it, she might not. A lot of times, I'm just being honest, she's not here, so she can't get mad at me. And y' all aren't going to tell her.

A lot of times she's like, nah, I'm just going to go this way instead, right? And it's just like, wait a minute. Do you want to know why you end up lost all the time? Do you want to know why you're always late? It's because you don't listen to instructions of the sweet lady trying to tell you how to get to where you're going.

And so Shira turns in the wrong way and she goes in the wrong direction and calls me and gets lost. And I can just imagine the Siri on the phone is just probably getting an attitude with Shira. She's like, recalculating again, you know?

And so, like, think about that. In our life with the Lord, a lot of us, that's kind of how we treat Jesus, like. Like we've got the voice. We got. We got it.

We know the word, we know what he's telling us to do. But it's like, nah, I'm going to go my way. I don't want to. I don't want to take that step. I think my way is probably a little easier.

My way is probably a little bit better. We've got the. We've got the knowledge of what God wants us to do, but it comes down to the decision making. It comes down to when it's decision time. What am I going to listen to?

And many times we say, no, no, no, I know better. I'll just do it this way. And we convince ourselves, right? And here's kind of something that it's not a fear, but I'm afraid we do this a lot, is we convince ourselves that our decision is justified. Well, God has grace for me.

Well, he'll forgive me. Or, you know, if I. If I. It's just one little meth. I have good intentions.

And we convince ourselves that the decision we make, it fits our lives. And so we do these things. And then we wonder, why. Why do I feel so lost? Why.

Why does life just feel so scattered and confused? Why am I still struggling?

And that's exactly what's going to happen anytime. Anything other than Jesus is at the center of our decisions. And so today, what I want to do is I want to give you a filter, okay? I want to give you a Filter. So any decision that comes up in life, whether a big decision, a small decision, every single decision that we make, this isn't a list of rules, this isn't some to do list.

This is a filter. Something that you can just run every one of your decisions through. All the things that, that it kind of moves. If you think about it like this. I was talking to Amy this morning and this is how I kind of picture it.

Anybody love family photos? Anybody love taking family photos? Grandparents, get your hands up. You know you do, right? Some of you do.

If you're taking a family photo, usually the, like the honored, the grandparents or the parents are in the middle, right? And then surrounding them are the kids and the grandkids and you know, the, the son in law that you don't really like. And just like you just got everybody around the picture. And here's how I'm viewing this series that we're in. Sometimes when we're taking a family picture, Jesus is just one of the guys standing around.

And what we're talking about is how do we get Jesus in the middle? How do we get Jesus in the honor position? Like he's in the middle and we're all around him. And that's kind of the filter that I want to look at today. Now here's the deal.

The problem isn't knowing better. The problem isn't knowledge. I believe that with all of my heart. The problem is that just having knowledge does not change anything for you. Just knowing what to do.

So write this down. Information is not formation. Information is not formation. This is a problem with people who claim Christ. Today we got a lot of people who raise their hand and say, I love Jesus and I'm on the team and I show up at church and I wear nice clothes.

But the problem is not that we don't know better. The problem is knowing better isn't changing our lives. And you can agree that Jesus should be first in your life. You can say amen, you can post it, you can wear a T shirt, you can get a coffee mug, you can put it on your hat. But agreeing with that does not form anything in your life.

For Jesus practicing it does. So think about it this way. Every single person in this room knows and understands that if I want to be healthy, I need to eat better and exercise right? We all get that. We all have that knowledge.

We all understand that we've got the information. But knowing it hasn't magically made any of us healthier, right? It hasn't made any of us any stronger at some point you, you actually have to get up off the couch and put some work in. At some point you got to look and see what am I putting on my plate. Is it healthy or is it not?

You got to practice what you know in your mind. It's the same thing in our spiritual life. Knowing Jesus should be first does not make him first. Practicing Jesus as first is what makes Jesus first in our lives. And so we're going to be looking at the Apostle Paul today.

Paul planted a lot of churches. Paul gave churches a lot of different wisdom. He was telling them how to live their lives for Christ. And over In Romans chapter 12, we're going to go to two places. Romans chapter 12 and Colossians chapter 3 is where we're going to be today.

If you want to turn there. But over In Romans chapter 12, I want you to listen to this. A very familiar passage of scripture, but there's a couple words here and I want to try to break this down because this is Paul giving the church wisdom in how to live a Christ centered life. This is what your life should really look like. Romans chapter 12, verse 1.

