Am I Living for God? | Who Am I

So over the past few weeks, you know, we've been doing questions such as, you know, am I a Christian? Am I committed to sanctification? Am I abiding? Am I treasuring God above all else, which is what Pastor Carl preached? The one that I have for us today is a very important one because it kind of like determines the trajectory of our life. And this is the question that we're going to be looking at today. Am I living life? for God. And even as we go through this, we're going to be asking ourselves, is this the posture of our hearts? Because this is critical. This determines the trajectory, helps us have kingdom impact, as well as really work, really invest in our eternity. Work is not the right word, investing in eternity. And I've got someone to help me out here. All right, right? Well, let me do a formal introduction and then I'll share my personal take as well. Scott Pfau is a growth executive, entrepreneur, and leadership coach with more than 30 years of experience building and scaling companies in the human capital and workforce technology space. Throughout his career, Scott has partnered with founders and CEOs as the chief revenue officer of venture-backed organizations to lead go-to market strategy, accelerate revenue growth, and build high-performing teams that drive lasting impact. If you didn't understand a word of that, just know he was successful. You know? Okay. And then Scott has helped us... His companies achieved successful exits and acquisitions, reflecting his ability to build high growth organizations that create value with human capital management and software market. So he's been very successful again with his career. But Scott's also our campus director at our Northwest campus. So with the past year, Scott's been here at 180 Chicago. He's actually spearheaded the building acquisition, which, by the way, we're closing on the building. April 1st or April 2nd. April 1st or April 2nd. I'm going to try to avoid April 1st. Yeah. Yeah, let's do April 2nd. It's great, but it's just been such a pleasure to have him and just to be able to work closely with him and learn from him as well as he learns from us. And it's just been a great relationship. I want to just show you a picture of his wife as well. That's Scott and Jan. Jan's an incredible woman of God. She's such a prayer warrior. If there's anything going on in the Northwest Campus, you know that Jan is praying for that. So we're so thankful for their partnership in the gospel. I have Scott today because he brings a really unique perspective to this question. Am I living for God? I'm not going to steal his thunder or share his story, but you'll kind of see just how that plays out in terms of his life story. Scott, I'll just hand it over to you. Take us away. Go back to where it all started and just give us the story of your life. First, before we start, can I just say one thing? Yeah. You guys are so fortunate. to have Steven, Summer, Brent. I know there's a bunch of other people in the back. I work with them on a weekly basis. They are just like full of energy and they talk about you guys all the time. So what's weird is I'm in this room and I kind of feel like I know you guys, but I don't know you by name maybe. So maybe just everybody shout out their name really quick when I yell one, two, three. One, two, three. Okay, good. I'm Scott. I feel... That's a cheap trick for meetings when you're very nervous. All right. So a couple of things. I do want to share my testimony today. I think whenever you do this, I mean, there's a little bit of apprehension on my part, even when I did this in Northwest Campus, because like carl and ajit kind of said to me your story's your story you can't change it now i was like wait you can't are you sure um so a couple things um first of all a few things like you'll see something in kind of a pattern or a trend kind of shape out of this and it uh gives this is how i found some sort of like Definition as to where my head was at and what happened throughout my life until I got involved with 180 and so on So when I was asked the question of am I living for God early on I probably said yeah, I am I'm pretty sure I am But then I kind of like deep down I kind of knew and I say this it's hard to say but I was kind of living for money and So that was very important to me, and I'm going to share kind of how that came about. And I got that turned around or kind of got that fixed, so we'll talk about that in a little bit. But a few things. Early days, I was raised in a Christian home in Nebraska. If you don't know where that is, it's where you go on ski trips. It's close to India, right? It's close to India. You go on ski trips to Colorado, you have to stop there to stay overnight. It's very boring, and the food is bad. But anyhow, I grew up in a Christian home. I had two younger brothers, Mitch and Jordan, and I was the oldest. So that's kind of that. My parents were very much believers, born-again believers, accepted Jesus, whatever, super involved in the church. They led the young marrieds group. I remember this vividly when I was in junior high. We'd have over like 60, 70 people at our house. I was like, Is this even possible? What is going on in here? So they were super involved. When I was 12 years old, I accepted Christ as my Savior, and I had to tell this to Carl and Ajit. How it kind of came about, does anybody in here know what Vacation Bible School is? You do? I can't believe that. I thought that was like old school. All right. So my mom ran Vacation Bible School. So it's like kind of being one of the pastor's kids as far as I was concerned, at least for that week, right? So the thing kind of ended. It was really just one week, Monday through Friday. And I got home and my mom kind of said to me, I'll drop the kind of the punchline here. I lied to my pastor. So just wait for it. My mom says, did you talk to Pastor Steiner? I said, yeah, I did. So what did you talk to him about? I said, oh, I accepted Jesus as my Savior. My mom goes, this is great. Whoa, whoa, whoa. So you're saying you lied about accepting Jesus. Man, it's one of the best lies I've heard. Lying about accepting Jesus. I was kind of afraid of my pastor. I was