2026 Sermon Transcript Archive

Full Sermon Transcript

Are you good? This is very close. Well. Happy Sunday. I'm glad you're all here. Excited to see what God has in store for us. I'm going to pray before we get started. That all right with everybody? If you say no, that'd be weird. So let's pray. God, I thank you so much for being in this place. I thank you for your Holy Spirit and just for the presence of your spirit, God, that you long to hear our praises.

And so we know that you are already filling your house and God, we just pray that you would open our hearts, that you would open our eyes, that you would open our minds to exactly what you have for us this morning. God, we give it all to you. We focus on you and it's in your name. We pray.

And everybody said Amen. Well, we are in our fourth week, like just said on the beat of our Swat series. Swat stands for Spiritual Warfare and Tactics, and we're going through the book of acts. So if you have your Bible, raise it loud and proud. Let's see who's got the biggest Bible. If it's the biggest, it's the most holy, I guess.

Oh, Jerry's got a big Bible. That thing is packed. I love that, you know, Dan said. I think it was last week. Everybody has the Bible on their phone, but only me. I only have this Bible. This one's mine. My kids recently just got Bible bags that they love, like they're putting all the tabs in. Harper stopped after like the 10th book, and I had to do the other 56, so that was fun.

But I love seeing them passionate about bringing their Bibles to church. That's so great. I'm saying that I don't even have a Bible up here, but I do have my own Bible. We're in acts chapter two. If you go to verse 36, I'm going to read through the whole scripture that we're preaching today, and then we'll go back and explain what's happening and maybe see some things that God has for us in this Scripture.

Acts two verse 36 says, so let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah. Peter's words pierced their hearts. So, Peter, this was the end of Peter's sermon he just preached, and it said his word pierced their hearts. And they said to him and to the other apostles, brothers, what should we do?

So they're asking, how should we respond to this? Peter replied, each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God. Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away. All who have been called by the Lord our God.

Then Peter continued preaching for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners, save yourselves from this crooked generation. Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day, about 3000 in all. So let me give you some context as to where we're at. Jesus was crucified. Then he said to the disciples as he reappeared to them, because they were terrified.

Right? What just happened? What are we going to do without him? He reappeared and he said, don't do anything until the Holy Spirit comes on you. I'm recapping week one, two, and three because I had extra time last service. Isn't that great? So he says, wait. Don't do anything until the Holy Spirit comes on you. So then the disciples go and and hide in a room and are basically like, we're terrified.

We don't know what to do. Then we had Pentecost, which Dan has preached just recently, Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit fell right. And there were signs and wonders and this rushing wind. And then right after this is this scripture, when it says, Peter stood up with the 11, raised his voice, and addressed the crowd. That's in acts 214.

So Peter stood up and started basically just preaching the gospel. He says, Jesus, your Messiah, was crucified. He was raised again so that we could have forgiveness of sins. Point one for those of you who are note takers, you note takers are. We're all changers. Point one is the spirit changes you. Peter himself is evidence of the sermon he's preaching.

When you look back on the story of Peter, he was impulsive. He was fearful. He was inconsistent. He was the disciple that denied Jesus three times, even to the point that he was so fearful that he denied Jesus to a little girl. Right? Dan talked about that last week. He said, Cara, Jesus would have been scared or Peter was scared of you when she went.

If Carl would say, do you believe in Jesus? Peter was like, nope, scared of Carl? I mean, I do lead youth and I can tell you sometimes they are very scary, sometimes very scary. He leads youth to. Yeah. Denied Jesus three times. He also cut off a man's ear. And then Jesus had to fix it because of his mistake.

In Luke 2250 to 51 it says. Then one of them being Peter struck at the high priest slave, slashing off his right ear. But Jesus said, none of this, Peter. Like, what are you doing? And he touched the man's ear and healed it. That same man who backed down, who was afraid, now steps forward and preaches a gospel message where 3000 are saved.

The Holy Spirit wasn't searching for a fearless man. He wasn't saying, I'm going to wait till I can find a fearless man to fill. He filled a fearful one, and because of the Holy Spirit's filling, the fear went away. Peter said, I'm so filled with the Holy Spirit that there's no room for anything else. There's no room for doubt, there's no room for fear.

And he steps forward. I was thinking of real life examples to share with you of people that that show this to me. And I thought of a boy. Don't put his picture up yet if you haven't. I thought of a boy who moved here from the east side of the country, who I remember telling me at youth, I don't like it here.

I don't have any friends. I don't fit in. It's different. But he kept coming. And then about a year after that, he showed up to youth in a wheelchair. We were like, what's going on? He had no idea. He had an undiagnosed sickness that made it so miserable for him to stand and walk. And I know his thought was, man, if I didn't have friends, then I'm sure not going to have any now.

But he kept coming to youth in his wheelchair, and slowly other guys who didn't even know him would come and push him in and started pushing him around. And as this student fell in love with Jesus more and was empowered by the Holy Spirit. He then started being one of the favorite teachers in kids ministry. He actually taught in first service this morning.

Then you can throw up the picture.

You're welcome for that Axis conference this year, in front of 2000 students ran down proudly to receive the Yurok Award. He also preached a seven minute message to this church. Last year, the whole auditorium of 2000 students went. Flames, flames, flames, flames, because that's what our kids Ministry has nicknamed him, that's Cam. But what's amazing is I can think of thousands of other stories that we've seen this happen because of the power of the Holy Spirit, where people would not be that on their own, because we can't do any of that in our own strength.

Speaking of cam, I already said that I lead youth and I know that we have a lot of students in this room that are going back to school next week, tomorrow, or have already. You're like, I've been in school for a week. Well, you're extra smart. Congratulations. But today I know that as you go into those hallways, as you go into your schools, you carry more influence than you may ever know.

Administration, teachers, you carry more influence than you may ever know. I remember I was teaching middle school choir and dance that I want you to remember that what you're doing transcends music. You have a much bigger role in this classroom than creating good singers. And when we planted the church, I was like, what are we going to do?

Who's going to be on our worship team? Our drummer this morning, who's our worship director and the person in the middle leading were my students. Never underestimate where God can use you. So if you're a student, if you're a teacher, if you're an administrator, would you stand for a minute because we're going to pray over you. Be proud.

Please be proud. Yes.

Get up, get up, get up. Good night. If you're around them, would you put your. Yeah. What is happening, people? Good night. All right. If you are around these people and it's not creepy, would you put your hands on them? If you're not around them, you can out stretch your arms. We're going to pray over all these people.

God, I thank you so much for every single student, every single teacher, every single administrator in the room right now. God, I pray for an outpouring of your Holy Spirit in each and every one of them. God that they would have Holy Spirit, wisdom, Holy Spirit, discernment, Holy Spirit, courage as they go, and use the influence that you've given them.

God, the word says that followers of you would have a sweet aroma, so I pray that you would draw nonbelievers to them. I pray for so many opportunities to share of who you are, and to see lives transformed because of you using them with your power. God, I pray that 2026 to 2027 would be marked by a year of revival across elementary schools, across middle schools, across high schools, across colleges that classrooms would see Bibles opened by students coming hungry to know more of you, and that there would be an awakening to your spirit and to your gospel.

God, we love you. We entrust them to you, and we pray for more of your power in their lives. And it's in your name. We pray. And everybody said Amen. Give them a hand as they take a seat. That was obviously very stressful for some of them. I don't know why. All right, let's move on. Acts 237 says so.

Peter. Peter. Peter just finished preaching, and it says, when they heard this, they were super offended and they walked out. When they heard this, they nudged their neighbor. That one's for you. When they heard that, they they said, not a very good sermon. Actually, it doesn't say that. It says when they heard this, they were what? Cut to the heart.

So they were literally just told by Peter. It says in the Scripture he says, you crucified the Messiah.

You were a murderer, right? If there's anyone in this room that's without sin, then you're off the hook. If you've ever sinned once in your life, you're part of the reason that he hung on the cross. And Peter tells them this so boldly you crucified the Messiah. Man, that's a big statement, and it would be really easy to get offended.

Not me. I don't do anything that bad, right? I just gossip every once in a while. That's not one of those sins. No. You crucified the Messiah, but they were cut to the heart. And what's interesting, when I was reading this is we already heard about Peter carrying something that cuts. Right. Peter, without the power of the Holy Spirit.

What did he do? Cut off someone's ear and Jesus had to heal it. Now he's carrying a different sort. Right. The armor of God. It says the sword of the spirit is the word of God. Peter learned how to carry a different sword. He cut to the heart of everyone listening because of the power of the word. Peter once was trying to advance Jesus's kingdom with a physical sword.

Jesus stopped him. Now Peter stands before a crowd with a different weapon. Ephesians 617 says, the sword of spirit, of the spirit is the Word of God.

God's word is capable of exposing us, of reading us, of telling us, hey, this is where you're off. But what I want you to notice is, like I said before, they didn't get offended. They didn't nudge the person next to him. Their hearts were soft. They were ready to receive. We see all these different examples in Scripture. Hebrews three seven.

Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Zechariah 712. They made their hearts as hard as flint, and they wouldn't listen. Act 751 Stephen tells another crowd, you stiff necked people, your hearts and your ears. Yeah. Ooh, your hearts and your ears are still uncircumcised. You're always resisting the Holy Spirit. James 121 humbly accept the word planted in you.

Psalm 139. Search me, God, and know my heart. Ezekiel 3626 God promises that he will remove the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh. The word never changes. It's the same piercing truth with two radically different responses. Do you come in with a guard up? Oh, I hope we're not still in that series. I don't like that one.

Oh, there's a woman.

Said it. How do you come in? Do you come in ready to receive God? Whatever it is, let me hear from you. Let me hear from your word.

So what do you do when the word cuts you? When it's a little hard to hear? I love that this scripture literally tells us exactly what to do. In acts 237 they say, brothers, what shall we do? They were just told you crucified the Messiah and their responses. Oh brothers, what should we do? Point three is conviction moves us toward each other, not away.

So in this, something relational happened, right? Their response wasn't. Peter. Who do you think you are? It's brothers. They didn't need to defend themselves. So real conviction asks the question, what do I do now? It doesn't ask, was that a good sermon? Did I agree with everything? Who else needed to hear that? It says, what shall we do?

The Bible says we are all sinners in need of a Savior. What should we do? That's why it's so important that we're in life groups, that you have people around you that you can take the mask off. Hey, I'm struggling with this. God convicted me of this. Can you help walk alongside of me? Can you help? Do you have people in your life that can point out when you're off?

It's good because I have those. I don't love it all the time, but you gotta have those that can say, hey, this is a blind spot in your life. This is where you're off. Brothers, what should we do?

Point for. The gospel doesn't affirm our direction. It changes it. It goes on to say, Peter says, when they say, brothers, what shall we do? He says, repent and be baptized. Acts 319 repent then, and turn to God. You know the number one question we get with phone calls to the church is are you affirming? And we say welcoming 100%.

Everyone is welcome. Right. I just said, we are all sinners in need of a Savior, but we don't affirm what the Bible calls sin. We preach the entirety of the Bible. We don't pick and choose what's going to land. Nice. What people are going to feel good on. Sometimes we get those weeks. I love those weeks. I just said that today and the other the other like two weeks ago.

I was like that one, like felt good. You don't get that much. I liked that. It was warm, right? We preach the that's why we're going through a book in the Bible so that we don't just say, oh, I feel like this person needs this. I'm going to fit some fun scriptures to pick to fit it. We preach the Word of God.

And the point of that is, I don't know about you, but I don't want to walk out those doors looking more like me because I've met me and I don't like that very much. I want to walk out the doors looking more like Jesus, and it might feel good for a minute to just be like, the way you're living.

Great. Keep doing it ten years down the road, when you're still struggling with the same thing, when you still feel lost, when you still feel empty, you're going to be like, why didn't someone tell me that before there was a different way. Repent and be baptized. Repentance is literally turning from one thing to another. So I was I went to Chicago yesterday, took my daughter to the American Girl store.

It was very fun. We went and did that, but I always liked to be the one to drive to Chicago. We had my mom, my sister in law with me, and I drive because I have control issues and I think I am an incredible driver in that I had to pull two U-turns yesterday and yes, they were illegal.

And why did I pull a U-turn? Because I knew where I was supposed to be going and I knew I wasn't going the right way. Right. I started driving in. My GPS says rerouting like you ain't going to Chicago anymore. So what did I do? That's what repentance is. You're chasing this sin, this addiction and the power of the Holy Spirit.

And you says rerouting, rerouting. And you have to choose. Do I want to just keep going the wrong way or do I want to turn? But the thing that you have to do is you have to have plugged into the GPS of your life the direction you want to go. And some of you haven't landed the plane on that yet.

Some of you are like, well, I want to go in the world's way half the time and in the way of Jesus the other half. And it doesn't. It's not easy and it doesn't feel very good. You have to land the plane on what the direction of your life is going to be, so that when you. You can actually be rerouted, right?

You plug it in, you say, I want to look more like Jesus, this is the way I'm going to go. And then when it says rerouting, you say, so sorry, God, draw me back to you. And then you're only off track for a minute. I saved so much time with those U-turns.

Sorry, I know I shouldn't promote that, but I am a very good driver.

But you got to know this isn't the right way. And that's why we preach the Word of God so that we know what the right way is.

Instead of saying yes, keep struggling in that addiction. Yes, keep hosting those gossip parties where you walk out and feel worse. Yes, keep everyone getting drunk on wine night so that you can forget all your problems.

Like I said, might feel good for a little while. What does Dan say? Sin has its kicks. It also has its kickbacks. My back is broken, so I'm not jumping for you. But when he does, it's very impressive. So the question is, what are you defending that Jesus is asking you to surrender? What? Habit? Identity? Bitterness, ambition, relationship, secret sin, self-rule or offense am I holding on to?

I have another example for you of someone who showed me what this looks like. A high school girl who started coming to youth last year. She doesn't have another believer in her home. She has to get driven to youth by a youth leader, has to get driven to church by a youth leader. So much to the point that her parents said, you have to choose one or the other.

Church or youth can't do both. But she was saved at youth and she gets rides every Sunday. And even last week she said, I talked my mom into it. I get to do both in one day. How many of us have that perspective right? I get to do both in one day.

She was saved. She was baptized. And then last year we found out that she was leaving notes in a public school on people's lockers who didn't believe some of those notes even made their way into the teacher's lounge, to which the high school principal youth leader was like, hey, you're not allowed in there. And she was like, that wasn't me.

And then we found out she has a copycat who's following her lead now, leaving more notes in a public school. You can show us Payton real quick. Payton then went on and preached a seven minute message this year. Yeah, and not only is she trying to follow Jesus on the GPS of her life, and sometimes she can get off course, but she also has people pulling her backwards.

It's good. But yet when I asked her, I said, hey, can you tell us what you were like before you were saved? She said, it's so hard to remember who I was. Come on, come on. And I was like, man, I don't even remember, right? My, I am so tunnel vision on chasing after Jesus. I don't even remember who that girl was.

Repentance. It's not loss. It's a promise. A promise of a better life.

I got 11 minutes and I'm on my last point. It's my favorite thing I did. Tell Dan. I'll just add this. As a side note. I already told him this joke and he said it was fine to you, so I do ask his permission. He said last week how Peter's a lot like him, you know, like impulsive doesn't think before he speaks.

And then I loved in this scripture it says that like Peter landed the plane of the message and then it says, and he went on preaching for a long time. I was like, Dan, you are like Peter, so great. But I don't know about you guys. I think his messages have been fire, and I could sit under his teaching all day long.

I learned so much and that's my husband. So, so great. Point five what God gives you is never meant to stop with you. Acts 239 says, the promise is for you. The promises for your children, in the promises for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call. It's a generational and a global promise.

Your faith has implications for the people coming after you.

You know, before Pentecost, we see that there was a room of about 120, 120 believers. So you had 12 disciples that then multiplied by ten into 120. Then after Pentecost and Peter's message, how many did it say were saved? 3000. I can't give you the comparison, but I can tell you that's a lot more so the manifestation of the spirit.

When the Holy Spirit fell, when people started using different gifts of the spirit, when there was the wind blowing, it got people's attention right. They were like, what is that? But then the proclamation of the gospel from Peter actually called for a response. It's the same spirit that empowers both. But the signs make them ask what's happening? The gospel then explains it.

3000 people responded. It was never meant to stop with us. If you're a parent in the room with your kids, I want to say job well done.

If you're a dad in here leading your kids to church, I applaud you. If you're a mom in here and the kids are learning their faith from you.

They're going to stand on the shoulders of your faith. If the gospel just stopped in your living room, it wouldn't spread. It was never meant to stop with us. You know, I think back to 2020 and I hear the phrase ten days to slow the spread. And I immediately get like, PTSD. But the gospel was the one thing that Jesus never wanted this church to contain.

So good. When we harden our hearts to the word, when we refuse repentance, when we isolate ourselves from the people of God, the gospel often just stops in your living room. But when we allow the spirit to pierce our hearts, right, God search me. God know my heart. What needs to change? How can I walk out this room looking more like you and less like me?

When strangers become brothers, believers become family. The gospel starts to spread. It spreads from you to your children. You know, I've started really thanking God every day for the home I grew up in. I've started being so aware of the shoulders of faith that I get to stand on that. A lot of things I went through growing up were so different because I had a home of faith.

So parents, can I encourage you in that? I'm 37 and it took me just till now to look back and be like, I'm so thankful that my parents dragged me to church when I was saying, please don't make me go to the little people church. It was kids church. That's what I called it. I just wanted to go sit in the sanctuary.

It's going to spread from you to your children, your living room to your neighborhood, into your classrooms, onto your teams, into your workplaces and your businesses across generations and across nations. You know, one of your worship leaders this morning is at the point in his life where he's fundraising to go be a long term missionary because he felt the call of God on his life and said, this needs to reach nations.

He said, it changed me. Now it's time to let it change them. But how will they know if they have not heard? Do you know that there's countries that don't even have the Bible in their own language? That's why we give to this organization that is translating Bible so that they can hear. They're not going to know if we're constantly trying to slow the spread because we're uncomfortable, because it feels weird, because what if they're offended?

You have the greatest gift to offer somebody. You have the gift of eternal life instead of hell. And yet we're so worried about what someone's going to think the promise is for you. Your children and all who are far off. If any of you have ever met my dad, you've been marked by him. I love that it's marked by him because his name is Mark.

There is a message on that recently, and I was like, oh, so fitting, right? He walks into a room and it's like fresh air is breathed into it, and you immediately feel like you're the most important person in the room. But the crazy thing is that his faith didn't start with him. My grandpa married a woman who had just lost her husband and had three little boys, and my grandpa married her.

Then they had my dad and my grandpa. One of the things he did was every night before he went to bed, he would tell God 25 things he was thankful for. He was like, sometimes I fell asleep, but I was still telling him 25 things. When he was 90 years old, he filmed a video for all of us, and he could name all 74 kids, grandkids and great grandkids.

And we were like, how can he do that? I bet you he said the names every night. I have three kids and I get their names mixed up, and I've been really convicted lately of man, I got to start thanking God for these things in my life. He would do this every night, and he just passed away this year and he left us a video.

He made it when he was 90 of telling him how he lived his life. And so I'm going to show you a tiny clip of this. He's talking about King. Let's see. Solomon. Right. Who wrote Ecclesiastes. So check out this video. And he goes through and lists all these things about life and says they're all fading glories, except for two things that will stand to my two remaining values.

And I like them. One is enjoy. Your food is gladness each day. The second is worship the Lord your God. And those two things. I do practice to enjoy good food and worship the Lord my God. I pass those on to you again with two things that might work for you. Anyway, I want to say I'm proud of each of you, love you and look forward to what you do.

This world you take your turn up bad.

His. Yeah, what an awesome guy.

His favorite thing to say was charge on, charge on and I love that he says. I can't wait to see what you do with this world. I can't wait to see you take your turn at bat. And I want to ask you today who's going to stand on your shoulders?

Acts began with 120 people gathered in a room, and after one spirit filled believer stepped forward, 3000 people stepped into new life. But it didn't stop with them. Somebody carried it to somebody who carried it to somebody else, who carried it to somebody else, who carried it to you. Now the gospel reaches your heart and the question is, is it going to stop there?

Because God has a sphere of influence he wants you to reach. What are you putting around your heart that the Spirit's trying to pierce? What are you holding on to? That repentance is asking you to turn from where have you isolated yourself that God is calling you into a family? Because this promise was not meant to stop with you?

Let's pray this morning. God, I thank you for your word. I pray right now.

God, that you would convict us, that you would maybe show us an area that you're calling us to repent from.

Maybe it's a sin. Maybe it's being fearful of sharing the gospel. Maybe it's being quiet when we're supposed to be bold.

Maybe it's not stepping up and being the spiritual leader that you've equipped us to be. Holy spirit, we give you room to speak right now.

We ask you that you would fall like rain in this place.

Would you give us a strength?

To turn, to turn back to you if we've gotten off track?

Will you help us to run the race while to keep our eyes focused on the prize? Would your voice be so loud in our head that every time that we go astray. And we start to wander. That you would say rerouting. Turn back to me, God. Show every person in the room today what one step is that they need to take.

But I want to take a moment right now. If there's anyone in the room who has yet to put their faith in God because rerouting, turning back to him is going to be really hard if you don't have a relationship with him yet. Because the Bible says, if you love me, you will obey my commands in first. You have to know the love of the father to have the strength and the desire to obey the commands.

And the truth is that the word says, he sent his one and only son to die for you, so that you would have eternal life with him. If you're in the room this morning and and you have yet to put your faith in Jesus, I want to tell you today is your day, and he'll stand and he'll knock at the door of your heart because he's a perfect gentleman waiting for you to let him in.

So I want to encourage you this morning. Open that door.

If you're ready to pray that prayer, I want to ask you, on the count of three, to raise your hand with heads bowed and eyes closed, just so I know who I'm praying with. One, two, three. Put your hand in the air if you're ready to pray that prayer today. Amen.

You can put your hands down from your heart to his. Say God, thank you for sending your son to die for me. I put my faith in you. I follow after you and I turn from my old ways. Would you be Lord of my heart and Lord of my life?

It's in your name I pray. And everybody said Amen. You like church? Can we put our hands together for those?

Full Sermon Transcript

Morning. How are you guys? Just five of you were good. How about everybody else? All right, all right, all right. Right. Have you ever stood in line waiting for teams to be picked?

Or maybe you submitted an application for a job and you're wondering you'd go through an interview, whatever. And you're like, pick me, pick me, pick me.

Sometimes you're qualified, sometimes you're not. Sometimes someone might be a little bit better than you. You know, I was reminded, it reminded last service that, you know, growing up, I was a pretty good athlete. And so I never really had a lot of disappointment when we were picking teams for soccer on the during recess or football or baseball or kickball or whatever things were.

How many of y'all think we should bring Red Rover? Red Rover, send so-and-so right over. Like, like we need to get our kids a little more tough, right? A little clothesline to start the day, right? But I just I never really I never, you know, I always pretty good athletes. So I never really I didn't have to wait to get picked much.

But there's plenty of things that if I was in line for, you'd want someone else. Like we had people yesterday during serve day, fixing some electrical things. I screwed in light bulbs when we started coming to this particular building and almost burnt the building down because I put the wrong. Who knew that you could, like, literally screw in the wrong light bulb?

So you wouldn't pick me to do anything electrical? I just put it that way. My wife was in the room last year, but she's hiding right now because she got picked on, you know, talking about athletes and, you know, being picked for teams. She was not really the first person picked for anything athletic. Come on. That's funny. You can laugh.

We're still getting along fine. But how many of y'all are grateful that we pick her to sing and lead worship than me? You said that way too quickly, sir. You've never heard me sing. But it's a fact. And I can't help but think like in our world. And we should. I mean, we should think about things like who's the most qualified?

Who? Who is the best for this job, this role? Do they have a proven track record? Can they be trusted? Those are all scriptural values, by the way, that you don't want to put someone in leadership within the church if they haven't been tested or you can't be trusted. But then I look at the scriptures and I also see this at play.

I see that God chooses people that you and I probably wouldn't have chosen.

I think about a guy named Moses. I call him Big Moe.

Moses. I don't know if you know this or not. Kill the guy.

And then God said, I want you. You the guy who killed a guy to go speak to Pharaoh and to get Pharaoh to let my people go free. To which Moses responded, not saying, well, remember when I killed the guy? He responded with, I'm not even the guy that could get the words out right? Because the scriptures say that he was hard of speech.

He probably had a speech impediment like a stutter, and it made him feel insignificant, insecure. Are you sure? God I'm not. You want me to speak to Pharaoh? And yet God chose Moses. I think about a guy named Gideon who did extraordinary things for the Lord when he was being chosen by God. He literally said, responded. But I'm the least in my family.

Look at all my other family members. Certainly they're more qualified, more proven, more trustworthy, more gifted, more talented than I am. I think about a guy named David, another guy that didn't physically kill a guy but committed adultery, had an affair, then had then had the the woman's husband sent out to the front lines of battles. Battle. Right.

And he was killed to try to hide his sin. This is the King that when the prophet Samuel came to David's family and put him in a line to anoint and appoint the next king of Israel, David wasn't even invited to stand in the line.

All of his brothers were there, but he was just left out in the pasture. And yet God chose him. I think about a woman named Rahab who was a prostitute in her past, and yet she's recorded in the scriptures as being a woman of faith whose life was changed and literally talked about in the lineage of Jesus. I think about a young woman named Mary, a young woman from an insignificant town with an insignificant past.

And yet God chose her to carry the Messiah. I think about a guy named Matthew who was a tax collector, anybody like tax collectors, and they don't even tax collect like they did back in the day. You just electronic send it now. But how many of y'all have, you know, April 15th go. Really. Nobody trusted tax collectors. Nobody like tax collectors and like and yet Jesus chose Matthew.

I think about a guy named Paul who literally persecuted Christians. He lined him up and had them slaughtered because they believed in Jesus and followed Jesus. And then I think about a guy named Peter, who I tend to resonate with a lot. And you'll probably laugh at this in just a moment, because Peter was known as a guy that tended to tended to just speak before thinking.

How many of you times have you been around here for a while? Where I stand up here and I go filter, filter, filter. Should I say this? Should I not say this? And then I just say it? Last service I, I did it very poorly in the end of the service. So I'm going to try not to do that in this service.

Peter was a guy that Jesus said, step out of the boat to walk on water. So to be like him because he was walking on water and and Peter was the first one to go, yeah, let's do it. And then sunk.

When Jesus was being arrested, Peter cut off a dude's ear because he was loyal and protective of Jesus, and he wanted to defend him. And yet just a few moments later, looking around the room, can you stand up for a second? Yeah. You right there. Blue shirt. Stand up for a second. Yep. That's you. Yeah. You. So Peter defended Jesus by cutting off a dude's ear.

And then literally moments later when you asked Peter, do you know Jesus? Peter said, no, I've never met him. He wasn't afraid of a soldier, but he was afraid of a little girl. Thank you. Thank you for the illustration.

I won't do that every week, I promise. Just every other week.

You think about being chosen for the team. You're like, which one are you? Peter? The guy jumping out of the boat. The guy who's full of faith. The guy who's protective of Jesus and his his ways and his followers. Or or the guy that cowers before a little girl.

And literally a month after that happened, we step into acts chapter two, and Peter is the one that stands up. The guy who denied Jesus is now the first one to proclaim Jesus to the masses. How? Because Jesus was just very steady, Eddie.

What a creepy laugh. How?

The Holy Spirit of God.

Let's pray together. Holy spirit come you invited into the room. We pray that you would fill it. We pray that you would touch and change people's lives, change people's thoughts, hearts, minds, spirits, strength. Blow like the wind and burn like the fire like you did. Then let it be so now, Lord, have your way. Let every ear hear what you have to say to them.

Fill this room with your glory. But most importantly, equip us with your power. Lord, as you describe to us in acts chapter one and in verse and in chapter two, with power to be your witnesses, then not just people in the room can come to know you, but more people can come to know you in Jesus name. And everybody said Amen.

In acts chapter two it says. Then Peter stood up with the 11. Let's pause for a second. How many are grateful for people who believe in Jesus, who stand firm on the Word of God are with you? Yeah. Let me say it again. Are with you that you can come to church that believes what you believe, that they see the Bible for what it is and we stand firm on it.

G Peter stood up with the 11, raised his voice. I love that it puts that description in there. Makes me feel really good as a pastor, because I tend to raise my voice. And my wife literally said last week, can you just tone it down a notch? You're going to lose your voice? Well, if Peter raised his voice, can I?

Yeah. Can I get a name, man? Come on, come on. Thank you for giving me permission. He raised his voice and addressed the crowd. Fellow Jews and all who lived in Jerusalem, Peter said, let me explain this to you. Remember back to last week, right? The Holy Spirit fell. He blew like a violent wind and tongues. What appeared to be tongues of fire rested on every believer's head, and they began to speak in tongues that were not their own, which I described very clearly was languages, because there was believers from every language, every nation that came to that one place, and they were hearing Jesus being proclaimed in their very own language by people that

didn't speak their language. Just a moment before that. And then some of them, they were like, wow, this is amazing. Others were like, man, y'all drunk? And Peter stands up and says, no, these people are not drunk as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning to which people in America go and.

Then don't say, I'm not. I'm not condoning that behavior, by the way. I'm just, you know, no, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel Peters, literally saying, hey, everything that you just saw was prophesied about thousands of years ago in the last days. It says, God says, this is the prophet Joel. God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women. I will pour out my spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. If you're taking notes today, here's one that you need to write down, because note takers are note takers are okay. If I'm going to raise my voice, you better do it too.

Okay? Believe God can use you.

God used a prostitute, a tax collector, a murderer, a liar, a stutterer.

Both young and old, men and women. It's almost both men and women. It's almost like Peter is preaching a message directly to the United States of America and this current culture right now. Yeah. Do you pick it up when I'm putting down?

Believe God can use you? Men and women, young and old. One of my favorite stories in all of Scripture was a guy named Josiah. God literally killed his dad for being an evil king. Josiah became king at eight years old.

And he was given the king's the keys to lead a kingdom. God says, do not look down on people because they are young. Some of you were. You saw little kids jumping up and down over here. Can we just say that we have little kids that want to praise the Lord in this place? Can I get an amen, somebody?

And some of you toe tappers are like.

And then some of you are like, man, I'm too old. I don't, I don't have the energy that pastor has or that the kids have. And what I don't care, both young and young and how young doesn't say doesn't say eight years old. How old? Doesn't say until you clock out and go to heaven, God can use you.

Can I get an amen? Men and women, young and old. Notice it. He's talking to groups of people that are coming from every nation, tribe and tongue. It's already in the text before he even gets here. Race does not matter. The enemy only wants you to think it does. I think you should be more happy about that.

But watch this. You need to believe that God can use you. And then secondarily, you need to expect that God will move. That's point number two. God can use you and then you've got to expect him to move. Watch this. Say these first three words out loud with me with gusto. Put the put it. Yeah, I will show who said that.

God said that.

I will show. It's not that you got picked first on the team, second on the team, third on the team. It doesn't matter what team you're on, where you're located, expect that God wants to choose you and use you for his purposes. Then expect God to move through you. When you say yes, that's good. He says, I will show wonders in the heavens and above, above and signs on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke.

You don't have to make any factor this this is a move of God. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood. Before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. So a person who says yes to Jesus, they believe that God can use them, just like he used Moses and Gideon and Rahab and Mary.

He's not finished yet. Can I get an Amen church? And we have holy anticipation. That's what happens. As people of God. We have holy anticipation when we say yes to Jesus, and he starts to work in our lives and through our lives, God will move. Let me give you some examples, though. Let me give you some examples. And this is where Sam prayed earlier that we might be offended by God's Word, because sometimes we get to see who we really are, and God wants to move us from where we are to where he wants us to be.

Are you with me? So people that believe God can use them and expect God to move. Let me give you two distinctions. Give you some examples of a person that expects God to move, and a person who doesn't expect God to move. Are you following what I'm saying? A person who expects God to move praise before they even know an outcome.

A person who doesn't expect God to move just worries until they know the outcome.

A person who expects God to thank you. A person who expects God to move looks for opportunities to be used by God, but a person who doesn't expect God to move just looks for excuses.

I've done this a few times. It's going to be the third time. I think maybe I've done it more. A few years ago we just moved in this into this particular building, and I said something that apparently offended people because they stopped coming to church. I said, if you come to church to just hear music and don't know what that is.

It's like a bubble that just popped up anyways.

Guys, I can't like why I was chosen by God, I don't know.

Just a human being. All right. Anyways, what was I going to say? Okay, a few years ago, if you come to church and you're a believer in Christ and you just want to worship and praise and get fat and happy sitting in a seat gorging yourself on a phenomenal message. I just would just like to say that, but don't actually step out and let God use you by serving in any way, not just in the way that you think you're awesome anyway.

You can leave this church, go somewhere else. We need your seat. Yeah, yeah.

Because you have to expect God to move if he wants to use you. So you look for opportunities to be used by God. I love this, I love this. I pulled it in the parking lot this morning. We had people here before I even got here. Probably like seven, 730 morning cleaning up the dirty parking lot of trash that came from airborne.

Not from us. Yeah, yeah. And you didn't have to see the trash because someone said, here I am, Lord, I can be used by you. Yeah. That's good. You know, I love watching the people holding. I walked through the kids hallway yesterday and I see all these these, these guys like doing this on the walls. I'm like, what are you are you sanding?

What is the wax on? Wax on what's happening? And they're literally they're washing the walls. Our walls are white. And because we have kids, things get because we have kids, things get and broken. Because we have men's fight night. Things get broken like a wall got kicked in over here. It's still not painted yet. So if you have the gift of painting, paint the wall.

Okay, I got to move on. Okay.

Someone who expects God to move sees the impossible for them and thinks God can do it. Someone who doesn't thinks there's no way. Because in your strength, there is no way.

A person who expects God to move invites people to church believing God will meet them. Here. A person who doesn't believe God will move assumes they won't even come, so why even bother asking?

A person who expects God to move praise for the sick? Because God might heal and the one who doesn't avoids praying because, well, what if nothing happens? Then they're going to think I'm a phony. You do not have the power to heal. He does. In fact, I love this. We had a guys gentleman standing right over here that prayed in the first service and prayed in the second service.

This dude, as a living as a career, puts people back together. He's in order to be an exertion. He's a trauma surgeon. So if you get in a car accident, you need that dude in the room. He put your bones back on, he sews your body back together. But only Jesus can make it all happen and make it all healed completely.

Can I get an amen? And even the guy who puts people back together is calling on the name of Jesus to put people back together in ways that he can not do himself. Why? Because he's for God to move.

I got to move on because I'm running out of time already. A person is expecting of God to move. It means it doesn't mean that I'm just telling God to do what he needs to do. God already knows what he wants to do, but he invites us into the process because he wants a relationship with him. To ask, how many of y'all?

When you were a kid, you went to your father and you asked, hey, can I get this? Can you help me with that? Can you help me fix that? Can I get a hug? Can I get a meal? You didn't even have to ask. He was already doing it. And for some of you, you had terrible fathers and and and so you're comparing the two.

God, the the good father versus your earthly father who fell short. They are not the same.

Expectation means I believe God is always say always, always more than able to do more than I could ever think of, dream or imagine, and then watch how he kind of pivots here. It seems like a pivot. And then he says, what is it? And. Who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

I want to make this abundantly clear.

Was it awesome that we gave away school supplies to those who couldn't afford it yesterday? 100%? That crayon box will not save them and get them into heaven.

That hot dog, as delicious as it was I ate one will not give anyone into heaven, will not heal them, will not free them, will not change their life. It might change a moment of hunger. Jesus said to his disciples that what you did for them, you did for me. So when you saw people who were naked and you clothed them, you did that for me.

When you saw them hungry, you fed them. You did that for me. When you saw them in prison and visited me, visited them, visited them. You did that for me. When you saw them thirsty and gave them something to drink. You did that for me. But if they don't call on the name of Jesus. Are you picking up what I'm putting down?

We can't give people a gift without the giver of all good gifts. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. So you and I, we need to believe that God can use you. For what? To be a witness. That's what the entirety of the book acts is about. The power of the Holy Spirit coming in you to be a witness.

Why? To tell people about Jesus and to invite them to call on the name of. And then you got to expect God to move and encourage people to number three, call. It's already up there to call on the name of Jesus. I'll never forget the story. I read this book several years ago, a phenomenal pastor for most of his pastorate.

I say that because he was a great pastor, great leader, man of God. He finished his race poorly. He was fired from his job. I pray that the Lord has restored him. But I'll never forget this story that he wrote in a book once. He was a guy who loved boating and he boating people out there. He loved boating and he would actually use it as a ministry.

So if he went, he had all these guides that he connected with. And and so if you loved fishing, he could he could partner you with a fishing guide. If you loved sailing, he would partner you with a sailing guide. If you liked getting a party together, a group of people to do ministry together, to go on long trips.

He provided this and I'll never forget this. He was planning a trip. He had one specific guide that had a big boat, and he was the captain of this big. I don't know how big it was. Doesn't matter. Is a big boat okay? Is a big one like yacht? Like big. And he was taking a group of people from the church out on this for, for, for kind of a vision casting a hang out.

And so they were out in Lake Michigan, and this guy, the captain of this boat that was going to take this, this group out, this pastor had been pouring into him for decades. Like, not just a moment. Like they they weren't like acquaintances. This guy had poured his he tried to share Jesus with him for decades. He tells a story.

He had a family emergency the night before they were supposed to go on a boat. And so he decides, hey, it's probably a little too late to cancel this guy. I trust him, I've spent decades with him. He's a guide. He's going to lead the way. The people. He sent another pastor there to help with the actual event that was on the ship.

And and so he called an audible and said, hey, I need you to lead this thing. The pastor, away at the family emergency gets a phone call from the captain of the ship, to which he's like, oh gosh, what happened? He's about to tell me some bad news. He gets on the phone and the captain of the ship, a nonbeliever.