It says this. Therefore, brothers and sisters, he's talking to Christians in view of the mercies of God, saying, man, God is so good, his mercy is for all of us. As I'm looking at that, here's what Paul says. Present your bodies as a living sacrifice. All right, what does that look like for me?

Lord, here I am. Take me, use me, however I can be used by you. And Paul says, present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. That's true worship. Now watch this.

Verse 2. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may discern what is good, pleasing and the perfect will of God. There's two words that jump out right here and I want to encourage you. If you're a highlighter underliner. Conformed and transformed.

Conformed and transformed. Let me break those down real quick because I want you to see this, okay? Being conformed is what happens when you don't have a biblical filter. Being conformed is what happens to you when you do not have a biblical filter. You take the shape of whatever is pressing you, whatever is urgent, whatever is big.

So if, if culture is pressing you, you can form. If fear is pressing you, you conform. If your boss is pressing you, you conform. If the algorithm is pressing you, you conform. If sin is pushing back on your life, guess what?

You conform. When tiredness presses on you, you Conform. Whatever the world throws at you, you conform. That's what he's saying. He's like, we cannot live like the culture lives.

Do not be conformed. Do just whatever comes my way. That's what's going to happen today. That's how I'm going to flaw, you know, whatever people want to do. Don't be conformed by this world.

And then he says, be transformed. Transformed is what happens when the filter is working. When the filter is working in your life, you're not taking the shape of the world, you're taking the shape of Jesus. And I want you to see what he says. He says, be transformed.

How? How am I transformed? What do I do? He says, by the renewing of your mind. In the way that I think about decisions that I'm going to make, I have to renew my mind.

Yes, I know right from wrong. I know what God's word says. But am I doing it? And so it starts in my mind. Now I want you to see this.

This is really, really important. Paul says that the result of transformation, he's like, don't conform to this world. Transformed by the renewing of your mind. And here's the result of when you. When you renew your mind and you're transformed, he says, you'll have the ability to discern.

You'll have the ability to discern. What does that mean? Discern means to actually test and approve what God's will is for me in my life.

So wait a minute. What is God's will for my life? That's probably a question all of us have asked. Maybe we ask it constantly. How do I know God's will where I need to have discernment so that I can understand God's will.

How do I find discernment by the renewing of my mind? I'm transformed. I'm a different person. So I don't have to guess, I don't have to hope. I get to discern.

And that's what a filter does. It helps you see more clearly. And here's what I believe this reveals. And this is what we're going to talk about a little bit more in detail today. When Jesus is not at the center, something else always is.

When Jesus is not at the center, something else always is. When I'm not being transformed, when I'm not being challenged, when my mind's not being constantly with this. With this tension of should I do it, should I not? Then something else is at the center. There's no neutral ground church, there's no empty center.

If Jesus isn't sitting there, something else is or someone else is. And guess what? It's making decisions for you. So what do we do? What do we do?

If I want truly to have Jesus at the center, then I think this is the filter that Paul gives us. Go to Colossians chapter three. Colossians chapter three. And Paul lays this out very clearly for the church to read and to understand. Colossians chapter three.

Look at beginning in verse 15. So he's writing to the church and I want to remind you of something. As Paul's writing this, he's writing to real people. Sometimes we read the Bible and it's just this ancient text. Paul's writing to real people with real problems who get up with real families and real decisions and real jobs, just like you and I.

And he's telling these people who are striving to live for the Lord. Here's your filter, here's your filter. And he gives these three verses and there's really kind of three questions here. And it's right in the middle of everyday life, right in the middle of realness. Not just for the super holy, not just for the people who love God, extra special for all people.

Look what he says. Beginning in verse 15, he says this. He says, and let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you in all wisdom, teaching, admonishing one another through psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your heart. Verse 17.

Whatever you do, word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. So I want you to see this three times, three times in three verses. Paul uses this language that implies action. He uses this language that tells you and I that he doesn't say, I just want you to know this. He doesn't want to.

He doesn't say, oh, here's some good information that you might use someday. No, no, no. He says, let this happen. Let, let, let. It's active, it's daily, it's a practice.

And so here are three questions that serve as a filter for our lives that Paul gave the church here in Colossians, the first question is this. When I have a decision to make, the first question I need to ask is, is there peace? Is there peace? So the word here, I want you to think about this. When Paul says in verse 15, let the peace of Christ rule.

Let the peace of Christ rule your hearts, that word rule there in the, in the original language, what it refers to is a referee or an umpire, someone that is. That is in charge. It's the official who calls the shots, the person who settles the disputes, right? And he says, let the peace of Christ rule your hearts. That's what needs to be in charge, that needs to be the umpire.

