2025 Sermon Transcript Archive

Full Sermon Transcript

Raise your hand.

You know, immediately when I say that, some of you put your hands in your pocket because you're just that obnoxious.

Pastor, don't tell me what to do.

Raise your hand if you've ever heard of Julius Caesar.

Have you ever questioned if he's real?

No.

Probably not.

And yet, did you know that the only eyewitness account that we have written down of Julius Caesar comes from Julius Caesar himself?

Like no one that's ever written about him actually lived with him.

But none of you questions his existence because there were no followers of his writing biographies of him.

No, you trust that he was real because of history and impact and the evidence.

And here's why that matters today.

It's because Christmas... isn't just about a baby being born.

It's about a Savior arriving on time, on purpose, and exactly as promised.

From where he was born, to how he was wrapped, to the very hour that he would die, none of it was random.

None of it was random.

And to most people, right, the Christmas story is pretty familiar.

But I don't think most people know just how miraculously precise it is.

Last week, we talked about these guys who are from the East, from modern-day Iraq, which was the kingdom of Babylon.

They were magi.

They would have been people who counseled the king, right?

And they came to Jesus bearing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

And when they came to King Herod, King Herod was threatened by Jesus.

And this new king that was arriving, again, we kind of tend to wrestle with power.

And when these Magi came to King Herod, he asked, well, where is this king supposed to be born and at what time and where?

And they responded to him, the Magi did, in Matthew 2.6.

It says, but you, say this word out loud with me.

Is it not there?

Where is the scripture?

There it is.

But you, thank you.

You guys did a great job.

But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah.

For out of you, Bethlehem, will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.

Now how did these magi from the east know this particular verse?

You see, because they're literally quoting a prophecy of Jesus, of the Messiah, found in Micah chapter 5 verse 2. when the prophet Micah proclaimed this verse that out of you Bethlehem would come the Savior, and Micah said this seven to 800 years before the birth of Jesus.

And Jesus was in fact born in Bethlehem.

Did you know that Bethlehem has a meaning to the word Bethlehem?

Did you know that Bethlehem means house of bread?

Did anyone know that?

You knew that Julius Caesar existed, but you didn't know that Bethlehem means house of bread.

What are you talking about, pastor?

Well, let me show you.

Later in Jesus, John 6, verse 35, Jesus would proclaim, I am the bread of life.

So out of the house of bread came the bread of life, Jesus proclaimed.

And then he would say stuff like, man, humankind, does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

He said things like, give us today our what?

Our daily bread.

What does that mean?

It means daily time with Jesus through his word in worship and in prayer.

And in Christmas, the bread of heaven came down to be with us and to be broken for us.

You see, God chose this seemingly insignificant, small, overlooked town in the nation of Israel.

Not a palace, not a power, but a lowly place where Jesus would be put into what we know as a what?

A manger.

Now watch this for just a second.

We shared this in the series leading up to this message.

Jesus fulfilled a bunch of prophecies.

And Jesus fulfilled at least eight specific prophecies directly connected to his birth.

What are they?

It's his lineage, where he comes from, his tribe, his timing, his birthplace, the visitors that would show up.

Even his escape from King Herod trying to kill him was prophesied about.

Let me ask you this question for just a second.

Did any of you choose the parents to which you were born?

Some of you wish you could have.

You see, because no one chooses their parents.

How many of y'all decided before you were birthed where you would be born?

None of you.

Yeah, your parents might have chosen that because they would decide, do I want to have a birth at home?

Do I want to have a birth in a hospital?

Do I want to have a birth in the

Manger, because there was no room in the inn, which they had no control over.

You see, no one orchestrates the actions of other people to fulfill prophecies that are said about them.

Why?

Because God arranged history around the arrival of his son.

There was a probability study scholar named Peter Stoner who said the chances of just one person fulfilling eight prophecies, again, there were eight specific prophecies about the birth of Jesus, the chance of just one person fulfilling those eight prophecies is one in 10 to the 17th power.

Do you have your calculator?

That's one in 100 quadrillion chance.

And Jesus fulfilled over 300 prophecies in his birth, life, death, and resurrection.

Friends, the odds of this happening by chance aren't slim.

They're impossible.

Because this wasn't luck.

This was God.

Now, Bethlehem was right outside of the city of Jerusalem.

And Jerusalem was the city of God, where the temple of God was, where the presence of God was.

And

And in the temple, right, once a year, there were spotless lambs that were being raised to provide for the blood sacrifice for the sins of the people.

You see, the manger tells us what kind of savior Jesus would be.

You see, because this wasn't just a feeding trough.

How many of y'all think that this was a feeding trough?

The animals would come to eat and... How many of y'all think it was fashioned by wood?

You're afraid to answer.

Trick question.

My wife did.

Let me show you what an actual manger would have looked like in the time of Jesus.

Does this look like wood?

It's stone.

It's carved out of stone.

And it's the same kind of manger that would have been used, check this out, historically... for inspecting a spotless lamb.

So,

The city of Bethlehem was outside the city of Jerusalem and it was a rural place where there would have been shepherds and sheep and lambs that were being raised for the sacrifice for the sins of many.

And what did it take?

It took a perfect spotless lamb to be the sacrifice.

And so they would take the lambs and they would put it, they would wrap it in swaddling clothes and they would place it in this manger, this stone carved manger for inspection to make sure that it was perfect, that it was without blemish. saying to you and to me that even from the very beginning, heaven was pointing to the cross of Jesus.

Of course, we see the story in Luke chapter two, verse eight through 12, when it shares that God announced the birth of his son, not to kings and priests, not to the elite, but to shepherds.

Now shepherds would have been people that kind of, have you ever not been chosen for a team?

Like you line up for recess and they're picking teams for soccer or football or Red Rover.

Let's bring Red Rover back.

Can somebody get an amen?

Let's stop being afraid of breaking bones like that happens.

It grows character.

But here's the thing. shepherds would have been a little bit less than.

They would have been put out on a field to do all this hard work, to shepherd the sheep, to care for the sheep, to fight lions, to ward off issues.

How many of y'all have seen the video where the sheep just goes and wanders into a pit, the shepherd pulls them out of the pit, and then the sheep just runs right back into the pit?

Can anyone relate to that picture?

Like, we're a bunch of idiots.

We're a bunch of stupid sheep.

That's what we are.

And these sheep, right, the shepherds would be caring for them.

Are any of you a sailor?

Been a sailor?

Like you were in the Navy or you, there was one person last service, we need more people in the Navy here.

Yes, sir.

You ever heard the phrase, man, you cuss like a sailor?

Does that have any relevance?

Accurate.

Have any of you been in a football team locker room before?

I can tell you that we kind of share similar language.

That's what kind of guys these shepherds would have been.

And yet Jesus was announced.

God announced the birth of his son, not to kings, not to priests, but to people who were out in the fields doing this extremely hard work.

They were not looked highly upon.

In fact, these men who were shepherds, their testimony would not have even been allowed in a court of law.

And yet God chose them as the first eyewitnesses of the birth of his son.

Do you know who else's testimony would not have been allowed in the court of law during that time?

Women.

The first eyewitnesses of the birth of Jesus was men who would not have had testimony allowed in the court of law.

And the same is true of women.

The first eyewitnesses of the resurrection of Jesus was women.

As if to say, God saying to humankind, I don't need your approval for how I'm going to do things.

The men who were there around Bethlehem at that time would have been the men raising the sacrificial lambs, and they were the first to be told that the Lamb of God had arrived.

Now, this theme goes throughout all Scripture.

Like, again, last week I shared with you that if you ever meet someone who says, hey, the Old Testament doesn't matter, can you just look at them politely and kindly and say, you dumb.

You dumb.

Because the entirety of scripture points to one person, one event, on purpose and for a purpose, and his name is Jesus.

You see, even in Genesis chapter two and verse three, when Adam and Eve sinned,

Right?

God said, do not take this fruit or you will surely die.

And they eat of the fruit and sin enters.

And what happens?

They become fearful.

They become afraid.

They become, it's the first time fear is ever mentioned in the scripture.

They find themselves guilty.

They find themselves full of shame.

Have you ever done something stupid and immediately you're afraid of the consequence of what you've done or what you've said?

Fear enters in.

You become full of shame and guilt and

Hey, you're no different than every single one of us on planet Earth, even from the very beginning, Adam and Eve.

Fear entered, shame followed, and what did they try to do?

They tried to do what you and I still try to do.

We tried to cover ourselves, but their covering, your covering was insufficient.

And this is what theologians would call the proto-evangelion.

This is the first decoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ because God did not abandon them to their own efforts.

God sought them out.

He went after their fear.

He went after their shame and their guilt.

And God did what?

He sacrificed an animal.

Blood was shed and he clothed them with sufficient skin to cover their shame, their nakedness, and their guilt.

Blood was shed to cover them.

Then in Genesis chapter 15, God made a covenant with a guy named Abraham.

It was an old man who had no son.

It was 100 years old, even his wife Sarah.

And God said to him, I'm going to bless all nations through you.

And Abraham's like, wait a second.

I don't have a son.

I'm 100 years old.

How many of y'all are going to make it to 100?

I'm so, yeah, that's good faith right there.

How many of y'all think that even at your age could even have a baby?

Impossible, right?

And yet God did it.

And then what happens?

Matthew and Luke later trace the lineage of Jesus directly back to Abraham.

This is prophecy.

God was already preparing the story of redemption.

Abraham, right, eventually has a son named Isaac.

And in Genesis 22, it shares, the Bible shares this story that God actually asked Abraham, the promised son, to be the lineage of

He said, Abraham, now I want you to offer him as a sacrifice.

To which any loving parent would go, excuse me?

What?

And as Abraham and Isaac, who would have been around a teenager at that time, as they climbed the mountain, the scriptures actually say this in it.

It says that Isaac was actually carrying the wood for his own sacrifice.

And he asked, hey, dad, we've got the wood.

We've got the fire.

Where's the lamb?

And Isaac, not knowing...

He was the lamb.

He was the sacrifice.

And Abraham answered.

He said, God will provide.

Isaac carried the wood up the hill to the altar.

And when he was on the altar, in the same way Jesus would carry his own wooden cross to his sacrifice, so Isaac carried his own.

But just before Abraham struck his son dead to sacrifice him, God stopped his hand and they saw a ram caught in the thicket.

A caught in the thicket.

The ram was provided in Isaac's place.

Its head was entangled in thorns.

Does that sound familiar?

Because it's not an accident.

It's on purpose.

Fast forward to Passover, right?

The Israelite people, the people of God were caught in Egyptian slavery.

And this is a picture of being in bondage to sin.

And at Passover, right?

God was trying to set them free through Big Mo.

And at Passover, the angel of death would come through Egypt to break Pharaoh's grip and to free God's people from bondage.

And God gave the Israelite people one instruction.

Remember when God gave them one instruction in the garden?

How well did that go for them?

So God gave him one instruction again.

And here was the instruction.

Take a spotless lamb, sacrifice it, dip hyssop into the blood, and apply it to the doorpost, the sides and the top of the doorposts over your house.

And where the blood of the sacrifice is applied, judgment will pass over.

That's why it's called Passover.

Passover.

You see, the Passover and the sacrifice and the blood, it wasn't about who lived in the house.

It was about what covered the house.

Because of the blood, the angel of death did not enter the house.

The people were saved, not by their own perfection, but by substitution.

Of course, after that, the people of God are freed and they go into the wilderness and God provides for them the law.

And within the law, he established what's known as the Day of Atonement.

This is what Yom Kippur is.

And it's specifically substitutional atonement, which means that the sacrifice of one had to be given for another.

And so once a year,

The high priest, not just any priest, not just any old schmo, but the high priest would enter into what is called the Holy of Holies in the temple, the place of God's presence.

He couldn't walk in just casually.

He followed strict cleansing rituals.

He entered on a precise day at a precise time with the blood of a spotless lamb.

And there was a curtain separating the presence of God and the priest of God and behind the curtain stood what was called the Ark of the Covenant.

This is where the law would have been placed and God's presence existed and on it was called the mercy seat.

They tied a rope around the ankle of the high priest before he went in because if the high priest would have entered with any unconfessed sin in his own life or without the blood of a precious, perfect, spotless lamb or anything outside of what God commanded, he would die instantly.

Why?

Because God is a just God.

He doesn't accept anything other than perfection.

Why was a spotless, perfect lamb expected?

Because that's what justice required.

And so if the priest didn't do any of the protocols correctly, he would have died instantly.

And the rope tied around his ankle was if that were to happen, no one else could enter to get him out.

And so they literally have to pull him out by this rope.

What you and I need to understand this Christmas is the curtain, the veil, was protecting the people from the holiness of God.

This is where we learn to fear the Lord.

Can I tell you something?

Stop fearing men.

Stop fearing what they think about you, what they say about you.

Fear what God says.

You see, the curtain was absolutely massive.

It was about 60 feet high.

So this room is a little over 20 feet.

So imagine going two more stories up.

So the curtain was 60 feet high.

It was 30 feet wide and it was, check this out.

It was four to six inches thick.

Now this is kind of a, I'm gonna scrunch it down a little bit.

Four to six inches is like the length of my hand.

Do you see that?

This was not a tiny curtain.

Matter of fact, the scriptures say that it would have taken over 300 men to carry it.

Four to six inches thick.

Have you ever seen a garment four to six inches thick?

How many of you are cold in the room today and you would like a blanket?

That's a good blanket right there.

So let me ask you this question.

Riker.

Try to tear that.

You got nothing, do you?

You don't have enough muscle to do it, do you?

Oh, you think you still do?

You can keep trying.

See, human hands could not tear that curtain, that veil.

As long as the blood was applied, forgiveness would be granted.

And then we come to Luke chapter 2 and an angel appears, again not to priests or kings but to the shepherds and the very men who raised the lambs for sacrifice and heaven announced the lamb has been born.

Now watch this a few chapters later, John the Baptist who was sent to prepare the way of the Lord, he sees Jesus from the first time and declares to his followers, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

So just as God provided a ram so that Abraham's son could go free, God the Father provided his son so that we could go free.

You see, all of scripture, all of human history points to this one pinnacle moment, one sacrifice, one savior.

You see, when the lamb was slain, access to God was opened.

The only question left was, will you step in?

Will you draw near?

You see, because for thousands of years, the story was the same.

The slain lamb after slain lamb after slain lamb.

And the question hanging over all of the scripture up to this point was simple.

When will God provide the final lamb?

And then we see in Luke chapter 22 and in 1 Corinthians 5-7.

Have you guys ever heard of the last supper?

The last supper would have been what's called the Passover meal, right?

It happened before, the night before the day of atonement.

Substitutionary atonement.

They were gathering for that very meal.

And in the Passover meal, the Passover meal required that lamb be eaten and be on the table.

Do you see why?

And they would eat lamb shank.

How many of y'all like some lamb shank?

Just a few of you guys.

Yes.

Some of you women are like, what?

They would eat lamb shank, to be precise.

But in the accounts of Luke chapter 22 and 1 Corinthians 5, 7, when describing the elements of what was at the Last Supper and what they were partaking in, scripture never mentions lamb being on the table.

Why?

Because the lamb wasn't on the table, he was sitting at the table.

And Jesus, the Lamb of God, took the bread and broke it, gave thanks and said, this is my body.

Prophesying what hadn't already happened, but was going to happen the next day on the day of atonement.

This is my body, which is broken for you.

And he took the cup and said, this is my blood, which is shed for you.

You see, the shadow of Christ was now ending because the reality had arrived.

And in Matthew 27, we see this picture in Hebrews chapter nine.

See, Jesus died on the day of atonement.

Jesus died at the ninth hour, scripture declares, the exact time the high priest would have entered into the Holy of Holies, offering the sacrifice for the sins of himself and the many.

And as priests prepared another lamb, the true lamb of God gave his life once and for all.

And at that moment,

The curtain, 60 feet high, 30 feet wide, four to six inches thick, was torn from top to bottom.

The veil between God's presence and God's people was ripped in half.

Jesus died at the ninth hour, the exact time a sacrifice was to be offered.

And at that very moment, the curtain was torn, not from bottom to top as if we could pull it off, but from top to bottom.

You see, when the lamb was slain, the barrier between us and God didn't just fall in a temple.

It fell between you and the Almighty.

No more separation from God.

No more shadow of things to come.

No more distance when Jesus declared, it is finished.

So this Christmas, understand this.

The lamb has been provided.

The blood has been shed.

The veil has been torn.

Salvation, you cannot earn it.

It can only be received.

And Jesus didn't come to make bad people better.

He came to make dead people alive.

And in Hebrews chapter 10, it says, therefore, brothers and sisters, as we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus into God's presence, it states an invitation.

And the invitation is, the way has been made.

Now it's your chance to come near.

It means the door has been opened.

You don't have to stay at a distance.

You don't have to do the work to clean yourself up first.

You can't earn your way in.

Only by the blood of Jesus you are invited to come close.

This is what Christmas is all about.

God didn't stay behind the curtain.

He came down to bring you and I close.

So today the question isn't whether God is willing

The question is, are you?

So if you're ready to draw near, to receive forgiveness, to trust Jesus for who he is, Savior and Lord, this is your moment to step into a new life.

Let's pray together.

With every head bowed and every eye closed.

If you want to step into this relationship with God that Jesus himself has provided for you.

If that's you on a count of three, I want you to take a step of faith by simply raising your hand straight up in the air to receive Jesus today, to draw near to him.

So right now, one, I'm giving my life to Jesus.

Two, I'm coming back to him.

Three, shoot your hand up high and hold it high.

And now everyone in the room, let's pray this prayer out loud together.

Repeat after me.

Say, Jesus, I believe you are the son of God.

I believe you lived and died for my sin.

And you rose again.

I confess my sin. and receive your forgiveness.

I receive your righteousness.

Jesus, be my savior.

Be my Lord.

Make me new.

Fill me with your Holy Spirit.

I put my trust in you now and forevermore.

And everybody said amen.

Full Sermon Transcript

Man, I believe that God is going to do something extraordinary.

And I can't wait to share with you what he does and how he provides.

But I gotta tell you a few things before we kick off the message today.

Today is a very special day for several different reasons.

One, because we have the opportunity to sow into his kingdom through kingdom builders and to see what God does through that in the coming weeks and years.

But also, it is my anniversary today.

Is there kids in the room?

Let's make them feel awkward.

Okay, hold on, hold on.

It's also my bride's birthday tomorrow.

We love you.

Tell her you love her.

You better mean it. they do I love you well that just got awkward all right here we go by the way uh it's not just about being marriage being being in marriage it's also you know you could you could be in a marriage and not have a healthy one how many of you all know the intimacy with your God leads to a healthy relationship in your life can I tell you what happens in your marriage

If you don't have intimacy with your spouse, you don't have health in your marriage.

So I just modeled for you a little bit about what it looks like behind closed doors.

It's actually not.

You're welcome.

I see that face.

You're welcome.

You want that someday.

Okay?

Just trying to teach you.

I've got to figure out how to pull up my notes because I'm having some internet problems here.

I do want to tell you right out of the gates, we have five, you heard this already, we have five identical Christmas services coming next weekend.

It's really when we start our Christmas services, so next Sunday.

Tell me if I'm wrong, staff.

I believe it's 8, 30, 10.

It's behind me.

8.30, 10 and 11.30.

And then Tuesday night, December 23rd, Christmas Eve Eve at 4 and 6 p.m.

We're going to need you to do something.

If you have an app, the New Life Church app, if you don't, I encourage you to get it.

But on it, you can actually go, you have to do this, okay?

Every single one of you, none of you are able to like skip this step.

You have to register for the service you're coming to, okay?

You're like, and by the way, it doesn't cost money.

It's free to register for

But because of our limited space, we need to know how many people are coming to what service so we have seats available for them.

Can you help us in that way?

And so if we have services that are already at capacity, we're going to have to tell people, hey, there's no more room in the inn. if you get what I'm saying.

And so we need you to do this for us so that we can help prepare our church for welcoming so many people this Christmas service.

You can also, if you don't have the New Life Church app, again, go do that, but you can also scan that QR code and you can register your family, your friends, whatever, for those services.

But again, it's first come, first serve.

So if you diddle, diddle, diddly dally?

Diddly dally.

All right, you guys ready for this?

I gotta still pull up my notes here.

Come on, somebody.

Let's pray right now that the internet starts to work, because otherwise we're in trouble.

Nope, I don't need DocuSign.

We're not signing documents here.

You know what, I'm just gonna pull it up this way.

Okay, I got it.

So we've been in the book of Matthew for this entire semester, since September.

And I told you in the very beginning that we would kind of get towards the end, and now we're going back to the beginning.

Why?

Because it's Christmas time.

We're talking about Christmas, the Christmas story.

And what's crazy about this week and next week, this message tees up next week.

Next week, we're going to go from the beginning to the end in one message.

You're not going to want to miss it.

But in Matthew 2, verse 1 through 6, it says, After Jesus was born in Bethlehem, which is in Judea, say Judea.

It says, during the time of King Herod, magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, where is the one who has been born King of the Jews?

They said, we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.

Now when King Herod heard this, he was, say this word out loud with me, he was disturbed.

And all of Jerusalem with him.

When he had called together all the people's chief priests and the teachers of the law, this is King Herod, he asked them, where is this Messiah to be born?

In Bethlehem in Judea, they replied, for this is what the prophet has written.

It says, but you, Bethlehem, in the... And it's not ham, by the way, I keep pronouncing it wrong.

It's hem.

Excuse me, Bethlehem. or staff, I saw them piercing me with their eyes.

But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people, Israel.

There is so much happening in these six verses that many of you have no idea about that I want to share with you today.

And again, this is gonna tee up the Christmas message quite nicely, so I encourage you to be here to invite your friends.

The first thing you need to understand is King Herod was disturbed because he saw, listen to me, he saw Jesus as a threat.

This was someone that was titled a Messiah, a King, a Savior.

Now, just some historical background.

Herod became king of Judea primarily because of his relationship, his friendship with a couple of guys.

One named Julius Caesar.

Have you heard of him?

Another named Mark Antony, who were Romans.

And Herod, this is why this is so disturbing.

Herod had no ancestral right to the throne.

He was put there because of friendship and relationship to Caesar and to Mark Anthony and a few others.

And so when Jesus is being talked about in this way, that he was the Messiah, that he was the king of Israel, king of Judea, he was disturbed because there was a king coming against, threatening his rule.

The second thing that disturbed him, and it was even more disturbing, was that Caesar Augustus, Julius Caesar's son, was the first emperor of Rome, and he was referred to as, check this out, he was referred to as what?

Savior and Lord.

The Roman emperor was referred to as Savior and Lord.

Lord.

And Jesus came as what?

You see the threatening?

You see why they were disturbed?

In Luke chapter 2, this is another account of the Christmas story.

A part of it.

In Luke chapter 2 it says, But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid because I bring you good news that will cause great joy.

Say that with me.

For who?

All the people.

All the people.

Because today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you.

He is the Messiah, the Lord.

Now, if you have in your theology at all that Jesus doesn't mess with politics, holy cow, Jesus flipped politics upside down in just his birth.

Now, who are these magi?

Have you asked that question?

Have you asked that question?

Say, who are they?

Who are they?

Who are these strange magi?

Magi is short for what?

It could be magician.

It's a couple things.

I'm gonna give you a definition of what these people would have done.

The magi were people that served in royal courts.

In other words, they were people who counseled the king.

They would interpret signs and dreams and omens.

By the way, we talked about that last week, right?

That we are the people who dream dreams and have vision for our lives, God's vision for our life.

They would have advised the king and the rulers.

They studied the ancient texts and the heavens.

Now ask this question, where did they come from?

Matthew 2.1, it says what?

They came from the... You guys are great students.

You should be proud.

Here's the next question.

Why did they come?

Matthew 2.2.

We saw his star when it rose and have come to... Now, put yourself in that context... in front of kings, what would have been very customary for you if you would have showed up before a king, what would you have done?

It would have been normal for you to come and to bow before any political human king.

You would have brought gifts to any political human king.

But Matthew here uses a different word, the Greek word proskuneo.

Say that with me.

Now, for those of you who don't know this, Matthew uses this word throughout his entire gospel when it comes to the worship of the divine.

Not just bowing down and honoring those who seem to be good guys or they're rulers in this world.

Good pastors, good leaders.

No, no, no.

Proskuneo had a totally different connotation.

It emphasized not just respectful bowing to an authority, but a deep sense of worship for the divinity.

Again, how can we confirm?

Again, I want to show you this.

I want to teach you this through the scriptures.

How can we confirm that they worshipped and respected Jesus as a higher authority and not just any other king or any other kingdom?

Do you want to see it?

In Matthew chapter 2, if we go a little further, verses 11-12, it says, On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they... and worshiped him.

This is the Magi.

It says, then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of, say these words out loud.

You guys are impressive.

Can I just say this?

Have you ever been in a class where you do this and you think to yourself, man, I never read in a monotone voice like I'm doing right now.

That's just, you know, observation.

It says, and having been warned in a dream, this is to the Magi, they were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod.

They returned to their own country by another route.

Ask yourself the question, if they really respected the authority of Herod, wouldn't they have gone back to talk to him?

Or did they honor, check this out, did they honor a greater king who was a baby? before they would bow down to the political king.

And then we find out, right, that King Herod was actually planning to kill Jesus because of being disturbed, because of being threatened.

And in fact, he had every male child in Bethlehem murdered who were two years and younger.

Now, just for context, because I think that might sound a little crazy, it is crazy.

You've got to understand something.

Bethlehem is not a huge city.

It's not super big.

So general estimates of this, we don't know how many exactly, but general estimates would have stated that this could have been between 10 and 20 boys who were murdered by King Herod at that time to try to take out Jesus.

How many is too many?

All of them.

What's another reason that they came and worshiped him as divine and not just as political leaders, a political king?

You see, just reason would, again, would suggest that they would be more afraid of an adult king than a baby king, but they chose to dishonor and disobey an adult human king.

They warned Mary and Joseph of what they heard from the angel of the Lord, that King Herod was planning to kill Jesus, and they did not go back to Herod.

They went a different way back home.

They disobeyed an earthly king's order to worship and protect the one true king, the divine one.

Now, back to who are these magi?

It said they came from the east.

But why?

Ask yourself, why did they come from the east and how did they even know?

It's because they reference the Old Testament scriptures.

Have you ever heard anyone say that, aren't we just in the New Testament, and why do we pay attention to the Old Testament?

Have you ever heard anyone say that before?

Just look back, I'm going to say, you dumb.

Lovingly.

Matthew 2.6 says,

But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people, Israel.

Which is a direct quote that the... Good guess.

This is a direct quote from the Magi of the Old Testament scriptures found in Micah, chapter five, verses two and four.

But ask yourself the question, how would these magi even know Micah?

Ask yourself.

Do you know the answer?

Man, I'm fired up this morning.

I haven't even had that much coffee.

How would they know Micah 5, 2, and 4 if they were from the east and not from Judea and if they weren't a part of the Jewish people?

You see, in Daniel chapter 1, verse 1 through 2, in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and say this out loud with me.

He did what?

He besieged it.

And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand along with some of the articles from the temple of God.

These he carried off to the temple of his God in Babylonia.

In other words, a different God, a small G God.

And they put the treasure that they stole from the temple of God in the other house of the little G God.

Are you following what I'm saying?

And then the next verse says,

It says, then the king ordered Ashpenaz.

I hope I pronounced that right.

By the way, do you ever do that in the scriptures?

You're like, I'm just going to roll by this one because I have no idea.

You're in good.

I have that problem too, okay?

Cheap of his court officials.

The king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring into the king's service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility young men without any physical defect.

Handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well-informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king's palace.

It sounds like they had a great HR department.

And he was to teach them the language... because they didn't even speak the same language, in the literature of the Babylonians.

Among those who were chosen were some from Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

The chief official gave them new names.

To Daniel he named Belteshazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach, and to Azariah Abednego.

Now watch this.

The king ordered Ashpenaz to teach them

Their language, their culture, their God, their history.

You following me?

And then in Daniel chapter 2, verses 1 and 2, it says, In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams.

And his mind was so troubled that he could not sleep.

Does anyone have that problem?

So the king summoned the magicians, magi, enchanters, sorcerers, and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed.

And when they came in, they stood before the king.

Now, I'm going to nickname King Nebuchadnezzar King Nebi, okay?

So I don't have to keep saying it.

The magicians gave King Nebi a scare with their interpretation of what the dream was supposed to be so badly that he was about to annihilate and wipe out every single Jew that they could find.

Does that sound familiar to you?

But Daniel overheard this and asked for time.

Hey, can we take a pause?

Can we take a breather?

Can you take it down a notch for just a moment?

And that night, God revealed to Daniel what the dream meant.

And so he asked to be able to share it with King Nebi.

And in Daniel chapter two, verses 26 through 28, it says, the king asked Daniel, also called Belteshazzar, are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it?

Daniel replied, no wise man, enchanter, magician,

Magi or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries.

He has shown King Nebi what will happen in days to come.

Your dream and the visions that pass through your mind as you are lying in bed are these.

Fast forward a little bit to verse 44.

It says, in the time of those kings, the God of heaven said, will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people.

It will crush all the other kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it itself will endure forever.

This is a prophecy.

Daniel 2, 46 through 48, it says, Then King Nebi fell prostrate before Daniel.

This is the king bowing.

Before Daniel, a servant, a Jew with a different God who speaks a different language.

They had besieged his country and his God's temple.

And now the king is bowing before him and paid honor to him and ordered that an offering, an incense be presented to him.

Sounds familiar?

Keep that in your mind.

Then the king placed Daniel in a high position and lavished many gifts on him.

And he made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and placed him in charge.

Watch this.

And placed him in charge of all of its wise men.

Why did the Magi know?

Because there was a man of God. named Daniel, who had become captive to a king who tried to besiege the place of God, the people of God, the temple of God, and replace it with his false god.

And yet God would not stay silent.

Why did these magi, wise men from the east, know about and come to worship not just a human king, but a divine one?

It's because 600 years before Jesus' birth, the people of God, in Babylonian captivity, through a prophet named Daniel, told them about the coming Messiah, the Savior, and the Lord. these Magi would have been direct descendants of the Magi that Daniel would have been placed in charge of.

So their grandpappies, pappies, pappy from generation to generation would have been told of this king because they started to study the scriptures of the Old Testament, including Micah, who's told of this Savior and Lord who was to be born in Bethlehem.

Now where, ask this question for just a second, where was Babylon?

It, correct, it's in modern day Iraq.

Let me show you the picture of what it looks like to get from Jerusalem or from Babylon to Iraq.

How many of y'all want to take the journey on camels through the desert and

263 hours if you're just walking to worship and bow down just some old human king.

Some of y'all debated whether you were even going to come to church today because of this white stuff that we live in every year.

Keep it safe, guys.

Keep it safe.

Where did they come from?

Where did the Magi come from?

The east, directly east of Bethlehem is where they came from because of knowing about the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords from Daniel.

Now ask the question, what did the Magi bring?

Gifts.

In Matthew chapter two, it says they opened their treasure and presented him with gifts of gifts.

You guys are awesome.

Now watch this.

King Nebi of Babylon, remember him from just a nanosecond ago?

Daniel 1, again, going back, chapter 1, verses 1 and 2, it says, in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, King Nebi of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it, and the Lord delivered Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand, along with some of the

These he carried off to the temple of the false god in Babylonia and put in the treasure from the real god into the house of another god.

Now here's another description of this same account from the book of 2 Kings, verses 24 through 13.

It says that the Lord has declared, King Nebi, remove the treasures from the temple of the Lord and from the royal palace and cut up the

Articles that Solomon, king of Israel, had made for the temple of the Lord.

What is the first thing the Magi give to Jesus?

The exact same thing they stole from him.

As if to say, we're bringing it back to you.

We're repenting on behalf of our grandpappies, pappies, pappies, pappies, pappies passed down.

We stole from you and now I'm returning it back.

Are you following what I'm saying?

The exact same thing that their human king stole from this divine king as if to say we're bringing it back because it rightfully belongs to you.

What else did they give?

What is the next one?

Frankincense.

Frankincense. frankincense would have also been a part of the temple, specifically the temple worship.

It was used by the high priest in both the tabernacle and the temple when they burned incense to the Lord.

What's that song, is my wife in the room, she would know, or a worship leader?

What's that song that says, let incense rise?

Any of you worship people?

They're all hiding back in the back room.

Incense.

Let me tell you what that is.

What?

Yeah, day and night, let incense arise.

What does that mean?

It's worship to the Lord.

Incense, watch this, was used.

As you entered in the Holy of Holies, this act represented, they would bird frankincense, which was a part of the incense, and it was a fragrant offering to the Lord.

This act represents our worship, our devotion, and prayers rising to the Lord.

Can I tell you something?

God says that he inhabits the what?

Praises of his people, right?

That it's a fragrant offering to him.

When we come into his house, the first thing we do is we minister to him.

We don't minister to each other.

Now we do minister to each other.

Can I get an amen?

But man, he deserves the first.

He deserves the first.

It's a fragrant offering to him as king.

Most importantly, this represents the presence of God because when you break through the holy of holies into the presence of God, that's where everything changes.

He says where two or three are gathered in his name, there he is with them.

He inhabits the praises of his people.

Again, what is the significance of frankincense?

It means that Jesus is divine and he is worthy to be worshipped.

Jesus is our true high priest.

He is the mediator between us and the Father.

Jesus is perfect and holy.

Jesus brings God's presence to us.

Can I get an amen?

And lastly, what is the gift that they gave?

Myrrh. which would have been, if you don't know this, would have been an extraordinarily weird gift to give.

In some senses, and some scholars would say that myrrh was used for perfume, and you would say, well, that kind of makes sense.

Which, by the way, there was a woman who was attacked by worshiping Jesus with a very expensive jar of perfume.

You know that story?

Sounds kind of like this story.

It was also used for pain relief.

Think an ibuprofen or maybe something a little heavy.

But more importantly and most significantly is myrrh was used to prepare bodies for burial.

Brought as a gift to a baby.

Why do you bring a gift like myrrh to a baby?

Because this baby was born to die.

And we're gonna hear more about that next week.

And he was born to die, not for himself, but for every single one of us.

Myrrh was an embalming spice preaching that this king came to die so that we can live.

And can I just say, I love it, I love it.

Can I tell you something?

I love it when earthly kings bow the knee to the king of kings.

May that be your prayer.

We have a lot of prayers, but may that be your prayer that every king on planet earth, every authority, every leader would bow their knee before the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

If you haven't seen this quote before, I love it.

Have you heard of Napoleon Bonaparte?

He was Emperor of France and he was also the King of Italy at one point.

He said this, he said, Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires, but on what did we rest the creations of our genius?

Upon force.

Upon force.

Jesus Christ found his empire upon love and at this hour, millions of men would die for him.

Friends, there is one King, Savior, and Lord that can transform all lives and all hearts and his name is Jesus.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we pray that we would have an encounter with the living God today.

I pray that people who already know you would be strengthened in their faith because of your presence, because of your Holy Spirit living inside of them, to be your witnesses like Daniel was so many years ago.

God, that you are creating legacies of people, not ending up in hell, but ending up in paradise because of what you have done for us.

And God, right now in this room or anyone who's watching online, I pray that you would take a step of faith to put your life and faith in this extraordinary King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

With every eye closed and every head bowed, in a moment, I'm gonna count to three.

And if you're one of these two people, you wanna make Jesus the Lord of your life, to bow down and worship him and follow him for the first time.

Or maybe you wanna come back to him.

On a count of three, I want you to shoot your hand up as an act of faith.

One, I'm giving my life to Jesus.

Two, I'm rededicating my life to Jesus.

Three, shoot your hand and let's pray this prayer together.

Everybody in the room,

Let's pray it in support of them.

Say, Lord Jesus, forgive me of my sin.

Take my sin.

And by your grace, I receive your perfection.

Jesus, I make you the Lord of my life.

I bow down.

I give you all that I am.

I hold nothing back.

Fill me with your Holy Spirit.

In Jesus' name.

And everybody said, come on, put your hands together and give it up for everyone who prayed that prayer today.

Full Sermon Transcript

It's a really special day today because, y'all, we have 26 people scheduled to be baptized today.

This service, the next service, and man, I'm glad you're here with us today.

And it's also a special day because we're going to share with you some vision that we believe God has for this house, where we're going in the next year and in the coming years.

And so we're going to share that with you this morning in just a moment.

But really, I thank God for this moment because we have people here who are encountering the living God.

They're lifting up his name.

And when you come into church, I think a lot of times we think about, you know, what am I going to get from it?

What am I going to hear?

What am I going to learn?

And by the way, that's a good posture to have.

You should come into God's house expecting to hear from God and to experience God.

But more importantly, you need to come into his house knowing that God wants to hear from you.

That when he says he inhabits the praises of his people, it's when his name is lifted high, he says there he is with us.

And so what you did was ministry to the Lord.

It's the reason why we exist, is to glorify the name of God above all else.

And so I thank you for doing that this morning.

Last week we had an opportunity.

Did any of you miss last weekend?

Be brave, be honest.

Did anyone catch up on what happened last weekend?

Online, those of you who missed.

I dare you to go back and watch it.

The reason for that is because last week we did kind of a look back.

We praised God.

We were grateful to God for what he has done this year.

And you're going to see a glimpse of that.

We're going to show a video in just a moment.

A glimpse of what God has done as we look to the future.

Because how many of y'all know that we need to remain grateful for who God is and what God is doing and what God has done?

And we need to be expectant, be ready to walk into what God has for us next.

And so I encourage you, if you did miss last week's message, I shared some things that as a church family we all need to know about because you need to be encouraged with what God is doing specifically through this house. specifically through this ministry called New Life Church.

And as we do that, we express gratitude to God for what he has done and what he is doing.

But I want to give you an opportunity before we get into the message today to share some vision with you, to share what is God calling us to do next.

And after I do that, I'm going to come back in, I'm going to share a message that God has for every single one of us, you see, because vision isn't just for the church and where we're going together collectively, but God, you have to understand something, God has a vision for your life.

And so I want you to be very aware and very keen to what God wants in your life personally.

And so after this message, after this video, we're going to turn our hearts to God.

What would you want us to hear today?

The vision for our lives.

But before that, I want to show you this video to show you what's coming next.

Today is one of our favorite Sundays of the year because we get to stop and celebrate what God has done and also lift our eyes to where he's taking us next.

New Life Church is nine years old, and can we just say God has done more than we could have asked, dreamed, or imagined?

Vision Sunday is about gratitude and expectation.

We're looking back at nine incredible years of God's faithfulness, and we're looking forward to a future that we believe is full of purpose, growth, and people meeting Jesus.

So today we're celebrating what God has done and getting fired up about where he's leading us.

Let's start with what matters most, lives changed by Jesus.

This year alone, we have seen 504 people put their faith in Jesus.

And since New Life Church opened our doors in 2016, we've seen 2,068 people saved.

If you do the math, that means one-fourth of all the salvations we've ever seen happened today. this year.

Church, God is on the move.

And this year we celebrated 59 people going public with their faith through water baptism.

And right now, 22 more are registered to be baptized today.

Now listen, numbers matter because people matter.

We never want to overlook what these numbers represent.

Every number has a name.

Every name is a person, a story, a family, a forever changed life.

And they matter to us because they matter to God.

We are called to rob hell and to populate heaven.

And that means we are not slowing down.

We are just getting started.

So where are we headed?

In 2026, our vision is to build a second worship space, basically a campus on campus.

We're growing and we're planning for growth.

We're making space for the people God is sending.

This next step is about reaching more families, welcoming more guests, and creating room for more people to encounter Jesus.

This space will be an acoustic, cozy worship experience right here in this building.

Think about a vibe like a coffee shop or maybe even a jazz lounge.

This space will also be utilized for youth events, life groups, and conferences.

And while we're doing that, we're also preparing for the future.

We want to be good stewards of every dollar God entrusts to this church.

We're saving, planning, and looking for property so that when the time comes, we're ready to build a permanent location, a home that's built for the mission, a place where generations will meet Jesus long after we're gone.

We're not thinking about seasons.

We're thinking about legacy.

One of the biggest parts of our vision is the next generation.

Scripture says in 1 Timothy 4.12, don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith. and impurity, and we are watching that verse come alive in our kids and students.

This year, there has been a hunger in these world changers that we can't ignore.

A few weeks ago, we hit an all-time high in kids' attendance, 85 kids in one weekend.

We took our biggest group ever to the Access Conference, 33 students. and 21 kids and students have been baptized this year.

In the last four weeks alone, we've seen 30 students give their lives to Jesus.

They're inviting friends, praying on their fields before games, baptizing their teachers.

We have students showing up before their parents do and forever changing the trajectory of their families.

And part of what we're so grateful for is what God is doing through worship in the next generation.

For the last three years, we've had a life group called Kids Worship for our second through seventh graders.

They've been learning the power of worship, growing as leaders and actually leading our church through music videos and live worship moments.

And this year, we added something brand new, youth worship for students sixth through 12th grade.

Every Sunday night, they're leading live worship in front of their peers.

That means right now, students from second grade all the way through 12th grade are being raised up as spiritual leaders in this house, God's house.

We've always dreamed of ministries that are kid-led and student-led.

And we're not just dreaming anymore.

We're seeing it happen.

We believe deeply in leadership development, so we're going to keep equipping them, investing in them, and building worship for second grade through high school.

And it's going to get stronger, better restored, and more spirit-led every year.

New Life has always been marked by being a local church that's mobilized.

We don't just love what God does inside these walls.

We love what he does through us outside of them.

We invest in missions on the local, national, and global levels.

And because of your giving to missions, 45,000 kids have received the Bible in their own language in the history of New Life Church.

Church, you should be so proud of that.

That's right.

And locally, your generosity has changed lives right here in our city.

232 kids got free backpacks, haircuts, and were prepared for school this year.

And this coming Saturday, 164 kids will receive Christmas gifts because of you.

We consider it an honor to surround vulnerable families with the love of Christ through Safe Families.

In nine years, we've given $446,400 to missions outside of New Life Church.

And we can't wait to see how God continues to grow that number.

We're preparing teams to serve with our partners in Honduras through One Child in February and in August.

And we have two missionaries being sent out next year, one to the Dominican Republic and one to the 1040 window.

When we make a concerted, intentional, sacrificial effort together, we get the opportunity to accelerate God's vision to reach the lost.

That is exactly what Kingdom Builders is all about.

Church, thank you.

Thank you for building with us.

Thank you for giving, for serving, praying, inviting, and for believing.

We are grateful for nine years of miracles, and we are expectant for what's next.

Because the same God who was faithful then is faithful now, and he's not finished yet.

We love you, New Life Church.

Let's keep reaching people, raising leaders, and building the kingdom together.

I don't know if I'm going to be able to preach after that.

It seriously is a miracle.

It's a miracle what God does in people and through people.

And as we look into the message that God has for us today, if you're taking notes, I'm going to start in Proverbs chapter 29.

Proverbs chapter 29, 18 says, where there is no vision, the people perish.

God has a vision for your life.

This word vision in the original language Hebrew that this was written in is the word chazon.

Say that.

Go impress your friends at lunch today afterwards.

It really means a dream, a revelation from God, a vision that

And it's a collective vision, but it's also a personal vision that God has for your life.

In Psalm 126, it says, Isn't it amazing that we can come into this place and we can see God working and moving?

We can see him developing people, reaching people, reaching the lost and hurting and broken.

How many of y'all know that God places the lonely in families?

His family.

Can I get an amen?

God is working.

And man, our minds, our mouths, our hearts, our lives should be filled with laughter and our tongues with songs of joy when we see what God is doing.

Amen.

In Acts chapter 2, verse 17, it says, in the last days, by the way, we're in the last days, if you're not aware of that.

And some people ask me, like, how do you know?

Are you for sure?

Well, I know for sure this much.

Can I tell you this much?

We are all in our last days.

Because your days are numbered.

The Bible says that our lives are like a mist.

It's here one day and gone the next.

And so whether we're living in the last days, we're certainly in our last days.

And in the last days, God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people.

It says your sons and daughters will prophesy.

Can we just praise God, like take a time out and just praise God for a moment for what he's doing in our kids and our students right now?

Your sons and daughters will prophesy.

Your young men will see visions.

Your old men will dream dreams.

How many of you are grateful that you're an older man and you can still dream with God?

You still have vision for your life.

Revelation of who he is and what he wants for you and through you.

Proverbs 29 says,

This is a different paraphrase from the message.

Again, this isn't actually an actual translation.

It's a paraphrased version, but I love how it says Proverbs 29, 18, right?

Where there is no vision, the people perish.

Eugene Peterson puts it this way.

He says, if people can't see what God is doing,

Now, by the way, that's my job as a pastor and our job as a staff is to get you to see what God is doing.

And by the way, you can't make this stuff up.

When 26 people go public with their faith in Jesus through water baptism, no one can just make that happen.

That is God.

When people give their lives to their Lord and they publicly profess Him as Lord and Savior.

But if people can't see what God is doing, the scriptures say they stumble all over themselves.

But when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed.

And can I tell you something?

That's what I want for you.

I want the greatest blessing of God to be over your life.

How does that happen?

When you have God's vision for your life.

Not your vision, but

His vision.

This is what I want for everyone in our church, and it's what God wants.

And honestly, in over 20 years of doing ministry, many people, I've seen this happen, many people live their lives off target for what God actually wants for their life, and they miss the extraordinary, extravagant blessing that He has for them.

I love telling this story

How many of y'all weren't born in 2004?

Look around the room.

This is what God is doing with our youth.