only 12. I was only 12. So my mom's like, this is incredible. She's super emotional, whatever. And I didn't know this, but I went over to a friend's house to kind of play, and then I came home, and my mom said, I called Pastor Steiner. I was like, you did? What did he say? He said you didn't talk to him. I was like, oh, well, I kind of didn't. My mom goes, we're going to get in the car and head right back to church. You need to meet with him. You need Jesus, Scott. This guy didn't mess around either. That's why I was kind of afraid of him. So we went back. Kind of short story is I did kind of like say what I did. That kind of got me going in terms of like, where am I? I was only 12. But again, I did accept Christ in there. So that's the whole like early, early days for the most part. A couple more thoughts. I suppose like when I grew up, like the one thing our church kind of pushed, and again, I'm not defaming where I went to church. All that is just kind of what everybody kind of believed back then. And this might have been a trend back then, I suppose. But salvation was really kind of a one-time thing. It was an event. So as long as you covered it, you're done. Right? It was life insurance policy. Yeah, I mean, that's kind of how they looked at it. I know it sounds terrible, but that's what I kind of remember. And so I would say like... I did that, but it was like short or falling short of any transformation, even when I was in high school. So a couple of things. High school, that's kind of my next pivot. I decided that my dad's like, you're going to get a job at the lumber yard. I was like, that sounds terrible. Do they work on Friday nights? Because I'm kind of busy. So I went and interviewed there and the guys like you have to work Friday nights Saturdays No Sundays were closed. I was like could we trade Sundays for Friday nights? So I hated that And I told my dad I was going to start a business. And so my brother and I went out and bought this really old, old truck. We spray painted our name of our hauling business on the side, and we picked up shingles and just hauled junk for a living. So that whole 1-800-GOT-JUNK, I started that, just so you know. All right, so I had that, and then I was kind of like, wow, this is crazy. You buy a truck, and you bill these people this money. This is like printing money. This is incredible. So I was like, wait, if I got one thing going, maybe I should get two things going. So in high school, I was like, I really kind of wanted to do something at my school or whatever, and so I started a mobile DJ business. Now, mind you, this is back when... DJs didn't have anything digital. Everything had to be plugged in with wires and everything, right? So a friend of mine did that. We bought all of our speakers, the equipment, everything. We put it in cases. We kind of carried around a couple vehicles. SUVs weren't really invented back then, I suppose. That really took off. I started doing high school dances Friday night, Saturday night. We were booked all the time, and I'm just printing money. For high school, I'm printing money. When I say that, that means, like, it's just, I mean, in my head, I was like, this is great. This is incredible. So one day, I'm kind of outside washing cars for my dad. He would always retrieve special interest cars for people like Warren Buffett or anybody who would go get them, bring them back, and we'd take them, detail them up, and then take them over to his house or whoever, and So I said to my dad one day, I was kind of like thinking, you know, this is great. I could probably go out and buy a brand new car or have money coming in. I'm in high school. So I said to my dad, Dad, I have a question for you. And I said, why don't we buy new cars like my friends do? If you knew my dad, he had this look when his chin would move up and his lips would kind of close. It wasn't good. So he kind of looked at me and just said, you know, when you get your own money, you can do what you like. And I have to tell you, like, in terms of like a forming trend, I heard like a gunshot go off in my head. And that translated to as long as you get your own money, you can do what you like. And my dad probably wasn't the best money manager. Like he just was not. And I say that lovingly. He's gone. I said goodbye to him during COVID over FaceTime in the hospital. And he just wasn't a good money manager. And so I just decided I'm never getting into that. I'm never going to let that happen to me. And I was actually very fearful of it. That's what was driving me, even in high school, to go figure out stuff, make money, whatever. So I left Nebraska, came up, met Jan. You saw her in the picture. We got married right away. I know I look very young. I'm the same age as Carl. Actually, Carl's a few weeks older, just so you know. He's a lot older than me. A few weeks. I met Jan, we've been married for 43 years. In college, I'll finish with just kind of like the early days, I had a friend come to me and say, hey, would you like to make a lot of money on the weekends? I was like, dude, I'm listening. So he's like, there's this chauffeuring service. I go, oh, that takes people like on vacations to O'Hare? No, no, no, no. It chauffeurs all CEOs, executives, and like people that are in what would today be called the Fortune 100. I was like, wait, what's a CEO mean? Who is that or what's that mean? So he's like, oh, you'll meet these guys, whatever. And so I started and another thing kind of happened went off in my mind. I'm like, wait, these people get into this car that the company gave me to use. I take them to this private airport. I go to their house, first of all, go up in their bedrooms, grab their luggage, make sure they have everything. You always count their bags, make sure they have everything, get them, their spouse in the car, whatever. And then you take them to the private airport, you learn how the private plane works, where the luggage goes into the belly, that sort of thing, how to load it balanced, all that. And I was like, wait, so then I get paid for that. This is nuts. I love this. What I didn't know is it would just give me a complete exposure to people that were just, for the most part, I'm not judging them, living