We're going to get ready to jump into this teaching tonight, and I'm going to get you to go first

back to Luke 14. I don't think I'm going to hang in Luke 14 very long tonight, but we are going to

use it to kind of set some parameters. I don't know if I should say parameters, maybe set some

context, there we go, for what we think the Lord is wanting to show us regarding escaping the trap of preoccupation.

And again, this is a word I used in my first session that I had with Union University.

And my heart in sharing with them about escaping preoccupation

was not to focus on what they were preoccupied

with, but why they were preoccupied at all.

Now, I wasn't talking to a group of people that are preoccupied, but I was helping them understand

how to never find themselves in a snare of preoccupation.

One of the ways that you and I do that is not through focused determination, but through

utter fascination.

And we're making that shift.

How many of you feel yourself making that shift?

From focused determination to utter fascination.

And I have learned, after now almost 30 years in the ministry, I have learned that fascination

will take you places determination never will.

People who are determined to have a great marriage don't have nearly as great a marriage as two

people fascinated with each other.

I don't use the word devotion when I talk about my marriage,

so I've quit using that word when I talk about my walk with my groom.

It would seem an insult to me to describe what Tammy and I have as we're devoted to one another.

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