I didn't swear there. I promised the captain of the ship, a nonbeliever calls the pastor and says, you're never going to believe this. I know you've been trying to share Jesus with me for two decades, but I just called on the name of the Lord and gave my life to Jesus. Yeah, the pastor was ticked.

He spent two decades praying for this guy, sharing Jesus with this guy, and he literally starts thinking. Are you kidding me?

I spent all this time with you, sharing with you, praying with you, giving you work. Because I take all these trips with you and one of my church members comes aboard and all of a sudden you ha make your decision to follow Jesus.

I love that story because he begins to tell the story about how God was was doing something phenomenal. He realized that that some people in the spiritual spectrum, let's say, let's say like baseline zero is when you give your life to the Lord, and then he increases your faith as you grow from there. But some people in our lives are like negative tens.

They're far away from the Lord. You know it. You see it. It's not. And I'm not using ten. Some are ten, some are five, some are fours. And I'm not saying that based on their level of sinning, I'm just saying like they don't know the Lord. Are you following what I'm saying? And what this pastor shares in this book, he's like, what I, what I, what I realize is, like, I've been trying to get this guy across the line of faith for decades, and, and one church member shows up and it happens.

But I believe that God was already working before I showed up. God was already working before that guy showed up, and I may have taken that guy from a negative ten to a negative five, and that guy who is on that ship, who led him to Jesus, took him from a negative one to a zero, and now he is saved.

I that's more exciting than the three of you, right? The rest of you should get more excited about that.

So call on the name of Jesus. It's the only one that can saved Romans 1014. But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him? And and if they have never heard about him, and how can they hear about him unless someone.

You could give free haircuts like we did yesterday? How many of you all know the world could do that? Does anybody could do that? We could give out school supplies and anyone could do that. We could. We could feed the hungry and we're going, can I, can I get an amen? We're going to do that. We're going to give people a glass of cold water when they need it.

We're going to visit people in prison. We're going to do all the things that Jesus said to do. But unless we help them to call on the name of the Lord, it will be for not. Amen. Yeah. How can they hear unless someone actually tells them, right? The the miracle in acts chapter two, when the Holy Spirit fell and the tongues of fire rested on the heads of the believers, they began speaking in languages, other languages, of other nations, of other people, groups that they didn't know why, so that they could hear about Jesus.

They were telling them about Jesus. And it was a hearing miracle, not a speaking miracle. Which means we need to do three things. We need to pray for people, for God to move on their behalf. The Bible says that no one will come to the Lord unless the Holy Spirit Himself draws them. In other words, God's at work before you and I even show up.

Pray for them. It's why we're bombarding heaven on behalf of all these one moors that you wrote down on your card. We're bombarding heaven on behalf of Rachel. We're bombarding heaven on the behalf of Oliver. We're bombarding heaven on behalf of Travis. And I know because I expect God to move, that he's already working. But can I tell you something?

The person who wrote about Travis, about Oliver, about Rachel, about Isaiah, God has already put you there to tell them about Jesus so they can hear. Come on.

You see, some of you, you're like, well, I just invite him in, pastor. You can do it and I will. You know that, right? Every single weekend we're going to give people the opportunity to call on the one and only name that can save the name of Jesus. But the second thing you do pray for them that they would receive and hear from God.

Ask God to move and to bless them. That signs and wonders. In other words, God is going to do something divine in your life that you don't even know is happening. But he's doing it. Yeah, it's going to make them aware and awake to have an moment. And then that's when we step in. We tell them about Jesus.

We are a witness by his power. Peter continues and says, Fellow Israelites, listen to this. Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you. By miracles you saw it wonders and signs which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. And then this man Jesus, was handed over to you by God's delivered plan and foreknowledge.

And you say, and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.

Do you know why Jesus went to the cross? It wasn't because you're a murderer, and we are. Because it's our sin. My sin. Next point. Next. It's my sin that put him to death.

Not the person sitting next to you. Sin?

Your sin, I mean, yes, the person sitting next to you.

But it was my sin.

And some of you are thinking, well, I wasn't Moses and I wasn't David. I didn't murder anybody. I wasn't like, you know, Apostle Paul who was persecuting Christians. Maybe I wasn't a prostitute, but you ever get drunk on wine or other things? It's your sin that put him on the cross. You ever do sexually something in your life that God commands not to do?

You're a sinner that put Jesus on that cross.

And you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. It's my sin that put him to death. But Peter didn't stop. Watch what the next verse says. Say this out loud with as much gusto as you can. God raised him.

But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Jesus. Davis said this about him. This was a prophecy about this moment. He said, I saw the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand, so I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices.

My body also will rest in hope because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead. You will not let your Holy One see decay. You've made known to me the paths of life, and you will fill me with joy in your presence. Have anyone had that experience with God, leading you in the paths of lives and filling you with joy in the midst of his presence?

Listen, when David was writing this, he was prophesying. He wasn't talking about himself. David died. He physically, he's a human being. He died. David was buried. David's body is in the earth, decaying right now.

But Jesus's body is not.

David prophesied this about Jesus roughly a thousand years ago before it happened, and Peter witnessed it happen, and now he's telling it to the people who would know it with his own eyes. Death could not hold Jesus, and because death couldn't hold Jesus, death does not have to hold you. Yes, it was your sin that put Jesus on that cross, but God raised him from the dead, and he can raise you to how?

By calling on the name of Jesus. It's my sin that put Jesus to death, but it's his resurrection that sets me free. Acts 412 says, there is no excuse me, there is salvation in no one else. Say that with me, no one else. God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. You cannot save yourself.

The doctor who puts bodies together after you've had a horrific car accident cannot save you.

Amen. Yes, Lord, tell me that God can't use the little ones.

Thomas asked Jesus this question. But how do we know the way? John 14 six Jesus answered him and said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the father except through me.

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Who? Not everyone who just puts their life together and then comes to church. Not everyone who just tries harder and harder and harder. Not everyone who knows enough of the Bible to make it all make sense. Not everyone who calls on the name of other false gods.

There's a moment in our history that has marked me forever. When we. When we moved into this church, I met a man that I'm going to show a picture of. His name is Lorenzo. If you throw that picture up. And when we were doing renovations in this building, we weren't here yet. We were still in Madalyn High School.

But our sign went up on the facade out there as a new life church. And then we put up this temporary banner on the front that said, Coming Soon, because we realized people were actually trying to come to church and we weren't open yet. So we needed to tell them, like, it's a great thing you want to come to church, but we ain't ready yet.

There's a lot of dust and things going on. So we're coming soon. And Lorenzo told us the story. He said he would drive by every single day and he told his mom. He's like, man, when that church opens, we're going to go to Lorenzo. His mom and his wife came to New Life Church, and they sat right back there in that back row lined up one, two, three.

And the day he came to New Life Church, Lorenzo called on the name of the Lord Jesus and was saved.

And I know you're wondering, for some of you, you're like, well, why? Why are they? Why are they lifting him into the tank? Can I just tell you?

You have to believe that God can use you. And you have to expect that God will move these people in this picture. Now you're going to notice me. This is what I refer to as Fat Dan. It's the. It's the Pastor Dan that eight pastor Dan. And then there's my father in law, my brother in law, and my sister in law.

Can I tell you why they were used by God in that moment? Because they were there and they said, I'll do it. Yeah. Nothing special about them. They didn't get picked for the team. They were just in the spot at the moment that it was needed. And God used them for one of the most powerful moments I've ever seen in new life churches history.

The reason we had to pick him up is because Lorenzo had stage four bone cancer and he couldn't walk, and so we were talking about taking steps of faith. He he said, I believe in the Lord Jesus. And the first command that Jesus gives us as believers is to be baptized. And so he's like, I'm not going to let anything hold me back.

I'm not going to make any excuses. I'm going to make this happen. And so we helped him. Obviously, he he couldn't walk up the stairs into the baptistry. So we literally picked him up and carried him.

I see the picture of the paralytic man right on the mat that the the people carried them to Jesus. Here's what I also know. Lorenzo called on the name of Jesus, and I know we had prayer moments like we did today. And I know Lorenzo came up and asked for healing.

Two weeks after this picture was taken, Lorenzo died.

But when someone calls on the name of Jesus, that person never dies. And he's never been alive more than he is right now in the presence of our Savior.

Say this out loud. Loud with me.

Everyone. Yes, everyone who calls on the name of Jesus will be saved.

But they better hear about him because he's empowered us to tell them, let's pray together. If you're in the room today, I want to ask you this question. Have you called on the name of Jesus? Thomas asked Jesus, how do we know the way? And Jesus answered, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.

And so I want to give you that opportunity to find right now the way, the truth, and the life. His name is Jesus. So with every eye closed and every head bowed in just a moment, I'm going to count to three. And if that's you and you need to call on the name of Jesus today, I want to invite you to do it to give your life to Jesus.

In Romans ten nine, the Bible says, 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. So when I get to three, I want you to put your hand all the way up in the air. You're simply saying, that's me. I'm calling on the name of Jesus to be saved today.

One I'm giving my life to Jesus. Two I'm coming back to him. Three. Shoot your hand up in the air right now and hold it up. Now, everyone, in a spirit of prayer, in unity, everyone together from our hearts to God, with with these people who raise their hand. Let's pray this out loud. Say, Lord Jesus, forgive me of my sin.

The sin that puts you on that cross. I exchange it for your righteousness, and by your grace I am forgiven. I am saved, Jesus, I bow to you, the Lord of my life. I give you all that I am. Fill me and baptize me with your Holy Spirit in Jesus name. And everybody said Amen. Come on. Can we celebrate every person who prayed that prayer today?

Full Sermon Transcript

Sorry. Good morning everyone. You know, everyone comes in with a little something in a church on Sundays. Today I came in with a little something, and so we're going to pray in just a minute, but I would I would just ask you if you'd pray for me. I've been sick all week. I got energy, but my voice is failing.

And so just pray that God would protect that. Can we pray together? I. Heavenly father, we pray that you would be glorified in this place. God. Holy spirit, I pray that you would be poured out in this place. Give us ears to hear and hearts to receive everything that you have for us. God, I pray that you would speak in spite of me and through me.

God, if anything that is not of you, I pray that it would not land, but if it is from you that it would in Jesus name, and everybody said Amen. Well, if you weren't here last week, or if you're new here, we're in a series in the book of acts. And so I encourage you to bring your Bibles, bring your pens.

You can write in your Bibles, you can write on a notepad, whatever it is. We're going to dive into the Scripture pretty intensely over the next several months. In the book of acts, we also will go deeper into what we preach in on the weekend during the podcast. And so if you have questions, I encourage you to ask them.

We have you could ask anyone literally in the church. They'll give us the information on what your question is, but also on Instagram. You can follow us there and submit your questions there. But we're in acts chapter two today. And of course, last week, just a brief flyby. The book of acts was written by a guy named Luke.

Luke was not a pastor. He was not a priest. He was a follower of Jesus. He was a physician. He was a doctor. He was an everyday Joe, like you and I. And when he wrote the book of acts, it says that in my former book, Theophilus. So he was addressing one particular person. And theologians will say, well, Theophilus means loved by God or lover of God, which means could, could mean anybody.

Which isn't it true? Like we get stuff from the book of acts today. Can I get an amen? But in his former book, The Book of Luke, right, the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Luke wrote the Gospel of Luke. And he says to the most excellent Theophilus, well, when you attach the phrase most excellent. And then to Theophilus, you wouldn't just do that to anybody or everybody.

Most excellent would have been something specifically given as, as, as like a title to someone of nobility, someone who might be a king, a prince, a queen, most likely someone in to Caesar, or maybe someone in Caesar's realm. But that's who Luke is addressing. And so what I suggested last week is that if we're going to be baptized with the Holy, the Holy Spirit to receive power, than to be a witness to everyone who doesn't know yet, Jesus, then we need to be like Luke.

We need to think and ask God, who is the one more that you want to reach? That's in my life with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Can I get an Amen? So if it was important for Luke to write the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts to one person, how much more is it important for us to go?

God, who is in my life that I could share Jesus with the one more who doesn't, not yet know him? And so I was very encouraged. I had you take out these cards and write on the card, God, who is the one more that's in my life? It could be a family member. It could be a teammate, a coach, anybody in my life.

Who is it in my life that does not know Jesus and could experience his love? And I'm going to commit to praying for them and inviting them to come experience Jesus through New life church. And so look at all these cards. Isn't that amazing? There's probably more people here, but I love that we're a part of a church that thinks about the one more that we just don't think about ourselves.

We think about the one more, and that we're committed to pray for them, right? And to invite them to experience the power of God. Well, if you're in the Bible today, if you have your Bibles today, go to acts chapter two. We're going to be in acts chapter two, verses one through 13. This is a day filled with Scripture, like how many of you all know where Bible people like, there's going to be a lot of scriptures in today's message.

You might not be able to keep up with it. Hopefully it'll be on the screen behind me. But in acts chapter two it says when the day of say this word out loud with me, you're going to need to do better. I believe in you. You can do better. This is the 10:00 service. You've had extra sleep from the 830 crowd.

When the day of well done. You crushed it. When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in. Say this with me one place. Have you ever met a Christian that said that they can just believe in Jesus and do Jesus things, and be by themselves in the middle of nowhere? You met that person, and yet it says at the day of Pentecost, they were all together in.

We should be coming together in one place. Now, how many of you grew up in a church that when you hear the word Pentecost, you're like, yes, I'm so excited for today's message. Raise your hand if you grew up in a church like that. Yes. Thank you. How many of you grow up in a church where you hear the word Pentecost and you start thinking acts chapter two, and you're like, oh gosh, are we talking about this?

I bet we have both in the room, whether you'll acknowledge it or not. Penta, let me talk about the word Pentecost. Penta beans. What? Pentagon. Pentagon. It means five Penta Acosta's or Acosta's in the Greek language means times ten. So penta five times ten cost us means what? 50?

Why are you so worried about the word Pentecost? It literally means 50 50th. Why does it mean 50th? It means because it was 50 days after Passover. Why were they all together? It was the Jewish celebration known as the Feast of Weeks. There are three major Jewish pilgrimage festivals which they all came together for. The first one was passed over.

Right? That's where the the Passover lamb was slain and placed on the doorpost, so that every firstborn child would be passed over the angel of death when God freed his people from Egyptian slavery. Then 50 days later, later at Pentecost, was when God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai. Pentecost is the feast of Weeks, and then the third one is Tabernacles, the Feast of Tabernacles.

Well, in acts chapter two, watch this. The Bible is amazing. In acts chapter two it says, And I'm working ahead here a mighty wind comes from heaven. Tongues of fire rest on each believer and they are filled, baptized with the Holy Spirit of God. Now watch this. Pentecost took place 50 days after Passover, Passover, which was originally celebrating God giving the law the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai.

Are you following me? Exodus. The book of Exodus. Now watch the connection. This is amazing. At Mount Sinai approximately 15 years earlier, God descended on Mount Sinai with a loud sound cloud and with fire. At that moment, God wrote his law on tablets of stone to give to the people. And because the people, while this was happening, rebelled against him and tried to replace him with what, a golden calf?

3000 people died because of their rebellion about Sinai in Acts chapter two. 1500 years later, a mighty sound came from heaven. The Holy Spirit descended. Tongues of fire rested on each believer, and God wrote his law on human hearts and not tablets of stone. And about 3000 people were saved that day. I don't know if you know this, but the Bible is amazing and Luke is literally recording this so that you would know what happened 15 years ago was a move of God.

And what happens now is a move of God. The contrast is powerful. So you see, at Mount Sinai, the law was written on stone in 3000 died. And at Pentecost the Spirit of God was written, excuse me, the spirit wrote God's law on human hearts in 3000. We're saved. That's amazing. Acts chapter two two through four. It says suddenly a sound like a blowing, like the blowing of a.

Say these two words out loud with me.

Let's be a little more violent with it. Can we? Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a. Some of you are almost there, like it's football season is coming, guys. Who's excited? You would not cheer for your favorite team like you just did right there? A violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

Now this, this, this word. There's two words. The one in Hebrew is the Hebrew word ruach and the Greek word pneuma, which means spirit, breath or wind, violent wind, Ruach. Sarawak, you gotta get the phlegm in your throat. Now, this wasn't like a gentle breeze, right? The translation I read from says violent wind. So we need to think about violent like think about a violent wind that would be like a tornado or hurricane force winds.

Let me show you this picture real quick, because I googled what happens when hurricanes grab onto stuff that it normally doesn't. That wind normally doesn't grab onto. That's insane. That's the power of a hurricane force wind that literally took this plank through a tree and split it in half.

How many of you know that the powerful wind of the Holy Spirit of God is even more powerful than that?

Now watch this. It says that they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. And all of them say, all of them were filled baptized with the Holy Spirit. Now, if you study this scripture more intently, you'll you'll notice that I think there's around 120 people in the place at this time.

Some people will say, well, it wasn't the apostles because the apostles began to do all these amazing things, and it literally said that the Holy Spirit fell and baptized. How many of them? Just the apostles, who? All of them. Now watch this fire. What's the significance of fire when you think about fire? It's important now to to every day human beings like you and I, we don't think about fire as much as we ought to.

How many of you are obsessed with fire? Like you're a pyro, but you don't. You don't really get this as much. You see God always in the Old Testament, always when he was present, which is called a theophany. It's the the actual presence of the living God on earth. It always came in the form of what?

Fire. Fire. Now watch this. God is light and there is no darkness in him. Now, you and I don't get this as much, because we turn on the electricity and we have light, and we don't need fire. But in the context in which this is being shared, to light up a room, you would have to have you guys picking up what I'm putting down.

They also didn't have. Which, you know how many of y'all are really excited for Fall to Come? And then for that thing Called Winter that we're going to be, you know, dealing with for seven months and, you know, they did not have furnaces and HVAC systems in in this story to warm a home they needed.

So to see live survive, thrive. They needed fire. And so when tongues of fire come and they're separated and they came to rest on each of them, watch this. In the Old Testament, God shows up as a theophany in the form of fire. How do I know this? There's a guy named Big Mo. His name was Moses. Showed up to a bush that was engulfed in fire.

God's presence came by fire. God led his people out of Egyptian slavery and through the wilderness with a pillar of fire at Mount Sinai. Guy gave his law and came down in the form of I just said it, fire in the tabernacle and temple. God's glory filled both of them with fire. Acts chapter two. God's fire rested on every single believer.

Today, Christians, you and I are the holy temple of the Holy Spirit of God, which means there needs to be a fire. His fire needs to be so powerful in you that it can flow through you. Thank you. There's one of you fired up about this message. Now, why do you need the power of the Holy Spirit? Why do you need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit filled with the Holy Spirit?

To do what?

Yes. The four of you that listened last weekend. Now, can I just can I love on the rest of you? It's fine. It's okay, it's fine. I just want to reiterate the point. The purpose of the Holy Spirit coming, coming to live inside of you, to live inside of you is to have power of God. To do what?

Witness to witness. It's why people have filled out their one more cart. Because they're filled with the Holy Spirit of God to be a witness. The power of God to be a witness. Now watch this. All of them, not just the apostles, were filled with the Holy Spirit, which means if it was just reliant on me as a pastor to proclaim the gospel, to tell people about Jesus, this would go nowhere.

But because you are, your coworker can be saved by Jesus and know him, your teammate, your relatives, the people I might never interact with could come to know the living God, because you're empowered by the Holy Spirit to be a just like Luke was to Theophilus.

It continues, and it says so. He said all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in say this out loud with me as the spirit enabled them. Now watch that some of you are like, we're going to talk about tongues today. We will probably talk about it in, in, in the, in the podcast more.

I'm not going to go into this, but for most of you. It's not even talking about what you think is talking about. This is not a prayer language. This is not some sort of prophecy that someone has to interpret. Watch this acts chapter one, verse eight. Right. We talked about this. When the Holy Spirit comes on a believer, he comes with what?

Yes, to be a. When the Holy Spirit comes on a believer, he comes with to be a. When the Holy Spirit comes, it comes with to be a. By the way, this is good preaching because you'll actually next week, if I ask this question, you'll know the answer. But it's not about knowing the answer. It's about having power to be a witness, not to talk about the message, but to talk about the message from the God who we serve.

Now watch this acts chapter two, verse five through 12. Now they were staying in Jerusalem, God fearing Jews from. You're probably asking right now, is he going to ask us to do this for every single bolded word? I might, just because some of you are sitting there going, I don't want to do this.

From what nation? Every nation. Every nation. Under what heaven? And when they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment because each one heard their own language being spoken. Now, I want to just suggest to you, because some of you, I prayed earlier today that that you would have a heart to hear or ears to hear, and a heart to receive.

You need to understand what's happening here. This is not a speaking miracle. This is a hearing miracle.

Can I say that again? This is not a speaking miracle. This is a hearing miracle. In other words, the person had to hear and receive what was being said to them. Watch. How do I know that? It says, utterly amazed. They asked, aren't all these who are speaking Galileans? In other words, they were from a nation who had a specific language and not.

That's not the language they're speaking. And some of you would think, man, everybody would be amazed at what's happening and just believe. But that's not the case. That's why this isn't a speaking miracle. It's a hearing miracle. Watch this acts chapter 213. Some, however, made fun of them and said they're drunk. They've had too much wine. In other words, some heard it and received it, and some heard it and rejected it.

So there's two responses to people when they hear the Word of God, when people testify and when they're a witness of Jesus. And you got to know something. These were the people of God. These were Jewish people. But even being in the church today, you sometimes reject some things that are said if they're biblical and and listen to other things and you pick and choose and man, maybe Pastor Day is just a little bit cold medicine today, which I am probably a little bit.

But some people experience the power of the living God and some people mock it.

First. Then 519 says this. It says do not quench the spirit, the Holy Spirit of God. And that was what was happening. Some people heard it and received it, and some people rejected it. That's why it's a hearing miracle and not a speaking miracle. Now. Now watch this for just a second. Right? We talked about fire, right? Fire is so important.

And how many of you want to be lit on fire for God? Like you want to be passionate about God. You want to be passionate for worship, passionate for his house, passionate for his ways, passionate for his word, passionate for his people. Passionate for all the things of God. Can I get an amen? We don't want to be passionate people on fire with God and for God.

But what tends to happen is a few things. God might prompt you, for instance, to forgive someone that you haven't forgiven. Like you heard this unbelievable message from this really good looking pastor. But I'm. I'm joking. Okay? I'm trying to lighten the mood for a second. I'm just. Okay. That was something. What was I saying? God prompts you to forgive someone.

And you hear in the message you're like, this is the person. I need to forgive them. I need to do this. And then you walk out of here and you go, no, I'd rather stay pissed off. I'd rather stay angry. They don't deserve it. I'm not going to do it. And what did you do? You put out the fire.

Maybe some of you, right. You sense God calling you to come to 21 days of prayer and to devote yourself to to grow in prayer and to bombard heaven and to to to maybe, maybe, maybe not just no. That you have a friend or coworker or classmate or whatever family member, whatever that needs to know. Jesus. They're a fish out of water trying to survive, and they can't without Jesus.

And you feel like led to pray for them. I'm committed, you wrote on the card. I'm committed to pray for and inviting this person to experience Jesus. And then all of a sudden, when you're prompted to actually pray for that person, you pick up your phone and you start scrolling.

Or maybe you hear a bold word of God prophetic message in church. I think I just ruined this illustration. And it convicts you, right? The Holy Spirit of God. If it's a Bible believing Holy Spirit Church, God will always do these three things. He will always instruct the wise who are walking with Jesus. He will correct the foolish and he will drive out evil.

And you feel you hear a message and you're reading His word. However it happens and you feel convicted, you're like, man, I need to get this out of my life. I need to bring these other things into my life. And you feel convicted, and then you walk out here, walk out of here and just go, man, I got so many important things in my life.

I just, you know.

Man, it's gone. You quench the Holy Spirit of God.

Can I move on from this? Do you get what I'm saying?

And the question is the same then is the same today? Will you experience the power of the Holy Spirit of God, or will you just mock him?

And so today, as I close this message and by the way, I'm not closing. It's just the end. It's like the beginning and end and middle all at the same time. I want to give you five ways that the Bible specifically says that you and I can quench or snuff out the Holy Spirit fire in our lives. Are you are you with me or you ready to take notes?

Note takers are number one is cynicism. Oh, God. Or skepticism? Cynicism and skepticism is the opposite of faith. In acts chapter two, verse 13. It says. Some, however, made fun of them and said they've had too much wine. In other words, these guys who heard what is happening and unbelievable miracle of God, these guys who only spoke one language were speaking all these different languages.

So they had the power to witness to the others that didn't speak the same language. And they all of a sudden they're just too drunk. Have you ever been drunk and just all of a sudden just learned a second language, or a third language or a fourth language? You might, but it might not make sense.

In other words, the guys who said this, they made fun of them. They missed out on one of the greatest moves of God in human history because of cynicism or skepticism. I would like to suggest that they were asking the wrong question. They were asking the question. And I think a lot of skeptics and cynics, they they do this all the time.

What if this isn't God? Rather than asking, what if this is God?

The second one is by offering the wrong fire, by offering the wrong fire. What does this mean? It means that we're worshiping God in a way that isn't godly. We're taking things into our own hands, doing it our own way. Leviticus chapter ten one through four. It says Aaron's sons, Nadab and Obaku. If some of you are pregnant, those are great names to maybe consider Aaron's sons, Nadab and of I, who put coals a fire in their incense burners and sprinkled incense over them.

In this way they disobeyed the Lord by burning before him the wrong kind of fire, different than he commanded them. So fire blazed forth from the Lord's presence and burned them up, and they died there before the Lord. Why? By pursuing the wrong fire. Now, some of you, you're hearing that, and you're going, pastor, that just seems cruel and unkind.

And man, check your tone, bro. That's a little bit oppressive. Can I tell you why you might be feeling that way? It's because we as a society have lost fear of God and have replaced it with fear of man.

And we tend to think we're God and we could do better. And we live our lives in such a way that we're like, I know better than you do. And we shake our tiny little fists in God's face. Later in this passage, God says, I am holy and I will be treated as holy. You will not treat me as common or flippant, which means there's a purity to walking with the Lord.

There's a consecration to how we treat God, and we treat His word, and we treat treat his church, and we treat his people and we treat the Holy Spirit. But here's what the wrong kind of fire is. It's wrong. Fire is worshiping God in a way that is not commanded by God. It's mimicking or copying manifestations of the spirit, but are not actual manifestations of the spirit.

Let me give you one of the most common ways that I see in pastoring today, and you're going to be shocked by what I'm saying. Not shocked that I'm saying it, but shocked that I don't even know. Anyways, I'll just move on. I don't know how many people I've interacted with in the last couple of years that have told me, oh my gosh, pastor, I'm so on fire for the Lord.

I have this unbelievable experience with God and it's like the heavens part and it's like I'm sitting on the throne right next to him and it's just unbelievable. It's like the veil is just open before me. I'm like, that's great. How'd you do it? Smoke weed? Ada? Gummy.

I can think of nothing more offensive to God.

Than thinking a drug that's titillating the frontal cortex of your brain and you thinking that that's him. But it's legal, pastor, I don't care, I don't care.

Or it could be counterfeits or fakes. Let me give you another illustration. God is very clear on how he wants to be worshiped. Matter of fact, I did a message about how God wants to be worshiped. Don't you think it would be? Who've us? That's a fun little nice word. Behoove us to look at the Scripture and go, God, how do you want to be worshiped by me?

Yeah.

Let me give you some examples of what isn't worship before God. And this might expose some of your experience in churches that are making false or counterfeit or fakes or mimicking manifestations of the spirit. Have anyone, has anyone or heard of barking in the spirit, like barking in a don't be afraid or animal like manifestations? Come on. Some of you Pentecostal people, I know you've been there, you've seen it, you've done it.

Or how about this one? Claims of supernatural gold dust. Come on, somebody I know you. Somebody. Come on, acknowledge it. It's real. It happens.

Snake handling as a test of your faith. Next week we're going to do that up front.

Somebody like yeah, this is my church baby. There's other this is weird stuff I mean sometimes by the way. Here's one objects like spoons supposedly sticking to people or walls as like a spiritual sign that the Holy Spirit is doing something. You guys think I'm making this up? This is real stuff. This is. That's not biblical.

Here's one that you'll probably recognize being slain in the spirit. Anyone heard of that? Are you, like, listening to me, or is it just literally none of you have heard of any of this. You've never heard of any of this? Praise the Lord.

I've. I've preached in so many different countries and continents and and I'm not just saying it happens in other continents. It happens right down the street. I promise you, it happens right down the street. Slain in the spirit means you come up for a prayer line, which we do, by the way. We pray over people, right? We anoint people with oil because the Bible says to anoint people with oil.

But people will come up through a prayer line and a pastor like me will go, whoa! And you'll just.

I'm slaying in the spirit.

Most of you couldn't see me. It's pretty good. That's not biblical.

I will say this, though, whenever there is a move of God seen in the scriptures, you will always find weird counterfeits. And when God moves, Satan always does something to distract you from the real thing.

Last week I put it this way. We're going to dive deeper into this, probably in the podcast. Two good things in weird packages can still be a good thing, right? And how many of you all know that us as Christians, we aren't all normal? If you think you're normal, you ain't normal. Why do I know that? Because you come to church here and I know that your pastor is not normal.

That's. That's was funnier in my head. Sorry.

The fact is, 1 in 3 people is weird. So turn to your left. You're like, nah, they're good. Turn your right now. They're fine. It's you. I know it's you. I know it's you. I definitely know it's you. Here's some examples, though, of people falling down before the Lord. The Bible says many times that people fell prostrate before the Lord, but they didn't come up into a prayer line where people just smacked them upside the head and they just went.

Ezekiel fell on his face before God's glory, and he's equal. Chapter one Daniel lost his strength and fell before an angel. Daniel. Chapter ten John fell at his feet as though dead. It says, when he saw the risen Christ in Revelation chapter one, the soldiers who came to arrest Jesus in the garden drew back and fell to the ground when he said, I am he.

However, these accounts are very different from what is commonly called slain in the spirit, because these responses were to overwhelming encounter with God's holiness and glory, not to someone human trying to knock him over and telling him that's how we do it. No no no no no. Worshiping God with the wrong fire is deeply offensive to the Spirit of God.

What is found in the Scripture as we worship him, as we present our fire to him as an act of worship, lifting hands is an act of worship. Psalm 63 four. First Timothy two eight. Dancing before the Lord. Psalm 149. Verse three. Psalm 150. Verse four. Second Samuel 614. My, this is a this is a side note. This is like free of charge.

Go watch the Michael Jackson movie, the new Michael Jackson movie. It is unbelievable. I want to learn his dance moves and then come up here and display them before the Lord, but also to you, because it's incredible. Some of you are like, you grew up in a church where you're like, this is your form of worship. Did you know that the toe tap is not a biblically commanded form of worship, and some of you need to get beyond yourself, get a little uncomfortable before the Lord, and said, David literally danced in the streets naked before the Lord.

His wife said, dude, don't do that. You look so ridiculous. You look so undignified. Put your clothes on, bro. And David responded to her and said, I will become even more undignified than this, because I care more about what he says than what you say now. Just fun fact. I'm just just going to set a policy here. Make it straight.

You can worship the Lord with dancing here, but you got to keep your clothes on. Only one of you said Amen. I'm a little bit concerned about this crowd clapping before the Lord. Psalm 47 one bowing and kneeling. Psalm 95 six. Singing, dancing, symbols, music, instruments. But here's what happens, right? Here's what happens when. When we. When we have the holy fire of God burning inside of us.

We're we're hot. We're passionate. Right. This is this is what Jesus said, that we're not to be lukewarm in our faith. To the the church in Laodicea, right in the book of Revelation, we need to be on fire for the Lord so he can work through us with power. Can I get an Amen? So we want this in our lives.

We want the holy fire of God. If you can put that slide up for me, this is where it all crashed and burned last service, so let's hope it works. It's a touch screen today. Boop. Nope. Does not a touchscreen maybe a little sidekick is. It's failing. Is this the slide? Maybe we need to fix this slide. Okay.

It all crashed and burned. Here we go. I'm going to try and explain this. In the middle of the screen I had the words Holy fire say holy fire. Like we want to be on fire for the Lord so we can be on fire on mission for him. But what tends to happen is when we get experiences with wrong fire, we go, oh my gosh, that's weird.

I don't want to have anything to do with that. So then you run to the other side and you experience no fire.

The next one. Another way that you quench the Holy Spirit of God's work in your life is by unforgiveness. Ephesians four chapter 30 or for 30 to 32 it says, do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that they may benefit those who listen and watch this and do not.

You can't watch it because it ain't on the screen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, which means you can make the Holy Spirit sad with the decisions that you're making with your actions, with your words. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you are sealed for the day of redemption. In other words, you'll make the Holy Spirit of God grow quiet and dim.

How does this happen? It says right after that it says, how do you avoid doing this? Get rid of all bitterness and rage and anger and brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another for giving each other just as in Christ God forgave you. I'm going to share a story in the podcast this week I think will blow your mind talking more about this, but then it goes on in acts chapter two and it says, then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?

Pray for me real quick as I do this real fast. You can't see it, but I'm gonna try it. Parthians, midis, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Pontus, Asia and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene. Visitors of Rome, I nailed that.

I didn't actually, I butchered two of them. But it's fine. Have you don't even know? Both Jews and converts to Jerusalem, Judaism, Cretans and Arabs? We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues from all of these different nations and all of these different languages, it says. Amazed and perplexed. They asked one another. What does this mean?

Like you would be, you would do that. Tongues of fire. People speaking in a language that they don't know and speaking to you. What does this mean? Now, if you study Bible scholars, not just Bible, the Bible, you have to probably get some scholars to get this. But Bible scholars have long pointed out that the day of Pentecost, what we're talking about today was a reversal of the day of the Tower of Babel.

Now, some of you don't even know what I'm talking about because I'm going to explain it real quick. The Tower of Babel. People tried to elevate themselves to basically get to God. They they raise this epic, they're like, oh, we're going to build the biggest, tallest building ever. And we're going to we're going to make a name for ourselves before God.

And and God was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, and wiped it all out. And he literally cast an act of judgment on the city of Babel. He divided all of the people into separate nations before they were all one nation. He divided the people into separate nations and confused their languages. In other words, they spoke the same language during that time at Babel.

Are you following what I'm saying? At Pentecost, the spirit falls with his blessing and unites people from all nations of all the earth and unites their language so they could hear the gospel presented.

I'm clapping a God, not me. This has nothing to do. That's amazing. Why? Because the Holy Spirit produces love and unity among people like nobody else. He reconciles those who are at war with him and at war with each other.

That's okay. All right, now watch this. Why is it important to forgive? I heard a pastor say it this way. Heaven is a place where everyone is forgiven. And in contrast, hell is a place where no one is forgiven. Heaven is where everyone's forgiven. That everything's been made new. Everything you've said wrong, done wrong has been forgiven by God, has been made right.

And there's unbelievable freedom and life and enjoyment and blessing. And hell is a place where there's weeping, of gnashing of teeth. It's literally the absence of light. It's complete darkness. It's like having a panic attack and depression and never being able to get help. It's constantly being like, you have the worst disease on planet Earth, and there's no doctor to help you.

And what happens when you and I choose to not forgive someone is we end up pulling hell up into our lives when we have the opportunity to forgive someone and pull heaven down into our lives. Have you ever met someone that's old and crotchety and curmudgeonly? Like to get off my lawn, man like you, one second in front of this person, you're like, I want to stay as far away from this as I possibly can.

Can I tell you why that person becomes that person? They've been hurt. They've been rejected. Something has happened to them, and for their entire life. They've chosen not to forgive, but to become bitter, full of rage, full of malice. They've quenched the Holy Spirit of God, and they pulled hell up into their life. And now they're living in that prison.

On the contrary. Have you met someone who's. I'm using old because it's people that have been beat up by life. How many of y'all are old and haven't been beat up by life in this world yet? You're not old in this world you will have troubles. Jesus said. You're going to get kicked around. You're going to deal with fools and idiots.

How do I know that? Because you are one and so am I. Amen. Amen. You're going to be wronged. And look at it like this. I should share it this way. Some of you. Maybe someone betrayed you so badly you were married and. And maybe they had an affair, and. And you're like, you mustered up the strength to forgive them, and you did it because God commanded you to do it.

He said, if I have forgiven you, you need to forgive them. How dare you accept it for me and not extend it to someone else? And I know it's hard. You don't understand, pastor. You don't know what they did. Well, I could know what they did. I do know that the freedom that you need is from heaven. And you need to pull it down into your life, rather than pulling hell up in your life.

And what happens is we think, man, I'm going to forgive that person, and everything I've felt or hurt is just going to disappear and dissipate. That doesn't happen. The disciples came to Jesus and they asked him, how often should we forgive my brother or sister who sins against me seven times? Is that enough? Will that work? Not just once.

How about seven times? And Jesus responded, no, not seven times, but 70 times. Seven times. In other words, you may have had someone betray you so badly in a marriage. They they sinned against you by having an affair. You forgiven them. And then for some reason, they've repented. They're changing. You're giving them another chance and and you've forgiven them.

You're working through it. And then you see them talk to someone of the opposite sex in the church lobby. And all of a sudden, all the feelings of that betrayal bubble up and you have an opportunity once again to say, I forgive you. Why? Because it's you that's going to be stuck in prison, not them. We're going to go deeper into this during the podcast, but I think this is so important for us to understand.

But I want to move on and say this. We cannot experience the power of the Holy Spirit when we are holding on to evil spirits through bitterness, unforgiveness, rage, and all the things that the Apostle Paul just shared with us brawling, anger, slander. Are you picking up what I'm putting down? The fourth one is by opposing bold preaching.

You're like, that's convenient, pastor.