That's mind-blowing.

I was five years out of high school.

I'm really glad that old men can dream dreams and have visions because now I'm one of them.

But in the 2004 Olympics, it was in Athens, which was really special because that was the birthplace of the Olympics.

There was an American athlete named Matthew Evans.

He was a rifle shooter.

Now, for some of you, you're like, would you call him an athlete?

Well, let me explain to you for just a second.

Matthew Emmons and the entirety of the other athletes that were in this particular event and sport in the 2004 Olympics Athens, everybody else was just shooting for getting silver or bronze because that's how good Matthew Emmons was.

Now, I had to do a little bit of research on this because some of you have seen me shoot before.

Zach is laughing.

Why are you laughing?

Fun fact, my wife and I went out with a couple to shoot some guns and to shoot clay pigeons, and my wife scored better than practically all the men out there.

So she's apparently a sharpshooter.

Yeah.

So don't come to my house.

She will hurt you.

I will miss you.

And when we think about rifle shooting, we think, well, how hard could that really be?

Like, you aim, and you squeeze, and you just hit the target, right?

Well, I've proven that that doesn't just happen.

But the really good ones, the ones that are absolutely extraordinary, like Matthew Edmonds, they don't just line up, squeeze the trigger,

These athletes actually have the ability to slow their heart rate down so much so that they can literally tell the difference between the heartbeat now and the heartbeat that's next.

And they can slow it down so that they can actually squeeze the trigger in between heartbeats because there's such a thing as called trigger jerk.

When you squeeze the trigger, your body can jerk off target.

And these phenomenal athletes have the ability to be able to... How many of y'all can sense your heartbeat?

None of y'all.

This guy was amazing.

And honestly, he...

He was so above everyone else in this competition, the 2004 Olympics, that going into the final round, Matthew Emmons was so far ahead that he just needed to hit the target anywhere.

Anywhere.

Like on the fringes.

I could do that.

To get the gold, he just had to hit the target.

Anywhere on it.

He could shoot from the hip and do that.

So he lines up, he slows his heart rate down, he senses the beats of his heart, he squeezes the trigger in between his heart rate and hits the bullseye.

He just had to hit the target and he hit the bullseye on the wrong target.

And this was his face after it happened.

It's a little blurry.

It's a little pixelated.

The best rifle shooter in the world just had to hit the target and he hit the wrong target and immediately went from gold to bronze medal.

And these are the faces that I've been looking at in over 20 years of ministry.

Of people missing the target, the vision of what God has for their life.

Missing out on the greatest blessing that he wants for them.

The great theologian D.L.

Moody put it this way.

He said, our greatest fear should not be of failure... but of succeeding at something that really doesn't matter.

Another way to put it is, you know, everyone ends up somewhere, but few people end up somewhere on purpose.

Intentionally.

Intentionally.

And you need to know something, that God has a vision for your life.

And the first thing that you need to know if you want God's vision for your life is, the first step is you need to give your life to Jesus.

Because Jesus says that he is the way, the truth, and the life.

And no one comes to the Father, the extraordinary blessing of heaven, except through him.

And you're missing out on the greatest vision, the greatest revelation, the greatest experience that you could ever possibly imagine, think, or dream about without knowing Jesus personally.

In Mark chapter 8, Jesus said this.

He called the crowd to him along with his disciples.

Say crowd.

Crowd.

And said this, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.

What good is it for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul?

Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels.

You do not want to miss this. the extraordinary vision that God has for your life through Jesus.

How does this happen?

You and I need to surrender our lives to his will and to his ways.

Too many people are running around chasing their vision for their life and they keep experiencing the same hurt, the same heartache, the same issues year after year, time after time.

I've been saying this for nine years because we're nine years old.

We're going on 10 years.

And I said, if you would just go all in, push all of your life, all the chips of your life into the center and say, Jesus, I'm all in.

I'm not holding anything back.

I'm going to be at church every weekend.

I'm going to be in the Bible.

I'm going to pursue you with everything I've got.

If you do that for a year, and find out that the year before you did that was better than the year with Jesus, I would love to meet that person.

So you need to surrender your life to his will and to his ways to experience his extraordinary blessing.

And so what does that mean?

We've got to spend time with him every single day.

And so for just a moment, I want you to take a little bit of inventory of your life and maybe even just some personal responsibility.

How well am I doing that?

And how many of y'all have been around here for a really long time?

Come on, be bold.

Come on, don't be afraid.

You're like, how long is long?

A year?

Over a year?

A year?

How many times this year have I said out loud to you, spend time with God every day?

It is the most important thing for your life.

I've even teed it up this way.

Just 15 minutes.

The first 15 of your day.

Why do I say the first?

Because God deserves our first and our best.

Why?

Because he is first.

And yet what tends to happen is because we don't have a vision that God wants for our life, his vision, we end up replacing time with him with everything else.

And wonder why.

We're not experiencing the extraordinary blessing of walking with him.

We've got to spend time with him every day.

You've got to make the decision.

And in just a few weeks, the end of the year is coming.

And, man, I'm so proud of our church.

Can I tell you something?

A few years ago, we started reading through the Bible in a year, and we've allowed you to join these groups on the YouVersion Bible app, which is fantastic because it keeps you intentionally focused on being in his word.

How many of you all have finished the Bible in the last couple years?

How many of you all have struggled getting through it?

But I bet you this, when you started, you were less efficient than you are now.

Like when I started doing the Bible in a year, this is probably about 15, 20 years ago now, I remember those days.

I remember the challenges of like, oh my gosh, I missed a day.

Oh my gosh, I missed a week.

How am I going to catch up?

Just start again.

Just keep going.

You know, I really love my wife.

Do y'all believe that?

How many of y'all know that we like to go on dates once a week?

Kelsey, when's the last time we went on a date?

She can't remember.

That's an indictment on me.

That's a problem that I just got convicted by.

I'm sorry.

But guess what?

I still want my wife.

I still want to be with her.

I spend time with her.

She's the most important person on planet Earth to me.

Like, but guess what happens?

Our kids get in the way.

You all get in the way.

I'm saying that politely.

I love you, but sometimes we get texts and things and, you know, we're here for you, right?

But I'm here for her more.

And we've got to spend time with them.

The second thing we need to do is spend time with them.

And then we've got to be made new by Jesus.

You see, the Bible says, the old is gone, the new has come.

Which means if you look at the last year, if you go all in with Jesus for a year and look back on the prior year, your life should be different.

Like if you have the same addiction that you had last year, who am I preaching to? if you had that same struggle, if you're the same loneliness, the same brokenness, how many of y'all know that our God changes people's lives?

And when you draw close to him, draw near to him, he draws near to you, and he changes.

How many of y'all believe the transformative power of Jesus?

That the old is gone,

And the new has come.

I love this.

I have a hard time sharing this with you because it's one of my favorite movies of all time.

And I'm going to share a clip with you for just a moment.

But I'm going to give you a warning.

If you're not an adult, I don't want you to go watch this movie.

And for many adults, maybe you shouldn't go watch this movie, but it's one of my favorites.

Matter of fact, I had a prop that I was going to bring with you.

Will someone go rub and grab it?

It's the letter opener in my office.

Real quick.

It's one of my favorite movies of all time, and it's a movie called Braveheart.

How many of y'all know that a man named William Wallace had a vision?

I want you to see this for just a moment.

You've come to fight as free men.

And free men you are.

What will you do without freedom?

Will you fight?

Fight?

Against that?

No!

We will run.

And we will live.

I?

Fight and you may die.

Run, and you'll live at least a while.

And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives? but they'll never take our freedom!

How many of y'all are just fired up now?

Ready to take on the world?

Ah, you may run, and you'll live at least a while.

And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they cannot take our lives, but they'll never, they can take our lives, but they'll never take our.

It was worth it, right?

Fun fact, I actually did a missions trip through the UK about, I don't even know how long ago it was, a long time ago.

And I was actually on that field where William Wallace and his people won that battle.

And we literally, I didn't have enough money to buy the real sword.

So I have a letter opener.

Talk about vision.

How many of y'all are ready to storm the field for Jesus?

2 Corinthians 5 says if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come.

The old is gone.

The new is here.

So if you're taking notes, we need to give our lives to Jesus.

Go all in with Jesus.

Then we need to be made new by Jesus.

We can't continue to keep living the same lives.

We need to be transformed by his power.

The same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of you.

And the third thing we need to do is we need to become like Jesus.

Galatians 4.19 says, oh, my dear children.

When I read that verse, I started singing the song, oh, my darling, oh, my darling.

I don't know why.

You should read the Bible like this.

It's entertaining.

Oh, my dear.

Oh, my dear children.

I feel as if I'm going through labor pains for you again.

You know, by the way, women, you might have this thought.

The Apostle Paul would have gotten canceled in today's day for even saying such a thing.

I feel as if I'm going through labor pains for you again.

What is he saying?

I'm hurting for you.

And they're going to continue to happen until Christ is fully developed in your lives.

In other words, he's saying to you, stop being babies.

You need to grow up.

You need to mature.

You need to be more like him.

You can't keep struggling with the same struggles.

You need to deal with it.

You need to get in a life group around people who are gonna help you and fight for you.

Like those men on the battlefield, we're here to fight and to win because of Jesus.

How does this happen?

It happens by developing spiritual disciplines, which I talked about already for just a moment.

It's committing right now.

It's saying, hey, I've never done the Bible in a whole year.

I've never been through the entire Bible before.

Listen to me.

Just start.

So this coming January, January 1, make the decision right now.

I'm doing it.

How about some accountability?

Who's going to do it?

Raise your hand high.

Now look around the room.

Now, hold on for just a second.

For those of you who aren't raising your hands, are you just nervous to raise your hand in front of other people?

Or do you believe that it will actually lead you to a better life?

The Bible says itself that it has the power to fulfill its own words.

It has power to change and transform lives.

And some of you are either already believing that you're going to be a failure, which you're not.

I say in Jesus' name.

Or you're like, I don't know.

Can I tell you what the heart of the pastor is for this house?

I want you to have the extraordinary blessing of God over your life.

And it happens by being near to him.

Some people often will say to me, they'll say, Pastor, I don't hear God.

And there's two reasons for that according to the scripture.

One is you're continuing in your sin.

And the Holy Spirit grieves when you sin against him.

It means you need to repent and change.

So if you're still dealing with the same things over and over and over again, at some point you got to take personal responsibility, repent and change.

And we're here to help you.

We're not here to judge you.

We're here to help you because guess what?

I too am a sinner who needs the help of the believers to overcome sin, who needs the help of the Holy Spirit to overcome sin.

So get in the Bible in a year.

Why is this important?

Because it's sharing with you God's vision for your life.

So every day in 2026, we're gonna spend time with Jesus.

In January, I want you to be encouraged and to already be planning, making it intentional.

Again, some of you, you're aiming to,

But you're hitting the wrong target.

I'm here to help you hit the right targets.

Being in God's word every day.

The second one is learning to have a great prayer life.

Two times a year we do 21 days of prayer.

And this January, again, is no different.

We'll start the year with 21 days of prayer.

You need to make a decision right now to place that as a priority for your life.

To grow up. into God's vision for your life, to develop your prayer life.

Get involved.

Again, when January comes, get involved in a life group.

Know that people are fighting with you and for you, for your... I'm going to look over here now.

Thank you.

Some of you are in the room at nine o'clock today and you need to do the third thing to encourage your spiritual gifts to become more like Jesus.

Jesus even said this, he didn't come to be served but to serve.

And so you need to discover your spiritual gifts.

How many of you, if you heard the message last weekend, for some of you, the reason you're not living the blessed life because you've buried the gifts that God has given you.

And Jesus says that that is wicked and evil and lazy.

So you need to discover your spiritual gifts.

Guess how you're going to do that?

You're going to leave this service, and right after this service, if you haven't been here before, you're going to go directly into that room across the way called Discovery.

Good name, right?

Discover your spiritual gifts, how God has divinely created you on purpose for his vision for your life.

Of course, if you're going to miss this week, you can go next week.

Next week is actually the spiritual gifts assessment for you to find that out.

So we need to give our lives to Jesus.

We need to be made new by Jesus.

We need to become like Jesus.

And then number four, we need to do what Jesus did.

In Matthew chapter four, it says, And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen.

And then he said to them, follow me and read this out loud with me.

And I, I only wanted, I will make you.

I wanted it paused.

It's all right.

I used to have control over that, which puts a lot of pressure on them back there.

Can we, can we praise God for our people who do that?

Hey,

By the way, we need more people to do that.

Like, you can't worship God without people like that.

Some of you are watching online today, and can I just be a little bold, a little in your face a little bit?

You're watching online today, and you have the privilege to hear the word of God and to participate in worship because someone is serving like Jesus serves. someone who's on the camera, someone who got here early, people who are running sound, running lights.

Let's praise God for our team to do that.

Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

It says they immediately left their nets and followed him.

And for some of us, we haven't seen the vision that God has for our lives because we still haven't immediately done so.

We're still holding back.

We're still sitting comfortably.

But Jesus wants us all to be fishers of men.

So followers of Jesus, followers fish.

How many of y'all men are grateful that you get to be a fisherman for Jesus?

But it's not just catching fish, it's catching men.

A couple weeks ago, actually I think it was last week,

Our kids were in the basement.

They had their cousins over.

And they were going crazy.

And we told them to quiet down multiple times because we have a two-year-old who was napping at the time.

And they were just going ballistic.

How many of y'all know that kids will be kids?

They're loud.

They're obnoxious.

So my wife goes down after like the third or fourth time telling them to quiet down.

They're like, what are y'all doing?

Why are you not listening?

And they said this, and I don't think I'll ever forget it.

They said, well, we're acting like crazy people.

And crazy people are just crazy.

So Kelsey decided to be a parent and to redirect their focus.

She's a great parent, by the way.

And she said, okay, for a few moments, I want you to come up with like 10 things that you want to put on your Christmas list.

And I'll give them to your parents.

And so it's the kids and their cousins.

And Harper came up, our oldest, came up and read her Christmas list to us of things that she wanted.

And like seven times on that list of 10 was the word pig.

I guess she hasn't read the scriptures.

Come on, that was supposed to be funny.

And I'm like, dude, you got to take peg off at least twice.

Like you can't have it seven times.

But she started reading the list and out of a fourth grader's mouth and heart and mind,

Listen to me, Kelsey and I are not perfect parents, but we're intentional parents when it comes to raising our kids in the house and in his ways.

For the youngest of age, Harper would watch us baptize people and she would come home into her bath and she would baptize her Barbie dolls.

She would say, I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit into death and up.

Clap, clap, clap.

She would literally do that.

And then we caught her trying to practice on her little sister and then we had to cut that off.

But on Harper's Christmas list, she wrote, I want to take in a safe families kid.

I want to host a kid who's in desperate need.

Later on that list, she wrote down, I want a specific classmate, wrote the name down, I want a specific classmate made to come to church.

I keep asking her to come and I keep inviting her to come and she hasn't come yet.

And so we were telling her, hey, that's the heart of Jesus.

That Jesus wants no one to perish, but everyone to come to everlasting life.

You keep inviting her, but just know that don't get discouraged because her parents also need an invite.

So we're praying for the opportunity to invite the parent, but we're also praying that God sends someone to invite them.

Why?

Because followers fish.

Today, I believe in the second service.

I'm looking around, I don't see her, but we've had teachers come to New Life Church because students have invited them.

They've been baptized because of a kid's faith.

Today, my middle child is going to be able to watch her kindergarten teacher get baptized in the second service today.

Can I tell you that it's no accident that we've had over 500 people saved this year?

It's because of people like you who said, I want to be like Jesus, fishing for men.

We've had bosses baptize their employees.

We've had fathers baptize their sons, mothers, their daughters.

This is what it means to have God's vision for your life.

And we're just getting started.

Can I get an amen?

Amen.

Because followers serve, they get on a team, they invite their friends, they serve others and they build up the body of Christ.

John 15, eight says this, this is to my father's glory that you would bear much fruit, say fruit, and it's kingdom fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

I have told you this, Jesus said, so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete, not lacking.

Amen.

So if you're praying, serving, giving generously, inviting others in the next moments, you need to know that these people who have given their lives to Jesus and are getting baptized, they are a part of God's kingdom and your kingdom's fruit.

And I pray that Christ's joy would be in you and that your joy would be complete as you see these lives baptized into the family of God today.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, with every eye closed and every head bowed,

If you're in the room today or watching online, if you're one of these two people, you're wanting to turn from your sin and turn to Jesus for forgiveness and a new life.

You want to call on Jesus as your Lord today for the first time or maybe come back to him.

On a count of three, I want you to shoot your hand all the way up in the air.

Because Romans 10, nine says that if you confess your mouth, Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

On the count of three, one, I'm giving my life to Jesus.

Two, I'm rededicating my life to Jesus.

Three, shoot your hand up and let's pray this prayer together.

A matter of fact, everyone in the room out loud, let's do it together.

Say, Lord Jesus, forgive me of my sin.

I turn from my sin.

And by your grace, I receive your righteousness.

I make you the Lord of my life.

I give you all that I am.

I hold nothing back.

Fill me with your Holy Spirit.

In Jesus' name.

And everybody said, come on, give it up for every person who prayed that prayer today.

Full Sermon Transcript

Welcome to church.

Did anyone have any troubles getting here?

Some roads are better than others, right?

Fun fact for all of you and for all of you watching online, our church staff realized that I'm the wrong person to judge the snow because I got a truck this past summer that does really well.

Big tires, lift kit, ain't nothing stopping me.

But I'm grateful to see you.

If you are watching online, we're grateful that you're joining us as well.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

And so just briefly, I want to show you a chart to see what God has done through New Life Church this year, year to date.

If we have that, if you could throw that up, that'd be awesome.

And here's what we would call vital statistics.

So every organization, every family, like your family has what are called vital statistics.

Like you want to know where your kids are, where they're going, where they're coming.

You want to know what's coming into the bank account, what's going out, all those types of things.

But as a church, you can tell like, hey, here's some things that really add to the vitality of a church family based on scripture.

And so I want to tell you, this is pretty awesome, right?

So all of last year, 2024, we had 604 first-time guests.

We're already past that.

Well past that.

Yes, praise God.

And honestly, the time that we get the most is when?

Christmas.

And so this is unbelievable that we've already seen some of that happen.

Documented decisions for Christ.

We had 274 last year.

Are you kidding me? almost over double the amount of people by the end of this year have given.

That means we have plundered hell and populated heaven.

Can I get an amen?

Weekly attendance, of course, you see our goal out there is to get to 500 weekly average.

And last year we averaged at 325.

This year, year to date, we're averaging 365.

I'll be honest, part of that is because we went from three services down to two services.

How many of y'all know that's coming back? but not until the beginning of the year.

We'll have it Christmas weekend and then going into the next year.

Weekly kids attendance has jumped up 10 kids per Sunday.

How awesome is that?

Look at the students weekly attendance.

Guys, if you have a student, there's how many?

Over 60 students scheduled to come to youth tonight.

Why do I know that there's over 60?

Because they had to register because they're going to Airborne next door and then coming here to worship right afterwards.

How many of y'all know that you can have fun and then come and worship the Lord?

And honestly, here's what's even cooler.

Kelsey would tell you this.

Kelsey would say, and their leaders would say, that they're excited for Airborne, but they're more excited to come into the house and worship.

That's the kind of culture that we have, that they're hungry for God, hungry for his word, hungry to be around people.

Baptisms, we had 42 last year.

We're at 59 right now, and I think we have over 16 registered for next weekend.

We had more come in this week, and so if you haven't been baptized, it's a great opportunity to do that.

Is it next weekend or two weekends from now?

It's next weekend.

So great opportunity there.

I do want to point out these numbers because obviously what comes into the church financially and what goes out is important for people to see.

And you probably saw this in the reports that I sent out.

Last year as we ended, now when we share these types of numbers, this is what we would call tithing income.

So tithing and general fund income, which means it's not above and beyond the tithe.

So when we talk about giving to kingdom builders or to local missions, things like that, that goes above and beyond the tithe.

Tithe is like the operational business.

Are you following what I'm saying?

It's the general giving that happens.

And so what is not included in this amount is kingdom builders giving.

So when you give to things like kingdom builders, that's not included in these amounts.

Are you following what I'm saying?

Just to make it clear.

Okay, so last year we finished the year at an income of $985,000.

And this year, so far, we've brought in $763,000.

If you do kind of the projections based off of prior years, end of year giving, it is the highest that it is.

And in November and December of every year, it's always the highest.

People give more because a lot of times they have tax benefits, all the other reasons.

Giving goes up at the end of the year.

However, I will point out to you, that the projections for us to end this year are probably about 100,000 less than what we brought in last year.

Now, before you hit the panic button, we do, in our bylaws, just so you guys are aware, we have what is called the 90% rule.

Did you know what this is?

90% rule means that New Life Church has to budget 90% of last year's income, okay?

So if you were to do the math, right, $985,000 was brought in last year.

We had a 90% budget this year of $887,000.

Are you with me?

You following along?

So nobody panic, okay?

Has anyone panicked?

Good.

Because we do that, we've got reserves.

Are you following what I'm saying?

Now, I will say this.

Just again, be clear.

Our trustees voted.

I'm looking around the room if there is one of them in the room.

Is anyone in the room, trustee?

They'll be at the second service.

I think there's one in the lobby.

They voted in our last trustee meeting that they are going to bypass the 90% rule initially in 2026, and here's why.

Because right now our projection is a shortfall, which means that if we were to do the 90% budget for 2026, we'd lose a staff member at least.

Are you following what I'm saying?

How many of y'all want us to do that?

None of us want to do that.

So what I'm saying to you, don't hit the panic button.

We're all in this together, but this is where we're at.

So I just wanted to be honest about that.

There's a lot.

How many of y'all are grateful for what God is doing?

There's unbelievable amounts of things to be grateful for.

And so I just want you to be encouraged, but I also want to be honest.

Like how many of y'all are glad that I'm honest and I'll share with you what's going on?

Okay, we all get to do this together and God is providing in amazing ways.

And so right now, the trustees have voted that we could go up to, it doesn't mean we will, but we can go up to 102% of what comes in this year.

Again, we're not wanting to do that.

Are you following me?

We're not wanting to do that.

We want to stay in the 90%.

As a matter of fact, we didn't change the bylaws.

We just made a resolution to the bylaws for one year to be able to do that, to make it happen.

Are you with me?

Now, God could change it all when we all do this together, right?

When we all come together for the body of Christ to tithe and to bring our offerings, those things, honestly, they take care of themselves.

So I wanted you to be aware of that.

Next week, again, just an announcement.

We're going to celebrate life change again through baptisms.

It's going to be amazing.

And we're going to look ahead with great faith.

And then on December 14th, we're going to sow financially into the future.

And so that is an opportunity on December 14th where we're going to go above and beyond the tithe.

So I want you to begin asking God, like, what would you have me give?

And by the way, the above and beyond giving is not tithing.

It's to kingdom builders.

It's to, hey, God, what would you have me do to accelerate your vision through New Life Church?

And so I want everyone to ask, and by the way, just when I say this, it's a seed of faith.

It's planting a seed, knowing that someone is going to water it, we're going to water it, and God is going to make it grow.

Can I get an amen?

And also, just so you're aware, it doesn't mean that we're all going to give equal amounts.

God is going to lead you in how you should participate.

But here's what I want to really plead with you to do.

Sincerely ask God what he would want you to do.

And you be faithful to what he calls you to do.

Can I get an amen?

And when we do that together, I believe God is going to do something amazing in our church.

So as we get into this message...

We are going to talk a little bit about money today, but it's not just that.

It's actually a bigger principle.

But I do want to tell you a few things.

How many of y'all know that Jesus talks about money, wealth, and generosity a lot?

Like we've been in the book of Matthew since September.

Did you know that Jesus talks about money, wealth, and generosity 17 times just in the book of Matthew alone?

In the gospel of Matthew.

You could try to take notes through this, but I'm going to share with you all of the ones he does.

In Matthew 5.42, he says, give to those who ask and lend a friend freely.

Like, be someone who's generous to people.

The second one is Matthew 6.1-4.

It's giving to the needy.

When you see needs of people, meet it.

Give them a cup of cold water.

Clothe them if needed.

6, 19 through 21 is treasures in heaven.

And Jesus says, where you sow your financial roots will end up in heaven.

So by the way, we talk about it this way.

We say, hey, you can't, if you're a Jesus follower, you should not just be giving to anything.

Like, let me, let me, can I, can I just, I wrestle with this one because it's like family, right?

So, so my,

My twin nephews have sent me a few requests to give to their sports teams.

Will funding their sport end up in heaven?

Only if they do their job.

So as a Christian, when we approach generosity and giving, we have to filter it through the question, will my giving, will my generosity end up in heaven?

And so we filter this, by the way, when we talk about what we partnership in outreach and local outreach and missions and national missions, global missions, is we don't just give to things that are doing good things.

We give to things that make sure that people hear the gospel so that they can end up in heaven.

Can I get an amen?

And so this is what the church does.

So will you store up for yourselves treasures in heaven?

And Jesus equates your money, your wealth, whatever you're given, he says where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

And I don't know about you, but I want my treasure to be showing up in heaven.

I want my investment in things that will happen in eternity.

Where we're robbing hell and populating heaven, when you look at that chart, and over, what was it, 485 people or something like that have given their lives to Christ this year, that is an investment in eternity.

Where neither moths will come and destroy.

Then there's Matthew 6, 24. where Jesus says you cannot serve both God and money.

In other words, you can't just make your life all about wealth and money and the ins and outs.

He actually says it.

Actually, the original language doesn't even say God and money.

It's actually God and mammon.

And the reason why it says God and mammon is because mammon is an evil spirit that comes on money that creates all sorts of crazy that happens in your life.

It's an evil spirit.

It's a demonic spirit.

And so let me put it this way.

Money is an inanimate object. right?

It has no power except for the power that you give it.

And if you serve mammon rather than God, it has a curse on it rather than a blessing.

Are you following what I'm saying?

So you cannot serve both God and mammon, Jesus is saying.

In Matthew 6, 25 through 34, he tells you, don't worry about provision.

He is your provider.

Don't worry about food or what you're gonna wear.

He even says like, look at how beautiful the, is it the sparrows are in the field?

Look at the flowers.

Look at how beautifully they're dressed up.

Do not worry because he is your provider.

In Matthew 10, 9-10, he sends the 12 out without gold or silver, saying, man, you need to trust me every single day.

Matthew 13, 44-46, it's hidden treasure or pearl, value, surrender.

What would you give to obtain the greatest thing in the kingdom of God?

What would you sacrifice to have it?

In Matthew 17, 24-24...

He talks about the temple tax and the coin in the fish.

When he's saying this, there was a tax of the temple.

It's similar to the tithe, but it's not the tithe.

And it's basically to provide for the operations a couple times a year.

And Jesus is saying that the son of man who literally basically provides all the money doesn't have to do it. but the rest of us do.

And watch how when the disciples didn't have the temple tax, he literally told them to go out fishing.

And when they fished, the coins ended up in the fish's mouth so the disciples could pay the temple tax.

Jesus is always the provider.

He will always provide for what's needed for his kingdom, for his house, and for your house.

When we watch out for God's house, he provides for our house.

In Matthew 18, 23 through 35, he talks about the unforgiving servant who had this massive amount of debt and he was forgiven the mass amount of debt.

And then he went out so happy, so joyful.

And then he had someone who owed him just a little bit and he was crushing him with it.

He didn't forgive the debt.

So he who was forgiven much needed to what?

Forgive much.

This is the principle of the kingdom of God.

He's talking about money, but it goes beyond money.

Are you following what I'm saying?

In Matthew 19, 16 through 30, he talks about the rich young ruler.

And he talks about the dangers of riches.

Again, putting all your trust, all your hope in what you have, in wealth.

And by the way, it's all fleeting.

You can't take it with you.

You're not going to take it to heaven.

And he challenged the rich young ruler and he said, sell everything you have and come follow to me.

And he wouldn't do it.

Why?

Because he was serving not God, but he was serving mammon.

Matthew 20 verses 1 through 16.

He talks about the workers in the vineyard.

Of course, he goes out and finds laborers, people willing to work, and he says, hey, I'll give you this amount of money if you work for me throughout the day.

And then he goes out another time, gets more workers who are willing to work, and he's, I'll pay you this amount.

And then he goes out at the very last hour, gets a couple more workers who are willing to work, and he pays them all the same.

The guys that worked all day got the same as the people that worked just an hour.

Why is that?

Because God has the right to give what he gives.

He's the one who owns it all.

Now he's going to watch what you do with it.

He's going to watch what I do with it, which we're going to get to in just a minute.

In Matthew 21, 12 through 13, Jesus cleanses the temple, the money changers.

They came in to his temple, his church, his place of worship, and they just started making deals, and they were setting up all these venues, and they were selling things and buying things, and it was to be a house of prayer and a house of worship, and they distorted it into a business marketplace.

How many of y'all know that this is when Jesus got really ticked off, and he flipped over tables, and he fashioned a cord and started whipping people?

Matthew 22, 15 through 22, Jesus talks about paying taxes to Caesar.

Right, give to Caesar to Caesar and give to the Lord what is the Lord's.

Here's the irony in that statement.

Even what goes to Caesar belongs still to the Lord.

Matthew 23, 23, again, Jesus affirms tithing.

He says, you tithe on all these things, but yet your heart is a little bit twisted.

It's not motivated in the right way.

And he's challenging the motive, not the tithing, not the worship.

He's challenging the motive of, hey, look at me and look at how good I am and look at all we're doing.

And he's like, you're missing the heart behind it.

It's why as a church, we ask God what we should give and then we just obey him because it's, how many of y'all know when you obey the Lord, it's joyful.

It's freeing.

It's actually, what's the word?

It's full of hope and it's, we don't feel pressure around it.

Like when we see those numbers of what God has done, the first time guests, the salvations, the number of baptisms, those of us who participate in a financial way, we go, oh my gosh, there's nothing I would rather participate in than that.

Because it's robbing hell and populating heaven.

Then Matthew 25, 14 through 30 is talking about the parable of the talents.

Jesus says that he gives these resources, these talents, and we're going to get to that in just a minute.

And it's how we steward what God gives us in this life.

In Matthew 26, 6 through 13, it's his anointing at Bethany, right?

They break the alabaster jar of perfume and they begin to worship Jesus, covering him in perfume.

And how many of y'all have met a Christian that looks at a church and and looks at what a church spends on worship and starts complaining about how they spend money.

Anybody?

This is what the disciples did.

This woman who broke the alabaster jar, this most expensive jar of perfume, and she began to worship him and cover him in this unbelievable perfume.

And they were like, why would you do that?

We could sell that and do all this.

And

They called it waste.

But how many of y'all know that Jesus is worthy of extravagant worship?

Because he owns it all.

Like, I don't know if you know this, but nothing that we have ever created on planet Earth will even compare to what we're going to see in heaven.

Matthew 26, 14 through 16.

And with a follow-up in 27, 3 through 10.

Right, Judas betrays Jesus for what?

For money.

So if we go into Matthew chapter 25, if you have your Bibles today, this is where the meat of this message is going to be today.

And it's the parable of the talents.

It's stewarding what God has given us.

In Matthew 25, verse 14, he says again, it will be like a man going on a journey, which by the way, Jesus was resurrected, came back, showed himself to all the disciples, showed himself to over 500 people, the resurrected Christ, all these witnesses.

And then he ascended to heaven where he sits at the right hand of the Father.

And so this man, when he's telling this parable, this is Jesus who has now gone to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father.

Like a man going on a journey, he called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. which is what he did to those 12 disciples.

To one, he gave five bags of gold.

Say five.

To another, two bags.

Say two.

To another, one bag.

Thank you.

You got it.

Now watch this with me.

I want everyone to say this out loud.

These next five words.

Each according to his ability.

Then he went on his journey

The first thing you need to take notes on today is Jesus entrusts resources according to ability.

Now how many of you right now are just ticked off?

Man, don't tell me I have less ability.

Watch this, 1 Corinthians 4 says, now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove to be faithful.

In other words, Jesus is watching what you do with what he's given to you.

Luke 12, 48, again, this is a different gospel.

It says, when someone has been given much, much will be required in return.

And when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required.

And here's what you and I need to understand from this passage is the talents are the master's property.

It doesn't belong to you.

It all belongs to the Lord.

You didn't earn it.

He gave it to you.

How many of y'all think that you just woke up today and were just a genius?

Or did you have to grow up?

Did you have to be taught some things?

How many of y'all woke up this morning and gave yourself the breath that you're breathing?

None of you.

You ask any scientist, any doctor, any physician, they can do a lot of amazing things because they've been given a skill set, a talent, knowledge, a brain that didn't start with them, but it started with him. even the air in our lungs.

So the first thing you've got to understand is even the talents, even the stuff you're good at, God gave it to you.

He entrusted to his servants during his absence.

And the distribution of the talents, what they were given was intentional and it was proportional according to their ability.

How many of y'all know that in the scriptures it says that when you develop leaders, when you have church leaders, you have to see them be trustworthy before they get elevated into a position of authority.

You don't just give leadership away.

It has to be earned.

It has to be proven.

You have to be faithful with what you've been given.

You see, the kingdom of God is not about equal amount.

But with what you've been given, it is about equal faithfulness.

Which meaning, whatever you've been given, you need to be faithful to it.

And so here's a couple things that you, again, you need to take notes on.

The first thing is you need to reject comparison.

Reject comparison.

Reject comparison.

Because faithfulness to use what God has given you for his purpose is not measured by matching someone else's, watch this, assignment.

Don't try to do someone else's assignment.

Don't try to use someone else's gift.

Live in yours.

How many of y'all struggle with looking left or right, comparing yourself to others?

This is a problem with America today.

You're always wanting what you don't have rather than being, what is it, content with what you do have.

And God gave it to you.

Can you imagine the peace that would flow out of your lives if you just woke up and said, God, I'm going to be faithful with who you made me to be.

With how you created me.

With the gifts that you've given me.

The second thing you need to understand is you need to identify what God has entrusted to you.

Like I think so many of you, you're looking to the right or the left, you're comparing yourself to others because you haven't even seen the thing that God has put inside of you.

The passion, the skill set, the mind.

Are you living in who he has created you to be?

So ask this question, Lord, what have you put into my hands?

Because I want to be faithful with what you've given to me.

I need to be faithful with what you've given to me.

And the third thing you need to understand is what will you do with the time that you've been given?

Because you and I, we've been given a time.

When we look at the scriptures and we read about all the people of old, name your favorite biblical character that you would like to be like.

David.

Some of you are like, I didn't know I had to do this today.

Esther.

Who?

Lydia.

Paul.

Timothy.

Ruth.

Do you know who Jesus wants you to be?

You.

Because you don't live in the time of Esther.

You don't live in the time of David.

You don't live in the time of Moses.

You don't live in the time of Mary.

You live right now.

You and I have been given a time that God has entrusted to us.

He's entrusted your life, your giftings, your talents, your mind, your abilities, and your time for his purpose.

And while the master is away, how many of y'all know his mission is still active?

A matter of fact, he even says that he's not coming back until everyone on planet Earth has had the opportunity to hear and respond to his gospel.

So you and I literally have a role to play in his return, where he's gonna come and make all things new and right.

How many of y'all would like for things to be made new and right? for evil to be eliminated and dealt with once and for all, and for heaven to come.

He is not going to return until we do what we're called to do and share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Why?

Because he wants none to perish, but all to come to everlasting life.

He goes on in Matthew 25, 16 and says, the servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and he earned five more.

He doubled it.

The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more.

But the servant who received one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master's money.

Sounds like a conspiracy theorist.

You can laugh.

I thought it was funny.

Here's the second point you and I need to understand is don't just hold on to what God gave you.

Put it to work.

Don't save it for a rainy day.

Put it to work.

You see, the faithful servants, the one that were given five and two, they knew that they needed to do something with it.

They were entrusted with what God gave them, and they needed to be active in it.

The faithful servants went at once.

And by the way, at NLC, that looks like moving forward in next clear steps of discipleship.

If you have our app, it's why we have things listed out on things that you need to step into and do with your faith. so that you can grow in your relationship with God and in your mission with what God's given you.

Here's some examples.

The first, if you haven't done it, is to commit your life to Jesus, to follow him, to give, to believe in him, that he paid the price for your salvation by giving his life.

And in his resurrection, you can be taken to heaven one day when you believe and follow him.

The next step after that, immediately after that, is to go public with your faith in baptism, which again, we're doing next week.

So if you haven't gone public with your faith, your decision, not your parents, not anybody else's, but you, immersed as Jesus was immersed you can be baptized next weekend and you can register for that in the app or you can even tell someone in the lobby we'll get you registered discovery classes again next Sunday at 10 30 discovery is where you discover the talents that God has placed inside of you that you learn exactly how God wired you on purpose for his purpose

And then after that, you begin to join a team based on your gifting.

So how many of y'all know that there's a spiritual gift of worship?

How many of y'all like to worship?

How many of y'all can't sing?

Like, be honest.

Like, if someone were to hear you sing, they know you can't sing.

Not what your mama said, like what other people would say.

You follow what I'm saying?

Because I love you, but if you can't sing...

You shouldn't be up here.

Now, by the way, the worship team will tell you this.

If you step on this stage, we check your heart more than anyone else in this entire church.

We check your motive.

We check your heart.

We check your pulse on where your relationship with Jesus is because we don't want people on the platform leading you when their heart's not right with the Lord.

Like we probably, we have probably more accountability, if you will, conversations with our worship team than probably any other team outside of life group leaders.

Life group leaders are another one that we take very seriously.

Our staff is another one.

But discovery classes that tell you you're gifting.

Here's another one.

Like people, how many of y'all love kids?

You're built for it.

Do you know how many people that I know love kids and they work with kids every day of the week and then they come to the church and go, I have nothing left to give.

And yeah, I get that.

But it's your gift.

Everyone knows it.

Your kids know it.

Your boss knows it.

You're to serve the Lord and teach kids about Jesus.

How many of y'all know that if you don't like kids and don't love kids, you shouldn't be in our kids ministry?

Because they know if you don't like them.

And so we're never going to have a church where we go, hey, we need kids workers because we don't need you that badly.

We want our kids to love Jesus.

And when you don't love them, you're not loving Jesus or them.

You picking up what I'm putting down?

Gifting, gifting.

How many of y'all like to tinker and do, like you like technology?

You like, get on the production team.

Some of you are like, I don't know, other cameras and sound and like screens and like, you do it everywhere else.

Can I tell you something?

If none of that happens, none of this happens.

We don't worship the Lord without the lyrics.

We don't worship the Lord without the sound.

We don't worship the Lord without all these things.

You can't sing this.

How many of y'all, when we start a new song, you're like, I don't know that song.

And you're looking at the lyrics, like, I don't really know how to sing it yet.

And it takes some time to get to use this.

I sat there this morning.

We have a new song.

I think it started last week, but I don't know the lyrics yet.

So I just stood there like...

And I gave God my best worship.

But we need all of that to build God's kingdom based off of gifting and passion and how God has made it you.

Did you know that there is a spiritual gift of generosity, of giving?

We call it kingdom builders.

We have a team for that.

It's people that have the gift of generosity.

They want to do everything they can to invest in robbing hell and populating heaven.

They'll do things like local missions and local outreach and global and national and pour money into our next generation ministries and expand our spaces so that more people can come to know him.

Then join a life group or lead a life group.

Facilitate.

Man, some of you, can I be kind?

I'm gonna be kind to the guys and me at the same time.

You ready for it?

Man, some of y'all lead your business but you act like children in church.

You have the ability to lead teams and lead companies and organizations.

And yet you come in here and you're like, God gave you that gift.

Use it to build his kingdom.

Use it to build his purposes.

Use it.

Be involved in local outreach things like Safe Families for Children, the Christmas Shop, which is coming up in just a few weeks, or the Back to School Blessing.

Practice radical generosity.

Be faithful in tithing the first 10% of your income to the local house of God so that operations are always taken care of.

And then become a kingdom builder who accelerates the vision of God with above and beyond generosity to accomplish more together.

Invite and bring someone to church who doesn't know Jesus.

Share your own testimony with them.

Pray for people by name and always be inviting.

Why is this important?

Because New Life Church, we don't bury what God gives us.

We invest it through next steps, through serving on God's team, by participating in life together, through generosity and mission.

Why?

So that people can know Jesus.

Revelation 22 says this.

He says, look, I am coming soon.

This is Jesus bringing my reward with me to repay all people according to their deeds.

How many of y'all want a big old reward from Jesus?

Like some of y'all, Jesus warned about trying to live for earthly trophies and well-beings.

But how many of y'all, he's going to reward y'all for what you do. and not just what you just did in life, but what you did for him.

He's coming with his reward.

He says, I am the alpha and the omega.

What does that mean?

He's the first and the last.

What does that mean?

He's the beginning and the end.

None of it came from you.

It all belongs to him.

Blessed are those who wash their robes.

They will be permitted to to enter through the gates of the city and eat the fruit from the tree of life.

And outside the city, this is not who we want to be.

Outside are the city, are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idol worshipers, and all who love to live a lie.

And Jesus is going to return to make all that right again.

Here's the thing you need to understand.

Jesus, the third point, if you're taking notes, Jesus will return and he's going to ask us what we did with what he gave us.

So here's the question.

Will your efforts end up in heaven?

Your time, your talents, and your treasure.

Will what you do with your time end up in heaven?

What about your talents?

Do you know them?

Is what you're giving to, will it end up in heaven?

You see, because the faithful servants, they acted immediately and fearlessly for the master's benefit.

The one who was given five earned five more.

The one who was given two made two more.

But the unfaithful servants received condemnation from the Lord.

And it's not condemnation for losing money.

It's condemnation for doing nothing with it.

Nothing that the master wanted.

New Life Church, can I say this?

May this not be said of us.

You see, because what looks like even being careful can actually be fear.

And Jesus actually calls it being unfaithful, wicked, and lazy.

Now church, this story isn't just about money.

It's about readiness.

It's about readiness.

Because Jesus says that the master is coming back and when he does, he's not asking, did you just know this stuff?

He's asking, what did you do with what I gave you?

Two servants lived ready and they put it to work.

One servant wasn't ready and he buried it.

And here's the part we can't miss.

You can't live a ready life until you actually belong to the master.

Because it's one thing to ask, God, what would I do that can end up in heaven?

But it's another to ask, will I end up in heaven?

And Jesus says that there's one way, that he is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through him.

All of the deeds, all the things we do for him, that comes after believing in him.

And after our salvation, he puts the Holy Spirit inside of us to entrust us to do more with it.

But you can't earn salvation.

It can only be received by believing in Christ Jesus.

So with every eye closed and every head bowed, in a moment I'm going to count to three.

And if you're one of these two people, you've never stepped over a line of faith to put your faith in Jesus, in God, not yourself, not your circumstances, not even your money, your job, none of it, but in the author and perfecter of your life and faith.

If you're one of these two people, one, wanting to make Jesus the Lord of your life today, or wanting to rededicate, to come back to him, on a count of three, I want you to shoot your hand up in the air.

One, I'm giving my life to Jesus.

Two, I'm coming back to you, Jesus.

Three, shoot your hand up and let's pray this prayer together.

As a matter of fact, everyone in the room say this.

Say, Lord Jesus, forgive me of my sin.

Take my sin.

And by your grace, I receive your perfection.

Jesus, I make you the Lord of my life.

I give you all that I am.

I hold nothing back.

Fill me with your Holy Spirit.

In Jesus' name.

And everybody said, Amen.

Full Sermon Transcript

My name is Kelsey.

Hi.

Hello.

Well, I'm excited to bring you the message.

We are in our series in Matthew, which is taking us all the way through Christmas.

Hi.

You're sweaty.

Wow.

You know what, Sam?

I'm just going to tell you that worship set was so powerful, I almost passed out.

I had to sit down.

I was like, I don't know if I'm going to make it through the message.

We could just leave after that.

I don't know if you guys have heard the song, God, I'm Just Grateful Yet, but if you haven't, you should go home and put it on your playlist because the first time I heard it when those hits came in in the chorus, you may not know what I'm talking about.

Says, though am I that you keep me on your mind.

God.

And I was like, I think I just went to heaven and then came back when the hit stopped.

So good.

So good.

Something about worship, right?

Does something that no other music can do.

And that's because it's all about God.

But when you throw the hits in there, it'll just really do it.

So we're in Matthew.

We're going to two different parables this morning, and we're going to combine them, so it's going to be really fun.

When I think about a royal wedding, a royal wedding I think of none other than Princess Diana and Prince, now King, Charles.

I looked up some statistics on their wedding.

Are you ready for this?

Was anyone there?

Did anyone get invited?

I was like, that'd be super cool if somebody raised their hand.

I looked up some statistics.

It took place on July 29th, 1981 at St.

Paul's Cathedral in London.

3,500 people were in attendance, including world leaders and a lot of celebrities.

An estimated 2 million spectators were lining the streets of London, just hoping to catch a glimpse of the newlyweds' carriage procession when they go through the streets.

So just hoping to just catch a glimpse, right, of Princess Diana and Prince Charles.

A record-breaking global television and radio audience of 1 billion people across 74 countries tuned in to watch the event.

A billion people.

You ready for the total cost?

$57 million, and that was in 1981, which is equivalent now to $170 million.

You know what the largest expense was?

I wonder if anybody can get it.

The largest expense.

No, what are you today?

Security.

The largest expense was security.

He says food.

Diana's dress had the longest train of any royal wedding dress.

It measured 25 feet. a quarter of a football field in length.