for money, living for leading people, living for lifestyles. I mean, they had homes in just crazy places. They took the company jet to fly everywhere. And so I'll end with, in the early days, just getting money was already my focus in high school. And then when I saw more of this in college, it was like, this is nuts. These are powerful people. I was like, the head of Baxter, I don't know if you've ever heard of Baxter, it's a pharmaceutical company. I chauffeured this guy named Vernon Lauchs. Him and I really talked a lot. I would ask him a lot of questions like, how do I get your job? Things like that. That's what he did. He laughed. But I would say, like, I couldn't see this until just a few years ago. So the point is, this is when I was in college. I told you I'm the same age as Carl. So when all this came up, like, am I living for God, I said to Carl, this was like a year before I became campus director, I'm probably, like, the wrong guy for this job. I'm pretty focused on money, and I haven't really lived like this, so I've got to get some things untangled in my life. I couldn't be your campus director. Carl legit said, are you humble? I said, I didn't used to be. I think I am today. Are you teachable? I said, I think I could be teachable. Carl's like, you'll be perfect. We'll take you. So that's kind of the first phase. I want to get to how much we pay you at some point. Okay. Right. Scott. Scott. So your mantra would be, if you have your own money, you can do whatever you want. So that's what kind of... Maybe not today, but that was my mantra then, yes. So tell us a little bit about your career, how that kind of like played out, all the way leading up to like a couple of years ago. So I wouldn't want you to walk away thinking, wow, it's just all amazing, excellent, whatever. I struggle just like a lot of people do in their career. Like when I first got started, I was in real estate. I was working for my wife's brother. I was like, okay, he makes money. I guess I'll work for him. I could tell you more about when Oprah Winfrey was on TV in the morning than what was listed in her office for properties available. I just was not into it at all. And so that just didn't work out for me. I kind of struggled to figure out what I was going to do. I worked in kind of like a couple of various industries. I had a guy come to me and say, hey, have you ever thought about getting into technology? I was like, sounds excellent. What is it? He's like, well, human capital, like tracking people, evaluating them, helping organizations kind of categorize and classify people so that they know how to develop them and groom them and all these things. I was like, I'm fascinated by that. And so, you know, that combined with getting into technology, I probably was in a specific sector, so it was human capital management. I stayed in the startup business. So I was interested in any business that was under a million dollars in total revenue and had just a couple of people or founders kind of coming together. And here's why. Like, I started with this company a long time ago before job boards were even invented. It was this company called Headhunter.net, and they post a job, people apply. This is in the 90s. Post a job, people apply, and it's like, wait, we're finding people over the internet. This is crazy. What is going on? You could show it to people, and in like 10 minutes, they wouldn't even ask you how much. They just said, we'll take it. That's like the best situation a sales rep can ever be in, by the way. And so I found myself getting more into that, and I was really attracted to any business that was like what you'd call, like our generation calls it a dark horse, like the one that's not going to win the race. It's a long shot. I was super attracted to that. Just because to see if I could help them get to where they needed to be and just win out of the sake of the odds are against you was exhilarating to me. And so... So you go into companies that make a million dollars or less revenue? Usually a lot less. And then what's the process? What do you do? Bring in what's called a sales playbook. You kind of hire reps. You kind of recreate the messaging. You kind of show them how to do this. I did this eight times throughout my career in tech for 33 years, and six of the companies were acquired. And so the first one was kind of like a shock to me because I was like, the CEO comes in and he usually looked very happy. He walked in and he's like, hey, just let you know after today you're not an employee here anymore. I was like, wait, I'm getting fired? What did I do wrong? He's like, oh, no, you didn't do anything wrong. We got acquired. I go, what does that mean? He's like, well, you'll get paid through the rest of the year. This is like January or February. Rest of the year? Rest of the year. And then you'll get a payout, which is equal to working here for several, several, several years. Like, how does that work? When you join, you get equity in the company. You're getting paid out on your equity. I was like, this is fantastic. I would like one more of these, maybe six more. So you kind of see the pattern. Like, again, just feeding into this. And so it all sounds good, right? And I never really asked myself, am I living for God? So I'll just pause for a second. If you have anything that you're putting between you and the Lord, You could be in the same situation I was in, and I would just beg you to think that through today. Don't let that go. Just ask yourself if there's anything sitting there that you value, cherish, treasure more than God. Because I had to admit I did this, and this was kind of hard to do in the Northwest campus. I just heard all of your names, so I kind of know you. But I had to do this in front of people I'd known for a year, and it was like, man, I feel bad about this, but for 43 years... I'm just being honest about where my focus was at. So that's my career. A couple things I heard Carl kind of say, if I go forward here just for another minute. A couple weeks ago in a message, it just kind of backstops everything I just said a little bit. So I cheated and wrote down a bunch of notes. And even Carl said in our meeting, I noticed you're taking a lot