Not, is this easy? Not, does this make me comfortable? He's saying, does it's not. Does this make me feel good? He's saying, let the peace of Christ rule in this decision.

And so when you're making a big decision or a small decision, you have to ask yourself, do I have the peace of mind of Christ, or am I pushing through on my own strength, on my own ambition? It's what I want. So I'm just gonna keep pushing. Is it my anxiety? Is it my worrying?

What is the thing that is driving this decision? No matter what it is, when you're about to make a decision, a big purchase, a move, a career change, getting into a relationship, a response, stop and ask, is the peace of Christ refereeing? This is the peace of Christ ruling in this decision that we have to make. Is it my ego? Is it my fear?

Is it something that I need to prove? Is the peace of Christ ruling now? This isn't Paul. This is Bobby. This is one of the rules that kind of Shira and I lay out in our house.

And we have big decisions to make. And here's the rule in my life. If there's no peace, we press pause. If there's no peace, we simply press pause. Say, God, we want to follow you after this decision.

What, you want us to start a church? I don't have a lot of peace about that. Let me pray about that. Let me. I really need you to show me and teach me.

I need you to be at the center of that right now. I want to be really careful here, okay? Because I think. Can we just be honest for a minute? I think sometimes we convince ourselves that we have peace.

We can convince ourselves, well, God will have grace, and I got really good intentions. Or I was doing it for this reason. But. But is that the peace of God or is that the peace of me? Because it's real easy for me to convince myself of something.

But the. Notice what Paul says, let the peace of Christ rule in me, not the peace of Bobby. So his peace needs to be ruling in my heart. So that's filter. Question number one.

Now, I think question number two really helps inform question number one. But the second question, look at verse 16, what he says? He says, let The Word of Christ dwell richly within you. So the second question we ask, what does God's word say about this decision? What does the Word of God say?

Now, again, we got to really understand the context here. The key word here. I want you to see this. He says, let the word of Christ dwell richly in you. Okay, again, that's more than just knowledge of what it says.

The Word means to take up residence, to move in, not to visit, not to show up on Sundays and then leave. But let the Word of God dwell within you. What does the Word of God say about this decision we have to make?

Now, since we're all friends and hopefully you know my heart this morning, I want to say this. If the only minutes in your week that the Word of God is dwelling in you is the 80 minutes in here, then you're not dwelling.

You're not dwelling. That's not dwelling. That's. The Word of God is visiting.

The Word of God is stopping by.

You know, a visitor can come into your home and maybe if they have kids and they can make a mess. But a visitor really doesn't change the house. The resident changes the house.

And this is so vital, Church. This is so, so, so important. If the Word isn't dwelling in you, if it's not living in your house, if it's not taking up residence in your mind and in your heart, then when decision time comes, guess what? There's nothing in there to answer with because it's not living inside of me. And so what happens?

And probably some of you, this is your life right now. So when life hits and hard things come, you're just kind of like the waves, and you just keep getting crashed up and then back and forth, back and forth. And for some of you, that's how you feel right now in your life. That man, I just can't get ahead. And I'm just struggling.

I'm constantly finding myself lost and beat down, and I'm struggling with anxiety and fear and all of these different wild emotions. And maybe, just maybe, it's because the Word of God isn't dwelling and God's calling you to say it. It's time for it to dwell in you. Let me take up residence in you. Not just stop by on an occasional visit on Sundays.

Psalm 119. Most of you in here could probably quote that your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a lamp light into my path. Notice that in that verse, it doesn't say that I'm going to put a spotlight on your entire life and the whole Path. I'm not going to show you every single step of the way. What's the lamp for the next step?

What's the word? The word of God doesn't show you the whole plan for all 70, 80, 90 years of your life, right? It shows you the next right move. It shows you what to do. And sometimes listen, sometimes that's all you need is just the next step in your life.

God's word must form and filter our decisions. God's word has to be the thing that we use in our life.

I think about. We live out in the. Kind of. In the country a little bit out. And we don't have.

We have like a. What's it called? Septic tank and a well and all that. And we got to put a filter to make sure that the water comes in is clean and good. And some of you guys have that in your, in your house.

I just think about that filter. That filter is not there. What's going to happen? That that stuff that shouldn't come in is there. And the filter helps stop that, right?

And it's the same. That's what God's Word is for your life. Church. It's not just some boring book. I know I'm supposed to read it.

I just don't have time. God's Word should dwell. It should take up residence in our lives. And it must. It must.