Watch this. Acts chapter 751. This is later in the series. By bringing in this message, it says, you stiff necked people, your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. In other words, they're not devoted to the Lord. They're not receptive to the things of God. You are just like your ancestors. Some of you are like, man, if I just had the Apostle Paul sitting next to me, I'd receive it so much better.

If I had Peter next to me. It'd be awesome. If I had Daniel, it'd be so incredible if I had. If it was just Jesus, I would be. I would receive everything that he has to say.

You're just like your ancestors. You always resist the Holy Spirit. Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered Jesus himself.

And some people. Man, I've had so many people leave because they're like, pastor, you're just so intense. You're just, can you just take down the tone? I wonder if they would have said that to Jesus, where Jesus went into the temple with a quart of with a whip. It was literally driving people out. What he would have said, you want to take you want me to take my tone down a notch?

Oh, pastor, that pastor, he's just mean. He's too intense. Oh, he just emphasizes this, but not this. Or maybe you just didn't show up for one of the weekends that we preach that. Oh, gosh. I just went from preaching to Madeline. Oh, here's one. He's getting political.

Let me say, can we just we have family meeting for a second.

I'll see my notes here because I have this dialed in. Literally everything I say from the Bible could be said. He's just getting political.

Really? Yeah. There's two genders. They're called male and female.

He's just getting political. Husbands, love your wives. Wives submit to your husbands. Oh, you're just all about the patriarchy. No, I'm just biblical. Reaching the nations. Which means some of you are like, close the border, close the border, close the border. Not for Christians. Go into Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth, and to proclaim the gospel to every nation, tribe, and tongue reaching the nations, which means Hispanic people, Canadian people, Indian people, Iranian people, white people, black people.

You just talked about white and black in the same sentence. You're just political. Are we freaking kidding me? Can I just say, are you happy you came to church today? This is like. This is like therapy for me. I do not need to pay anyone. I've got you.

Abortion.

I'm sorry if I step on your toes for a minute. One of the Ten Commandments says do not murder.

The largest number of murders in human history has happened by abortion.

Yeah, pastor. Come on. Somebody. Yeah.

Aren't you glad that I'm sick and not well today? Now, by the way, if you're hearing this and you're like, oh, well, I've had an abortion or I was, literally everything you've ever done can be forgiven by God if you repent.

But just because you did it doesn't make it right. Okay. I don't know how many parents I've. I need to close this message down. I have another service to preach, and there's no timer up there, so I'm probably way over. I'm sorry I've had so many conversations with parents that won't actually teach their kids the Bible because they did it wrong, and they're afraid to teach the kids because they feel like a hypocrite.

Guess what? We're all hypocrites and even in need of a Savior and in need of a Lord. By the way, what you're talking about sex and sexuality in church, that's just political. Listen, I you we live in a world that everything is political. So if I want to avoid being political, I have to stop being biblical. And I will never do that.

Can five of you at least respond with, okay, pastor, I'm with you. I'm with. I'm with you.

The last one is despising prophecy, and I need to land this plane really quickly. So the first Thessalonians 519 says, do not quench the spirit. So some of you, the Holy Spirit wants to speak through you, and he wants to speak through you to someone else. And so sometimes that is literally sharing the gospel, sharing the Word of God.

But sometimes the Holy Spirit speaks to you and says, man, I want you to give them this word of encouragement. I want you to give them this word of correction. You see what's happening, and I want to prophetically speak into their life. I've received it from them. I'm going to speak into it, and I'm going to either instruct the wise, I'm going to correct the foolish, or I'm going to drive out evil.

Can I get an amen? But here's what happens. Weird things happen when people have the gift of prophecy. When people give a prophetic word, for instance. Again, this is probably a hyper example, but I was once a single adult. I got married at the age of 33. So I understand the waiting and all the things and and I remember being in a singles ministry where it was common for it was typically women.

I'll just be honest, it was women. I think guys could do it too. But this was women. They would say to a guy, God told me that I'm going to marry you. And I literally watched the guy go.

That's news to me.

I've been in an interview with people, people of God, who have said, pastor, God told me. I'm supposed to work at this church. And I go, I'm the pastor and makes that decision. And I think I would have heard from him if he wanted me to do that. But sometimes it says this when we despise prophecy, which means sometimes we're rejecting the real thing.

And we can't do that just because some people make it weird or take it out of context, or maybe get it wrong, doesn't mean that we just despise it. Watch this first 519 says do not quench the spirit. First lesson is 520. The very next verse says test everything, test everything. Hold fast to what is good and abstain from every form of evil.

So if you're a person that receives something from God, the Holy Spirit of God says, hey, I want you to give this word to that person. You literally say it this way. I think say that with me. I think, I think I've got a word from God for you. If God confirms it with you, great. Receive it. If not, why did you spend the Lord as I ate last night?

Fine. I get it wrong. When someone gives you a word. Here's your first response. Do not despise it. No matter how weird or crazy it may sound, do not despise it, but test it. Is it biblical? What a council of wise believers say? Yeah. That's good, I see that.

How many of you all think we need to be living in the power of the living God, to be a witness and to be changed for all of eternity? So we need to lean into everything that God has for us. Let's pray together. Heavenly father, I pray right now that people would receive what you have for them today.

Yes, bold preaching God. We want bold preaching, but from your word. So if it's not from your word, God, we pray that it would not land. Your word cuts is the the sword of the Holy Spirit of God. It cuts. Dividing joint and merit goes to the deepest parts of who we are. And when it offends us, God, I pray that we'd be receptive, to be corrected and to be convicted and to change.

If you're in the room today and you've tried everything, man, you you've tried all the self-help stuff, you've tried it yourself. You've shook your tiny little fist in God's face. Listen to me. You're in good company. We've all done that. But if you feel like a fish out of water and you're in need of desperate breath, desperate life, there's only one that has it.

His name is Jesus.

He says, come to me and I will give you living water. I will giving you, giving you the bread of life, the resurrection, and the life of God. Come to me. So if you're in the room today and you've tried everything and you feel far from God, but you want to come close to God, this is your moment.

An account of three. If you're in the room today and wanting to receive Jesus as your Savior and your Lord, listen to me. Everyone is a sinner in need of a Savior, and Jesus died in your place to pay the payment of your sin. Defeating death, defeating sin. Got up on the grade with an offer for new life.

If you want to receive that today, to put your faith in Jesus on the count of three, I want you to take a step of faith and shoot your hand up in the air. One. Two, three.

Here I am, Lord, I choose you. Now. Let's pray this together. Everyone out loud say, Lord Jesus, forgive me of my sin. Take my sin, and by your grace I receive your forgiveness. 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. Come on, give it up for everyone who prayed that prayer today.

Full Sermon Transcript

Oh, man. Good morning. It is great to be back. I love you, I missed you. Some of you are like, what are you talking about? It's my first time here. But I missed you too. We'll figure out what these shenanigans are in a little bit. I do want to say we're starting a brand new series of messages that we're going to be in for a while, and so I want to encourage you.

How many of you all know that we take the Bible very seriously around here? It is our guide. It's our anchor. It's our it's our foundation. And so I want to encourage you to bring your Bible to church with you. How many of you all have the Bible on your phone? Now, how awesome is that that we can have the Word of God on our phones literally taking with us everywhere.

But I heard one pastor put it this way the Bible on the phone is everyone's Bible. But this is my Bible. Like I wrote in this Bible. Like this. This is my Bible. So bring bring your Bible. And if you don't have one, we will give one to you. We have them available. But I also encourage you if you do have the money for it, just go buy one.

Because honestly, this is the first Bible I ever purchased for myself and it's the one that I'm like, it's my Bible. You know what I'm saying? My pastor didn't buy it for me. My parents didn't buy it for me. I bought it for my self. And I think there's just something special about that. And so I encourage you to do that.

We are going to be in the book of acts. Say acts. We're going to be in the book of acts for a while. You might be asking, why did we name the series Swat? If we're in the book of acts? Well, the Book of Acts is all about the mission of God. In other words, you and I, we have a commander.

His name is Jesus. He's the King of kings and Lord of lords, and he's given us a mission. And if you have a mission, he wants us to fulfill that mission. Can I get an amen? And so, Swat, we need to understand that we're in a war. We're in a battle. We. We are on mission for Jesus. And so we're going to need to learn some spiritual warfare and tactics from the very Word of God.

And honestly, the entirety of the book of acts is that in motion. And so we're going to dig into what the scriptures has to say to give you some context, some background. The book of acts was written by a guy named Luke. He was an ordinary guy, a physician. He was. So he was a doctor. And when he wrote the book of acts in chapter one, verse one, he says in my former book, say this word out loud with me if you can, Theophilus.

You guys crushed it. Just absolutely crushed it. Who knew that you knew Greek? In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach, and till the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles that he has chosen. Now, if you have a Bible, some translations might label the book acts of the apostles, but actually or some just acts, which is probably okay, but it's really not the acts of the apostles, it's the acts of the Holy Spirit.

It's the acts of the Holy Spirit. Now, if you just name it acts, it means it's the acts of Holy Spirit through the apostles, which which can make sense. Okay. But it says in my former book, Theophilus, so, so, so Luke is writing to a guy. Now, if you're a theologian, if you're a Bible scholar. Throughout the history, some people have asked the question like, Is Theophilus just kind of a generic name?

Because Theophilus in Greek means loved by God, or it could mean love lover of God, which means it could be to anyone who is loved by God and or a lover of God. Are you following what I'm saying? However, how many of you all know that context matters in the Scripture? And some things that you might read and overlook actually has extraordinary meaning.

Because when Luke writes in my former book, Theophilus, he's telling us, go back to what my former book was. How many of you all know what his former book was?

I'm so glad you came to church today. You're going to learn something. Luke's former book was the Gospel of Luke, right? The Gospels, the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. So his former book was the Gospel of Luke. And in Luke he starts the book by writing this word. He says, he says to my dear friend, the most excellent Theophilus, the most excellent Theophilus.

Now this is very important language for you and I to understand, because the only way someone would have been written to with the title Most Excellent would have been someone of nobility. In other words, in this context, Luke might have been written writing to someone named Caesar. Most excellent noble nobility a king, someone in high authority. So when he writes to Theophilus, he isn't just writing to a one who's loved by God, but he's writing to a specific person.

Now, I don't know about you, Kelsey and I have just got back from a trip that we took on our on our own and left the kids behind. How many? How it was actually vacation. Because if you take a trip that's with kids, you get a vacation. If it's without kids, can I get an amen? Somebody that's just free of charge right there.

Anyways, so we went to a trip and we went to Washington, D.C. we saw all the things in Washington, D.C., and then we took a Amtrak train to the mini of middle of Virginia, nowhere, Virginia. I don't recommend that. But anyways, we got the opportunity to go into the West Wing of the white House, which is super cool.

Not every day do you get to go into the white House. And I don't care who the president of our nation is, I would love to meet them. I'd love to shake their hand. I'd love to be like, oh my gosh, you're the president. Luke, I bet you cash money. When Luke was writing the Gospel of Luke, he did not have a personal relationship with Theophilus.

In faith. Luke was writing to most excellent Theophilus, just like we read about later in the book of acts that you're going to learn about. The Apostle Paul ended up going to present the gospel to Caesar himself. So in Luke's mind, in faith, he's like, man, if we can tell Caesar, if we could tell the King about this, Jesus and his life would be changed by him.

Imagine what could happen. And so, right. Luke writes the Gospel of Luke to a one person. Now, of course, if you read the Gospel of Luke and and of course the book of acts, it's it's mattered through all of all of history. Can I get an Amen church? Can I get an Amen church? It's mattered to us as well.

But he was writing to a specific person. Which begs the question if you're a believer in Christ, you see, Luke followed Jesus, and when Jesus called him to follow him, he told him. He said, listen to me, I follow me, and I will make you into.

Not a good person, not a great physician, not a great writer, not a great teammate or student, not a great boss or business leader. Follow me and I will make you a fisher of man.

And so Luke followed Jesus. So everything that he did and everything he said, and he wrote it down so that he could write the Gospel of Luke in the book of acts, to be a fisher of one man whose name was Theophilus. Now, let me tell you one of the problems that I think that we have in the American church.

We can we just can we praise God that we have like, almost no seats left in here because it's packed.

I would like to politely ask you to come to the early service or the late service, because we need more space. Raise your hand if you're willing. Okay. We'll see you at the early service or late service next weekend. Okay. Anyways, but here's the problem. Jesus called his followers to be fishers of men. Now I have these fish here.

Good illustration. Right? I have these fish here. Hey, hey! Chill out. These are my kids up here. I bought these. I don't know whose coloring this is, but I'm going to. I'm going to toss this to you real quick. So this is Taki, which, by the way, Gracie Taki survived last service, so. Okay. Bun bun and Boo boo, right?

So I have three kids, they have three fish and they got these fish because of this illustration. So anyways, Jesus calls us to be fishers of men. Now watch this. God created fish to live in. What can they live outside of water? So if I go fishing.

This is going so well.

They know. They know what's coming.

Oh, anybody have a trick? Oh!

Now, how many of you want me to put the fish back in the water?

He's swimming. He's good, he's good, he's good.

How many of y'all were concerned for the fish's life?

Here's the problem with the American church. Too many people, Christians are walking around people who are trying to survive without Jesus. Jesus is the living water. We cannot survive without him. He is the resurrection and the life. And we're walking around swarms of people in our workplace, in our on our teams, in our schools, where, where we go, where we play the games.

We're walking around people who are hurting and struggling because they're a fish out of water. And Jesus has called his followers to be fishers of men, to pick them up and to bring them back to where they belong.

The entire book of acts was written to one more.

One more. Who knew? Do you think Luke would have thought that when he was writing this, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that every single one of us would be listening to his words, even to today? But by faith he said, I know that Jesus can rescue one more. And he wrote it specifically to Theophilus to tell him about Jesus and who he was.

Which begs the question, Christ follower, if you're following Christ and he's making you into a fisher of men, who is your one more? When you came in today on your seat. Some of you tossed him on the ground like I tossed the fish on the table.

Make that help that land right. And you got two cards. I'm going to throw it up. You can throw it on the screen so I can see it. And what I want you to do is I want you to think about a person in your life who's living without Jesus, who's flailing, hurting, running from this thing to that thing, trying to get the fix, trying to survive, trying to get life and life everlasting.

And they're trying everything and they haven't come to Jesus.

Can I tell you that you are the disciple that's in their life on purpose for that purpose? Who is the one more in your life? And so I want you to ask God throughout this service, God, who is that one more in my workplace? Who is that one more in my school? Who is that? One more in my family?

Who is that? One more and I want you to write it on this card. I want you to write their name so you can you can throw this one up. Can you throw up the. Yeah. The card. So I wrote Oliver Smith because that's my son. That's my three year old.

Booboo belongs to Ali. Ali. And I wrote his name because my girls who are older, they've given their life to Jesus and they've been baptized and they're following Jesus. Now, my son, he prays, he'll say, I mean, it's crazy. He will pray some of the most exquisite prayers. As a three year old, it's you've watched it at your house, at dinner.

It's unbelievable. And but like, we don't know how secure his faith is in Jesus. We're trying to pass it on to him. But man, I'm praying that that the Lord would save, save, save Oliver, not Jesus. Jesus is the Savior to save Oliver. So I'm praying for the one more. I'm praying for the one more. I'm committed to praying for and inviting Oliver to be here every single week so that he can know the love of God.

Because God sees us flailing, suffering, trying to find the life that he wants for us. But it's only going to be found in him.

And some of us were so busy doing all these things, which are good things. But if you're a follower of Jesus, you are called to fish and you're called to fish for men. And so what I want you to do during the service is I want you to write down the name of the one more, and the one that says it has more writing on.

It says, I'm committed to praying for inviting one more to experience Jesus at New Life Church. I want you to write the name down, and I want you to take that card with you so you can pray for them every single day for the next 21 days, during 21 days of prayer. Who's with me?

I'm going to ask you again. Who's with me? Because a lot of you, what you don't realize is you were the one more for someone else. You're here because of them. You're here because of their faith. And the people in your life need to be here because of your faith. The second card is just like it, right? It's the same blue color, same white line.

It just doesn't have the extra lines in it. It's going to say one more and it's kind of blank on the top. I want you at the end of the service. I want you to bring them here because we're going to. Right. We're going to pray. We're going to bombard the throne of Heaven over the next 21 days to see them come to faith in Jesus.

Can I get an amen, somebody? And if they don't, we're going to keep praying, and we're going to keep believing that they're going to come to know the one true God in Jesus Christ who can say who we sent. Do you understand the instructions in acts chapter three one verse three, he goes on, he says, after his suffering Jesus, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive.

How many of you ever asked, is he still alive? Did he actually was he actually resurrected? Well, it tells us in the book of acts, this is an eyewitness. Now watch this one time. The disciples are in one room and it's a locked door because they're afraid for their lives and they're all huddled together going, what are we going to do?

We were following this guy. Now he's dead. What's what's happening? And Jesus literally walks through a wall and they're looking around like. And Jesus says, peace be with you. You would need peace to be with you, too. If someone walked through the wall. That's funnier than you gave me credit for.

So he pops through a wall. His disciples are seeing him in the living color, in the flesh, and Thomas is even still doubting he's getting getting a bad rack. We call him Doubting Thomas. And and because he's like, is it really you? Is it really you? I'm seeing you, but I'm not sure. And Jesus reaches out in his hands and literally let Thomas feel the holes in his hands.

You want proof, Thomas? Here's proof I was dead, but now I'm alive, he goes on. He says he appeared to them over a period of 40 days. He appeared to the disciples over 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of God in first Corinthians 15. In five through eight it says, And Jesus he appeared to cafA, which is Peter, and then to the 12 after that.

So it doesn't wasn't just 12 people after that. He appeared to more than 500 of the brothers and sisters at the same time. In other words, he didn't just appear to one and then another, and then they shared stories. And then you could debunk that theory. No, they all saw him at the same time. They were all eyewitnesses, over 500 of them, and most of whom are still living.

They're not living today. But those, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then all to the. Then to all the apostles. And last of all, he appeared to me also. That's Luke as to one. No, that's that's sorry. I'm in first Corinthians. That's that's Paul as to one abnormally born. So Jesus is showing everyone who he is now.

By the way, did you know that every single one of those disciples, except for one John, was martyred for faith in Jesus? They were killed for faith in Jesus. Let me ask you this question. Do you think that they would voluntarily give their lives for a lie?

If they knew he wasn't actually alive? Or if they haven't seen him? Do you think they would actually give their lives for something they believed was untrue? Not even close. And so they gave their lives to him in acts chapter one verse four, he continued, says on one occasion while he was eating with them, which by the way, he was hanging out with them, he was teaching them about the kingdom of God.

He was eating with them, breaking bread with them. He gave them this command, which, by the way, Jesus is not just your homeboy, he's not just your friend. He is these things, but he is your commander. Let this sink in what he says.

We say, yes, sir. He's our commander. He gave them this command. He said, do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift that my father has promised you, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water. But in a few days you will be. Say this out loud with me with gusto. All these words.

So here's Luke writing, this, accounting this. He had followed Jesus. He was a believer in Jesus. He had been saved. It says that he was baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, which means water baptism. Baptized into the family of God. He once was an enemy of God, but now he's a Son of God. And then he says, but wait!

Wait for something you still don't have yet. There is more. And it says, Wait in Jerusalem. Wait for the gift that my father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Now this word baptized in the original Greek language, here is the word baptism, now baptized, which is put this up for me.

Bateau. Say bateau. You're learning Greek today. Bateau means to briefly. Baptism means to immerse so thoroughly that the object is permanently changed. Let me. Let me show you this to you for just a second. Now some people we're going to we're bringing back the podcast. We're all people have all sorts of questions because you've been taught all sorts of things in different denominations.

And we're going to go to where the Bible says, some people have talked about immersion in baptism, like fully going underwater. Can you be sprinkled all the things we're going to talk about in the podcast. So come back on Wednesday for the podcast baptism. Watch this bateau. And baptism means to be fully immersed. Now, at the same time that Luke was writing this in the book of Acts, there was a guy named Nicanor, Saint of candor.

Nicanor was a Greek poet and a doctor, also a physician, just like Luke. And he wrote this recipe for pickles. How many of you all want to learn about pickles today? So same context, same time frame, same Greek language. He writes this pickle recipe. Nicanor writes, to make a pickle, the vegetable should first be baptized, dipped into boiling water, and then baptized immersed in vinegar.

Some of you have been baptized in the name of the Lord in water dipped in a moment. And it was amazing because you are no longer in enemy of God. You are now a son or daughter of the Most High God. You belong to the family of God. Can I get an Amen? But if you're just baptized by water, you're not pickled.

And for some of us, the reason why we are experiencing the the best life Jesus has for us is because we have not been baptized in the Holy Spirit. Jesus said to his disciples, man, yeah, you believe in me. You've been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, but you haven't been baptized in the Holy Spirit. You've been dipped, but you haven't been fully immersed.

Now watch this a cucumber. How many of you all know that a pickle is a cucumber? Before it becomes a pickle, a cucumber can be dipped and still be a cucumber. You can dip it in boiling water, or you can dip it in the vinegar. If you just dip it in the vinegar, it's not becoming a pickle, right?

Same way as if I park myself in a garage. Doesn't make me a car. You're welcome. Some of you thought that was funny, but after a cucumber is fully engulfed, immersed for a long time in the vinegar, long enough it comes out fundamentally changed. It's no longer a cucumber. It's a pickle.

You need to be pickled by the Holy Spirit. We need to be pickled by the Holy Spirit of God. You need to be so fully immersed, baptized in the Holy Spirit that it changes everything about you. You know, this kind of this kind of idea gets said a lot in the the singles crowd. Can I pick on singles for a minute?

By the way, I was single for a long time. I got married when I was 33 years old, and I remember being around the singles in the church, the young people, and sometimes as old people. It doesn't matter. Anybody can be single. And I'll remember this scripture always being tossed out to people, you know, just praying God will give you the desires of your heart.

And and that's where people will be like, yeah, you're God said you're going to marry me. And it's like, that's great. He never told me that anyways. And but what you don't understand is that if you're baptized in the Holy Spirit, your desires are now the desires that he puts inside of you. Your desires change. So as a believer in Christ, those things that used to matter to us don't matter to us.

Man, I, I just, I just get high all the time. I'm. I'm drinking all the time. Great. Be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Don't get drunk on wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. Can I tell you something? It's a better life. It's a better life. But we're flailing and flopping all over the place on now.

I wish the fish would have done a little bit more. It was a little bit, you know. You know what I mean? Like when I go fishing and I actually get a fish from a water, like, well, yeah, it's all from water. There is flopping and flailing all over. Does anyone know someone like that? Apart from Jesus? We are all like that.

So we need to be pickled. And faith follows a pattern. That's number two. If you're taking notes today. You see we receive salvation. When we believe on Jesus, we put our faith in him, that he is the eternal one that was sent by God to bear the penalty for our sins so that we don't have to. He died so that we don't have to.

He rose again so that we could defeat sin and death and rise again with the power of the Holy Spirit to live a brand new life.

That's great pastor, I want that we need to be completely changed. Acts chapter eight, verse 14. Some of you are asking the question, wait wait wait wait wait. You're messing with my theology, bro. I thought it was salvation baptism all in the same thing. What about the baptism? Why are they separate? Watch this and some of you can argue with me.

It's fine. We have a podcast for that. We have room for many different disagreements. And you have you have a bunch of different. How many of y'all get weird when you talk about the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Because some you've met some weird people?

How many of you all know that a good thing and bad packaging is still good, but people can make things weird. Do you want to know a stat? Write the stat down. It's been said that one out of three people are weird.

So look to your left. Nope. Not them. Look to your right. Nope. Not them. It's you. I hate to break it to you.

Just because someone might make it a little odd or awkward doesn't mean it's bad. And some of you are saying to me, pastor, well, I would like to be saved and I'll be water baptized. But I don't know about this baptism as the Holy Spirit thing. Can I tell you something? Have you seen our world lately? I don't know if two out of three is good enough for the world that we live in now.

Some people I've heard this pastor once say that he wants his church to be press Baptist costal press Baptist costal. Some of you are like, what does that mean? Presbyterians historically have taken the word of God very seriously. Now there's a sect of them right now that wants to dismiss. That's all that sermon. Presbyterians usually take the word of God very seriously.

How many of y'all want to be a part of that church? That's we are that church. We take the Word of God very seriously. It is our foundation. Baptists historically have taken the mission of God. More importantly than anyone I play on earth. A matter of fact, there's more Baptists around the world today because they take the mission of God more seriously than anyone else.

How many of you think that we should take the mission of God very seriously? Pentecostals take the what? Holy Spirit very seriously. Which one should we leave out? None. We need. We have to church. We have to be Word of God, people, mission of God people, and Holy Spirit of God people. Can I get an amen? We need all three.

We need all three. So if you pray in tongues, we need you. If you speak in tongues, we need you. If you are. What is the interpreter of tongues? We need you now. Some of you are like, I don't know about all that. And some of it is because Pentecostals have historically said, I'm picking on you Pentecostals for just a minute.

Can I do that? You okay with me? All right. I'm gonna pick on you for just a minute. Some Pentecostals will say, hey, well, they're the primary expression of faith. Following salvation and baptism. The Holy Spirit is a prayer language. It's a it's praying in tongues, which, by the way, I think by the way possible. Paul says, I pray in a tongue, and I think everyone should do it, but not everyone has that.

It's for some of you. Take a deep breath, okay? Take a deep breath. You're not less than. If you haven't done that before. The Apostle Paul would argue you should and you should want that. But watch this when the apostles in Jerusalem acts chapter eight, we're moving forward a bit. We're going to come back to it in a minute.

When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they said Peter and John to Samaria. When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers that they might receive the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them. They had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Acts chapter eight. They've been saved. They've been baptized in water, but they have not been baptized in the Holy Spirit. The same thing was true of the apostles. The same thing was true of the disciples. They had been saved, believed in Jesus, followed him. They had been baptized in water like John, baptized in water. But they had not had received the Holy Spirit of God.

Now if you follow the book of acts, write the book of acts. Man does the power of the Holy Spirit come on these disciples and they begin preaching the Word of God, and people begin believing it in swarms, thousands and thousands of people getting saved, getting baptized, families being changed. And here's what follows. Because of the power of the Holy Spirit, you see people being raised from the dead.

The sicker, healed the deaf, or come to hear again the lame walk. It follows with signs and wonders. Can I just ask, can we not be a church that's opposed to watching God do miraculous things among us? Can, can, can we be a church that does not oppose seeing miraculous things among us? Can we be a church that is not opposed seeing God work miraculous things among us?

Thank you. Okay, I wasn't going to accept the three of you, right?

So the book of acts, you see all these things happen. You see the Word of God be preached. You see the Word of God advance. People receive it, their lives are changed. People are baptized in the Holy Spirit. And signs and wonders are extraordinary throughout this book that we're going to see in just a moment. Did you know, just a fun fact and you know, you can argue with me, whatever.

You could get all three at the same time. You could be saved water, baptized and baptized with the Holy Spirit the same time. Did you know that people were following Jesus before the Holy Spirit even came on him? He was baptized in water and the Holy Spirit came on him. And Jesus didn't perform a single miracle before that happened.

Did you know this? Not a single miracle happened before Jesus was baptized in water and baptized in the Holy Spirit. If Jesus, by the way, he could have done it, it's he's God. But if Jesus needed the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish all that he accomplished, how much more do you and I need to have the Holy Spirit's power in us to accomplish the mission that he's given to us?

Now watch this.

Acts chapter one, five and six, it says. Then they gathered around him and asked him, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, it is not for you to know the times of the days. The father is set by his own authority. How many of you are end times? People like you just love it.

There's one of you. See? See? You're alone. Okay. She's fine with it. It's good. By the way, we're in the end times. I don't know, I've talked about this. If you want to see it, I'll share it with you. He said to them, it is not for you to know the times of the day. It's the father is set by his own authority.

But you will receive. Say this word out loud with me. With gusto. You will receive what? What does it say? Praying in a prayer language. Does it say tongues? Does it say interpretation of tongues? Now those come as gifts of the Holy Spirit, but you will receive what? When the Holy Spirit comes on you, and power to do what?

To sit in your closet and pray for God to edify you in a, in a, in a prayer language which, by the way, I want you to have that God wants you to have that. Are you hearing me clearly? God wants you to have that. Ask for it. But the reason you and I get baptized pickled in the Holy Spirit of God is so the power of God so comes over us that we are no longer reprobate sinners, that we are now saints on mission for Jesus power to do what the Holy Spirit comes on you.

You will be my, you will be my. You will be my. In other words, you're going to see people in your life without Jesus hurting, flailing, struggling, knowing that they're a fish out of water. And the only hope they have is to get them to the living water to Jesus himself. My question is follower of Jesus, are you fishing for men?

Because being baptized in the Holy Spirit isn't just about having an experience with God. It's about having the power to become a witness for one more.

For one more. Luke had one more, and he wrote two books to make sure that he would know who Jesus is. Follower of Jesus. What if, what if.

You know there are millions and millions of believers around the country worshiping Jesus, but Jesus hasn't returned yet because he wants one more. He wants one more, and you are one more to Jesus. Now someone else needs to be one more for him. Are you picking up when I'm putting down so we don't just come to church to just get stuff we do?

I pray that you do. I pray that you're encouraged, that you're edified, that you're strengthened, that you're growing in your faith. But you have been called to follow Jesus, to go on mission for him. And you need to learn how to be a disciple who is reaching one more by the power of the Holy Spirit.

What is the primary sign of baptism? Holy Spirit's power to witness to someone else? To who? To one more where people often ask me as a leader, Dan, what's your strategy for reaching people like? Is it just adding more services? Is it planning campuses? It all? Sure. But do you know what the strategy is to empower you to be baptized in the Holy Spirit so that one more can know Jesus?

And if more campuses come from that, if more church plans come from that, if more missionaries are sent because of that. Amen.

And where do we do this? Where are we to be witnesses? It says very strategically in Jerusalem. That's our city right here, right where we are, where you go, you're to help reach one more. God. Let me put this very clearly. Can I. Can I get in your face for a second?

Do you have a job? Where? Heritage. Heritage. What's heritage? Heritage golf course. Have you ever seen me work there? But you do.

Are there people in your life at heritage that might be flopping around in need of a savior?

You're all nervous right now. You don't. You don't want me to pick you. You don't want me to pick you.

The Church of Jesus Christ doesn't grow just because of one man standing on a stage.

It grows because of the power of the living God living inside of you. Wherever you go, that one more might come to know him. So who is your one more in your workplace? On your team? Maybe it's your boss. Luke was writing to a guy who is probably a king who he probably had no relationship with, but by the power of God, I believe that that I believe that that King came to know Jesus through the Gospel of Luke.

So much so that he was literally funding Luke's missionary journeys by sharing all that God was doing through them in the book of acts.

Why one more? Why are we praying for this? Why are we inviting our friends? Because we have a commander who's given us a mission and and we're tired of seeing our friends, our family members, our coworkers living as fish out of water. We gotta bring them to the Lord Jesus. It's why we pray. It's why we invite. It's why we bring them to Jesus.

It's why we're doing Serve Day in a couple of weeks. It's why we discover our spiritual gifts and join the Dream Team to serve and not just be served. It's why we support church planters like Pastor Evan that came a few weeks ago. Fun fact did you know that last week Pastor Robby Emory that was here last week?

Was he amazing or what? Like I.

By the way, I know Pastor Robbie very well and he's a man who has walked and lived the message he preached to you last week. It's not just a message that he got from the Lord. He's literally walked it. He's living it. And that's why it's so powerful. Pastor Robby Emory and I planted our churches on the same day in 2016, when we become very good friends.

Because of that, in Michigan, through the Association of Related Churches, the same group that we partner with now to plant more churches ten years later, we were about to celebrate ten years this coming September, and we're able to partner with churches like Tribes Church and Pastor Evan Hooks, who's planting in in the Grand Rapids area. In just a few weeks.

We were church plant number 608, say 608. Now there's church planting organizations all over the place doing phenomenal things for God. But we were church plant number 608 through the Association of Related Churches. And since we started ten years ago, we've had the privilege of helping start 606 more churches.

It's why we pray. It's why we serve. It's why we go. It's why we give to expand God's kingdom in our own city, state, nation, and to the ends of the earth. It's why we financially support Bible translations. It's why we train and send midterm missionaries like Will to the Dominican Republic for Republican Republic for nine months. He's coming back next week.

It's yeah, it's why we support and our supporting Chris ran to become our first long term missionary right now, God willing, to the nation of Morocco and said, why today? In just a moment, we're going to again pray over and send a team to Honduras, to our partnership in church there. Why? For one more where? Across the street and around the world?

How? By being pickled.

By being pickled with the power of the living God. The power to be a witness in acts chapter one. Nine. 11 is said after he said this. He was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid them from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going. And I would I would argue that there's a lot of was the word navel gazing Christians just looking around waiting for Jesus.

Well, Jesus is waiting for you to go and share Jesus with someone else, says, when suddenly two men dressed in white robe stood beside him. Men of Galilee, they said, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven? We'll come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.

Listen to me. Jesus will return again. But until then will you reach one more?

Let's pray. If you're in the room today and you're. You're kind of. Maybe you're kicking the tires of faith. Listen. The answer is, and always has been, Jesus. For God the Father, who created all things, sent his one and only son to live a perfect life and an example for you and I, but to also die a sacrificial death, to pay for the penalty of your sin, which is death, so that you and I don't have to.

And when we put our faith in him, believing in his death, but also in his resurrection, we can be saved. He defeated sin. He defeated death. So we too can be raised from the grave to come to life and life everlasting. And so if you've never put your faith in the Lord Jesus, I want to invite you to do that right here and right now, simply right where you are.

I want you to take a step of faith by on account of three. I want you to shoot your hand up in the air, say, I'm giving my life to Jesus today. You've tried everything else and you're still flailing. Put your faith in the Lord Jesus. One, two, three. Shoot your hand up in the air and hold it up.

You can slip your hand down. Now pray this prayer out loud. Say, Lord Jesus, forgive me of my sin. Take my sin, and by your grace. I receive your forgiveness. 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

Full Sermon Transcript

Good. I'm glad you're here. Be really weird if you weren't so just thankful for coming to church today. My name is Robby, and I've been able to serve in ministry for the past 25 years as a pastor and leader. And then in 20 2016, about the time you started your church, we started church here.

And for the past ten years we've been serving here. But to let you guys know, Pastor Dan knows this, but this is my last time preaching in the state of Michigan. As a resident of the state of Michigan, we're actually moving to Texas in the next four days. And so we're going to move to move the Houston, Texas.

We live there years ago, and we're going back there to serve at a church there in Houston. God does some great things over the past several years, and I'm thankful for that. One of the things is just being able to be a part of what you're doing here and, and, and and Portage and Kalamazoo. In fact, last year I was able to come speak at your men's retreat or men's weekend.

And then on that Sunday and my me and my son, we love the golf, love the golf. And and he just picked the game up last year. He's only 15. He just started golfing last year when he was 14. And so and he's weird. He's weird because he's good at golf and he golfers in the room. You know if you're good, you're weird, right?

You got to be a little weird because I've been playing for 20 plus years and I'm not good at it. He's been playing for a year and he's a two handicap, so he's 15 years. It's like a stick. Anyways, we go up north, we're golfing at a random golf course up north, like we're just golfing and it's a blind tee shot.

No thing about golf, blind tee shot. That means you're hitting off the tee box. You can't see 150 200 yards ahead of you. So it's blind. You don't know what's. You don't know who or what in front of you. It's a blind tee shot. So my son hits the ball and we go up. We roll up and realize, oh, no, he hit somebody.

He hit into the car of another group in front of us. I'm like, okay, we're about to throw down. Like we're about to fight. We're about to get into a fight. We roll up in the cart and we get closer and closer, and I don't really recognize the people that we hit into, but apparently they recognize me and they're like, hey, no problem.

You hit into us, I'll problem. I'm like, I'm so sorry. They're like, it was great to see you at church on Sunday. I'm like, what? Yeah. Apparently my son hit into Pastor Kelsey's father, who goes to church here, right? You're back there, dad? Yeah. Is that a true story? True story. Two story. And he. He beat the brakes off of me anyway.

So, No, no, I was like, so be careful who you hit into. You might just go to church with him on Sunday anyways. But though they were gracious to us and they let us play through as they should because we'd just kept hitting into him all day. Now I'm just kidding. And so your grandson in the front row here.

Yeah. Do testify to the fact that we should not be playing golf around you guys anyway. So I want to be thankful for what God has done. But I don't want to assume that's all he wants to do. See, I think, I think we're thankful for what God has done in our lives. But we're like, alright, your good God, thank you for doing that.

Let's not assume that's all he wants to do. I'm thankful for what God has blessed me with. I'm thankful for what God has done in my time of being in Michigan, my time being at the University of Michigan. But I don't believe that's all God wants me to do. I believe there's more. And if I believe there's more, then there's an ambition, there's excitement, there's a joy that comes in that knowing that what God's got next is even better than what he's done.

The Bible says he's able to exceeding abundant above all that we can ask or imagine according to the power that works in us. That's the hinge of that scripture. You do know that, right? Like big doors swing on small hinges, and that small hinge for your life is knowing that God's able to do exceeding abundantly above all that you would ask or imagine, according to the power that works in you, according to your finite mind, according to your finite heart, according to your finite mouth.

An infinite God says, I can do more. And so whatever you've come expecting today, he's able to do more. So I've said, remove your expectations, remove some of those things, and allow God say, God, I believe you can do even more in my life than what you've already done. I believe you're going to do even greater things with my family, my kids, my life than what you've already done.

Because I know some of you walked in here today carrying things. Don't. We can see you're carrying grief. You're carrying disappointment. You're carrying heartache, exhaustion, betrayal, confusion. You're carrying those things. And sometimes the hardest part of faith is wondering, do you understand that part of me, Jesus, do you understand the part of me that no one can see?