of notes. I'm like, yeah, I got to get up there in a few weeks. I'm going to cheat. But these really stuck in my head. Money can separate us from God like nothing else. Nothing else can separate us any worse than money. I just kept playing that in my head, and I was like, wow. Ask yourself, are you treasuring God above all else? My answer was probably no. It was no. My mindset was not aligned with the kingdom. It wasn't like orientated that way for 43 years of my life. So, you know, I was getting up on retirement, like at the end of 2024. And I asked myself, like, is this it? At the end, is this what it's like? It's like over and then you just kind of, you know. That's it and I was kind of thinking through like this was a year before I took the campus director roles like doesn't really feel good feels like something was missing whatever, and so I just realized, this would have been in. the end of 2023, I realized that I'm going to have to stand in front of God someday, and there's probably a pretty big deficit in my life because I put a barrier out in front. I said, I'll do this first, and I kind of include you a little later, okay? So, I mean, don't get me wrong. I was active in a church that counts for nothing in eternity, so I'm told. I served, I led a very large, how many people in this room know what a Juana is? Okay, there's a few. All right. A little less than Vacation Bible School, I noticed. But it was a really big Awana group, like 450 kids, 200 adults. It was just mayhem. I loved it. I served for 10 years on the board at Inner City Impact here in the Chicago area. So I was involved in things, but I made sure those things fit in and didn't disrupt everything in my career and in my business life. So again, early days, kind of an explanation of my career. That's that. I got a couple other things I want to cover, but fire away. No, go ahead. I want to know, I mean... So at this point, this was at this point that we started talking maybe a year and a half ago. I'd love to kind of like, you know, get into your head or maybe share just how you were processing even the fact that, you know, you've been successful in life, but yet that didn't fully satisfy you. There was something missing. And also the fact that, you know, you were going to stand before God in judgment day. I mean, tell us a little bit, just stick us into your mind, like how you were feeling about things like that. How many people in this room are close to retirement? Raise your hands. Okay, maybe there's four. Okay. If you come out to the Northwest Campus, there's a lot of them. Trust me, all right? So don't get near Ajit and Carl if you're thinking of retiring. I can tell you that right now. So I was walking around the church, and again, as I said, this is kind of processing this for a whole year, and I kind of knew Ajit. I mean, I kind of didn't know Ajit. He kind of knew my kids. My daughter-in-law and son went to the church. They probably knew him better than I did. So he walks up to me after church, and he's like, hey, I'd love to chat with you after church. And I'm thinking, I can't be in trouble. He doesn't even know me, right? So I'm clear. Remember, I'm afraid of pastors. And so I really didn't have any idea about what was really about to happen. And so we were just standing there in the back of the church, and he said, I just want to kind of get together, hear your story. I was like, oh, my gosh, my story. That's not good. I kind of told him I've been thinking about that, so I kind of tried to change the subject. It was like my story. I'm pretty much going to retire. He didn't look impressed with that at all, just so you know. It was more of I'm going to retire and I'm going to fish. I love fishing. Are there golfers in the room here? Like yell out if you're a golfer. Yeah. Okay. Does anybody in this room fish? No, I guess not. In the Northwest campus, there's way more fishing people than golfers, all right? So I just said, I'm going to fish a lot. I mean, like full time, I'm just going to go fish, whatever. And Ajit and I went out for a couple of lunches and he convinced me, I don't know if that's a good plan. I was not going to let him know this, but I was thinking he's probably right. So I met with Carl and had lunch with him and told Carl I was going to retire. And Carl was like, I had a guest on my show a couple of weeks ago and he wrote this book. You should read it or you should listen to it. I said, what is it? And he goes, it's a book that deals with retirement. And I was like, oh, okay, I'm interested. What is it? And he goes, it's a book called Retirement is a Sin, or The Sin of Retirement. The Sin of Retirement. I was like, oh. Remember, I told you I'm afraid of pastors. See? See? So one thing led to another. And I think God was really like over the last year before I even entertained this role was, you know, I was kind of thinking through how am I going to correct this in the end? Because I'm 65. So I have to kind of get this figured out. Like, again, can you write the scales? Explain that again. Explain that. What do you need to correct? What I need to correct is I spent 43 years not aligned with God. So I don't want whatever time I have left in my life. I don't want that out of alignment. I have that corrected. I want to spend time pouring back into people, the kingdom, helping people avoid some of the things that I did or helping them hear my story so that you might be able to inspect yourself or to say, hey, I got some work to do myself. Make sense? Hopefully that helps. Thank you. So... Met with Carl and I just and I said, you know, I've been a believer I probably been living for the Lord as much I've been a little distracted With my career and so on so a couple things I'll just end with on Meeting these two and again, it was one of the best moments of my life I actually I can't really talk about it too much because I get emotional. I love being the campus director. I love it and here's why I used to think the greatest thing in the world was to go out and close this big deal with one of your reps, and they get paid, I get paid, the CEO's happy, your venture capital people are happy, and it's like, everything's all in alignment, it's a wonderful day. Now