Can you imagine trying to walk with that?

People are like standing on it.

You're like, hey, they're way back there.

Get off, right?

Listen to this.

This is what I would want to be there for.

27 wedding cakes.

The official cake... Is anyone five feet tall in the room?

Stand up, block.

That's how tall the official cake was.

Do you weigh 225 pounds?

No.

That's how much it weighed.

Five feet tall and weighed 225 pounds.

Like the biggest wedding cake ever.

And the couple received 300 or 3,000 gifts from around the world.

Can you imagine opening those?

I doubt they opened them by themselves.

And I much more doubt that they did not write thank you cards themselves.

Imagine being invited to a wedding like this.

Can you imagine getting the invite in the mail?

You've been invited.

It was called the wedding of the century.

And then imagine turning down the invite.

Like, I'm good, thanks.

Princess Diana, Prince Charles.

I don't want to go.

I'm good.

Or imagine, if you're like me...

You wait so long to RSVP that you miss the invitation and you're left outside.

And you get there and the door's shut.

And you're like, I was on the list.

And they're like, sorry you waited too long.

You can't get in.

That would be such a bummer, right, for the wedding of the century.

27 cakes, right?

$170 million spent on this event, and you don't get in.

Two wedding stories, one king.

Both end with a closed door.

What I want you to know before we get into it today is that Jesus isn't trying to scare us.

In his love and in his grace, he's trying to prepare us.

So let's turn to Matthew 22.

We're going to start right at verse 1.

And we're going to read through the first section of this parable.

It says, Jesus also told them other parables.

He loved to talk in stories.

Right?

I read my kids stories before they go to bed at night.

And then we talk about how they apply to the world.

We're reading Ali a story every night called A Boy Like Me.

How to be a nice and loving boy.

When Jesus tells us these parables, he's telling us how to be a follower of Christ.

But he tells it in modern stories so that we can understand.

It says, When the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to notify those who were invited.

So Princess Diana and Prince Charles are getting married.

You're all invited.

All 3,500 of you, it's time to come.

But look at this.

They all refused the invite.

But the king, being so kind, sent other servants to tell them, the feast has been prepared.

The bulls and fattened calf have been killed.

Everything's ready.

It's not even like a potluck.

It's not like bring your own dish to pass, which is so hard for me.

My sister showed up to a brunch the other day and she brought grapes.

And then she didn't even bring them because they spilled out in her car.

I'm like, it's a brunch.

You brought grapes?

Okay.

Okay.

Potlucks, those are tricky, right?

This isn't even a potluck.

It's like everything is ready.

The food is hot.

Come on in.

He sent out an invite a second time.

Come to the banquet.

Please just show up.

But the guests he had invited ignored them and went their own way.

One to his farm, another to his business.

Listen to this.

Others seized his messengers, insulted them, and killed them. so killed the messengers that just came to invite them to a feast.

The king was furious.

He sent out his army to destroy the murderers and burn their town.

He said to his servants, the wedding feast is ready.

The guests I invited aren't even worthy of the honor.

They've missed their chance, right?

Now go out to the street corners, invite everyone you see.

So the servants brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike, and the banquet hall was filled with guests.

So the initial people who were invited missed their chance because they didn't want it.

And then he said, go out other translations say to the farthest corners of town, to the edge of the highways and invite anyone you can find, good and bad alike.

Are you picking up on who the king is?

Yeah.

The king, God, is throwing a feast for his son, Jesus.

And he's saying, invite everybody.

Point one today, if you're taking notes, because note takers are Jordan.

World changers, there you go.

I asked her, she's taking notes.

Number one, his grace invites.

The king wants a full house.

We have the scene, a king, not just any host is preparing the wedding of the century.

This one's not just the wedding of a century, right?

This is the wedding of eternity.

The greatest wedding you can ever imagine.

It's the social event of eternity.

This elevates the honor of the invitation.

I asked, did any of you get invited to Princess Diana's wedding?

You're like, what a dumb question, right?

Now compare that to the wedding feast with Jesus.

This is an even better invitation, and people turned it down.

Not only that, there's a triple invitation.

He asked once.

They said no.

He asked twice.

They killed the messengers.

Then he asked a third time.

We kind of see this in today's culture with weddings.

It's like you get a save the date, right?

As soon as they're engaged, they get their save the dates out because it's like, please make sure that you don't schedule anything else.

What are they saying?

We really want you there.

We really care that you attend the biggest event of our lives.

Then you get the invitation.

Now bride and grooms have this thing called like the knot, I think.

I think that's what it's called, the knot, yeah.

And it'll send out like a text reminder, which I'm so thankful for.

That'll be like, hey, you haven't RSVP'd yet.

Can you please RSVP?

You get that triple invitation and why?

Because they really care that you're there.

The king really cared that the people he invited were coming.

They don't want you to miss the special day.

It's the same way with God, right?

But what it also shows is his patience, his long suffering.

He continues to invite us in, but not only that, he says, everything's ready.

You don't bring your own meal.

The gospel is prepared.

The sacrifice has already been given, right?

You don't have to do anything except for accept the invitation.

He's already done everything that has to be done.

All you have to do is say, yes, I'll show up.

Romans 10, 13.

These won't be on the screen because I added them to my notes really late.

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Everyone.

Not just those who have put themselves together first.

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Matthew 11, 28.

Jesus said, come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

1 Timothy 2, 3-4.

This is good and pleases God our Savior who wants everyone to be saved and understand the truth.

Everyone.

His grace invites everyone.

But what are the different responses we see from different people?

First, we saw indifference, right?

They made light of it.

It's like, I have to go tend to my farm.

I have to go sell my merchandise.

They didn't see how special the invitation was.

How many of you have seen that response from someone that you've invited?

How many of you have had that response yourself when you have had the invitation to salvation?

We see in the same kind of way, distracted, busy.

Maybe life is going so well that you don't feel the need for the invitation.

It's like, well, I'm carrying it on my own.

I don't need it anyways.

I'm tough.

I've got it.

I'm successful.

Why would I need the invitation?

The last one is violence.

This one's a little weird, right?

They mistreat and they kill the messengers.

And actually, you've seen this throughout all of history, and we're still seeing it today.

You see Christians being killed in Nigeria right now.

You see, it's what they call martyrs, people who are speaking up for their faith and then being killed.

The disciples were killed for preaching about their faith.

Paul killed preaching about his faith.

People today being killed as they speak about their faith.

And this is what happened.

It was literally the king's messengers that were just sent, hey, just invite them.

Just go.

And they're like, you want to come to the feast?

Oh, I'm sorry, what?

What?

I just invited you to a wedding.

Is that so offensive?

And this is still what's happening today, violence.

And what's hard that we see is that the king rightly judged in that situation.

In that scripture, it says the king was furious.

He sent out his army to destroy the murderers and burn their town.

And you read that and you're like, that's a mean king.

He destroyed the murderers and burned their town, but what I want you to see is that that's a just king.

And actually, we talk about that in the podcast coming up this week, and you might be like, how do you know that?

Don't you film on Monday?

Spoiler alert, we filmed this one early because of Thanksgiving, and it was a little tricky because we hadn't preached the message yet.

So you might hear it and be like, you just talked about that in the message.

I was very worried that was going to happen, but we'll see.

We'll see how it goes.

Never done that before.

Hopefully, that's the only time.

But we see God's justice.

And the reason why God is just is because he protects the innocent.

He was protecting his messengers that were unjustly killed.

And so he's protecting those.

But the good thing about God's justice is that it's always perfect.

And so he says, you don't take justice into your own hands.

I'm going to do it because I will handle it perfectly.

If you were to take justice into your own hands, you're going to mess it up.

Because you are imperfect humans.

But if I do it, I will handle it perfectly.

So trust my justice.

Trust in me and I will be the one to do it.

But in God's original plan, no justice ever had to be taken because there was no sin.

We chose sin, and then as a loving father, he says, I don't want to have to do the justice, but I will because I won't mess it up.

Do you see that?

So when we read that he burned towns and he murdered those, it's like, whoa.

But he does it because he loves us and he protects the innocent.

I wasn't supposed to go that long on that part, but I did.

Oh, well.

Then he says, go invite both good and bad, filling the hole.

This is his grace.

All are invited into God's kingdom.

It doesn't matter what you've done, who you've been.

You can experience salvation.

This is the gospel.

This is the good news.

God's heart is not an empty banquet hall or where only a few seats are filled because you had to wait to be perfect before you could take a seat at the table.

It's come in first.

All are welcome.

The gospel is wide open to all.

So my question for you off of this point is, do you ever get an invite that sits on your fridge and then someone has to text you and remind you over and over again to RSVP?

Where have we made light of God's summons?

Where have we made light of his invitation into our hearts?

Crowding it out with work, success, good things.

What has made me indifferent, distracted to the goodness of the gospel?

At the end of the message today, if that's you, and if you've made light of the fact that he sent his one and only son to die for you, I'm gonna give you the opportunity to raise your hand and put your faith in him.

And this is your first step before you get yourself cleaned up, before you fix things in your life.

The first step is the Bible says, if you love me, you will obey my commands.

Not obey my commands to prove that you love me, and then you can earn my love.

The first step is just putting your faith in him.

So at the end of the message, if you're like, all I can do is point one, that's all you need to do.

Because point two, point three, and point four is going to be a tag on to point one.

So I'm going to give you that opportunity at the end of the message.

Spoiler alert, that's what we're going to do at the end.

Going on in verse 11, it says, For many are called, but few are chosen.

You're like, wait, you just said anyone can come in.

Why was he kicked out?

Because he wasn't wearing the right clothes.

If he said to go anywhere, right, the corners of the towns, the highways and byways, and invite anyone in, then why was he kicked out for looking different?

I don't know about you.

That's how I read that scripture.

And I was like, that does not sit well with my understanding of a loving father.

And so when I read further, what I learned is that when they came in, they were all given wedding attire.

Every single person was given something to put on.

They didn't have to bring it in.

They were given something.

So the king comes in to see the guests now, right?

They've all been given something to wear.

And it's reading like the final judgment where the king's saying, all right, let me look at my guests.

Let's see how they present themselves.

And one man is lacking the wedding garment that the king gave to all.

And he's dishonoring the king by remaining unchanged.

Unchanged.

The garment pictures the righteous life that then accompanies faith.

It's not earned.

It's worn.

What this man wanted was the benefits of the feast without honoring the son.

So what I immediately thought of was, think of it this way.

My niece does gymnastics at a competitive level.

She gets these amazing leotards that they compete in.

The difference in these leotards is they have to pay for them.

This wedding garment was free, but they all match when they put on these leotards.

They're gorgeous.

This year they have Swarovski rhinestones on them.

And she's so excited, look at my leotard that I get to compete in.

And when they put it on, they all look transformed, right?

Into these beautiful women, and they all look the same.

And they put them on and they look gorgeous.

It's like that.

It's like you're given something royal.

I was thinking the other week.

The girls have been, I say they've been going through a breakup.

They shared a bedroom.

Now they've decided they want their own bedroom, so they're breaking up.

They're going into their own bedroom.

So I was working all day one day.

I had done a workout in the morning, so I was in my workout clothes, really nasty.

Hadn't showered in approximately three days.

You can judge me later.

If I were to try to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ, right?

Thank you.

So really nasty.

It was like top knot, workout clothes.

I'm moving the girls' bedrooms, and all of a sudden I'm like, it's time for school pickup.

This is going to be awesome.

So I get out of my car, and I'm walking into school pickup, and I'm like, every mom's going to judge me.

This is awesome.

What if, as soon as I got out of my car, can you hand me that?

Someone was like, hey, put this over you.

And I put this on.

And all of a sudden, I'm here for school pickup.

And they're like, whoa, where did you come from?

Right?

All of a sudden, royalty.

Right?

No one knows that I have shorts on underneath, a nasty tank top.

I'm covered in cobwebs.

I'm the dirtiest human.

I'm going on, now it's become day seven of a shower for dramatic effect.

No one knows because the king has given me the garment to put on.

No one knows what was underneath before.

No one knows what life you've lived before because you've put on the garment.

What he's given you, but this man was like, I don't want it.

I just want to eat the fattened calf.

I don't want to put on that life.

Ephesians 4, 21 through 24 says, Since you've heard about Jesus and have learned the truth comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.

Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.

Put on your new nature, clothed and created to be like God.

He makes you royalty.

Romans 13 through 14 says, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.

Colossians 3.10 says, put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

I thought about wearing workout clothes for the whole day for real dramatic effect, but I just couldn't in my own pride bring myself to do it.

I'm working on the people pleaser, but I couldn't quite get there.

It's like people will judge me the whole morning.

What I want you to know is, even in the story of the prodigal son, the prodigal son asked for the father's inheritance before the father had died.

He left.

He squandered his inheritance.

It says he lived in pig slop.

He was disgusting.

Then when he had hit rock bottom, he came home, right?

It says from a long ways off, the father saw the son coming, which means what?

The father was watching and waiting.

He was expectant that he was going to come home.

And as the son approached...

The father didn't make him clean up.

The father gave him the robe, the ring, the sandals.

But what did the son do?

He put it on.

It's the same idea.

What is the picture?

It's a changed life.

It means all of the sudden when you put your faith in Jesus, when you accept the invitation, then things in your life start to change.

Because you put on that garment, you start to all of the sudden take on qualities of Christ.

You start to show the fruit of the Spirit.

All of the sudden you have more patience.

You have more love.

You have more faithfulness.

You have more joy.

You have more peace.

I was telling the youth this last Sunday that we have this tendency to view the Bible as a book of do's and don'ts.

It's like the Bible is just a giant buzzkill.

But you know what's actually fun?

What you'll start to figure out when you start to put on the new self, you know what's really fun?

Having joy is actually really fun.

Having peace, really fun.

All of those things that the Bible leads you to do are a lot of fun.

It says it is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

The freedom is so fun, but you have to put it on.

And then the outcome when he won't do it is it says he's bound and cast out.

Because he's dishonoring the king.

The grace is free, but it isn't cheap.

It welcomes us as we are, but it's refusing to leave us that way.

It costs us something.

It's giving up our old way of life.

But in that giving up is when we find true freedom, right?

We find something even better.

So my question to ask ourselves today is, have we treated grace as a past to remain the same?

Or are we living in the power to be made new?

Where is God asking us to change clothes?

Where is he saying you need to repent here?

Reconcile here, right?

Obey here.

When I was in college, I had the opportunity, and I don't know if I've told this story from this stage before or from the youth stage before.

They all get kind of jarred together.

But I had the opportunity to be in a musical tour.

And we toured like 48 of the states because you can't really drive to two of them.

And we lived on a tour bus with 12 people, and we slept in stacked bunk beds on this bus.

And what I didn't know when I signed up for it was that I was the only believer on the bus.

And when I say the only believer, I mean the only believer.

Like every night, it was the rest of the cast was getting very drunk, was using an app called Tinder to find people to meet and do ungodly things with in every town we went to.

And I remember saying like, this is great.

I can be a light.

One out of 12 people.

And after a while, it was like, I am running dry.

I'm holding on to my salvation, but I am not wearing the garment of royalty.

I'm looking less and less like Christ.

I don't know if anyone on this bus even knows anymore that I believe in Christ because I'm so drained.

I'm exhausted.

And so I was holding on to the free gift of grace...

But I wasn't letting my life show anything of that changed life, of being chosen, right, of looking different.

My oil was running low.

And that's what's going to take us into the next parable today when we go into Matthew chapter 25.

Verse 1, it says, The kingdom of heaven will be like ten bridesmaids.

They took their lamps to meet with the bridegroom.

Five were foolish, five were wise.

The five who were foolish didn't take enough oil for the lamps.

The other five were wise enough to take along extra oil.

Some translations even said they brought an extra flask.

They were that prepared.

When the bridegroom was delayed, they became drowsy and fell asleep.

All ten fell asleep.

At midnight, they were roused by the shout, "'Look, the bridegroom's coming!

Come out and meet him!'

All the bridesmaids got up and they started tending to their lamps to give light.

But the five foolish ones asked the others, please give us some of your oil.

Our lamps are going out.

The others replied, we don't have enough for all of us.

Go to a shop and buy some for yourselves.

Point three, our oil burns.

You can't borrow someone else's.

What you see in this parable is you have 10 virgins and what they were doing was they were going to prepare the way for the groom to then lead him to the bride.

If you were at the maid conference, you're like, you already preached this message.

Yes, I know, I was assigned this.

Kind of cool how that works out, isn't it?

It's gonna be a little different though, don't worry.

They were all invited.

They all had lamps, and they all grow drowsy.

The good news, all 10 were allowed to take a nap.

No one got in trouble for napping.

I love that about this one.

It's like, thank you.

What's the difference?

Oil.

I think of the ones who brought the extra flasks of oil.

It's like a mom who shows up to a play date with extra snacks.

Or diapers or wipes.

It's like they're always prepared.

They're always thinking ahead.

They need extra.

There was a delay because they were waiting for the bridegroom to come.

What's happening in this parable is Jesus is addressing church insiders, all of us, who are tempted to delay and to drift into unreadiness.

Who are tempted to say, you know what?

I'm just going to sit out of church.

I'm going to sit out of life groups.

I'm tired of being in the Bible.

I'm not seeing answers to prayer.

I think I'm going to drift.

And what he's saying is beware of the drift.

Satan works in the drift.

What's the oil symbolism?

It's not really defined.

The point of the oil is personal preparedness.

You can't transfer it at the last minute.

Is it the Holy Spirit?

Is it time in the Word?

Is it prayer?

Yes.

It's all of those things.

Their refusal to share in this parable seems selfish, but the reality is that preparedness can't be outsourced.

You can lean into others for encouragement.

You can lean into others to speak truth to you.

You can lean into others to remind you of what you need to do.

But when it comes to owning your faith, at some point you have to take it on yourself.

So the question is, what does oil in your vessel need to look like?

When I was on that musical tour, I was doing nothing to fill up my own oil.

I can't remember one time that I cracked open my own Bible.

I can't remember one time that it was a Sunday morning and I didn't have a show and I thought, let me look up a church in this town.

I can't remember one time that I group texted my Bible study from home and said, I could use some prayer.

I can't remember doing one of those things to try to fill up some oil so that my lamp could burn.

And it took my mom calling me and saying, you don't even look like the person I knew before you got on that bus.

And it's time for you to come back to Jesus because you may think you're being a light, but your lamp's not even burning anymore.

And how can you be a light when you have no oil?

So what does oil in your vessel look like this week?

And how are you going to store up some?

Verse 10 says, while they were gone to buy the oil is when the bridegroom came.

Those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was locked.

Later, when the other five bridesmaids returned, they stood outside calling, Lord, Lord, open the door, right?

I'm here.

I've got my oil.

I did it at the last second.

Please let me in.

But he called back, believe me, I don't know you.

He said, so you too must keep watch, for you do not know the hour or the day of my return.

Point four is the door shuts and the voice speaks.

The shut door says, those who are ready, enter.

And the rest here, I don't know you.

What's the issue?

The issue was not how holy they were.

The issue wasn't how many life groups they were leading.

How many sins were on their list before they were saved or after they were saved?

The issue was relationship.

To be known by the bridegroom.

And it was evidenced by a prepared life.

Jesus is saying, watch.

Live prepared.

I don't know any person in this room that when hunting season comes, they say, I'm going to go out in the blind.

And I'm going to take a nap.

Right?

They go out and they say, I'm going to watch.

I'm going to watch for that buck.

I'm going to watch.

And they go out there and they peel their eyes open.

Right?

We're going to keep watch.

Live prepared.

Luke 21, 36 says, keep alert at all times.

Pray that you might be strong enough to escape these coming horrors and stand before the Son of Man.

1 Peter 4, 7 says, the end of all things is near.

Therefore, be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.

So my question is, are we arranging our life as if Jesus could come today?

What one habit would change if we expected him this week?

You know, people ask the question all the time, are we living in the end times?

And my question is, if I told you yes, what would you change?

Because if you have something you would change, then you should probably change it.

Because the truth either way is you're living in your end times either way.

Whether it's the end times, it's your end times.

Because the Bible says that we are all going to die.

These parables, like I said, are not meant to form fear.

They're meant to form urgency.

It's like the bride that has the countdown on her phone.

I've never heard a bride that gets engaged and is like, I'll start preparing 15 days before the wedding.

I'm just going to wait, right?

They show me the countdown.

They're like, look, 692 days.

I'm like, I'm pretty sure that's two years.

And they're already doing the checklist.

So let's live like the couple that's so excited for the wedding day, where your mind is consumed by the excitement you have for the wedding.

Are you living with an urgency to be reunited with the king, to invite as many guests as possible to the feast, to make heaven crowded, not out of fear, but out of preparation?

Let's pray together.

God, I thank you so much for your word.

That in your goodness, you even had your son tell parables so that we could understand it.

So that in our simplicity of our minds, you put it into words that we could grasp.

I'm so thankful for the invitation to the feast.

I'm so thankful for the garment that you give us to put on that transforms us into royalty no matter what we've looked like before.

I'm so thankful that you give us ways to store up oil every day so that our lights can continue to shine for you.

And God, that you don't expect a life of perfection.

All you expect is a life of relationship with you that you want so deeply to know us.

And that out of that knowing, we're able to live prepared and excited for your return.

Like I promised, if there's anyone in the room this morning that has yet to accept the invitation, the Bible says that God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son.

And when it says he so loved the world, that means he so loved you.

If you're in that seat and you've never accepted his love for you, he saw your face on his mind when he sent his son.

He knew what you have done before.

He knows what mistakes you're going to make, and he still loved you enough to send his one and only son.

And all you have to do, just like this parable said, is accept the invitation.

Accept that he loved you.

Make him Lord of your life.

And so if that's you, you'll know because the Bible says he'll be knocking on the door of your heart just like he'll be messing with you.

And on the count of three, I'm going to give you the opportunity to raise your hand with all heads bowed and all eyes closed that I know who I'm praying with.

And then we're all going to pray a prayer out loud together this morning.

One, be bold.

Two, God loves you.

Three, you can raise your hand so that I know who I'm praying with.

Just shoot your hand up in the air.

Amen.

I see you.

Amen.

You can put your hands down and from your heart to his, say, God, I love you.

Thank you for sending your son to die for me.

I make you Lord of my life.

I turn from my old ways and I run to you.

And it's in your name I pray.

Amen.

Full Sermon Transcript

Did you know that one question can change your life?

One.

There could be questions like, do you want the job?

And you have a choice to answer yes or no.

It could be a question, oh, there's a podium here.

That snuck up on me.

A question that you might even ask, again, you went to a doctor, you went to a physician, you were looking for answers for something that you were dealing with health-wise, and you asked the question, what's the diagnosis?

The answer could change your life forever.

How about this question?

How do you plead?

Do you plead guilty or not guilty?

Here's one that would probably change your life for many of you.

And it's the question, will you marry me?

But the most defining question that faces you and I and really every human being came from the mouth of Jesus in Matthew chapter 16.

When he said to Peter, who do you say that I am?

So today we're going to dive into that question.

But before I get to it, I'm going to kind of tee it up.

Because the people who Jesus was speaking to, a lot of them were Jewish people and some of them were Gentiles.

And if you're not familiar with that language, Jewish people are the chosen people of God.

God said that he would bless them and they would be a blessing to all of mankind.

That they would know who he is through them.

And then, of course, the Gentile is anyone who's not Jewish.

Was anyone born Jewish in the room today?

Y'all are Gentiles.

So when you read Gentile, you're one of those.

You weren't born a Jew.

But here's what... if you were a Jewish person, you would have heard, passed down or read about or taught about this person that God would send called the Messiah, the Christ.

How many of y'all know that those words are really the same word?

Messiah means Christ, which means savior.

Jesus is the savior of mankind.

Jesus claimed to be God.

Make no mistake, Jesus cannot just be a good teacher or a good prophet if he claimed to be God and is not God.

Did you know that all of human history points to Jesus as being a phenomenal teacher, being a phenomenal prophet, a man of God?

Even in Islam, he's written about, talked about, revered,

And he's known as a great teacher, a great man of God, a prophet.

But Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior, the Christ.

But I got another question for you.

Because how many of you in the room would call Jesus your Savior?

You can be bold and unafraid.

It's a safe place to answer that question.

But how many of you would call him Lord?

All of you are lying.

What do you mean, pastor?

What I mean is, will you give God all of your life?

Will you say yes to him, no matter the cost or the call?

Can I walk around the room and be friendly to you for just a second?

The people online are going to get nervous.

What is it in your life that you're unwilling to yield to Jesus?

Because whatever that is, it's not a Savior issue.

It's not a Messiah issue.

It's not a the Christ issue.

It's a Lordship issue.

For some of you, you're still getting drunk.

And even in the great state of Michigan, there's this stuff called weed.

Have you heard of it?

And there's a pot shop on every corner.

And the Bible says to be of sober mind.

And the Bible says to not get drunk on wine.

And so some of you are like, well, what about tequila?

The principle of the scripture is do not get drunk.

Be of sober mind.

I have a question for you.

Is Jesus your Lord?

Because if you're still getting drunk on wine or shots or marijuana or energy drinks, oh man, he just went from preaching to meddling.

If someone confronted you with that and saw that going on in your life, how would you respond?

Would you respond with, you know what, I received that.

I need to be better.

Am I calling Jesus Lord or just my Savior?

Because I want to tell you something, he demands, I don't even say he demands, he will be Lord over it all, whether you bow the knee to him or not.

And some of, may I suggest to you this morning, in a friendly pastoral way,

Some of you keep coming to the front for anointing oil prayer and we beg you to do that because some of you are trying to get help and answers and you're trying to find the savior and you're trying to find freedom from things that are still holding you hostage from everything but the Lord and you need to come to the Lord.

But for many of you, your healing is your lack of submission to his Lordship.

What do I mean, pastor?

I mean, you're still living a life that Jesus had to die for.

You're trying to affirm or hold on to that sin that's kept you in bondage.

And we're even holding on to, I'm going to get a little bit sassy this morning.

Can I get a little sassy?

Okay.

We're even holding on to political identities based off of what we wish they would be or could be.

And yet, I don't know how to tell you this.

There's one political party in America that's pushing an agenda that is anti-God.

They're promoting sin, homosexuality, homosexual marriage,

Transgenderism.

I got notified this week that the Michigan Department of Education has approved curriculum to go into our public schools to affirm and celebrate something that God calls sin.

Hey Christians, if you wanna hold on to your political party rather than the Lordship of Jesus,

We've got a problem.

Now, is either party perfect?

No.

But I can promise you one thing.

If you line up platform next to each other, one is promoting an anti-Christ agenda and one is not.

Aren't you glad you came to church today?

One wants to keep celebrating the murder of infants in a womb.

And we're okay with that.

What is it that is keeping you from giving into the lordship of Jesus?

What is the question?

What is that that's still within you that is still not resolved and anchoring your life on the firm foundation of God and in God's word?

For some of you, I don't know how to tell you this, but a lot of people have left this church because we talk about tithing.

God promises that when you tithe, he opens the floodgates of heaven and he promises to pour out his blessing on you and his protection over your house and your life.

Who doesn't want that?

Are you going to get offended because I preach something that God wants to bless you through?

This is a lordship issue.

It's believing God wants the best for your life.

And whether or not you believe it for yourself, the question is, Jesus is asking, who do you say that I am?

You know, today, my wife mentioned that in today's Bible reading, the Bible recap in a year, we're in the book of Acts now, and how many are grateful that we're out of the Old Testament?

The Old Testament is important because it all is pointing to Jesus.

But I think what's crazy about, especially in America, is we've kind of castrated our faith to some degree.

We've made it very soft and polite and kind.

I gotta tell you something.

You go out there and you get me off the stage.

I can promise you I will love you.

I will hug you even though I'm not a hugger.

I will hug you.

I'll grab coffee with you.

I'll listen to you.

I'll talk to you.

I will befriend you.

Can I get a witness to anyone who knows me?

Well, two people.

Some of you aren't sure.

Apparently, I don't.

But do you know what is interesting to me?

In the Bible recap, it says, and we've been talking about this, that Jesus came to confront wickedness.

He came to confront it and to drive it out.

And yet,

We've been indoctrinated really by a demonic force that wants Christians to be silent and to just be appeasing of sin and demonic activity and saying, you know what, we're gonna build bridges.

All the while allowing people to still stay in their bondage of sin.

Because we're affirming things that lead them to death and destruction.

And you don't have to take my word for it.

You just have to read the Bible.

You have the opportunity to read your own.

How many of y'all know that you have, you people, how many of y'all speak English?

You people who speak English have more translations of the Bible than any other language on planet earth.

You don't have to just trust what I say about it.

You dig into it.

You read it.

It's accessible to you.

Who do you say that I am?

Is Jesus the Savior?

Amen.

But he's also Lord.

And he is not going to bow the knee to you or me.

We have to bow the knee to him.

And when we do, the scriptures say it actually leads to freedom.

Freedom.

It actually leads to abundant life.

Matthew 16, 13 through 15, when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say the Son of Man is?

And they replied, they had all these different thoughts.

Some say you're John the Baptist.

Others say Elijah.

In other words, you're just a prophet.

And still others, Jeremiah.

Again, or just one of the prophets, but what about you?

He asked, who do you say that I am?

And here's the question you have to personally answer, is are you going to rely on what others say that he is, or who he is, or are you gonna make the decision for yourself?

Who do you say that he is?

And if you're taking notes today, this note is, in my opinion, the greatest note you can ever take is number one, you can't just borrow faith, you have to own your own.

Who do you say that he is?

And how do you know?

What's the source?

Because everyone has an opinion about Jesus. but you have to make a personal profession of faith.

Who do you say that he is?

Another question you could ask is, is your faith dependent on someone else?

In other words, is your faith dependent on that TikTok reel or that Facebook reel or Instagram story to tell you who Jesus is or do you actually know who he is? when the storms of life get rocky, and they get rocky, right?

Do you know that Jesus said he will never leave you, nor forsake you, that you have access to him, that the Holy Spirit lives in you, and how many of y'all know that we're better together than we are apart?

That we need each other, that we come together as a body of Christ, and we look after each other, and we help each other,

But even you, when you go through the storms of life and the trials and all the things that are happening to you and around you, you have the anchor for your soul living inside of you.

The hope, the eternal hope, the Holy Spirit of God, the seal of your soul. redemption, and your place in eternity, living inside of you.

The same power that raised Jesus from the dead can overcome your fear, can overcome your issue, can overcome your storms.

Who do you say that I am?

If you're being honest, are you just borrowing my faith and

Or maybe you're borrowing Kelsey's faith.

Maybe you're just borrowing one of your life group leader's faith.

Or your wife's faith.

Man, for some people, and I praise God for this to some degree, but it needs to change.

Some of you are borrowing your kid's faith.

Who do you say that I am.

Are you just watching podcasts about the Bible or are you reading your own Bible?

You can't just borrow faith.

You've got to own it.

I love the fact that, again, we have students that are coming to our youth group on Sunday nights who are asking other parents of friends of theirs, to bring them to church because their parents want nothing to do with faith.

They want nothing to do with church.

And I would argue they're also borrowing a faith.

Borrowing a faith of the world.

Borrowing a faith of deception.

Borrowing a demonic faith that wants to keep them away from the one true God in Jesus Christ whom he sent.

You can't just borrow faith.

You've got to own it.

Conservatively speaking, and we're going to dive into this even further in the podcast this week.

We're going to go into why you can trust that Jesus is who he says he is and why you can trust the Bible and believe it and take it as God's word.

But conservatively speaking, Jesus fulfilled 300 prophecies.

Say 300. 300.

Most scholars would point that it was actually upwards of 350, 350 prophecies that Jesus fulfilled through his life.

There was a study, a statistical study done by people way smarter than me, probably most of you.

How many of y'all love stats?

How many of y'all know how to do the studies of stats?

Statistics was my worst enemy in college.

There was a guy named Peter Stoner who did a statistical study.

And the question was, what are the odds that one person could fulfill just eight prophecies?

Now, Jesus fulfilled 300 or to 350.

What's the odds that one person could fulfill just eight of them?

You guys want to know the odds?

Here's the number.

I will give you, whoever it is, the first one to do it, I will give them $100 from my own money if you can actually say that number.

No grokking, no chat GPTing.

$100 quadrillion.

$100 quadrillion?

Okay, I heard one answer.

You can't even name the number.

One man fulfilling just eight prophecies.

And Jesus fulfilled over 300 that were prophesied over one man fulfilling all of these things over thousands of year histories on multiple continents from multiple people

And one man fulfilled over 300.

And that's the odds of one man fulfilling eight.

Guys, I don't know how to tell you this, but he's not just a good teacher and he's not just a prophet and a man of God.

He is God.

Like even when he's hanging on the cross to bear the penalty and debt that you owe God, that I owe God, praying, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

Even while he's on the cross,

Other people who don't know the prophecies are fulfilling the prophecies happening to Jesus, like getting stabbed in the side and having blood and water pour out.

You bet that guy went off to the side and said, hey, remember all the prophecies we heard about?

Let's fulfill this one.

The crown of thorns. all this stuff happening to him, not stuff that he's just doing himself.

It's impossible.

Who do you say that I am?

Here's a couple of Old Testament prophecies.

Deuteronomy 18 says, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites.

You must say that with me.

So you call him Savior, but do you call him Lord?

Isaiah 55, three through four, I will make an everlasting covenant with you.

See, I have made, hold on, my screen is wigging out on me.

See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a ruler and commander of all the peoples.

Does that just sound like a Savior or does it sound like a Lord?

You see, Jesus wasn't just one of the prophets.

He was the prophet that Moses foretold, the final and complete revelation of God.

Hebrews 1, 1 through 2, in the past, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways.

But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed heir of all things.

And through him, also he made the universe.

This is no ordinary man.

This is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

Who doesn't just, can I just bring back the political stratosphere for a second?

Who doesn't just reign over Republicans or Democrats or independents, but he rules over the nation.

And he doesn't just rule over our nation.

He rules over every nation, whether they acknowledge him or not.

But to experience his freedom and his forgiveness and his life and his life everlasting is when we bow the knee to the king.

John 4, 42, we no longer believe just because of what you said.

Now we have heard for ourselves and we know that this man really is the savior of the world.

Who do you say that Jesus is?

Philippians 3, I considered everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

And there it is in Philippians chapter 8.

Is there anything that you are still holding back from the lordship of Jesus?

Anything at all?

You know, you guys like it when I'm honest, right?

Do you know that I have struggles just like you do?

That I have lordship issues just like you do?

That I have temptations just like you do?

Do you know that Jesus was tempted in every way so that he can understand you and you can know that he knows what you and I go through?

I'm standing up here as a pastor, not Jesus, and I'm not perfect, and I don't know the Father as well as the Son knows the Father.

Are you with me?

And I'll never forget this.

I

I like to use my in-laws because they're very wise people.

And they went through some hardships in their lives and went through some hardships in their family.

And I'm not gonna talk a whole lot about it, but it made them reevaluate some things about their lifestyle.

So decades ago, I think, I believe, they stopped drinking.

Now the Bible says, do not get drunk, right?

Have I made that clear today? but read the word for yourself.

So they made a decision to do it, and it wasn't because they didn't like it.

They realized, hey, if we live this life, it actually might affect the life that we're trying to lead for Jesus over here.

You know, the Bible calls it a stumbling block, that you could end up being a stumbling block to your brother or sister.

But can I tell you something?

Here's what's interesting.

Are you ready for this?

Some of you think the stumbling block is just, hey, when you drink, they're just going to get drunk.

That's what you think, right?

Is that what you think when you read that scripture?

No?

You're like, I'm not sure how to answer.

Here's what I think actually happens.

You actually become a stumbling block to your witness for Christ.

Because you become more common to them.

They see you as, oh, you're not pursuing him as serious as you ought to.

And you know what's ironic is my in-laws are sitting right there.

They probably get nervous when I point them out.

You argued with Kelsey and I about whether or not we would have alcohol at our wedding.

And I refused to not do it.

Right?

And you relented. but you were trying to fight for us and for other people who were gonna be at that wedding.

Fast forward, the hardest season that Kelsey and I have ever gone through in our entire life together and in ministry, how do I put this?

The temptations came like a whirlwind.

And we weren't just drinking wine occasionally at home, and we were drinking some other things, and things got really hard.

And how many of y'all know when things get hard, you tend to go to things to rely on to ease the pain that aren't God?

Meanwhile, in the previous five or six years, we had watched pastor after pastor, pastor's wives and families basically be eliminated from ministry because of allowing alcohol to be their God.

Or the temptation of sexuality.

How many of you have heard of a pastor who has sinned sexually and they're no longer in ministry? that happens by not submitting to the lordship of Jesus we had a choice to make in a moment where things were at the roughest will I trust you God to free us from the pain or am I going to go to the bottle and for some of you I want to tell you we were really close to going the wrong direction but I praise God that he gave us the strength to move on

And I share that story not as a, can I tell you something?

Not as a pat on the back to me, but as a, you need to know who your God is.

Because in our own strength, that's not possible.

And some of you know it.

Because you've tried it.

You've thought it.

But you're not alone.

I consider everything, say everything.

I consider everything a loss. because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, not my Savior, my Lord.

Which means there's no area of my life, Jesus, that you can't speak into and change, that you can't give life to instead of death.

So here's what we need to take into consideration.

In your faith walk, are you just echoing culture and the world?

Or are you echoing what actual walking in faith and obedience to the Lord looks like?

And if you're just echoing the culture, it means that you need to start encountering Christ.

How do you do that?

You get in his written word.

The Bible says that the grass withers and the flowers fade, but my word does what?

It stands forever.

His word stands forever.

So we need to make Jesus our revelation and not just our reference.

In other words, we gotta just stop taking Jesus for, hey, I like what he said here, but not over here.

Like, don't we love to just encapsulate our relationship with Jesus with just one verse in the Bible rather than all of them?

We need to be men and women of the word.

Word.

Matthew 16, 16 through 17, this is Simon Peter's response to who do you say that I am?

And Simon Peter answered, you are the Messiah.

You're the Christ.

You're the Savior.

You're the son of the living God.

Jesus replied, blessed are you, Simon, son of Jodah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. if you stand firm and boldly on Jesus as your Savior and Lord, this did not come from mankind.

This was revealed to you from your Father in heaven.

He drew you.

Some of you, you're like, man, I don't like this preacher over here, and I don't like that preacher, and man, I don't know, I follow this podcast and this TikTok and all these people, and I like this book, but I don't like that book.

Are you getting a revelation from God himself?

Through the written word of God.

Are you in your Bible for yourself?

Do you all know that we make a big deal of the Bible around here?

It's because it's his word.

The second thing, if you're taking notes today, if you're going to know Jesus... and know who he really is, Savior and Lord.

Number two, you need to see him clearly.

And when you do, you will find yourself truly.

When you see him clearly, you actually know your own identity.

You see, Peter's revelation of Jesus unlocked his identity.

He didn't know he was.

He was a fisherman at some times.

And how many of y'all, you know, you read the gospels and Peter's like this wild horse.

Unbridled.

How many of y'all think your pastor's a little like Peter?

Never know what you're gonna get, right?

Box of chocolates, Forrest Gump in the house.

Peter wrestled, who am I?

Can I tell you something?

Why we're having confrontation with the world and culture about sexuality and transgenderism and all that kind of stuff is because people don't know who they are because they don't know who their God is.

This is not a political conversation.

It's a response to the question, who do you say that I am?

Christmas is coming, hallelujah.

Who's got decorations up?

You are the most godly people

How many of you don't have them up because you're still doing yard work?

Amen.

Isaiah 9, 6 or 7, for to us a child is born, to us a son is given.

This is a prophecy of Jesus.

Thousands of years before his birth, for to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.

What government?

What government?

All of them.

How many of you all believe that all governments on planet earth are on his shoulders?

Well, they are, but they're not submitted.

Why?

Lordship.

I'm trying to educate you guys a little bit, okay?

Okay.

Do you know that there's a thing out there where people are saying, hey, don't be Christian nationalists.

Have you heard this phrase?

How stupid is that?

Can I just say it?

That's stupid.

The government shall be on his shoulders.

I don't care if you live in Libya. or Egypt, or Israel, or China.

The government is, should be on his shoulders.

Who do you say that I am?

But the Bible isn't a political book, is it, Pastor?

Some of you are murmuring at me.

I wanna know what you're thinking.

I do, I actually wanna know what you're thinking.

Some of you don't know what to do with this.

And we will call, the government will be on his shoulders and he will be called wonderful counselor.

How many want that from Jesus?

You want him to be your source.

You want him to be your light.

You want him to be your guide.

You want him to be your every next step.

You want him to be mighty God over your circumstances, amen. over your sickness, over the turmoil, over the strife, over your relationships, over your family, over your kids, over your marriage.

You want him to be almighty God.

Something that even our government can't do.

Marxism and socialism.

Sorry, I just had to weave that in there.

Everlasting Father and prince of peace.

Of the greatest of his government and peace, there will be no end.

He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom.

Psalm 2 through 7, you are my son.

Today I have become your father.

This is prophecy again over Jesus that was declared in his baptism in

You see, Peter's confession revealed that Jesus was not merely God's messenger.

He was God's son, the promised king and redeemer.

John 1, 42, Jesus looked at him and said, you are Simon, son of John.

You will be called Kepha, which is translated Peter.

And he said, what?

On this rock, I will build my church.

You see, you can't just, watch this.

You can't just absorb other people's faith, you need to own your own.

And you will discover your purpose and you will discover your identity when you are on, when you're in Christ Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5.17, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come.

The old has gone and the new is here.

How many of you are still living the same life that you lived after you gave your life to Jesus?

How many of you are still struggling with the same sins over and over again?

And by the way, some of those things, it's going to take time to get that out of your life.

Amen?

But the point is, you're turning to Jesus as Lord and saying, I repent, I turn, I'm walking away from, I no longer want to live that way, and I want to pursue your ways and your freedom.

Amen?

In other words, you don't just say, hey, this is who I am, this is who I'm always gonna be, accept me.

But isn't that what the world wants you to believe?

You see, when you know who he is, you'll be reminded who you are.

No title, no trauma, no failure defines you, only Jesus does. my wife reminded me this way, that God has this unbelievable way of speaking truth and life into us.

And he walks us through things in a way that leads us out of it.

And then when we get out of it, it actually becomes something that he uses for his purposes.

Like how many of y'all have been through something?

Something that was completely miserable and

And then all of a sudden you got through it and God used it for you to help someone else.

Like your misery, is the phrase, becomes your ministry.

How many of y'all saw the podcast last week?

Okay, do y'all know we have a podcast?

I encourage you to watch it.

We go a lot further into the messages, a lot deeper, a lot further into the Bible and things.

I encourage you to watch it.

You can find it on any podcast called Table Talk with Pastor Dan and Kelsey.

Here's what I said in the last week's podcast.

When we were engaged, I'm keep pointing at Kelsey.

She's over there.

When we got engaged, I got unbelievably sick, dizzy.

My whole life was turned upside down.

I became anxious.

I became even suicidal because I had no answers.

We didn't know what was figured out.

And how many of you, I'm going to make this short because I'm out of time already.

Okay.

How many of y'all know what a vestibular system is?

Those of you who are in nursing or doctors, whatever.

Did you know that your vestibular system is in both ears, right?

Am I correct?

And it's basically a signal in your ear, inner ear, that sends a signal to your brain to let your body know where you're at in space.

So why you're not falling over right now when you stand up is not just because of your big toe, which is important, but it's because of your vestibular system.

I had a virus attack my vestibular system on the left side and I lost 80% of the vestibular system function in my left ear.

So my brain was getting a 20% signal on one side and a 100% signal on the other.

How many of y'all know your brain is like, this is what my world was like for months.

I didn't know what a vestibular system was prior to this.

I couldn't spell vestibular.

And yet, in that time period, God drew me closer to him through pain, through suffering.

I was praying prayers like I'm preaching to myself.

Why?

Because I know my identity.

Why?

Because I know who God is.

That he says that when I'm in Christ, I'm no longer myself, but he lives in me.

I know that he will never leave me nor forsake me.

I'm preaching this to myself.

I know that he says, he declares over me and everyone who believes in him, that I am a co-heir and conqueror in Christ Jesus.

How many of y'all know that you're a co-heir of the things of the kingdom?

How many of y'all know that you are a co-conqueror with Christ Jesus?

What does that mean?

Christ defeated sin and death and was raised to life.

So that same sin that holds you entangled, that same stuff that keeps holding you back and holding you down, sickness, disease, disease, you are a co-heir and conqueror with Christ that death won't even hold you because of the power of Jesus.

And I was repeating this to myself.

And even though I know nothing about vestibular system, God allowed me to walk through this.

And here's what's crazy.

After that, Kelsey will tell you, I started, it was the weirdest thing.

I started hearing vestibular from like everyone walking the planet.

Or they would start, I would start getting emails from people or messages from people saying, hey, I'm dizzy.

The doctor can't figure out what to do.

How many of y'all know that there's a thing called, it's like a, what was that little thing where they like twist your head and like dunk you backwards and pick you back up?

And I don't know.

Epperle maneuver.

So if you have dizziness, come talk to me.

Why?

Because God takes you through trials and struggles for a purpose.

Your misery can become your ministry.

And you may be walking through some of the worst things in your entire life, but can I tell you, you are a co-heir and conqueror with Christ Jesus.

The sin no longer has its hold on you.

Death no longer has its hold on you.

Do you believe this?

Who do you say that I am?

Because Jesus is not just a good teacher.

He is not just a good man.

He is the Son of God, the Savior, and He is the Lord.