And here's the hard part. God's word should always be able to override your emotions. You gotta let God's Word override your desires. And God's Word has final say in the things that I try to justify and say. Oh no, it's okay.

I'm allowed to do that. God's Word doesn't tell me not to do that. We got to let God's Word be the thing that overrides.

So what does God's word say is the second filter, by the way? No matter what you're facing, no matter what decision you're facing, you can go to God's Word for wisdom. So the filter is. Is there peace? Do we have peace?

Do we have peace from the Lord? Do we have the peace of Christ? Number two, do we understand? What does God's word say? And finally the third question, part three of this filter is this.

Look what Paul says in verse 17. He says, Whatever you do in word and deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. So the third question is this. Can I do this in Jesus name?

Can I put. Now this is everything, Church. This isn't just the spiritual stuff. Not Just the prayer and worship and serving. This is everything in my life.

Can I attach the name of Jesus to this decision that I'm about to make?

The question is not, is Jesus going to forgive me? The question is not, am I allowed to do this?

The question is not, well, God's got grace for me. Can I just tell you? All you're doing is lowering the bar. All you're doing is lowering the bar.

The question is, can I do it in his name as a representative of Jesus, with His reputation attached to my decision? Can I make this decision from. For myself, for my family, for my church? Can I make these decisions attached to the name of Jesus? That's the filter.

And it works on everything. It works on the words that come out of your mouth. It works on how you spend your money. It works on how you raise your kids and where you go and where you don't go. It works on what you put into your body and what you don't.

It works on every decision of. Of your life. Remember Proverbs, chapter three? Some of you grew up in Awana or in church, memorizing. Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Lean not on your own understanding in what. In some of your ways, acknowledge Him. No, in all of my ways acknowledge Him. What does God say about this? Can I attach his name to this decision?

And then it says, and he will direct my paths.

Not some ways, not only on Sunday mornings, not just for 80 minutes.

That's the filter. 10,080 minutes a week, that's the filter. Do I have Christ's peace? Do I have his peace? What does His Word say?

What does His Word tell me? Can I attach his name to this decision?

Now here's where I want to give you a little bit of relief. Because some of you in here probably thinking, man, I'm already overwhelmed. I already got a lot going on. I got 10,000 minutes and I'm supposed to filter every single decision. That's exhausting, right?

Some of you, you're just super practical and you're like, how did they do that? Right? Well, here's what I want. I want to give you a little bit of relief here, okay? I want you to think about it like this.

A Jesus centered life produces freedom and fruit. All right? A Jesus centered life produces freedom and it produces fruit. Now I want you to just kind of use that right now as a, as a tool to evaluate your life up against. Is that what you're experiencing right now?

Are you experiencing in your life? Freedom doesn't mean you're Perfect doesn't mean you never mess up. Doesn't mean you don't have any sin in your life. But I know that man, if I mess up, I'm back at it. I get back on the horse.

I get back. I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm ready. Because a Christ centered life produces freedom.

I don't walk around filling in bondage. I don't walk around with this just constant anxiety and struggle and not feeling of worth and not feeling good enough. Do I have freedom and then do I have any fruit in my life? Is there any fruit in my life? Showing that I'm living a Christ centered life.

Because God's word tells us that the world will be able to know his disciples by what? By their fruit. And so take a look at your life. Is there any fruit in your life for you living a Jesus centered life?

If that's not what you're experiencing right now, if you're not experiencing freedom, if you're not experiencing fruit, then here's what I believe you need to do today. You got to check your filter. You got to check your filter. What is making the decisions and in your life? This is not about a performance plan.

This is not about being perfect. This is not about adding seven new spiritual disciplines to your already full life. This is about practice. This is not about knowledge. This is about action.

This is about doing. Now, when I practice, when I'm striving to get better at something, what's typically the process? You try, you fail and then you try again, right? And so guess what? A Jesus centered life doesn't mean I got it all figured out.

I'm trying and sometimes I try and I fail. But guess what? I'm going to try again. I'm going to keep trying, I'm going to keep serving. I'm going to keep checking my filter.

This may be bad for me to say, but consuming one more sermon, Agreeing with one more, listening to one more podcast, reading one more book, it's not about information.

I truly believe. I mean, look at, look at the history of humanity. We are in information heaven. We have an abundance of information. It's not about knowing and not knowing any longer.

What we do have, we have an information abundance, but we have an obedience deficit. We know, but we don't. I know I should, but man, I got a lot going on. I think this is what God tells me, but it's easier if we just keep doing what we're doing. So here's the challenge I want to give you for this week.