the next day they ask you, what are you gonna close today, you can never give them enough, that's the bad part. But I thought, that's the greatest thing ever. What turned out was and what I didn't know was I should have been in this role a long, long time ago because what's more fulfilling is to really help people along, sit with them, hear their story, give them feedback, and help them kind of walk through their spiritual journey or their moment of transformation and invest into that because that's where the payoff is. Yeah, you didn't hear me because of that train. That's where the payoff is. The train agreed with you. Not going to let that happen. Yeah. So a couple things that I probably identified with in the Bible after Ajit told me I had to get up here. Actually, I identified with this long before I had to do this. But I told Carl, Ajit, if I ever had to get up and teach, the message would be called the ticket to Nineveh. about Jonah. And a couple things that I kind of learned, and I'm cheating here because I stole this from Colin Smith out of this little devotional Bible. So if you follow Colin, this will sound a little bit similar. But you know, like Colin said, he used to be my pastor. He used to go to that church. And number one, takeaways from Jonah and his life were you can't outrun God's calling. Okay, can't, can't. I was called over 43 years, make no mistake about it. Can I remember the exact day where it was like, you know, I'm 20, whatever, I'm 29 years old and I'm supposed to be, what is summer? I think she's 25. I should go be a campus director at 25 years old. I didn't hear that. But what I've come to believe is I think God was probably calling me, but I just said, I can't hear that right now. I'm kind of busy. I'm kind of busy. So you can't outrun his calling. I guess you could say no and act like you don't hear it. That wouldn't be good. So Jonah tried to flee. God pursued him, redirected him back to what he had for him as a mission. Big takeaway. Number two, God's mercy extends to everyone. There's nobody in this room it doesn't extend to. So that's a fortunate thing for me because 43 years seems pretty lopsided. And now I'm trying to turn that around and spend more time doing this. But even the people of Nineveh, like, you know, they weren't the easiest to work with and serve, whatever. But Jonah followed through. Last is, you know, God cares about the heart of the messenger. That's what's important. And so I had to kind of like think through like, could I go forward and be a campus director if my heart was off for 43 years? And in that message, it was that Jonah obeyed eventually Jonah. Not the first time. So I could kind of relate to that. Like, there probably were multiple times I didn't obey, but I'm obeying now. And so I just was like, you know, wow, he really got his attitude right. He went out and did what he needed to do. That's why I relate to that. So just a couple quick takeaways from Colin Smith, whatever, were just realize that what you're doing on this earth is super critical. So I'm saying this because our average age group at the Northwest campus looks more like me. For the most part, there's a younger group in here. So this last piece of the statement is recognize what you're doing on Earth is super critical because you just have such a short period of time. I'm not trying to scare anybody. If you watch the news, that's scary enough nowadays, right? So none of us know how much time we have. This is what I didn't do. Keep your dreams on the altar of God and not on distractions like money. That's where your dreams ought to be. Mine weren't. I'm not being lecturous. I'm telling you so many times, mine just wasn't there. And then another piece to this devotional about Jonah was the thing we can learn about him is just practice making yourself available to God. It doesn't matter where your mind's at, your head's at, what you're trying to figure out. He already knows. He knows what you need. He knows where you're going to go. He has a plan. Sometimes I try to say, I'll try to put that together. I'm used to building business plans. He's got a better business plan. So that's why I relate to Jonah. If I had to teach one Sunday, it would be a ticket to Nineveh. It'd probably go for an hour and a half. I'd be kicked out of here. That's great. Well, I think a couple of things to stand out about Scott's story, and I want to undergird that with a lot of biblical truths as well. So for the rest of our time here, maybe about 10 minutes, I want to read a few scripture passages and give us a few truths to reorient our lives. I think what stands out is a lot of us, you know, even people who are early in our career mostly, is we want money, right? We want to chase our dreams. It could be money, it could be success, it could be achievement, you know, but your story brings to the forefront the fact that Even if you do all things right, even if you're successful, doesn't mean that you're satisfied at the end of it. There's a gap. There's a gap. And I think what really resonated with me when I first talked to Scott, even in that conversation, was he goes, you know, I'm scared. And I go, why? He's like, well, I'm going to stand before God in judgment day. God's going to ask me. And, you know, as a pastor, I want to like really go, you know what, you're okay. You don't want to calm him down or just pacify him. But I can't because that's the truth. That's literally what the scripture says. And so he was regurgitating scripture to me. And I go, Scott, you're right. You're right. We're going to stand before God in judgment day. We've got to make it right. And he's like, I want to make it right. Well, I've got to wait to make it right. Why don't you serve as the campus director of the Northwest Campus? And it kind of worked out that way. But it's just incredible how... What we do for God matters, and we go back to our question, am I living for God? So what does it mean for us today? I want to give us just five truths to reorient your lives. I don't know where you are today. Maybe you are living for God, and if you're doing that, that's great. Maybe you're not. Maybe you're chasing the American dream. Maybe you want to be successful. Maybe, you know, your security is in comfort. You're in, you know... You want to pursue pleasure or you want to go, you know what, I'm so young, I want to enjoy life and I'll figure out God sometime later. Maybe that's you, but we're going to look at a few scriptures that direct us on how best to live. So firstly, Scott alluded to this. Are you living for God? Live in light of eternity. Live in light of eternity. We have just a short period of time to live in. James 4 verse 13. This is what it says. James, the half-brother of Jesus. He says, come now you who say today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit. Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. Just even the orientation to life. We think we're in control of a lot of things, but it's more of an illusion, right? Life is a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. And I actually got an object lesson just this past Sunday of this truth. You know, Scott and I, we actually did the same thing at the Northwest campus. So I was heading to church last Sunday, you know, 8.40 a.m. I'm just getting off the expressway, turning left on Bistafield Road, literally three minutes away from church, turning left. I was actually on a phone call with Pastor Stephen. We were just, you know, he was just updating me on how set up and everything was going. And then, boom, didn't see it coming. Just T-boned by a car that ran a red light. And if you go to the next screen, you see those pictures there. So my car was completely totaled. I was hit by about, maybe the person was doing about 40, 45 miles an hour. Impacted on the rear passenger seat. So this was right there. So I got out of the vehicle. I'm shaking. I didn't even see it coming because I was turning left. And this car comes from my right, so I wasn't, you know, had the green light. And so I called, tried to call my wife, and I always told my wife, like, every time I call her, she never answers. I'm going, Katie, there's going to be an emergency. I'm going to call you. You are not going to answer, right? And the same thing happened, you know. So I had to call Carl. Carl called Scott. And then Scott called Katie. It was just, it was all, it was a mess. But it was crazy. It was just crazy that... Even as I was processing this, it could have been bad. I am really surprised how I got out of it unscathed. Scott was actually at the scene. Funny is not the right word, but the intersection was blocked, but then everyone was coming to church. So, like, they were, like, seeing, and then they see me there, and everyone's shocked. So we had a mini church reunion right there because they're all, like, you know, coming to church, you know, at that point. But, you know, there was a couple of things that I was even just processing. Man. One, I didn't even see it coming. Two, I didn't even do anything wrong in this, and yet, things could have been really bad. It's not, I wasn't in control. And this was the crazier part. Just with all of the staff that we have now, before I used to come in early, so I used to drive alone, and then my wife would come, wife and kids would come in her car. But now my wife and I, we just drive together, you know, to church. And this was the first Sunday in about three months that the kids were sick. So she was like, you know what, I don't think we could bring the kids to church and infect other kids as well. We're going to stay home. And I go, wow. That was a God thing because the impact was right where my daughter would be sitting. Her car seat would be at the rear passenger seat. You don't know what would have happened if that was the case. It just goes to show that as much as we think we're in control, we're not. God is sovereign and God is good. All that to say, this is just an object lesson, and whatever happens with the preacher, you know, you guys, it's fair game for an illustration, right? And this is not what I wanted, but it was. Yeah, I got to tell you, like, I was supposed to be up doing this with Ajit, and when I hear he's in a car accident, Carl's telling me, you'll have to go it alone. I was like, this is not good. what what is the testament to a jet is he gets in an accident i would not advise this like i wasn't expecting this i was prepared to i'm gonna go up and kind of do my portion and kind of do his 45 minutes after the accident he's up in front of church and he's teaching and i said to him like three four times like are you okay He was giving me like one word answers. That's just not a jet. You know, because he's always he's talking, you know, all the time. So I said, are you OK? He's like, yes. I was like, oh, my gosh, I'm getting worried now. But he was fine. We made it through it. But it just it was like the moment where even when I pulled up, I didn't know what I was going to see. And even though it wasn't my car, I wasn't in. I was like, man, life is short. Yeah. Things can go wrong quickly. Yeah. I want to read another verse for us here. 1 John 2, verse 15 says, "'Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. And it goes, and the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. To whoever does the will of God abides forever. And then Psalm 90 says, the years of our life are 70 or even by reason of strength 80, yet their span is but toil and trouble. This is the Psalm of Moses. And look at what he says. He says, so teach us. So he's asking God in a prayer. He says, God, teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. He says, help us to know how long we have. You know, in seminary, I remember one of my professors goes, hey, let's say you get 80 days. Let's quantify that. 80 into 365. That's how many days you're going to live. And then figure out how old are you right now, how many days you've already lived. So I'm 36. So you put that down there. And then you go, this is literally how much time you have on earth if you live your entire lifespan. And so Moses says, teach us to number our days so we may get a heart of wisdom. Again, Pastor Carl says, he says, if you... It's not that wise people are the ones that redeem time. It's when you redeem time, when you know that life is short and so you got to make it count, that makes you wise, right? And that's what God is calling us to do. So live in light of eternity. Number two, what you chase reveals what you treasure. in matthew 6 again straight from the words of jesus sermon on the mount he says do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth again jesus is saying right there do not lay treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven when neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal for For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And then he goes on in verse 24. He says, No one can serve two masters, for either he'll hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Scripture straight, the words of Jesus. Then Jesus doesn't leave us hanging. He actually addresses some of our concerns. What are the things that concern us the most right after? And He says here in verse 25, He says, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?" Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat? What shall we drink? Or what shall we wear? Or how much it's in my retirement? It's not there, but I added that. I guess that's what it means to us, right? For the Gentiles seek after all these things. Gentiles referring to people in the world, non-believers, those who don't follow Jesus. This is what their focus is. They seek after all these things. But Jesus says, your heavenly father knows that you need them. And he goes, but you, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Seek first the kingdom. Of God. You know, when we are up here and we preach and we say, hey, you got to serve or you got to focus on God's kingdom. Truly, we're not saying because we want to grow the church or we want this church to be something. That's not the motivation in asking you to seek God. It's because that's the greatest pursuit that you can have in your life. And we as pastors, we owe it to you guys to push you towards that. following God and seeking God the most. So what you chase reveals what you treasure. Our anxieties, they give us a window into what we value the most. Do you have something to say? I was going to say that. I left something out and I really just talked about the material possession side of money. There's the reverse side where Maybe you're in a position where the scarcity of money has you so focused and so paranoid, I understand, like an anxiety just ridden because you have to worry about that. That's the other side of money. So it's kind of a double-edged sword. It's one thing I kind of left out earlier, but I think that made me think of like we're doing this – study with Wajid and the whole church staff is doing it in James 1 it's like being rich in a relationship with the Lord is greater than material possessions and just that's the point I missed and so no matter how rich you are or maybe you're focused away it's not the money in terms of possessions it could be the other side of it but again no matter how rich you are with material goods we're actually poverty stricken unless we have a relationship with the Lord yeah So, like, I read those verses differently now. I used to read that and I was like, oh, that makes sense. Really makes sense. Yeah, yeah. That's awesome. That's the work of God in your life. Number three, live to hear God say, well done. There's a story in Matthew 25 where this master, he goes on this journey and then he gives, calls three of his servants. And this is a parable that Jesus shares. Gives three of his servants talents. You have one guy that got five, the other guy got two, and the other guy got one. And so the master goes away, the guy who got five talents, which refers to a large unit of money. And for us, in our context, it could be anything that God has given us to steward, not just money. So it's time, talent, treasure. So the master comes back and he's like, hey, I want an account of how you used the talents that I gave you. So the guy who had five goes away. Master, here's, you know, I invested it and I've got five more. I've got ten. And this is where the phrase, well done, my good and faithful servant is taken from. So the master says, well done, my good and faithful servant. The guy who had two talents did the same thing, two multiplied, now it's four. And this is where we start this text. So his master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. It goes, he who also had received one talent came forward saying, Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. So I was afraid. I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours. So basically he wasn't invested. He gives back just the same one talent. But look at what his master answered him. You wicked and slothful servant. You knew that I reap what I have not sown and gather what I have not scattered, where I've scattered no seed. Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers. And at my coming, I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to the one who has ten talents. For to everyone who has... For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And look at this last sentence. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness, in the place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Again, a picture of hell. So there's a few things that stand out about this parable. One is God has given all of us talents. We've got something to steward, right? And at the end, like Scott said, we're going to stand on judgment day where God's going to like require, what did we do? And hopefully the answer is, well done, my good and faithful servant. So now live your life to hear God say, well done, my good and faithful servant. The other thing that stands about this passage is the fact that the servant who didn't do stuff, who had a very distorted view of his master. He didn't understand his master right. And a lot of times, like, we go on pursuing the things that we want to do. We live the way that we want to do because we have a distorted view of what we think life is or who God is or how we want to do stuff. Our thinking might be faulty. As much as we can go, like, hey, we want to think whatever I think is the right thing to do, Our standard, our rule and standard of practice is God's word. And Jesus says it. Jesus says it right here that he wants us to be able to be invested in God's kingdom. Again, this