Do you understand the part of me that that I can hide with a smile? Do you understand the part of me that I can't really talk to my parents about? Do you understand the part of me that no one knows? Do you understand that part? And this preacher's just come to tell you? Yes. He does.

He does. Because don't you know that even though he was crucified that he gave his life on the cross, he also went through disappointment that those who said they would be his ride or die left him. Those that said I would be with you to the very end betrayed them. Do you think Jesus was a little confused? Go read, take the God part out of it and put the humanity part into it when using the garden.

And he's praying, God, father, don't don't let me go through this. But he's hanging on the cross. Why have you forsaken yo? Those are real words. Those are human words. Not from a god, but from a human. And so I want you to know today that not only does he understand your suffering that everyone sees, but he understands the suffering that no one knows.

And that God, that type of God, is the God we serve, the God we follow, the God we love, the God we're passionate about. He understands the weight of your mind. He understands the loneliness, the pressure, the darkness. Jesus didn't just come to save us from sin. He came to enter into our suffering. And so from the beginning, the plan of the enemy.

I got some young people in the room just I want the young people look at me right now. I just feel this in the Holy Spirit. And I'm going to need the mom and dad's in the rooms. And grandparents, I need you to say amen after I make this statement because I have 20 something daughters, twin daughters. They're almost 20, Mike.

They just got home from college back in April. Anyone got adult children in the room? I got adult children. They start telling me what to do. What in the world? What? This is what? I'm going to bed. This is what I'm waking up. All right. Whatever. Anyways. But all all the teenagers, 20 somethings, look at me in the room.

This is the trick of the enemy. The enemy will try to get you to think that those that love you the most, love you the least, and that those that love you the least, love you the most.

That's what he's going to try to do. The moms and dads who wake up early in the morning and come home late at night, who spend all day working and and striving to provide for you. The enemy is going to try to get you, to make you think that those that love you the most, love you the least, and convince you that those that love you the least, who've never sacrificed for you, who've never done anything for you, love you the most.

And if he can get you to do that, then you listen to those that love you the least more than those that love you the most. Because the trick of the enemy is always to separate you from the father. Now everyone listened to me in the room. The trick of the enemy was always to get you away from a relationship with God.

In fact, the New Testament says Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost. What was lost, lost was closeness. That's what was lost. How do I know that when Jesus died, the veil was torn, the veil brought in closeness to. Or we can approach the throne of God with boldness and grace that we never had prior to Jesus dying on the cross, that Jesus came to bring back closeness that was lost in the garden.

It was lost in the garden because of sin.

And so Jesus, God had to create a plan, a master plan, and so animals had to be killed and animals had to be placed on humanity. Right? And so when Jesus looked, when God looked at Adam and Eve, he didn't see their sin. He saw the spotless lamb that was killed and placed upon them. And then when Jesus died on the cross, God doesn't see our sin.

He sees the spotless blood of Jesus on our lives so that there could be closeness because sin creates separation. Now listen, I did a lot of dumb things when I was a teenager. Any old people in the room didn't do dumb things. When your teenager just wave at me, and those of you who didn't wave at me, you're going to be in the altar later on to repent of your sins.

You lied in church. I didn't lie dumb things when I was a teenager, but I know one thing I didn't do any dumb things when I was with my father.

You see, the enemy wants you separate or away from the father because you do dumb things when you're away from God. Father, because closeness is a cure. The enemy also knows that anytime I was with my dad, I never paid for anything. Right, dad? Don't pay for anything.

Pay for everything. Just freeloading. But the enemy of our soul knows that. That if we're close to God the Father, that he has everything we need for our life, all the resources. Not only will we not do dumb stuff, but we'll also get everything we need for our lives. So closeness is the cure. And so if you feel far from God today, I'm encourage you to get close.

It's not God who moved. You moved. And so I need to get close. Closeness to secure. As I said, I got we got kids. I always say I've got kids. My wife gets mad. Well, there's two of us in this process. We have kids, so we have kids. First one was twins. Anyone has a single. At first you don't know what parenting is.

There was no. There was no on and off I was on all the time feeding, changing, bathing, all that with kids. We're on. I remember that moment when those girls were born. They took those girls. They had to be born in the in the O.R.. I told my daughter this just the other day, but she didn't scream right away.

Now that's a test, right? Took her a few seconds, and then finally she screamed and she broke every record in that operating room. I'm like, you still scream? Until this day. You're 20 years old. But I remember taking those little babies. Remember placing them on my chest. And if any dads ever done that to their child in this room, you know, closeness is a cure.

You see the enemy, he wants you to not be close to the father because closeness is cure. He doesn't want you talking to your God. He wants you talking to your girlfriend. He doesn't want you talking to your father, your heavenly father. You want you talking to a friend because closeness is a cure.

My son 15. He and I have this agreement in dads, I encourage you to get in on this. Moms get in on this like I just I'm his first call no matter what. But I just want to be your first call on your worst day. I want to be your first call. On your best day. I want to be your first call.

Don't you know your Heavenly Father just wants to be your first call? He just wants to be your first call. You guys do. No. Prayer is not informing God. You get that right. Prayer is involving God. That's what prayer is. It's not letting God know what's going on in your world. It's inviting God into your world. It's not informing God about anything.

It's involving God in everything. And so when I pray, God says, cool, I can enter that situation because you invited me, you've invited me into your situation, and a lot of you are walking through this life far from God because you've not invited them into anything. Maybe you come to church, maybe you sit here, but you need God and your business.

You need God in your home. You need God in your car ride. When you leave here today, involve God in your situation.

So the other day we made my son were in church. We're in Houston, not the church we're going to, but the church I used to pastor at years ago. And I'm listening to my senior pastor preach, and he's notes kind of get all messed up. His iPad breaks down, and so he can't preach his notes anymore. And so he kind of kind of flies by the seat of his pants a little bit.

And he invites my son up on stage because he knows him and he's there, and he does a little illustration with him. And it's kind of a great moment for my son and me. And my son comes, sits back down next to me as he continues to preach and just happens to be baptism Sunday the way they did baptism on Sunday in that church is they invite people to come forward who want to be baptized.

And I just leaned over to my son and I said, hey, Bob.

Want to get baptized? He didn't respond. Yes. He didn't say a word. He just simply got up from his seat at 15 years old and walked in line and got baptized at church. Because closeness is the cure. You see, a lot of you are missing your next steps because you're not close enough to the father for him to be able to whisper something into your ear and say, hey, what about this?

How about you do this? How about you jump here? How about you do this? How about you take this step? How you move in this faith? How about you take this step of generosity? How about you pay for the people behind you at Starbucks? I don't know, closeness will always be the cure. Let me read some scripture to you.

Acts chapter 27, verse 22. When we read this text, it's it's about the journey of Paul and Luke and 200 or so men. They're going to face charges for crimes and crimes of just preaching the gospel. Nothing egregious, but Paul stands up and he says some words to everybody that are on this ship. That may sound a little strange.

I can imagine getting an email like this tomorrow morning when you go to work. Hey, take courage. None of you will lose your jobs, but the ship will go down. You're not going to lose your jobs, but the company no longer exists. That's what Paul saying. Take courage. Don't leave you to lose your lives. Even though the ship will go down for last night, an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me.

And he said, don't be afraid, Paul, for you will surely stand trial before Caesar. Thanks a lot. Even though I am going to be shipwrecked, I still got to go stand trial. What's more, God and His goodness has granted safety to everyone sailing with you. Everyone else is going to survive. So take courage, for I believe God. It will be just as he said.

But we will be shipwrecked on an island. I want to talk to you today from this thought castaway, or calling someone smarter than me said this not too long ago, is that people and things don't trigger us. We trigger us that if I allow someone to trigger me or things to trigger me, then I'll get into that person or that thing authority over me.

And so I trigger me. I control that, I choose whether or not to be a victim or to be victorious.

It's my choice. I choose whether or not to live out my calling or to be a castaway, to live under the umbrella of just, hey, I'm stuck here. This is the life I have. This is where I'm going to be. Like, I can just say, no, this is my calling. Wherever I go, I'm going to allow God to use me no matter the situation that I'm in.

Yeah, I'm a little weird just to let you know. It's okay. We all are. I make my bed at hotels. I'm weird, I do, knowing that someone later on during the day is going to come make that bed. I make my better hotels. Why? Because I make my bed at home? Because what I my mental state is this.

I'm not going to allow the circumstances to change my responsibility.

So I'm going to continue to do what I always do, no matter where I am. For example, let me just say this we had Thanksgiving. Everyone has Thanksgiving. Why did I say it like that? We had Thanksgiving. We had family over Thanksgiving. They all wanted to go and hang out on Wednesday night to go to the restaurants and bars, whatever they're going to do.

I said, we'll babysit and watch your children as you go be children. So we watch their kids as they went out. And so we're watching, and the next day we're going to have a conversation about what they did the night before. Hey, how was the night we gave them suggestion to restaurants. Where did you where to go, what to do all those things.

And they said it was great and it was okay. The service was kind of mid. I'm like, what do you mean? Like yeah, it was just your waitress wasn't very kind. And she was kind of like seemed a little distracted and, and you know, our drinks were never full and it was just like it was just kind of like that day.

And so they said, well, we just didn't we just didn't take care of her very well. We didn't tip very well. I'm like, what? You're in my city. Like what? You do the same thing, Robbie. You wouldn't tip as well if you didn't get to kind of service that you thought. I said no no no no no, I am not going to allow someone else to change who I am.

If I'm a 20% tipper, then I'm going to be that no matter what you do. Because if I allow you to do to your attitude, your lifestyle, your things, to change who I am, then you have authority. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to be the person I am. No matter the situation that I am. I'm going to be consistent because it's a choice.

I can live as a castaway or I can walk out my calling. I'm going to walk out my calling, whether it's in Detroit or whether it's in Houston, whether it's in Texas or whether it's in Michigan, whether it's in this job or that job, I'm going to walk out my calling because that's why I'm here on this earth to do.

And I understand that it's my choice now. I'm old enough to remember this show. Just sit right back in here and tell a tale of a fateful trip that started from this tropic port aboard this tiny ship. My mom, she's singing back there with me. The mate was a mighty sailing man. The skipper, brave and sure. Five castaways set sail that day for a.

Oh, yeah, you all sinners. I get it. For three. I was Gilligan's Island. I watched that show as a kid growing up, and I would be enamored by this incredible show that they were stuck on a deserted island, that they could make telephones out of a coconut, but could not repair a ship.

And they were castaways. It was in 2000, one of my favorite actors was now going to be on this show, this movie that we would know as castaway and that Tom Hanks as cast. And in this movie, castaway would be stuck in an island for years, trying to get off and trying to get away from the island. But no, no, not able to do it.

And so his only friend was a volleyball named Wilson. And I think a lot of us can fall into the ideas. Am I going to be a castaway? I'm going to walk out my calling. Am I going to allow my circumstances or the things I don't like, or the destination I don't want to be in, and I'm just going to live as a castaway?

Or can I walk out my calling? My calling is always to share the good news. That's your calling. You want to know your calling is share good news. That's it. If you're speaking bad news, it's not your calling. Your good news is calling. Today I'm preaching about the castaway of calling. The Bible says, but we will be shipwrecked on an island.

I'm not where I want to be. I'm not where I intended to be. I'm supposed to go to stand trial. I was never supposed to be in the sea. I was never supposed to be on the island of Malta. I was never supposed to be here, but I.

And shipwrecked on the island. The Bible says that they. That the ship began to break apart, and that the only way that they would be able to survive is that they would hold on to the debris of the ship to get them to the island. They come to know as Malta that they would have to hold on to, not to get to their destination.

It wasn't the ship, but it was a piece of the ship. It wasn't their full vessel, but it was a piece of the vessel. See, I like to think there's people in here that maybe some things in your life have broke apart. Maybe it's not the hope that you once had, but there's a little bit of hope, and maybe there's a little bit of faith left.

And let me encourage you to hold on to that. Hold on to that little bit of love, that little bit of passion, that little bit of desire, that little bit of encouragement. Because if you hold on to that, it'll get you to safety, it'll get you to dry ground. But just holding on to it, it's not enough.

Because we all know that we go out and one of these big lakes in our great state, they're just grabbing, holding the of a pool noodle in the middle of the lake is not going to get us to the shore. That I'm about to kick a little bit. I'ma have to put some energy and effort into this. I think a lot of us are just holding on to the pool noodles of our spirituality and think, hey, God, when are we going to get there?

And God says, I need you to kick a little bit. I need you to put some energy and effort into this. I need you to do a little something because I'm going to pray like it depends on God and work like it depends on me. And so, yeah, I'm holding on to the pool noodle in the middle of this lake, but I've got to get to the destination.

So I'm going to start kicking some moms and dads. You need to start. I know you want your kids in church. Gotta bring em sometimes you gotta bring them to church. You can't just pray them in the doors. You gotta bring them in the doors. I'm preaching better than your responded.

There's energy and effort that goes alongside of what I want to do and get accomplished. If I want to get to that, sure, it's not just me holding on. I'm going to have to kick a little bit. And the Bible says that once we were safe on the shore, we learned that we're on the island of Malta. The people of the island were kind to us, was cold and rainy.

So build fire on the shore to welcome us. Next scripture, as Paul gathered an armful of sticks, was laying them on the fire, a poisonous snake driven out by the heat bit him on the hand, and the people of Island saw hanging from his hand and said to each other a murderer. No doubt, though he escaped the sea, justice will not permit him to live.

But Paul shook off the snake into the fire and was unharmed. The people waited for him to swell up or suddenly drop dead, but when they waited a long time, everyone say a long time and saw that he wasn't harmed. They changed their minds and decided that he was a god. You have to get this gathering sticks was just meant for the indigenous people of that island, meaning that only the women and children would have been ones gathering sticks.

But Paul said, even though I'm not where I'm supposed to be or even where I want to be, I'm not going to stop serving.

I'm not where I want to be. This is not the place I want to be at, but I'm going to help keep the fire hot. I'm going to serve everyone else around me. I'm going to serve these 200 other 200 prisoners. I'm going to serve the people of Malta. Let me just tell you this. If serving as beneath you, then leadership is beyond you.

And that Paul was saying, even though I'm not where I want to be, I'm still going to serve. Even though he was shipwrecked, he's still trying to serve. The circumstances did not make him exempt from serving. I want to say something, something to people in the House today that if you're here today and you've gone through some stuff in your life that has shipwrecked you or messed you up, there's still a responsibility for you to serve others.

Yeah, I know you went through a divorce. I know you went through a sickness. I know you lost your job. I know you got pain. But God is looking for somebody that will still serve while you're suffering.

I wish I had. Some people have been wounded, but are still going to serve people that have been through some pain, but are not giving up helping others. And this is not my notes, but.

I can't remember his name. Bowman. Bowman, black Panther actor. Sorry. Chadwick Boseman, thank you. Chapter. Boseman, black Panther, he number 42. Amazing. Chadwick Boseman was going through cancer. He was going through colon cancer. No one knew. Just his family knew. Only knew Chadwick Boseman. While the Black Panther was still popular. Chadwick Boseman would go to children's hospitals dressed as the Black Panther, dressed as a superhero.

He would go there just as himself, as an actor, go there and visit children who were dying of cancer, who were battling cancer. He himself, who no one knew but he was dying of cancer, but yet would walk through these hospitals high fiving these kids, loving on these kids in. He understood that even though you're hurting, you can still bring hope to people.

And that's what the enemy doesn't want you to do. The enemy doesn't want you bringing hope to people even though you're hurting. And I know you're hurting. I know you've been through some things, but even though you're hurting, you can still bring hope to people.

I wish I had. Some people have been wounded. We're still going to work, still going to help.

He through sticks on the fire now. The fire snake latched onto his hand. You ever think about that? He can go in the middle of your serving in the middle of, like, getting back, doing the right things? That old habit kind of sneaks its way back in.

Someone DM's you that you tried to separate yourself from.

Some something happens in your life and some kind of reattach themselves to you, right? You're trying to do good, you're trying to do great, and all of a sudden something comes back in your life that you thought you had got rid of Paul serving, and all of a sudden a snake latches onto him, a poisonous one.

The Bible says. He shook it off. I think a lot of us are dealing with issues in our life because we allow things to attach to us, and we just keep it there.

And we allow it to stay in our life so long that the venom begins to move itself through a body and begins to deteriorate us and kill us silently. But all of us in this room need to do what Paul did. When you go Taylor Swift on that stuff and shake it off, because everyone there were watching, just waiting, the Bible says, waiting for him to fall over and die.

They said the seething kill him. But karma, man, karma is going to get him.

They watched, waiting for him to die and when he shook it off, they changed their mindset of who he was. No, he's just he's a god. There's something special about him. There's something far greater in him than we could ever ask or imagine something awesome inside of him. Because Paul's reaction to negative, he happened to him. He just shook it off.

What is your face? What is your body? What is your language saying to others around you? When something negative happens in your life, are you just shaking it off and going about your day? Are you allowing it to fester and grow? You screenshot it and send it to your friend, see what they're doing, see what's going on in their world.

You know what I'm saying? We allow those things to stay with us and they just fester and grow. They turn into attitudes. They turn into spite. They turn into things wrong. We need to shake that off, because the people watched what Paul did and they assumed he was a God. Let me just say this people, this world, they may never read the Word of God, but they will definitely read us.

And what we do and what we say and how we act or how we react will determine whether or not they believe.

Now Luke is writing all this meticulously, writing the story of them on the island of Malta.

It's Paul, Doctor Luke, 200 other prisoners in this land. The Bible says they went and realized that Paul has something special about him. He shook the snake off in acts 28 says, near the shore we were landed was an estate belonging to Publius. There's a lot of great names in the world. That's not one of them.

Sorry. If there's a public that's in the room. My bad. I blame your parents. Anyways, the chief official of the island, he welcomed us and treated us kindly for three days as it happened. Publius, his father, probably Publius senior, was ill with fever and dysentery. See, Luke writes that he knows what dysentery is. He's like, quit eating the lettuce.

Paul went in and prayed for him. Get this. Say this with me. I'll do it. And.

With that word. What word is that? Hands.

Continue. Then all the other sick people in Ireland came, were healed. As a result, we were showered with honors. When it came time to sell, people supplied us with everything we would need for the trip. You do know, did you? Did you get it? I tried to point it out as best I could. I got like a three minute message.

It's literally that scripture right there. So they brought Paul and he laid hands on Publius and he was healed, whom his father was healed. And then he brought everyone else, laid hands on them, and they were healed. You didn't know the story, right? It's not Luke, the doctor who's a healing agent in the story. It's not the guy with all the letters by his name, the one bringing about great healing in the story.

No, it's Paul. And what is Luke right about Paul? That Paul did what? Laid his hands on him? The thing that's injured. The thing that's broken, the thing that's hurting, the thing that's messed up, the thing that just get bit by a snake is the thing bringing about healing and the lives of those on that island. I've come to preach you today that the enemy wants you to be quiet.

The enemy wants you to be sheltered and pushed away because you're broken, because you're messed up, because you've been through something. But God says, come on, I need you to join the prayer team. I need you to help greet people as you come to the doors of the church, because your brokenness is what's going to bring about a blessing in someone else's life.

Don't allow that. I'm going to walk out my calling and not live as a castaway on this island. It's your choice. It was the guy with the wounded hand that hands up healing puberty. As his father. Pastor, I've heard my life. Great. We need you on the prayer team. We need your greeting. We need your worshiping. It doesn't matter what you've done, what you're doing right now, what you've been through.

Focus. Focus on your Heavenly Father. I hope I'm talking to some people that have gone through some disappointments, hurts from coworkers, pain from spouses, parents, siblings, childhood memories of abuse. I don't know what it is to realize that the poison that the enemy injected into your life is not intended to paralyze you. It's not there to paralyze you, but to promote you.

So it's my calling. I'm gonna live as a castaway. It says at the end they got all the supplies they needed for the trip. He saw a situation as a calling and didn't think of himself as a castaway. He left with more than he had. The people the island provided for everything they needed. Maybe you'll never get the supplies of your life if you never have a shipwreck.

Maybe you never get the supplies that God intended for you. If you never had the snakebite serving as a vehicle that takes us from our problems, our pain, to our purpose. So when you pray you're not talking to a God who studies suffering. You're talking to a God who survived it. The same wounds that broke Jesus are the wounds that heal us.

Isaiah says it clearly by his wounds we are healed. The very thing that looked like defeat became the place of healing. And prove it to you. In Japan, there's an ancient art form called when a bowl or a piece of pottery breaks. They don't throw it away. Instead of hiding the cracks, they repair it with gold. They take liquid gold and fill the broken places.

So when the bowl is restored, the cracks are still visible. But now the cracks are the most beautiful part. The brakes are not hidden. They're highlighted because the philosophy and the guy says something beautiful. The break is not the end of the story. The break becomes part of the beauty. And then I think of the cross. And I need some church people in this place today.

Because when Jesus went to the cross, his body was broken, his hands were pierced, his side was wounded, his back torn apart. The Son of God was shattered by suffering. And three days later he rose from the grave. And guess what? The scars were still there.

The scars were still there. Jesus kept the scars. Why? Because in the kingdom of God, the wounds are where the glory shines through. What broke Jesus didn't destroy him. It became the place where redemption flowed out. And that's what makes us awesome. That's what comes out of you. Your story, your redemptive story.

Is where the glory comes out, the cracks in your life, the wounds you carry, the pain you've been through. God does not waste those things because in the hands of Jesus, even the broken places become beautiful.

By your heads with me in the fruit of.

Today. Maybe you're here for the first time. And.

Maybe you've never given your life to Christ. Or maybe it's been a long time since you said yes to Jesus, and you're ready to get started again. God, I need you. Lord. I've been so far and I'm ready to be close again today. You want to give your life to Christ or. It's been a long time. When I count to three, I'm gonna ask you just to raise your hand.

We're going to pray a prayer together. This final prayer. You've never given your life to Christ, or it's been a long time. Maybe you feel far from God and you're ready to be close. If that's you. Today, when I counted three. Raise your hand. One. Two. Three. Hands up, hands up! Wow. Thank you for the hands. Thank you for the hands.

So many hands. Drop them down with every head bowed, every eyes still close. All over this room. Pray this prayer with me and say it out loud. Say it with me. Heavenly father, I realize today that I'm a sinner and I need a Savior. Jesus, forgive me of my sins. Jesus, I repent of my sins and I turn to you today.

I confess with my mouth, and I believe in my heart that Jesus Christ is Lord and God raised him from the dead. Today I say yes to Jesus Christ. In Jesus name, Amen.

Full Sermon Transcript

Thank you so much. It is so good to be here with the new life fam at the invitation of your pastor. We are new friends on this on this journey, and I'm so thankful because how many of you know that the Smiths have done this before? Come on somebody. So we're we're learning from them and being encouraged by them.

We're fast forwarding in time to the place where we have something like this. People who come every Sunday morning. Right now, we're still t minus two months out. We launch in northwest Grand Rapids September 13th, 2026. Come on somebody. So we're so excited. And man, this last year has been crazy for our family. But we've met so many amazing people, so many open handed people, so many generous people, so many kingdom minded people.

And your pastor and their family are one of those. Can we just show them some love? Are you so glad that God brought them to new life? So, so thankful for them. And and my girls are at home. My wife's name is Mel and we've got four girls, ages 10 to 2. Okay. And so if you want to pray for anybody this week, you just pray for the decibel level in our home.

Okay? I don't know if it's happy screams or angry screams. They all sound the same still to me, but. But we're having a lot of fun. I grew up in Grand Rapids. That's where I drove from this morning. And then we've been gone for the last 14 years in Indiana and and most recently out by the lakeshore in Grand Haven.

And in late February, we came back to Grand Rapids to launch a brand new, life giving church. We're so excited about that. But today, I am honored to be here with you, and we're going to dive into one of the most famous passages, one of the most famous stories in all of Scripture, and I'm so excited for that.

And and so I just want to take a moment, you know, we are living in the one of the best months in the state that we live in. Come on. I mean, from morning till night, we're packing it in. It's actually above 30 degrees in the state of Michigan, which we're happy about. And so I know everyone in this room, those of you who are watching online, we've been packing it in, running a mile a minute.

And I'm so excited for this time because I feel like God is ready for you, that God has a word for you that the Holy Spirit has been waiting some of you all week for us to slow down so he can get your attention. And I'm so excited for for what he's going to say. And so just for a moment, I'd love for to give you space to silently affirm that whatever God wants to say to you this morning, that you actually want to hear it, and then I'll pray for us.

Holy spirit, we affirm that you are here, that you don't have anywhere better, that you need to be, that you didn't send anyone else in your stead, that your present. You know us. You know what we need God. I pray that you would put something inside each one of us that we didn't have when we walked through these doors or turned on the TV.

So, Holy Spirit, will you open up our minds, open up our hearts for the word that you have for us today, and it's in Jesus name that we pray. And somebody said, Amen. Well, throughout our time together this morning, we're going to be trying to answer one question that comes out of the text. One question. Here it is.

What's required for a life to leave a mark? What's required for a life to leave a mark? When I was a little kid, I had a friend over and we decided to play a baseball game and what still could be considered one of the greatest venues to ever play a baseball game. It was in my kitchen, and I don't know what I was on that day, but I stepped up to the plate and I just absolutely clobbered it.

And so I was running around all the bases, aka the island in our kitchen, and I didn't give enough room. As I was rounding home, popped my head, started bleeding, and my mama called the doctor and the doctor said, no more monkeys jumping on the bed. No. My mom brought me to the emergency room. My head was bleeding and the doctor said, that's going to leave a mark.

That's going to leave a mark. Some of you have had that. Some of you have had some some accidents that have left a visible mark. How many of you know that people can leave a mark to? And I wonder how many individual souls, individual people that over the course of your life you've engaged with, that you've walked past, that you've been in a room?

I bet it would be a staggering number. Most of them have come and gone. A few have left a mark. A few have lived in such a way that it's actually changed who you are, shaped who you are, that you'll never be the same because of who they were. So again, what's required for a life to leave a mark?

To answer that question, we're going to be peeking over the shoulder of one of the most famous individuals in all of Scripture, not named Jesus, at a pivotal moment in his life. His name is Daniel. And if I can't, I'm just going to catch you up to speed of some of the context around this story. Just so you know what's going on with God and God's people.

God brought his people to a place that they called the Promised Land. They loved it. They had everything that they needed, but they didn't get a chance to stay. They didn't do what God had instructed them to do. And so God allowed them to be taken from that land by a neighboring nation to be conquered. And their capital was devastated.

And lots of people were killed. And a small contingent of young people, of students were taken from Jerusalem. And they walked a long way to a foreign land as as strangers, to live a new life. And the person that we're going to be following the story of today was one of those people, him and his three friends. And I'm telling you, he lived a remarkable life.

Even those of you who are not sold yet on Jesus, you still have questions. You still have doubts. Man, I'm telling you, I encourage you to lean in as we look over the shoulder of Daniel's life and as he stands up for what he believes in. And so we're going to be in chapter six of Daniel. We're going to start out in verses one through three.

All the verses will be on the screen. Here's what how verse one starts says that pleased Darius, who was the king to set over the kingdom. 120 satraps officials stationed throughout the whole kingdom, and over them three presidents, including Daniel. To these the satraps gave account so that the King might suffer no loss. Soon Daniel distinguished himself among everyone the other presidents, the other satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him, and the king planned to appoint him over the whole kingdom.

Now, I don't want you to run past how ludicrous this is. Daniel didn't have connections. His parents didn't work at the firm. He didn't know the language. Daniel was just a teenager, a foreigner, likely orphaned when he was a teenager, saw his homeland ransacked and burned and walked a long way to start a new life that he didn't want to live.

And this Daniel plucked and planted into a foreign land with raging kings. Fiery furnaces has, with the help of his God, quietly lived and incredible life. Daniel, at this point in the story, is now on his third king, his third power structure, his third regime, that kings have come and they've gone. But Daniel's had some staying power, and now again, he's managed to distinguish himself from everyone else.

How? This is the first thing we can pull out of this text. Remember, we're trying to answer the question what's required for a life to leave a mark? Here's the first thing that we see. An excellent spirit, an excellent spirit. You see, Daniel never worked at a righteous organization. They didn't pray before meetings. They didn't have a Bible study before they clocked in.

Daniel probably never lived next to God fearing neighbors. You see, God did not hold him accountable for what he had not given him spiritual authority over. Yeah, Daniel didn't rail against what was out of his control. He woke up every day and was faithful with what God had entrusted him with. He had an excellent spirit. You and I have the same opportunity every day that God has given you.

God has given me a sphere of influence that's under our domain. Maybe it's your house, maybe it's your kid. Maybe it's a project at work. Maybe it's your staff. God doesn't hold us accountable to make the most of what we don't have, but he does expect us to make the most of what he's entrusted to us. And man, this isn't about titles.

This isn't about stages. We've all met people in big places and doing small things that come in with a spirit of excellence. We've all had waiters or waitresses who I'm still not sure if they're mind readers or not. They know your order before you sit down. They know when your coffee cup is low. People who show up to to do menial things with joy, with fun.

They're excited to be there. People who follow Jesus. We have an opportunity. We get to interact with people every single day. And just like Daniel, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, we can show up and make a mark with an excellent spirit. We pick back up in verse four through five. Here's what they say.

So the presidents and the satraps tried to find grounds for complaint against Daniel in connection with his job with the kingdom, but they couldn't. They couldn't find grounds for complaint or any corruption because Daniel was faithful. No negligence, no corruption could be found in him, the men said. We can't find any ground for complaint against this, Daniel, unless watch this.

We find it in connection with the law of his God.

Remember, this is not 2026. This is back in the day. People's rights are not respected like they are today. Back then, your power dictated your value. To take advantage of other people. Wasn't just allowed, it was your right. Daniel never did that. This is the second thing we can pull out of the text. Remember, we're trying to answer the question what's required for a life to leave a mark?

Here's the second thing that we see a clean slate, an excellent spirit, and a clean slate for some of us before we go into the future of what God has invited us into, some of us need to go back to some of the messes that we've made along the way. Some of us have said things, done things, or left some things unsaid or undone that need attending to.

Can I say it another way? Some of us we have Jesus in our hearts, but some skeletons in our closets, Jesus in our hearts, but some dirt under the rug. And if we could just move forward, and if God would just wipe some of those things clean, I would actually prefer that. But God seems to want us to go back to reconcile some things in the past before he can use us fully in the present, that we need a clean slate.

Daniel had no IOUs on his account. No. I owe you an apology. No, I owe you an explanation. Daniel was clean. He was right before God and man. But even then, Daniel was still vulnerable and his adversaries knew it. We pick back up in verse six through ten. Here's what they say. So the presidents, the satraps, they conspired and came to the King.

They said to him, oh, King Darius, live forever. All of us, all the presidents, the prefects, the satraps, the counselors, the governors were all in agreement. You should establish an ordinance and enforce a decree that whoever praise to anyone, divine or human, for the next 30 days, except to you, O King, shall be thrown into a den of lions.

Now, O King, established the decree. Sign it so it can't be changed according to the law, which cannot be revoked. Therefore, King Darius signed it. And although Daniel knew that the document has been signed, don't. Don't miss this. He continued to go to his house, which had windows in its upper room, open towards Jerusalem, to get down on his knees three times a day and pray to his God and praise him, just as he had done previously.

Now, I love that that new life as a church is about to head into 21 days of prayer and fasting, one of my favorite seasons. It was actually in a 21 days of prayer and fasting while we were in Indianapolis. We loved our life there. We had our first two girls there, so technically our first two girls are Hoosiers.

Okay? We're still we're still praying about that, okay? But we loved our life there. We both on staff at a church. We loved it. We were so excited about what God was doing. And and it was during a 21 day of prayer and fasting that God shifted our course, that he shifted our expectations. And and let me tell you, every 21 day of prayer and fasting has not come natural to me.

Yeah, that that, at least for me, maybe you're better than me. 21 days of prayer and fasting is a press. It's hard.

To do that for 21 days. For Daniel, this is it's it's the opposite. They're just asking him to stop for 30 days. That's it. He could pick up after it. Or. Or. Daniel, just pray in your head for 30 days. Just don't get down on your knees and pray towards Jerusalem. That God would invite his people back, that he would see fit to undo what he had been done to Daniel's people.

Just just stop for 30 days. Daniel couldn't do it. He could not stop from praying. And it's so interesting. I think I find in this passage, we don't even see any struggle in Daniel, that it's almost as if Daniel had made a decision, a long time of go, of how to orient his life, that he was going to structure his life in such a way to go after, to chase after, to pursue his God.

And he is not willing to change in iota of it no matter what comes. Here's the third thing that we can pull out of our text. Remember, we're trying to answer the question what's required for a life to leave a mark? Here's the third thing that we see a steady swing. Daniel's got a steady swing. Now, I don't golf much anymore except to make other people feel better about themselves.

But when I did, that's what more experienced golfers would tell me. They would say, hey, don't try to kill it. Don't try to get there all in once one swing. Just keep it steady. And that's what Daniel's been doing day after day, month after month, year after year. I'm just curious, at this point in the story, how old do you think Daniel is?

How many decades have passed since he walked that road from his hometown all the way to this capital city? Is in his 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s? By all accounts, at this point in the story, Daniel is in his early 80s.

That's a steady swing.

Revolution, insurrection, rebellion. Isn't that a young man's game, Daniel? I mean, three kings. Like, haven't you done your time? Didn't you do your leg of the race? Don't you just want to kick back and relax, let someone else take the mantle? Daniel doesn't even blink. He doesn't even blink. He goes to his house, he gets on his knees, and he prays three times a day, just as he had done previously.

I know you know this church, but as much as we wish that life was a snapshot of our highs, and as much as we fear that it will be a gallery of our lows, that we often forget that life are some total of life is simply what we do every day. Every day a steady swing.

Show me your schedule and I'll show you the shape your life is leaving behind. Show me your budget and I'll show you what sort of blessing you're passing on. Show me your habits. I'll show you who you're helping along the way. Daniel had a steady swing. He had a rule of life. He had a routine, a strategy. He made a decision a long time ago.

How he was going to spend each day. And you might be asking, what does a excellent spirit, a clean slate and a steady swing bring you to? Let me just show you. We pick back up in verse 11 through 18. Here's what it says. The conspirators came. They knew they would. They found Daniel praying, seeking mercy before his God.

So they went back and approached the king and they said, hey, didn't you sign a decree that anyone who prays to anyone within the next 30 days, except to you, shall be thrown into a den of lions? When the king heard the charge against Daniel, he was very much distressed.

He was determined to save Daniel until the sun went down. He made every effort to rescue him. Then the conspirators came back to the king. They said, no, O King, that this law that you've signed by the Medes and Persians cannot be changed. And so at the end of the day, the king said, gave the command, and Daniel was brought and thrown into a den of lions.

The king said to Daniel, May your God whom you faithfully serve. This wasn't a punishment. Deliver you. And a stone was brought and laid over the mouth of the den. The king sealed it with his own signet, and with the cygnets of his lords of the conspirators, so that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel. Then watch this. The king goes back to his palace and spends the night fasting, spends the night praying.

He spends the night breaking his own law, praying for Daniel. No food was brought to him in sleep, fed for him. The king is in ropes, the kings breaking his own law. Maybe you know the rest of the story. Daniel didn't. Daniel, for all intents and purposes, this is where Daniel's story ends. Daniel was faithful. He suffered standing up for who he believed in.

He found a story he was willing to die for and that was okay with him. He lived as a foreigner in a strange land. His whole adult life was a continual process of his identity being stripped down to the bare minimum, not just of ideals. Every action that he took had practical, pragmatic repercussions. Who he decided to be today would inform directly, inform his prospect for tomorrow.

And I don't know this. The text doesn't say this. I'm going to stand in line in heaven one day and ask him.

But I think that if this is where Daniel's story would have ended, that he would have been okay with that.

That he wouldn't have turned back, that it wouldn't have changed his actions, it wouldn't have changed his mind. This whole time we've been trying to answer one question what's required for a life to leave a mark? Here's what we see out of Daniel's life. What's required a sweet surrender.

What's required to leave for a life? To leave a mark. I think it's a sweet surrender. That's maybe what strikes you most about Daniel was his courage, his valor, his fearlessness, his resistance. What compels me most about Daniel, what I find so countercultural, so magnetic, was his surrender that he trusted God. Period. No commas, no semicolons, no dot, dot, dot.

I know that's an ellipsis, but I like the sound of dot dot dot better. You know why I think that matters for us today is because many of you in this room are in your own version of some lion's den. Yeah. And your story, just like Daniel, has yet to be written, that you don't know how it's going to end, you can't manufacture the outcome that you want and trust God.

And so you're facing something that you can't control. You had a biopsy this week. You're waiting on the results. You had a tense conversation with your daughter or your son. You're waiting for them to text back. You made some financial decisions, and you're waiting to see how they'll play out. And you could fret, you could fight, you could pace, you could complain, you could come up with contingencies.

Or just like Daniel, you could enter into a sweet surrender, trusting that God will be with you in your lion's den. Even if even if that's the last place you'll find yourself.

What's so special about this passage for me is that this was the passage Daniel six that that I preached my last sermon at our prior church that we had been at for the last six years, and we were doing some unwise things. We were doing things that it would have been easy to, to shift or change course, but we really felt like God was inviting us to take a step.

And so even though I had been our only income for the last five years, even though we had four little girls, even though I was our only insurance, it was this passage, this story that gave us courage to trust God no matter what.

That we couldn't manufacture an outcome. We couldn't require a safety net. We couldn't demand a happy ending. We could just jump. And God didn't send anyone with us. He did not entrust us with a lump sum of money, although I'm still waiting for it. He didn't give us a building to go to. He just gave us this dream, this vision to help people who feel far from God.