I think about a woman in our church that went through a really painful divorce and she started a life group to help divorced women to find their identity in Christ, to work through the pain of their past.

And even in the process of helping other women, her own pain began to be healed.

I think about youth leaders who have struggled with alcohol issues and even past sexual sin.

And they've repented from it.

And now they're helping teens to stay away from it.

You see, the enemy wants to tell you, you're just a hypocrite.

But God wants to tell you that you are a new creation in Christ Jesus.

The old is gone and the new has come.

Matthew 16, 8 through 20, Jesus says, I tell you, because of the answer of who do you say that I am, that you are Peter and on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

Fun fact, some of you think that when it says the gates of hell won't prevail against it, you think of an onslaught, like you're getting attacked.

A gate is a defensive posture, right?

Are you following what I'm saying?

A gate is trying to prevent something from coming in.

Hey, Christian, you can't have a silent faith.

You can't have a soft faith.

You can't have a pretend faith.

Why?

Because it's faith in action.

It is an offensive weapon.

It's coming against darkness to bring it into everlasting light.

The gates of hell will not stop the gospel of Jesus Christ from entering into every darkness, every corner, until it's submitted and calling him Lord.

He says, I'll give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Savior, the Messiah.

Why?

Because they had to find out for themselves.

Who do you say that I am?

And when you know the answer,

You'll begin to speak boldly.

And when you speak boldly, you will begin to build eternally.

Why?

Because Jesus builds his church through professed faith.

Who do you say that I am?

See, Isaiah 28 through 16, he says, again, another prophecy.

See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone.

This is Jesus for a sure foundation, and the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic.

Daniel 2.44, in the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed.

This is God's kingdom.

It will crush all those other kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.

Jesus' kingdom is not passive.

It's on the move.

See, Jesus is that cornerstone and he is the builder of his kingdom that will never fall and people are gonna be shaped by revelation and not just religion.

So we gotta find out who he is by what he says he is.

Romans 10, nine says, if you declare with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

How many of you thought, I'm just gonna call on Jesus as Savior, but the scriptures say, Romans 10, that you gotta call on him as Lord.

And then you'll be saved.

For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

I don't know about you, but the darkness and demons seem to be very loud.

They seem to be speaking quite boldly.

Why?

Because Christians have been told they need to be silent and just kind.

1 Peter 2, 5, you also, the church.

This is Peter, the same man who Jesus prophesied over and said, on you, Peter, the rock, I will build my church.

This is Peter in 1 Peter 2, 5.

You also, speaking to every believer, are like living stones being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

You see, Jesus called Peter Kepha, which means rock.

And on this rock, Jesus is going to build his church.

Without Peter's revelation and confession of who Jesus is, he would not know his own identity.

You see, because the identity that Jesus gave him, the rock, then Peter begins to take that same language and he begins to apply it to every single believer.

Who do you say that he is?

And then once you declare that Jesus is Savior and Lord, you're gonna let that confession become construction for building the kingdom of God.

Realizing that your own story with Jesus is gonna lead to someone else getting free.

Listen to me, faith that stays silent will never change the world.

Jesus isn't asking for opinions.

He's asking for ownership.

He's asking you to own your faith and to build your life on it.

He is the prophet who reveals, he's the Messiah who redeems, and he's the Lord who reigns.

Who do you say he is?

And does your life proclaim the same?

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we pray. that you would reveal yourself to us.

And God, we thank you right now that you have told us exactly who you are through your living, breathing word.

So God, I pray right now that every heart, mind, soul, spirit would not hold anything back, but give everything to you, Jesus, to your lordship.

Lord, you have every corner of our life, every part of it,

Every part of who we are, God, you have it.

In this moment, if you've never given your life to Christ, I'm gonna give you the opportunity to do that right now.

So if you're wanting to make Jesus the Lord of your life or to rededicate your life to him, to give him everything, not just to call him savior, but to call him Lord, on a count of three, I want you to shoot your hand all the way up in the air.

Because Romans 10, 9 says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

And raising your hand is marking this moment of calling on Jesus to be your Savior and Lord.

One, I'm giving my life to Jesus.

Two, I'm rededicating my life to Jesus.

Three, shoot your hand up in the air as a declaration of faith.

And let's pray this prayer together.

Everyone in the room out loud, say, Lord Jesus.

Lord Jesus.

Forgive me of my sin.

I repent from it.

And by your grace, I receive your power to walk in your righteousness.

Jesus, I make you the Lord of my life.

I give you everything that I am.

I hold nothing back.

Fill me with your Holy Spirit.

Come inside of me and change me.

In Jesus' name.

And everybody said, amen.

Come on, give it up for every person who prayed that prayer.

Full Sermon Transcript

As we continue in our series, in the book of Matthew, it kind of works out that we had snow on the ground today.

How many of y'all were excited for snow?

Some of you are like, oh my gosh, I don't know.

My kids were crazy this morning, so excited.

I had this thought as I was coming out of my house, I saw the beauty of it, and then I saw that all the roads were still

Clean.

Wouldn't it be amazing to live in winter and have the beauty of the snow and then just have the roads just drivable?

Do you have the podium coming?

Anyone?

Oh, yeah.

What's up, amigo?

Thank you.

Look at those big muscles.

You know, when it comes to the winter...

We have a unique vantage point at our house.

We live really close to family.

By design, it was my mother-in-law trying to keep tabs on her kids.

And so we all live in literally at least one street from each other, most of us, and then the other in-laws are about three miles away.

But we call it the family compound because my mother-in-law and father-in-law live next to my sister-in-law and brother-in-law.

They live next door, and then we live one street over.

And so if you're sitting in our living room looking out the back window, we have the perfect perch to keep tabs on our family because we can see everything that they do.

They're coming and they're going.

But can I tell you something?

Sometimes that is not really beneficial, especially at a time when winter happens.

And how many of you have ever lost power during the middle of winter?

A couple years ago, we even had a situation in Michigan where I believe it was a natural gas facility had an explosion. if I'm remembering correctly, and so they literally issued a command to everyone in Michigan, you can't use your gas.

While simultaneously it was like negative 50 degrees out wind chill.

You ever do the trick where you boil the water and then you throw it up in the air and then it just becomes solid?

Like that was happening all at once.

And so guess what happened?

The power went out.

The lights went out.

So now we have no power, no electricity, and we have no gas to provide heat for our home.

And we had little ones.

We still have little ones, but we had little ones.

And I remembered very vividly trying to make a decision because the government told us we couldn't turn on the gas, but I'm like, my babies are not going to freeze to death in this house.

I'm turning on our fireplace with a little bit of gas.

Don't judge me.

But here's also what I learned.

I looked out the back window and my father and mother-in-law's house is just this beacon of light in the darkness.

Well, the whole neighborhood is dark.

Their house is just like this stream of glowing wonder and amazement.

And it's because they had this thing called a generator.

And every time this happens, I say to Kelsey,

Maybe we should get a generator.

And every time I look at how much a generator costs, I go, well, maybe next year.

And then every time the power goes out, I think, yeah, should have made that decision, pulled that pick.

Anyways, today we're going to talk about the true light. the true light, which is Christ our King.

And in Matthew chapter four, verse 12, verse 16, you're gonna think we're going backwards, but I promise you we are going forwards because we just finished the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter seven.

But in Matthew chapter four, 12 through 16, it says when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, John, of course, is John the Baptist, it says that Jesus withdrew to Galilee

Leaving Nazareth, which was where he was born, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali, to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah.

The people living in darkness have seen a great light.

On those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.

You see this area in the area of Capernaum was known for being a very dark place.

Pagan worship, not worship of the one true God.

They had all sorts of craziness happening, unbelievable amounts of immorality and just crazy living.

It was known as a dark place and not just dark physically, but dark spiritually.

Like you could feel it, you could sense it, you would know it if you were in that region.

And Isaiah declared that the people living in this darkness, they would see a great light.

On those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned, and his name was Jesus, who withdrew from Galilee to go into the place that was known as being the darkest.

And if you're taking notes today, you need to understand something.

Number one is that the light is Jesus that breaks the darkness.

You see, Jesus is in Galilee and it's known for its spiritual compromise.

It's known for its Gentile influence.

What is Gentile?

Gentile means pagan.

It means they're not followers of the one true God.

It means they're doing their own thing.

It was a place that was not centered on faith and worship like Jerusalem, right?

Jerusalem was the place that people came to worship God and to be together all as one and there was a unity there and there was a kindness there and there was a loving nature that was around them, but there was a place that was dark and it was forgotten.

And that's exactly where the light of Jesus began to dawn.

See, Jesus didn't hide from the dark places.

He didn't hide from the uncomfortable.

He went there to bring his hope and his light to where it was darkest.

Isaiah 9.2 says the people walking in darkness have seen a great light.

John 1.4-5 says in him, this is Jesus, was life and that life was the light of all.

Say all.

All mankind.

The light that shines in the darkness and the darkness, watch this, has not overcome it.

Some of you need to hear that and get that deep down into your soul today that no matter what darkness you see or feel, experience, or even portray out of your own life, the darkness will not overcome the light of Christ.

Psalm 27 one says, the Lord is my light and my salvation.

Whom shall I fear?

You see, the light of Christ doesn't avoid the darkness.

It enters it with purpose.

You know, I've been thinking about how many of y'all watch the podcast?

How many of y'all know we have a podcast?

Now you do.

You know, last week we did a podcast and

We were talking about following the one true God and Jesus Christ whom we've sent versus a false religion, a false God.

And how many of you all know that we had some not friendly comments?

Are you afraid of the not friendly comments, church?

Because that's what it means to step into darkness with the light of Christ.

That you're not always going to be loved and appreciated for bringing his light into it.

But he enters into it.

This is Jesus, his gospel.

The light of Christ doesn't avoid darkness.

You see, God's light isn't intimidated by what's broken or evil.

In fact, the light of Christ exposes evil.

And he heals it.

And he shows his light to lead us out of it.

I want to show you this video behind me, if they have it.

You see, think about the dawn breaking after a long, dark night.

You see, the sun doesn't fight the night.

It simply rises.

And darkness retreats.

When the light enters into the picture, the darkness flees.

In the same way, Jesus doesn't argue with darkness.

His presence alone makes it flee.

And so you've got to understand something.

The first thing is that Jesus, the true light, breaks the darkness.

And the second thing you need to understand today, if you're taking notes, is the light, Jesus, is also the light that transforms us.

When he enters the picture... he begins to do a work.

He shines the light on the areas of our lives that don't please him and are literally offensive to him.

And he begins to change us and transform us.

He leads us out of darkness into his marvelous light.

In Matthew chapter seven, verse one through two, it says, after six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, the three amigos. the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.

How many of y'all would like to be on a mountaintop with Jesus?

Like just three of you.

What if you were the other nine that were left behind?

Jesus led him up on a high mountain by themselves.

There he was transfigured before him.

And it says that his face shone like the sun.

Have you ever just asked the question, maybe in the history of mankind, why is the sun called the sun?

And it's the light that gives light to all of mankind.

No, nobody else has asked that question.

How about another thing?

My wife figured this out this week.

This is free of charge.

Did you know that the moon has no light at all?

The moon is just a reflection of the sun.

Do you know what a Christian is?

We are a reflection of the one true light, the son of God.

You see, the light that we share isn't from us, it's from him.

And it goes through us to someone else.

So when the bright moon lights up the darkness, it's not actually the power of the moon lighting the darkness, it's the power of the sun.

And it's the same power, the power of Jesus, that wants to bring his light into the world through his people.

His face shone like the sun and his clothes became as white as the light.

You see, the transfiguration reveals Christ's divine nature breaking through his humanity.

And for a moment, the disciples saw Jesus as truly who he really is, radiant, eternal, and glorious.

They didn't just see a man, they saw God.

And you need to understand something.

This light that Jesus showed to them, it wasn't a borrowed light, it was his own.

2 Corinthians 3.18 says that we all who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory.

Let me ask you this question.

If you've been around Jesus and you follow him and know him and you're around God's people, you're in his house, you're in his word,

Is your life being transformed into more of his image, into an increasing glory, or have you stayed the same?

Because if you've stayed the same, you've believed a false gospel, and you haven't even begun to believe in the one true gospel.

Because the light of Christ does not leave us

Who we were or who we are.

It transformed us.

It transforms us into who he is.

John 8 through 12 says, I am the light of the world.

This is Jesus.

I am the light of the world and whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.

Ephesians 5.8, for you were once darkness but now darkness.

Read that again carefully.

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

Live as children of the light.

How many of you can look back on your life and go, yes, I once was darkness.

But now you are light in the Lord.

And his encouragement is live as children of the light.

Imagine if the moon didn't do his job.

We started watching a movie yesterday with our kids and they were talking about the man and the moon.

Imagine if the moon didn't do its job reflecting the light of the sun.

You see, you and I, we need to understand something as Christ's light, as Christ's church.

The closer we are to the light, the more we will reflect it.

You see, transformation from God does not happen just by self effort, but by exposure to Christ's glory.

And that doesn't happen on accident.

It happens in every moment of every day.

As you stay connected and close to the light, it will transform your life.

You see, we don't become light just by trying harder.

Now, I would argue that some of you, you might need to just try a little harder.

And what I mean by that is some of you just need to move a little closer.

You see, I'll remember a story when the disciples were being sent out by Jesus and they were trying to cast out demons and they weren't able to do some of that around some of the people and they were frustrated.

They're like, wait a second.

So we saw this happening.

And then this particular situation, it didn't work.

And Jesus said to them, what?

This kind only comes out with prayer and fasting.

In other words, it takes something beyond yourself.

But here's what Jesus was saying. you've gotten a little too close to the world and a little bit too far away from me.

Because what is prayer and fasting?

Prayer is drawing closer to God.

What is fasting?

Moving further away from the world.

And Jesus said, you are a wicked and perverse generation.

Do you know how you become a wicked and perverse generation?

You move closer to the world and embrace the world and you embrace sin and you embrace self-indulgence and you embrace selfishness and you move further away from God and closer to the world.

And that's what happens.

So to be transformed, how does it happen?

You step closer to Christ and you stay there.

You see, the closer we are to the light, the more we will reflect it.

You see, coal that's pulled from a fire will slowly lose its glow and it will grow cold.

But when it's close to the flame or in the center of the fire, what does it do?

It burns brighter and hotter when it's in the midst of the entire fire.

It's consumed.

This is what the Christian life looks like.

You see, the first thing you need to understand today is that the light, the light of Christ Jesus breaks through the darkness and then that light begins to transform us.

And then the next thing you need to understand is that light just doesn't transform us so that we can just live all happy.

It actually transforms us so that he can send us into the world.

It's what we just prayed about.

And it's what Jesus wants for every single one of you who is a believer in Christ is that the light would send you.

Matthew 5, 14 through 16 says, you are the light of the world.

You, church, are a town that is built on a hill that cannot be hidden.

Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.

Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Can I do something for just a second?

This was unanticipated and it's gonna mess up the live stream and it's probably gonna freak some of you out, but can I make everything in the room go completely dark?

We can't turn off the TV screen, darn it.

This screen's still on, that screen's still on.

You can still see.

You can still see.

You ever do this when you're in the dark at home?

What does this do for you?

Lights the way.

The Psalms say that the word of God is what?

A lamp to our feet and a light for our path.

A lamp to our feet, which means you have light enough to take one step. and then another step.

The word of God, and then another step, and then another step.

Do you know how someone like May and Josh are able to say yes to Jesus on the call of their life to go plant a church?

It's because they took a step of faith.

May took a step of faith to use the spiritual gift put inside of her to lead worship.

Josh did the same thing at an early age at a different location on planet Earth, following Jesus.

The word of God, a lamp to their feet.

And then they just kept saying yes to Jesus with their every step.

The word of God is a lamp to your feet, but it's also a light for your path.

Which means the light, which I don't know if I can do this because I'm not very good with the iPhone whole thing.

But I think there's like, you can do this, which is like dim.

And then you can, whoop.

Did you know you could do that?

Yeah.

I learned that this week.

Guys, I'm a little bit slow.

You can bring the lights back on.

If you were to ask a question of your own life, take inventory of your own life, have you let the light of Christ, the word of God, expose those things which are unright in you?

You see the word of God, the light to our path also exposes that which is corrupt inside of us.

So when we see what the Bible calls sin, we know that that is, it's not good for us and it's not good for the people around us.

And it actually separates, the Bible said it separates us from our relationship with God.

And so as we chase those things, the Holy Spirit of God becomes quiet. and you start to feel the sense of despair, right?

The people were living in darkness and they felt despair, they felt brokenness.

Can I tell you something?

That wasn't because of God, that was because of you.

You made the decision to follow a false light, a false hope, a false decision, a selfish desire that led you into that darkness.

But Jesus is the light that can lead you out.

And watch this.

He's the light that will keep you out.

You know, one thing that's fascinating, when you begin to have a global perspective of the light of Christ, and you begin to experience God, not just for what's happening here in America, because how many of y'all know our God is bigger than the United States of America?

He exists in other places.

Y'all know that?

He's the same yesterday, today, and forevermore.

And I'll never forget this.

Kelsey and I, we started dating after being on a mission trip together in Uganda.

And fun fact, I strategically booked my plane seat to sit right next to her on our flights.

I actually changed the seats because I was a pastor and I had special privileges, right?

Not creepy at all, right girls?

It worked.

But I'll never forget this.

I had been on missions trips before, but there was something about this one that completely changed my perspective and life.

And we went to the middle of Uganda, the middle of nowhere, where literally there is no electricity whatsoever.

So you're living in little huts that are made by sticks and all the creepy crawler things that you can imagine are there and there's no showers, there's no running water, there's nothing that you and I have that we think we need, right?

Can I tell you what I saw there?

The most joy-filled people I've ever met in my entire life.

Why?

Because they had that which is the light, and nothing else that lights up their life is like Jesus.

You see, what's interesting about Americans is we think we need all the bells and whistles to be happy, and yet we are the most anxious, most depressed people on planet Earth.

And why is that?

It's because you're putting your hope in all the wrong things.

And you're not letting the light, the true light of Christ, light up your life.

And so is the light exposing some things about who you are?

What you're putting your trust in?

What you're putting your faith in?

Is it exposing some things?

Is it transforming you more into his likeness?

And then as he changes you into his likeness, you get closer to God.

You start to burn hot and burn bright.

Then you see that your life isn't just meant to experience the light for yourself, but to share it with others.

Friends, you are the moon.

You're to be a reflection of the true light of Christ.

And can I tell you something?

I'm very proud of this.

Matter of fact, some of you in the room today, I want to give you an encouragement.

This is not an arm twist.

This is not, I don't want you to feel pressured, but I want you to step into maybe what May and Josh did, saying yes to Jesus.

You see, one of the ways that God transforms us is he begins to train us to realize that it's not all about us.

And so some of you come to church today

And you hear a message and you see people and you hug them and hopefully you're embraced by God and you've experienced by God.

But God never intended the light just to come to you.

He wanted it to go through you to someone else.

And can I tell you something?

Every single one of us are in this room today because of what Jesus Christ did with the 12 disciples that day in Galilee when he broke through the darkness and brought his light.

None of us would be here today in this room without that moment.

They were transformed by the light and then they became the light to someone else.

After this service, in the next service, we have what's called discovery step two.

It's where you begin to learn about the light of Christ that's been put inside of you, discovering the spiritual gifts that he has put inside of you to reflect his light.

And I've said it this way before, like some of you, you're in the room,

Taking up a seat, can I tell you, God wants you to be his light.

I shared the story yesterday that even when you're in the room, you can begin to see people in the room who need the light of Christ in specific moments.

You begin to look past yourself and not just what I can get from this, but what can I give to someone else? if you've never been through discovery and if you've never discovered your spiritual gifts, the things that God has divinely put inside of you to be his light to mankind, I wanna invite you to go directly into that room after service today, during the 1030 service and go through the spiritual gifts assessment to find out how God has uniquely wired you to be his light in our world.

Some of you are wondering like,

Will I get to lunch on time?

We promise you'll get to lunch on time.

Here's what else you can understand.

Our kids ministry will keep your kids.

They're well taken care of.

I promise you that.

We want to make it as easy as possible for you to experience the light, be transformed by the light and to be sent by the light.

Why?

Because the local church mobilized the light of the world.

The moon reflecting his goodness is the hope of the world.

See, the light of Christ in us is not just for decoration, but it's for direction.

Guiding others to him.

You see, we are not the point.

He is the point.

And we don't shine, church, watch this.

We don't shine to be seen.

We shine so that others can see him.

The light of Christ breaks through our darkest seasons.

It transforms our heart with his glory and it sends us to reflect that light into a world that desperately needs his hope.

You see, you don't have to chase light when you walk with the one who is light.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we pray right now that you would speak and that we would listen.

God, that we would align our hearts to your true light.

God, I pray that your light, the light of the word, the word of God would expose things in our lives that we need to repent from and turn to you to be transformed, to be changed.

And then Lord, I pray that we would begin to hear your voice as you call us into your marvelous light, as you transform us, God, that you would also send us to be your light, in our homes, in our workplaces, in our church, in our city, and around the world.

God, the hope of the world is because you have filled us with your light.

God, I pray that we would shine brightly in this room today with every eye closed and every head bowed.

In a moment, I'm going to count to three to give you the opportunity to give your life to Jesus today.

And if you want to step into the light of Christ to light up your darkness and to find the hope of eternity, you want to give your life to Jesus today, or maybe you want to come back to him.

He's waiting with open arms.

If that's you in the room today, on a count of three, I want you to shoot your hand up in the air.

One, I'm giving my life to Jesus.

Two, I'm rededicating my life to Jesus.

Three, shoot your hand up and let's pray this prayer together.

Say, Lord Jesus.

Matter of fact, everyone in the room, we could say it together.

Say, Lord Jesus, forgive me of my sins.

Take my sin.

And by your grace, I receive your righteousness.

Jesus, I make you the Lord of my life.

I give you all that I am.

I hold nothing back.

Fill me with your Holy Spirit that I could be your light.

In Jesus' name.

And everybody said, amen.

Come on, give it up for every person who prayed that prayer today.

Full Sermon Transcript

Where are my Hoosiers at?

You got two of them, three of them.

I think there was more Hoosiers in the service last Sunday, this service.

Where are my Broncos at?

Come on, somebody.

Buckeyes?

Wolverines?

Texas Longhorns?

Guys, I try to celebrate as many as I can.

Can I just say something real quick?

Look at the young adults, just like the young people of our church.

Man, it's such a beautiful thing when so many people are hungry for God and hungry for His Word.

And I want to start this by a little bit different today.

Okay.

Cause our staff is a little freaked out.

I've, I've, I've had some medics medication changes this week that have really taken me out all week long.

I've basically been in bed for most of the week.

I haven't eaten a lot.

Um, and, uh, so I'm going to try and get through this.

Uh, but I do want to say, Hey, second service in case I'm not actually standing here and you're watching the screen.

I do love you.

And, uh,

How many of y'all know, thank you, that God's strength is shown perfect in our weakness?

And I normally come here. with a fire how many y'all know that like my wife comes up here and she's all smiley and friendly and nice and i'm the football coach that just wants to scream at you come on we can do better but how many of you know that that anyone who steps on the stage we are not the point

So if you ever come or go to a church and the pastor looks like the point, he's not the point.

He should only be pointing you to the point.

And so I decided to preach this weekend instead of just handing my wife the notes and having her lead worship and pray for people and take pictures and do our social media and all the other things that she does to our church, that I decided to be a big boy and just step up and do the best I can.

Is that okay for you today?

Okay.

I'm a little bit weak.

Like I said, I haven't eaten a lot.

Worship was emotional for me.

Because our God is so good.

And he is worthy to be praised.

How many of you have met someone and you get to know them somewhat or maybe you go on a few dates or maybe a lot of dates with them and they seem to kind of have it all together or maybe, man, this guy, this girl, man, they got it going on.

I really like this about them.

But then time goes on and they seem to be a little bit different than they were at the beginning.

I think even when we come to churches, or even when we think about God himself, sometimes we have a picture in our mind of what we think God is, and typically that's because of maybe someone who has led you to believe something about him that's actually not true about him.

Or maybe you expected them to just live in a way that would show you exactly who he is, and yet they fall short.

You have this expectation in your mind, or maybe you've been taught some things in your background, your upbringing, and it might be a part of who God is, but it might be not all of who God is.

Maybe it's not an accurate picture of who he is.

Have you ever known someone that just somewhat disappointed you over time?

Has God ever disappointed you over time?

You're like, I don't know how to answer that question.

It feels like a trick question.

But I think what you're going to see today is I think the reason for why you might feel that way is because you have grown up with an idea of God that actually isn't who God is.

In Matthew chapter 7, again, we're in the book of Matthew.

It's if you have your Bibles, take them out.

We're finishing the Sermon on the Mount today, and in Matthew chapter seven, verses 15 through 20, Jesus says this, he says, watch out for false prophets.

In other words, they might look like the real deal, but they're not.

They might look like someone who's godly, that speaks for God and tells you who God is, but they're not actually the real thing.

They come to you in sheep's clothing, so they look like it,

They might even sound like it to some degree, but inwardly, they are ferocious wolves.

He says, by their fruit, you will recognize them.

In other words, they will be found out.

Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?

Likewise, every good tree, say good tree, bears good fruit.

But a bad tree bears bad fruit.

I love that some of you will want to just continue on with me, just keep on talking.

But a bad tree bears bad fruit.

A good tree cannot bear bad fruit.

Say that.

A good tree cannot bear bad fruit.

That was a great effort.

I did not set you up well for that.

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Thus by their fruit, you will recognize them.

If you're taking, can you give me a Kleenex real quick?

Sorry for all the shenanigans this morning.

You, that was offensive.

I sound like a foghorn when I blow my nose normally.

Guys, if you want a perfect and polished church, you've found the wrong place.

Thank God, she says.

If you're taking notes today, the first thing we need to get down into our souls is false prophets look right, but true prophets actually live right.

You see, Jesus is warning that wolves will come dressed like sheep.

They'll look like the sheep and they talk like believers.

They talk like Christians and they might know some about Christianity and what we believe, but their motives are completely different.

In Matthew 15, 8, Jesus goes on and says something like this.

He says, this people, these people, they honor me with their lips, but their hearts are actually far from me.

The book of Proverbs 16, 28 says this, a perverse person stirs up conflict and a gossip ends up separating close friends.

They stir up division within the church.

They create factions on what they want to believe about God rather than what the word actually says.

Another way you can see them is they begin to make excuses for sin rather than repent from it.

In Titus 1.16, it says they claim to know God, but by their actions, they deny him.

They serve God to maybe be seen, but they don't serve with the heart for just to serve God and to serve people.

And they measure success by compliments and not faithfulness.

In John 12, verse 43, Jesus says they loved human praise more than the praise of God.

In Galatians 1, 6-7, verse 10, he said, I am astonished that you are so quickly, church, deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and turning to a totally different gospel. which is really no gospel at all, evidently some people are throwing you into confusion or trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.

Do you feel a little bit confused in your faith right now?

Can I tell you why that is?

It's because when God does a work in someone and they begin to build up Christ and build up the church through their lives, through his body, through the church,

He's giving people spiritual gifts.

As a matter of fact, so many people that go into discovery are going to discover their spiritual gifts next week.

And they're going to serve God for who God is.

And they're going to build up the church, the body of Christ with the gifts that God has given them.

But can I tell you something?

When God gives people gifts to build up his church, you can bet cash money that the enemy is going to send people to tear it down.

Evidently, some people are throwing you into confusion or trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.

It's why you have churches with rainbow flags.

Let me be clear.

All of us are sinners in need of a Savior.

It doesn't matter whether you just said that white lie or maybe cheated a little bit or

Maybe did something sexually before marriage that you weren't supposed to, even in a heterosexual relationship.

You looked lustfully at a woman or man and you committed adultery in your own heart.

It doesn't matter what it is.

We are all sinners in need of a Savior.

But can I tell you something?

We don't affirm things that Jesus had to die for.

The Apostle Paul says, am I now trying to win the approval of human beings or of God?

I can tell you I'm not the most popular preacher in this town.

And nor do I aim to be.

Because if I were, the Apostle Paul said, if I were still trying to please people, I would not even be a servant of Christ.

You see,

False prophets chase popularity, but true prophets pursue obedience to God and obedience to his word.

The apostle Paul here was rebuking teachers who distorted the gospel to just win the approval of people.

And Jesus says, you're going to know them by their fruit.

True prophets produce righteousness.

They produce a humility and a love that points people to Jesus.

But false prophets produce pride, division, self-promotion.

But I got to tell you something, people that come into this church, matter of fact, I'm looking around the room to see if I see her.

She might not be here today, but I had a woman come up to me last Sunday and she said, you know what?

I just feel like I just don't know enough.

Like, I just feel like everyone's beyond me.

And can I tell you something?

We've all been there.

Because anyone who comes to faith in Jesus, can I tell you something?

We are all beggars in need of bread, and Jesus is the bread of life.

And the only reason you might feel a little bit inferior or a little bit insecure or a little bit like you might not know as much as other people is simply because we got here before you.

It doesn't mean that we're better than you.

You see, because real fruit in Jesus Christ is,

It takes time to know it in a person, but it even takes time to grow it in a person.

Jesus goes on and says in Matthew 7, 21 through 23, he says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven.

Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?

And then Jesus responded to them, then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you.

Away from me, you evildoer.

So even people that begin to perform in Jesus' name, begin to do things in Jesus' name, he's saying he doesn't even know.

That's a sobering thought.

Number two, if you're taking notes today, is false disciples then know his name.

Did I say false disciples?

Yeah.

You see the point already.

And true disciples know his voice.

You see, not everyone who says Lord, Lord truly belongs to Jesus.

Like you know the people who have Christian faith on their Facebook profile.

But their lives don't reflect anything even close to that.

But again, we're all work in progress.

So here's a key to seeing what you need to see is, do they have a heart of humility to say, God, I wanna know you and your ways.

And I want to submit to you and love you.

And I want to repent from sin.

And I don't want to just keep doing it my way.

I want to pursue you.

You see, there's a difference between someone that just says, I am a thief.

I don't know.

I just came up with it.

I try to be real with you, right?

Right?

First time I ever went to Disney World, which, you know, you could argue, just open up your wallets and empty it out, right?

First time I went to Disney World was when I was a freshman in high school.

I went with the band.

I was in my high school band.

And I'll be honest.

I was a little bit of a klepto.

Some of you are judging me, right?

Last week we talked about judgment.

Go back to that message if you didn't see it.

But I would just walk through that.

Now, I'm sure they're way more sophisticated now in their security apparatus because of people like me.

But I would walk along the aisles of all the little knickknacks and I would just grab a keychain.

You're like, there's probably better things than a keychain.

I couldn't even drive yet.

But I would do this.

But can I tell you something?

There's a difference between someone who knows that what they did was wrong and says, Jesus, I need your forgiveness.

I need to repent and change versus someone who just keeps doing it.

Like that's the fruit of being an actual believer.

Can I tell you, I don't walk through Target now just filling my pockets.

Yes.

Are you picking up what I'm putting down?

Not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, truly belongs to Jesus.

False disciples might perform for him, but true disciples simply obey him.

They do the will of the Father and live in relationship and not just a religion, a facade.

You see, you can work for God.

You could try to do it for him and still not be walking with him.

That begs the question, how do you actually know his voice?

I heard this story this week.

I think it was from one of our life groups, and I'll apologize.

I don't know exactly where it came from, but I was on my deathbed when I heard it.

I heard someone say, I don't know if I hear God's voice.

And I love that the life group leader has been far enough in his faith to say back to the person, have you opened the word of God?

Because he has spoken.

He has spoken.

He has described who he is and he has prescribed what he expects.

He expects.

And so some of you, for some of you, you're trying to hear the audible voice of God, and yet you're just ignoring the actual word of God.

Here's the deal.

We need to know what God says about himself.

And we find that in the Holy Scriptures.

I want to show you this picture.

You didn't know this was coming, right?

I don't know.

This is my wife on a date night.

She's got a delicious fish that was like filleted right in front of her, all the bones.

It was pretty sweet.

But imagine with me for a second, I'm on this date with my wife and I'm looking across the table at her and I'm like, babe, you have the most beautiful brown hair and the most gorgeous blue eyes and

Now, gentlemen, when you go on a date, sorry that there's kids in the room, when you're married, when you're married, when you're married and you go on a date, you would like to experience the fullness of that date.

And my Kelsey is telling me to wrap it up.

By the way, I do Q&As on Friday on my Instagram and you have Q&As after the message that you can ask for our podcast.

I encourage you to ask any question you want and we'll be as open as we possibly can.

At least I will.

But imagine if I'm trying to describe Kelsey and trying to, man, I get to know Kelsey and who she is and then I start talking about everything that she's actually not.

Like I gotta know the real her.

Not just the her that I want her to be, not the her that I've heard her to be.

I gotta know who she actually is.

In Luke chapter five, verse 15 through 16, it says, the news about Jesus spread all the more so that the crowds of people came to hear him.

But Jesus, he says, often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

Why?

Because he was always needing to be connected to his Father.

When he came to earth,

Jesus was 100% man and 100% God.

Both at the same time.

And yet he submitted himself to the same temptations.

He submitted himself to the same cultural things that you and I deal with.

And his source was being connected to the Father.

His source was being connected to the Father.

So often he withdrew to lonely places and he prayed.

Why?

Because he needed to know who God actually is and in person have a relationship with him, not just what everybody else says about him.

In Matthew chapter 6, 6, he says, your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

What does that mean?

It means if you want to know who God really is,

You need to be in his word every single day.

Every day.

Maybe you've said, but I can't hear God.

Again, have you read his word?

Because it's his voice.

He's telling you who he is.

You want to know who he actually is, not just what people say about him, but who he actually is.

Why be in the Bible?

Because he wrote it.

Some of you are like, but didn't man write it?

The Bible actually says that yes, men wrote it, but the Holy Spirit guided the pen.

You've got to know the truth of who he is, John 8, 31-38.

Jesus said to the Jews who believed him, Jesus says, if you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.

Jesus.

And then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

How many of you have heard that before?

You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

Do you know what's so crazy to me?

I got a little energy just there.

Did you like it?

At the University of Texas in Austin, one of the most liberal places on planet Earth.

Oh boy, some, he just say that.

One of the biggest universities in the world.

On the main tower of like at the center of campus, it has that verse inscribed on the top of it.

You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

Can I tell you what you don't learn in college?

If you are really my disciples, you will hold to my teaching.

It's not just what you learn in college,

Because college can't just hijack God's word and make it for itself and make it true.

Jesus said, if you hold to my teaching, you will really be my disciples and then you will know the truth.

And can you breathe some fresh air right now?

And the truth will set you free.

Can I tell you what is so interesting today is that we have this this tension between, it's a spiritual warfare is what it is.

But it's like, did God really say that?

Can I tell you who said that originally in the book of Genesis?

The serpent who came to deceive Adam and Eve said, did God really say that?

That he doesn't want you to eat this fruit because then you'll be like him.

Man, he's just trying to be a cosmic fun stock.

But it isn't interesting how like baited we are to just make up whatever we want to believe and whatever truth we want to believe and

You know, relativism has said this thing, like, what's true for you is true for you, and what's true for me is true for me, and don't impinge on it, you know, like, don't get up in my business.

But the actual truth of God, when you hold to his teaching, it does what?

It sets you free.

It's the greatest gift that we could experience, this side of heaven.

They answered him, and they said, but we're Abraham's descendants, and have never been slaves of anyone.

How can you say that we shall be set free?

Jesus replied, very truly, I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.

So how do we have these churches that keep affirming sin?

How do we have these churches that keep on saying, hey, just keep doing what you're doing?

Can I tell you how offensive that is to God?

How offensive that is to Jesus?

That he literally had to come and die to forgive you of that sin and then you just keep doing it?

Like he paid the ultimate penalty to free you from sin.

And then you just treat him so flippantly that you would just keep on living the life that he came to free you from.

Very truly, I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.

Now a slave has no permanent place in a family, but a son belongs to it forever.

So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

I know that you are Abraham's descendants, yet you are looking for a way to kill me because you have no room for my word.

I am telling you what I have seen in the Father's presence.

You are doing what you have heard from your father.

Do you know what his father is?

Their father is Satan.

If you continue to read, it literally says that you're actually following the father who is the devil.

In verse 44, Jesus declared they really just following the devil.

2 Timothy 3, 16 through 18 says, this is why being in God's word is so important is because all scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.

How many of y'all like it when you are taught something?

Like you wanna get better, right?

Like you want to learn.

I would argue that all of you are here because you do.

You want to learn.

You want to change.

You want to grow.

Do you like getting rebuked?

You should learn to.

But seriously, do you like being corrected?

You should learn to.

You should learn to.

Why?

Because it trains us in righteousness.

Can I get a little crass here today?

I watched... My mother-in-law is really nervous.

I watched Steve Sarkeesian, who's the head coach of the Texas Longhorns.

I'm sorry, I'm talking about Texas a lot today.

Hey, we're starting to pull it together, all right?

I almost, you know, said no to the whole season, but we're getting there.

I was watching a... a was the press conference after the game yesterday and and he was talking about how well his team was playing and he was he man man for the first three quarters we were playing awesome but then man we really let some some bad calls kind of really take us out of out of focus and man we made some terrible defensive mistakes and and you may not know this but we were up by like three three plus touchdowns and then they came back and almost had a chance to win the game

And the head coach of Texas, man, he said about his players, man, they fought hard.

They played to the very end, and they did some amazing things.

But in the midst of this press conference, he also says, but I saw some things that on Monday I'm going to rip their about.

I didn't say the word that he said.

Can I tell you when I was watching that, I was like, yes, yes, get them, coach.

Get them.

Why?

Because a coach wants to help you do what? get better.

Jesus wants to help us get better.

Do you know what else was God breathed?

Human life.

God breathed his very breath into every single one of us.

So this book, this, this, the holy scriptures, which is God breathed is the key to humans flourishing.

Isaiah 55, 10 through 11 says, as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth and it will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I desire.

Being in the word every single day

The word of God is powerful and effective, sharper than a two-edged sword.

It will divide bone and marrow.

It will call you to repentance and will change your life.

And it will not come back empty.

So what does this look like?

Because here's what I really want for you as a pastor is I want you to not just be someone who shows up to church and just knows about God or maybe even serves on a team with the gifts that he's given you and know that you might be performing for him.

I want you to know that you actually know him and that he knows you.

How does that happen?

You've heard me talk about three things that are the most important thing in every single person's spiritual walk.

And I've usually teed it up this way.

I call it the first 15.

I think you should give God the first of every single day of your life.

The first.

Why the first?

Because he's the first.

Like you can have God on your list of priorities, but if he's not first, everything else will kind of be sporadic and chaotic and dysfunctional.

So if you wake up every day and I've told you this, I do this myself.

I get in the word every single day.

It's the first thing I do after I get my heavenly bean juice.

I get in the word of God because I wanna hear a word from God first, not me just start talking to him.

I need to hear who he is.

I need to see who I am in light of who he is.

And so I suggest that you do three things.

You get in God's word, you get in prayer, and you get in worship.

I call it the first 15.

Five minutes in word, five minutes in prayer, five minutes in worship.

But I'm going to talk about prayer first for a second.

Jeremiah, have you ever heard the verse Jeremiah 29 11?

For I know the plans I have for you.

Come on, you guys have it, right?

By memory, you've seen it on all the things.

Plans to prosper you, plans to give you hope in the future, all the things that make us warm and fuzzy and we really like that Jesus.

Here's the key to how that's going to happen.

He says, when you call on me and come and pray to me, I will listen to you.

You will seek me and you will find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Man, I can't have a great relationship with Kelsey, my bride, if I never show up.

I can't have a great relationship with my kids if I'm never there.

Matthew 6.10, it says, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

It's drawing closer to his kingdom and asking, God, your will be done in my life, in my home, in my city, on earth as it is in heaven.

James 5.16 says, the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

He wants to hear from you and he wants to talk to you.

Today, I literally woke up at like 2 a.m.

How many of y'all had some?

Is it time change Sunday?

I don't even know anymore.

I just ignore it.

We don't even send out a thing about church because all of our phones do the change.

And I woke up at like 2 o'clock and I got stuff rattling around in my brain.

I said, God, I feel like this is your way of showing me that I'm coming back out of the sickness that I've been dealing with, all of not feeling well, but I'm not you and I need sleep.

So can you help me to go back to sleep?

This is me talking to God.

This is me having a real raw relationship with God, knowing that I am not him and I need him.

Even when I'm, you might think it's silly that you would ask God for helping me sleep, but how many of y'all turn to a prescription to help you sleep before you actually go to God to ask you for that help?

How about worship?

You see, John 4.24, this is Jesus.

He says, God is spirit and his worshipers, say this word out loud with me, must worship in the spirit and in truth.

It's why we make. worship our priority.

We worship God, and God has this crazy way of diminishing.

We have this way of letting the world diminish who he is, but something happens in worship when he starts to get bigger than our problems, and we start to actually believe in him again, and start looking to him again, and worshiping him again, and stop worrying about all the other things.

Psalm 100 verse 4 says, enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.

We do this.

We worship God in private and we do it together in God's house.

2 Corinthians 3, 17 through 18 says, now the Lord in this passage is the Spirit.

And where the Spirit of the Lord is present, there is freedom.

There's that word again.

And all of us then reflect the glory of the Lord with uncovered faces.

And that the same glory coming from the Lord who is the Spirit transforms us into his likeness to an even greater degree of glory.

So how is your personal relationship with Jesus?

Not just on Sunday, but every day.

The first 15.

For some of you, it could be the first 30.

It could be the first 50.

Can I tell you some days for me, it's the first seven.

For other days, it's the first 25.

Other days, it's the first hour.

But the point is I show up to hear from him every single day.

And can I tell you something?

I know his voice because I do.

This is how you will know God.

And this is how God will know you.

You see, because knowing Jesus and being known by him isn't measured by what you do in public, but by who you are in private.

Matthew 7, 21 through 23, Jesus says, Not everyone who calls me Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do what my Father in heaven wants them to do.

When the judgment day comes, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, in your name we spoke God's message, but by your name we drove out many demons and performed many miracles.

Then I will say to them, I never knew you. how are you gonna make sure he knows you?

You show up to spend time with him every day.

Number three, if you're taking notes, real faith produces real fruit.

You see, at the end of the day, fruit reveals the root of our lives.

See, true disciples bear fruit that reflects Jesus' love, his purity and his faithfulness and surrender to the Father.

You see, you can fake religion, but you can't fake fruit of God's kingdom.

What is the fruit?

On our wall, when you walk in, you'll see it very clearly.

It's honestly that first section, we exist to help people to know God.

It means we want you to know God and be known by him.

Because we want you to know that without that, without you knowing him and him knowing you, you will not enter his kingdom.

You can't just perform for him, you actually have to be known by him.

You gotta know him personally and be known by him personally.

The second one we talked about today is define freedom.

It means when you come into relationship with Jesus, you start to have this humility about you, like Jesus, I see your word and I see what you expect and I know that that is not exactly aligning with who I am and what I'm doing with my life.

I'm not just gonna keep showing up to Target and Disneyland and filling my pockets.

Jesus changed me.

It's finding freedom.

Because when you begin to obey his word, you find freedom from the sin that has you in prison.

And then you begin to discover your purpose.

You see, every single one of us was made by God for God.

And you see, it's not just trying to do things for God without knowing God and finding freedom in God.

It's not getting these things out of order.

It's that when you know God and find freedom by him, that you begin to realize that God created you and he created me by him and for him.

The scripture says that in him, you and I live and move and have our being.

When you're filled with the Holy Spirit, he begins to replace your selfish desires with spiritual gifts to be used for building something up that's bigger than you.

You stop thinking just about you all the time.

You start overcoming the selfishness and desires that is sinful.

And you start looking to God, how can I serve others as I have been served by you?

We got a message this week.

I'm gonna apologize because both these people in the room today, I didn't get permission, but can I have permission?

I'm gonna say something about you real quick.

And the other person in the room does not know who I'm gonna say it about.

But we got a message to our staff this week, basically telling us how thankful they are for this church and for what it's meant to them.

And they came into this house at a very hard time and they weren't quite close to God and they had a lot of stuff going on.

And I don't know about you, but sometimes you get into God's house and around God's people and around God's worship and

And Jesus promises that where there are three or more that are gathered, he is here with us.

And she found herself, and I don't know what row it is, but when one of these seats, and I don't know whether it was in worship or in the word, but God began to do something and she started to sob.

And she told us the story this week in a message that a little lady saw her tears

It's Therese sitting right there.

You saw the tears of someone sitting in these seats and you just simply put your hand on her back and she knew without a doubt that her God was here.

You see, church changes your perspective when you begin to see that God is doing something bigger than you beyond you and he wants to include you to be a part of it see the greatest gift you can ever be given and is to have salvation in him and then to be able to then change you and to free you and to then be able to see what he's doing in the midst of other people and you you begin to see other people's brokenness and you begin to see other people's sin and and you just don't cast condemnation but you're saying hey come along for the journey because he is worth it

Church, he is worth it.

So we begin to discover our purposes, not just building up our own lives, but building up others, building up his kingdom and his church.

And then we join God's team to make a difference, an eternal difference in the lives of people, pointing people to Christ and not to ourselves.

You see, the test of authenticity in faith isn't performance.

It's presence.

So stay rooted in the presence of Christ and your life will begin to show it.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we pray that you would have your way.

God, we pray that as we continue to draw near to you, to draw near to your word and hear it and know who you are by who you say you are.