parable is given in the context of a bunch of parables that talks about the second coming of Jesus. So again, this is referring to God coming back. So live your life to hear God say, well done. A couple of other things. Now is your time. Don't wait to live for God. In Ecclesiastes 12.1, Solomon, he's probably one of the richest men to have ever lived. At the end of his life, this is what he says. He's tasted everything, pleasures, comforts, whatever you wanted, he had. And this is what he says. Remember also your creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near, of which you will say, I have no pleasure in them. So there's a lot of young people today who might go, you know what? Now is my life. I want to live it out. I want to do, you know, I had a friend in college who grew up in a Christian family. He goes, you know what? I want to really like live out my life. I don't want to follow God right now. I don't want to do everything that I possibly want to do. And it's been 20 years and he's still not back with God. You don't want that. And alternatively, I mean, you don't know what life is going to bring. Like there's no guarantee that you're going to be, you know, you're going to retire, much like Scott did, and you'll have a chance to correct, to right the wrongs. We don't know that. And so now is the time. For you to live for us, to live for God. Look at this warning, this verse here in Hebrews 3. It says, take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day as long as it is called today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is written, today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. Today is the day. This verse says, unbelief can slowly lead a person away from God. And sin has the tendency of gradually deceiving ourselves and hardening our hearts and take us away from God. So if you're in a place where your heart is hardened. before God or you go, you know what? I'm not living for God. God is offering an opportunity for us, for you today to make it right. My final thing today is make God your greatest passion. I've shared this verse a lot. This was a few days before Jesus is crucified and he rises again. A lawyer comes up to Jesus, you know, they want to trap him. And this guy asked a question that I think is one of the best questions that you can ask Jesus. Because he goes straight to the point. He goes like, if there's one thing you want me to do, Jesus, what do I do? What is the most important commandment that I got to follow? That's the question this lawyer is asking. And in verse 37, Jesus says, you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And he goes on, and a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself, an outflow, a loving God. And on these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. And so this is what I'm going to charge you guys today. We're going to have Torrance come up as we do a why in the road. What does it mean for us? I'm asking you guys, are we living for God today? Are we living for God? And Scott's story is such a great demonstration of the fact that we could pursue all of these false idols, things that are even good. Money is not inherently evil, right? And we all need that. But we don't want that to be an idol in your life. Much like that. Success. Security. Approval of others. Relationships. Anything that takes the place of God. We don't want to live for any of that. We want to live for God. So here's what we're going to do. We're not going to do a final song. But I want to take some time of reflection where it's just going to be you and God. And I've just got some prompts. You can read it if you want. If you don't want that and if you want to just talk this through with God, you can as well. Take a moment to invite God to search your heart and examine your priorities. How might God be calling you to steward your time, resources, skills, and relationships more intentionally for eternal purposes? What might you need to remove or reduce in your life so that you could live more fully for God? And what matters for eternity? So I want all of us, we're going to spend some time just reflecting on that. And whatever God tells you, commit to taking one action step this week to begin implementing these changes. Because life is short. We want to live for God. So we're going to take a few minutes. If you want to bow your hearts, your heads, your highs, whatever you want. Just you and God. Just exploring having God speak to you. Are you living for God? Thank you. you Amen. Dear Heavenly Father, each and every one of us just come to you now and just help us to be honest in front of you, just to search our hearts, our lives, and what we treasure. And just pray that if you would be calling someone in this room, that their ears would be open to you, that they would hear you. And it wouldn't be a mistake. It wouldn't be something that you're wondering or saying like, God, is that you? It would just be resounding. I have a plan for you. I have a mission for you. Just pray also if there's something that needs to be removed in someone's life or reduced. or realigned, that you would just give us that direction and you would tell us what that is and just help us to stand in front of you and deal with that appropriately. And lastly, we just ask that if there's anyone in this room that's going through this process, that they would just take small steps of action. We don't know how much time we have, but we know what the opportunity is and what the fullness is in living for you and aligning up with the kingdom and with those eternal treasures, not the distractions here on earth. Just pray for this coming week and just that all of us would think through visibly and just through the lens of opportunity, all the things that are in front of us, whether it's people at work, our peers, our neighbors, our friends, our family. that whatever is in front of each and every one of us that needs to be changed or altered, that that could get corrected and just that everyone could be immediately effective for reaching people and giving them the same news and the same words that you have a calling for them and you have a plan for them. Just pray these things in your name. Amen. Amen. Amen.