To invite people who are disconnected from the church, who don't actually believe that the gospel delivers on what it promises. They've never seen God show up. They've never seen faithful people stand in the gap. And so they're waiting there, waiting for someone to let them into the full life that Jesus promise them.

It was this passage that gave us faith to cling to him, no matter what twists or turns we'd encounter along the way. To take the leap to quit our job, to empty our savings account, to pull our girls out of schools, to move in with family in Grand Rapids. Because just like Daniel, our family is desperate for our lives, our time, our energy to leave a mark.

I wonder if what God might want to stir in us this morning. Church is a spirit like Daniel's who would rather die for him in the lion's den and make concessions in the palace.

Our story ends verses 19 through 28. Here's what they say. Then, at break of dawn, the king got up. He ran out to the den of lions. And when he came near, he cried out anxiously to Daniel, oh, Daniel, servant of the living God! You notice that shift has your God whom you faithfully serve? Has he been able to deliver you from the lions?

And Daniel's voice rings out, O King, live forever! My God sent his angel. He shut the lion's mouth so that they would not hurt me, because I was found blameless before him, and also before you. Then King Darius wrote, look at this to all peoples, all nations, every language throughout the whole world. May you have abundant prosperity. I make this decree that in my royal dominion people should tremble.

They should fear before the God of who, the the God of Daniel. He delivers, he rescues, he works, signs and wonders in heaven and on earth. For he has saved Daniel from the power of the lions. So this Daniel, who didn't know how his story would play out, prospered during the reign of Darius and during the reign of Cyrus the Persian king.

Number four.

Sleeping over night with a pride of lions, was never on Daniel's bucket list, and it probably shouldn't be on yours. The experience isn't the point, it's the unrelenting direction that Daniel had for his life following God. No turning back no matter what. Trusting God, period. And look at the impact. Look at the mark that Daniel's life makes. He so frustrates his contemporaries.

There's no dirt under the rug, no skeletons in his closet. His king, who's convinced that he himself is a god, is now writing to the whole known world about the greatness of the God of Daniel. And don't miss this. There's a king that comes after Darius. You may not know this, but King Cyrus the Persian is credited as the king in Scripture who allows the Israelites to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild what God had allowed to be broken down.

That Daniel, his whole life prays for something that he'll never see, that he dies in captivity. It's not in a violent death by a pride of lines. But never. Daniel never gets to see home again for his entire life. He works. He believes he lives for a future that he'll never see. He labors, he sweats, and he gives of himself to something greater than himself.

Daniel's life leaves a mark. If you were to fast forward five years, ten years, 20 years, 40 years, what would be required for your life to leave a mark? The people that God has put around you, the neighborhood, the apartment complex, the job. What would be required for your life to leave a mark? You see, this season won't last forever.

We get each other for a moment in time, and I think God wants to encourage us.

With what we'll do with this next leg of the journey. How will we use the time we have left?

You might be saying, Evan, this is good and all, but what do I actually do? Can I just give you three things? Three of the simplest things that I can think of. I want to help you this morning. The first one is this. Just like Daniel, bring your best and bring your best. Whatever God has entrusted you with, wherever God has placed you, be like Daniel.

Bring your best. Some of you are convinced that no one's watching, that your life doesn't matter, that it's of little consequence. And I'm telling you, for those of us who follow Jesus, that is not true about you.

That your life can leave a mark. Bring your best second one is this right? Some wrongs.

Right, some wrongs. We all have them. Nobody wants to go backwards in order to go forwards. But in God's economy, that's often what we have to do. It fosters humility. It fosters dependance that some of you are waiting for God to open doors. And can I just encourage you, just for a short time, maybe turn around and look back and and reconcile some things?

Shoot a text.

Press play, give a voice message.

Write some wrongs. Bring your best. Last one is the stay the course, stay the course, stay the course. Have a steady swim. Don't give up. Don't let your circumstances dictate your effort. Stay the course. And I'm preaching to myself on this one. We've got t minus two months until this dream that we feel like God has entrusted to us.

Until it becomes a reality that when we moved to Grand Rapids in February, when we started in early March, we still had six people on our team for ages ten and under, and one of them was married to me. We were doing our part and we just again, it wasn't about the outcome. It wasn't about who's going with us.

It's about what is God asking us to do?

And now we've got 62 adults who most of them don't have a church home. They haven't found their community. They've been trying to follow Jesus all by themselves. And it's not working. They need to be a part of something bigger than themselves. They need to be a part of the church.

Don't give up. Stay the course.

Like I said, I'm not your Holy Spirit, but you have one. And I just love to take the next two minutes. If you would just bow your head, close your eyes to pray for you.

Maybe it's nothing that I've said, but I promise you, the Holy Spirit has something just for you that he loves you. He's not trying to hide himself from you. He's not seeing how far you can get without any help.

Like a loving father, he wants to give you exactly what you need today. If he also wants to give you some courage to do what you hear him say. For most of us, the toughest terrain will ever walk in our entire lives. It's not up mount Everest. It's not to the bottom of the ocean. It's not up to space.

It's the 18in between our head and our heart.

Holy spirit, I just pray for my friends. For every single person on the sound of my voice. You love them. You know them. You know their story. You're not wishing that they were somewhere else. You're willing to meet them right where they are, whether that's in a pit surrounded by lions, whether that's in a palace, wherever it is.

God, you have exactly what they need. Would you encourage them today, just for a moment longer? We've had spouse and nice clothes. I just want to pray for those of you who you walked in today. You joined us online and you said, man, I know a lot about God, but I don't know God like that. I mean, I don't get how someone like Daniel could lay down their life, could be so sure of someone they can't see, they can't hear, they can't touch that they would know that they know that there's a God who saves and delivers.

And maybe at some point today you've sensed something. You've sensed God inviting you to take a similar step to hand over the keys of your life, maybe for the first time, or for the first time in a long time, back to the one who created it. And it would be my great honor to give you space to respond to the God who loves you.

And this isn't for me. I'm not going to embarrass you. I'm not going to ask you to come to the front. Don't want to ask you to stand, but I do want to lead you in a prayer.

And so if that's you today for the first time or for for the first time in a long time, if that's you, will you just slip your hand up so I can see you? I'm praying for.

That. You just pray these words in your own way. Just say, Heavenly Father, I'm so sorry for going my own way, for insisting on my own path. Holy spirit, will you make me new? Would you cleanse me from the inside out? And would you give me everything that I need to live a life worthy of the calling that you've given me.

And it's in Jesus name that we pray. It's.

Full Sermon Transcript

Good morning, New Life Church. My name is Jessica. If we haven't met, I'm your next steps pastor here. But the most exciting thing about today is that you did not come to listen to me. You came to listen to four incredibly gifted speakers who have said yes, to allowing the Holy Spirit to speak through them. They know. And they all told me this morning like, hey, it's not what I say, it's what God's going to say through me.

And I'm leaning on him, knowing that he may not give it to me until I'm standing on that stage, and he may not even let me remember what I said. But he has people in this room that he put in specific seats, because they need to hear what he's going to say today. And all I had to do was say yes.

So could we give another hand for our speakers?

We've been in the series Names of God and we will continue that today. But I wanted to talk to you a little bit about how when we learn these names of God, they're there for us to call on in different seasons of our lives. So we know God's names. That allows us to remind ourselves when we're talking to him of who he is, of what he's already done, what he promises to do, and what his character is, so that we can remember that he is good in every season, and he is capable of every single thing that we need.

I was telling First service this morning that I looked out and I saw my dad sitting there and I was like, I call my dad by different names. When I was little, it was probably Dada than daddy. Don't worry, I don't call him that anymore. I call him dad. When I was in high school, in college, I actually worked for my dad.

So when we were in the workplace, he was doctor and singer. I called him that so that other people would honor him in the way that I wanted them to honor him, and not as his daughter. Now I have the privilege of watching him with my kids, with my nieces and nephews, and to the little ones, he's Poppy.

Sorry my mouth is so dry. To the older ones, he's pop into us as his kids. We will call him poppier pop, depending on what we want our kids to be talking to him as. So just like God, our earthly fathers have these names that we call on when we need them, and this awesome team of people is going to share some of his names with you and what they mean to them.

Good morning everybody. My name is Isaac.

I have the honor and privilege of working here on staff as a pastor, director of production and facilities, and I wanted to start off today with a psalm. It's Psalm chapter 24, if you want to turn to it.

Verse seven, open up ancient gates. Open up on ancient doors. Let the King of Glory enter. Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, invincible in battle. Open up ancient gates. Open up ancient doors and let the King of Glory enter. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of heaven's armies, the Lord of hosts.

He is the King of glory. That brings us to the name of God that I was given today. And it's the Lord of host, Jehovah Sabbath. He is the King of glory. But who is this God of hosts? Who is Jehovah Sabbath? Who is this host that it's talking about? Here we give we get a little bit in the psalm of who he is.

He's strong and mighty. He's invincible in battle. He is the King of glory. He is the Lord over every power, every nation, every army, every kingdom, every battle. He's a living and active force in this world and in our lives. And we're going to talk about that today.

This host. Let's take a minute and look at this host. It's mind blowing it. Take two examples. Today Isaiah tells us about some beings that he's seen in this host. It's I chapter six verse two. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings, with two he covered his feet, with two he covered his face, and with two he flew.

And then in Daniel he tells us in chapter ten, verse six, he tells us about another being that showed up to him. His body was like barrel. So it's like a crystal, like a yellow or sea green crystal. His face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his legs and arms gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude.

So these are these. These things are wild, right? Like six wings, eyes of fire, like the voice of a stadium. The point, though, is that these angels are impressive. But that's not the point. The point is that the God they worship and serve is infinitely more glorious. So if you want to write this down, point number one is God uses angels to do his bidding.

The word angel in Hebrew simply means messenger, but God gives these messengers different responsibilities. In Scripture we see angels deliver messages. We see them protect us people to fight battles. We see them announce the birth of Christ with a choir in heaven, and we are promised that they will announce Christ's return. In the end, the host of heaven move at the command of the Lord of hosts.

But this is where it gets personal. If you want to write down point two, God calls you to build his church. Let me show you. Romans ten says, how will they call on him whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe on him if they've never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

And how are they to preach unless they are sent? Who are the ones that God has sent? Jesus tells us in Matthew 28 he says to his disciples, and then through them to us, go therefore and make disciples of all nations. Jesus is the one that builds his church, but he calls us to participate in what he is doing.

All he asked is for me and for you to say yes. Let me let me give you an example here. I started serving and said yes to serving at church a while back, and it was back in the church mobile church days at the high school and I was serving. I was like, yeah, I said yes to God.

And Brody Rollins shut out Brody. I don't think he's here the service. But he's like, hey, as he's pulling up a cable, he's like, we need another guy to come serve at youth as a guy leader and a chaperon for the extra trip. And I'm like, let's axis. If you want to know, there's like youth kids all around this room, six through 12th graders that have been to access.

They can tell you more because we're short on time, but access the last the last night. It's a great week of messages. And the last night there was a message by Charlotte Gamble and she preached on who calls you changes You. And at the end it's all about calling, right? So it's all about God calling you to a mission.

And at the end they said, hey kids, we're going to open it up, come to the front altar, get prayed over, say yes to God, whatever it's asking, whatever he's asking you to do, whether that's go to ministry or it's just invite someone to church. And I was like, this is awesome. Like, let's go. Like I'm here, like praying for the kids, like are.

And also the Holy Spirit showed up and he's like, go say yes. And I was like, no, I'm here for the kids. God, like, this is for the kids, remember? And go say yes. And I'm like, no for the kids. God, remember that. Plus, I've already said yes. I'm already serving, right. Go say yes. It took a while, but I finally, I finally gave in.

Walked up to the front to the altar with the kids all saying yes. Got on my knees, got prayed over and said yes. God, I didn't know what I said yes to at the time. Still learning that it's been four years I quit my job. I gave up a promising career in management. I started working here at the church and I'm still learning what that yes means.

But let me tell you, I never once regretted it. I have never once regretted it. It's been. It hasn't always been easy, but I've never once turned around and went, man, I wish I never said yes. So write this down. You have a calling because you have a commander. The Lord of hosts is not just the Lord over armies, over angels, over those seraphim and the messengers.

He wants to be Lord over your life. So the question of Psalm 24 was, who is this King of glory? The answer is Jehovah, both the Lord of hosts. But that leads us to the question If he is this King of glory, if he is Lord, a host, does he have my obedience? Does he have your obedience? God has a mission for you.

Are you going to say yes? He created you for a purpose. He saved you for a purpose. He gifted you for a purpose and he's put you in church for a purpose. You are called. You are needed, you are sent. You are part of what Jesus is building. The King of Glory has come in and you going to say yes.

Thank you. Yeah.

Thank you. Isaac. My name is Barry Gray. For those of you that I don't know, my wife Michelle and I have been attending here for about three years, and I have the pleasure today to talk about Jehovah serving our rock. So Jehovah means rock, and it is referred to in that way throughout the Bible. The first time we hear about it is in Deuteronomy.

It's mentioned five times throughout Deuteronomy. So this is the point in time when Moses is getting ready to hand over leadership of the Israelites to Joshua, but through his experience and through his walk, he got to know Jehovah, that rock, that presence that has always been there. And so throughout that book, he is reminding the Israelites of the importance of the Rock.

Then later in the Old Testament, Isaiah knows in his prophesying about the Babylonian exile and is talking to the Israelites about the importance of having the rock in your life. Then later in the Old Testament, David, who when you think about it, is the biggest, baddest king that existed on the face of this earth, who had everything, had been out at battle, came back victorious.

But in his moment of quiet and peace, he went to his true rock. So in Psalms we're going to go to Psalms 18 one and two. It's a very personal conversation, and it says, I love you, Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer. My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield in the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

And then if we just flip over just a couple more pages, we see that it's a consistency for David. In chapter 19, verse 14, he says, May these words of my mouth in this meditation of my heart, be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my rock and my Redeemer. So when you think about a rock, what do you think about a fortress, a deliverer, something that's permanent.

Rocks are hard there, solid, faithful, protective, a grounding place. Our strength, however, in our society. What does our society teach us? The rock is. Can we bring it up?

Little Dwayne Johnson? That's the rock. So I can tell you as a guy, I wanted to be the rock. I wanted to be the rock for my wife, the rock for my kids at work, in the community, athletically, all of those things are good things, but only when done in the right perspective.

However, when we those things are done trying to be the rock, it makes things about us. What else does it do? And right now I'm going to talk to all the husbands, all the dads, all the single moms out there. When we try to be the rock, it adds stress. It adds pressure. Rely on your own abilities and you're fearful of failure.

I can tell you, I fear that at times, me being the Rock, I became a roadblock, actually, to allow others to know the real rock. So Philippians 413. Anybody know what that says? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

I can tell you right? Here is a plaque from when I ran a marathon. Yes, I'm I'm proud that I actually survived that distance. But on there is that scripture that I can do all things. But then I had to stop and think. It is not from my perspective, when Paul was talking that he was talking from prison is where he was talking, and it was not strength to get what he wanted, but for strength when he didn't get what he wanted.

Not achieved, but endurance. Not prosperity, but faithfulness. Our greatest threat to our soul isn't suffering. It's believing that something other than Jehovah Surry can fulfill us and carry us. God allows idols to crumble, dreams to die. God removes what we have been leaning on to reveal what we hold on to. If our joy depends on things in what we have, then joy is one loss away from disappearing.

When you focus on Christ, however, Jehovah, our rock, everything changes. Success can't inflate you. Failure cannot define you. Loss cannot destroy you. When Christ, our rock is enough, the world loses its power over us. Our rock is our grounding place. It's a ballast. In the olden days, when sailors would get on boats, they needed a balance. Something to keep that ship upright, keep it stable so it can go through waves.

So it can go through storms. So they would take large rocks and put them in the hall of the ship. That's what we need to do. We need to have the rock in the hall of our lives. Help us go through those storms. They're going to come. Waves are going to come. We need that rock. When Jehovah is in the center of your marriage and your family, you have a grounding point and ballast to get you through those storms.

I love my wife, my wife, and I think very similarly. It's one of those things that we love about each other. But let me tell you what, it ain't every day that we think the same way about the same things. We have those battles, we have those challenges. But if we have the rock that we both can keep our eyes on, we come back to the same place in the New Testament.

In Corinthians ten three, the name is brought up again. It says they all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them. And that rock was Christ. It's a personal, intimate relationship. So how do we do that? We start right here, making this a regular habit, coming together and hearing God's voice.

I would also encourage you one of the best ways to do it is right here your Bible. Spend time in your Bible. I'd also encourage you. I have it on my phone. It's there, but I also know when I picked it up. I see the texts, I see the emails. I see whether it's my turn to play the game or not, and I get distracted.

And maybe about 45 minutes later that I actually sit down and talk to God. So do that, find some quiet time, be in prayer, talk to him, and then be quiet and listen. Listen for the rock quiet time. I go back to the old him that says, I come to the garden alone. While the dew is still on the roses.

And the voice I hear falling on my ear. The Son of God discloses another way that I will tell you. One commonality of this group right here is we're all life group leaders. I can encourage you enough to get into a life group and embrace it, because that's where the Rock is. As a small business owner, I can tell you I have a life group that I have with that is all business leaders.

As a business person, you're going to have storms, let me tell you. They come and they're going to push you around. They're going to beat you up. Same way in families, in marriage. But I surround myself with those people because sometimes I hear him through that stabilizing factor of my brothers and sisters in Christ. So just keep in mind Jehovah Suri, our rock.

My name is Wade Waldrop. I've been attending New life for about three years now. A couple of weeks ago, one of our youth gave a message on Jehovah ROI the Shepherd, and I'll be giving you that. And there's no way I do it as well as he did, but I hopefully I can supplement it a little bit. If you turn to Psalm 23, a Psalm of David, the Lord is my shepherd.

I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows. He leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along. Right pass. Bring honor to his name. Even when I walk through the darkest valley I will not be afraid. For you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.

You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life. I will live in the house of the Lord forever. If there's one thing that I would have you get from my message today, I don't have a bunch of points, but I have one overarching theme that I would like you to really get from this and that.

That is God is sovereign. I want you to hear me again. God is sovereign. He's on. He's omnipotent. He has absolute authority. But that's not the part of sovereignty that I'm talking about is that his sovereignty is not just power, but faithful care in your life. Even when humanity exercises free will or we encounter difficult circumstances and we are going to encounter difficult circumstances, I'm not sure why we have that.

We question that all the time. I don't know if it's from Original Sin. I'm not sure if it's because the enemy is attacking. I don't know if it's like me. I've made really dumb mistakes and I brought that on myself. I'm not sure what the reason is, but God can use those situations to accomplish his overarching, wide wise purposes.

He's sovereign not just over all things, but in all things. He might not have his hand right on why it happened, but he does have his hand on what's going to happen because of those situations. Realize that he is sovereign in all things. About ten years ago, my mother was suffering from duodenal cancer. If any of you know anything about any sort of intestinal cancer, it was brutal.

And I would go on the weekends to relieve my stepfather because he was she wanted home hospice. And if any of you guys are caregivers, you realize just how brutal that is. It's not just when they're awake that you're doing things, but it's the stress of all day long that you are dealing with. And one of the few times that she was lucid in the middle of the night while I was there was about 2 a.m., we had a conversation, and the conversation went something like this.

Mom, aren't you afraid? Aren't you scared? Are you scared of the pain you were going to feel? Aren't you scared of what's going to happen? Aren't you scared of where you're going to go next? And she looked me dead in the eye. Clear. And she didn't have a lot of clear moments. And she said to me, no, because I know exactly where I'm going.

And regardless of what's going to happen. God has it. He's sovereign. And then she looked at me and she quoted by heart, Isaiah 4113, which I ended up getting tattooed on my forearm because of her. And I was a marine. I had never had a tattoo, but she quoted by heart, for I am the Lord your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, do not fear, I will help you.

You see, my mom was not afraid ultimately, because she knew that the Lord was her shepherd. It took me so long to know how she could feel this way, and I finally came to realize what my mother knew. God is not just sovereign overall things, but in all things. She knew that Jehovah roe, the Lord is my shepherd.

David declared, the Lord is my shepherd. Mine is a pretty powerful word. David, like my mother, knew that the creator of all things was not remote or far away. He was not aloof for disconnected. He's omnipresent. He's an omnipotent God. He rules over the uniforms. But he had chosen to become David's shepherd. He had chosen to become my mother's shepherd.

He's personal. Jesus also identifies himself in John 1011 when he said, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. And that's what Jesus did for us. He gave his life for us because of all those adversity, because of all that he gave his life for us. Jesus wasn't introducing something new. He was just revealing that he was Jehovah roe in the flesh, and he was going to leave the Holy Spirit with us to continue being our Shepherd.

He is our personal shepherd. In John ten three he call us the own sheep by name. We aren't just a face in the crowd. We aren't just a number. He knows your name. He knows all your pain. He knows your struggles, and he knows all your victories. He knows your dark valley that you are walking in today because he's right next to you, walking through that valley with you.

There are no surprises. Jehovah he he's the that provides everything we need. David declared, I have all that I need. This does not mean that you are, as I, as a believer, won't face adversity. Like I said, we're going to face it. It's coming. It might be duodenal cancer. It might be, I don't know, child pain. Could be the prodigal son.

Could be any one of these things. But what I do know is that he's going to take a hold of our right hand. We have everything that we need in Christ for life and godliness. Our shepherd may not always give us what we want, and more than likely, he's not going to give us what we want. Even when we think we want it.

But what he is going to give us is he is going to give us what we need. Sheep are helpless creatures. They wander in a danger in all kinds of ways. And if you think about yourself, you wander into danger in all kinds of ways on a day to day basis. Okay? But the shepherd leads us down next to Green Meadows.

He lies us next to peaceful stream. And Jesus, as our shepherd, renews our spirit, he refreshes our inner being. He revives our lives. He heals our heart. John said, Jesus said in John 1010, I am come that they might have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. The abundant life is not found in worldly comforts, regardless of what we think.

It's not in our success at our job, and it's not in our relationships. It is following the shepherd Jehovah Hohe. The the shepherd protects the sheep. David says, even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Even true, true believers will experience this. They will face to cancer. They're going to face that prodigal son.

They're going to face divorce. They're going to face broken relationships, upside down finances. They will face uncertainty. Following Christ doesn't mean we get a pass on the hard times. But David, notice what David does say I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me. We have the presence of the Shepherd.

He is walking the valley with us. He protects his staff, guides his presence, comforts nothing can destroy those who belong to the Shepherd, because Jesus has already conquered all through his resurrection. And that's the only thing that needs to be conquered. Jehovah, the Shepherd, cares for his flock through others. You see, he puts people in our lives to be shepherds with him, to be in that covenant with them.

You teachers back there in their classes, small group leaders during the week are shepherding their groups. Parents shepherd their children every single day. Coaches shepherd their athletes. Every believer who has a disciple has the opportunity to reflect this. David finishes by saying, surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life. I will live in the house of the Lord forever.

David, like my mother, was not confident because of his own righteousness. You see, we are all black hearted sinners, every single one of us. He was not confident because of his righteousness, because none of us have that righteousness. He was confident because he knew, besides all his failures, he had confidence rested entirely in the God's goodness and grace and mercy.

Mercy. He is our Shepherd and he is sovereign. So ask yourself today is God your Shepherd? And regardless of what your answer is, the answer is yes. He has decided that.

The fear goes away when we realize this. I know that he is my shepherd. I know that he was my mother's shepherd. I want you to know, as I leave here today, that he is your shepherd, to thank you.

Hi everyone. My name is Leah Wilder and I've been attending New Life Church for about three and a half years now, and I have the privilege today of speaking to you guys about Elroy, which means the God who sees me. And we only see this show up in Scripture one time, and it's in Genesis 16, and we have three main characters at this point in Scripture.

We have Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar, who is their Egyptian slave. In Genesis 15, we see God coming to Abraham, and he promises Abraham countless descendants. But then flash forward to Genesis 16. Sarah becomes impatient and she's having problems conceiving, so Hagar becomes their solution. Hagar becomes pregnant with Abraham's son and Sarah just begins to abuse her, and so Hagar flees into the wilderness.

But this is the part of the story that I really love, because while everyone has viewed Hagar as this Egyptian slave so far, God comes to Hagar as his daughter. And it says in Genesis 16 that the angel of the Lord comes to Hagar and he calls her by name. He asks her, where have you come from? And where are you going?

But spoiler alert God already knew. He just wanted to hear from her and make her feel seen. He tells her that she has to go back, but he makes her the promise that she is going to have countless descendants, that she is going to have a son. And then we run into what I get to speak to you guys about today.

If you would flip to Genesis 1613 with me, it says she gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her. You are the God who sees me. For she said, I have now seen the one who sees me. And there's so many things that are special about this name that I get to speak to you guys about today.

So first of all, this is actually the first time in the Bible and the only time that a character in the Bible gives God a name. And you might be asking yourself, how is that possible? Because they're all speaking about the names of God. And that's because the names that aren't Elroy are names that are characteristics of who God is, with names that God has attributed to himself.

And so not only is Hagar an Egyptian slave, but she's also a woman. And she has this opportunity to do this in the Bible. And so I'm so grateful that I was chosen to speak on this name today. And what's also really special about this is that she wasn't the first person in the Bible to have the angel of the Lord come and speak to her, but she was the first person in the Bible to be so in awe and overwhelmed that God had really seen her, and this name that she had given to him was a reflection of how God had seen her in this really trying moment.

And today I have three main points about what Elroy really means for us. My first point today is that he meets us in the wilderness. Some of you may feel really forgotten, or maybe you're in a season of wilderness today. Know that when God came to Haggar, she wasn't sitting in a church like we are. She wasn't praying.

She wasn't worshiping, she was running. And God came to her. He met her. She wasn't of the covenant people of this time, but he didn't care. She was his daughter. And my second point today is he doesn't just see your pain, he's speaking into your pain. Just like Hagar. God is coming to us. He's asking every one of us, where have you come from?

And where are you going? Because God wants to hear from us, and he wants us to listen because he is going to provide direction. Sometimes, just like Isaac was saying, God came to him and spoke to him and said, you need to go say yes right now, and I'm just going to tell you right now. But other times God speaks to us through things like His word, through the counsel of godly people that can speak Scripture into us.

And sometimes it's with the peace that we feel in our spirit where we can find the answers. I was listening to a podcast by Sadie Robertson, and she said that my generation specifically is so paralyzed by the fear of making the right decision that we can't make a decision at all. And so sometimes the peace in our spirit is our answer.

And we have to trust that if God needed to intervene, that he would. And my third point today is being seen changes everything. Hagar's circumstances didn't immediately change. When God came to her, he still said, you have to go back. The abuse didn't stop. Life was still really hard for her. But what did change is she knows that she was seen.

She knows that Yahweh was sovereign over everything. And I think that so many of us feel ourselves alone or lost or unseen. But if we know Elroy, then we know we are seen by the one and the only one that needs to see us. And my favorite verse actually is Romans five three. Let me flip to it and it says, not only so, but we also in glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character.

Hope. Sometimes the only way out of something is through something, and God is with you before you enter that season. And he is holding your hand throughout that entire season, and he finds you on the way out because he has a plan for that. And in some ways, I can connect to Haggar because I haven't always known God.

There was plenty of time before I did not step my into church, or before I had an intimate relationship with God, or before my dad had bought me my first Bible. But I know that God had seen me in all of those seasons, and I remember really specific time about two years ago, it was actually my birthday, and Pastor Kelsey texted me and she was like, hey girl, like, I have something for you.

I'm at your apartment. I was like, okay, stalker. But she brought me this devotional and I know at the time I was feeling like, I feel like maybe something's not right. I was feeling a little lost. And on page like ten, God had come to me and was like, so you're going to change your major and you're going to become a nurse.

And I was like, time out, because I was already a year and a half into psychology, and I did not want to change my major. But God had come to me and he had said that, and I listened. And every day I'd get into that devotional and I would feel God tugging at my heart, and every day he'd be like, trust in me.

I'm going to, I'm going to, you're going to get through this. I have a purpose for this. I have a plan. And by page 100, I had already called my advisor and it was done. So as someone that did not want to be a year and a half behind in school, and as someone who is afraid of needles, that's his sermon for another time, though.

God's going to deliver me through that too. But I wasn't excited. Just like Hagar, God had said, yeah, you, you need to return. And I can imagine she probably wasn't thrilled about that either. But again, just like Hagar, he had a purpose. He had a plan. And now, two years later, I love what I'm doing. I love that God called me to that.

It's not easy. It's really hard. Every time I show up to class, I'm like, this is going to be tough. But I know that God is delivering me through that and I can't wait to see what he continues to do. And I know that even before the time I started having an intimate relationship with Christ, he saw me because I see it in the family that I was born to and how loving and kind they are, and how they taught me these principles that I know now.

And I see it in the people that I've gotten to me until then, and the opportunity that I had to come and meet all of you three and a half years ago and today, if this is your first time or maybe your fifth hundredth time, God sees you. He knows you. He created you. He knows every facet of who you are, every part of your personality.

It says that he knows the hairs on your head. Know that he is pursuing you. He pursued Hagar long ago and he is still pursuing you today. The same God that met Haggard in the wilderness is the one in this room, and he sees every single one of you. He is Elroy and he sees all of us. Thank you.

Wow. I just I love getting to hear from people who get to experience God in different ways because of the things that they do, because of the families that they're born into. Because we have a pastor here, we have a lead teacher of an alternative school, we have a small business owner, and we have a nursing student. And you get to hear from people that you may connect with their story more so than you would with ours.

But my favorite thing about today was sitting here listening and wondering, like, God, how do you want me to close this? How do you want me to tie all of these names of yours together? And I think about God. Our commander is a commander, typically someone that we see as personal know they command armies. God commands this entire world, and he even commands the heavenly realms of beings that we can't even imagine their glory.

So there's no way that we can imagine his glory because it's so much greater. And yet that same commander came to Isaac in a room of 2000 people, in a room of students that he believed he was there to serve. So he's standing there and he's praying to his commander, and he's saying, help my students to say yes.

Call them by name. Tell them to come up to the altar and say, yes, God to whatever you're talking to them about. And his commander says, no, I'm talking to you. You get up here and say, yes. So it says, okay, but to what? And his commander says, I know you. You just need to say yes. And then I'm going to give you the next step in the next step.

And I had to step out earlier, but I so I don't know if Isaac said it this service, but he talked about maybe still not knowing the extent of that. Yes. But he's stepping every day faithfully into the next. Yes. Because his commander called him personally. Then you heard from Barry about God, our Rock. I've always kind of had a hard time connecting to God, our rock as that name, because Iraq, to me is so impersonal.

I mean, I think about I don't even remember the movie, but where he drew a face on a volleyball. That's what I picture. I picture like, can I put a face on the rock so that it means something to me? But Jesus says that he's our cornerstone of the church. And Barry talked about how God is the rock that we need to stop trying to be, so that when people come to us in their time of need, in their struggles, we can sit, we can listen, we can show up and shut up, and then we can say, it's my honor to introduce you to my rock.

He's my protector, he's my foundation, he's my provider. And they don't have to rely on us because he's ready and willing to take them personally. Then you heard about God, our shepherd. And again, a shepherd has tons of sheep. I've never understood how they can figure out which or which and which are the ones that are going to walk along.

If you've seen that meme on Facebook where the sheep's running into the ditch and the shepherd pulls it out and the sheep runs into the ditch again, but Wade is saying no. He was my mom's shepherd when she was facing cancer. She knew that he was with her, and she didn't have to be afraid of the next step because he was going to carry her into it.

And he was promising her good. This man that stood here and preached to you for seven minutes did it this morning and is going to do it again, had knee surgery two weeks ago, but he said yes. Knowing that that surgery was coming, I watched him stand here and I thought, that can't be very comfortable. He can't bend that knee yet.

He's standing on it for extended periods of time. But he said yes, just like his mom said that she wasn't afraid because he knew that his shepherd was going to stand here and hold him up on this stage, that he was going to preach through him, and that he was going to talk to someone in this room who needed to hear how personal our shepherd is.

And then Leah, she brings us that personal name of God who sees me, the only name that was given by a human to God in Scripture because she felt the power of you are so personal to me. You chased me out into my wilderness and like any good parent, I look around here and I see parents of little kids, parents of teens, parents of adults like myself who ask our kids, where did you come from?

And where are you going? But if you have teens, you know that we know where they came from, and we want them to tell us we have life. 360 on our phone. I can tell you exactly where my teens were, whether they were supposed to be there or not, but I'm still going to ask, where did you come from?

Because I want to invite them in to the conversation with me about where they're going. God's inviting us in. He was inviting Hagar in. Where did you come from? I've already seen you. And where are you headed? So he's so good in the way that he personally connects to every single one of us. And I've told these guys that one of the greatest honors of standing on this stage is getting to see that God spoke through you.

Whether you remember what you said, whether you planned what you said, is getting to see that God chose people in this room today that needed to hear what you said because he has a yes for them, and he's asking them to just say yes, whether it's to following him for the first time, whether it's to giving their lives back to him, or whether it's saying yes to that very next step that might seem really foggy and they don't know what's ahead of it.

I'm going to ask you guys not so that they can take the credit, but so that they can see how powerful our God is. That if God had a yes for you today, if he spoke to you personally, would you just throw your hand in the air?

How awesome is that? I absolutely love the way that he chooses exactly what we're going to hear, and he speaks to us personally. Now is the time in the service where I would normally have the honor of asking you to say the greatest yes of your life, or to invite you back into the greatest ass of your life.

But I was sitting in first service and God said, don't hog that on her. Hand it off to one of these people who has been so faithful in sharing my word today. So Leah is going to walk you through that? Yes.

Really quick. I want to share that. The first time I came to service, my boyfriend had actually brought me. We're still together three and a half later, three and a half years later, we're still going strong. But three and a half years ago, he had brought me and the first message that I sat in on was over at the Matawan High School, and it was about tithing.

It was so good, guys, let's just say I had a lot of questions afterwards. I was like, so they just want my money. And he was like, no, let's go get some lunch. I'll explain. And he explained, and I'm okay now because I'm still here. But let's just say my hand was not. I was like, yeah, I'll give you all my money.

Put my hand up. Jesus, that didn't happen. But a couple weeks after that and after my boyfriend made it official. Of course I went ahead and I gave my life to Christ. And it wasn't because the messages were just. They were so good. And no offense pastored in because they are. But it was because God moved in my heart and I knew that he had so much planned for me.

And now here I am, three and a half years later, getting to tell you this from the stage of this beautiful church that we can call home. And so today I would ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes. And I would just ask you today that if God is knocking on your heart, that if he's tugging on your heartstrings, if he's calling you to him today because he's the God that sees you, because he is Elroy and because he is your shepherd, I would ask you that in the count of three, that you would shoot your hand up and just from your heart to his, that you would just tell him that

that you want to be his, that you want to give your life to him. Okay. So on the count of three, three, two, one, if you could just go ahead and shoot your hand up for me so I can know who that I'm praying with today. Thank you. Thank you God. I just pray that that these people here today that as they give their life to you, God, we know that you're walking beside them.

God, we know that that you're tugging on their heartstrings today and that that you have that for a purpose and a reason. So if you just put your hand up, I would ask that you would say this along with me and everyone else in the room. You can join in as well. God, thank you so much. Thank you for this life that you have given me.

God, I pray that with my life I can honor you and God. That all my days I remember how much you love me.

And God today as I sit here in this room.

I pray that you would just be beside me in everything.

And everyone in the room said Amen.

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Well, good morning, everyone.

Happy Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day.

Let's give a shout out to all of our moms.

We love our moms.

You know what Dan always says?

None of us would be here without a mom.

And it's like, huh, it's actually true.

And this morning, before we get started, I want to take a moment and honor our moms.

I love that we just sang that song.

Do you know that it's actually straight out of scripture?

It's the blessing that Moses gives the Israelites as they go into the promised land.

A covenant with God, may his favor be upon you in a thousand generations.

But what's so amazing is before that, we see God also telling Abraham almost the same thing.

I will make you a father of many nations.

And how did he actually make Abraham a father of many nations?

Through his wife, right?

Who had waited, I think the Bible, you can correct me later if you want, I don't care.

I think the Bible said over 100 years she was waiting to have a baby.

And so some of you on Mother's Day, you may be feeling like that.

Like I know this is the promise of God, I'm still waiting.

Maybe there's been hurt.

And that's what's crazy about Mother's Day is that it brings about so many emotions, right?

We have the mothers in waiting.

We have the moms in the early seasons of childhood.

You know, I thought, of course, Ollie, you're going to be awake in the middle of the night last night when I have to preach this morning on Mother's Day.

But then you lay in his bed and he says, Mommy, knuckle me.

And you're like, whatever.

I'll stay up all night for you.

Maybe we have moms in that season.

One of my best friends, this is her first Mother's Day, holding her baby.

And you know what?

Last Mother's Day was a very sad Mother's Day for her because she was still in that waiting season.

Maybe you're an empty nester now.

Maybe you're grieving because you don't have your mom here on earth anymore.

Last Mother's Day was the first time I preached after my mother-in-law had passed away.

And then I look around this room and I think, man, there's a lot of spiritual moms in here.

Whether you have carried your own child or not, you may be leading others to Christ in a way that they wouldn't have if they didn't have you as their spiritual mom.

People that we get to stand on the shoulders of their faith.

There's people in here right now that teach in our kids' ministry and that my kids have learned more about God from them than probably from me.

Because week after week they say, I'm going to be a spiritual mother.

And what I love about God is that there's room for all of those feelings on Mother's Day.

He can hold it all.

But when we sing that, may his favor be upon you in a thousand generations.

And then why do we say amen a million times?

Does anyone else notice that in the song?

Most of the lyrics, probably the majority of the lyrics are amen.

Do you know what amen means?

Let it be so.