We begin to have conversations with you, prayer, in multiple moments throughout the day, not just on Sundays, that we begin to produce fruit, God, that we begin to look more like you every single day.

So I pray that we would show up.

Your presence is here and your presence wants to be with them every day of the week.

Right now, if you're in the room and you don't know God, you don't know Jesus, I want to invite you to him.

In just a moment, I'm going to count to three.

And if you're one of these two people in the room right now, you're wanting to put your faith in Jesus to be the Lord of your life.

Or maybe you want to come back to him.

You've kind of strayed away and you want to come home.

On a count of three, I want you to shoot your hand all the way up in the air.

Because in Romans 10, verse 9, it says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

One, I'm giving my life to Jesus.

Two, I'm rededicating my life to Jesus.

Three, shoot your hand up and let's pray this prayer directly to him together.

Out loud, everyone in the room, say, Lord Jesus, forgive me of my sins.

Take my sin.

And by your grace, I receive your righteousness.

Jesus, I make you the Lord of my life.

I give you all that I am.

I hold nothing back.

Fill me with your Holy Spirit.

In Jesus' name.

And everybody said, come on, give it up for every person who prayed that prayer today.

Full Sermon Transcript

Thank you.

Well, we're going to continue in our message series called Jesus and His Kingdom, and we've been going through the book of Matthew, and hopefully someone will bring out my podium in just a minute, and there is a big piece of wood back there if you can bring that also.

But I want to do something for just a minute because I'm grateful that you support our staff and that you pray for them.

The Bible actually says that we need to pray for our leaders.

So I thank you for that.

We're here to serve and to develop you as believers in the kingdom.

But I also want you to know that we are, can you bring up the lights, like the lights all the way up for a second?

I want to see some faces.

But the Bible also says that if you're a believer in Christ, you're actually a priest in his kingdom.

That you are actually a person that's to be a person of God in your families, in your homes, in your workplaces.

And so you're to be a pastor.

Can I tell you this for just a moment?

Guys, if you're married or even if you're not married, you are to be the pastor of your home.

It's your responsibility.

You've been given the gift and the calling to pastor your family, to pastor your wife and your kids.

And so I don't know if you know this, but I see a lot of women dragging their husbands to church.

Can I tell you, you need to step up and be the man of God God's called you to be.

And I thank you for the many examples of just unbelievable men of God who do this in their families, who bring their families and they make sure that they're here.

I even, I heard of a dad last night who the kids were debating whether or not they could have a person sleep over at their house.

This is teenagers.

And the dad said, yeah, your friend can sleep over, but he's got to know that he's got to go to church if he's going to be at our house.

And do you know what the friend said?

Good, because I want to be there.

And my wife shared that story on Instagram.

And this is what it means to be a follower of Christ.

I look around the room and I'm like, man, you guys help pastor our kids' ministry.

You help pastor our kids' ministry.

You help pastor our kids' ministry.

You literally shepherd our kids, bringing them to church.

You help make sure that there's online sound in so many different ways.

I look around the room and I see all the different people that play a part, greeters at the door, helping connect people, prayer partners, life group leaders.

Doug, we shouted you out last week.

I don't know if you're here, but you pick up, literally every weekend, you pick up the parking lot. so that people can encounter the living God in a place that's clean.

I mean, I could go on and on and on.

I could preach the entire message of people who are serving the house of God to be the body of Christ that God has called us to be.

And I wanna share that with you because really the power of a church isn't just found in one guy who stands up on a platform. but it's really how we are doing this together.

You see, God calls us the body of Christ.

And how can the body function if one of the body parts isn't doing its role?

How can the hand be the hands and feet of Jesus if it's not connected to an arm?

And so we need people with the gift of hospitality.

We need people who are here to serve and to give and to do cameras and to prepare.

Are you following what I'm saying?

This is the beauty of the body of Christ.

That God has given us grace, he's forgiven us, he's brought us into a family, but then he gives us spiritual gifts to be lived out in the body of Christ.

Why?

To build up his kingdom.

And so I wanted to share that with you because, again, I think a lot of times I get a little aggressive.

I grew up as an athlete, and so getting yelled at was something that was quite endearing.

So I don't mind getting yelled at, and I tend to be a yeller because of that background.

And it's not because I don't love you, it's because I'm passionate about what God wants for you.

And so a couple weeks I even said something like, if you just sit in a seat but don't actually participate in the body, then you should probably just leave and go to another church because we're a body of believers who are here to build up the body of Christ.

And you can't just do that by just someone who's watching everyone else doing it.

And so I want to encourage you, if you aren't on the dream team, if you aren't living out your spiritual gifts or don't even know what they are, next week we do what's called discovery.

Discovery is where you can discover your spiritual gifts.

And then we help you to put them into practice.

So if you haven't been through discovery, I encourage you to do that next weekend.

It'll be at what, 1030 service?

So if you're in this service, you'll go to the second service in discovery.

It's right through this hallway.

But as we continue in our message series, Matthew chapter seven is where we're at today.

We're getting to the end of the beautiful sermon on the mount.

Jesus is speaking.

And in Matthew chapter seven, one through two, he starts and says, do not judge.

So you will not be judged.

Have you ever heard someone say to you, don't judge me.

Don't judge me.

You're judging me.

Can I tell you something?

This is one of the most probably misunderstood, misquoted, misappropriated sections of scripture.

And there's a lot of, we do this a lot, don't we?

We manipulate things and we just want it to say what we want it to say.

And man, don't judge me.

You're just being judgmental.

And so I'm hoping to unpack what Jesus has to actually say in this passage of scripture today to help us to live it out in a better way.

Do not judge so that you will not be judged.

And when I say all of that in the beginning, what we tend to do is we just tend to stop right there.

See, Jesus said it.

Do not judge.

But then we don't keep reading.

We don't keep reading what he actually has to say of why this is important today. for us to understand.

He says, for in the way you judge, wait a second, Jesus, you just said don't judge.

And then he goes on and says, for in the way you judge, you will be judged.

And by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.

Measure for measure.

Say that with me.

Measure for measure.

Let me give you some examples of what Jesus is talking about here

From the scriptures.

Genesis 29 through 31, there was a guy named Jacob, right?

God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Jacob and Laban.

What's the story?

Genesis 29 through 31.

Jacob deceived his father, Isaac, to obtain the blessing intended for Esau.

Right?

He dressed up all hairy and made him a good cup of stew, as his mom did.

Later, he himself was deceived by Laban.

So Jacob was a deceiver and then later was deceived, who substituted Leah for Rachel on their wedding night.

Dude slept with the wrong woman on his wedding night because he was deceived by Laban.

The deceiver became the deceived.

Are you following?

Measure for measure.

Galatians 6, 7 says,

I'm so glad y'all reacted like that.

Some of you are, I'm looking at your faces, you're like, what are you doing?

Okay, you guys can leave now.

How did I do?

Those of you who are aware of said, said, I was, I hadn't seen that before until this weekend and I was doing message prep with our staff because they give me feedback on this stuff and they're like, oh, you got to do it.

I'm like, do what?

I don't even know what you're talking about.

Six, seven, anyways.

Galatians 6, okay.

I actually am getting to the point.

Galatians 6, 7 says what?

What you sow is what you're gonna reap.

Measure for measure.

How about this one?

The Egyptian Pharaoh, right during the time of Moses, ordered the death of every firstborn Israelite

Male child, Exodus 1 through 12.

Pharaoh ordered the Hebrew baby boys to be drowned in the Nile.

And in judgment, God caused the death of every Egypt firstborn son during the final plague.

The punishment, the consequence, was a mirror of Pharaoh's cruelty.

Measure for measure.

Measure for measure.

In Esther chapter seven, there's a guy named Haman and a guy named Mordecai.

Haman built gallows to hang Mordecai.

And in this unbelievable divine irony, Mordecai himself was hanged on the very gallows that he prepared for someone else.

Measure for measure.

Esther 7 verse 10 says, so they hanged Haman on the gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai.

In Judges chapter 1, 5 through 7, there was a king named Adonai Bezek who had 70 other kings.

He had their thumbs and their toes cut off.

Why?

Because opposable thumbs are really important.

And big toes are really important for what?

Standing.

So to humiliate these kings, he cut off their thumbs and their big toes.

And then after Adonai Bezek himself was conquered, Adonai Bezek confessed that God had repaid him.

Say it with me.

Measure for measure.

Measure for measure.

In Judges 1-7, it says, the 70 kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off used to gather scraps under my table as I have done, so God has repaid me.

Measure for measure.

In 2 Samuel 11 through 12, we have King David and Bathsheba, right?

David's secret sin of adultery, which led to his adulterous affairs, murder of the husband, was judged then publicly, right?

Nathan told him, man, you struck down Uriah and you've taken his wife.

Thus says the Lord, I will raise up evil against you from your own household.

And his own son, David's own son, Absalom, later took David's concubines publicly before all of Israel.

He took over the kingdom.

The hidden sin was repaid publicly.

What?

The same measure.

Measure for measure.

But pastor, we're just all in the Old Testament.

That shouldn't, that doesn't have, like we don't even pay attention to the Old Testament anymore, do we?

Or do we?

The whole thing matters.

God doesn't still do that, does he?

Well, in Jesus, well, Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7, 1 through 2, do not judge or you will not be judged, so that you will not be judged.

For in the way you judge, you will be judged.

By your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.

Y'all want to see some New Testament examples of this?

Would that be helpful?

In Matthew chapter 23 through 35, it's titled The Unforgiving Servant.

This parable is illustrating divine reciprocity quite vividly, right?

A servant is forgiven an enormous and unpayable debt, right?

The Bible calls it 10,000 talents, which would be equivalent to millions of dollars.

So in other words, you owed tens of millions of dollars to someone and they just forgave the debt, set you free.

Symbolizing God's immeasurable mercy towards us, right?

And yet that same servant immediately refuses to forgive a fellow servant who owes him just a tiny amount.

The Bible says 100 denarii.

When the master hears this, he reverses his pardon and delivers the servant to the jailer.

And then Jesus concludes, so my heavenly father will also do to you if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.

Which we talked about a couple weeks ago, right?

In the very beginning.

Forgive as Jesus Christ has forgiven you.

Measure.

Measure.

You see, mercy was withdrawn because mercy was withheld.

The man who judged another harshly was himself judged harshly.

The same measure he used became the measure used for him, precisely what Jesus is warning of in Matthew chapter 7 verse 2.

Then we've got the judgment of the Pharisees, Matthew 23, 13 through 36.

Jesus condemns the Pharisees for their hypocrisy.

He says, you tie up heavy burdens on other people, yet you do not lift a finger yourselves.

You devour widows' houses while praying long prayers just for show.

Because they judged others by outward piety and then legal strictness, they would face a greater condemnation, verse 14, measure for measure.

You see, their own system of judgment was external, merciless, prideful.

It became the standard of their own judgment before God.

The hypocrisy they practiced became the hypocrisy for which they were exposed and condemned.

In Acts chapter 5, verses 1 through 11.

Man, if this one doesn't scare you, I don't know what will.

There's a story of two people named Ananias and Sapphira.

They were husband and wife, and they pretended...

They pretended to give all the proceeds from a land sale to the apostles, symbolic of tithing or giving to the church.

They pretended to give all the proceeds from a land sale to the apostles while secretly holding back part of it.

And they were found out that they were lying to the Holy Spirit and they were presenting themselves as being more generous and righteous than they actually were.

If you read the story of Ananias and Sapphira, their deception brought immediate and symmetrical judgment.

Both of them fell dead by God's hand at Peter's feet.

This is in the book of Acts.

This is New Testament.

Measure for measure.

You see, they sought to appear spiritually alive, full of devotion and generosity towards the kingdom of God.

But can I tell you something?

You can't pretend to be anything before God.

You either are the real deal or you are a phony and a fake.

And you cannot hide that from God.

They lied.

They crafted to gain honor in someone else's eyes and to get prestige and it resulted in shame and death immediately.

Their outward deceit produced immediate consequence.

So if you do not, here's maybe a side teaching.

You cannot deceive the Holy Spirit of God.

Whatever you're trying to hide, you can't hide it from God.

And you should definitely not deceive the Holy Spirit and you should definitely not deceive his church.

Because his church is called his bride.

His bride.

And I don't know about you, but when people mess with my bride, I don't like it very much.

Can I tell you why I think, this is my interpretation of the text, why I think this had such a severe consequence so quickly?

Because Ananias and Sapphira messed with the thing that Jesus cares about the most.

Of course, then we see Saul and Paul and his conversion, Acts chapter 9, 1 through 19.

You see, before his conversion, Saul of Tarsus, right?

We're going to talk about Paul, the writer of two-thirds of the New Testament, all these letters, right, by the Holy Spirit of God.

Before his conversion, Saul of Tarsus was relentlessly persecuting the church.

He was breathing threats, and he was murdering Christians.

He prided himself on having this spiritual insight.

Man, I got to get rid of these Christians.

They're a threat. and he believed that he saw God clearly, yet in truth, Paul was actually spiritually blind.

And when Jesus confronted Saul on the road to Damascus, Jesus struck Saul with what?

Actual blindness.

Because Saul thought he could see clearly, but he was really blind spiritually.

And Jesus struck him with actual blindness for three days. until Ananias restored his sight through prayer.

Measure for measure.

The persecutor Saul tried to blind others from the truth of who Jesus was, but then became physically blind himself, and his blindness mirrored the spiritual state that he was living in, and his healing symbolized the opening of true spiritual eyes when we come into encounter with Jesus.

In Luke chapter six, verse 37 through 38, the judgment of the unmerciful.

Jesus reinforces the same principle as Matthew 7 to measure for measure.

This passage clarifies that the spiritual economy of the kingdom of God operates on reciprocity.

Those who give grace receive grace.

Those who sow generously reap abundantly.

Those who deal harshly invite harshness upon themselves.

Measure for measure.

Measure for measure.

You see, the heart you extend towards others determines the measure God uses towards you, not in works-based salvation, but in moral alignment with his justice and his mercy.

And what does Jesus share right after this whole measure for measure?

He said, like, he's talking about this unbelievable, ridiculous act of like, dude, you got a plank in your eye.

And it's supposed to be funny, by the way.

Jesus is humorous.

He's trying to tell a story that's supposed to be funny.

Like, how am I supposed to see anything that you're doing with this thing in my eye?

You know what I'm saying?

How am I supposed to see anything clearly?

I can barely even hold this sucker.

I got some sawdust falling off of that.

You see that?

You can barely see it because Jesus said, what?

You have a plank in your own eye.

Deal with the speck first or deal with the plank first so then you can deal with the speck in another person's eye.

Right?

How many of y'all are looking at the plank and the sawdust in someone's eye, but you're not dealing with the plank in your own?

And we're going to get to in just a moment how we can actually deal with the sawdust in other people's eyes, but we have to be people who are first dealing with the... Can I get really honest with you for a second?

It's going to make me real uncomfortable if she knows I'm about to share this.

Okay.

Right after starting the church, New Life Church...

Let me give you a little bit of background.

I'm going to read some of this to make sure I'm clear.

I grew up in ministry, learning ministry, I think from some incredible mentors.

And in one way, I think they were unbelievable by how many of you know that even pastors are not perfect.

And I was kind of taught an example of where pastors would give away their sermons to other pastors to preach in their churches.

As a matter of fact, Pastor Rick Warren, who I'm probably, like most of you have probably heard of before, Pastor Rick Warren would say this, he would say this to pastors, hey, if my bullet fits your gun, shoot it.

Meaning if the message that I preach still can be applied to your church, use it.

Use my messages.

Use my messages.

And so I did.

I did that.

As we started the church, I was using other people's messages.

But it wasn't just using messages.

It was also then taking their personal illustrations that also weren't mine.

But I was making it sound like they were mine.

I was called out by a local pastor who came to visit me one-on-one.

And I didn't listen.

As a matter of fact, I got mad.

I was called out by our board.

I didn't listen.

I justified my actions by everybody's doing this.

I was taught this.

I didn't listen.

I got mad.

We lost church members.

We lost friends.

I was mad at them, even yelled at them at times.

I almost lost part of our staff because of it.

And most people didn't know.

What was private, though, became public.

And so I had a meeting with the entire dream team and repented.

You see, I finally was able to see.

How many of you have had people come to you and they've lovingly tried to say, hey, dude, you got a plank and you still don't see it?

Or you know, you know it's there.

You're just not willing to deal with it.

You don't want to be found out, right?

You're scared of the repercussions of being found out.

Can I tell you something?

I thank God for that pastor in our city who was willing to have a one-on-one conversation with me.

Even though it didn't go well the first time, we have a better relationship now.

I'm thankful for the board members who brought it to me.

I'm thankful.

Why?

Because measure for measure, I reaped the consequences of that, but eventually the lesson was learned.

Eventually I saw the plank and dealt with it.

To be clear, that doesn't mean that I'm not still learning things from other pastors.

I haven't shut out all pastors of my life.

I am a pastor who also has pastors.

I read books.

I listen to sermons.

I dig into podcasts.

I dig into Bible commentaries, which I would want all of you to do. measure for measure.

What started as a private failure led to public consequence, and God uses that because he loves us to prune us and to grow us if we'll let him.

In Luke chapter 16, 19 through 31, it's a story of a rich man and Lazarus, and

In this parable, the rich man enjoys all this luxury and comfort while Lazarus is a poor beggar suffering outside of the rich man's gate.

And after death, their positions reverse.

The poor man becomes the most wealthy in God's kingdom, in God's heaven.

And the rich man who enjoys all this luxury and comfort becomes the most poor.

Lazarus, the Bible says, is comforted in Abraham's bosom, and the rich man suffers torment.

Measure for measure.

You see, the man who refused compassion through his life received no compassion in eternity.

His indifference towards others became the measure by which he is then judged.

Woe.

Who wants to know what we do with that?

So what do we do?

Jesus, what do we do?

Number one, if you're taking notes, you gotta start with a mirror and not a microscope.

You gotta stop looking at every little thing that everybody else is doing wrong and take a look in the mirror.

What is the plank that I'm not dealing with?

What is it that God wants to prune and change in me and am I doing it?

Notice, you can't even see the sawdust.

Is it falling off?

I couldn't even bring it up here because you can't even see it.

Unless I put it in a little jar with a bunch of them.

We've got to start with a mirror and not a microscope.

Matthew 7, 4 says, why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye but don't notice the log, the plank in your own eye?

What does that mean?

It means that we need to be in the word of God to know what God says because we need to be consistently letting God's word correct us.

You see, God's word is a mirror to who you actually are.

So when you read things that mess you up, that get in your grill a little bit and challenge you, it's probably the indicator, the conviction that the Holy Spirit is bringing you that you need to change.

God says, I am the same yesterday, today, and forevermore.

He does not change.

Guess who changes?

I gotta tell you what's really helpful in a culture and in a world that's constantly being crazy

We find a firm, settling foundation when we find ourselves in God's word.

Nothing can shake us, no matter the storms, no matter what comes our way, we are living on a firm foundation that will never change.

And we should take so much comfort in that.

What else do we have to do?

You got to look at the scripture and go, Jesus, literally pray this prayer.

This was David's prayer after he had the adulterous affair.

And then, of course, by the way, what I didn't say is his adulterous affair baby was also killed.

I didn't share that part.

The adulterous affair.

And after he had the husband killed to hide the sin,

Jesus had a man of God named Nathan come to him and said, dude, you're messing up.

You're missing it.

You need to repent.

You need to change.

You need to course correct and go back to God and his God's ways.

And what did David prayer?

He said, search me, God.

Know me.

Find any offensive way within me and lead me out of it.

Help me to change.

Why is it important to be in God's house, around God's people, in God's word all the time?

Because we need godly correction in our lives.

We need to be changing to become more like Christ.

We need to be around people who are after that same aim.

And here's the third thing we need to do, humility.

It's having a heart of humility because humility opens our eyes, but pride blinds them.

So when you're not willing to see the plank.

Number two, if you're taking notes, the second thing we need to do is we need to attempt to help people, not humiliate them.

Now I will tell you, after a certain amount of time, it will become humiliating.

When it becomes public, when you don't respond well, soon, early.

Jesus isn't saying never correct anyone.

He's saying do it with a clean heart and a clear vision.

Once we are consistently humble and dealing with our own, then we can help others as an act of love and not just judgment.

Listen, Jesus is not telling you and I that we have to be perfect.

We're not going to be perfect this side of heaven.

But you do have to have a pure heart after God and his ways.

Now watch this.

The goal isn't to win an argument.

It's to restore. someone.

It's to restore someone back to Jesus.

Matthew 18, 15 through 17, he says, if your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault.

Wait, wait, what?

If a brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault.

Just between the two of you, that's what the pastor did with me.

He met with me one-on-one. and said, dude, I've listened to the same message and I heard it verbatim.

You literally preached the exact same words.

And he came to me one-on-one, not in front of the whole church.

He didn't try to humiliate me.

One-on-one.

Just between the two of you.

It says, if they listen to you, you've won them over.

It wasn't about winning an argument.

Here, I'm better than you.

No, it was to restore someone back to God's goodness.

But if they will not listen, take one or two others along.

Then our board came to me.

And they're like, dude, you gotta change this.

So that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

In other words, more people saw the problem.

Can I tell you something?

If you got a plank, chances are people are seeing it.

I don't know how to tell you that any clearer.

And it's amazing to me how much everybody else can see it, but you can't.

Take two or more others along so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

And if they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church.

And if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

Now, you know what we've misinterpreted by a lot?

I mean, there's a lot of misinterpretations of Scripture.

But a lot of times what people will say was like, if they refuse to listen to the person and then to the group of people and then take them to the pastor.

Right?

That's what we read in that last part, right?

Take it to the church.

Take it to the pastor to deal with it.

But do you know what it actually meant in Jesus' day?

That it would get exposed to you, the whole church.

Can I tell you why?

Because it's a teaching tool for you to understand that your actions have consequences and what shouldn't come to humiliation will come to humiliation if you don't deal with it.

Are you following what Jesus is saying?

Again, the goal is not to win an argument.

It's to restore a person.

And it happens gently along the way, but we've got to have the heart to say, God, deal with my plank.

Deal with this issue.

Man, I want to love that brother who came to me.

I want to love those people who are helping to love me to get back in restoration with God.

It's why life groups are so important.

That you're just, you're not just knowing other people, but you're being known by other people.

They're there to help you.

And number three, if you're taking notes, sometimes love lets go and lets life teach.

See, sometimes love has to let go and let life teach.

Jesus continues and says, do not give dogs what is sacred.

Do not throw your pearls to pigs.

If you do, they may trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces.

You've all seen scenarios where you have tried to help someone get over something and they refuse again and again and again and again and again.

And it's ripping families apart and it's ripping you apart and it's ripping themselves apart.

And sometimes it even comes to the church and starts to rip churches apart.

Parents, this one might be a little bit more for you.

Parents, you need to let your kids make the mistakes and learn from them.

Stop just showing up to rescue them every time.

You see in the story of the prodigal son, the father doesn't chase after the son who wants to leave him.

He doesn't try to control the outcome.

The father lets the son go.

And God knows that sometimes the only teacher left is the consequence of sin itself.

The prodigal son's brokenness in the far country does what words couldn't do.

It brings him to his knees and it brings him to repentance.

You see, love doesn't always rescue.

Sometimes it just releases.

Letting someone face the results of their choices can be the most loving thing when you trust that God can even use that to bring them home.

Release them.

But as the great theologian from Motel 6, Tom Beaudet says, keep the door open and the light on.

This is church.

This is divine wisdom.

Patient enough to even let sin teach and merciful enough to welcome repentant sinners home.

Measure for measure, let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we pray that you would speak and that we would hear.

God, I pray that we wouldn't just hear it in our minds, but that we would hear it in our hearts and respond

We need your mercy and your grace.

But Jesus, we also need your correction.

And so God, I pray that we would have a church that consistently deals with the planks in our own eyes.

And at the same time, as we're dealing with our planks, are able to deal with the specks of sawdust in others.

Why?

So that we can become more like you.

With every eye closed and every head bowed, in a moment I'm going to count to three, and if you're one of these two people, one, you want to make Jesus the Lord of your life for the first time.

You want to come home.

Or maybe you left home and you want to come back.

On a count of three, I want you to shoot your hand all the way up in the air, and I just

As an act of faith, Romans 10, 9 says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Just like the prodigal son who found himself in complete emptiness, desperate for his father, ran home with a prayer in his heart, Father, forgive me.

I've sinned against heaven and I've sinned against you.

And I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

But the Father is waiting for you to come home.

So on a count of three, one, I'm giving my life to Jesus.

Two, I'm rededicating my life to Jesus.

I'm coming home.

Three, shoot your hand up and let's pray this prayer together.

From your heart to God, say, Lord Jesus, forgive me of my sin.

Take my sin

And by your grace, I receive your righteousness.

Jesus, I make you the Lord of my life.

I give you all that I am.

I hold nothing back.

Fill me with your Holy Spirit.

In Jesus' name.

And everybody said, come on, come it up.

Come on, give your hands, put your hands together and say welcome home.

Full Sermon Transcript

Well, we could just have church right there, right?

Oh man, I love Anointing Oil Sunday.

I don't know about you, but I've gotten two Sundays in a row to preach on Anointing Oil Sunday, so God is good.

When I'm like, I get Anointing Oil Sunday, amen, amen.

Well, my name's Kelsey.

I'm so excited to be up here to be able to preach the word to you guys this morning.

We are continuing in our series, Jesus and His Kingdom.

So we're going through the book of Matthew. which actually brings me a little peace when I'm going to tell you what the message is on this morning, because you can know that we didn't just handpick it for any specific reason.

You can know we're just going through the book, which means that the Holy Spirit just wanted us to be here this morning, which means that he has something for you, which means that he has something for me, which means that he has something for all of us.

So can we take a breath before we get into it?

That was more for me than it was for you.

This morning, we're in Matthew chapter 6.

If you want to get your Bibles out, I love, first of all, can I just say the youth, like, you're like, we're just going to sit in the front.

Because you know what happened last time.

Like, you're like, forget it.

We'll just sit up here.

If you're going to call us out and you're going to make us come to the front, it was like the highlight of last time I preached.

I made all the youth move to the front.

And I waited because I can see.

Still a couple seats.

They're close.

They're still in the front row.

Look at them.

They're still in the front.

Because I waited and I made them move up.

And then I was like, youth is probably going to be empty tonight.

That's going to be terrible.

And it was like the fullest youth we've ever had.

Because this generation is hungry for the word of God.

Can I get an amen?

It's amazing.

So thank you, youth students that are like, we'll just sit up here anyways.

And I don't care if you yell at me later because I'm not scared of you.

I am a little bit.

Dan's like, she's lying.

She's scared.

Oh, man.

So we're in Matthew 6, and today we're talking about storing up for ourselves treasures in heaven.

For from you are all things, and to you are all things.

So how did I feel when I got asked to give this message?

I said, oh, you've got to be kidding me.

I've preached on money one other time.

It was at Matawan, because you know what happens to me when I get asked to give those messages?

No.

No.

And you know why?

Because it has such a control over my life.

People get funny when we talk about money.

Why?

Because we're supposed to be stewards of it, not slaves to it.

But when we become slaves to it, we get extremely uncomfortable.

But when I started praying about it, God gave me this word.

He said, why don't you share with people the joy you found in giving?

Why don't you share with people the secret that you found that has set you free from the stress to it?

You know, this summer I was riding in the car with my mom and I've

I struggled in the past with dealing with a lot of anxiety, with dealing with a lot of depression, and still sometimes it comes back up and I have to fight that battle.

I feel like it's the thorn in my flesh.

Paul said we all have one, right?

It's how God keeps us running back to him.

And I was talking to my mom about why finances is such a battle for me.

And she said, I think it's because you think it's the one thing you can control.

Because you can tell your bank account what to do, right?

So let me give you a little glimpse into finances for me, and this will make you really pity Dan.

So most days, I'll get onto our bank account.

I'll subtract all the bills that I know we owe for 15 days.

Then I'll divide out how many days we have left, and then I'll send Dan a text.

Just so you know, this is the amount of money we have for today.

I'm a joy.

I am a joy to live with.

And he's like, okay.

We tithe.

We tithe above and beyond the 10%.

I cannot imagine where I would be if we didn't do that.

But the joy that I have found... in not just tithing but in being generous, has unlocked something in me that has set me free.

So I've been in your seat.

I told Dan, I said no one could show up to church today and I could preach this to myself and it would be worth it.

This whole message would be worth it because I need it just for me.

I've been mastered by my bank account.

But today, I want to help share with you the secret to finding that joy.

So can I do that for you?

What I've found is that Christianity has a branding problem.

Have you guys found that?

Has anyone been on social media lately?

Because that can just preach for itself.

We have a branding problem.

A lot of times we see this, don't do that.

You can't do that.

Do this and you'll go to hell.

Right?

Right?

It's a branding problem that we've put all over Christianity instead of, I get to.

What a joy it is to do this.

We have a sign backstage that the worship team looks at every time they come on stage and it says, it is an honor to serve on this stage.

Thank you God for choosing me.

What if it said, I can't believe I have to show up every Wednesday night and early Sunday morning and do two to three services and what if we add four?

That would be a branding problem, right?

Instead it says, it is a joy to serve on this stage.

Thank you, God, for choosing me.

What an honor.

And you see that when they lead you in worship, don't you?

That they consider it an honor.

There's a man named Doug Corsange who shows up early every Sunday morning to clean the parking lot, to pick up trash that homeless people leave in the parking lot.

Yeah.

He and then another friend who started coming to New Life Church, they now call it the parking lot ministry.

They don't just park cars.

They're on the parking lot ministry.

They've figured out that it's a branding problem.

Now it's an honor to park cars and to pick up trash because when people come in for the first time, it's a joy.

When we make coffee and when people come in and get to find that, what do you call that?

God juice.

Holy bean juice.

I don't know.

You have a weird name for it that relates to God and coffee.

It's very weird.

Heavenly bean juice.

Yes.

And when people get to make that, they say, what a joy it is.

Instead of, oh, I have to go serve on hospitality this morning and wake up early.

Are you getting where I'm going?

And it's the same with storing up treasures in heaven.

When we're able to be able to be generous, when we're able to give.

So what I want to tell you is if I don't get to convince you today that it's more than giving, it's more fun than a person is allowed to have. then I haven't done my job and I haven't allowed the Holy Spirit to speak through me.

Matthew 6, 19, our verse for today says, don't store up treasures here on earth where moths eat them and rust destroys them, where thieves break in and steal.

Store yourself treasures in heaven where moths and rust cannot destroy and thieves do not break in and steal.

Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.

So before we break down that verse, I thought it would be really fun to tell you the reasons that compel me to give.

To give you a little insight into me.

Reasons that move my heart to give coming from someone who's really stingy.

The joke between my friends a few years ago was that I would always round down on my Venmo.

It was if she owes you money, look out because she's gonna round down.

And that wasn't just cents, that was like by $10.

So it's been a challenge for me.

The other night, Dan and I went out to dinner and we had this amazing waitress and we had like the best talks with her.

She was so much fun.

And at the end of the night, she's like, I just want to tell you, I took off the apple cobbler.

You guys were so fun to talk to.

Thanks for making my night.

And the old me would have been like, yes, I saved $10.

And I looked at Dan and he was like, you're going to do it?

Because I always fill out the tip because he can't. do 20% and he was like I am not lying that's not a dig that's just I'm being honest I'm in church I have to be honest and he's like are you gonna do it and I was like yeah so I went a little bit above and beyond the 20% and then I looked at him he's like you want to do it don't you and I was like

The dude scratched it off.

I was like, all right, $50 tip.

We walked away, and he's like, how's it feel?

I was like, it feels so good.

It feels so good, right?

One of the reasons that compels me to give is I like how I feel when I do it.

Acts 20.35 says, it's more blessed to give than to receive.

The word blessed in the original translation is makarios, and you know what it means?

It means happy in the soul.

Not happy in the situation, happy in the soul.

We found out recently that our neighbor had lost her mom.

She had already lost her dad, and she lost her mom.

She was so close to her family.

Coming from people who had just lost Dan's mom, the girls were like, can we make them cookies?

I was like, yes, please, make them cookies.

And then I watched my girls fight over who got to be the ones to deliver the cookies.

Can I please be the one to hand it to them?

No, let me.

Don't do it while I'm gone.

You have to make sure we're both here.

Why?

Because of how you feel when you give.

Because it's more blessed to give than to receive.

We did a lemonade stand up north this summer.

And so all the cousins were selling lemonade.

And they were so excited to make their money.

And a neighbor walked out.

They sold the lemonade for by donation only.

A neighbor walked out and he handed them a 20.

And the girl's face is lit up.

Like, what do you want for change, you know?

He's like, you keep it.

They're like...

But I can tell you the neighbor's smile was even bigger when he walked away than the kids.

Why?

Happy in the soul.

It's more blessed to give than to receive.

The Wall Street Journal published an article titled, People are Hardwired for Generosity.

The Wall Street Journal.

And they didn't understand it because they know that in general, people are selfish and driven to success, right?

But what they found in this article was that when people give, chemicals are actually released into your brain to enjoy it.

And what I love about that is God not only asks us to give, he's so good that he allows us to enjoy it.

He's like, I'm not just gonna ask you to do it, I'm gonna allow you to have so much fun when you do.

So I like how I feel when I give.

Number two, the one that surrendered his life for me instructs me to do it.

If he died on the cross for me, he can ask me to do anything and my answer better be yes.

Yes.

You know, I was saved at a young age, so I grew up knowing what to do without, like, that radical transformation.

So I love learning from Dan about that radical transformation.

Dan was insane in college.

I mean, you should sit down and hear his stories.

It's like, at his mom's funeral, his old Bible teacher, like the ones who teach in our kids' wing, came to the funeral just to say, are you seriously a pastor?

Yeah.

He like had to see it.

So Dan went from being a financial advisor making a lot of money to all of a sudden working at his church for $300 a month.

Because this radical transformation when he was saved, he was like, I just want to be in God's house all the time.

I just want to be there.

And if that means giving up all of this money just to be in God's house and make $300 a month, I'm going to do it.

And you know what he did with the $300 a month?

He tithed.

It wasn't like I only have 300.

How am I going to live off of it?

So the one that gave his life tells us to do it.

But Dan has these stories of time and time again just seeing the faithfulness of God.

So it's like, why wouldn't I?

You can't outgive God.

I have never once talked to a person who tithes and gives generously and says they haven't seen God show up in it.

Never.

Never once.

Number three, I want to position myself for God's blessing and protection.

The Bible says when you give, you're under his blessing and protection.

Sam actually referenced this in the beat this morning in Malachi 3, 8 and 9.

You know, it says you get to decide if you are outside of the will of God.

It says when you don't tithe, you are outside of his will and you are under a curse, right?

But what I love is then right after that, it says, but give and see if I don't throw open the floodgates of heaven.

He's such a good God.

He says, I'll throw open the floodgates of heaven on your life.

But the best thing about God is that there's always the chance to get back inside his will.

Just like in the story of the prodigal son, he's still waiting on the porch for you to come home.

He's like, I'm right here.

Just come right back.

The number four reason that compels me to give is that I so believe in the vision of this church.

I so believe in the vision.

I see the numbers of first-time guests we're always reaching.

I see the new people.

I see salvations.

Jesus takes the local church so personal that he calls it his bride.

When people hate on the local church, they bash his bride.

And

You know, Dan talked about how he ran to me when I got hurt and he really did, which is funny because I'm a baby when I get hurt.

So like he could have easily just been like, suck it up.

And the fact that I didn't complain after speaks to the healing power of God because I complain a lot.

But if someone were to bash me to Dan, I would want to be really cautious of being around them.

That's how seriously Dan takes me.

So if someone were to bash the local church, that's how seriously God takes his church.

And I believe in the vision of the local church.

The Bible says the gates of hell will not prevail against my church.

The gates of hell will not prevail.

Another thing that compels me to give is I so want to model this for my kids.

You know, my parents, my parents modeled this for me

Whenever the tithing jar would go around at church, if I didn't have money, my parents would hand me money so that I knew what it felt like to put something in there to sacrifice.

And you may say, well, that wasn't your money.

Yeah, but I could have held on to theirs.

It still was hard to put it in there.

Sometimes I did.

No, when I was in church, I gave it away.

You know, growing up, my parents always had missionaries they sponsored.

There was never an empty room in our house.

There were always people living in it that weren't our family.

They were generous beyond measure.

When we were planting New Life Church, my dad sold stuff so that we could plant New Life to give above and beyond generously.

They've modeled this for me.

They've modeled generosity for me.

Dan's mother-in-law was a school teacher for 41 years and she was one of the top givers at New Life Church.

My mother-in-law.

Dan's mom, sorry.

My mother-in-law was a school teacher.

A school teacher.

She had such a heart for the Lord that every week she wrote her little handwritten check that she loved little handwritten things.

I still find notes from her

I want to model this for my kids.

And number six, a reason that compels me to give is that I know that none of this is going with me when I die.

You know, there's a quote that says, I've never seen a hearse followed by a U-Haul.

You guys heard that?

I've never heard that.

And then through this week, I heard it like four times.

So is what you're giving to going to show up in heaven?

You know, Dan and I always get these things.

I get things from Belmont, the school I went to for alumni, like, give back to Belmont.

And it's like, yeah, that's great.

I love Belmont University.

I have a lot of great memories.

But, like, is the College of Vocal Performance going to go sing to me in heaven?

That's weird.

We love the Texas Longhorns, even though they're terrible right now.

Like...

Are they gonna go play football for us in heaven?

Are we gonna watch that?

Is anyone being saved by watching them play football?

Probably not.

There's a lot of great nonprofits we can give to, right?

A lot of people that can be fed, but while they're being fed, are they also finding out that there's a God who loves them?

Are they being fed eternity?

Are these things going with me when I die?

And that's where we get into the scripture for today.

Let's re-look at Matthew 6, 19.

So what this verse tells us is that we have a choice in two treasures.

We can have treasures here or treasures in heaven because our heart is going to choose one.

We can't be separated between the two.

So number one, what we have to do is we have to invest in what lasts.

You may ask the question off this verse, what are the treasures in heaven?

I'm so glad you asked.

Let me tell you.

Number one, the first thing we get is we get a deeper relationship with God.

When we're generous, when we're obedient, when we give, we look more like God himself.

Why?

He gave us his best.

He gave us his very best, his son.

Let's see.

In Psalm 73, 25, it says, Whom have I in heaven but you?

Earth has nothing I desire besides you.

When I'm generous, I truly feel like I'm so much closer to God.

I feel like I reflect more of the Father.

I had this aha moment the other week, you know, because people will argue, well, was the tithe done in the Old Testament when Jesus died?

And it's like Jesus himself says in the New Testament, yes, you should tithe, but you should also give above and beyond.

So he affirms it in the New Testament.

But I had this thought of, wait, but if I'm so thankful for God giving his best, even if the tithe was done, wouldn't I want

Why wouldn't I be so moved that I would just want to?

Like, why is the argument even a thing?

If I was so moved by the fact that he sent his son, I have a two-year-old.

I can't, I'm sorry, but I can't imagine loving any of you that much.

Those of you who have kids, can you imagine loving people who would turn their backs on you time and time again to send your son?

That's generosity at its finest.

Another thing that we get in heaven, a treasure in heaven, is people coming to know God through your influence.

Proverbs 11.30 says, "'The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life.

"'The one who wins souls is wise.'"

"'The one who wins souls is wise.'"

I believe that when Dan's mom went to heaven, she stood there and God in his kindness was so great to show her every single soul that through her generosity was saved by her.

Through every Bible translation she gave to, they were able to encounter Jesus.

And then she looks on the faces of people who don't even speak the same language as her.

And she knew that through that, they were saved.

They were saved. the goodness of God, people coming to know souls.

Another one is the treasure in heaven is eternal rewards and responsibilities.

Matthew 25, 21 says, well done, good and faithful servant.

You've been faithful with a few things.

I will put you in charge of many things.

What I love about this scripture in Matthew is that it never says earthly possessions are evil.

I think that's where we've gotten it wrong is it's like money's evil.

No, money is neutral.

It's not evil.

All it says is that it's temporary.

So it's our choice of what we do with it.

It just says it's temporary.

It will fade.

Proverbs 23, 5 says, "'Cast but a glance at riches.

"'They're gone.

"'They will surely sprout wings "'and fly off to the sky like an eagle.'"

God isn't condemning wealth.

He's never once saying being wealthy, having money is an evil thing.

All he's doing is saying let's redirect our investment strategy towards what endures.

Perhaps consider that God is saying this is a way of making you more wealthy where you're poor.

Eternal return on investment.

It's like if you were able to sit down with someone who had the greatest tip to insider trading.

You know, those of us who invest our finances and they say, well, the stock market looks like it's going to do this.

It looks like this is trending green.

And we're like, okay, I want to, right, I want to, you know, I don't really speak this language, so just stick with me.

I even, like, looked up how to talk about it.

I still don't know.

But, you know, if you were to sit down and it's like, this is looking really good, diversify your wealth there.

And you're like, okay.

But then all of a sudden, at some point, right, something crashes, right?

And then you're like, oh, I'm down this much, bummer.

And then you think, ooh, this is looking really good.

Gonna put it over there, and then it grows.

And then at some point, what?

Stuff crashes.

What if you could sit down with someone and tells you, this will never crash.

This will always trend up green, never crash.

That's what God is telling you.

He's saying, I have the best insider trading tip and let me tell you something, through all of scripture, I am the one man who has fulfilled every single prophecy.

And every single human tells you, I have never messed up.

And it was humanly impossible for all of these prophecies to come true.

Impossible.

And yet I've completed every single one of them.

So I'm telling you the same thing with your money.

And yet that's the one thing that we're like, I think you're wrong.

Sorry, I got a little sassy there.

There was a 1992 survey taken about contentment.

They were asked, what would it take for you to live the American dream?

Listen to this.

People who made 25K said they'd need 54 to live the American dream.

People who made 100 said they need 192K.

Isn't that interesting?

No matter what they made, they said they'd need double.

1 Timothy 6.6 says, Godliness with contentment is such a great gain.

And in his word, he tells us exactly how to get it.

Philippians 3.20 says, Our citizenship is in heaven.

We eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

I heard a pastor give a great metaphor as to how to look at this.

Think that you study abroad in France for three months.

You're living over there.

You're living in an apartment.

And they tell you, you can work.

You can earn money.

You can get a paycheck.

But anything that you buy here, you can't take home.

So you're living in this apartment and you're like, I think I'm going to renovate the apartment.

Right? gonna like get new floors maybe get new like appliances I'm gonna get furniture and you you have this beautiful apartment but you knew right you knew you couldn't take any of it home so three months later you're like leaving this beautiful apartment for whoever wants to live there and you come home and homes like where's your paycheck and you're like I left it all in France it's literally what we're doing in when we're putting everything here and we're choosing our heart to be here when God's telling you to store up treasures in heaven.

For those of us who are storing up treasures in heaven, it's like we're just sending our paycheck home because our life here is but a vapor.

Matthew 6, 24 says,

What's he telling you?

You have to choose your master.

So how do you do that?

You just ask, what am I serving?

You'll know by what you're willing to sacrifice for.

If you sacrifice for money but not for God, then money has become your master.

If you let your money serve the Lord, it will serve you.

And some of you are like, this feels really heavy.

I get it.

I actually said this morning, God, don't make me preach on this because I know how people feel.

I felt that way.

Don't make me do it.

And he said, the power's in the seed, not in the sower.

And I want to set people free just like I've set you free.

So just be faithful and get up there.

And what I love is that he finishes with Matthew 6, 25 through 33.

He says, that's why I tell you, don't worry.

Don't worry about everyday life, whether you have enough food and drink or enough clothes to wear.

Isn't life more than food, your body more than clothing?

Don't worry about these things.

What will we eat?

What will we drink?

What will we wear?

These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers.

Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.

Seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

So number three, we trust the provider.

I love that Jesus doesn't just say, don't worry.

He says, replace worry with the pursuit of God's kingdom and that will give you true contentment.

He tells us that generosity is the antidote to anxiety.

When you give, joy follows.

For so long, I cling to the verse in 2 Corinthians 9, 7 that says, each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

And what I realized is that actually, I was like, well, I don't feel joyful yet, so I'm not going to do it.

God hasn't given me the joy.

But actually, once I was faithful to it, the joy started to follow me. the joy started to show up.

And then I started to become addicted to it because you can't out give God.

It was like I would give and then all of a sudden he would provide in a way I didn't even know possible.

And some of that's financial, but some of that's just in a totally different way.

You can't out give the giver himself.

I want to tell you a few stories of testimonies that people in our church actually shared with me

One from some little kids, one from a newly married couple, and then one from some amazing business owners.

This is from two kids who gave $32 in tithe, which if you figure that out, that means they had like $320.

Two little boys.

The parents said, we started a jar for tithing earlier this year when we implemented chores.

They were actually really excited about it, the joy.

Our chores and earnings have not been as consistent, so it became stagnant.

Regardless, it's their tithe for chores.

The parents said it stemmed from us never being 100% comfortable getting to the 10% because we never did it from an early age.

I've never been taught it directly.

I was trying to help them do it and be better than what I was and am at that.

And we have a newly married couple.

They said, the husband said, it took us a little time to tithe finances have been and continue to be tight for us but above all we trust god's word and out of the blessings from god we should want and give back to him what really is his in the first place plus it feels so good to be part of building his kingdom and knowing we're being faithful to what we are called to be and then the last one says i was brought up in a non-christian home

My stepfather was an alcoholic and literally drank what little money we had.