I Want to keep it simple. I want to keep it really practical. What I want to ask you to do is in your 10,080 minutes this week after this church service, you'll have about 10,000. I want you to take one decision every day this week, just one decision. At minimum.

Take one decision and run it through this filter. Maybe it's a purchase you got to make. Maybe it's a conversation you've been avoiding. Maybe it's how you're spending your time. Maybe it's where you take your family on the weekend.

Maybe it's a relationship knowing that it's heading somewhere good or bad. Maybe it's how you respond to your spouse. But. But one decision every single day this week, Run it through this filter, and the three questions are here on the screen. We'll put them all together.

You can take a picture of it. Is the peace of Christ ruling here? Keep that up there for a minute. Is the pe. I mean, men, let's.

Let's just be honest. If we just asked ourselves that question when we want to fire back some response to our wives, right? How many arguments would that change?

Is the peace of God ruling? No, my anger's ruling. Okay, well, guess what? Shut up, ladies. You were supposed to say amen right there.

What does God's word say?

What does God's word say? Yeah, I want to do this so bad, and everybody else is doing it, all my friends are doing it, and. And everybody else in my small group. Or what? Like, what's God's word say?

And on top of that, you need to understand something. When you start making these decisions, when you Start filtering your 10,080 minutes through this kind of filter. Can I just be honest with you? You're gonna lose some people in your life.

You're gonna have some people go, what's wrong with them? Oh, they think they're too good.

God doesn't tell us we can't do that. No, he may not come out and say that you can't do that, but I don't have the peace of Christ ruling in my life. So we're going to say no. What's God's word say number three, Can I do this in Jesus name? The big decision, the small decision.

Can I attach Jesus Name in this?

80 minutes in a church service is not enough. The other 10,000 is where life is really shaped, right? We come in here, we sing, we pray, and we listen. We watch a video, we hear sermon. And that's wonderful, wonderful.

But when you walk out, if there's no action behind it, it's just information. Information is not formation. And so the question is not this week whether you're going to be shaped or not. You are going to be shaped. The question is who or what is doing the shaping of your life.

If Jesus is at the center, if he's the filter for your decisions, then guess what? Your 10,080 minutes are going to start looking like his.

Your words are going to start sounding like his. Your money is going to start moving like his. Your time is going to start reflecting him. Your relationships are going to start healing like him. When Jesus is at the center.

And then, and then guess what? People are going to notice. People are going to notice. Oh, there's joy there. What's going on with that guy?

He's usually a grumpy old man. What's wrong with him? Joy begins to spread and your testimony begins to build and people start noticing and faith starts building in your life. But guess what? It starts one decision at a time, filtered through Jesus.

Let's pray. Father, I'm so grateful for your Word. I'm so, so grateful that in a world full of so many choices and struggles and battles and options, Lord, that you call us back to being able to have peace with you. Lord, I just want to pray peace over everyone listening to the sound of my voice right now. Lord, there's some folks that are sitting here in this service for these 75 and 80 minutes that they do not have peace in their lives.

And I pray that the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding would come upon their lives and Lord, allow this to be a place in our lives that we look to as a filter. And sometimes when we don't have that, we're willing to take a bold decision and press pause until we get that peace. We're willing to say no and we don't have that peace. Lord, we thank you for your peace. Lord, I thank you for your word.

Lord, your scriptures are so good and so true and, and they're error free. And God, you've given them to us as the rule book for our lives. And God, I pray that we would allow your word to dwell in us, not just visit every once in a while. God, may it take up residence in our hearts and in our minds and in our souls and we can know what your word says. Lord, that your word would truly be.

Psalm 119A lamp for my feet and a light for my path. Lord, I pray for those of us who often try to light up our own path and go our own way. Lord, may your word. May your word dwell in our hearts and God, I pray that you most importantly would be the thing that we put our name on that we go to bed at night with a thankful heart. With a grateful heart.

With a humble attitude of you know what? I put my. I put Jesus name on my day today and I know I put a smile on his face not for pride, not for accolades, but God so that others can see and know who you are. May you raise up some disciples here at City Hope Church that are willing to use this filter and your word and your peace through every decision that we make. And Lord, I pray that you would convict us in those places that we're not doing that.

Show us, point them out to us, God and Lord, I just pray that the 10,000 minutes that we have for the rest of this week would be used for your honor and for your glory. In Jesus name. Amen. Thanks again for tuning in with us today. We would love to connect with you and the best way to do that is through social media or go straight to our website.

God bless you and have a wonderful day.