 Never give yourself fully to another human being, never give a hundred percent of your spirit, body and soul to another human being. I know that sounds a strange thing to say to you that may be thinking now, well, hang on a minute, what about in my marriage or my friendships or my team or people that I have intimacy with and so on. I understand that, but what I've discovered over the years and I got this sense of that this was a good idea for my life. This is my version of it to you guys. But when I read in John 2 that it says that Jesus would not entrust himself to people. He would not fully entrust himself to people because he knew what was in people. I think it was that reserve that Jesus had about fully committing to any other human being that I thought was an interesting thing he modeled that we'd never taught and spoke about. I'd never certainly had anybody speak to me about what that perhaps meant for him. And I think what it meant for him and for us is he knew that he would face moments and seasons in his life like Gethsemane when they couldn't stand with him or they couldn't pray with him and he felt so alone. Ultimately Jesus died alone, went to the cross alone and all those people that pledged and died and left to him, deserted him at the end, the same for the apostle Paul who rise to Timothy and begins to mention names of people that deserted him as if he couldn't believe that they especially would not be there for him in the closing days and hours of his life. And I think what Jesus is saying isn't that we don't love and commit to and entrust ourselves to people because clearly Jesus did that. But what John tells us who had a level of intimacy with him by the way that none of the other team members did that even John was aware in all his closeness with Jesus that Jesus still seemed to keep a piece of himself back from John that he observed and recorded, no other Gospel records this about Jesus that he would not fully entrust himself to humans because he knew what was in people. It's not a downer on people that it came from, it's just knowing what human nature is. I have had so many people leave me in my life who pledged and died and left to me especially in the church as a pastor in the reinvention of our church, the journey I call crossing over or to book about that as some of you know. I think I learned through all those hundreds of people leaving that were lifelong friends that walked away. And the flow we had together, the giving of ourselves to each other of course was great for years but the problem became I think that when we began to separate we had too much invested in each other emotionally and mentally and relationally and psychologically and conceptually and so on and so on we were too intertwined so that every person's leaving took a piece of my soul with them potentially until I realized that was happening and realized I need to stop this now. What is, this is going to get worse before better. If all of these hundreds of people that are leaving take a piece of my soul with them I'm going to have nothing of me left and I either will take years to recover or will never recover from the sense of abandonment that this was having on me. I think I came out of that seeing that scripture for the first time and wondering is that what he meant by being in the shoes of someone who felt deserted and abandoned like Jesus often felt throughout his life when it says in John 6 many who followed him to that time left him because he taught something without tidying it up and explaining it to them about eating my flesh, drinking my blood many who were offended at the implications of what that meant took off and left him even turned to the 12 actually at that time and said do you guys want to go as well? I love it about God, God never holds on to reluctant people and you should not either even those that he handpicked he gave them the option to leave knowing if they left I can find 12 more and he can and so can you. But I think his healthy detachment from other people is what I'm advocating for you guys I put it this way keep a little 2% always keep a little 2% back between you and God that you never ever gifted the human being then there'll be times in life when that's all you have left to fall back on that's the only root that you can tap into that little 2% that you never ever entrust to another human being is what at times will make the difference between you standing or falling between you carrying on or capitulating or quitting because you allowed someone to take too much of you with them when they let you down stepped away left you abandoned you turned on you betrayed you like Judas did for Jesus and so on and so on I think what allowed him to stay intact and go to the cross alone despite Peter's undying love to him pledge of undying love you can rely on me I'll never desert you and of course Peter did despite Jesus knowing that that would happen he continued towards the cross not holding a grudge against Peter he just knew Peter over promised what he couldn't yet deliver and we often do that sometimes you sometimes will over promise something not knowing your soul isn't yet developed enough to cash that check if that check ever comes calling to be cashed and Peter did that and Jesus knew he wasn't in a place yet to follow through on something that you wanted to believe about himself and later he would find that level of commitment but he didn't at that time and so he wasn't there for Jesus at the end but the great thing for Jesus was that he knew he wouldn't be and that was okay because he never entrusted his soul to Peter enough for Peter to take that with him I wonder where in your life right now you maybe need to edit your relationships in this way where you need to go and recalibrate adjust the percentages so that you do not give your heart and soul away 100% to any other human being not to a spouse or a friend or a child or a parent or anybody in life that you think that would be a given that you would give yourself to that level and expect them to give themselves to that level to you you know Jesus not doing that didn't affect his flow with human beings or with his team he did all that brilliantly well still keeping in reserve a little bit just between him and God knowing that sometimes that would be all he'd have left to fall back on because all people would have deserted him and all people ultimately will desert you at some point in your life don't let that become something that parks you up and makes you stationary in life because you never saw it coming keep a little 2% back just between you and God I think is a healthy dynamic to have in our relationships in life