There were five kids.

We were on welfare.

I went to church because a neighbor lady took me every week for years.

I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior in the fourth grade at nine years old.

The concept of tithing was always preached about.

I understood it, but as I became an adult, it was not a discipline I easily embraced.

I just figured that once I was making good money, right, then I would do it.

I didn't connect tithing with having a blessed life, not necessarily in material ways like God would pay me back financially.

But that being blessed meant being at peace in my relationships and with myself.

I didn't understand that tithing was a part of God's formula for a good life, where when we fully embrace his principles for living, we are simply happier as a result.

As a single mom in my early 20s, I was scraping together a living for my son and me.

I foolishly bought a brand new car off the lot, only to watch it get repossessed right out of my parking lot a year later.

I also thought that people who were older with better incomes were doing enough giving, right?

I'd get around to it eventually.

When Tim and I were first married 31 years ago, money was tight.

I knew we gave something, certainly not 10%.

We would pick a number that seemed fair and that was that.

But as we got older and wiser and more mature in the Lord, a financial advisor friend said to us, not tithing is like stealing from the Lord.

We pushed past the fear, the what ifs, the paycheck to paycheck mentality and reality and just started doing it.

It actually felt good.

I had turned a corner on obedience.

When we got to NLC, we were pushed to take another step, 10% before or after taxes.

That's a big difference.

So that was another test of obedience.

Did we truly give God 10% of the first fruits or after the government picked through it?

So we gave from our gross, not our net.

Then one more push.

Would we go above and beyond and just give not only our tithe, but an offering to boot?

Yes, yes, uncle.

I love that it says uncle in there.

And we did.

We're now at an 18% giving level.

And on top of that, we give to other mini projects as they come along.

As I look back, have we been blessed?

Yes, in small ways and big ways.

Financially for sure.

Was it because of our tithing?

Maybe.

All I know is I don't give 18% because I have to or because I'm looking for God to make it up to me financially.

I give it because I want to.

God loves a cheerful giver.

Church, today I wanna give you eyes to see what we as a staff get to see for treasures in heaven that have been stored up just this year because of your faithfulness.

Because we get to see it week in and week out and I don't think you do.

In just 2025, we've seen 577 first-time guests.

That's people who have come in and who have had the opportunity to hear the gospel, to get connected to the local church, and to know that there's a God that loves them.

We've had 397 hands raised in salvation.

Those are people that when you give... Yeah.

You will stand in eternity...

And God is a loving father.

We'll show you their faces.

And we'll say, this is a treasure in heaven you have stored up.

We've seen 59 people baptized and have gone publicly with their faith.

Yeah.

We've had people sponsored to go on mission to Honduras.

We've had youth sponsored to go to Axis.

We've given away $26,868.25 to local, national, and global missions.

And let me tell you what some of those are.

I love that Pastor Dan is intentional about this.

Because like he said earlier, we want to make sure it's having the most impact.

And a lot of that is in the 1040 window because these are people that don't have access to the gospel.

These are people that have never heard that there's a God that loves them.

These are people that without these missions would not know the hope of Jesus.

This is the gospel in Israel.

This is triad which sends missionaries into the 1040 window.

This is also safe families for children, which New Life Church was the first one to start in Kalamazoo.

We're keeping kids out of the foster system where they can go and be placed with a family in New Life Church, get connected to the local church, and then when mom or dad are ready, they can go back home.

This is church planting through ARC.

So every person that's been saved at a church that you've helped plant, you are answering for in heaven.

I think that's pretty incredible.

The back-to-school bash when kids came in and got backpacks, back-to-school supplies.

Those are all treasures in heaven.

Don't think that is something small.

God says where your treasure is, there your heart will be.

And I love that we have kids, we have college students.

Our girls give like $2 a week. when i see that it brings tears to my eyes because god promises that he will multiply it and he will throw open the floodgates of heaven it's not about what you have it's about the heart to be obedient and to be generous and then he multiplies it what a good god right what a good god that he's not saying you need to have this much to make an impact he's saying you just need to be obedient and i'll make the impact i love that but i love that he says as a loving father test me test me in malachi it says test me in this and see if i don't throw open the floodgates of heaven and you know there's a few people on earth that i would test their word on but there is no one that i would rather test than the God who sent his son to die for me, than the God who has fulfilled every prophecy from beginning to end of the Bible that every human says it is not possible.

When he says, test me in this, I'm like, I'm all in because I can't wait to see how you show up.

It's exciting to me.

It's joy filled to me.

So I want to encourage you today, church.

This is not heavy handed.

Because a friend of mine once said, God loves his church so much that he'll come down and write the check for it if he has to.

But you know what?

He loves his people so much that he invites us to play a part in it.

That's how much he loves us.

He just says, you can play a part because I want the blessing for you too.

So if you haven't taken that leap, I want to invite you into it.

There's going to be a QR code on the screen and you can scan it and you can say, God, I'm going to test you.

A few years ago, we gave a challenge.

We said, sign up to give for a year.

And if you don't see the blessing of God, we'll give it back.

That was a little crazy.

That's how much we believe in the blessing of God.

Just test him.

See if he doesn't show up because we believe in him so much.

We believe that he wants to give you joy, that he wants to give you blessing, that he believes that the local church is the hope of the world.

You know, to be a Christian, you don't have to pray.

You don't have to show up to church.

But we do, right?

Because we know that when we do, it works.

And yet this is the one thing that we're like, I don't know if it works or not.

I pray because I've seen it work.

I show up to church because I know I feel better.

So test him.

Test him and see if he doesn't throw open the floodgates of heaven on your life because that's our prayer for you.

We know that he's going to show up for this church.

We know that he's going to provide, but we want to see him throw open the floodgates of heaven on your life.

Would you pray with me?

God, we thank you for being the generous God that you are.

God, we thank you for your faithfulness, for your provision.

We thank you that you sent your one and only son.

God, I thank you that your spirit is here, that you promise that your word does not return void.

So God, I pray that however you're moving in every single one of us today, God, that you would not let your word return void.

But God, I know right now it's hard to understand a message about giving and generosity if we haven't met the giver himself.

So if there's anyone in this room that has yet to put their faith in Jesus, I want to give you that opportunity this morning because there is a God who loves you so much that he made the ultimate sacrifice and gave the ultimate gift beyond anything we can ever imagine so much so that he sent his son to die for you so that you could have eternal life

So that when you put your faith in him, you know that when you die, it is not the end.

That when you die, you will be resurrected to heaven and spend eternity with him.

And I want to give you the opportunity to put your faith in him today, to make him Lord of your life.

And if that's you, the Bible says you will feel him knocking on the door of your heart.

So on the count of three, I'm going to give you the opportunity to raise your hand.

With all heads bowed, all eyes closed, you're going to raise your hand just as a commitment so that I know who I'm praying with.

And then from your heart to his, I'm going to walk you through this prayer.

So on the count of three, would you boldly put your hand in the air?

One, two, three.

Shoot your hand up in the air if you want to make that prayer this morning.

Amen.

Amen.

I see you.

What an honor it is to pray this prayer with you.

You can put your hands down and from your heart to his, say, God, thank you for sending your son.

I put my faith in you this morning.

I turn and repent from my old ways and I run to you.

I make you Lord of my life.

It's in your name I pray.

Amen.

New Life Church, would you put your hands together for all of those who put their faith in Jesus this morning?

Full Sermon Transcript

How powerful is it that we can hear the word of God preached to us through an 11-year-old?

For those of you who are Michigan Wolverine fans or Michigan State fans, will you take this for me for a second?

I just want to remind you that I was in your shoes last week.

So as you had grace for me, I will have grace for you, and I'm mourning with you.

Jesus said to mourn with those who mourn, and to celebrate with those who celebrate.

And man, how about those Indiana Hoosiers, somebody?

I'm actually shocked by the response there.

I wasn't expecting that.

I expected a handful, but man, Western Broncos, come on, somebody.

Anyways, we're going to dive into the word of God now.

And so if you have your Bibles with us, we're in Matthew chapter 5.

We're going through the Sermon on the Mount.

And honestly, we're in the book of Matthew for the entirety of this semester.

We might even carry it into January.

I don't know yet.

I've added a few sermons that weren't expected. to this particular series.

And so I encourage you to bring your Bible.

I always tell you, man, I encourage you, man, download the YouVersion Bible app.

Get into the word every single day.

Get a plan.

Like if you don't have a plan, get a plan.

There's many out there.

The Bible has a lot to say about your life.

And so I encourage you to do that.

But how many of y'all know that the YouVersion Bible app on a phone is everyone's Bible, but it's not necessarily your Bible?

So I encourage you to have your Bible and if you don't have one, we'll help you get one.

If you need one, but we need to have a Bible.

And so I have multiple.

Matter of fact, I have probably too many.

I don't read all of them.

I'll give some if you come to me after service.

I have some extras.

But I want to talk to you today a little bit about, as we continue in the message in Matthew chapter 5, where Jesus is giving his first public sermon.

And in this particular context, we're going to get into some really, quite honestly, interesting counter-cultural and counter what I would call what we think is right and what we believe is right as people.

And so why do I pray that God would teach us by his ways is because his ways, how many of y'all know, are higher than our ways.

And we need his wisdom.

And in this section, there's a couple of different periods, I'm going to try and point them out to you, where Jesus is addressing the individual or on a personal basis.

And so, again, if you study the original languages that the Bible is written in, Hebrew, most of the Old Testament, and then Greek is the majority of the New Testament.

There's also Aramaic from time to time because it's the language that Jesus spoke.

And sometimes you don't really get in your Bible what is actually in the originals.

Because sometimes Jesus is talking to the masses, which means he's using plural language, and sometimes he's using singular.

You're back in the English language, right?

Plural and singular.

What does that mean?

It means sometimes he's talking to a group of people, that this matters to all of you, and some of it you need to take personally.

You need to do personal inventory of how you live this out.

And this sermon is going to be a little bit different because I'm covering a huge chunk of scripture.

And so if you're in the Bible, it's Matthew chapter 5, 22.

I think it starts even before that.

And it goes all the way until like verse 44 and beyond.

So it's a huge chunk.

I don't have time to read it all.

So here's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to say what Jesus says initially and then I'm going to come back with what he says at the end.

Are you with me?

Are you following what I'm saying?

Yes.

And Jesus does this.

He says, but I say to you, you've heard, do not murder.

Write the 10 commandments from Big Mo.

The first four are about loving God and the last six are about loving other people.

Can I tell you something?

You can't do the last six if you don't do the first four.

You gotta do them all.

And so Jesus is repeating what was talked about in the law of Moses, the 10 commandments, the big 10, not the conference.

But I say to you, you've heard, do not murder.

And then Jesus goes on and said, but it's not just a physical action.

You gotta understand that murder actually comes from the inside of you.

It's an overflow of your motives, of your heart, of your perspective before God.

Can I put it cleanly?

People who pursue God and his righteousness, people whose motives are godly and holy, they don't do things like murder.

Watch this.

Verse 22, Jesus says, anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.

Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, raka, which is Aramaic, is answerable to the court.

And anyone who says, you fool, will be in danger to the fire of hell.

Man, what have you said to your spouse this week?

Well, what have you said to a brother or sister with your words?

You didn't kill them.

You didn't murder them.

But man, you got so angry. and you didn't deal with your anger, and that anger began to pollute you and to destroy you.

It's an overflow of the heart.

It's an overflow of the motive.

He goes on and says, you've heard, do not commit adultery.

Verse 28 says, but anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Again, we've been talking about this.

The Bible uses a woman looking, or a guy looking at a woman lustfully.

Think about, who was it?

King David.

Who saw a woman who was not his wife bathing on a rooftop, and he saw it, and he wanted it.

He lusted.

And because he had that on the inside, it ended up causing destruction of multiple marriages.

And then he tried to hide it by killing her husband, which is also murder.

Anyone who looks lustfully at a woman or man has also committed adultery with her or him in his heart.

You've heard, go ahead, get a divorce.

But Jesus says anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her and him the victim of adultery.

And anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

You've heard, don't break your oaths or your vows, verse 34.

Jesus says, do not even swear an oath at all.

Man, you've heard, man, get revenge.

They did it to you, now do it to them.

But in verse 39, Jesus says, do not resist an evil person.

You've heard, man, love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

And then he says, no, I tell you to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

If you're taking notes, then I encourage you to do it because what Jesus is saying, we need to hear.

And we don't need to just hear here, we need to hear here.

And point number one, is that God's goal is a pure heart that leads to a pure life.

God's goal is a pure heart that leads to a pure life.

We, say we, need a change of heart.

A change of inner motive.

I don't know if you're...

If you're like me, but when I hear some of these words that Jesus is preaching, I can't help but think I'm convicted.

And I'll just say this out loud.

It's kind of been friendly and it's kind of fun banter.

And I try to share some things internally.

We try to be real with you.

And have any of you heard me tell my wife, like, you're the smartest dumb person I've ever met.

She's the dumbest smart person.

I don't even know how to say it right.

I am the dumbest smart person I've ever met.

Here's what I mean by that.

Kelsey finished second in her class out of like 500 students.

I finished like 165 out of 165.

And yet in our home,

We frequently have conversations where I share something with her and then she goes, and then she realizes I'm right.

And then she goes, how did you even know that?

You were 165, 165.

What was it this week?

Share it with me quick.

There was something this week.

Something just happened.

It's not appropriate.

Oh, it's because I had a colonoscopy this week.

And so there's probably something in that.

Anyways.

Fun fact, I pray that my doctor that performed the colonoscopy for me, he came into the hospital room right before they took me back.

And he asked, he said, hey, what do you do for a living?

And I said, well, I'm a pastor.

And then he kind of just, you know, went on his way.

And then I said, well, do you need one?

And he goes, yeah, I got a lot of stool in my life.

Get it?

How funny is that?

And then I proceeded to go into the room before doing that which a man never wants to have happen to him.

And this is way too much.

And I did what I did last week is I said to all the nurses and the helpers and the people, I said this, which you're gonna hear in a little bit.

I said, if you were to die today, on a scale of one to 10, how sure are you that you will end up in heaven?

I didn't get to finish it because then I waited too long.

So I hope they're watching.

That had nothing to do with anything.

What was I even talking about?

Oh, yeah.

So I'm basically confessing to you that I need to watch my words with my wife.

I need a change of heart.

We need a change of heart.

A change of inner motive.

A change that is supernatural.

It's a power that cannot be accomplished on our own.

So staying angry with or acting superior to or calling people names.

Verse 24, Jesus said, leave your gift there in front of the altar and first go and be reconciled to them and then come and offer your gift.

So watch this for just a second.

The people of that time would have

Gone to Jerusalem.

They would have gone to the temple.

There was one temple where God was being worshipped.

Aren't you grateful that we don't all have to travel to Jerusalem to worship Jesus, although we would like to do that someday.

Can I get an amen?

But we can come to this place and we can worship our God and lift up the King of Jesus with freedom and without fear of retaliation.

Can I get an amen?

And Jesus is saying in this moment,

He's talking about, hey, he says, do not murder, but you're angry with your brother or sister, and you've got unforgiveness in your heart, and you're calling people names, and you're treating people poorly.

And Jesus said, leave your gift on the altar.

So, by the way, historically, this is an altar.

This is where you would come, and it looks different in different churches, but you're basically coming to the main point of where Jesus exists.

Now, by the way, Jesus doesn't exist just because I'm on this platform.

Matter of fact, let me give you a little insight.

I made the worship team change a song before the service this morning, very last second.

And I did that not to make them unhappy, but because I wanted Jesus' name lifted high.

I wanted to make sure that he was the focus and not us, not me, not I, not we, him.

Because when we do that, he says that he inhabits the praises of his people.

Amen.

And guess what I'm after?

In this room, I'm after him being here, not just you.

Because if he's not here, none of this would matter.

And so Jesus is saying, when you come to the altar, when you come into God's house and you're bringing your gift, if you've got an issue with your brother or sister, you're angry, there's unforgiveness, there's an issue, first go and deal with it and then come and offer your gift.

Now watch what he said, watch this, because some of you, and you're going to get this by the end, some of you don't even bring your gift to the altar.

You brought nothing.

This is a representative right here.

Does that look like a lot of money?

Here, let me flip it around for you.

Does that look like a decent amount of money?

How many of y'all would like to have this amount of money right now?

My mother-in-law is getting really nervous because it came from her pocket.

I didn't have this on me.

But can I tell you something?

And I want you to understand something.

This right here is very close to the representation of the gift of that Kelsey and I bring to the altar of God every week.

You follow me?

And Jesus is saying, hey, you came to the altar to worship me.

Leave it at the altar.

Don't take it with you because that's still important.

Leave it there.

But if you've got an issue with your brother and sister, go deal with it.

Can I tell you what has become so calloused about us in the church?

I mean, don't raise your hand, but how many of y'all have left another church to come to this church?

And I would bet cash money, a lot of it came because you didn't actually try to do the work of forgiveness and reconciliation.

But how many of y'all know there's two takes two to tango?

So watch this.

What are the gifts that we bring to the altar?

I'm gonna tell you what gifts we bring to the altar of God.

We bring worship.

We bring singing.

We worship the Lord.

We bring that as a gift to him.

We bring our financial tithes and our financial offerings to the Lord to be used for his purposes to build up the body of Christ.

We bring our service to God using our spiritual gifts that God says that we are to use, that he prepared in advance for us to do.

We serve the Lord with the gifts that he gave us.

Why?

To build up his church.

So for some of you, next service we have something called discovery do you know what discovery does it helps you to know your spiritual gifts it helps you to know why god created you and the gifts that he created you with not just to be selfish and to use them for your purposes but to use them for his purposes

And so I said this a couple years ago, and I made a bunch of people mad, and some people left the church.

And I said, if you don't want to do that, then you should probably just give up the seat and go to another church.

Because you're being unfaithful to what God is calling us to do.

Are you following what I'm saying?

And so for some of you, man, you're like, man, I just showed up for the first time.

Welcome.

I'll give you a month.

I hope you understand I'm playing a little tongue-in-cheek here.

But all too often, here's the point I'm trying to make, all too often we run from this church to that church because, man, I like this about that and I like this about that.

It's not about you.

It's about him.

And when we make it about us,

That's when all this stuff, okay, I gotta move on.

I got a lot to cover today.

The gifts stay at the altar.

Jesus says, but don't miss the act of worship that is forgiveness and humility and peacemaking.

Forgive as Jesus has forgiven you.

Offering forgiveness and seeking reconciliation.

This is evidence of a redeemed life in Christ.

It's evidence of someone who's given it all to Jesus because Jesus gave it all for them.

It's evidence of a transformed heart.

It's not just exterior motivation.

It's inward motivation.

So instead, again, of bolting a church because someone hurts you, instead of bolting a marriage, instead of betraying a friend, man, forgive as Jesus has forgiven you.

Seek reconciliation as God through Christ has sought reconciliation for you with him.

Worship God in this way, just like you do by singing songs of worship to him, by giving your financial tithes and your offerings and by serving to build up his church because you're

Because if your heart stays tainted, all of those things will be tainted also.

And then, watch this.

So man, you're going to forgive someone and you're going to try to reconcile with that person who hurt you.

You're not going to harbor bitterness.

You're not going to harbor offense.

You're going to go deal with it.

But watch then what Jesus says next.

He says, but when you're the offender, when you're the one that caused the hurt, when you are the one who needs to be forgiven of the offense that you caused towards a brother, a sister, a wife, a husband, a friend, and even an enemy, if they confront you and they offer you forgiveness, here's what Jesus has to say.

Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court.

Do it while you are still together on the way

Or your adversary may hand you over to the judge and the judge may hand you over to the officer and you may be thrown into prison.

Truly, I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.

Can I tell you something?

That Jesus, the Bible says that the wages of sin is death.

You earned it.

Now own it.

Own it.

Own it.

Jesus, forgive me as I forgive other people.

And then he's saying, hey, man, we're gonna forgive other people, but hey, when we're the person in the wrong, when we said those things, when I called my wife the smartest, the dumbest smart person I've ever met, I need to stop doing that.

And you might think, pastor, that seems so silly and so simple and you're just being sarcastic.

And yeah, I get that, but sarcasm means the tearing of flesh.

Against the woman, the person that I love the most on this planet?

We've got to have a change of heart, a change of motive, and so we've got to take personal responsibility for the hurt that we've caused and the debt that needs to be paid.

Listen to me, pay it.

Don't try to find a way out or make excuses, and that's what we do, right?

Pay it.

You've cheated, committed adultery, or just looked at a woman or man lustfully.

You watched pornography.

You kept watching that TV show that shows nudity instead of finding a different show.

You keep following guys or girls on social media that are dressing promiscuously, or you keep reading those graphic romance novels that takes your mind to a place of lust.

And Jesus says in verse 29 through 30, if your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away.

It's better for you to lose one part of the body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

Can I tell you something?

Jesus is not necessarily saying that you and I need to take out a spoon and gouge out our eyes, but he is saying to you, you better take this seriously.

Are you following what I'm saying?

Amen.

And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away.

It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Can I ask you to show your hands for a moment?

Just hold on until I get there.

You're really nervous now because I already said not to do this, but here I'm asking you to do it.

Let me ask you this.

How many of you have experienced the pain of divorce in some way?

Raise your hands high.

You've had a friend whose family has gotten divorced.

You had a coworker.

You had a parent.

You had a mom or dad.

Somebody.

I honestly think that a lot of you, like you might need to check your pulse if you didn't raise your hand because all of us have seen it and felt it.

You can put your hands down.

Thank you for participating.

Can I tell you something?

Divorce has become so common because we have forgotten that we said yes.

We forgot that we said yes in sickness and in health for rich or poor, in good times and in bad until death do us part.

For most it's because we said yes to people we fell in lust with and not in love with.

You see, when I say yes to Kelsey before God, if she were to get sick and be paralyzed for the rest of our lives, because I said yes, I'm still in this.

If you're dating someone who is a deadbeat that won't get a job, that's right, I said deadbeat in church.

I know that might go against what Jesus just said, but you say, but he's cute.

Can I tell you something?

If you're dating someone who won't get a job, he won't be the husband who sacrifices himself for you like Jesus did for his bride.

He won't be the provider for you and your kids.

If he's not doing it now, he's not gonna do it later.

Jesus said, you heard all the divorces, sighting.

Man, we hear this all the time, right?

You see on the news, hey, so-and-so celebrity, they got divorced.

And what is the reason?

Irreconcilable differences.

Jesus said the two would become one.

Now watch this.

I want to make this clear because in this particular scripture,

Jesus is confronting specifically Jewish teaching.

And he says, man, the law of Moses said that you could give your wife a certificate of divorce except for sexual immorality.

And there were two mainstream thoughts in the Jewish culture of that time.

There was the, I believe it was the Shammai and then the Hillel.

And the Shammai would have been more the conservative side of the scriptures in this point.

And the Hillel would have been liberal, which means, which literally Hillel, this is how they would teach it.

If you were a husband and your wife like made a meal for you and it was spoiled or not good, you could give her a certificate of divorce.

Yeah, go study Hillel.

Shammai would have held to the more strict reading of scripture that the only way that Jesus is stating in this particular scripture is for sexual immorality.

Now how many divorces happen because of way more than just sexual immorality?

Now watch this for a second.

Again, when we read the scriptures, we've got to read things in not just the context in which they live, but the context of the whole.

So Jesus says the only way out is through sexual immorality, which is again, he's talking about adultery, but even just lusting after someone, he's giving you an out.

But watch what Jesus says in the culture, because if you go to Mark chapter 10, and again in Matthew chapter 19, I believe it is, Jesus goes on and says, because remember the Jewish people were a little bit confused about what he was saying.

So some Pharisees came and tested him by asking this, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?

What did Moses command you?

Jesus replied.

They said, Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.

So this is Hillel, right?

He's just saying, hey, for whatever reason, just go ahead and do it.

Whatever's going to make you feel good, just get after it.

Here's what Jesus responded with.

It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law, Jesus replied.

But at the beginning of creation, watch this.

This is what God set in motion from the beginning of time.

But at the beginning of creation, God made them male and female, which addresses a lot in our current culture.

For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.

So they are no longer two, but one.

Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.

Jesus is saying there's no reason.

Not one.

Do you know why?

Because when you raised your hand, you've seen the collateral damage of divorce.

Matter of fact, I watched a pastor this week sharing his story about his wife divorcing him.

And he said the hardest day that he has is when it's the exchange day.

Because they have kids.

And when they're exchanging kids one from another, it's the worst pain imaginable, he says.

Can I tell you something?

Why Jesus tells us things like who we should marry and what we need to take seriously before we start saying yes and no to someone is because he's trying to prevent you from having this kind of damage in your life.

And for some of you, I want to approach it this way, because some of you, you've been through divorce.

You might have been the one that wrote the certificate.

You might have been the one that just said, hey, I need this, I want this, I whatever.

Just because you did that doesn't make it right.

And I want you to understand something, that just because I do something that goes against God doesn't mean that we should just stop saying what God says is right and wrong.

Are you following what I'm saying?

Amen.

Because how many of you who have been through the pain of divorce can look around the room at some of these young people and kids and you do not want them to go through what you have gone through?

Can I tell you, that is the heart of God.

You heard, man, you could do all this divorce citing and you could find a way out.

And Jesus said in this particular passage, but in other passages, you could do it for reasons of sexual immorality because you're making each other adulterers then.

And then Jesus goes on and he says, he doubles down and he says, don't just make vows or oaths.

How many of us in our marriages have made vows?

You made vows.

I made vows.

Guess what?

I lead people to have vows in a marriage celebration and service.

But Jesus doubles down and says, don't just make vows or oaths.

Verse 37, he says, all you need to say is simply yes or no.

Anything beyond this comes from

The evil one.

Because if you say yes or no and then start to do other things, then you're at risk of becoming a liar.

Bearing false witness.

Jesus says, you've heard it said, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.

Someone wants to sue you.

Someone wants to sue you and take your shirt.

Someone forces you to go another mile.

Verse 39 and 42, this is just to paraphrase because it was too long for me to put in this particular section.

He says, someone wants to take your shirt or forces you to go a mile.

He tells you don't hit back.

Give generously.

And then serve beyond what's expected.

Sounds like he's trying to kill selfishness within us, doesn't it?

Love your neighbors and hate your enemies.

No, no, no, no.

But Jesus said, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Verse 47, if you are kind, listen to me.

Again, a paraphrase, if you are just kind or hospitable only to your friends, Jesus says, even pagans, ungodly people do that.

There's two examples of this that I'm seeing so powerfully in our world right now.

Nigerian Christians who are being slaughtered by radical Islamists known as jihadists to seek global enforcement of Sharia law, and they'll do it by force, by violence, by terrorism.

But Nigerian Christians continue to show kindness and hospitality to those who are even trying to kill them.

Of course, you know of a guy named Charlie Kirk who was assassinated by someone who disagreed with him saw him as an enemy and Charlie Kirk's widow, Erica Kirk, willingly forgave her husband's murderer.

These are supernatural examples of a kingdom heart and a kingdom motive.

In the podcast this week, we are gonna dig into the scriptures to see the difference between our personal response to Jesus that he's calling us to live out here versus also the expectation that God has in establishing governmental authorities or rulers to express his justice on the earth. to protect the innocent and cause fear for those who do evil.

Let me give you some examples in the church that I've seen in the past couple months and years.

Let me say, what is fond of guests and even fond of your enemies?

We sang this song, I dine in the presence of our enemies.

What does that mean?

It means that you're around even your enemies.

Like we coach our entire church on being welcoming.

How many of you came through the doors and you felt welcomed?

Some of you are wondering until you got to this moment, but I'm gonna promise you'll feel welcomed. not just within these doors, but at our dinner tables, Christ followers, at our kids' games.

The staff reminded me of a day at the church before we had even started the services.

All the renovations were coming in and I was actually sitting in the cafe and a man walked in from the street or from the parking lot and he started yelling for someone.

He's like, can I talk to the pastor?

Can I talk to the pastor?

And none of our staff was here.

It was just me and all the construction workers.

And a guy walked in and he's like, can I talk to someone?

I'm like, yeah, come sit down.

So he came and sat down.

And he was dressed up.

I would classify him as probably like someone who liked to ride motorcycles because he had like the full leather get up that people wear so they don't get scrapes when they fall and whatever.

Although he wasn't wearing a shirt.

It was literally just like all skin.

And what do you call those, vests?

A vest.

Which anyways, so he's sitting across from me and he starts to tell me my story or tell me his story.

And he's like, hey, I just wanted to come here because I see that you're opening soon and I want to know if I can come.

And I'm like, yeah, anyone can come.

Everyone is welcome.

And then he began to tell me, he's like, but I got to tell you, like sometimes the girl inside of me wants to come out.

And so I started to ask him questions.

I started to say, like, what does that mean?

Like, can you explain further?

And he's like, well, I've gone from this church to that church.

And then when I show up like this, it's fine.

But then when I show up like a girl, it's not fine.

And so I'm having this conversation with him.

And I started to ask him more questions.

I'm like, can you tell me about your family?

Can you tell me about your home?

Can you tell me about all these other things?

Come to find out this man had had a traumatic brain injury from a motorcycle accident.

And can I tell you something?

I didn't... I loved him.

I welcomed him.

But can I tell you something?

That we are welcome here and in God's house until we make ourselves unwelcome.

And so I told him he could come.

I don't think he ever came.

But I told him he could come.

And we had a conversation that day about how Jesus loved him, died for him, but... he also needed to understand that Jesus did not make a mistake when he made him.

And yes, he had had these issues and he had this unbelievable brain traumatic injury and I get it.

But we were hospitable even to those who don't look like us, act like us and have it all together.

People are welcome until they make themselves unwelcome.

We've had women and men within the church who have gone through a divorce and who have experienced the radical transformation of a loving father that has reminded them that they no longer have to live in shame, condemnation, or guilt because Jesus died to set them free just like he set everybody else free.

They've also committed to walking alongside of those considering divorce to help them fight for their marriages. so that they don't experience the same pain and consequences that they did.

This is what it looks like to have a transformed heart before Jesus.

We have women within the church who previously had an abortion

They know the pain of that decision, and with the forgiveness of Jesus and the freedom they now walk in, they've committed to walking alongside other women facing the same decision, helping them fight for the unborn, find alternative options for the baby, and to see the value in themselves and their child.

There's another woman in our church who has a teenager considering having an abortion right now, but at the sound of her child's heartbeat, she decided she wanted to keep that.

Actually, this is a long time ago.

I'm reading this wrong.

This was given to me by my wife.

There's a woman in our church whose son is literally a freshman at the University of Alabama who was on the table ready to get an abortion but heard her child's heartbeat and she decided to keep him.

Again, her son is now grown and she uses that testimony to tell the teens that there is another way.

And they have someone else who will come alongside of them if they ever were to find themselves in the same situation.

This is a transformed heart before Jesus.

Which is point number two.

A transformed heart leads to irrational reconciliation.

Verse 48, Jesus says, be perfect just as your heavenly father is perfect.

Psalm 119.11 says, I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

We have to have this hidden in our heart that we know what is right and good and godly.

That we might not sin against him.

Number three, if you're taking notes, radical love is the mark of a Christian because Jesus has radically loved us.

2 Corinthians 5, 17 through 21 says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come.

The old has gone, the new is here.

And all this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against him.

And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

We are, therefore, Christ's ambassadors as though God were making his appeal through us.

We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God because God made him Jesus who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Last week I shared a story and it's the story again of what I was trying to say to the nurses in my colonoscopy room.

I was trying to share the gospel of Jesus with them.

And one thing that I wanna do for you, church, is I want to teach you how to be a person who can share the gospel of Jesus in your own workplace.

In your own teams.

With your own family.

So here's the question.

If you were to die today on a scale of one to 10, are you sure that you would enter heaven today?

Ten, you're 100% sure you're going to heaven.

Five, you're like, I don't know.

One, you're like, hmm.

Second question.

The Bible says that every one of us will stand before God in judgment on the last day.

And he's going to ask us, why would I let you in? so that's the second question why should god let you in if you die today do you know you'd end up in heaven scale one to ten and then when jesus asks you why should i let you in what's your answer so right now i want to i want to tell you how you can answer those questions appropriately you ready

If I were to give you tickets to your favorite team or your favorite concert, the best seats in the house, the best sound, the best seat, the best look.

Again, if you were a Lions fan, you go to the Lions game and you could literally feel the sweat of those players dripping on you.

You're that close.

I gave you tickets.

I gave them to you.

You're going to go to Ford Field, and you're going to go to the 50-yard line, and you're going to be in the front row seats, the best ever, or Ohio State, or Michigan, or the long, whatever it is.

Best seats in the house.

I gave them to you.

My gift to you.

And you show up, and before they let you in, they say, hey, why should we let you in?

You're like, I got a ticket.

I got a ticket.

And they say to you, that's great.

Did you pay for that ticket?

And that's when you say, no.

My pastor is such a good guy, he gave it to me.

The Bible says that the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, the Son.

And can I tell you something?

If you answered that first question with a five or a six or a seven or a two or a one, when you put your faith in Jesus, he didn't just pay for 50% of your sin.

He paid for 100% of your sin.

And when you stand before the heavenly father, when you pass away, the answer is I belong here because I belong to Jesus.

It's the free gift of salvation that you can earn.

He gave it to you.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we pray right now that many in the room today will stop putting their hope in their own abilities

That we would realize, God, that we are all poor in spirit, bankrupt before you in need of your perfection to be deposited into our account.

So God, when we hear these scriptures, we realize our need for you.

And we're going to do what the Bible tells us to do, to repent, to turn from those ways and to turn to you, Jesus, to believe on you and to ask you to save us.

Jesus, we believe that you paid the penalty for us so that we don't have to.

But then you also promised that because you rose from the grave, we can too.

The old is gone and the new is coming.

So in this moment, you're going to fill us with your Holy Spirit.

God, the power, the same power that defeated sin and death can defeat sin and death in us right here and right now.

That it can transform our heart and our motive. to become more like you.

So in this moment, on the count of three, if you're one of these two people wanting to make Jesus the Lord of your life for the first time, or you want to come back to him, if you're in the room or watching online right now, I want you to shoot your hand all the way up in the air.

I want you to shoot it up as an act of faith before God.

One, I'm giving my life to Jesus.

Two, I'm coming back to you, Jesus.

Shoot your hand up.

Three, right now, let's pray this prayer together. out loud, everyone in the room, say, Lord Jesus, forgive me of my sins.

Make it personal.

Take my sin.

And by your grace, I receive your righteousness deposited into my account.

Jesus, I make you the Lord of my life.

And from this day forward,

I give you all that I am.

I say yes to you.

I hold nothing back.

Fill me with your Holy Spirit.

In Jesus' name.

And everybody said, Amen.

Full Sermon Transcript

I was going to tell you you could be seated, but you're already there.

If I seem a little down and out today, I'm struggling with something known as the man cold.

And all of you who are married know that it's different for men.

Amen, men, right?

So this has nothing to do with the longhorns getting throttled by the Florida Gators yesterday.

It has nothing to do with my cubs getting walloped by the Brewers.

This has everything to do with genetics and manness.

So pray for me, if you will.

We are continuing.

I'm going to have to do this probably a couple times.

I'll try to keep the mic off so you don't have to hear all that.

You know, anyways, we ready to go?

Matthew chapter 5, we're continuing in Jesus' message, Jesus' first public teaching.

Last week we went into the Beatitudes, and this is the Sermon on the Mount.

And if we're being honest, this particular section of Scripture is probably the most confusing and probably the most debated and maybe misunderstood and mistaught parts of Scripture.

And in Matthew chapter 5, verse 17, he says, Do not think... that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.

I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

So if you're taking notes, and I encourage you to do so, let me summarize it this way.

Number one, Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the scripture. many options, but Jesus didn't cancel the scriptures.

He affirmed them and he completed them.

You see, Jesus is the fulfillment of every promise, every prophecy, and every law found in the scriptures.

And you and I need to understand this, that it's by faith alone that his righteousness can be deposited into our bankrupt account.

You and I, because we are sinners, because we fall short, because we missed the mark, we cannot fulfill the scripture like Jesus did perfectly.

Which is why we need his righteousness deposited into our bankrupt account.

In 2 Corinthians 5.21, it says, God made him who had no sin to be sinned for us.

So that in him, you might want to answer, it could be God.

It could be the Lord.

I will hug you afterwards if you want to hug this sick man, whoever phone went off, but that's for the rest of you.

Turn off your phones.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him, watch this, in him, we might become the righteousness of God.

This righteousness doesn't come from you, it comes from him.

And so we can't discard the parts of scriptures that you don't like.

In fact, when you don't like a particular area of scripture, it means that it's an indicator that this is exactly the place that you need Jesus to come and heal and restore and change that which is in you. he continues, Jesus continues and says, for truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, is it still here?

Earth?

Not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished.

Now,

My staff didn't want me to share this with you, but really if you go back to some of the Greek language or different translations, when it says not the smallest letter or not the least stroke of a pen, it's actually the words jot, say jot, and tittle.

And the reason they didn't want me to share that is because they're too immature to say the word tittle in church.

That was Kelsey, that was my wife, just to be clear. jot and tittle.

Jot is referencing the Greek letter iota.

It's the smallest letter in the entire language that is written the New Testament of God.

Iota is like dotting an I or crossing a T, which means literally nothing should be absent from the very written word of God.

Are you following what I'm saying?

Not one thing.

And so our approach to the word of God can be scrolling through going, oh, man, that's good.

I like that.

Oh, yeah, I don't understand that, so I'm just going to skip over it.

Oh, I don't know.

That doesn't agree with my lifestyle or what I want to do with my life.

And so I'm just going to skip over it.

Maybe someone else can do it.

Until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law.

Say this out loud with me.

Until, is it on the screen?

It's not on the screen.

I tried really hard to do that, build it up for you.

It's the words until everything is accomplished.

Which means that Jesus has returned.

He's destroyed heaven and earth and he builds a new one.

The old is gone. and the new has come.

Therefore, anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Can I tell you why it's so important?

We're gonna get more into this message.

Why it's so important, so important that you are a follower of Jesus in the word of God every day. in his house every week and around his people more than you're around the people who are not of God.

Why this matters?

Because if you set aside one of the least of these commands and teach others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

It's really quiet in here right now.

Can I tell you something?

We've become so mesmerized by the world that we've missed the word.

We spend more time on...

I said it last week, TikTok and Facebook and social media, and we spend so much time scrolling and hearing what God has to say about who we should be from the world rather than his word.

And therefore, we could become called the least in the kingdom of heaven.

But whoever, this is, by the way, this is Jesus speaking.

This is not, I was not standing there on the mount 2,000 years ago.

Whoever practices and teaches these commands would be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

So number two, you and I have to land the plane on the authority of God's word.

When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, and Jesus' response was,

It is written.

Don't you think that if the written word of God was important to Jesus, it should be important to us?

So here's the problem.

We need, number two, the authority of God's word to rule and to reign over our lives.

The problem is we, some...

Some try to pick and choose again which commands mattered most and ignore the rest.

Like I see this all over social media right now.

It's literally, it could be Christians, it could be pastors, it could be whoever.

And it's like, yeah, Jesus said this 2,000 times and he said this 150 times.

And I literally read this this morning and I'm like, it all matters.

Yes, he emphasizes some things, and to be honest with you, when he emphasizes some things, a lot of times it's because of the people he was in front of who needed to hear the emphasis, right?

The emphasis on the syllable because he saw their life, and he saw their work, and he saw what was going on inside of them, and he called it out of them.

They all matter to Jesus Christ.

Let me give you some examples, and again, we're doing a podcast these days, and we're going further into the message because there's a lot of things that I can't, that we can't, the people who preach God's word on the weekend, that we can't pack into one message.

Like, how many of y'all know, like, you need to be devoted and committed to God and God's word and God's house and God's people because you aren't gonna get all this in one 30-minute sermon.

I beg you, I implore you, stop trying to live a godly life with one 30 minute message.

Is anyone, are you with me?

Stop getting your theology from the news.

Stop getting your theology from social media.

Let me give you some examples of God's truth that have been extraordinary and manipulated by our world, and quite honestly, the world's bought into it.

And I want to, again, I want you to be able to ask questions.

There's a girl here that comes to Alpha on Tuesday nights.

Is she in the room today, or is she in next service?

She's in second service.

I love this girl.

She is the tiniest little thing.

What, 20-something?

20-something?

And I've come two weeks in a row and she asks the best question.

Can I tell you something?

Never stop asking questions.

Never stop pursuing Jesus.

Never stop asking the word his way.

Jesus is the word made flesh and he dwelt among us.

Never stop.

Even when you have faith, keep growing your faith by asking God to speak.

And here's what I want you to understand.

We're going to get to this in a minute.

How many of y'all know that God can speak through a dream?

God can speak through a prophecy.

God can speak through a prophet, right?

The law and the prophets.

But can I tell you how you need to filter what gets said to you?

Does it match with the living word of God?

Because the same Holy Spirit who wrote this is not going to disagree with this.

It has to go through the filter of is it actually with what God says? in his word.

So here's some things that we bought into.

Again, text.

Right now, a matter of fact, on our Instagram, is that correct?

We have a story.

If you know what stories are, you can ask questions.

And so if you're like, hey, I don't really understand this, or this is unfamiliar to me, can you explain this more?

That's why we're doing the podcast, so we can answer questions.

By the way, if we don't get to your question, we're going to keep it so that hopefully we can get to it in the future.

On Fridays, if you don't follow me, I'm starting something new, something a lot of pastors are doing, and here's why we're doing it.

It has nothing to do with come follow me.

I could care less if you follow me on Instagram, but here's what we want to do.

We want to answer your questions.

You're getting your questions answered on TikTok, Facebook, and whatever, and the church has been silent.

And so we want to approach this with, hey, ask a pastor, ask someone who's in the word of God to be here to equip you in God's word.

So on Fridays, I answer questions and man, you can ask anything.

I mean, it could be silly.

What's a silly question you could ask?

Where's my favorite fast food restaurant?

Do you know what the answer would be?

It probably was.

It probably would be.

Yeah.

Here's how Christians have been manipulated by our world, and quite honestly, you've been silent about it.

And me, I'm guilty of this too.

Things like gay marriage.

You literally feel like you can't even say anything.

God defined marriage.

Marriage. as one man, one woman for life.

Jesus affirms this in Matthew 19, four through six.

And again, in Mark 10, six through nine, he didn't just throw out what God said in the beginning.

He reaffirmed it.

Transgenderism.

Do you think God made a mistake when he created male and female in his image?

What kingdom are we living under?

What kingdom are we responding to?

You're like, Pastor, it feels a little intense.

I'm going to smile.

Can I smile for just a second?

What I'm doing is I'm confronting lies you've believed with the Word of God.

I'm confronting ideologies that have so forced themselves on you that you're afraid to even speak against it.

Transgenderism, how about this?

Kids being able to choose for themselves the mutilation of their sexual organs.

That is sick.

That's sick.

The killing of babies in the womb.

Because it's inconvenient.

Can I tell you the top three reasons given for why women have abortions?

It's because they can't afford a baby or they will interrupt a personal plan like school or work or activity, which means it's inconvenient.

Or number three, not wanting to raise the child alone.

Can I tell you something?

This is why marriage between one man and one woman for life is crucial.

So that a child doesn't have to live in a single parent home.

And when a godly man is following the word of God and loves his bride like Christ loves the church, he will love his family as well and provide for them and care for them and protect them.

I hope I get some questions more this week.

This is us.

This is why marriage between one man and one woman for life is so crucial.

It's submitting to the will of God.

Men are called to be the providers of their homes.

It's why sex should not happen outside of marriage because then you don't have a lack of commitment and ending up with fatherless homes.

Girls, guys, I'm talking, by the way, I'm, I'm, I'm,

I'm being harder on Christians.

Like, you need to hear this.

We need to hear this.

Young adults, young people, students, do not buy into the lie that you have to have sex before marriage.

As a matter of fact, it will ruin parts of your marriage that you don't even know yet.

Pornography, it will destroy your marriage in ways you don't even understand and can't comprehend.

It's why you have a hard time relating to someone who is real because you're trying to get something that you want to be real from something that is fake and not real.

New wine, new life, a new way.

Do you see the problems that exist when godliness isn't a part of our lives and our culture and even our world?

Let me talk about, I think I turned it off.

I like turned it off, but then turned it back on and awful.

Some of you are not going to like some of the stuff I'm saying today, but I'm talking.

Here's the problem.

Some of you are like, Dan, you're talking about politics.

I'm talking about the kingdom of God.

I'm talking about spirituality.

This is not political.

This is God's word.

How about socialism and communism?

Oh, gosh, I'm out.

I'm out.

Can I tell you what that is?

That's forced stealing from someone's hard work to pay for others that don't work as hard or don't work at all.

These are ungodly manipulations of the scripture.

We care for those who are hurting broken poor, absolutely.

But never ever does the Bible not expect personal responsibility to come into play.

It's why we have a ministry called Safe Families to come alongside of single moms, mostly who don't have any kind of support system, who have probably had men that have bailed on them.

The church is and should be the best support system on the planet.

We support you, but we, listen to me clearly, we support you, but we cannot do it for you.

Here's a godly principle found in 1 Thessalonians 3.10.

If you do not work, you shall not eat.

Guys, that's easy.

It's so easy, isn't it?

If you do not work, you shall not eat.

Take responsibility to provide for yourself.

In 1 Thessalonians, it says, and then when you do that, you're not a burden to others.

How many of y'all want to be a burden to someone else?

We've bought into lies that the truth comes in and shares it.