So over and over, we're claiming the blessing of God over generations, over our families.

Let it be so.

Let it be so.

Speaking faith.

And this morning, I want to take a moment and bless, say a prayer of blessing and honor over all of our moms in the room.

No matter what journey of motherhood you're in, if you have the heart of a mother, if you have young kids, if you're an empty nester, if you're a spiritual mother, there's room for all of it, and we bless all of it.

So if you're around a mom right now, would you put your hands on them?

It's not creepy.

We're family.

Do it.

Let's pray.

God, we thank you so much for every mom in this room.

We thank you, God, that you chose mothers to be the ones to carry future generations into this world.

God, we pray that you would give every mom strength, endurance, faith. as they raise image bearers of you, like we're going to talk about this morning.

God, would you bless their families?

Would you bless their homes?

Would you bless them?

Help them to remember this morning that even in the unseen hours and the unseen prayers and the unseen car rides, that they are seen by the creator of the universe, that they are loved, that they are chosen by the creator of the universe.

Thank you for the gift of motherhood, God.

We love you, and it's in your name we pray.

And everybody said?

Amen.

Amen.

I'm just going to tell you there's a bake sale out there, if you didn't see it.

And I was just pounding some banana coffee cake before I came in.

I mean, it'll change your world.

I'm so hyped up right now on sugar.

I don't even... Ann made that.

Thank you to all the people who baked this weekend.

That all goes in support to our Honduras team that leaves in April.

Nope, this is May.

August.

I think August for their next trip.

So all proceeds go to that.

So if you're like, I have a sweet tooth, get it.

Get after it.

We are starting a new series today, Names of God.

Do you know that throughout the Bible, God has hundreds of different names?

Each name tells a story about who God is.

I love that through the scripture, he doesn't just reveal what he does, all of the amazing miracles, all of the prophecies fulfilled.

Throughout scripture, he reveals who he is.

We're getting to know an actual person.

So maybe what you need right now in your life is not more answers, not this is when this will happen to you, this is the next decision you should make.

Maybe not more answers, but maybe a deeper understanding of who God is.

Because the crazy thing is when you know his name, you learn more about who he is.

And when you learn more about who he is, you start to trust his heart.

And when you trust his heart, whatever result, whatever outcome, whatever answer you get doesn't matter as much because you trust the heart of the giver of the answer.

And so you move forward just in trust of, okay, the creator of the universe is moving my life in this direction.

I think I'll follow because I trust him.

So this series, which is actually about eight weeks long, we're moving through all different names of the scripture.

Fun fact, I read the schedule wrong.

I thought I was doing a different name, so prepared a message for that.

But here we are with this one.

It's great.

Dan said, well, that just means you got to dive into the Bible more.

I was like, you would say that.

Instead of letting me switch the topic, it's fine.

But a name is always associated with something.

Have you figured that out?

What if I said LeBron, Muhammad Ali, Serena Williams, maybe even Hutchinson for all you Lions fans.

Mitchell has on a Lion shirt.

It's also his birthday, right?

Happy birthday, Mitchell!

Yeah!

I knew he would love that, of all the people in this room.

So what if I said all those names, right?

LeBron, Muhammad Ali, Serena Williams.

What do you think of?

Sports, athletes, right?

What about Voldemort, Darth Vader, Stalin, Hitler?

When we put all those names together, then what do you think of?

Jacob, what'd you say?

Bad guys.

Evil, right?

Evil, bad, scary.

What if I said Michael Scott, Chandler Bing, my personal favorite, Nate Bargatze, Daffy Duck.

Funny, right?

You're all of a sudden like, I could laugh just thinking about that.

Funny.

Names represent something and tell you more about someone.

You learn the character and the nature of a person through their names.

So I started thinking, what are different names I have?

If I was walking somewhere and someone was like, Mrs. Knopf Singer, I would immediately think I taught them in middle school choir.

And then what does that tell you about me?

I was a teacher.

I could have said awesome, anything you wanted to say, but that one, choir teacher.

If I'm somewhere and they're like, hey, Pastor Kelsey, I think, oh, that person knows me as a pastor or a leader within the church.

My siblings call me KJ, Kelsey Joy, right?

That tells you I'm a sibling, I have a brother and a sister.

My mom calls me Joyous because my middle name is Joy and she's really nice.

She calls me Joyous, that tells you I'm a daughter.

If I'm walking around and you saw these three little church rats run up to me and say, mom, what would you know about me?

I'm a mom.

All of these names tell you something different about my character or something I've done.

And that's what the scriptures do when they reveal who God is.

Like I said, God has hundreds of different names.

Hundreds, and I'm so excited for us to hear about what all the different names mean.

Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah Shalom, El Roy, Yahweh.

All of these different names mean something.

Today, we are looking at the second most used name in the Bible, but it's the first in scripture that we see.

And the first is always something important to study.

Today we're talking about Elohim, which is we see right in Genesis 1-1, but first I'm going to train you on how to say it because it would be embarrassing if you went and told your friends about this message and you didn't know how to say it.

You've got to get a little spit in there, and then you say Elohim.

I had to tell first service to try it.

You're like, we're getting after it.

We are practicing.

Elohim.

Elohim.

For my own throat, I probably won't do that every single time today because I wouldn't have a voice for third service.

But let's look at where we see Elohim.

Genesis 1.1.

In the beginning, God, which translates as Elohim, created.

So God, Elohim, created life.

He created everything.

He was not created.

He wasn't creation.

He was the creator, right?

And today I want to ask you to open your minds a little bit.

Someone said to me after first service, I would not want to teach on that topic because that is a big one.

We're opening our minds beyond our tiny circle, thinking about us.

The creator of the universe is who we're talking about today.

He was the creator.

It says there was darkness.

There was nothing.

You know, science wants to tell you that no one created everything out of something.

But when we read the Bible, we see that someone created everything out of nothing but himself.

How powerful is that?

Elohim created.

And the really cool thing is that the name Elohim actually is plural.

We don't say Elohims.

That'd be weird.

But Elohim has a plural identity which hints at the Trinity, which says that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit was already at creation.

If you read further in the scripture, it says the Spirit was hovering during creation.

The Spirit, the Holy Spirit.

And when we look at creation, we see Elohim bringing order out of chaos.

Complete nothingness.

And then he starts creating and setting boundaries.

Let there be light.

Let there be darkness.

Let there be land.

Let there be sea.

Let there be sun, moon, stars.

Let there be animals.

Setting order.

He didn't say, sun and darkness you can intermingle.

Land you can identify as sea.

Sea you can identify as land.

Because that would be confusing to his order, right?

And some of us today, we're feeling like our lives are out of order.

Everything is in chaos.

Why is this happening?

Why can't I keep track of this?

Why am I always failing at this?

And you feel this chaos.

But what I want to tell you today is that as followers of Christ, we are to mimic Elohim, which means we are to bring order to chaos.

And if you feel like your life is in chaos, maybe you haven't submitted it to Elohim, to the strong, mighty creator.

Because when we submit to him and we do it his way, then he brings the order to chaos because our God is not a God of order.

That's why we tell people, read your Bibles first thing in the morning.

Well, I'm going to do it in the afternoon.

Believe me, I was there until last year.

I was like, I got too much going on in the morning.

I'm going to read my Bible on my way into work and just play it.

But the crazy thing is when I submitted to him first thing in the morning and I said the first thing I'm going to do is crack open my word, you know what all of a sudden happened in my morning?

It's like there was somehow more time.

I was calmer.

I was remembering things I needed to get done.

Why?

Because I was submitted to him in his order.

It's just like what Julie talked about in giving.

When we submit to his commands, any command throughout scripture, all of a sudden you start to feel a relief from the chaos that the world wants to put on you.

When a follower of Christ submits to Elohim and lives their life according to his design, with his boundaries, with his ways, then you get to become the light in the darkness.

People are like, wait, how do you do all that in the morning?

How do you get all that done?

Well, it's not because I'm magic, it's because I'm submitted to the Creator.

Right?

How do you have peace when your business is struggling?

I'm submitted to Elohim.

How do you still have joy when you have a prodigal son child who has left?

I'm submitted to Elohim.

He brings order out of chaos.

The crazy thing that we have to wrap our minds around today is that he didn't just make Kalamazoo, Michigan, right?

Because as humans in this world, what are we thinking about the most?

Me, right?

I love me some me.

He created not just Kalamazoo, not just Michigan, not just the United States, not just the Earth.

He created the entire galaxy, things that we don't even know about yet, things that people are starting to discover.

And it's really cool because we actually got to witness part of this this year when Artemis II went around the moon, which has never happened before.

And so I want to show you these pictures from their travel around the moon.

Look at that.

That's the Earth eclipsed by the moon.

And human beings are looking at this.

The next picture is one of the astronauts looking out at God's creation.

And I love his face.

Just mind-blowing.

The things that we have yet to discover.

A quote from one of the astronauts on board, Reid Wiseman, said, I'm not really a religious person.

But there was no other avenue for me to explain anything or experience anything.

So I don't believe in God, but there was no other way to explain what I saw.

So I asked for the chaplain on the Navy ship to just come visit us for a minute.

When that man walked in, I'd never met before in my life, I saw the cross on his collar, and I broke down in tears.

Because when the sun eclipsed behind the moon, I turned to Victor, another astronaut on board, and said, I don't think humanity has evolved to the point of being able to comprehend what we're looking at right now, because it was otherworldly.

What does Jesus say in the Gospels?

My kingdom is not of this world.

His creation is otherworldly.

And I love that even someone who would say, I don't believe in God, I'm not religious, says there was actually no other way to explain it.

No other way.

Isaiah 40, 25, and 26 says, to whom will you compare me or who is my equal, says the Holy One.

Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens.

Who created all these?

He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name because of his great power and mighty strength.

Not one is missing.

Not one's missing.

Not one.

Psalm 33, six through nine says, by the word of the Lord, the heavens were made.

Their starry host by the breath of his mouth.

He gathers the water of the seas into jars.

He puts the deep into storehouses.

Let all the earth fear the Lord.

Let all the people of the world revere him.

For he spoke and it came to be.

He commanded and it stood firm.

You know, for a long time, scientists have been trying to prove how everything was created, right?

We said scientists will say that everything was created out of nothing.

Big bang theory.

You know what they've started to discover?

And I don't even think knew that they were actually proving the Bible when they discovered this.

They recently made a discovery that the earth, the whole galaxy, everything was formed by sound waves.

They said there was a deep rumble of sound waves.

Do you think they know that the sound wave was, let there be light, let there be darkness.

The voice of God said,

A sound wave.

Sometimes while science is trying so hard to discredit God, it's actually proving that the Bible, it all comes back to his word.

Some friends were telling me in the lobby there's a new movie out and they're not in here to tell me what it's called because I forgot it.

I think it's the story of creation.

It's in a movie theater now.

It'll be streaming and it's Lee Strobel who actually wrote the case for Christ and was trying to disprove Christ and then came to be a believer. is now one of the directors of this movie all about the majesty of creation.

All about how it all points back to being taught about in his word.

He spoke and it came to be a sound wave.

Let there be light.

Psalm 19.1 says, The heavens declare the glory of God.

The skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Have you ever walked outside, closed your eyes, and listened to the sounds of creation?

You know, I sat outside on the driveway the other day waiting for my girls to come home from school, and I closed my eyes.

And it was crazy.

It was just a sunny, calm day, but I could still hear the wind in the trees.

I could hear birds chirping.

I could hear all these different noises that I thought, man, creation's just saying, praise the Lord.

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

Even later in the scriptures, we're going to see Jesus says, if you don't cry out and worship me, the rocks will.

Everything praises the Lord.

Listen to some of these sounds that are praising the Lord.

Right?

You're standing on a beach.

You're hearing the crashing of waves.

Praise the Lord.

Running water.

Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord.

That you've never thought of a thunderstorm saying praise the Lord before?

What about the first time you hear a heartbeat in an ultrasound, moms?

That first sound, praise the Lord.

What about a baby crying?

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord.

You'll listen to your baby cry differently now when you hear it, right?

Creation is crying out in praise to the creator.

I challenge you to listen next time.

If you don't cry out, the rocks are going to.

That's how powerful our creator is.

But then the question is, if he's so powerful, is he distant to us?

Right?

One of my favorite casting crown song growing up was, Who am I that the Lord of all the earth would care to know my name, would care to feel my hurt?

Who am I that the voice that calms the seas would call out through the rain and calm the storm in me?

If he's so powerful, is he distant to us?

But the amazing thing is that Genesis goes on in 126...

It says, let us make mankind in our image.

You see us, right?

The hint again at the Trinity before we even learn about it.

Let us make mankind in our image.

Did he say, let us make the birds in our image?

No.

Let us make the sea in our image.

No.

Let us make mankind in our image.

Bummer.

I had a quote on my phone.

Yeah, I need that.

Thank you.

Sorry.

There's a quote from St.

Augustine that says, All of those amazing things that God created, you're one of them.

And yet he chose out of everything beautiful that he created to make you in his image and nothing else.

Let us make mankind in our image.

That means that Elohim created your identity.

The best news to this is that you don't have to figure it out for yourself.

You don't have to keep striving for an identity.

He gave it to you.

You don't have to keep changing your identity to fit in.

He gave it to you already.

And some of us, I know I've been there too, where I'm struggling so hard to find my identity.

What is it in?

Is it in the amount of goals we score in a game?

Is it in the status at work?

Who we're serving under, who we're over?

Is it in the amount of money I make?

You know, we talked about it on our podcast.

We recently posted a reel of me preaching, and it blew up.

I think it has like half a million views.

And a lot of the comments are really nice and then some of them are, women can't preach.

And if you're like, wait, why is there a woman preacher?

We'll go into that on the podcast so you can listen.

It's totally okay if you feel that way.

Got quiet.

But you know what started to happen because I get every notification to my watch?

I started to think,

What is my identity?

Every time I'd get, you lost me at woman preacher.

Oh, who am I?

Women should never preach the word of God.

I would never go to that church.

Oh my gosh, am I doing something wrong?

Who am I?

And instead of it just being a comment, it became my identity and I needed affirmation from Trolls Online.

Because suddenly my identity was being placed in that instead of the fact that God made me in his image.

God had me, you, every single person in this room on his mind when he created you.

And he said, I want you to resemble me.

So you don't have to keep wondering what is my identity going to be?

Who should I strive to be?

You were created by the author of the universe.

That should be enough.

You don't need any other identity.

That's the greatest one you can ever have, and he gives it freely.

Identity doesn't come from culture, performance, comparison.

It comes from the image of the creator.

Did anyone just hear a baby cry?

What did you hear?

Praise the Lord!

Right?

It's so cool once you start to think about it.

So if we were created by Elohim, it means you're not random.

It means you're not a mistake.

It means you carry value.

It means you carry dignity.

If Elohim is your creator, then your life is not an accident.

Your story is not meaningless. psalm 8 3 and 4 says when i consider your heavens the work of your fingers the moon the stars which you have set in place what is mankind that you are mindful of them human beings that you care for them right matthew 6 26 says look at the birds of the air they don't sow or reap or store away in barns like i've never heard of a nervous bird worrying about what he's going to eat god takes care of them and yet your heavenly father will feed them right

So are you not much more valuable?

You're the one that he said he was making in his image.

Don't you think he's going to look out for you?

But when we start to understand that we were made in his image and that we're supposed to mirror his image to others, the task is high.

Moms, you're not just doing rides to practice and

Tending to crying babies in the middle of the night.

You're raising tiny image bearers.

And our role is to help them understand that.

To help them understand what a great gift they are.

You're speaking life into them.

You're speaking value into them.

Ollie comes to Dan and I every morning.

And it's so funny.

Another mom just told me this exact same story that her kid does it.

So big shout out to kids ministry.

Ollie comes every morning and says, is it churchy day?

Is it churchy day?

And it's like, no, today's school.

No, is it churchy day?

Is it churchy day?

One girl I heard of actually opened her door this morning and said, it's churchy day.

Give me my dress.

Because she knows that her dresses are saved for church.

Because we're raising tiny image bearers. that are gonna grow up and tell culture, I don't need you to define me.

I'm not defined by my likes on social media.

I'm not defined by the affirmation of friends.

I'm defined by my image coming from the creator of the world.

So our job is to be that image bearer of Christ.

Our life is to make a sound of worship to the creator.

In my tense work meetings, yeah, is what's coming out of your mouth crying the glory of God?

What about in a disagreement with a spouse or a friend?

Yeah, your life is still supposed to be a sound of worship.

What about when you're cheering for your kid on their sports team and you're getting competitive?

Still supposed to be a sound of worship.

When you're walking through the halls of your school, you're making a sound of worship.

When you're raising those kids and they're fighting back on everything you say, it's still supposed to be a sound of worship.

So the question is, if I listened to your life, if God listened into your life, and I'm telling you, I'm guilty of this too.

If he listened into the sound of your life, is it crying out the glory and creation of God or is it the disruptive, disunifying sound of evil?

I know there's been so many times when I'm convicted of this, when I'm just speaking negativity over my life, gossiping about someone else, walking around just so frustrated with my day.

Do you think I'm like, and people are like, praise the Lord.

It's like, no, I don't think they hear that from me in that moment.

What sound is your life making?

But then Elohim doesn't stop there.

His name actually goes through scripture.

Psalm 46.1 says, God, Elohim, is our refuge and our strength.

Isaiah 40.28 and 29, the Lord is the everlasting God, which translates to Elohim.

He gives strength to the weary.

His power is then deposited into you.

But think about it.

Remember how I said his name is plural.

God exists in community.

If we're supposed to model the image of God, we're supposed to be in community too.

We're supposed to be around like-minded believers that can build us up, that can sharpen us, that can call out the plank in our eye when we don't see it.

God existed in community.

He's not isolated.

Why do we think we're supposed to be?

Even he needed community.

So I'll tell you, you do too.

Why do we push so hard when people come into church of like, if you're new, please fill out a connection card so that we can connect with you.

It's not so that we can just count you as a new person in our books and be like, yay.

It's so we can get to know you, get you planted, get you connected to other people.

I could stand up here for hours and tell you the powerful stories of people who are doing life in community and are seeing the blessing because of it.

What does that look like?

Small groups.

Being in small groups with people that are maybe in the same season of life.

We have an organization that we partner with called Safe Families.

And what does that mean?

It means we give respite to moms or dads who can't take care of their kids.

Maybe because they're gonna be incarcerated.

Maybe because they have surgery.

A million different reasons and what do we do?

We give them community.

We say we're gonna surround you with the community of God because you can't do this by yourself.

After I graduated college, I decided that I was gonna do a musical tour for a year.

And I was gonna live on a tour bus, really fun.

12 bunk beds, three stacked high.

I was in a middle one, it was like a coffin.

Fun fact, every morning I would wake up with mini Reese's stuck to my body because I'd eat them before I went to bed in my little coffin.

Such a weird lifestyle.

But there were 11 other performers on the tour bus.

I was the only believer.

One to 11.

And I was like, yeah, I'm going to teach them all about Jesus.

Like we're going to have a revival on our bus.

We're going to be having Bible studies.

This is going to be so powerful.

But you know what I forgot?

Is that I was alone.

And so slowly it was like, well, if I party with them, then they'll trust me more when I tell them about God.

If I help them hook up with people on Tinder, then later they'll trust me when I tell them about God.

That got your attention, didn't it?

I'll just stay quiet for a while and build this relationship so that later I can tell them about God.

And you know what happened?

Then my testimony was meaningless because they weren't seeing a lifestyle of it.

And my mom called me and she said, it's time for you to make a decision when I was offered another year on the tour.

She said, I have to tell you, you're looking more like them than they're looking like you.

And you don't look like the image of God right now.

How hard is that to say as a mom?

But you know what?

It was the most loving thing I've ever been told.

Because are we still called to go and make disciples and tell people about God and who he is?

Yes, but then do you need a place to come into that can pour back into you when you feel like you're completely depleted?

And I didn't have that.

We weren't stopping at churches on Sunday morning.

I didn't have a small group I could meet with on a bus that barely fit the 12 of us.

God exists in community, and we need to as well.

Even this morning, I was telling you guys I've been starting to believe the attacks of internet trolls.

It was like, all right, I'm just going to preach anyways.

I'll just muscle through it.

And I was printing my notes in the back room, and all of a sudden, two of my best community showed up.

They said, we're just going to lay hands over you and pray for you this morning.

But you know what they didn't say?

They didn't say, you've got this.

They didn't say, the word is going to be powerful through you.

They reminded me it's not about you.

You don't have this.

You can't do this.

The creator of the universe said he made you in his image so he can do it through you.

And you need people like that to remind you on the days you don't remember yourself.

Or maybe it is getting a tough word that you're not ready to hear.

You're looking more like them than they're looking like you.

And right now you don't resemble the image of God.

We need a community.

We need people around us who will call out the blind spots even when it hurts.

People who will lift us up and remind us of the power of God in us.

You know, moms, I feel like motherhood really exposes our limits really quickly.

I don't know if any of you have felt that or if it's just me.

If I have like no nerves left.

It exposes how quickly I can become exhausted.

I thought I loved sleep before I had kids.

I can tell you I love sleep now.

I like wake up and I'm like, I can't wait to get back in you.

That's what I tell my bed.

I'll see you later.

Wait for me.

I love sleep.

It exposes the pressure and how quickly I can snap.

It exposes the emotional weight when your heart is walking around outside of your body.

Right?

When people, when other kids were being mean to my kid this year, oh man, did it expose an emotional limit in me.

Dan was like, back down.

It exposes every weakness.

We need community.

I need moms to tell me, you're going to get through this.

You're not alone.

Let me pray over you.

We all need it.

Dads, you need it because you're dealing with moms.

Sorry, moms.

I don't know.

I just felt like the time.

I know for Dan, I'm like, you need some friends that will build you up when I don't.

We all need community.

And what I love is that Elohim, through scripture, it shows that he created life.

He created you in his image, and then he sustains you to keep carrying life.

So the question is, where do you feel like your life is so random or out of control?

Have you submitted it to Elohim?

Where have you forgotten your worth?

Because today, if there's one thing I want you to hear from the scriptures through my mouth is that you are not an accident.

God created you on purpose.

You're the only thing in the world that he said, I'm going to create you in my image.

He created the sun, the moon, the stars, the land, the sea, the galaxy, and he chose to create us in his image.

There's your worth.

You all have value to the creator of the universe.

And if this is how the story of the Bible starts with his first name, I can't wait to find out what the rest of the names are gonna show us.

Let's pray together this morning.

God, I just say thank you.

You know, in this moment with your heads bowed and your eyes closed,

I think creation is supposed to cry out.

So I want you all to keep your eyes closed.

And we're just going to sing Amen together as Denise plays it.

Worship to the King.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

What sound does your life make?

Sing it out.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

God, we ask that our lives would be a sound of worship to you.

That in everything we do, we would join with creation, praising the creator.

God, that you would remind us all this morning that we have value, not because of what we do, not because of what accolades we get, not because of what success we have, but because we were made in your image.

And now I want to pray if there's anyone in the room that maybe feels like the astronaut we talked about who said, I wasn't really a religious person.

Maybe your heart's being stirred and you're hearing about God for the first time.

And you're thinking, huh, there isn't any other way to explain this.

I want to give you the opportunity this morning to put your faith in God.

The Bible says that God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son.

You're part of the world.

He so loved you that when we all sinned against him, he came up with another plan to draw us back to him.

And he wants you to put your faith in him today so that you can spend eternity with him.

So on the count of three, I'm going to give you the opportunity to raise your hand so that I know who I'm praying with, with all heads bowed and all eyes closed.

You're just going to put your hand in there and say, I want to place my faith in God this morning.

And you'll know because the Bible says he knocks on the door of your heart, which means he's a gentleman.

And he's just like, hey, can I come in?

So on the count of three, if that's you and you're ready to pray that prayer, you're going to put your hand up in the air.

One, two, three.

You can put your hand up in the air.

Amen.

You can put it down.

And then from your heart to his, say, God, thank you for sending your son to die for me.

I put my faith in you, the creator of the universe, who is mindful of me.

I turn from my old ways and I run to you, God, and it's in your name I pray.

And everybody said, amen.

New Life Church, let's put our hands together for those who put their faith in him this morning.

Amen.

Full Sermon Transcript

How many of y'all know that our God is more than able?

How many of y'all know that our God is more than able?

Well, we're going to conclude this message series, Confident in Faith, this week.

And we've been walking through the book of 1 John.

1 John was written by the Apostle John.

Didn't know if they were bringing out the podium.

I'm like seeing my own shadow being freaked out.

Anybody do that?

Just dogs?

And me.

Oh, there it is.

Oh, hi.

It's the Denham sisters today.

My wife and Aaron.

1 John was written by the Apostle John, the same guy who wrote the Gospel of John.

He wrote 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, and of course the book of Revelation.

And we've been walking through the book of 1 John, and today I'm really going to encapsulate the last chapter.

I'm going to kind of summarize the last chapter, 1 John 5, the book of 2 John, and the book of 3 John.

And you're like, wow, that's a lot of content.

Well, the book of 2 John and the book of 3 John are one chapter.

So you have homework today.

How many of y'all are good students?

How many of y'all are like, I don't like school?

I promise this will benefit you.

What?

Your microphone is stressing out the sound team because it's at your eye.

Okay, you could have just come and fixed it.

Oh, well, you said what, so.

Oh.

Any who's.

I don't know what's happening with this thing.

Is it working?

All right, thank you.

Technical difficulties with my microphone.

You can hear me?

Okay.

What was I talking about?

Oh, good students.

So you have a homework assignment today.

Your homework assignment is to go home and read the book of 2 John and the book of 3 John.

That's how you say it.

It'll say 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, but it's actually said 1, 2, 3 John.

So that's at the end of the Bible.

You'll have a couple of books after that and then the book of Revelation.

So go read those today.

But I'm going to summarize this because here's the reality.

God throughout the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation and even into the maps has a purpose for you, for every single person.

And it exists in four different things.

It exists in the mission of the church and not just New Life Church, but every church.

And that is that every person could come to know God.

And not just know about him, but actually know him personally.

Because I don't know if anyone's like me, but I grew up in church knowing about Jesus, but didn't actually know Jesus.

I see a lot of faces going, yeah, I get that.

I knew about him, but I didn't know him.

And so the church, believers in Christ, exist to help people to know God.

That's the primary thing that we do as followers of Christ, is to help people to know Jesus just like people helped us to know Jesus.

The second thing is to help people to find freedom.

To find freedom.

And that's just not American freedom.

Like, hey, I get to do whatever I want to do.

Because the Bible says that we are all enslaved to what is called sin.

What is sin?

Sin is things that we do or say or don't do that separates us from a holy and perfect God.

And by the way, just if you're taking notes, you might need to write this down.

Sin isn't just things that you do. need to not do.

Like it's not just a list of a bunch of things that are bad for you that you should stop doing.

It's also not doing the things that God wants you to do and you're not doing them.

How many of y'all knew that?

Like, how many of y'all thought, I had a conversation with Chris this morning.

Am I able to share this?

Are you okay?

All right.

I'm trying to get permission more before I say things out with my mouth.

But Chris was telling me this story of how God's doing a lot of amazing things in his own life and in his family's life.

His brother came to him this weekend and he said to him, he's like, man, I really feel like I need to get closer to God.

I need to know God.

And he's like, but I got some things I got to clean up first.

And Chris is like, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute.

You got it out of order.

This is backwards.

You don't come to God cleaning up yourself.

You need God to clean you up.

Like you have no power. to stop sinning without the person of Jesus Christ.

You can't do that without knowing him personally.

You can't be saved by yourself.

You can't be saved by your own washing, by your own cleaning, by your own good works.

You can't do that.

The entirety of the book of 1 John is the theology of the person of Jesus and there is no faith

There is no life.

Jesus said himself what?

I am the way, the truth, and the life.

And no one comes to the Father except through me.

So guess what?

You're not good enough to get to God on your own.

You can't do it.

You never will be able to.

You have to know God.

You have to know Jesus personally.

And the entirety of the book of 1 John is about this, about believing in the Son.

It says everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, which means you are reborn with the Spirit of God inside of you for everyone born of God then overcomes the world.

Guess what?

You can't overcome the world and your own sin without the person of Jesus.

This is the victory, 1 John says, that has overcome the world, even our faith, even our doubts.

And so know God.

We help people to know God.

That is the primary thing for which the church of Jesus Christ exists, is to help people to know him personally.

As a church, we know that the context of introducing people to Christ and to introducing people to the person of Jesus is through worship.

It's through the gathering of the saints, the gathering of the church, where we worship him, we worship his name, and we minister to the heart of God while simultaneously preaching the gospel of God, sharing Jesus with other people.

The most people that come to Jesus, they come to know God in the context of a worship service like a weekend service at any church, and especially this church.

Now, is that the only way that people can come to know Jesus?

100% not.

We have people that go into their workplaces and share the gospel, and people can receive Jesus.

There's a false faith out there that believes in a false god called Islam, and there's all these Islamic people that are in what's called the 1040 window, that is the hardest place to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And here's how they're coming to know Jesus. know Jesus Christ.

They're coming to know Christ through dreams.

How many of y'all know that God can reach anyone at any point in time at any place on planet earth if he wants to?

But how cool is this?

How cool is this?

That Jesus the Son left the throne of God, came to earth to be one of us, to go through all the temptations of life and the world, but live a perfect life.

And he did that as the solution for the problem.

Do you know who the problem was?

Me.

Me. and you.

That not one of us is good.

Now, the Bible says that all of us are sinners in need of a savior.

Jesus is the perfect sacrifice for our sins.

And how cool of it is that Jesus came to be the solution for us, the problem.

He came to fix us, and then all of a sudden says, now I want you on my team.

Now you are a part of being the solution for the world because of what I've done.

So you come to know God, and you can come to know God in a variety of places, but for us, we know that the majority of people come to faith right here in the context of weekend services.

This is where most people encounter the presence of the living God, Jesus.

Why?

Because he is in his house when people are worshiping his name, lifting up his name and not just our own.

And they begin their faith journey here.

John 17, 3 says this.

It says, You see, faith in Jesus brings a new birth.

You're now born of God.

The Holy Spirit of God lives inside of you and gives you the power to live out the life that he has for you.

He puts inside of you a new birth, a new identity, and a new purpose.

I want to tell you a story of a young lady in a high school girl named Peyton who came to youth group several years ago.

And she came with one of our students because she was dating them.

Are they in the room?

I'm looking around the room to see if they're in the room to see they might be coming to the next service.

So she was dating a student named Cam, and so she started coming to youth group.

She comes from a very broken family, an unbelieving family, a family that's never been to church before, and she started coming to youth because of Cam.

And how many of y'all know that high school or middle school students and even 60-year-olds, they break up with each other?

Well, she stopped coming because they broke up.

Can I just say that's the dumbest reason to stop coming to church?

And let me put it a different way.

If you break up with someone and you make it the reason that they stop coming to church, you're an idiot.

Now, by the way, Cam didn't do that.

Cam's an amazing young man who serves in our kids' ministry.

He is unbelievable, and he is grateful that she came back.

But here's what happened.

So Peyton stopped coming to church, stopped coming to youth because of their breakup.

And a year later, she starts realizing, man, I still, I need God.

I need hope.

I need the God of the Bible.

I need to be around God's people.

I want to come back to church.

But she had this enemy whispering in her ears, you can't go back because Cam's there.

And so she texted my wife, who leads our youth, and she said, hey, can I come back?

And she's like, of course.

And Cam and his family are like, of course, she's awesome.

Please let her come back.

And so she started coming back.

She gave her life to Jesus through our youth on Sunday night.

She raised her hand, started in faith.

Can we just, come on, somebody.

Not only that, but she actually started, this is a student in high school who got a passion for God's word.

She started opening the Bible herself and reading books, entire books of the Bible by herself as a student in high school.

A passion for faith, a passion for God's word, and a passion for Jesus.

Her faith came alive.

And since she started, came to new life in Christ.

She was baptized a few weeks ago.

And not only that, but she invited her sister again.

Her whole family did not come to church.

They didn't grow up believing in God or even knowing anything about Jesus.

And she has now brought her sister to youth who also gave her life to Christ.

And her sister was baptized.

Come on, somebody.

But not only that, Peyton is a wonderful young lady who now sees it as her mission in her high school to encourage other people, other students in her school with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And so if you're in Matawan High School, you might find some post-it notes that show up on your locker or on your books or wherever, on your seat, because she is writing encouraging scriptures to her classmates to share the gospel of Jesus with them in her own high school.

This is the power of the gospel.

This is the power of what God wants to do in someone's life.

Because once you believe, the next step is that you just don't walk alone.

There's no lone ranger Christianity.

You're a part of something that's bigger than yourself.

John 8, 31 through 32 says, Jesus said, if you hold to my teaching, you're really my disciples.

In other words, it's not just saying no to the things you're not supposed to say yes to.

Like, hey, I'm supposed to stop sinning.

I'm supposed to stop being selfish.

I'm supposed to stop doing the things that are hurting me and hurting others that the scripture outlines.

But I'm also supposed to start doing the things that God prepared in advance for us to do.

And so she started doing them.

Because she was a real disciple.

She had confident faith.

She was the real deal and it produced evidence.

It produced fruit in her life.

If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.

Hey friends, you can't know what his teachings are if you don't actually learn them.

This is a high school student who opened up her Bible and it was the most important thing that she had in her entire life.

When's the last time you picked up and opened your Bible to learn what God has to share with you to hold to his teaching?

Because the only way you're going to be an actual disciple is if you do that.

Then you will know the truth.

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

And the truth of the Bible, the God of the Bible, is much bigger and broader and deeper than the freedoms that just America portrays.

And it's a freedom that Peyton has found.

But she realized quickly that you can't just do that alone.

You've got to find freedom.

In other words, it starts with knowing Christ, but then it's coming alongside of other people who are also coming to know Christ and growing in Christ, becoming more like him.

Because here's the reality.

You show me your friends and I will show you your future.

You are either close to people who are pursuing Christ and becoming like him, or you're surrounding yourself with people who are taking you away from him.

And I don't think I have to preach that very hard.

You can certainly understand that people in your workplace want to take you away from Christ and away from his teaching and away from those things that will lead you to have freedom.

But when you're around groups of people in the church and a part of his bride that are pursuing Christ and pursuing godliness, you start to say, hey, I want to be more like that.

I want to be more like him.

And your life begins to change and it produces change. kingdom fruit.

It's finding the true freedom that God wants for you to have.

And we see this in the context of life groups.

That's how it's lived out in us.

Why?

Because freedom in Christ happens in relationships and not just in rows.

You see, in the beginning of the series,

The Apostle John was telling us that we need to stop living in darkness and come into the fullness of Christ's life.

And I illustrated this by having a spotlight on stage.

And so many of us, we come to know Christ and we're still doing the hokey pokey with our faith.

We're still living partly in darkness and partly in the light.

And we're like, oh, part of us is in the light and part of us is not in the light.

And maybe sometimes we come into more of the light and not in the light.

But how many of y'all know that if you don't have other people with other vantage points seeing your light, there's going to still be darkness around you?

There's still going to be shadows that you don't see.

How many of you like it when people call out something that you might not be living rightly in?

Like how many of y'all have ever sat in a message and I've really come at you?

I've gotten up in your grill.

How many of y'all know that I'm called to pastor you and not just to be your friend?

I'm here to help you grow into the fullness of Christ, to equip you to live according to his words and not just make you happy.

And I know this, this is one of the great things, because if you were to look at the past of your life and think back through the people who have mattered the most to you are probably not the people that just let you do whatever you wanted to do.

Like when I remember the best teachers in my life, the best coaches in my life, man, they poked and prodded me and encouraged me and pushed me and made me step into a greater being than I currently was doing in myself.

They were able to see the shadows.

They were able to see the darkness and point me into God's everlasting light.

That's what we do in the context of life groups is because life change happens in the context of life groups.

And so I just want to share this real quick.

We have a season right now where life groups are kind of on hold because we have three seasons of them in the fall.

We have 13 weeks in the spring.

We have 13 weeks in six to eight weeks in the summer.

And we take a little bit of a pause so that people can get in life groups and start new life groups.

And we can train leaders to facilitate life groups.

And so in a couple weeks, I think it's, I don't know if our staff is in the room.

There's a QR code that you can scan to sign up for our life group leader training.

Because here's the reality.

You can start a life group.

You can bring God into sharing God with others and finding life change in the context of relationships anywhere.

I remember when I graduated college, I just started my relationship with Christ.

And I went into, I was a financial advisor out of college.

And we had this amazing workplace and a bunch of guys and gals who just wanted to grow.

How many of you just want to grow?

You want to grow.

You want to be better.

And so we're in this workplace and people are like, we want to be better versions of ourselves.

We want to be better dads and husbands and all this stuff.

And so we did a book study.

We reserved the conference room in our office. in our workspace and we gathered every morning at 6 a.m. with this book club and we started sharing things and trying to get better.

Well, it was kind of funny because we had people who were Christians, who weren't Christians.

We had Jewish guys and Jewish girls and Christians and all this variety of people.

And it's amazing because we started a book study and it turned into a Bible study with this unbelievable smattering of people.

And what was cool is we literally saw God come to life even in our workplace. with the people that we are around.

You talk about Peyton trying to reach her fellow students.

You could start a life group at your workplace, in your conference room.

You could start it in a locker room or on a football field.

You could start it anywhere.

You bring God into what you're doing and pursue him with everything you've got.

And so you can learn how to lead or facilitate a life group with me and our Next Steps pastor, Jess, by scanning that QR code.

They took it down already, so you can't go anymore.

Can they go?

Download the app and you can still go.

Here's why this is so important.

The book of 2 John, again the apostle John said this, this is love.

That we walk in obedience to his commands.

I am going to just friendly smile, hug you for a second.

The world is not telling you how to walk in actual love.

Because love is not a feeling, it's a person, and his name is Jesus.

