Hey, good morning, Harris Creek. Good to be with you all. You all, people of God, chosen, elect, adopted, washed by the blood of Jesus, and dwelt by the Holy Spirit. This is the gathering of the church for the proclamation of His Word and the exalting of Jesus Christ. It's good to do. And if it's the first time joining us, like if you were brought by a friend or a neighbor,

a coworker, we just want to thank you. We know you've got a lot of choices, you go a lot of places. You could have slept in, but you're here. And we believe that God has something for you today. So listen, by his spirit, he's going to speak to you. You already see a ladder here on stage, so I want to get to that. So I arrived here from Springfield, Missouri in 1994.

You can do the math or all. You already see a ladder here on stage, so I want to get to that. So I arrived here from Springfield, Missouri in 1994.

You can do the math, or I'll save you the time, 48.

But I showed up, and, like, when I came to Baylor's campus, Pendland Room 212, I believe,

212 or 2.11, can't remember exactly, but standing there,

and on the weekends, your freshman year, like,

everybody just scattershot went to their own hometowns. And I'm like left there alone in the dorm,

and I'm like, dude, this is not going to fly. Like, I had friends in high school, you know,

like, we had a crowd, and now I'm like, nobody. And I was like, I got to fix this. And so I saw a ladder there that I could climb. It was the fraternity. I'm like, okay, all right, like this doesn't, you know, you don't have to be an idiot to figure this out. Like, I'm going to go through rush. I'm going to get a bid from the fraternity that'll make me a part of something. I'm just gonna start climbing that ladder. I wanna hold office within that fraternity, not just enough to be a part of it. Like I wanna lead it in part. So I'll be a service chair, I'll be mission trip chair. I'm gonna try to get Pledgemaster, which it was like president or Pledgemaster. President had a lot of responsibilities. Pledgemaster was like, people person. I'm like, I'm going to choose that one. Some of you guys are like, how's your insurance policy right now? I just was like climbing this ladder for me. That wasn't enough. It was like, all right, senior year, let's get triple crown. Let's go all universities sing. Let's get number one there. Let's get number one float. Let's win intermurals. Like, we just like going and going and going for it all. And at the end of that, like got to it, graduated. And somewhere in my 20s, I took my fraternity jersey, you know, my certificate, some of the like,

I don't know what to call, memorabilia, and I threw it away.

Like it went into a dumpster in Austin, Texas, all the stuff that I valued so much to fulfill

and meet all my needs.

Like somewhere in my 20s was like, what is this?

I didn't want to be like an Aggie wearing one of those rings like, oh, you peeked too soon. You bought a maroon car. Like, man, you're all in. I was like, no, I got to get rid of this. Like, what am I going to do? Like, hang it up in my office and be like, dude, glory days. You're like Uncle Rico. Like, give it up, man.

I love it. Aggies, you're great.

I love you. it up in my office and be like, dude, glory days. You're like Uncle Rico. Like, give it up, man.

I love it. Aggies, you're great. I love you. Favorite community college in Texas. I think it's amazing. But here's the reality. At some point in time, it was when I was 30, I had surrendered

to Christ, he'd got me sober from alcoholism. No joke. I was like a part of this year-long

discipleship program. I was on Baylor's campus to come and tell other students like, hey, there's this thing. When you graduate

college, you can get disciples, like learn about the nations and missions and grow in your knowledge and love for the Lord and His Word.

And I'm on campus, 30 years old.

...