So plainly, parents, if you're, let me put it this way, if your kids aren't learning work ethic right now in your home, getting a job in middle school or high school, or even younger than that, you're missing the mark.

Then what do they, then they earn something, then what do they do with what they earn?

My girls are nine and seven.

They do chores right now.

We have them on what's called the Greenlight app, and they have to do chores every day.

And if they do all of them, they'll earn money by the end of the week.

It's an allowance, but they're earning it.

And then, because we're believers, because we're disciples, not just because we're pastors, we expect our children to tithe off of what they earned.

Because God is first, God is their provider.

And so they bring back to the church 10% of what they earned to be obedient to God.

And then they save 30% and then they can spend the rest with whatever they want.

How many of y'all think we need some kids that know how to do this?

We need some adults that need to know how to do this.

This is the wisdom that comes from the Almighty. that benefits us and benefits the people around us and the world around us.

I was made aware this past week that we have two young boys who are in the kids' wing.

They started a tithing jar, and so they do chores, and every time they get cash from their parents for the work that they do, or any kind of work that they do, and then they put their tithe in their jar, and literally last week, $34.12 showed up to the church.

Can I just tell you, do the math.

What did they earn?

What did they earn?

$341.20.

This is teaching kids to follow Jesus.

Teaching them to be responsible.

Teaching them to take on God's wisdom and to live it out.

You gotta know this, God's word stands unshaken.

Every detail matters.

And Jesus shows its true meaning in who he is and who he was.

So what should we do?

We need to stop negotiating with scripture.

We need to build our life on God's word, not on cultural trends.

Isaiah 40 verse eight says, "'The grass withers and the flowers fade, "'but the word of our God will stand forever.'"

Matthew 5, 20, Jesus continues and says, for I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

So he's literally, he has all these people around him and he's saying, hey, these are the religious elite of the day.

They're the teachers of the law and they're the prophets and your righteousness needs to surpass theirs.

What?

What?

I'm sorry, what?

So let's take this on for a second.

Imagine me, I'm a teacher, right, of God's word.

Let's compare lives.

Yours needs to be better than mine.

I'm just, I'm kidding.

I'm not a Pharisee.

But that's what it would look like.

It's like, you need to have a heart after God and God's word so much so that you continually allow him to transform your life.

That you've never arrived.

You've never all of a sudden, oh man, I'm perfect.

I got it.

Which leads us to number three.

I need the perfect righteousness of Jesus deposited into my account.

We already explained that.

The Pharisees obeyed outwardly, but Jesus calls for a heart that is transformed.

To walk in righteousness starts with receiving Jesus' righteousness.

Ephesians 1, 13 through 14, it says, and you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation.

When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit, say deposit, guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of his glory.

You see, image-based religion won't save you.

It's why some of you, you gotta start trying to stop looking the part, and I got it together, and man, look at me and what I have, and man, I'm dressed real pretty, and man, I talk real sweet, but man, Jesus is looking at the motive beneath it all.

Are you wanting people to look at you and how awesome you are?

Or are you just sincerely trying to follow the Lord?

Image-based religion won't save you.

Only Christ's righteousness counts.

Matthew 5.35.3, which we talked about last week, right?

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

What's the poor in spirit?

It means I realize I am bankrupt without God.

My good deeds pale in comparison to who he is.

So what do we gotta do?

We gotta stop performing for approval and just surrender our hearts to Christ who is perfect in every way.

We gotta let the Holy Spirit reshape our motives and our actions.

We gotta pursue holiness.

Watch this, even when no one is watching.

But also we gotta let people who are watching help us to become more holy.

First Peter 1.16 says, for the scriptures say, you must be holy because I am holy.

Galatians 5.16 through 18 says, so I say, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Which means if you're still chasing after the desires of the flesh that God calls sinful, you need to see that as a sign.

You need to see that in his word as a, hey, that needs to change.

I need to repent and walk.

In his ways, for the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit and the spirit what is contrary to the flesh.

Can I tell you something?

If you come to me or any believer for that matter and say, hey, I don't feel like God is very close right now.

Can I tell you, there's two things that I would ask you.

One is how close are you drawing to God?

Because I don't know if you know this, but every relationship that you have, it takes two at least.

Like you have to make a decision to pour into that relationship.

You gotta show up for date night.

You gotta show up to have a relationship.

And so my first question to you would be, hey, are you showing up every day to have a relationship with God?

How does this happen?

Some of you are tired of me saying it, but even if it's just the 15 minutes a day, I suggest the first 15, where you go to God's word for five minutes.

You go to worship.

You say, God, I am not you, but you are God, and I'm going to worship you for who you are.

Five minutes in worship and five minutes in prayer.

Can I tell you how you can't have a relationship with someone if you don't talk to them?

If you don't show up.

But can I tell you also why he might feel distant?

It's because the word of God says that he grieves when we sin against him.

And I don't know if you know this, but when I grieve, I often get a little bit shut down.

I often come a little bit, I get a little bit more reserved.

I start, and so if you're grieving the Holy Spirit, you need to ask yourself, is there something in your life that needs to go?

Because you're grieving him.

It doesn't mean he's gone.

He says he will be with you through it all.

But you need to engage in relationship.

You need to engage with him.

They are in conflict with each other so that you are not to do whatever you want.

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

List of sins.

Let me throw up this list of sins for just a moment.

If you've got it, Galatians 5, 19 through 21, do you have it?

They just wrote it.

They didn't have it on the screen.

That's my fault.

I gave them the wrong type of notes.

I was going to pull up that list of sins from the beginning of this series.

Right?

Pride and greed and homosexuality and heterosexual sex before marriage.

And hey, we've talked about if you're living together before marriage, it's sin before God.

You're not keeping the marriage bed holy.

And I said, well, Dan, you don't understand how good I am at not sinning sexually.

Then you are the strongest human being I've ever met in my entire life.

It's not possible.

Some of you, you might be watching pornography.

You might be doing all sorts of things.

But here's the deal.

If you see yourself on that list of sins and don't repent from it, and turn to walk in God's ways, you will grieve the Holy Spirit.

He will get silent.

It doesn't mean he's gone, but he will get quiet.

But watch this.

Galatians 5, 16, so walk by the Spirit and you will gratify the desires of flesh.

You will not gratify the desires of flesh.

So what happens when you do follow the Holy Spirit, when you listen to his voice?

The fruit of the Spirit...

Galatians 5, 21, 22 through 25 is the result of his presence within us is love.

How many of y'all need to have a little more love in your life?

This is a fruit of the spirit.

What does that mean?

It means you have unselfish concern for others.

It means that you love someone unconditionally as Christ has loved you unconditionally.

It means you have the experience of joy.

It means you're gonna go through issues and you're gonna go through problems, but there's an unexplicable kingdom of God, joy.

There's peace, inner peace, meaning that the storms can be going on in and around you.

You could be going through some of the worst problems in your life, but yet this supernatural peace, the peace of God, which is a gift of God, comes to you.

Patience.

Man, I don't know about you, but I think that really everyone in America could learn this lesson.

Be filled a little bit more with patience.

Not the ability to wait, but how we act while we're waiting.

Kindness.

Goodness, faithfulness, gentleness.

Lord Jesus, help me with gentleness.

I said that to be funny, but I'm also saying that real.

And self-control.

Self-control.

Self-control.

Self-control.

If we claim to live by the Holy Spirit, we must also walk by the Spirit with personal integrity, godly character, and moral courage.

Our conduct empowered by the Holy Spirit. not trying to look right, not trying to look left, not trying to, no, we don't walk in here with, oh, God, what do they think of me?

No, no, we are here to please the living God.

Have the Holy Spirit's desire, motive to be right with God.

The distinction, this was the distinction between the Pharisees and the new believers.

We don't discard the parts of the scripture you don't like.

In fact, those are indicators of the things that need to change in you.

2 Peter 1 through 4, by his divine power, God has given us, say this word with me, everything we need for living a godly life.

We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.

And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises.

These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world's corruption caused by human desires.

If you want to live the king's standards, here's how you do it.

Number one, you build your life on the word of God, the Bible.

Build your life on the word of God.

Number two, yield to and be empowered by God, the Holy Spirit.

And number three, walk closely with the people of God, the church.

You need all three.

You need all three.

You need all three.

You can't do it alone.

You need his word, his written word.

Jesus responded with the written word.

He is the written word and yet he responded with the written word.

The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit wrote the word of God.

The Holy Spirit is indwelling within you.

And you need to walk closely with the people of God, the church.

Why?

Because the Holy Spirit of God lives in them.

And they will call you up and they will call you out into God's righteousness.

Can I get an amen?

For just a moment, I want to give you an opportunity to respond to Jesus.

To trust him as your Lord and Savior.

And I want to do this, honestly, as kind of an example for you as believers on how to share your faith in Christ, but also to share with you someone who might not have a relationship with Christ to experience one today.

I want to ask you two questions.

If you walked out of these doors today, got in your car and died in a car accident, would you know that you're going to hell on a scale of one to 10?

How certain are you that you're going to heaven?

Scale of one to 10.

How certain are you?

And number two, when God asks you, why do you deserve to be here?

What would you tell him?

Why should I let you in?

Is there a Lions game today?

What time is it?

Matt, you got time.

So imagine with me for a second that I had tickets.

I don't have tickets, but imagine I did.

And I gave them to you, the best seats in, is it Ford Field?

This is how much I don't know much about the Lions.

I need to get engaged.

I give you the best seats, 50 yard line.

Like you can, the players are so close.

You can, they shake their head and you can feel a sweat.

Like, it's just amazing.

I give you the best seats in the house. tickets to Fort field and you show up to Fort field and they stop you before you get in and, and they say, Hey, why, why should we let you in?

And you're like, I got tickets.

Did you pay for the tickets?

Did you pay for the tickets?

No.

Why?

Because I gave them to you.

Jesus Christ gave you the ticket to heaven.

I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except by me.

And it's only by faith in Jesus that you will have a ticket to his kingdom.

So when you show up to heaven, you can say, state clearly and definitively, I have believed in Jesus, the son of God, who died to pay the penalty of my sin, defeated death and defeated sin.

And because he rose again, I too can rise again.

The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

And if you want to receive him today with every head bowed and every eye closed, you want to give your life to Jesus.

You want to call him Lord, maybe for the first time, or maybe you want to come back to him in this moment.

On a count of three, I want you to shoot your hand all the way up in the air.

One, I'm giving my life to Jesus.

Two, I'm rededicating my life to Jesus.

Three, shoot your hand straight up in the air.

And let's pray this prayer together.

Everyone out loud in the room, let's pray this out loud together.

Say, Lord Jesus, forgive me of my sin.

Take my sin.

And by your grace, I receive your righteousness.

Jesus, I make you the Lord of my life.

I give you all that I am.

I hold nothing back.

Fill me with your spirit.

In Jesus' name.

And everybody said, amen.

You can put your hands down as we put our hands together and say, welcome home.

Full Sermon Transcript

Happy birthday, New Life Church.

Today we're celebrating our ninth birthday as a church, and we're celebrating what God has done, and we're celebrating what he is doing, and we're also prayerful and hopeful for what he's going to do.

Can I get an amen?

Why we exist is to see people find new life in Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Knowing God personally, not just knowing about him, but knowing him personally.

Finding freedom from the sin that has us enslaved.

And discovering our God-designed purpose that God has literally designed you, designed me on purpose for his glory.

And then making a difference with that purpose.

Watch this.

That ends up with more people in heaven.

That's what our purpose is.

And so today, if you want to respond to Jesus, repent of your sin, accept that Jesus paid the penalty of your sin in dying on the cross in your place, defeating sin and death, something you can't do and I can't do, rising again so that you can live a resurrected, blessed life now and in heaven, man, this is your day to be baptized, to be washed clean, to be completely forgiven.

Amen.

And so you may not have come in here thinking, man, I'm going to get baptized today, but man, we have shorts, we have towels, we have t-shirts, we got everything you need to take this step of faith.

There's already 16 people registered, but I believe more are going to respond to Jesus right here and right now.

And so by the end of the service, if God is moving in your heart and you want to receive him and respond to him and be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, we want you to take that step today.

Again, we'll try, I think women, we might have some things to help you make you look pretty again, right?

But we got towels, we got everything you need.

I'm so excited for the people being baptized today in this room.

But I also need to tell you that I received a text this week that just blew my mind from the director of one of our global missions partners who are working in the 1040 window.

And by the way, the 1040 window, if you don't know, it's mostly Muslim countries and it's very aggressively against Christianity, right?

We're seeing Christians martyred and killed in mass quantities in these nations because they're afraid of what Jesus could do to set people free.

And I got a text this week that eight people were baptized this week in the name of Jesus in the 1040 window because of what you're doing.

Because of how you're praying for the unreached people groups, because we're giving to help the gospel to go where it's really hard for it to go.

Your prayers to the unreached people, you're giving to Kingdom Builders Global.

It's making an eternal difference, not just here in this room, but around the world.

Can I just say this?

You should be proud of that.

You should be proud of that.

Because really, the greatest thing about the gospel of Jesus is that it just doesn't come to us, but it goes through us to someone else.

Can I get an amen?

Now today we're gonna dive into, as we're in this series, Jesus and his kingdom, we're diving into probably the most famous sermon that ever existed.

And by the way, it was the first public sermon that Jesus ever gave.

And he had all sorts of people that were watching.

He had people who were eventually going to kill him in the crowd.

He had people who were poor.

He had people that were rich.

He had people who were Jews and who knew the scriptures about him.

And he had all these different types of people and he began to preach

The Sermon on the Mount, which is in Matthew chapter five.

And in the first part, it's the Beatitudes.

And so right now, I just want to take a time out before we get into it.

If you don't know, or if you're new to New Life Church, we actually started, my wife and I started two weeks ago, I believe, a podcast that goes a little bit further into what we talk about on Sunday mornings.

I don't know if you know about this, but it's really hard to talk about everything that God wants to have for you in just a short amount of time on Sundays.

And a lot of times what happens is just to make you clear on why we're doing this is because we can preach a message and dive into God's word for 30, 35, 45, 50, can I get an amen, somebody on Sunday mornings.

But then you go out into the world and you're being discipled on TikTok and Instagram and Facebook and you're being discipled by the world in all the other times and you're being bombarded with truths and manipulations of the truth that are just not godly.

And so if we expect our lives to be godly, we can't just devote our lives to 35 minutes of hearing God's word preached on Sundays.

We got to get in it every single day.

And we're going to talk about that in a little bit because how many of y'all are doing the Bible app in a year?

You're reading the Bible through the year.

Raise your hand tall and proud.

Whatever.

I don't even know.

Whatever.

But can I tell you something?

October 1st, we have a group on the YouVersion Bible app.

October 1st is the beginning of the New Testament.

For those of us who have been in the Old Testament for the rest of the year, we're like, thank you, Jesus.

We're going to talk about Jesus.

But I want to encourage you, October 1st starts the beginning of the New Testament.

Every day, getting into the Word of God.

Every day.

Every day.

Say that with me.

Every day. every day.

And also, again, we're doing this podcast, and on Sunday nights, we'll allow you, if you follow us on Instagram, you can go to mine, dansmithkzoo, or my wife's, kjoysmith22, or the actual New Life Church.

They call it a handle.

Is that what it's called?

Is that what the cool kids call it?

New Life K-Zoo.

New Life K-Zoo.

You got that?

But follow us on Instagram.

Here's why.

Because we want to hear what your questions are.

We wanna hear from you.

What didn't make sense?

Or hey, can you touch on this?

I was confused by that.

Like we want to help you to grow in your faith.

Do you know that that's why we exist?

That's why we're here.

And so we want you to engage in this way.

So I encourage you to follow us on Instagram.

Sunday nights, we'll put Instagram stories where you can begin to ask your questions and then our team is gonna get those to Kelsey and I so that we can answer them for you.

But we're gonna dive in to the Beatitudes.

Matthew 5, three through 16, and Jesus starts this kind of list of things, and he starts with blessed are.

Say that with me.

Blessed are.

But how many times do you know that the English language doesn't fully encapsulate a term that was actually written by Jesus in the New Testament, which is actually in the Koine Greek language?

So you think blessed, blessed, blessed.

What does that mean?

It's the Greek word makarios, and it means to be transcendently happy.

It makes you say something, like if you're around somebody and you see this happening, you see the things that they're going through, maybe the struggles, the trials, you just interact with this person.

You look at this person and you go, man, there's something different. about this person.

Like we say, it says blessed, but it's really far beyond that.

It's literally you look at them and you go, I don't understand how this person could have this or be that.

Can I just be really honest with you?

I don't know if you saw Charlie Kirk's funeral, but Erica Kirk demonstrated blessed.

Like it just doesn't make sense. to stand before really probably billions of people now and to say, Father, I forgive them as you forgave him.

As you forgave me, I'm gonna forgive the guy who shot my husband.

That is, can I tell you something?

That is from God.

Like that takes a supernatural change of someone's life and heart to be able to go, oh my goodness, this dude shot my husband, shot the father of my kids,

And they say, she made a choice.

Father, Jesus on the cross said, Father, forgive them for they not know what they do.

She's mimicking the heart of Jesus.

Are you seeing that?

There's something different.

It's blessed.

It's transcendent.

It's something that God does.

And another way to put it is, how good is the life of these types of people?

And so when we get into the the message of Jesus today, we're really gonna be talking about the how good is the life for those who are following Jesus.

In Matthew chapter five, starting verse three, it said, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Let me put it another way.

And by the way, if you're, note takers are what?

And so, I see you.

I see you.

We have notes in the app, too, so if you want to download the New Life Church app, you can do it there.

Some of you take notes in the Bible.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Number one, you need to understand this.

How good is the life?

Blessed.

How good is the life for those who admit their need for God?

Right?

We just did that.

Right?

We just bowed the knee before Jesus.

And there's something about our pride that doesn't want us to do that.

We come into a room like this and we see people's hands raised in worship and we go, oh, that seems weird.

Well, it's not weird for people who have bowed the knee to Jesus because they don't care about what you think.

They don't care about what you feel.

They don't care about how awkward they might look before you because they only care about what God cares about.

And they will, please don't do this, but David, right, King David, stripped naked and ran through the streets worshiping the Lord.

We have, if I can make one rule here, you can worship the Lord however you want, but keep your clothes on.

Just to be clear.

How good is life for those who admit their need for God?

This is understanding that you need God.

And can I tell you this?

Without this, you won't repent and receive salvation.

And this, watch this, this is not a lack of courage, rather acknowledging that you are spiritually bankrupt without him.

Can I just, can I point out something else real quick?

Let's pray for President Trump's need to bow before Jesus.

Because if Jesus had something to say to President Trump, because if you watch the news, he said something like, man, I've stopped some of these wars and I've done all these things and man, I hope that's good enough to get to heaven.

You can't do enough good to get to heaven.

That's not how it works.

Jesus said, I... and the way, the truth, and the life.

And no one, say that out loud, comes to the Father except through me.

Only through bowing the knee to Jesus can someone be saved.

And so we pray, again, this is acknowledging your spiritual bankruptcy before God.

The second thing that Jesus says is blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.

Number two is how good is life for those who grieve but are comforted by God's presence?

Have you ever grieved or been around people who grieve and man, there's just something different about how a believer grieves.

And can I tell you why?

It's because we have the hope of heaven.

We have the hope that when we put our faith in Jesus, our life doesn't end in death because Jesus defeated death and rose again.

And because he defeated death and rose again, and when we believe in him and trust in him, we too can live and conquer death.

Amen.

It's the core of the gospel.

Can you hand me a Kleenex real quick?

They're going to get close on me in the live stream, and I don't want them to see this snot running down my nose.

Do you really want this?

Sorry, we like to keep it real around here.

How good is life for those who grieve but are comforted by God's presence.

Did you know that the scriptures say that God draws near to those who are hurting and broken and he lifts up those who are crushed in spirit.

He's the father to the fatherless.

He places the lonely in families.

Can I get an amen?

Like you gotta know who God is.

He comforts those who mourn.

By God's presence, how good is the life for those who grieve but are comforted by God's presence?

It's grief over loss.

It's grief over relationship turmoil.

It's grief over injustice that's happening.

It's grief over my own continued sin and bondage.

So when I am confronted by the word of God and I go, oh my goodness, I'm still sinning against God, I am grieving because I know it's grieving the Holy Spirit of God.

And I say, God, I hate this.

God, I want to walk away from it.

I'm going to repent.

I'm going to turn from it.

And I'm going to be freed by your power.

I'm grieved by the sin I continue to live in.

I'm grieving over feeling powerless over a situation.

But God, who created all things, promises to be with you in every situation.

God draws near to the brokenhearted and lifts those who are crushed in spirit.

The next one is blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

I'm going to be honest, forever I've read this verse, I go, Jesus, there's just nothing meek about me.

I just, when I see the word meek, I'm like, I just don't know what that is.

Can you help me to understand this?

And here's what it is.

Again, Greek words have a way of not being fully understood.

So number three, if you're taking notes, blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

It's literally what Jesus did when he said, have the same mind as I do, the same posture, the same attitude.

Jesus came to serve and not to be served, and he gave his life as a ransom for many.

It's why, number three, how good is life for those who serve, forgive, love, and are irrationally generous towards others, for their influence will grow.

This is a life changed by God.

That you're not just thinking about you anymore.

You're thinking about others.

You're living a life of service and sacrifice.

You're thinking about things like, God, how would you use my business?

How would you use my classroom?

What do you want to do, God, through me?

You're not just thinking about what you can get and what you can grab onto, but meekness literally means that you're willing to become a servant of the Lord Jesus, to forgive as he has forgiven, right?

The disciples went to Jesus and they said, Jesus, how many times should we forgive those who sin against us?

And do you know what he said?

70 times seven.

Never stop doing it.

Can I tell you why Erica Kirk said that she chose to forgive the murder of a husband?

It's because Jesus Christ forgave her.

And because Jesus Christ to forgive as you have been forgiven.

And she thought, man, Jesus, if you have forgiven me, how dare I not forgive someone else?

This is a life changed by Christ.

That you could literally...

Love and forgive those who hate you and even persecute you and even kill you.

The apostle Stephen, when he was martyred, mimicked those same words.

Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing.

The next one is blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

How good is life, number four, how good is life for those who pursue God's word and live his ways and then teach others to do the same.

This means we gotta read the Bible every day.

Doing the Bible in a year, again, October 1st, we're starting the New Testament.

I encourage you, I implore you, I beg you.

Do you want me to, I'm gonna bow the knee before Jesus, but I will plead with you to get in the word of God.

Amen.

Because I don't know if you know this or not, but the word of God says that it even has the power of its own fulfillment.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Number five is how good is life for those who have been forgiven by God and now choose to forgive others.

I've already touched on that a bunch.

This is the pinnacle of the faith of Christianity.

And can I just tell you something for a second?

Forgiveness of others who have hurt you frees you, not them.

It frees you.

And those of you who are maybe still carrying

Words that were said to you or things that were done to you, I implore you to forgive them, to drop it at the feet of Jesus, to let him be judge and justice and to let it go.

To literally let the weight fall off of you because forgiveness frees you, not them.

When the Holy Spirit lives inside of someone,

We mimic this verse in the scriptures.

It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

Which means the forgiveness of God lives in me.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Number six, how good is life for those who don't compromise God's ways, but they see him clearly and they see his words for what they are.

You know, in the past several months, just to give you a few testimonies, we've been preaching.

How many of y'all know that we preach the Bible here?

And we don't preach the Bible based off of what people feel, what culture says, what the politicians are polling.

We've had people stop living together before marriage.

They were living together.

They asked us to marry them.

And we said, we're not gonna do it unless you're gonna honor the Lord.

Because you need the Lord in your house.

You need the Lord to be Lord over your marriage and your home.

We've had people confess and repent from sexual sin.

We've had people confess and repent of pornography and ask for help to walk out of it.

And now they're standing in God's forgiveness and they're walking in his ways and they're walking amongst people, the bride of Christ, brothers and sisters who are saying, hey, we're not gonna keep living in defeat.

We're gonna step into God's victory and live in that.

And we're not gonna keep losing in sin.

We're gonna get victorious and become winners in Jesus' name.

We have men and women finding freedom from sin and addiction through repentance and accountability.

I don't know if my wife's here.

Hi, beautiful bride of mine.

This week I... Hello.

This week I'll just confess this.

I got a little lazy.

She's working out.

I got a little lazy, and I missed a few days of my workout, and my wife, I'm just kidding, she didn't do that.

Can I just say something for a second?

Married couples, when your spouse tries to help you get better, do you buck it?

Stop that.

Iron sharpens irons.

Do you know who sharpens me more than anyone on planet earth?

My bride.

I need you to sharpen me.

Do I sharpen you?

You wanted to quit your workout yesterday, but I said, no, you got this because you did it for me the day before.

You see what I'm saying?

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Number seven, how good is life for those who invite others into reconciliation with God and into God's family.

That's what that means.

It's not just, hey, people that make peace, they'll be called children of God.

No, no, no, no, no.

How good is life for those who invite others to experience the peace of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Because sin separates and Christ reconciles.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness.

Number eight, how good is life for those who stand firm in God's ways and are treated harshly because of it.

Can I just tell you something that's a lie from the pit of hell?

I don't know why, I just felt, I think this is the Holy Spirit.

Can I just encourage you, if you have a good conversation with someone who calls you a Christian nationalist, can I tell you why?

Because we are under the lordship of heaven.

We're under the lordship of Jesus.

It doesn't matter what nation you live in.

You are to be a Christian who loves your country.

Can I take it another step?

What do you think making laws is?

It's legislating morality.

Every law... that is legislated is morality.

Do we want a Christian morality or do we want a Muslim morality?

Can I tell you why?

What's funny is our nation doesn't even understand this.

We believe homosexuality is a sin, right?

Do we believe heterosexual sexuality before marriage is a sin?

Do we believe that pornography and lust is a sin?

Adultery is a sin?

Do we believe that pride is a sin?

Greed is a sin?

Like, we don't just skip over the ones we like and don't like, right?

But can I tell you something?

In Muslim law, you would be killed for being a homosexual.

In America, we're not trying to kill homosexuals, but we are preaching the truth that it is a sin before God.

Do you see what I'm saying?

And so as a Christian, yes, we want to have Christian morality legislated.

And here's what the people who will bark at you about being a Christian nationalist, what they're trying to say is you have no voice and our morality needs to be the law of the land, not yours.

Are you seeing what I'm saying?

This is the enemy who wants to steal, kill, and destroy.

And you need to be aware of it.

Some of you are standing ashamed of things that you've done.

I...

I sometimes have a hard time sharing some things that have been shared with us, but I need you to hear some things.

We have people who are repenting of their sin, they're walking away from it, and yet they're still feeling condemned and still feeling ashamed and still feeling guilt.

But how many of y'all know that in Christ Jesus, when you've repented and turned from him for the forgiveness of your sins, that

That there's no reason to be ashamed any longer.

The sin has been paid for.

The debt has been paid.

He's deposited his righteousness into your account.

So when the Father sees you, he sees the Son, not your wickedness.

You've been forgiven.

And...

How many of y'all have seen that over the past years, Kelsey's shared it, I've shared it, that I battled and won a war against pornography?

Hold on, hold on, hold on.

Sorry, I'm not trying to shame you.

People often ask me, like, why can you do that?

It's because that's who I used to be.

It's not who I am.

And when you start walking in righteousness, when you're pursuing God and his ways, it might take a time period.

Like, can I tell you, it's a battle.

You need to fight the battles to win the war.

But I'm not ashamed to fight the battle of repentance and walking away from that which is harming me.

I'm not ashamed of that battle.

I'm walking into Jesus's righteousness and into his freedom.

And so if you're someone who feels guilt and shame of things that you have done in the past, you need to walk away from it.

Know that you are forgiven in Christ and there is no longer condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Stop carrying it.

Walk into freedom.

We shared this in the beginning messages of this series.

If you missed it, if you're new here, I want you to go back and watch them because you need to be able to read the word of God and be able to see that you are a sinner in need of a savior.

But we don't just stay sinners.

We become the righteousness of God in Christ, which means we need to walk away from it.

We need to be changed.

And so I want to encourage you this, some of you are standing ashamed for things that you used to be or are sincerely by God's grace walking away from.

And our enemy wants to keep you ashamed to not experience the power of God's forgiveness and his freedom.

And you need to accept it right now.

You need to become a person who's no longer afraid to declare God's grace and mercy over your life that

Yes, Jesus, this is who I was, but it's no longer who I am because of you.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you.

Because of me, Jesus said.

Rejoice and be glad.

How many of y'all rejoice and are glad when people do that?

Because great is your reward in heaven for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you, they're gonna do to you.

Number nine, how good is life for those who were considered worthy to suffer for Jesus and be rewarded by him for it.

One of our global missionary partners has been imprisoned.

Again, when you give to Kingdom Builders Global, this is what happens.

You're partnering with missionaries who are doing God's work abroad.

One of our global missionaries partners has been imprisoned. for sharing the gospel in Lebanon.

And they still don't know.

He could lose his life for that.

He has a wife and a daughter, three-year-old, who have stated, who are we to be considered worthy to suffer for Jesus?

It's a badge of honor.

Acts 5, 41, Paul did the same thing as he was suffering for the kingdom of Jesus.

And Jesus says, you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?

It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

Can I tell you something?

This is what you need to see of God's kingdom in the midst of our culture.

Salt is a preservative.

Salt's primary purpose is not taste.

Although you like salt on your steaks.

How many of you are like my wife that you grab that salt shaker for almost anything and everything?

But salt is a preservative.

And it preserves what?

It preserves from decay.

Can I tell you what our culture and our nation needs? is the church of Jesus Christ to stand firmly on the word of God so that our world does not decay.

You are the salt of the earth.

Church, Christians, we are the moral immune system of our world.

By the grace of God, we preserve his worship, we live out his ways, and we teach them to all.

What did Jesus say to his disciples before leaving?

He said, go into all the world and preach the gospel, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And what did he say next?

Teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you.

Lord Jesus, have your way.

In my life, over my marriage, in my kids, over my home, over my business, my workplace, my classroom, my coming and going, my activities, my fun, everything that I do, Lord Jesus, make it be pleasing to you.

Over the United States of America, amen.

Over Iran, amen.

Over Russia, amen.

Over China, amen.

Church Christians, we need to be people who are unafraid to speak his truth and grace to all people.

In private, in our own lives, in our groups, in our homes, but also in the public square.

Jesus said, if you acknowledge me before men, I will acknowledge you before my Father in heaven.

You are the light of the world.

A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.

Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.

And by the way, the enemy of Jesus' kingdom is trying to get Christians to put your light out and to snuff it out and to put it under a bowl.

Instead, put it on a lampstand so that it gives light to everyone who will see it.

In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds.

And glorify your Father in heaven.

Can I ask you this question as we close today?

Is what you're doing with your life getting people out of hell and into heaven?

Because that's our purpose.

And that's why we exist.

So today, this day, you, I, need to decide who you will follow.

We need to decide right now who we're gonna call Lord.

We're gonna decide in this moment who will we serve.

It's the good life to follow and serve Jesus.

It's why we go through discovery to find how God has designed us to live our God-given purpose.

It's why we join the dream team to serve God by serving to build up his church.

It's why we have people in the parking lot preparing for you to come.

It's why we have people making coffee for you.

It's why we have people who came early to set up baptism and hand out tiles.

It's why we have people all over this building praying and serving.

It's why we have people playing drums and people pouring into our kids.

It's why we have people who are leading life groups.

It's why we have people, the people of God, robbing hell and populating heaven until Jesus comes back and makes everything new and right again.

Some of you won't like this, but it's why we give 10% of our income back to God, to his church, to prioritize his worship.

It's why we wrap our arms around broken, hurting, struggling people and lead them to Jesus and the good life that he has for us and that he has for them.

It's why we invite others to dine at God's table and to invite them into his family.

Church, today we celebrate nine years of all that God has done in us and through us.

Are you ready to be a part of what he does next?

Are you ready to be a part of what he does next?

Here's how you're going to do it.

You're going to devote yourselves to his worship.

You're going to devote yourselves to his word.

You're gonna devote yourselves to his body, the bride of Christ, the church.

You're gonna devote yourselves to being his salt and light, preserving his ways and courageously leading people to him.

Let us be that city on a hill, a beacon of life and light and hope that everyone can come to and find the good life.

The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but Jesus said, I have come to give you the good life and to give it abundantly.

Can I get an amen, church?

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we pray that you would move.

Lord, have your way.

Lord Jesus, we pray that right now people would hear your word and respond to it.

God, that they would call on you for the forgiveness of their sins, that they would repent of them and turn to you for salvation.

And God, that they would be filled with your Holy Spirit, that they could have the power to raise them from the dead, to go to heaven one day, and also to live heaven right here and right now.

So if you're in the room today,

And you are one of these two people wanting to make Jesus the Lord of your life for the first time.

Or maybe you want to come back to him.

You kind of walked away.

He's right here with open arms.

On a count of three, I want you to shoot your hand all the way up in the air.

One, I'm giving my life to Jesus today.

Two, I'm rededicating my life to Jesus and calling him Lord.

Three, shoot your hand up and let's pray this prayer together.

Matter of fact, everyone in the room, because all of us need to do it.

Say, Lord Jesus.

Forgive me of my sins.

Take my sin.

And by your grace, I receive, Jesus, your righteousness.

Jesus, I make you the Lord of my life.

I give you all that I am.

I hold nothing back.

Fill me with your Holy Spirit.

In Jesus' name.

And everybody said amen.

As you put your hands down, let's put our hands together and say welcome home.

Full Sermon Transcript

Thank you.

You're the best.

Well, good morning, everybody.

Hey, I'm so excited to get into God's Word.

We, I was going to say, oh, do I see any more?

If there's any youth students in the room and you're not in the front row, I need you to get up there because you are my comfort zone.

I see you, so I'll just wait.

You can just, there's seats, so get on up there.

You think I'm kidding.

We got time.

I preach a timely message.

I've practiced three times.

I got a few extra minutes.

Quinn?

Riker?

Right there?

I don't see Kale.

Yes, Riker.

Yes, Quinn.

Riker, go back.

Get your sister.

All right.

Yep, she's coming.

It's good.

It's good.

It's good.

Do I see any others?

Some of them are like doing jobs, so I can't force them because they got a role to do.

They got a role.

All right.

If I see any more of you halfway through, I'm just going to stop.

It's fine.

All right, you guys just make me feel safe, so I'm sorry if you're uncomfortable, but it's fine.

I feel better now because you're my people.

So, all right, we are in the book of Matthew.

We're in our third week, so if you didn't listen to weeks one and weeks two that Pastor Dan preached, I highly encourage you go back because since we're walking through the book of Matthew, these are all going to tie into each other.

And we're in this all the way through Christmas.

And what Pastor Dan told us is you're like, why aren't we starting in the beginning?

Because that's our Christmas message.

Like, so it'd be really weird to do the Christmas message in September.

I'm trying not to look over there.

Dan told me I can't preach the whole message there.

I'm just drawn to him.

So he was like, you preach the whole message looking at me.

So if I need to go sit in the middle, I will.

But I'm not going to.

I'm just going to ignore him.

But today, the message is called the good news of the kingdom.

We see this in two different sections where it says, Jesus went about teaching the good news of the kingdom.

So if you see in Matthew 4.23, it says,

It says, Jesus traveled throughout the region of Galilee, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the good news about the kingdom.

And he healed every kind of disease and illness.

We see it again in Matthew 9.

And if you have your Bibles, can I see like my physical Bible people?

I want to see who you are.

Hold them up.

Like hold them proud.

Who has the heaviest one?

Oh, he didn't even hold his up.

It was too heavy.

He's like, I can't, I can't.

That would be my arm workout for the day.

I love the physical Bible, people.

I don't bring mine because I'm afraid I'll lose it, but that is awesome.

And then we have everyone else on the app, on the Bible app.

If you, you can go to Matthew 9 because that's where we're parking for the rest of the time, pretty much.

If you're like, well, I don't want to go there because you're going to have me jumping around.

We're in Matthew 9 for the rest of the day.

Matthew 9, 35 pretty much says the exact same thing.

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness.

What's the good news of the kingdom?

What was he proclaiming?

Well, we talked about some of this in weeks one and weeks two.

First, we had John the Baptist, right, saying, repent, for the kingdom of God is near.

Repent.

The kingdom of God is near.

What's the good news of the kingdom?

Jesus.

Jesus was coming as the atonement, which was week two, the road to redemption, as the atonement, the perfect sacrifice to forgive our sins, to make us at one with God.

All throughout the scriptures, from Genesis all the way up to the gospel, any time that we sinned, any time that we were set apart from God, there had to be a perfect sacrifice to then make us back to at one with God.

There always had to be a perfect, sinless... Oh, Eli, you can just come right here because we're going to have our youth kids sit up front.

You're the best.

Thank you.

I do too.

It's new.

I'm trying it out.

I wonder if youth is going to be smaller tonight.

They're going to boycott me tonight.

They're like, we're not coming.

Um...

You had to have a perfect animal sacrifice to make them back to being at one with God.

So they had to, right, slaughter the animal sacrifice.

Anytime they sinned, and since we know in Genesis, as soon as Adam and Eve ate from the wrong tree, we were set apart from God.

We were always drawn to sin.

So there were animal sacrifices all throughout the Bible, and then we couldn't get back to being at one with God.

So in the genius message that Pastor Dan preached last week, he talked about finally God sent Jesus to buy us back at a price, to buy us back so that he could have us as imperfect as we were, as torn, as tattered.

He bought us back so that we could finally be made at one with God, even when we sin, even when we mess up.

Is anyone thankful that we don't have to slaughter ourselves? perfect animal sacrifices every time we sin.

Like think about how many animal sacrifices we would have to kill each one of us every day.

But he sent Jesus.

He's proclaiming the good news.

Your sins are forgiven.

You can be made at one with God.

You can spend eternity with God.

You're not going to go to hell.

He's proclaiming all of this.

But then you see and.

There's an and in both scriptures.

And when the Bible repeats itself, it means it's of great importance.

He's not just repeating himself for fun.

And healing every disease and sickness.

In Matthew 4.23, and he healed every kind of disease and illness.

The good news is accompanied by signs and wonders.

So we're going to start in Matthew 9.18.

So you're going to jump back from Matthew where we're at, Matthew 9.35, and I'm going to read Matthew 9.18 all the way to the end of that scripture so that we have the full context of what's going on because the full context is really important.

You'll understand because we see people taking certain tiny scriptures and saying, but this is the word of God.

Yeah.

That's part of it.

This is what this person said.

That's part of it.

You got to understand the full context.

Let's look at Matthew 9, 18.

We're going to lean into the word, right?

No distractions.

His word deserves our attention.

While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him.

We're talking about Jesus.

He says, my daughter just died, but come put your hand on her and she will live.

Jesus got up and went with him.

So did his disciples.

As Jesus is going, it says, just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years came up, touched the edge of his cloak.

She said to herself, if only I can touch his cloak, I will be healed.

She didn't even need to touch Jesus, right?

If only I can touch his cloak.

If only.

She's just grasping at his cloak, right?

I just need a touch of his cloak, right?

Jesus turned and saw her.

He said, take heart, daughter.

Your faith has healed you.

I love that he was on his way to do one miracle and he did another.

I want to point out to you that we don't serve a scarcity God.

When God does a miracle for someone else, it doesn't mean that yours has to stop.

It doesn't mean that because he blessed someone else that you can't have yours.

And I think sometimes we live in this comparison mindset of

Because they got their blessing, mine's over.

He did that so I can't have mine.

How often do I feel that way?

How often do I get jealous?

How did that dad probably feel walking, thinking, Jesus is coming to raise my... He stopped for her?

I thought you were going to raise my daughter from the dead and you're stopping for this woman who's bleeding?

No.

We got to go, right?

How long can she live without a pulse?

But Jesus turned and said, take heart, my daughter.

Listen to this.

You got to note this because this will come back around.

Your faith has healed you.

And the woman was healed at the moment.

And then Jesus is like, all right, sir, let's come on.

Let's go along.

When Jesus entered the synagogue leader's house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, he said, go away.

I love that.

Be gone.

Maybe they were terrible musicians, Dan says.

They were not tuned appropriately.

He says, the girl is not dead but asleep.

They laughed at him.

They laughed at him.

After the crowd had been put inside, he went in, took the girl by the hand, and she got up.

He raised the dead.

News of this spread throughout all the region.

But he's not done yet.

The scripture doesn't end there.

As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, Have mercy on us, son of David.

When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him and he asked them, Do you believe that I'm able to do this?

Yes, Lord, they replied.

He touched their eyes and said, according to your faith, let it be done to you.

I think we heard that earlier, right?

He said to the woman with the issue of blood, because of your faith, you have been healed.

And what did I say earlier?

When the Bible repeats itself, it's of significance.

According to your faith, let it be done to you.

And their sight was restored.

Jesus warned them sternly, see that no one knows about this.

But they went out and spread the news about him all over the region.

How many of you have been too excited about something God's done in your life?

They will know by the power of our testimony, right?

They were so excited.

They had to go tell people.

While they were going out, a man who was demon possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus.

We're on his fourth miracle.

And what I can tell is the same day.

When the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke.

The crowd was amazed and said, nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.

The crowd was fired up, right?

A revival starting.

Nothing like this has ever been seen.

People are going and telling of the goodness of God.

The blind men are going and saying, he's healed me.

The people who watch the demon possessed have freedom.

They're amazed.

They're saying what they saw.

A revival is starting.

But then what happens?

The Pharisees.

They say it's by the prince of demons that he drives out demons.

So in two healings, he's been laughed at and he's been demonized.

But right after that, we see our scripture for the day.

Jesus went through all the towns and villages teaching in their synagogues. proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.

We're going to start at the end of this whole section because we're going back to the top for the second half of this message.

I hope it all makes sense to you at the end.

I promise I have a purpose.

Number one, what do we learn about the good news from this message?

Number one, the good news means the opposition won't stop the mission.

We saw twice in the scripture that Jesus was mocked.

He was laughed at.

He was even demonized.

And right after that, what does it say?

He went about the towns and villages preaching the good news.

He didn't stop.

He never faltered.

He never questioned his calling.

But we saw when the men went out and told about that they had just received their sight, when the people were pumped up because the demon-possessed men had just been set free, that whenever there's an action of the Holy Spirit, you can assume that there's going to be an action of unholy spirits.

When there's a revival, there's usually going to be a riot.

But I want to tell you, if there's never any kind of uproar of unholy spirits... you're probably doing something wrong.

Or maybe you're not doing enough.

I like the quote that says, be the kind of girl or be the kind of guy that when your feet hit the floor in the morning, the devil says, oh crap, she's awake.

Right, that the demons tremble.

People didn't even like Paul when he taught the word in Acts.

It doesn't say that everyone loved Jesus when he healed because there was a riot in hell.

The evil spirits were scared.

They didn't like that these things were happening.

We see in Ephesians 6.12 that it says, we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in the dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

I gotta tell you that I think some of us

We've been entertaining demons for so long that we no longer even believe they're real or see them for what they are.

My daughters have been saying, why won't you let us watch K-pop demon hunters?

My friends are watching it.

The music's so good.

I'm like, why would I let you watch a show about demons?

And they're like, well, they kill them.

Cool.

That's great.

That's great.

Horror movies, when it's about spiritual oppression, we're not going to open our home to those kind of things.

We're not going to entertain demons.

We've been entertaining them so long that we don't even recognize them for what they are.

And some of you, this really freaks you out, but I want to give you the good news.

If there are unholy spirits, the answer is you just need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

And as believers, when you put your faith in Jesus, it says that you have the opportunity to be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

John 8, 12 says, Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, I'm the light of the world.

If you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness.

You will have the light that leads to life.

You'll have the light in you.

There's nothing to fear.

And once you have that light, then you can see the darkness for what it is.

The good news means opposition doesn't stop the mission.

Number two, the good news is the good news moves us towards compassion.

I love that after Jesus had been mocked, laughed at, demonized, it says in Matthew 9, 36, when he saw the crowds, he had compassion for

He wasn't angry.

He didn't unfriend all of them.

He didn't go to war on Facebook behind his silver screen with a little apple on it.

He didn't become a keyboard warrior.

He had compassion because he saw them harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.

He was moved by compassion for the crowd.

He didn't let a few loud voices make him see everyone is evil.

He saw them as helpless, lost sheep.

He knew that the good news wasn't for a select few.

The good news was for all.

And what did he say when he was hanging on the cross, blood dripping from his nail-pierced hands and feet?

He said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

They don't know.

We pray for those who persecute us.

We have compassion because the good news is for all.

And point three, we're going to sit here for a while.

So you're like, is this really going to be a 12-minute message?

No.

Point three, the good news heals then and it heals now.

The good news, as I pointed out in both scriptures, said he proclaimed the good news and he healed every kind of sickness and disease.

The good news was accompanied by healing.

Why?

Why?

Why did it need to be accompanied?

We know that in Genesis 2, when they ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil instead of eating from the tree of life, the process of death entered humanity.

We were never supposed to die.

We were never supposed to have sickness.

We were never supposed to have disease.

But as soon as they ate that fruit, whatever it was, call it an apple if you will.

What?

Oh my gosh.

This is why I'm not looking at you.

Sickness and disease is part of the consequence leading to death.

And Jesus, not just telling us he'll give us eternity in heaven, he's reclaiming his design by healing every kind of sickness and disease.

He says, I don't just want eternity with you.

I want freedom for you here.

I want healing for you here.