And he is the way, the truth, and the life.

And we need to, in order to walk in love, to walk in faith, to have confident faith, we need to learn to walk in obedience to what he commands.

And so we've got to be a part of church.

We've got to be in the church.

We've got to be in life groups.

We've got to be in his word, to know what he says, to obey what he says.

Ecclesiastes 4, 9 through 10, and in verse 12 it says this, two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor.

If either of them falls down, in other words, you're walking in the light, you're pursuing Jesus and his commands.

If other people around you and they're seeing you step out of the light, they can help you get back into the light.

If they see a shadow, they can say, hey, let's help pull you back in.

Let's bring you back and get you back into light, into following Christ, into obeying his commands.

So if one falls down, another is there to help them up.

Though one may be powered, two can defend themselves, but a cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

You see, we are stronger and we are better in the context of relationships with each other.

I've never been on a great team.

And by the way, I've been on some great teams.

As a matter of fact, my junior and senior in college, I was one of the top five football teams in the nation.

We didn't win a national championship.

They did that two years later.

So my friends have big old championship rings and I don't.

I'm still sad, crying.

But I've never met a team, a great team, that didn't help each other to be greater.

They are better together, and it's no different in the church.

But here's the reality.

When you surround yourself with people who aren't believers, you will be enticed and dragged further into the darkness rather than into the light.

So you show me your friends, and I'll show you your future.

And if your closest friends aren't pulling you towards the light, you need to get some new friends.

Because victory... in Christ is witnessed.

You begin to see it in other people.

And so it's not just calling out what is dark, but it's also being like, man, I'm seeing fruit of the kingdom of God now living inside of you.

Awesome.

Come on, somebody.

That's amazing.

Keep doing it.

You know what's ironic about a sermon like this is you've probably, if you've been around here for a year, two years, three years, four years, five years, you've heard me probably preach the same message in a different way

And you're like, man, am I hearing this again?

Like, yeah.

Because it's the same Bible.

And it's the same activities that we're supposed to be doing.

And some of you are doing them and some of you are not doing them.

And some of you are new here and you're getting exposed to what the Christian life looks like.

And so it's re-teaching and it's reaffirming what God has for your life.

And you begin to see this played out in the context of relationships.

You see other people give their life to Christ and start to walk in the evidence of having true faith and confident faith and it's witnessed and it's shared.

He said, I was very glad when fellow believers came and they testified to your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it.

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are actually doing it, not just hearing it.

They're doing it.

They're being obedient.

They're following it, and they're seeing God change their lives, and not just their lives, but the people's lives around them.

When you walk in truth consistently, you begin to discover how God designed you to build others.

And just when

Cody and Courtney were just walking in and just hearing a message and getting miffed and then going out and living their own selfish lives.

They came to terms with God's truth and submitted to it, started to walk in it.

And now God is literally changing other people's lives because of what he has done in and now through them. which is why it's so important that every single one of us discovers the purpose that God has for us.

We go to discovery class.

Why?

Because Ephesians 2.10 tells us, for we, followers of Christ, are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Now this happens through the context of his church.

If you discover your spiritual gifts, you'll realize that this is the reality.

Your divine design reveals your destiny.

So you need to go to discovery class to join the church, to land the plane, to say, this is my church.

This is the people group I'm going to be a part of, to discover how God uniquely designed you on purpose, not for your purpose, but for his purpose.

Watch this.

1 Corinthians 14, 12 says this.

It says, even so you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, man, so you should be zealous for spiritual gifts.

You should want more of what the Spirit has to give you.

But watch this.

Look at what it says.

But let it be so, the motivation for the edification of the church that you seek to excel.

What does edification mean?

It means to build up.

To make it better, to make it greater, to edify the church.

It doesn't exist.

Spiritual gifts given to you don't exist to build up your own kingdom.

They exist to build up his kingdom.

Romans 12, 4-6 says, For just as each of us has one body with many members, these members do not all have the same function together.

So in Christ we, though many, form one body and each member belongs to all the others.

We have different gifts according to the grace given to each of us.

How many of y'all know that you have different gifts than the person probably sitting next to you?

Like some of you, like think of a body.

Like the hand does not have the same function as the elbow.

Unless you're an MMA fighter in which it might produce the same result.

Right?

Right?

We're different, uniquely created by God on purpose for his purpose.

To make his name famous and not just your name famous.

We're uniquely designed this way.

You see, God's work in you doesn't just take things out of your life.

In other words, it's not just the word of God saying, hey, stop doing these things.

It's also the spirit of God empowering you with spiritual gifts to say, hey, now walk in the ways in which I have created for you to exist.

It puts something in you that actually draws others to himself.

I think of a couple that came here a little over a year and a half ago.

And one of them was a believer.

One of them wasn't.

And she put her faith in Christ.

And she's one of them.

When I preach, he gets all sorts of fired up because he's kind of like, you know, you know.

Old school preacher likes it.

He also grew up kind of athletic.

How many of you all know the coach screams at you?

It's not because he hates you.

It's because he believes.

He believes in you and he wants to make you better.

Right?

Can I get an amen?

How many of you like when I preach and I get up in your grill?

How many of you like it when my wife preaches and she doesn't?

Can I tell you something?

It doesn't matter who's preaching.

If it's the word of God, you need to obey it.

It doesn't matter who's sharing it or who's teaching it.

If it's the word of God, you need to live according to it.

And yeah, I have a different personality than Kelsey.

And Kelsey has a different personality than me.

That's God designed on purpose to glorify his name and not just our names.

And so I think about this, the Vance Bronson for just a second.

Again, they were two different types of people.

Ben loved my preaching and

And Ann got used to it.

To the point where in the first service, I asked like, how many of y'all like it when I get up in your grill and I challenge you with the word of God?

And she went, I love it.

She didn't love it when she first started coming.

Cody White did not love it when he first started, right?

But when you begin to walk and receive Christ's word and don't just deflect it or stiff arm it, begin to walk in it, it changes your life.

Now, Ann and Ben, they've went to discovery, discovered their spiritual gifts.

And how many of y'all know that spiritual gifts, they exist in a ton of different ways.

One of them is service for Ann.

And Ann, literally, if you see any living thing in this church, like a plant, it's still living because of Ann.

Like myself and our staff did everything we could to kill those plants, but they now live because of Ann.

She's still trying to work on the ones outside.

They had a hurricane force wind come at them and we're just trying to revive them.

But Ben serves in the parking lot.

He shows up early before anybody else does and he cleans up all the trash from all the people that come to Airborne and Salvation Army and all the people that he comes and scours and he sets up and he does it.

Why?

To serve Christ, to make Christ's name known and not just his own.

Do you think he does that just because he likes it?

No, he does it because he carries his cross.

And he wants to serve his Savior who selfishly, selflessly served him.

I love this when we... This is just a fun fact, and I probably should wrap this up quickly.

But when we moved into this building a few years ago, three years ago, how many of you all know that I have spiritual gifts?

Do you think my spiritual gift is preaching?

It's teaching, preaching, leadership are my primary spiritual gifts.

Doesn't mean that I don't have other ones.

It's just the primary ones I have.

There's gifts of service and building, all those types of things.

I'm the type of guy that if Kelsey asked me, hey, can you fix this?

I'm going to give it my good college try.

Matter of fact, I'll probably pull out YouTube and say, hey, is there a video that can help me pull this off?

Fun fact, when we moved into this building, I was like, hey, there's all these old light bulbs.

One of the things I can do when I get tired of preparing for a message is I'm going to change a light bulb.

And I did and almost burnt the place down.

I'm sure there's a joke about like how many pastors does it take to screw in a light bulb or something like that.

But literally the electrician and I are walking down this hallway and all of a sudden this thing drops from the ceiling right out here in the cafe.

And we walk up and it was a light bulb that fell out.

And we look up, huh, there's a fire up there.

Like who knew you could put in the wrong just, I don't even know what it is.

Like the wrong wattage or voltage or whatever.

Light bulb in the wrong socket and all of a sudden it sets it on fire.

So we need people like Ben who know how to actually fix things and know how to actually do things around this building so that it operates.

Can I get an amen?

How many of y'all know that we need people who are willing to say yes to Jesus even in taking the trash out because we have trash to take out every single week.

We have toilets that need to be cleaned.

Amen.

Some of you are like, I don't know.

But here's what I love about Ben and Ann too is

You know, part of their story is Ben's a part of the team that comes once a month and maybe they come more now.

They come to fix things and paint things and keep this building looking great and hospitable to everyone who walks through these doors.

And they take care of God's house.

How many of y'all, we've taken care of God's house and we know that he's going to take care of our house.

And so they come and they serve in this way and they're giftings and

And Ann comes with her spiritual giftings and she lays out a smorgasbord of food.

How many of y'all know we have more helpers on the facility team now because of Ann's gift of hospitality and food making?

So if your gift is hospitality and food making, we need more of you to make more food so more men will show up and fix our building.

Why is this important?

Because we're the body of Christ.

We don't just exist for us.

We exist for each other.

And we exist to serve each other and lift each other up.

Because making a difference eternally means joining the dream team.

Joining God's team.

That even you and I were the ones who were the thing that Jesus came to fix.

He now says, man, I still want you on my team.

I'm going to put my spirit inside of you.

And I'm going to bring you onto my team to carry out my purpose.

Because God...

Making a difference eternally, joining the dream team, serving with your spiritual gifts to build up the body of Christ means that you are not just called to receive the message of Christ, you're called to carry it and deliver it to others.

So making a difference means using your spiritual gifts to serve others through the context of the local church.

It means using your gifts, your time, your generosity of time, talents, and treasure.

It fuels and moves the mission of Jesus forward.

So every time someone raises a hand in the air to give their life to Christ, even if you're in the parking lot or sharing online, you had a part to play in that.

1 John 5, 13 through 15 says, I write these things so that you may have eternal life, so that you have confident faith.

Why?

Because faith produces works.

You don't work to get faith.

You produce works because of your faith, because of what Jesus is doing inside of you.

And God wants you to live with assurance of faith.

Confident faith looks like this.

It produces bold prayer.

You're praying on behalf of someone who doesn't know Christ.

You're serving sacrificially so they can come to know Christ.

You're generously giving to that end.

You're intentionally discipling others, bringing them into the group, pursuing Christ and his ways.

It's real accountability.

It's saying, hey, I know that I've got some blind spots.

I know that I've got some things that I've got to work on, both things I need to walk away from and things I need to walk into.

And it's not just for yourself.

It's for others, right?

It's so that other people can come to know God, find freedom, discover purpose, and make a difference.

I want to share you this picture.

There's a lady named Desiree who got baptized just a few weeks ago.

Desiree and her family came to New Life Church.

I believe in August, a few years ago, when we did the back to school bash, a serve day where we, all of you, you donated backpacks and you donated school supplies and we had all sorts of fun for kids and we have haircuts for kids to be able to serve our community and outreach to people who might need some of those things that some of us, quite honestly, we take for granted.

And Desiree and her family walked through the doors of New Life Church having never been into a church in their life. but because of the hospitality of God's people.

They came to that serve day and they received backpacks and haircuts and they felt the presence of God and they saw his people for who they really are.

Evident, confident faith.

Using their spiritual gifts, not just taking, but giving. family walked out that day, their first interaction with the church of Jesus Christ, they walked out and I said, hey, you guys want to go to church this weekend?

Not just to the building, but to the actual service.

And they came and they, again, they didn't grow up church.

They didn't know anything about the Bible, nothing.

They came week after week after week after week after week.

They joined the Alpha Life Group.

Alpha is really teaching the foundations of the Christian faith.

Matter of fact, I pop into life groups periodically just to see what's going on and to meet people.

And I can't go to all of them all the time, but I dropped into theirs and I sat at the table.

And Alpha is a place where you can ask all the questions.

You can have all the doubt.

And how many of y'all know that God is not afraid of your doubt?

And he invites your questions.

And can I tell you something?

The reason why I invite your questions is because he has all the answers.

So I'm interacting with Desiree, and I said, hey, if anyone has questions, and I remember her telling me, it's like, I haven't actually put my faith in Christ.

I didn't grow up in this.

I don't know this.

I'm not sure.

I have doubts.

And I'm like, you're in the right place.

So they came week after week after week in these seats and in Alpha.

Not only that, but her family, I believe it was this spring, January, they came to every single day of 21 days of prayer.

I think their family and Chris were the only ones that came to every single day of 21 days of prayer.

I didn't even come to every day of 21 days of prayer.

And she finally landed the plane.

She put her faith in Jesus.

She shot her hand up in the air in one of our services.

She was baptized a couple weeks ago.

But here's what the crazy thing is.

She's brand new to faith.

And within the last several months, she had a coworker come up to her during the workday.

And started sharing with her how hard her life is and things that are going on.

And she just is devastated.

And the first instinct Desiree had was, man, you got to come to our church.

You got to come to New Life Church.

You got to come check it out.

She didn't come immediately.

She started watching online.

And so if you think for one second that serving in the context of the church with whatever gifts and talents and treasure you have, it makes an eternal difference in people's lives.

She started watching online.

So people who are on camera, guys, these are middle school students and high school students on our cameras right now.

People are coming to faith in Christ because of being behind a camera.

There's no kids table in God's table.

So Lauren responded to Desiree's invitation to come to New Life Church through the miracle of technology.

She gave her life to Christ in an online service and was baptized with Desiree a few weeks ago.

Lauren jumped in.

She took discovery.

She joined the church.

She took her spiritual gifts assessment and now serves on our social media team to help advance the gospel in the place.

Oh, she's right there.

What's up?

Sorry, I asked about everybody else and then there you are.

Oh, she did come.

Well, come on.

See, any of them can correct the story that I tell because I...

They know it.

She took discovery and she jumped in and is helping run social media.

And I believe this last week, you can confirm this.

She told my wife that literally no one had invited her to church in 31 years.

No one invited her to church in 31 years.

And look what God has done.

Desiree came to faith in Christ because we served.

We weren't just thinking about ourselves.

We were serving and we were outreaching.

And now because of what God has done in Desiree's life, it has gone into Lauren's life and it's forever changed because of our relationship with Jesus.

This is what confident faith looks like and it's the evidence of it being lived out.

But it all starts with one decision and it starts with not joining a church because you can't just walk in the truth of Jesus.

You can't discover the purpose that he has for you and you can't make a difference eternally without first coming to know him personally.

Because the scripture is clear that our faith journey begins in believing in the person of Jesus, the son of God.

So some of you, you've been around church.

You've heard about God, but you've never personally made a decision to follow him.

You don't need more information.

You need the transformation that only he can provide.

So I want to give you that opportunity right now and right here.

If you're here today and you'd say, I don't know God personally, I've drifted and I need to come back, this is your moment to come home.

Let's pray together.

With every head bowed and every eye closed, on the count of three, if that's you, if you want to know God personally, to put your faith in Jesus for salvation, I want you to lift your hand on the count of three in just a moment.

You're not joining a church, you're starting a relationship with the living God.

One, God brought you here on purpose.

Two, this is your moment.

Three, lift your hand in the air as an act of faith.

And let's pray this together.

In fact, everyone in the room, so everyone feels comfortable, let's pray this out loud together with Gus.

So say, Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God.

I believe you died for me and rose again for me.

Today I give you my life.

Forgive my sins.

Make me new.

I choose to follow you from this day forward.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Friends, if you just prayed that prayer and you took your first step of faith to know God, we want you to keep going to find freedom, to discover purpose, and to make a difference.

Because this isn't the end of your journey.

This is the beginning of a brand new life.

Come on, church.

Let's put our hands together for our God who saves.

Full Sermon Transcript

Man, before we get started today, how cool is it that a few weeks ago we had our kids in elementary school leading us in worship and today we have middle school and high school students leading us in worship.

Come on, let's give them a hand.

Come on.

You know, when Kelsey and I started the church, we said, hey, we don't want a kids table.

We don't want to just have a closet where we put the kids and they get babysat.

We want them to live in the fullness of who God is and what he has for them.

And I just love being able to see our youth raised.

Thank you so much.

Just push me out of the way.

Raised in the church, raised to have real faith, but not just to have faith, but to actually live it out and to serve and to be a part of building God's kingdom.

It's such a cool thing to be able to watch and be a part of.

We see it happen in all different ways.

We see, I mean, my daughter was filming things for our social media today.

We have kids that serve in our, uh, students that serve in our kids ministry, raising kids, the passing on the baton of faith and to the next generation, even below them.

Like it's just, how awesome is that?

It's just amazing to be a part of.

And I want to tell you, um,

If you respond to me this service, I'll act a little better.

Just fun fact, I fell on the floor for a while in second service.

I don't know really what, I don't really know what happened.

And so if it happens this service, then you'll understand, but I, anyways.

How many of y'all know that you can, you'll never, being at New Life Church is like a box of chocolates.

You never know what you're gonna get, right?

I fell on the floor on purpose, yes.

Yes, it wasn't a bad thing.

Thank you.

Our security team wants you to know.

Here's some context of where we're at.

So we're in a series called Confident Faith.

This series is based in the book of 1 John.

So let me give you a little bit of context.

This is week three.

We have one more week in it.

Today I'm going to summarize two chapters of it and then some.

And so if you're taking notes, get ready.

But I got to tell you, here's why, the context of which it was written.

And it was written by the apostle John.

Now, how many of y'all know that there's a gospel called John, right?

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.

The one who wrote the Gospel of John also wrote 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John.

If you see it in your Bible, it'll say 1 John, 2 John, 3 John.

Are you following what I'm saying?

Okay.

He also wrote another book called the book of... Crushing it.

The book of Revelation.

A fun fact, I don't know if it was fun for him, but just for us, the Apostle John was the only apostle that wasn't martyred for his faith.

So he wasn't killed for believing and teaching and preaching God's word.

And part of that was because he was exiled and he watched all of his buddies, all of his friends get murdered and martyred because of faith in Christ, because of the name of Jesus.

But he was able to write the book of Revelation to pass on what we needed to know in order to be prepared for what he has prepared for us and what's going to happen in the end times.

And honestly, the book of 1 John kind of leads into that so that we have confident faith in the midst of all sorts of craziness.

Can I just say it that way?

I'll probably say it more and more as we get going, but here's what was happening.

When he was writing these books, the culture was absolutely insane.

And there were all sorts of false teachers and false prophets and people were being led astray and people were talking about Jesus but not the real Jesus or who Jesus really is.

And they were sharing all sorts of things that were deceptive and manipulative.

And honestly, it was shaking believers.

It was confusing people who were following Christ to the point they were like, what do we actually believe?

What is true?

What isn't true?

Does anyone feel like we're living in the same era?

Yeah?

Yeah?

So here, fun fact.

I don't know whether I should share this now or not, but in the last couple weeks, God's been doing something pretty awesome in New Life and really through the global church.

Like, I'm seeing a movement of the Holy Spirit of God like I've never seen before.

And I'll just summarize it this way.

I think the world has finally begun to see the crazy for what it is, and they're hungry for the real deal.

Can I say amen?

Okay.

Now, in our specific church, when we moved into this building, we were 165 people.

We average over 450 people a weekend now, just three years later.

Like, praise God.

Here's something I didn't know, though, as we've been diving into some analysis and we've hired some consultants to help us understand some things that God is doing.

At that level, that puts us as, and I'm not saying this based off of pride, I'm honestly saying it out of gratitude and honestly out of like, oh my goodness, this is, God, you're amazing.

Having that many people in our church means that we are in the top five to 10% of the largest churches in America.

Now, you can praise God for that.

But can I also say, that's a problem.

And can I tell you why it's a problem?

Because actually 70% of churches in America are less than 100 people.

That's not okay.

Let me put it this way.

Can I just say...

Why... Part of the reason why we're seeing so much crazy, darkness, evil.

You wake up every day and you see something crazier happen every single day.

And it's because there's so much deception.

There's so much evil.

And we either follow that or we follow Christ.

Can I get an amen?

And so...

My job is to know the sign of the times and to take responsibility for how I pastor you, the people that God has entrusted to me as your pastor and your leader in this season.

And God is gonna hold me accountable for how I pastor you.

And I take that very seriously.

How many of y'all know that that's a really hard job because I know you and you all are a bunch of knuckleheads?

You can point right back at me and say, we know you too.

And you'll probably see some of that later.

But anyways.

We live in a culture where there's so much deception, so much false teaching.

And as a pastor, you know, 10, 20, 30 years ago, I'm a little bit over 22 years into ministry as a pastor.

And pastors, here's how we used to prevent our people, the people that were entrusted to pastor, how we would protect them from false teachers or false prophets or the manipulations of truth was... we took it very seriously what people we invited to preach from this platform.

We would consider what is this person going to say to our people, teach our people?

Is it biblically rooted and grounded and not just whatever they feel like talking about?

But the problem today is,

You're not just getting pastored by a person in a church.

You're getting pastored every second of every day by what you see on these things.

And how many of y'all like podcasts?

I love a good podcast.

I probably listened to three or four of them this week.

And by the way, I think we have a pretty good one.

If you haven't seen it, I think it's pretty good.

But not everything you hear or see and that is taught is actually rooted in scripture.

And you and I need to be able to see what is actually true in order for us to have confident faith in the real Jesus and in the real living, breathing word of God.

So the big question today is, how do i know that my faith is the real deal first john 2 verses verse 28 says this it says and now little children by the way when he says little children he's talking to all of us because if we're a believer we are adopted sons and daughters of the most high god and to him the almighty

We're like little kids, you know?

It's like how many times do we want to do it our way and we go, I'm going to do it my way.

We shake our tiny little fists in God's face.

I know better than you, Lord.

We're all little children.

Let the little children come to him.

He says, say these three words out loud with me.

Abide in him.

Thank you for the three of you who participated.

I probably didn't set you up well for that.

Let's do it again.

One, two, three.

You guys are awesome.

Abide in him so that when he appears, we may have confidence, confident faith, and not shrink back from Jesus in shame at his coming.

Here's what's going to happen.

When Jesus came the first time, he came to save the world and to save you.

But when he returns again, he's coming to judge the world and to rid the world of evil and sin for good.

And so to have confidence in the perusia, the second coming of Christ, we do that by abiding in him.

Let me put it a different way.

If you're not walking and abiding with Jesus now, you won't be ready to face him later.

Like my primary job is is to help prepare you, to equip you, to be the real deal.

So that when either, when Jesus comes back, you can face him and be confident in it.

Or when he takes you home, when you pass away, you'll stand before him and he'll say these great words that you can't wait to hear.

It'll be the greatest moment of your entire life.

Well done, good and faithful servant.

Can I tell you why I love seeing the kids serve and have a passion for worship and

A passion for his word and a passion for God's house in our midst today is because we are already preparing him to hear the greatest words they will ever hear.

The point if you're taking out of the scripture is abide in Jesus now so that you can stand before him with confidence later.

Here's what this means.

Abide in him means a daily connection.

It literally means that your whole being, every part of you is engulfed in Jesus.

And so it's not segmental.

It's not like, hey, I show up to church on Sunday and I follow Jesus.

That's not what abide means.

It means literally every moment of every day, you're abiding in the Lord Jesus here.

And when you do that,

You have a confident faith.

Your life is built on a solid foundation that cannot be shaken.

No matter what deception comes your way or the storms that hit, your life stands firm.

Shame, though, is something to think about when it comes to the fact that our future actually exposes

Our present reality.

The Bible says that when we put our faith in Jesus, we're born again.

We are no longer the old person.

We're a new creation in Christ Jesus.

In fact, that's what this verse says in the sweet little t-shirt and sweatshirt.

If you don't have one, go get one.

Do we have any left?

Okay, well, we're there for sale out there.

And we will... produce fruit in our lives based off of our relationship with Christ.

So let's look at that.

1 John 2, chapter 29 says, everyone, say everyone.

Everyone who practices righteousness has been born of God.

So abide means that you don't just believe in Jesus.

It means you're born again in him and you stay rooted in him, dependent on him, and connected to him, not just once in a while, but every moment of every single day.

That's what abide means.

And it's shown by producing righteousness, producing fruits that look like Jesus, that looks like the kind of fruit that being a follower of Jesus produces.

Here's where you're gonna wanna take notes.

I see some note takers.

Note takers are?

Here's the reality.

Your fruit reveals your root.

I could be a rapper.

Your fruit, fruit, foot, your foot.

Your fruit reveals your root.

Here's the deal.

Jesus came and he said to people who thought they were following him, you're actually sons of the devil.

Why?

Because their fruit reveals who they were actually following.

Their fruit was revealing who they were actually in love with and who they were rooted in and who they were obeying.

Same is true of a true believer, a real believer.

It produces evidence of following Jesus.

1 John 3, 2 through 3 says this, when he appears, this is Jesus, we shall be like him.

Let me ask you this question.

If you don't look more like Jesus today than you did a year ago, you're not the real deal.

But you can be.

You can be.

How does that happen?

Abiding in Jesus.

Being rooted in Jesus.

Not just once in a while, every single moment of every single day.

Because everyone who hopes in Jesus, watch this, say these two words out loud with me.

One, two, three.

That was terrible.

Guys, was it not up there?

Was it up there?

Okay, we need a do-over.

I'm going to give you a do-over.

Aren't you glad that Jesus and Pastor Dan gives you a do-over?

Everyone who hopes in Jesus does what?

What does that mean?

It means that you align your life and your actions, your words, what you do, how you live around what Jesus says and not just what you feel or what the culture says.

You want to have confident faith?

Have confident faith in the living God and the living word of God. which lead us to the second point, which is becoming like him later starts with living like him now.

Not tomorrow.

Not when you think it's going to get confusing.

I remember this.

This is how stupid we are.

This is me attacking myself, but this is how stupid we are.

I remember thinking like,

When I get married, then I'm just going to have this unbelievable relationship with God.

It's going to flourish.

It's going to be awesome.

Guess what?

It was a distraction.

I love my wife.

How many of y'all know that I love my wife?

How many of y'all know that I love my kids?

I literally watched this happen yesterday.

My wife and I, the first thing we do every day is we get in the Bible, we get in God's word, we get into prayer, we devote the first of our every day to the Lord Jesus.

Yesterday, I let my wife sleep in a little bit.

That's a life hack, a marriage hack, men, okay?

That was free of charge, free... This is the third service.

Free of charge preaching, let your wife sleep in.

Ladies, say amen.

Amen.

Okay.

So my wife is sleeping in.

She comes out, starts reading her Bible, and just our kids are just on her.

Like, just who knew that having little kids would, who you want to come to Jesus also, would be a distraction to your own relationship with Jesus.

But guess what?

Our kids are watching us have a relationship with Jesus.

And they're going to want it for themselves.

Becoming like him later starts with living like him now.

So what does abiding in Jesus actually look like?

It means starting your every day with God before anything else.

Some of you are like, Pastor, I've heard you preach this 75,000 times.

Guess what?

I'm probably going to preach it 75,000 more times because it's never going to stop mattering.

Having a relationship with Jesus, following Jesus, hearing his voice, seeing his word, knowing what he wants, and aligning your life to it matters more than checking your email.

Say amen louder like you know it.

Or like checking the news or the social medias or whatever other crazy things we do in our mornings.

Before working out, the word of God actually says that training physically is of good benefit.

We should do that because it's the temple of the Holy Spirit of God.

But training in righteousness, in what God wants us to be and how he wants us to live matters even more because it matters into eternity.

Think about this for a second.

Have you ever been around a bride?

I don't know, there's probably shows, I don't really watch these types of shows, but there's shows where like Bridezilla or something like that.

How many of y'all know that I officiate weddings and I've definitely seen that?

I've more seen Mamazilla, but anyways, that's a whole different story.

Are you laughing from familiarity?

No, I'm just kidding.

Okay.

How many of y'all know that a bride prepares really hard for

For a wedding.

They do all the plans.

They got all the people.

They got the makeup.

I don't even know.

Let's just be honest.

I don't even know.

Jesus talks about us as his followers as his bride.

And here's the crazy thing.

Here's what I tell people that I'm pastoring into a marriage.

You are spending so much time preparing for marriage. a ceremony and you need to be spending more time preparing for a marriage.

The return of Christ, there's going to be a celebration, the wedding supper of the Lamb of God.

But he is not preparing you just for the celebration, he's preparing you for eternity.

How many of y'all know that marriage lasts a lot longer than just a marriage celebration?

Starting your day with God before everything else says, God, you are first.

We say this all the time.

God is a jealous God.

He demands that our alliance is first and foremost to him because he is supreme.

Think about it this way.

He is the creator of all things.

Don't you think that he knows how it works?

Like I did this yesterday.

I was telling this story.

I am not a very handy person.

I'm not a very fix-it person.

As a matter of fact, when we moved into this facility, I was changing light bulbs and then walking down a hallway with our electrician who was doing work in the building and a light bulb fell out of the socket right out here in the cafe area.

And we're like, what?

Well, that was weird.

That was what happened.

And we walk over and there's a fire in the thing.

And he goes, huh?

And I'm like, yeah, huh.

Pastor, how many pastors does it take to screw in a light bulb?

That's gotta be a joke somewhere, right?

And then he tells me, do you know that certain types of light bulbs in certain, like, I don't even know, wattages, or I don't even know the things, have to go into certain electrical sockets, otherwise that's what happens.

No, I didn't know that!

How many of you and I are a bunch of idiots before the creator of all things, saying to him, hey, we know how this works better than you do.

We look ridiculous.

So we put God first.

We put God first every single day.

What else do we do?

We put God first every single week.

What do we do on Sundays?

We come to church.

Why?

Because we pay attention to his bride.

We're devoted to him every single week.

We come to worship.

But here's the crazy thing.

Do we come to worship Jesus?

Yes and amen.

It's our primary thing.

The reason why we gather first and foremost is to lift high the name of Jesus, declare him as Lord.

He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

We need him.

He does not need us.

So we come to declare, give him glory, give him honor, give him praise.

But what's crazy is some people see church as we just come to worship, but what the Bible actually says is we don't just come to church to worship, we actually come to church as believers worshiping.

You see, because when we abide in Christ, everything we say is an act of worship.

Amen.

Everything we do is an act of worship.

How we interact with people is an act of worship.

How we parent our kids is an act of worship.

What we do in the dark is an act of worship.

How we treat our spouses is an act of worship.

Whether or not we tithe or give is an act of worship.

Whether or not we serve and give our lives like Jesus came to serve and not be served is an act of worship.

Every part of our integrity in the marketplace or what we teach, what we share, what we follow, who we're becoming is an act of worship before Almighty God.

So why is giving God the first so important is because that is what aligns our whole lives to the creator of the universe.

It means talking to him through your day rather than treating like prayer as a last resort is our first response in all things.

Whether it's big or small, whether you think it's monumental or it's like, God, would you just give me wisdom in this meeting?

I want wisdom from on high.

This might not be a big deal, but man, it could get sideways because I know that I am sideways and we are sideways and we need wisdom from on high.

Can I get an amen?

Amen.

It's letting scripture guide your decisions and your entire lifestyle.

It's turning to God when you're stressed and when you're tempted and when you've sinned and coming back to him.

It's responding quickly when God corrects you and convicts you of sin.

Can I tell you what is happening in the world?

Again, the deception of the world and culture.

It's the antichrist spirit is all around us

And I want you to, I'm going to illustrate it this way.

This is where it's going to get fun.

So my son, who's three years old, on Friday, comes up to me.

Daddy, I'm a puppy.

I'm a puppy.

And he did it for like an hour.

We gave him breakfast and he ate it like a puppy.

That's more cat-like, which we don't do in our house.

But anyways.

Now, if I'm a good dad...

A good loving dad, I'm thinking, man, this is so cute.

My little three-year-old, like, this is so cute.

Like, this is adorable.

You're acting like a puppy.

But now we have high schoolers and people in college acting like puppies and calling themselves furries.

What?

This is how crazy we've gotten.

This is how deceived we've become.

As a dad, I think my three-year-old is adorable, and you do too, by the way.

You think my three-year-old is cute.

Your three-year-old is cute too, just not as cute as mine.

I'm just kidding.

But as a good dad, I don't just say, hey, you're cute as a puppy, but later in life, I want them to become everything else

God wants them to become as he created them to be, not just who they feel like they want to be.

So abiding in Jesus means we respond to God quickly when he corrects us.

Why?

Because he's a loving father who wants goodness for us.

And so as we walk and abide with Jesus, we hear his word preached and we get in it for ourselves and we see what he says.

And when things confront our sinful nature or confront the ways that we live, we say, yes, Lord, I'm changing to fit what you say and not just what I feel.

And by the way, the more and more you walk with Jesus, the more you go, why didn't I do that sooner?

Like, why did it take me so long to start following what he said?

Because when I do it, it works.

Oh my gosh.

It's as if the creator of the universe knew what he was doing.

Another thing it is, is stay consistent, not just Sunday focused.

It means go all in with Jesus.

I've said this for years at our church.

Go all in with Jesus.

Abide in him.

What does that mean?

It means put him first in your every day.

It does mean praying to him unceasingly where you talk to him and hear from him every single day in different moments throughout your day.

You're inviting him to speak to you to get his wisdom.

It also means you're devoted to him, to his house.

How many of y'all know that if Jesus calls the collection of believers, the community of believers, his church, if he calls the church his bride, that the church really matters to Jesus?

Like, I don't think I have to convince you, my bride really matters to me.

Like, to the point where if you mess with my bride, you're gonna mess with me.

Just gonna put that out there.

You know, in America over the last couple of decades, there's a statistic that's just stupid.

People that call themselves believers come to church once every five weeks.

Does that sound like abiding in Jesus?

Let me put it a different way.

How many of y'all are teachers?

Yeah, yeah.

Could you imagine your students coming to your class once every five weeks and learning anything that you have to give to them?

It's crazy talk.

And we wonder why we wake up and see the crazy things that we do in the news.

It starts with us.

We stay consistent.

We stay consistent.

We stay consistent.

And if you're not staying connected to Jesus, you'll start believing things that are not true about him and are not true about you.

1 John 4 says, Again, there's so much deception in your pocket 24-7, 365, every single day.

You have to be in a Bible-believing church, a Bible-teaching church.

You need to be around believers who believe it and live it and are pursuing it.

You need to have people who are basing their lives rooted on the living God and the living word of God.

What does that mean?

It means don't automatically accept what sounds spiritual, but test what's actually trying to shape who you are.

When we started the church, we were coached.

We're coming up on 10 years this fall, and when we started the church, we had some pastors pour into us, and they said, hey, if you believe that God came to build his church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it, he is going to send believers.

He's gonna send people to help build the church that I've called you to plant.

But you also need to be aware that the enemy, Satan, is gonna send people to also try to tear it down.

And you need to be able to see the difference.

And so we need to be able to discern what's happening.

1 John 4 says, every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.

Did you know that there is a, not just believing in Jesus, but actually believing who he says he is.

Jesus claimed to be God.

There's many faiths out there that say, oh, we believe in Jesus.

He was a great teacher.

He was a great prophet, right?

But then they don't believe he's God.

Well, either he is God or he's a lunatic.

Right?

So how do you know?

Let me give you some handles.

How do you know that you're following the spirit of the living God or a demonic one?

Y'all want to do that for a second?

All right, let's get some clarity.

Let's talk about relationship to people, forgiveness versus revenge.

The Holy Spirit, when you're a new creation, a new person, and the Holy Spirit of God lives inside of you, when someone offends you or hurts you, you go to forgiveness and releasing them rather than to revenge.

Not from God, you hold it in, you build it up, you hold a grudge, and you can't wait to get even.

Demonic is after getting revenge.

Jesus said what?

Forgive as you've been forgiven.

In other words, how dare you withhold something that I've given to you from someone else.

Another way this plays out is conviction versus condemnation.

The Holy Spirit living inside of us, when we see the word of God, hear the word of God, when we know the word of God,

We realize that what we're doing is wrong and the Holy Spirit says that's wrong.

Okay, but now let's fix it.

Let's change it and not just stay in it.

Not from God is the spirit that says you're never going to change.

Don't even try.

Demonic is also wrong. thinking, man, you're just the worst and Jesus doesn't love you and he doesn't care about you.

He doesn't want to help you.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Jesus came and lived a perfect life to teach us his ways, died a sacrificial death in your place and rose again so that you could defeat sin and death and be raised to walk in a newness of life.

It's the power of transformation. condemnation keeps you stuck but the spirit of god moves you forward into godliness here's truth the truth of the living god versus you've heard this in culture your truth right my son the puppy how many of y'all would really follow my me as a pastor if my son was a puppy as a teenager

Truth versus your truth.

The Holy Spirit says, submit your lives, every part of who you are, to his truth, to his ways.

Not from God.

A deceptive spirit says, no, you define truth.

You're the Lord.

How well is that working for you?

How well is that going for us?

Demonic says, be true to you and your feelings and what you want.

No, Jesus responds and says, no, we need to be transformed by his truth.

Why?

Because he created it so he knows how this works.

Another one is identity in Christ versus feelings.

The Holy Spirit of God says you are who God says you are and how he created you.

Not from God says you are just what you feel.

Has anyone had their feelings betray them before?

Oh, I was so in love with that person.

Oh, is that terrible?

Oh, I just, anyways.

Demonic builds identity on feelings rather than on truth.

God has our roots, identity in us.

Christ, Jesus, and his word.

Humility versus self-promotion.

The Holy Spirit of God, when he comes inside of us, says, hey, you're now to live like I live.

Jesus literally said, you would do greater things than me because I'm going to the Father and the Holy Spirit's going to live inside of you.

What does that mean?

You're empowered to live like Jesus everywhere, which means we are to be people that serve and not just get served.

Like, can I tell you why we have a once in five weeks attendance in church?

Because we're just chasing our own dreams.

We're just thinking about me more than thinking about the body.

We're thinking about us rather than God's kingdom.

We're distracted.

The Bible says that the parable, Jesus says the parable of the sower, right?

Good seed, which is the word of God, goes out and goes into soil.

And then we have different soils.