I want to reclaim my design here.

And what I love about this scripture is that he shows us every kind of healing.

He shows us physical healing.

The woman with the issue of blood.

The blind men.

He shows us raising from the dead.

And he shows us demon possession and men being set free from that.

He shows us that he has authority over the physical and over the spiritual.

Amen.

He says, there's nothing I can't heal.

There is nothing I can't do.

I have authority over here, and I have authority over there.

I have authority over the earth, and I have authority over all heavenly realms.

How do we know that he heals now?

Paul said in Romans 15, 18, and 19, yet I dare not boast about anything except what Christ has done through me.

This is a man who used to kill Christians, by the way. who was then saved by Christ and wrote two-thirds of the New Testament.

I boast only about what Christ has done through me, bringing the Gentiles to God by my message and by the way I worked among them.

The Gentiles were convinced of the good news by miraculous signs and wonders by the power of God's Spirit.

How did they know the good news was real?

By the miraculous signs and powers of God's Spirit.

How do we receive the power?

Well, Jesus told the disciples in John 16, 7, Jesus says, I tell you the truth.

It's better for you that I go away.

They're like, he says, if I don't go away, the helper won't come to you.

I thought you were my helper.

Like what?

You're right here.

If I go, I'll send him to you.

Can you imagine you've walked alongside Jesus and

You're like, Jesus, which way should I turn now?

He's like, right.

You're like, cool.

Like, Jesus, can you bless my meal?

Sure, let's pray.

Jesus, can you wake me up in the morning?

Of course.

You had him right there and he says, it's better that I go away.

Wow.

The spirit inside of you is better than Jesus beside you.

You can take him to the bank on that because he says it in his word.

He literally told the disciples in Acts 1, don't do anything.

Do not go try to do any miracles, any healing, nothing.

Don't preach the word until the spirit comes on you.

You will not be able to do anything until the spirit comes on you.

And then in Acts 2, the spirit falls and then they were able to do all of this.

It's better that I go so that the helper can come to you.

We have a story of healing once Jesus is gone in Acts 27 through 12.

It says, on the first day of the week, we gathered with the local believers to share in the Lord's Supper.

Paul was preaching to them, and since he was leaving the next day, he kept talking until midnight.

I'm so glad you said it, and I didn't have to.

Never until midnight, but there's another part.

This is funny.

The upstairs room where we met was lighted with many flickering lamps as Paul spoke on and on.

I was preaching, and I was practicing yesterday, and Harper said, Mommy, I'm glad it's you tomorrow.

I said, Why?

She goes, I'll get out of kids on time.

I laughed so hard, and I'm actually looking at my message timer now, and I'm like, I can't guarantee that to you, Harper.

But he's preaching on and on, and as Paul spoke, a young man named Eutychus, sitting on a windowsill, became very drowsy.

Finally, he fell sound asleep and dropped three stories to his death.

Where Dan tells the joke, if you fell three stories to your death, you'd have cussed too.

They liked it.

Thought I'd try it out.

But I love this.

Paul went down, bent over him, took him into his arms, whispered something in his ear.

Then said, don't worry.

He's alive.

Doesn't say it was a long prayer.

Doesn't say he had to say, Jesus, come back down.

The spirit inside of you is more powerful than Jesus beside you.

He was healed.

James 5, 14 says, are any of you sick?

You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord.

Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick and the Lord will make you well.

We bombard heaven.

We always pray for a miracle.

But what happens if he doesn't heal immediately?

Now, I got to tell you, we serve a God that can heal now.

He can also heal through medicine.

He can also heal later, and he promises to heal in eternity.

We pray, Father, your will be done, but we always ask.

I want to tell you a few stories of healing that we've gotten to see in our own church.

There's a lady named Julie who says, for 24-7 I had pain in my hips.

I was unable to climb steps.

I had to use my arms and hands to get my left leg into the car.

Every time I moved in my sleep, I was shocked awake in pain.

I hadn't been able to move without some pain for around two years.

It didn't matter if I was sitting, standing, or lying down.

I was in pain.

When we started doing anointing oil prayer, which is on the third Sunday of every month, she boldly took a step of faith and came down to receive prayer.

Later that week, she told us, Right after I received prayer, I went back to my seat, and I sat down, and in that moment, there was zero pain in my body.

He can heal instantly.

Amen.

There's another story of a woman named Carson who had had years of abnormal blood tests for ferritin and iron, overall physical body pain for years.

But I want you to know that she had been praying for healing for years.

She had had people around her praying for healing, and she hadn't seen answers to those prayers yet.

At 21 Days of Prayer this August,

Her son wrote a prayer card and all it said was, heal my mommy.

During that same 21 days of prayer, she got her first ever blood test where all four numbers were in normal range.

We serve a healer.

We serve a healer.

Some of you don't know this, that when Dan and I got engaged,

Two weeks after, no, four weeks after we got engaged, Dan got extremely dizzy.

We had no understanding of why.

He couldn't drive.

He couldn't go to work.

He couldn't walk normal.

And because of the dizziness, he became so depressed.

He became suicidal.

He had to go to Pine Rest for outpatient because he was so mentally ill because no doctor could give him answers to what was going on.

We prayed for miraculous healing and it didn't come.

This was all during our engagement where people were telling me, maybe you shouldn't marry him.

He looks a little crazy.

And God led us to a specialist who who had a system that was able to diagnose him and tell him that because of a virus he didn't even know he had had, it attacked 80% of his balance ability in his left ear.

And it would never be healed.

But he was able to do therapy where he had to do all of this work and he could literally train his brain to think that he was able to balance again.

He wasn't able to dance at our wedding.

He was sick at our wedding.

But with all that work that he put in, Dan now feels fully functional and healed.

He can heal through medicine.

I believe that God led us to that doctor to be able to experience healing in Dan's body.

Dan's mom was diagnosed with colon cancer last September.

She's running the streets of heaven with a brand new body.

She's fully healed.

She's fully healed.

Gracie says she has thousands of penguins with her because she loves penguins.

She's made a million kindergarten friends because she taught kindergarten for 40 years.

She got the best kind of healing.

She's with her husband that she missed so much that the girls say was standing right behind Jesus that said, welcome home, Jenny, I've missed you.

We don't always see healing on this side of heaven, but we're guaranteed it in eternity.

But I want to tell you first, the Holy Spirit can't heal something that he isn't dwelling in.

So if that's you today, and you've never opened your heart to Jesus, before we ask him for healing, I want to give you the opportunity to put your faith in him, to make him Lord of your life.

So first, we're going to pray for those of you who have never had the opportunity to put your faith in Jesus.

We're going to do that first.

To secure your eternity with him, knowing that you can be fully healed, fully whole, forever in eternity.

So will you bow your heads with me?

And if that's you today, you'll know that he's knocking on the door of your heart.

Because like a gentleman, he wants you to take that step in faith.

So if that's you, on the count of three, I want you to raise your hand so that I know who I'm praying with.

With all heads bowed, all eyes closed, I want to give you the opportunity to put your faith in Jesus this morning.

One, two, three.

Would you shoot your hand up in the air?

He loves you.

He sent his son to die for you.

Amen.

I see you.

You can put your hands down and from your heart to his, say, Father, I love you.

I make you Lord of my life.

I turn from my old ways and I run to you.

Thank you for sending your son to die for me.

And it's in your name I pray, amen.

New Life Church, would you put your hands together for those who put their faith in Jesus this morning?

Now, the Bible says that as soon as you put your faith in him, that you have the opportunity to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit dwells in you.

Just like he said, it's better for you that I go.

You can keep the lights down.

It says it's better for you that I go because then the Holy Spirit is in you.

And we saw in those scriptures that when they were healed, he said, because of your faith.

And I think some of us read those scriptures and say, well, I haven't experienced healing because I just don't have enough faith.

But in Matthew 17, 20, it says, Jesus says, you don't have enough faith.

He says, I tell you the truth.

If you had faith, even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, move from here to there and it would move.

Nothing would be impossible.

So I was like, what's a mustard seed look like?

Because I don't know about you, it's not really sitting in my pantry.

So I overnighted it from Amazon.

How cool is that?

This is a mustard seed.

And from where you're at, you can't see it, right?

The cameras probably can't even show it to people online.

It's literally tiny.

So I want to tell you that if you got yourself out of bed this morning, if you got yourself in a seat in this room, if you even let the nudge of God bring you into this house, you have faith the size of a mustard seed.

You have enough faith.

This is healing of any kind.

It may be physical healing this morning, but it could also be healing of the heart.

It could be healing over hurtful words that have been said over you.

It could be healing of addiction.

It could be healing of past trauma.

It could be healing of anything that is holding you back from the... Oh, lost it.

See?

See?

Don't worry, I still have enough faith.

It could be healing over anything that you feel like is an obstacle standing in your way from the calling of God on your life.

Anything.

And so I looked up, why does God use a tiny mustard seed as your example?

Because what does a mustard seed turn into when it's planted?

Look at this.

It's from one seed.

A tree that can grow to 30 feet.

What does it need to grow to that?

It needs fertile soil.

Who's in control of the soil?

You are.

It can't have weeds.

So maybe you need healing over the weeds that are in your soil.

Like I said... any kind of hurtful words, any kind of trauma, any kind of baggage, any kind of obstacles that are standing in your way.

Something to till that soil.

Then it needs to be planted.

Planted in God's house.

You gotta be here.

These seeds need to be planted one to two inches away from each other.

In community.

They gotta be by each other.

Sounds like something we've been preaching for a long time, doesn't it?

You're all nodding at me like, I get it.

Yeah, they gotta be in community.

They gotta be by each other and then they have to be watered a lot.

Watered by the living word of God and by his presence.

How's your faith?

And as you continue to do that, as you continue to get planted into water, faith begins to rise and you begin to grow.

And then maybe you're feeling like, I don't need to be one of the people that's coming down for healing.

I'm ready to be one of these people up here praying for everyone else's healing because I'm ready to go tell about my own.

I'm like the ones that were healed from blindness.

I'm like the ones who are set free from demon possession.

I'm so on fire.

I'm ready to go tell.

So today we're going to end with anointing oil and I want to see these aisles full because we all have something.

We all have something that he can heal us from because they will know of his love by the power of our testimony and he wants to give it to you.

That's the good news of the gospel.

It's accompanied by signs and wonders and healing of disease and healing of sickness.

So prayer partners, you can come down front.

Men, you're going to go to men.

Women, you're going to go to women.

And we're going to sing for as long as we need to.

And you can come down and you can ask them whatever you need healing for today.

It would be their honor.

And the King of heaven and earth is going to extend his healing hand to you this morning.

Full Sermon Transcript

I haven't learned that trick yet, apparently.

We're in a series of messages called Jesus and His Kingdom, and really we're walking through the book of Matthew, and I gotta tell you something that's so important, and here's what it is.

We need to have our lives grounded on the very word of God.

If you wonder why your life feels like it's going with the wind and the waves and you're getting thrown here and there, it's because you're not grounded on the word of God.

It doesn't mean that trials aren't going to come, that storms aren't going to come, that chaos isn't going to come, that challenges aren't going to come.

Jesus said all of that is coming.

But man, my word will last.

My word will endure.

And so we've got to build our lives on the solid foundation of God's word.

And so why we're in this particular season is because I think the Holy Spirit is like, hey, we've got to come back to the most important thing.

And if you were here last week, you'll see the clear message of the gospel of Jesus, the message of Jesus found in Matthew.

And of course, we skipped over the first couple of chapters because we're gonna come back to that at Christmas, because we're gonna go through the book of Matthew and then come back to the beginning.

But if you have your Bibles, I want you to take them out.

If you have an app, you can, the app, the New Life Church app, which I encourage you to have, you can take notes in the app.

Matthew chapter three, verses two.

We're actually going backwards from last week.

It says, repent of your sins.

And turn to God for the kingdom of heaven is near.

Other translations will say for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

It's here.

It's now.

Repent of your sins.

And turn back to God.

Turn to God.

This is a statement by John the Baptist who was known as a man that was supposed to prepare the way of Jesus our Lord.

And what I want to make abundantly clear that I tried to last week, and it's not even sufficient enough, is I want to really show you what is sin.

And so I want you to throw these verses back up.

Found in Mark chapter 7, 21 through 23, this is Jesus talking about examples of hamartia, which is the Greek word for sin, which means missing the mark of God's expectation.

Right?

And it has a list, and this is the list.

It's having evil thoughts.

It's theft.

Do you steal from someone something that is not yours?

Do you murder?

Envy.

Are you envious of other people?

Do you slander other people?

Do you just live foolishly throughout life?

What is foolishness in the scriptures?

It means that you just chase your own desires rather than God's desires for your life.

Sexual immorality, sexual acts before marriage, right?

God created sex to be in the context of one man, one woman in covenant relationship, in marriage forever.

Forever. which includes cohabitation, right?

Cohabitation is living together before marriage.

Why is this important?

Because I've never met a human being with the strength to be able to resist sexual temptation when they're in the midst of it.

Not one.

Sensuality is a list.

That's where you would see pornography or sexual even innuendos that we see in our movies or our TV shows.

Even lewd jokes that are being shared frequently.

Adultery, which is the act of having sex with someone who's not your bride or not your husband.

Jesus even upped the ante and said, even when you lust after someone else who's not your spouse,

This is committing adultery in your heart and you're sinning against that person and you're sinning against God.

Coveting.

Wickedness.

Deceit.

Pride.

Can I tell you what the real definition of pride is?

Pride is saying you don't need God.

Pride is saying you trust in yourself.

Pride is saying, hey, I rule and God doesn't.

That's what pride is.

Can I give you another example of pride?

Pride is looking at that list and going, yep, not me.

My question to you already is, do you find yourself on that list?

Here's another list.

It's very similar.

Sexual immorality, we touched on that.

Impurity, idolatry.

Idolatry is worshiping anything else but God. show me the amount of time you spend on doing certain things.

And if those things tend to get in the way of God, like, let me put it this way.

If God is on your list, but he's not at the top of your list, you have idolatry in your life.

And the average American, can I softly but boldly say to you, the average American comes to church once every five weeks to worship corporately.

That means that we have a very adulterous culture.

Not adulterous, idolatrous culture.

Could be adulterous too.

It's because we're letting everything else get before the public worship of our God.

The reason why we come to church is yes, we come to hear his word and our faith, the scriptures say, grows because we hear his word preached and we're challenged and we're hopefully transformed and changed by it.

But really the number one reason we come to church is to glorify him and not ourselves.

We come in here to worship the one who is worthy of it.

And I don't know about this, but I've met some of you and you are not worthy to be worshiped.

I am not worthy to be worshiped.

Can I even say something else?

Charlie Kirk is not worthy to be worshiped.

President Donald Trump or whoever we put in power is not worthy to be worshiped.

There is one name under heaven that deserves our worship, our adoration, and our praise, and his name is Jesus.

It's why we can't just flippantly treat God

God's word, God's people, God's house, the bride of Christ.

So flippantly, fits of rage, jealousy, strife, enmity, which means I'm just hating the other person.

Which, by the way, can I just take a time out?

Turn off social media right now.

Like, just stop.

It's not helping you at all.

There's a spirit that wants to destroy you.

And you gotta be aware of it.

Strife, jealousy, sensuality, again, fits of rage, selfish ambition.

You're just after, man, man, I wanna build my kingdom.

I wanna do everything I can for me to look good.

And man, I'm gonna drive that car.

I'm gonna have this house.

I'm gonna have all this wealth.

And man, I'm just, look at me, man.

Dissensions, gossip, disunity, factions, divisions, gossip, envy, drunkenness, orgies.

Can I tell you something else?

There's a bunch of them that are not in that particular list.

There's actually other lists that the scriptures say are our list.

And there's sins of commission, which means I commit those sins.

And there's sins of omission.

And typically what happens is when we begin to move away from the sins of commission, we then begin to neglect the sins that are the things that we are supposed to do.

And that becomes sinful as well.

Let me give you an example.

Greed.

Greed, selfish ambition, greed.

Greed is I just want, I wanna take, I wanna receive.

But how many of y'all know that when you're transformed by God's spirit, by God's word, that we aren't just takers and receivers, we are givers.

We serve as he has served.

We give as he has given.

And so man, you could repent of a sin, a sin of commission. while simultaneously stepping into then a further sin of omission, which means you didn't replace that thing that took you away from God with the thing that God actually wants you to live out.

Let me put it this way for just a second.

And I gotta move faster because I have two services today.

It's one thing to be like, okay, God, I don't wanna be greedy.

It's another thing to be, I don't wanna be self-ambitious and I don't wanna just build my own kingdom.

It's another to step away from those things, then to step into, well, what would God have me do with stewarding the resources and the gifts, the breath that I have in my own lungs?

Not just for myself, but for his kingdom and for his sake.

And so we have a generation of people who don't tithe.

We have a generation of people who don't give to the work of God.

And you know what people will say?

People will say, well, the church just cares about money.

No, we care about God's mission.

We care that the gospel would be preached in Kalamazoo, Portage, and around the world.

It's why when you give, we give to church planners.

It's why we give to missionaries.

It's why we give to people that you don't know and probably will never meet so that they can hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It's why we support Bible translation because you and I can go into the Bible or go to a store and buy a Bible in like 50 different translations while there's like 2,800 people groups on planet Earth that do not have one single verse translated in their language.

And so it's one thing to repent of sins of commission all the while stepping into another era of just...

I'm just gonna come to church.

I'm just gonna come and sit and soak.

And you need to do that.

You need to come and be expectant to hear from God and to experience God and to worship.

And man, there's something powerful about the gathering of the saints.

And man, when the world seems dark and dim, man, God in his presence has a way of shrinking that down and going, hey, you know what?

I spoke this world into existence and I can change it.

John the Baptist who said, repent, repent.

Repent means you need to be very honest with yourself that you are on that list.

The Bible says that there is not one righteous, no one.

Not one.

And we like to say stuff like this.

Well, he's just a good guy.

Why would he pass away?

He's just a good guy.

The Bible says not one, not one.

That everyone is a sinner in need of the Savior.

And I want to tell you, you need to hold on to this for just a second because I'm about to preach some good news to you.

But here's what you need to understand.

You have to come to terms with you are on that list, but Jesus doesn't want you to stay there.

That's the call to repentance.

John the Baptist was martyred.

He was killed for calling people to repent.

And at the risk of some of you not liking me, that's exactly what Charlie Kirk was doing.

His organization was called Turning Point.

Do you know what Turning Point means?

Turning Point means repent.

It means change direction.

John the Baptist was martyred.

He was killed for literally calling out

King Herod Antipas.

He was calling out a king.

And he was calling out his... Herod, just to give you some background, Herod divorced his wife to marry Herodias, who was his stepbrother's wife, who was still living.

It was adulterous.

It was divorce.

It was going against God.

And John the Baptist called him to repent, called Herodias to repent.

And of course you know this ended with Herodias' daughter pleasing Herod to such a degree that he said, I'll give you whatever you want.

And she asked, I want John the Baptist's head on a platter.

And he was beheaded. and his head was on a silver platter delivered publicly before people.

Fun fact, King Herod Antipas, who had John the Baptist beheaded for preaching a gospel of repentance, was the son of King Herod the Great, who ordered the mass execution of every child under two in hopes that he would be able to eliminate Jesus.

Because he saw Jesus, and he was scared of his kingship kingdom and he saw it as a threat so he tried to take him out and I just got to tell you for just a moment I want to apologize for me for many churches many Christians many pastors for preaching a gospel of appeasement rather than repentance you see appeasement is just die you just keep doing what you want to do you just keep living how you want to live

Instead of calling you to turn from that thing which is destroying you and turn back to God.

Appeasing sin in the sinner rather than calling people to repentance.

Why is this so important?

Because when we do that, we please God.

John the Baptist called people to repentance.

He was called by God to lead the way of the Lord.

Again, why am I apologizing?

Because I, like many of you,

Christians have appeased sin and sinners in attempt for them to like you or them to like me.

And in so doing, we've taken the side of a sinful sinner rather than the side of Almighty God.

And by the way, I too, by the way, every single one of us, again, if you look at that list, you're on it.

I'm on it.

And you know what the enemy wants to do?

The enemy wants to say, you know what?

You're a hypocrite.

Don't say that.

But we're all that.

And I'm going to show it to you in just a minute.

But we got to turn from sin and turn back to God.

Here's why.

Number one, if you're taking notes, Jesus calls you and I to repentance.

And the message didn't change.

The message was the same in the beginning as it is today.

He's calling you to turn from sin and wickedness and turn to his ways.

Matthew 4, 17, we said it this week, from then on, Jesus began to preach, repent of your sins and turn to God for the kingdom of heaven is near.

It's right now, it's at hand.

So what is repentance?

If you're taking notes, here's repentance.

It's a daily decision to turn from sin and to turn towards God, aligning your life with Jesus' teaching and his character.

Why is this important?

Why is this so important?

Why is this the message that Jesus is preaching to if you're taking notes because of the consequence of sin?

Romans 6.23 says, the wages of sin is death.

What is a wage?

Something you earn.

When you go to work and you work hard and you get a wage, you get a paycheck, you earned that, right?

Right?

But according to scripture, according to God's word, your sin being on that list earns you and I death.

And it earns us death eternally, spiritually.

Our sin earns us.

We earned it.

Sin separates us from God. and gives us spiritual death.

Why?

Because God is just and he's perfect and he will judge wickedness and evil, even the evil in ourselves.

The Bible uses this language because we understand money, right?

We work and we get a wage.

We do something and we earn it.

You earned sin.

You didn't earn sin.

Your sin earned death.

It was a payment that is earned.

Our choices, the Bible say, they accrue debt that we cannot repay.

No matter how much you try, you cannot repay the debt because it's already been laid out there.

You've already done it.

You can't get it back.

So I beg you right now in this moment, come back to God.

Return to God, get right with God.

How does that happen, pastor?

Let me make it very clear.

To get right with God, atonement is required.

Atonement is required.

What is atonement?

It means the price needs to be paid.

The debt needs to be paid.

But here's the problem.

You can't repay the debt because atonement requires a perfect payment.

Guess what you and I can't ever do?

We cannot ever repay a perfectly required payment.

If you go back to all the Old Testament, and again, we're gonna go more into this in our podcast this week.

I encourage you to subscribe to it, to check it out.

We're gonna go deeper into this this week.

But what happened, right, when the Israelite people were being freed from Egyptian slavery, it required a perfect sacrifice, the blood of a perfect sacrifice to get them saved from certain death.

And what happened in the Old Testament when they created the laws, the laws of Moses, right?

It required an unblemished lamb of God.

Did you know that John the Baptist looked at Jesus among his disciples and said, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Why is he saying that?

Because Jesus is the unblemished lamb.

Jesus is the only one who is capable of paying the price of your sin. and my sin, he's the only one. from which atonement can be made.

Number three, if you're taking notes, you need to understand the price of redemption.

Mark 10, 45, for even the son of man, that's Jesus, came not to be served, but to serve others.

You want to know what I always tell you?

You can't just come to church and sit in a seat is because we don't just come to be served.

We, as we become followers of Christ, we take on his character, his nature.

We don't just sit in seats.

We serve because he first served us.

Again, it's that whole thing of like, yeah, we got some of the bad stuff out, but now we gotta put some of the good, godly things in.

For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.

1 Peter 1, 18 through 19, for you know that God paid a ransom to save you, me, from the empty life that you inherited from your ancestors.

What was that?

Sin.

Sin.

And it was not paid with mere gold or silver.

You cannot pay it with how much you make, by how good of a house you have, by how great of an Instagram following you create.

And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value.

It was by the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless lamb of God.

God chose him, the Father chose him as your ransom long before the world even began because he saw what you would do.

He saw what I would do.

But now in these last days, he has been revealed for your sake.

Jesus has been revealed for your sake.

What is a ransom?

If you're taking notes, you need to know this.

Ransom is the price paid to deliver someone from bondage or punishment.

It's the price paid to deliver someone from bondage or punishment.

The Bible says that you and I, we are enslaved to sin.

It's holding us down.

It's holding us back.

And Jesus paid the ransom with his blood to redeem you.

What is redemption?

Redemption is taking that which is broken and flawed and bringing it back to its full value. bringing it back into, man, if you lost something of value and you wanted to get it back, you would pay a high price to get it.

Are you with me?

Repentance positions us to receive that redemption.

Repentance is the first step of saying, God, I need that redemption.

I need your atoning sacrifice.

I believe that you did it on my behalf.

And here's number four.

Transformation comes from a redeemed life.

Transformation comes from a redeemed life.

So I'll never forget this.

We're in a thing called a Bible recap.

And so in the Bible app, we have groups of men and women and we're literally reading the scriptures every day.

Every day together, we're getting at God's word.

Why?

Because Jesus prayed.

What did he pray?

Give us today our daily bread.

And what is our daily bread?

The very word of God.

He literally gives us the word of God to be in every single day.

And so we have groups of people that are in the word every day.

We're reading the scriptures together and we're seeking God together.

And I'll never forget the lady who runs the podcast portion of it where she kind of explains a few things about the readings of the day.

It's called the Bible Recap.

And she goes into this story where her grandma...

This is so funny.

Her grandma, what was it she used to make?

Beanie frogs.

How many of y'all lived in the day of beanie babies?

Now it's, what is the modern day version?

TYs or what's the other thing?

The squishmallows.

Squishmallows.

Gosh, we have so many of those in our house.

It's like, I think, anyways, whatever.

So the grandma... would make all these handmade beanie babies.

And she would give them to the grandkids.

And so she's telling a story that she had all these collection of beanie babies that her grandma had made.

And over time, she had a, you know, how many of y'all know, do the spring cleaning and you're like, hey, I'm going to have a garage sale and whatever.

They came across these beanie babies and they're like, they're ugly, they're shattered, they're dirty.

And they're like, ah, we're going to

We're going to put the Beanie Babies up for sale and see if anybody wants them, right?

They're kind of gross.

They're kind of beaten up.

They're kind of dark and gloomy.

Who wants them anymore, right?

Who wants these Beanie Babies anymore?

Well, Grandma showed up.

Grandma showed up to the garage sale.

And she saw

She saw what she had poured her heart and soul into.

She saw what she had created.

And yeah, she saw that they were broken and dirty and not as good as they were when they were first created.

But those things had a high value.

A high value.

A high value.

That she, even though she was walking into her daughter's garage sale, would pay a higher price to purchase those back than what she even paid to make them.

That is what Jesus Christ did for you and for me.

That your sin caused a payment that you cannot repay.

Amen.

Why?

Because Jesus, when he died a sacrificial death, when he became sin, he became your sin.

All of those sins that were listed on that screen, he became it.

And you wanna know why Jesus, in his last moments, when he's thinking about why he's on the cross, said, forgive them, Father, for they do not know what they're doing.

That's the condition of our heart.

We don't know what we're doing, which is why we need the word of God.

And then he goes on and he says why in this moment, there's a moment where Jesus was separated from his heavenly father for the first time and it's because sin creates a separation between us and God the father.

And it was in that moment when Jesus became sinned

When he took on your sin, my sin, past, present, and future upon himself, he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

He felt the distance.

He felt the separation that you and I experience from our creator, from our heavenly father.

And he died in your place.

And in my place, he took on your payment.

He paid the ransom for your soul.

But he did what you and I can't do.

He defeated sin and he defeated death.

And those who believe that would never die.

Can I tell you something?

Charlie Kirk is not dead.

Because he didn't put his faith in himself.

He put his faith in the Savior.

And I want to ask you to do the same today.

But here's what a transformation life comes to.

Why is repentance, why does repentance matter?

Why is it so important?

It's because repentance is a conviction from God that you know that you're not right with him.

And you turn from that and you turn back to him, you return to him.

And transformation comes from that humility saying, God, I need you, I need your help, I need your salvation, I need your work.

I need your payment that costs you your very blood.

Transformation comes from a redeemed life.

I want you to write these verses down.

I want you to go dig into it deeply, and we're going to touch more on it in the podcast this week.

1 Peter 1, 13 through 25.

In summary, it says this.

Be holy as God is holy.

So the question isn't, do you find yourself on that list?

The question is, are you finding yourself on that list in what you used to be?

You're not staying there.

Be holy as I am holy.

What does that mean?

We need to live as obedient children.

First Peter 1.13 says, live as obedient children to God, not slipping back into our old selves, our old desires.

It means we're gonna love one another deeply.

We're gonna love one another deeply.

So will you say that with me?

We're gonna love one another deeply.

Guess how that doesn't happen?

It doesn't happen just through a screen.

It doesn't happen just through social media and Facebook.

It doesn't happen just through, it happens through coming together as the body of Christ.

It means being able to have conversations with each other.

Seeing the humanity, yes, seeing the brokenness and the flaws.

Charlie Kirk was not a perfect person.

Neither am I. Neither are you.

We're after the perfect one.

We're coming after Jesus.

What do you need to be, what needs to happen?

You need to be born again, the scripture says.

Born again, not from your sinful nature that was given to you at birth, but born again into God's eternal word.

How do you know that transformation is happening?

It's visible in how we live, love, obey, and endure.

Meaning the people around you need to be able to see what you were on that list, and they need to see that you're no longer on that list.

You need God.

I need God.

And I need to realize that God may be on our list, but is he at the top?

Is he the highest priority?

And is my life reflective of that?

So I wanna encourage you as we close today, don't come to church once every five weeks.

Every week, every week.

Like you should be able to count on a calendar, like on one hand, maybe a little bit of a two hand, the days in which you are not in the house of God.

Why?

Because we're here to worship him.

We're here from him.

Can I just tell you why you're seeing a lot of the things we're seeing in our world?

We've gone away from our first love.

The Bible says that we love, we know how to love because he is love.

And he first loved us.

And so we gotta draw back near to God.

I would encourage you this week to get in a group, find a group, because I think a lot of us, we gotta stop hashing stuff out on social media and we gotta start getting in a group of people where we're gonna ask hard questions and find the answers, not in our opinions, but in the very word of the living God.

Can I get an amen?

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we pray for the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God. right now, for us to respond to you.

So God, right now, as your word revealed the depth of Jesus, your love for us and what you've done for us, God, I pray that we would respond right now with repentance, with turning from that sin that is destroying us and turning to you, Jesus, for your transformation power to be forgiven, yes, but to be transformed all the more

So with every eye closed and every head bowed, in a moment I'm going to count to three.

And if you're one of these two people in the room today or watching online, and you're wanting to make Jesus the Lord of your life, not just your Savior, but your Lord, which means you no longer rule yourself.

You're ruled by the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

And his way leads to life and life everlasting.

So if you want to make Jesus the Lord of your life for the first time, or maybe you want to come back to him today, on a count of three, I want you to shoot your hand all the way up in the air.

Romans 10, 9 says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

On a count of three, one, I'm giving my life to Jesus.

Two, I'm coming back to Jesus.

Three, shoot your hand up.

And let's pray this prayer out loud together.

Everybody in the room say, Lord Jesus, forgive me of my sins.

Take my sin.

And by your grace, I receive your righteousness.

That your righteousness is a payment into my account.

The debt is paid

So Jesus, I make you the Lord of my life.

I give you everything I am.

I hold nothing back.

Fill me with your Holy Spirit.

In Jesus' name.

And everybody said, amen.

As you put your hands down, we're going to put our hands together and say, welcome home.

Full Sermon Transcript

We are starting a brand new series of messages.

And I call it a series, but I should probably actually call it a season.

Because we're doing something in this next season that, quite honestly, we've never done before in the history of New Life Church.

We've spoken through books of the Bible, but we've never gone this far.

And so what I want to say to you is, some of you, you're ADD, which you all know I can...

I feel you, right?

Man, we're going to go head on.

We're going to go deep.

We're going to dive deep into the word of God.

We're going to go into the book of Matthew, the gospel of Matthew, and we're going to be here until Christmas.

I'm not kidding.

We're going to be in the book of Matthew until Christmas.

And so if you want to see the gospel, if you want to see the power of God lived out in your life, man, I want to ask you to check your ADD at the door.

Like how many of you all know that God's power, the Holy Spirit's power that raised Jesus from the dead can overcome your ADD?

And how many of y'all know, like, you know, you've come here long enough, and if you're new here, you'll realize that there's many times that I'll be preaching, and all of a sudden I'll say to you, what was I talking about?

And then you just go, you know what, I can identify with that.

But we're going to dive deep into God's word.

And I want to give you a couple of things.

We're going to do something in the next couple of weeks.

Our team has been preparing for this and we're going to do a trial run.

But a couple of years ago, I started a podcast and we kind of shut it down because just there wasn't a ton of engagement.

I wasn't very good at it.

We weren't very good at it.

But we're going to bring that back.

And...

And so in two weeks, we've had a team of people come and paint.

We have a studio that's being developed in the back.

And really what we're hoping to do is we're hoping to invite you to our table to have a conversation.

And so it's going to be Kelsey and I majority of the time, and we're going to take what we talk about on Sunday mornings, and we're going to go deeper.

We're going to answer questions.

And so if you're like, hey, I heard the message, but I'm still confused, we want you to engage.

We want you to ask questions.

Hey, you said this, but I didn't understand it.

Can you help me a little further?

Or, hey, I learned this, and I know this about this particular thing in the Scripture, but can you help me to apply it?

And so how many of you don't know that, I just want to be very honest, like I have problems fitting in a sermon in a short little window on Sunday morning.

And I blame you for part of it because you're like looking at me like, hey, I need to go to lunch.

But this is an opportunity for us to go further with our faith and to dive deeper and to talk about things that might be harder to talk about.

Because we can't cover everything in one hour on a Sunday morning.

And you're like, you're going to preach for an hour?

No, I'm not going to preach for an hour, which is why I'm doing the podcast.

But can I just be very honest?

The majority of you, the majority of us, your kids, the people in your workplaces, they're being discipled 24-7.

And not necessarily by God or by a pastor or by a believer in Christ or by the Bible.

They're being discipled by Instagram.

And they're being discipled by their friends.

They're being discipled by TikTok, if that's even still on.

I don't even know.

And you're constantly being discipled in the world's ways, and yet we expect to be transformed into God's likeness by having just an hour of time on Sunday morning.

And we've got to go deeper.

Can I get an amen?

And so I want to encourage you when that comes out to engage with it, to watch it or listen to it.

We're going to try and keep it to 20 to 30 minutes.

So you can literally plug and play in your car or at work or on a walk, whatever it is.

But we want you to engage with it.

We want you to ask questions.

And you might be even thinking, like, I don't even know what question is that.

Literally, you have questions.

Just ask them.

And so I want you to encourage you to check that out.

But in Matthew chapter four, and yes, I'm gonna skip chunks of the scriptures because we're gonna talk about Jesus and his birth at Christmas.

So we're gonna come back to it, right, okay?

That makes sense.

So Matthew chapter four, if you have your Bibles, you can take it out or if you're in the app, there's notes there for you.

Matthew chapter four, verse 17.

It says, from that time on,

Jesus began to, say this word out loud with me, preach.

And his message was, repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.

Other translation says that the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

It's here.

It's now.

And Jesus' primary message to humanity is, was not, hey, I want to help you live a good life.

No, his message to us, his message to humanity was, repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.

You see, Jesus came to do one specific thing.

He came to confront sin.

He came to confront it.

And isn't it crazy how in our culture today we shy away from having hard conversations and we just don't want to ruffle the boat.

I don't know, I just feel the tension in the room and I don't want to have that conversation.

And here's why.

It's because I haven't done the Chuck Norris kick in a while.

My pants are a bit tight.

I've gained a little weight.

It's a little concerning.

So, a lot of sin, the way I have historically said it, sin has its kicks, right?

It has some desire, right?

Having sex before marriage outside of the context of which God designed it has its kicks.

Pornography has its kicks, but it also has its

It has its Chuck Norris-like kickbacks.

The Bible is very clear.

Sin leads to death.

So it might be fun for a little while, but it's going to harm you.

It's going to hurt you.

And Jesus said that we have an enemy that comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but he came to give us life and give us life everlasting.

And so his message to humanity is to repent from that thing that causes destruction in your life.

He came to confront it.

And how many of y'all know that when someone confronts you, it's not always warm and fuzzy.

But Jesus also says that he prunes those he loves.

Why?

Because he cares for you.

He wants to love you well.

And so let me start with this.

Jesus came to confront sin.

Well, you might be asking the question, well, what is sin?

What does the Bible call sin?

And it's a word called hamartia.

It's going to be listed behind you.

Hamartia, which is in the Greek language, and it means it's a fatal flaw.

It means it's deadly.

It's missing the mark.

What is missing the mark?

Missing the mark is like God has a bullseye and you and I, if we're trying to hit that bullseye, we miss it.

God's glory, God's standard, we're missing the bullseye.

We're missing God's perfection.

Anything that falls short of God's glory or will is hamartia, is sin, and it leads to death, which is why Jesus said, you need to repent.

I need to repent from sin and turn to God.

Here's what repentance is, if you're taking notes.

Repentance is turning from self-rule to God's reign. turning from self-rule to God's reign.

Let me give you some examples of hamartia so that you can understand it and find yourself in the list.

Mark chapter 7, verses 21 through 23.

Here's some examples.

You've got evil thoughts.

Have you ever had those?

Maybe you want to hurt somebody.

Maybe it's theft.

It's murder.

Envy.

Envy.

Man, Americans have a problem with envy.

They just, they compare themselves to their neighbors and, hey, I got, they got that boat or they got that car or they got that house or they got this, they got that.

Or we compare each other to the likes that we get on our post.

Or how many people respond on social media, envy, slander.

Man, you're just cutting people down with your words.

You're talking bad about them even though you don't even know the situation.

Anybody been there?

Foolishness.

Sexual immorality, which is sexual acts before marriage.

So if you're not married and you're having sexual relations, that is sin.

Cohabitation.

Cohabitation.

People say, Pastor, we're just living together before marriage.

We're not actually having sex.

Which means you're the strongest human being that I've ever met in my entire life.

Sensuality is pornography, sexual innuendos.

How about those jokes we tell?

Repentance.

Kelsey's feeling convicted.

Lewd jokes.

Adultery.

Jesus said that you don't just have to act on adultery, but you could just look at a woman or a man lustfully and actually commit adultery in your heart.

And you're not just sinning against that person, you're sinning against God.

This is what it's all about.

All of these is you're sinning against God.

Wickedness, coveting, deceit, pride.

Here's another list from Galatians 5, 19 through 21.

Examples of hamartia.

Again, sexual immorality.

Again, that's heterosexuality, homosexuality, anything outside of God's design for sexuality, which was one man, one woman in covenant marriage.

Impurity.

Sensuality.

Again, pornography, sexual innuendos, lewd jokes.

Idolatry.

You worship anything above God.

Witchcraft or sorcery.

This is trying to have the power that God wants for you in your life for selfish gain.

That's what witchcraft is.

You want a power for yourself.

Not for God.

Not for God.

Enmity, hatred.

You hate your brother or sister.

You hate people.

Strife.

You're just constantly causing strife.

Jealousy is fits of rage.

Selfish ambition.

Dissensions.

Gossip.

Disunity.

Factions.

You create divisions and you're gossiping and you're dividing.

Again, envy.

Drunkenness.

You can take one puff of a

A joint.

And be intoxicated is the word that God uses.

Orgies.

Aren't y'all glad you came to church today?

Here's the question.

Have you seen yourself yet?

It's got real quiet.

Here's the better question.

The question that we really want to see answered today.

The question is, do you see what you used to be because of Jesus?

Because new life is not an idea that we just put on a sign.

You see, the power of God is that we would be transformed from sin and darkness into his marvelous light and into his people.

So it's one thing to look at that list and go, oh my gosh, I am a scumbag.

I'm the worst of the worst, which by the way, Paul said, right?

And I would say, you've heard me admit my own sin, my own flaws before you.

But the point isn't that you see yourself on the sin, which by the way, you've got to see yourself on that list in order for you to actually be convicted by God and by the Holy Spirit and to say, God, I need your help to change.

I need your help to repent.

Repentance is not asking for forgiveness.

Repentance is moving away.

It's moving away from that thing.

So the better question is, do you see what you used to be?

Because true fruit of repentance, people can see what you used to be.

Like if you're in a family, the people that know you the best and they can see you on that list,

They can see that you're moving from that death to life.

They can see that you're progressing in your faith, that God is doing a work and he's transforming you from that sin into something new.

Because that is the fruit of true repentance, can people see what you used to be? because of the power of God.

I want to throw this slide up here for just a second, because life groups have just opened.

And honestly, I would love for you to take out your app, because your app on the front of it... And by the way, I saved my app right here.

I have the Bible, I got my Pray app, and I got, boom, New Life Church app.

And literally for all of you, right at the top, right in the main thing, is life groups are open.

Why is this important?

It's important because life change happens in the context of relationships.

I've...

How many of y'all know I lost some weight and I've gained some weight?

I've lost some weight and I've gained some weight.

I've lost some weight and I've gained some weight.

Do you know that I have a trainer that checks in on me on a regular basis and when he checks in on me, I get back to the gym.

I think about eating better again, again.

Why?

Accountability.

It's because someone sees my struggle, they see my problem, they see my issue, and they're helping me not to stay in it, but to get better, to get to freedom.

That's what the church is.

The church is a group of people saying, hey, we're not perfect, but we're not staying there, we're moving to godliness.

We're not staying sinful.

God takes you from your sin and he makes you into a saint.

Can I get an amen?

It's what this faith is all about.

And so life change happens in the context of relationships.

You could be in this room and nobody knows your stuff and you don't know their stuff.

And you'll go nowhere.

You'll stay in your sin.

You'll stay stuck.

You'll stay in, by the way, Jesus says that you are actually enslaved to your sin.

That you're actually in bondage.

But I live in America.

I'm free.

Yeah, but when whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, it's just a lie from the pit of hell.

Because you're still enslaved to that thing that leads to death and to destruction.

And so why do we need to have a life group?

We need a life group because we need people to be able to see, here's who I am.

Here's where I'm moving to be.

And we're going to fight to make sure we're moving.

Right?

We're not going to stay the same.

I say it this way.

I know, Kelsey can testify, I know that I'm not the husband I want to be.

I know that I'm not the perfect dad that I would like to be, the perfect pastor that I want to be.

I thank God, though, that I know who I want to be, but thank God I'm not who I used to be.

It's the power of the Holy Spirit.

And so I wanna encourage you, if you don't know how to get into a life group, we're doing something different this semester than we've ever done before where we're having one night a week that's like a big focus.

So Tuesday nights this semester, we're having more life groups on campus than we've ever done before because we think so many people, man, they're like, hey, we know that there's one on Sunday nights and Thursday nights and Friday nights, and we have those, by the way.

Almost every day of the week we have life groups available.

So you can find one that works for your schedule.

But we thought, hey, what if we had an entire night that we had all these options for people to come and get involved and to get to know each other and make some godly friends and see God move.

And so I want to encourage you, on Tuesday nights this semester, we're going to have a focused life group night here on campus.

And I want to point these three out to you because I think these are probably, like if you haven't been through these, you need to do it.

What is alpha?

Alpha is first, right?

The alpha and the omega, it's first.

What comes first?

So you might be new to faith.

And you're like, man, I need to know just the core tenets of Christianity.

I need to know the basics of our faith.

And if you've never been through that, or maybe you're like, I knew them, but I forgot them.

Like, you want a refresher.

I encourage you to get involved in Alpha.

That will be your first step.

If you just gave your life to Christ, man, Alpha is your first step.

Then there's Financial Peace University, right?

Some of us went, man, we didn't grow up in a house that knew how to handle God's finances.

We don't know how to steward God's resources.

We don't know how to live in budget and how to be financially free.

We're living paycheck to paycheck.

It's not a money issue.

It's a behavior issue.

So we need to be taught how to handle financial resources.

If that's you, we got a class for you.

Freedom is that which God wants you to be free from sin.

He wants you to be free from the penalty of it, and he wants you to be free from the burden.

He wants you to get you unlocked, unshackled, and free.

And so I encourage you, if you've never been through one of those three, sign up for it.

By the way, just a side note, one of the reasons why we wanted to do a focused night here at the church is because I know a lot of families struggle with childcare.

And so it's like, hey, I don't know if I can do it because I can't afford babysitter all semester or my husband, my wife.

Like we have three young kids and it's like Kelsey could go to a group, but I can't because one of us has got to be home.

And so we're have childcare available here for a smaller cost.

It's going to be a shared cost, but I encourage you to go and be a part of that Tuesday nights.

But why is this important?

First John three, eight through 10 says, whoever continues to sin belongs to the devil. because the devil has sinned from the very beginning.

The Son of God appeared for this very reason.

Watch this, to destroy what the devil has done.

He wants you to be transformed.

Those who are children of God, they don't continue to sin.

For God's very nature is in them.

He gives you the gift of the Holy Spirit inside of you.

And because God is their father, they cannot continue to sin.

He changes your desire.

He changes your heart.

And here's the clear difference between God's children and the devil's children.

Those who do not do what is right or do not love others are not God's children.

We need each other.

We need to know the word of God and we need to know people of God who can help us to live the word of God so that we can be faithful.

So here's what repentance is.

If Jesus' message was repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, the first thing we need to understand is true repentance leads to complete transformation.

It's no longer keeping what I like to call it.

You know Linus from the Peanuts?

Most of you are like, no.

Linus just carried around his little blanket.

And some of you are treating your sin, the thing on that list that's really still got you, that you're still enslaved to, you're treating that like it's Linus' blanket.

You're carrying it with you everywhere you go, and it's wreaking havoc in your life and in your relationships, and you just keep holding on to it.

And you, you're like, man, I can't get over this.

And it's true.