You are in charge of the soil of your life.

When the word of God is preached, heard, listened to, discussed, it can fall on rocky soil, which means you're going to bow up because you want to chase your feelings.

You want to chase what you think is right rather than what God says is right.

It's going to fall in soil and then maybe get choked out by some thorns or by some weeds.

And what does that look like?

That looks like once, coming to church once every five weeks.

You're so distracted.

Like, how are you gonna learn and grow in the Lord if you don't actually, aren't actually devoted to him?

And how are you gonna serve when God gives us spiritual gifts?

He says he gives spiritual gifts to us not so that we build up our own names and our own promotion and our own kingdoms, but his name and his kingdom.

John, who wrote the book of 1 John, watched all of his buddies who followed Jesus be killed for the name of Jesus and serving Jesus and giving their lives to Jesus and serving him and serving others and preaching his word and teaching his word.

And the average Christian in America shows up to church once every five weeks?

What are we doing?

What are we doing?

What are we doing?

I just died.

I'm just kidding, I didn't.

Humility versus self-promotion.

The Spirit of God says we serve because he was a servant.

I've said this many times in church.

If you think you're too good to serve, you just sit there in a seat and consume and don't serve other people and teach other people and serve and love others within the body of Christ, you're not the real deal.

As a matter of fact, you might as well go to a different church and give us your seat because we want you to follow Jesus and his ways to the fullness.

I'll never forget this.

I saw actually one of our life group leaders came to me and he showed me a clip of a pastor in Jacksonville, Florida.

Great pastor.

His name is Joby Martin.

And Joby has a guy in his church who is a New York Times best-selling author.

Like, book after book after book is best-selling.

Like, this guy is a gajillionaire and famous and a big deal.

And he walks up to Joby, Pastor Joby, in church one Sunday.

And he goes, hey, I really felt convicted that I need to serve.

I need to do something for the church.

This is hilarious.

I'm going to start doing this.

So be prepared, okay?

Jobi looks at the guy and he says, you know what we always need?

We always need the trash to be taken out.

A best-selling author, New York Times, famous.

And Jobi Martin looked at him, Pastor Jobi said, are you too good to serve in that way?

That means you think you're too good.

To serve in any capacity to advance the kingdom of God.

How many of y'all know that we have trash to take out every single week?

Every single day.

Funny thing, you fast forward the very next week.

Do you know what Pastor Joby saw the man doing?

Taking out the trash.

Fast forward like five years later, they co-authored a book together.

Why?

Because God does put gifts inside of you to be used for his purposes and his kingdom.

But you'd better start with the humility to say it doesn't matter what it is.

I will do it for your namesake.

Why did the disciples, all of them except for John, die for their faith?

Because they were willing to live and give it all for him.

Not from God means just think about yourself.

Just promote yourself.

Just build your life.

Build your kingdom.

Get all the cars.

Get all the houses.

Climb the cultural, the ladder.

Build your name.

That's demonic.

And not from Jesus.

Jesus said, lay down your life for my sake because I have laid down my life for yours.

Amen.

Another way we see this play out is truth-filled division versus sinful division.

How many of y'all see everybody in our culture, especially in the political realm, we gotta be united.

Let's be united.

How many of y'all know that light does not unite with darkness?

Sin does not unite with righteousness.

Good and godly does not unite with evil.

The Holy Spirit inside of us says that we're willing to stand in God's truth even if it causes division.

Jesus said that you will see division on account of me.

That mother would be separated from mother, father from son.

Why?

Because the dividing line is the very truth of God.

When Jesus was tempted by the spirit of darkness, the demonic presence, Satan himself in the wilderness, Jesus responded to the temptation with what?

It is written.

Not what I think, not what the world says, not what culture is saying, by the very word of God.

The word of God says that it's living and active, dividing soul, spirit, even to the deepest parts of bone and marrow.

It is going to convict you.

Why?

To help lead you into the fullness that God has for you.

Step into it.

Demonic divides over human opinions and just feelings.

But Jesus divides over his living word and allegiance to him and his ways.

You see, confident faith is rooted in the real biblical Jesus, not a twisted, manipulated version of who he is.

1 John 4 says, he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

Some of you need to hear that today.

The Holy Spirit of God living inside of you is greater than he who is in the world.

You don't have to be deceived.

You can be brought back into the light.

You don't have to live life confused.

God in you gives you clarity and confidence to be the real deal.

1 John 4, 6, it continues.

It says, we are from God and whoever knows God listens to us.

This is the church, the Bible-believing church.

Not just what we think, what we feel, what's in the political polls.

No.

It is written.

But whoever is not from God, they don't listen.

This is how we recognize the spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

It's crucial.

It's crucial.

Every single one of us, it is crucial that you stay closely connected to a Bible-believing, Bible-teaching church.

Not once every five weeks.

You've got to go all in.

You got to be devoted to a church that doesn't just soft serve the Bible, skipping over things that might make people feel uncomfortable because it confronts their sin or maybe the cultural or spiritual war that's happening among us.

Your response, my response to truth actually reveals what's shaping our heart and lives.

So what voices are shaping you right now?

Are we testing what we're hearing with the very word of God and with other followers of Jesus?

Or are we just absorbing every little crazy thing that gets said?

And where do I need to replace the noise with the actual truth?

John says this, if your belief is real, it won't just stay in your head, it will show up in every part of your life.

1 John 4, 7 through 8 says, then let us love one another for love is from God because God is love.

Listen to me.

Do you think that I love my kids by just allowing them to do whatever they want to do?

Or do I teach them and correct them and shape them and point them in the right direction, point them in the ways of God?

1 John 4.10 says he loved us and sent his son to be the atoning sacrifice for his sin.

Listen to me.

Love is not a feeling.

Love is a person.

And it's choosing to give yourself to him and his ways and then to begin to give yourself for the sake of someone else.

As Jesus gave himself for you.

It's why we pray for others.

It's why we invite others to come alongside of us in this journey of faith.

It's why we serve other people in different ways within the church.

It's why we discuss the word and challenge each other to live according to the word.

It's why we tithe and we give offerings above the tithe to advance God's kingdom rather than just our own.

It's why we are devoted to being in his house to be a part of his bride.

First John 4.10 says, if anyone says, I love God and yet hates his brother, he is a liar.

So you can't claim to love God while withholding love for other people.

First John 4.18, some of you need to hear this in the culture that we live in today.

There is no fear in love, no fear in Jesus because perfect love, Jesus casts out all fear.

And when you're secure in God's love,

You stop living in fear and you start living in his true freedom and in his purpose.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we pray that you would speak to every single one of us in the way in which you know that we personally need to hear from you.

This is just a few questions.

Maybe who am I voiding instead of loving?

Who do I need to forgive and not just hold a regret, revenge against?

Am I serving in God's purpose or just watching other people do it?

Am I just showing up to consume and not being a contributor?

You see, God invites us to follow him, to come to him and to be loved by him, but also to take that love to others.

So Lord, right now, is there someone that you've placed in our lives that I could invite to come to you, to come to know you, to be a part of your kingdom and your house?

But maybe today, maybe some of you in the room, it's a moment where you need to land the plane and become the real deal, to fully give your life to Jesus.

1 John 4, 19 says, we love because he first loved us.

And that happens not by trying harder.

It happens by fully surrendering to the God that is love.

And if you've never given your life to Jesus, this is your moment.

On the count of three, I want you to take a step of faith to raise your hand and step into a new life with Christ.

Because Jesus lived for you, taught for you, died for you, and rose again so that you could be free.

On the count of three, if that's you, one, I believe in Jesus.

Two, I call on him as Lord.

Three, shoot your hand up in the air.

And let's pray this prayer together.

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

Say, Jesus, I give you my life.

Every part of who I am.

I believe you came for me, died for me, and rose again for me to forgive me of my sin and then to make me new.

So I give you my life.

Fill me and baptize me with your Holy Spirit.

Help me to abide in you and live for you and love like you.

In Jesus' name.

And everybody said, amen.

Come on, put your hands together for our God who saves.

Full Sermon Transcript

I can't figure out how they oh you can take a seat I can't figure out how they can get this stand up here without me noticing them it's so creepy

Was it Erin?

Did Erin put this here?

She's so stealth like a cat.

It's crazy.

Well, good morning.

I am so excited that you all are here.

We have such an exciting morning to celebrate baptisms and exciting to be able to get into God's word together.

We are in our second week in a message series titled Confident Faith.

We are in the book of 1 John.

And whenever people ask Pastor Dan, hey, I just started my faith journey or I've never read the Bible.

I want to get into the Bible.

Where should I start?

His answer is always 1 John.

Which you're like, what?

Not the Gospels, not Matthew, Mark, Luke.

What about that?

1 John.

Because 1 John encapsulates the foundation of our faith and sets us up to have a confident faith.

You know, our passion is that we could equip you in such a way that you can be a priesthood of believers too.

That when you leave these doors and when you're faced with maybe the attacks of the world or the countercultural, the things going on around us, that you could say, no, this is God's word.

This is what it says.

This is what I'm sticking to.

And that you don't say, oh, hold on, let me call my pastor.

Oh, hold on, let me call this person.

It's like, wait, no, I know.

In this book, in the Bible, it says this.

And God's word doesn't fit the culture of the world.

We fit our lives to God's word.

And so the passion behind this series is to help you stand on your foundation of faith, in confident faith.

You know, it's so cool.

Just yesterday, I posted something on Facebook about the difference in church hurt and offense.

And it was talking about both and how there's two things, but we got to be careful to not label offense as church hurt.

And man, someone got on there and did not like that post and started responding to me.

But the coolest thing was someone else from church, not a pastor, not a high-level leadership person, they got on there and they started speaking the word.

And it was like, they didn't need my backbone.

They didn't need Dan's background.

They didn't need his theological degree.

They were like, no, I am rooted in confident faith.

And that's our prayer for you, is that you would have confident faith.

So if this is your first week, and if you weren't here last week, that was when we started the book of 1 John.

I don't know about you guys, I love to read.

Every night before bed, I read.

When I go to open a new book, I don't say, I'm going to start on chapter 13.

Because I wouldn't have any knowledge of the backstory.

I wouldn't have been introduced to the characters.

So if this is your first week, I would encourage you, yes, listen to this message, but then please go back and listen to last week's.

It's the beginning of the book.

You've got to get the foundation.

You've got to meet the characters.

You've got to understand the history.

And that's what Pastor Dan did brilliantly last week, was introducing us to the book of 1 John.

So you can find that on our app.

You can go back, listen to it in your free time.

But today, we are starting in 1 John 2.

To understand what we're talking about, Pastor Dan talked last week about the power of living in the light. about how when we accept Jesus into our hearts, when we make him Lord of our lives, all of the sudden we have the opportunity to step into the light, to step away from our sin.

But he used the analogy that I loved that so many of us are playing Christian hokey pokey.

We like the dark.

There's fun in the dark.

There's things that we used to do that we still want to do, so we put our left foot into the light for a second, right?

And then take it out and then put our left arm in.

And it's like, well, I'm going to live this lifestyle that I still like.

I'm still going to go out and party or do these things.

But then when I come to church, ooh, I am holy.

Now I'm going to show up on Sunday and check that box, be in the light, and then Monday I'm going back to the shadows.

And he encouraged us how to take a step of living in the light.

Today we are talking about walking in truth.

1 John 2, the beginning of it says, My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin.

But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one.

He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, not only for ours, but also the sins of the world.

So what can we take from this scripture?

There's, first of all, a goal.

He says, my dear children, I am writing this to you so that what?

You won't sin.

And I love that he started it with my dear children.

It's like obviously it's coming out of love, right?

When I talk to my kids and when I'm maybe giving them tough feedback or when I'm telling them something, it's like, hey, Harper, Gracie, Ollie, listen in.

He doesn't start it with, yo, bro, don't sin.

My dear children, I have so much love for you that this is what I want for you.

So the goal of this scripture is that you will not sin. but you're like, oh, that sounds like a heavy charge.

I'm writing this to you so that you won't sin, so that you won't even be tempted to live in the dark anymore, so that you'll stay in the light.

The goal is that you won't sin, but what's the grace?

It comes right after that.

If anybody does sin, we have an advocate.

It's like, I already know you're going to mess up.

I already know that you're human, that I am the only perfect one, that Jesus is the only perfect one who lived on earth.

So I already know.

And guess what?

I've planned for it.

The goal you won't sin, the grace if you do, and then the hope.

Where should our hope be?

Jesus Christ, our advocate.

And I started thinking, what does an advocate look like?

You know, sometimes you go into like an IEP meeting for your child and you have an advocate with you to help explain when maybe you can't fully explain yourself.

Maybe you have a coach who you feel like is your advocate.

When I was in eighth grade and we went through a really hard family time, I had a teacher that would let me come in to his room during lunch and talk to him about how I was feeling.

And then he would help explain it to my parents.

An advocate, right?

But the best analogy I can come up with for this, and some of you have probably already heard it because it didn't start with me, is you think that you're in court.

You're on trial.

And you are guilty of the worst sin I can think of.

You are guilty of murder.

And you're sitting in the courtroom, awaiting your sentence, and your defense attorney shows up.

Jesus.

And he's like, I'm here to defend you.

Don't worry.

You're like, this is going to go good.

Right? right?

I got Jesus here, man.

And so the judge says, what is Kelsey guilty of?

Jesus stands up and he says, Kelsey is guilty of first degree murder.

You're like, hey, I thought you're going to be better than this.

He's like, she is 100% guilty.

And actually she's done even worse.

Do you want me to list all the other things she's done?

And I'm like, hold on.

Satan's in the back of the courtroom, right?

One of those bystanders.

He's like, yes, we got another one.

This is so great.

And so the judge slams the gavel and he says, guilty, what should their punishment be?

And the whole time you're like, I know that I did this, right?

And so he says, prison, life without parole, facing the death penalty.

And you're like, what?

My life's over.

And then Jesus says, judge, may I approach the bench?

And he goes up to the bench quietly and he says, dad, this one's on me.

I already paid the price.

They don't need to fulfill their punishment.

I did it.

And then he steps back and the judge, God says, guilty, sentence paid.

And the whole courtroom is like, what in the world just happened?

And then he says, son, this one's on you.

Take care of him.

That's what Jesus being your advocate looks like.

He goes to the Father on your behalf.

I've already paid their sentence.

I've already paid the price.

So point number one is Jesus is your advocate.

He's not your excuse.

Grace covers your sin. but grace doesn't comfort your sin.

We shouldn't think, oh, I love living in the dark so much that Jesus is just gonna have to keep going to the Father 24-7 on my behalf.

Every time that he has to step in and intercede for you, there should be an attitude of gratitude, an attitude of, oh my gosh, I can't believe he had to do this for me again.

An attitude of, oh my gosh, I'm re-crucifying him on the cross.

I want to live in the light.

Amen.

Grace covers your sin, but it shouldn't comfort your sin.

And too many of us are claiming the death of Jesus as the comfort to our sin.

Well, I'm forgiven.

He died for me.

I'm going to keep on sinning.

Romans chapter 6, verse 1 through 2 says, What shall we say then?

Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?

By no means.

We are those who have died to sin.

How can we live in it any longer?

When we receive Jesus into our hearts, we are given the power of the Holy Spirit.

And some of you are like, wow, this message already feels really heavy.

I can't overcome my sin.

You're right, you can't.

None of us in our human strength are that strong.

You know who can?

The power of the Holy Spirit in you.

It says, we are those who have died to sin.

When you received the power of the Holy Spirit, you died to sin.

So do we treat sin casually?

Or do we see it as something that truly disrupts our fellowship with God?

You know, after a long, cloudy winter in Michigan, I love when the sun comes out.

And you know what I do?

You know how I stand?

Like this.

Even if it's like a semi-cloudy day and Dan and I are like walking and the sun comes out, it's like... Literally, right?

And he calls me Timothy Green.

For those of you who have seen the movie The Secret Life of Timothy Green, he grows when he's in the sun.

He literally needs the sun to grow.

He sprouts.

And I crave that feeling of sunlight on my body so much that if it's 55 degrees and sunny, I will lay out on my back deck because it is blocked from the wind.

As Christians, that's how much we should crave the light, that we remember how good, how warm, how seen we feel standing in it, that all of a sudden when we're pulled back to the darkness, we're like, this doesn't feel good.

That's right, yeah.

This feels cold.

This feels isolated.

This feels gross.

I want the sun.

I grow in the sun.

Verses three through six says, we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands.

Whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commands is a what?

Liar.

Ooh.

And the truth is not in that person.

But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them.

Point two is that obedience is the evidence that you know him.

Obedience is evidence.

Knowing God actually equals obeying God.

This isn't just knowing about God.

This is knowing God with your heart.

I want you to think about your best friend.

I think of my sister, Jess.

People ask if we were close when we were younger.

No, we were not.

She would always turn the water cold on me in the shower while I was in it.

She would not let me sleep in her bed when I wanted to.

She was nicer to my friends than me.

I'm not holding a fence.

I'll teach you how to get over that in a minute.

That's part two.

Jess is my best friend.

Because I love Jess, I know the weirdest things about her.

I know that in the morning she hates coffee, so she cracks open a Diet Pepsi first thing when she wakes up.

I know that when she goes shopping, she needs ample time because she likes to try on everything at least three times, and we will probably go back to that store before she buys it.

I know that she can only sleep if she has on a weighted blanket and her sound machine.

When we fly, the weighted blanket is in her suitcase.

Part of the weight.

She gives away 15 pounds of her suitcase to that blanket.

When we go to AXIS conference and we share a room, I am ready for that room to always sound like a plane is taking off when I sleep.

I know that Jess values loyalty above all else.

I know that if someone breaks their word to me, the first person that's going to go to bat for me is my sister.

And because I know that she values loyalty so much, I am loyal to her too, because that's her love language.

So what would it look like if I show up in the morning and I'm like, hey, Jess, I brought you a latte from Starbucks because I know you love it.

Also, we're going to go shopping, but we only have like 10 minutes.

So you got to pick out your clothes really fast.

And then I booked a hotel for a girl's night and I asked him to keep it really cold and take all the blankets off the bed and silent.

She'd be like, do you even know me?

Right?

Like I thought we were friends.

That's what this looks like when we know God and we obey him.

I don't need a list of rules from Jess because I love her.

I've found out these things about her.

And it's a joy for me to buy her a pink drink in the morning instead of a coffee because she loves it.

And I know it's going to make her happy and I know it's going to be pleasing to her.

So what does God want?

He says he is worthy of worship.

Amen.

It says if you don't worship, what's going to happen?

The rocks are going to cry out.

I don't know about you, but I have never seen a rock cry out.

Except for on the movie with the trolls.

What is that?

Frozen?

Never heard a rock cry out, but if you don't worship, God says they will.

He deserves to be worshipped.

So when we come in on Sunday mornings, what do we do?

We worship.

And it's not because we assume you're always going to feel like it.

It's not because we always feel like it.

But the more you worship, the more that because of God's grace, everything changes.

And you're like, what was I worried about this morning?

What was that problem I was facing?

My God is so big.

This morning I was running down that hall because I was so bummed that I missed the jump break of washed.

I love that worship song.

It was Dan.

Dan is very slow.

But when there is nothing like worshiping in his house, you know that I don't crave going to pop concerts as much anymore because it doesn't feel the same as worshiping in his house.

It's like, I don't think I need to go to that.

They're talented.

It doesn't feel the same.

It's not worshipful.

He deserves to be worshiped, so we worship him.

And then in his grace, he gives you joy out of it.

He loves when you forgive others.

He says, 70 times 7 you are to forgive just as I forgave you.

He demands that.

So what do we do?

We do it too.

And then in his grace, he says, I'm going to set you free from unforgiveness when you be obedient to me in doing this.

You don't need a list of rules to treat someone well.

You do because you know them and you love them.

Obedience to God shouldn't be robotic.

It flows from knowing his heart.

John 14, 15, we've talked about this verse a few times.

It says, if you love me, comma, keep my commands.

We always say, what side of the comma are you living on?

The more you fall in love with God, the more the second part is a joy.

But if you're that person that's like, I don't need to get into my word.

I don't need to know him.

I'm going to show up on Sunday and then I'm going to walk out and I'm going to try really hard to just follow the rules.

And then that'll prove to him that I know him.

It doesn't work.

What side of the comma are you living on?

And here's what this looks like.

A Christian no longer loves sin as they once did.

Chris, you've told your testimony before, right?

Yeah.

Chris, before he was saved, can I tell your testimony?

Thank you.

It'd be awkward if he said no, then I'd have to pivot.

And then all of you are like, not me.

Chris was an alcoholic before he was saved.

Lived for going to the bars, lived for getting drunk.

One drink was too many, ten wasn't enough.

I have watched Chris's life look completely different.

When he tells me those stories, I'm like, you?

Because of the way that God has transformed him.

I don't think if Chris went into a bar right now, he would love it the way he once did because his heart loves something else way more.

A Christian no longer brags about the sin as they once did.

I don't think Chris is going to walk in and be like, bro, I was so drunk last night.

It was so fun.

Because all of a sudden it's like, why?

That didn't fulfill anything in me.

That actually sounds and tastes gross coming off my tongue.

Because you're living in the light.

The darkness isn't enticing anymore.

A Christian no longer plans to sin as they once did.

You know when you would set up times to sin?

Like I'm going to go hang out with those friends and I know that I'm probably going to smoke weed with them.

Or I'm going to go hang out with those people who talk trash about all these other people and I can't wait to go.

I'm showing up at the bar at 9 p.m. with my bros.

We're going to get drunk.

It's not like that anymore.

You're not bragging about it.

Because the world doesn't taste as good and feel as good as it once did.

You don't fondly remember your sin as you once did.

And you don't enjoy sin as you once did.

Man, I've heard testimony upon testimony of people coming in because before we received Jesus, we're all sinners in need of a Savior.

But then all of a sudden, it's like this light goes off and it's like, oh my gosh, I...

Living with that person before marriage doesn't feel as satisfying as it did before.

Waking up with a hangover doesn't feel worth it anymore.

Talking bad about that fellow believer, I feel sick and I need to go apologize.

Everything changes.

James 1.22 says, don't merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves.

Do what it says.

Do what it says.

Verses 9 through 11 now goes on to say, anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness.

You're like, oh my gosh, he is going from obedience to loving your brothers and sisters.

What is next?

This is a big chapter, right?

I thought the same thing when I got it.

Anyone who loves their brother and sister live in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble.

But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness.

They don't know where they're going.

The darkness has blindfolded them.

I told Dan that I was tempted to preach this whole section with a blindfold on, but there is a video of someone doing a play and falling off a stage, and I sometimes used to show that to my middle schoolers to make them laugh, and I'm like, I don't want to be the next video.

Anyone who hates a brother or sister is living in the darkness.

Now, we have to make a distinction in this chapter and what John is talking about.

We've heard the verse, love your neighbor as yourself, right?

In this one, he says anyone who hates their brother or sister.

In other translations, it says fellow believer.

So what's the difference?

Right now, we're talking about people who believe in God, your brother or sister in Christ.

Not the same.

Yes, you're still to love your neighbor, but that looks different.

We actually talked about that on the podcast this last week.

So if you need more clarification, you can search Table Talk, New Life Church.

And it actually goes through that because someone asked a great question this week about what that looks like.

Love for others, your brothers and sisters.

You may feel like, well, this person called out sin in me and that was offensive and I don't feel loved anymore in the church.

Love for others doesn't mean a pat on the back for sinful lifestyle.

Love for brothers and sisters sometimes means calling them up in love.

Hey, I've seen this shadow in you.

God has better for you.

Can I walk alongside of you and bring you into the light?

Love for others, your brothers and sisters, doesn't mean affirmation of an ungodly identity.

Doesn't mean saying, yep, you're right.

I believe that when God made you, he made a mistake and you should change everything about your gender.

That's not love for others.

Because what does the Bible say?

It says your rod and your staff comfort me.

What does a rod and a staff do to the sheep? pokes them.

And they say, that's comforting to me.

God, I like when you poke me.

God, I like when you show me the darkest parts of my life and you pry them out of me because I know that's going to help me live in freedom.

There's a meme of a sheep like running and jumping off a cliff.

And then Jesus like picking him up and putting him back on.

He's like, and jumps back off the cliff.

How many of us look like that, right?

We keep going back to our sin.

But he's saying, love your brother and sister.

Help them see the shadows.

Encourage the light.

Hey, I love that you've taken this next step of faith.

How amazing is that?

Because what happens when you don't?

You are walking around with a blindfold on.

If I get up from our bedroom in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and I come back, our bed is really high and there's a pointy corner I have to go on and when I can't see, it gouges into my leg and for days I have a bruise.

Why?

Because I felt like I had a blindfold on and I got hurt.

If I came into church and I had a blindfold on my eyes and I'm just walking in, I'm probably going to run into some kids.

I'm not going to be able to say hi to my friends because I'm not going to know they're there.

I would be really nervous to preach the word of God up here because the whole time I'm wondering, am I going to fall?

Am I going to fall further?

And for some of us, we have bitterness or resentment or offense in our hearts towards someone in the house, towards a fellow believer, that we maybe haven't even brought the conversation to them so that they had the chance to apologize.

Or maybe we're harboring it and we're fanning the flame of unforgiveness and you are literally walking around with a blindfold on, taking out other people in your path.

And other people are being hurt because you are harboring offense.

That's what this scripture is saying.

Love your brothers.

Maybe at some point it takes assuming, you know what, actually that's not the heart of that person.

They didn't mean it.

What does this look like?

Sometimes it's like, why does the worship team get all the credit?

Staff's always thanking the worship team and I serve in this area and I never get any credit.

Offense, right?

Then it builds.

And then you feel like, well, I'm not as appreciated.

And then what are you thinking about instead of God?

Me.

What does offense do?

Makes you think about me.

All the time.

So you have to ask yourself, is there bitterness, indifference, or resentment in me that needs to be surrendered?

We can't walk in the light while hating others.

John 13, 35 says, by this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.

I love that the disciples were always bickering.

It's like, yeah, they were 16.

Like, I work with 16-year-olds.

I told them last week they hurt my feelings.

And if I was still a people pleaser, I would have went home crying, but I am now a God pleaser.

I still cried a little bit to Dan when I got home.

It's fine, we're wrestling with it.

So Jesus says, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another, aka knock it off.

Stop arguing about the things that don't matter.

It's like, Jesus, can I be the one to walk closest to you?

Jesus, am I your favorite?

Jesus, are you gonna build the rock of the church on me?

He was like, love each other.

Stop it.

And that's what some of us need to do is we need to knock it off.

And we need to stop living offended lives.

The second indicator of our faith in this scripture that we just read is separation from the world.

In verse 15, he says, "'Don't love the world or anything in the world.

If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.

For everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life comes not from the Father, but from the world.

The world and its desires will pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.'"

So the question to ask yourself is, where is my allegiance to?

Is my allegiance to the world or is my allegiance to the Lord?

Because it can't be both.

What competes for our love will eventually shape our entire lives.

So what's number one on your list of what you love?

And then that's gonna shape your entire life.

I was reading in Psalms this morning, and it actually, it always sticks out to me because it's a worship song I've loved.

It says, better is one day in your courts, better is one day in your house, better.

Do you guys know this one?

It's old school, so good.

The Psalm said, better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere.

Another translation says, I would rather be a gatekeeper for your house than anywhere else.

And you know what hit me this morning?

The courts aren't even inside the house.

You're still on the outside.

And the psalmist is saying, better is one day in your courts than a vacation to Bali, than seeing the mountains in Greece, than anything you can dream of that this world has to offer.

Better is standing outside your house.

Better is one day.

That psalmist loved the Lord.

What would that look like to say, that's the best thing I could get is just being close to you.

Even if I'm not inside, just let me stand outside the door and know that you're close.

Romans 12.2 says, do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good and perfect pleasing will.

Point four, this is the last point.

If you're taking notes, I know you like to order them correctly.

Growth is the result of walking with him.

So obedience is the evidence.

Love is the expression.

Growth is the result.

And I love this last part of scripture.

12 through 14 says, He's saying the scripture isn't just for those who have been following God for 50 plus years.

I'm writing to new believers, children, those who have just put their faith in Jesus.

I'm writing to you young men, those who have been walking with God for some time, those who have fought the fight.

And I'm writing to you fathers, those who have known God, who have seen testimony upon testimony of his goodness.

It's for all of you.

But what the crazy thing is, is this isn't defined by age, right?

It's not children zero to 15, right?

Young men, 15 to 35, fathers, so on.

There's no age.

It's about the pace of your race.

It's about where are you at?

Because if we are going on a marathon for our faith, we got to keep walking.

We got to keep running.

But everyone's pace is going to be a little different, right?

Everyone's pace.

But I don't see people show up to a race and start going like this.

Back pedaling.

For me, I might be a speed walker because I hate running.

I say, I will not run unless someone is chasing me.

I've tried.

My form is like that of a gazelle.

Well, a gazelle is a good runner.

I run on my toes.

It's like this.

It's very uncomfortable to watch.

I would be speed walking.

There is a point to this, I promise.

Everyone's pace is different, but we should always be moving forward.

So, all right, you've been children for a while, right?

It's time to become a young man.

You've been a young man for a while.

It's time to become a father of the house.

So what does this look like?

Children are the ones who have just received Jesus.

They're in awe of the fact that every sin has been forgiven.

I didn't know that God sent his son to die for me and now I accept it.

And I'm living in the power of his forgiveness. fathers don't worry they're not all mad they're going to be baptized it's abrupt yeah let's clap for them as they go yeah look at that fathers you've walked with god a long time you know him

But then what do the young men do?

It says young men who have fought battles, who have victory.

In war, you don't normally see the children or the fathers being sent to the front lines.

Young men are going to war.

And for some of us, we've gotten so comfortable in the idea of forgiveness that we want to sit in that instead of stepping forward and facing the fight.

Yeah. suiting up and saying, I'm going to go to battle.

I'm going to rob hell.

I'm going to populate heaven.

I don't just choose heaven over hell.

I choose heaven over earth.

And I believe that we're going to see it here.

That's what going into battle looks like.

It means taking the gospel to your workplace.

It means finding freedom, ridding your life of the darkness, letting other believers in and allowing them to call it up, taking next steps of faith.

Not just sitting in, I'm so glad that God forgave me, but I'm not going to tell anyone about it.

I'm just going to stay comfortable.

And you know why some people do that?

Because when you step into the battlefield, all of a sudden it's a little intimidating.

But what did David say?

He said, I'm not going to win by the power in me, but by the power of God in me.

I know my God can defeat Goliath.

Some of you are choosing to stay children of faith, but you're supposed to be warriors.

I love that I look at this house and I see so many fathers and mothers.

Man, I see people that have experienced God and are sharing about it.

They're life group leaders.

They're team leaders.

What's your next step in your faith that you need to take?

We don't all have to be at the same pace, but we can't move backwards.

I want to show you a few pictures.

This first one, you actually got to see them lead worship last week, but this is the kids' worship team.

This is grades first through seventh grade using their gifts to lead worship.

They look like children, don't they?

Guess what?

They aren't children in their faith.

They're not defined by their age.

Because they stand up here and they lead worship, so they take the weapon, the attack of the enemy.

This week they filmed a music video so that it can go on YouTube so that more people can hear about the love of God.

Yeah.

Those are sons and daughters fighting for their faith.

The next picture is of a baptism that you may not even know the story behind.

This is my seven-year-old Gracie.

And this is Katie.

Katie was Gracie's kindergarten teacher.

And Gracie kept just saying, come to church, come to church.

I'd love for you to come to church, right?

A little evangelist.

And so seven and a half months ago, Katie came to church.

On the first Sunday she was in church, her hand went up in the air and she was saved.

And then she said, I need to go public with my faith.

And guess who she chose to baptize her with?

My seven-year-old.

I had to help because we don't want to lose her in the water.

We need her to come back up.

And then Katie said, I love to teach.

Maybe I have a gift here.

And you know what the conversation we had was?

She said, but I haven't been walking with God for very long.

How can I teach kids about him?

Right?

Isn't that what Satan does?

He plants doubts about the gifts he's given us and said, you're not good enough.

And we said, actually, you are the perfect person to teach kids because you're going to be walking on the journey with them.

You're not going to speak to them as if it's above them.

You're going to meet them right where they are.

And there are kids now who have asked to start coming to the 8.30 service because they love being in her class because she's using her gift to serve God.

The coolest part is that today, during the 11.30 service, I cannot look at you.

I can't look at you.

During the 1130 service, she's baptizing her son.

That's a progression of faith.

Not because she told her son it was time, but because every morning he would watch her get in her Bible.

And he started asking questions.

And he said, mom, I wanna be baptized.

But you know what I love that it's not, it wasn't Pastor Dan that had to baptize Katie and then Pastor Dan that has to baptize Corey.

We are all a priesthood of believers.

And my favorite thing to see is people in the church baptizing people because they have led them on their journey of faith.

I got a text from Katie this morning that said, I hope your first impressions team is ready because at the 1130 service, we have 18 people coming to bear witness to his baptism.

Man, you know what that is?

That's running a fast race.

And if I know Katie, she's not slowing down.

And that's what it should look like as we get so fired up following Jesus that it's like I can't wait to get into the auditorium for the praise break.

I can't wait to go serve.

I can't wait to watch baptisms.

Children become sons and warriors.

Warriors become fathers and it's up to you what pace you take it at.

Let's pray this morning.

God, we thank you for your word that even in what feels like a tough message to grab, God, that you give us the grace to receive it and to encourage us how to live in the light and how to walk in the truth.

God, I pray for every believer in this room that maybe has felt stale in their relationship with you.

I pray that you would fan that flame today.

I pray that you would whisper to every brother and sister in this room what their next step of faith is.

I pray that you would show them whether that's being baptized, whether that's being one of the three people that there's still room for to go on the Honduras trip in August, whether it's going to discovery and finding what their gifts are to use in this house.

God, would you show them today?

But if there's anyone in the room who thinks I haven't even stepped into the light, this is the first time I've heard that God sent his son for me.

John 3, 16 says, That means that this invitation is open to you.

That means that when he sent his son to die on the cross, that he had you on his mind and his heart.

And the Bible says all you need to do is put your faith in him.

So if you believe that God sent his son to die for you, on the count of three, I'm going to have you raise your hand.

All heads bowed, all eyes closed.

And then I'm going to walk you through a prayer.

So on the count of three, if that's you, I want you to put your hand up in the air.

One, be bold.

Two, God loves you.

Three, shoot your hand up in the air if you are ready to pray that prayer this morning.

Amen.

God sees you.

You can put your hand down and from your heart to his, say, God, thank you for sending your son.

Thank you for forgiving me of my sins.

I am a sinner in need of a savior and I place my faith in you today.

I love you, God, and it's in your name I pray.

And everybody said, amen.

Let's put our hands together for those who put their faith in Jesus.

It's an amazing, the best decision you can make in your entire life.

Before we do baptisms, we're going to turn our attention to the beat, and then we are going to celebrate people going public with their faith today.

Full Sermon Transcript

Amen.

What's up everybody?

Man, you're so good looking.

You don't know how to take that, do you?

Yeah, you're welcome.

You're welcome.

In case your spouse didn't tell you this morning, I thought I would tell you.

You're good looking.

Michigan fans, what's up?

Shout out.

Natty Champs, woo-hoo!

How many are like .

Well, I'll give you a little bit of time to cheer because the University of Texas Longhorns men's swimming and diving team are also national champions.

Come on, somebody.

We're also men's tennis SEC champs.

Come on, somebody.

Man, if you don't know, Texas Longhorns are the greatest in all the earth, so there you go.

Well, we're diving into a new series.

We're going to be in the book of 1 John.

This is the same guy who wrote the Gospel of John, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.

He also wrote 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John towards the end of the Bible.

So we're going to be in the book of 1 John in the next couple of weeks diving into it.

So if you have your Bibles, go directly to that.

And I want to be honest for just a second.

Okay.

Do any of you remember, have you been around me long enough to know that I used to be the Pastor Dan that ate Pastor Dan?

Some of you are like, what are you talking about?

I now weigh 188 pounds.

I used to be closer to 250.

250.

250. 250.

Yikes.

And how many of y'all know that picture pops up every once in a while and you go, whoa.

I would like to equate that to sympathy weight, right?

My bride ushered in three beautiful babies, three, seven, and ten.

They're absolutely incredible.

And as she gained it, I gained double.

And then she went back to working out and eating healthy and she lost it.

And so she's an encouragement.

But I have a guy named Adam Broud or Brode.

I actually don't know how to pronounce his name. who is my personal trainer.

And so I thank Kelsey for giving me the inspiration to lose weight and to get a little more fit.

I thank God for the perseverance, for the power to do it.

But I also thank Adam because he's someone who has the plan to do it and he helps hold me accountable to make it happen.

How many of y'all know we need that in our lives?

Can I show you a picture?

I don't know if you have it for me.

Do we have a picture of Adam?

So if you want a trainer, do you have it or no?

See, Isaac's trying to pull it out of his, I sent him a text and he didn't get it, but it's fine.

Adam is jacked.

How many of y'all know that if you want a personal trainer, you don't want the guy that looks like me at 250, right?

Like I am not meant to be 250.

I'm meant to be like maybe even a little less than this.

This dude is jacked and he eats right and he lifts and I need him to show me the way to hold me accountable, to give me the plan, to execute, to be the best version of myself possible.

Can I get an amen?

Like, because I have a body.

Did you know that the Holy Spirit, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit dwells inside of us, that our bodies are the temple of the living God.

Don't you think we should care about the temple?

This is Adam.

So if you're wondering what I'm going to look like in a few weeks, this is it.

Now, Adam lives in Utah, and...

And he's been a pastor.

He's been a missionary.

He's been a church planter.

He's worked for ARC, the organization that helped to plant New Life Church.

He works for the church that we take our students to, Access Conference.

He works for the Life Church, even though he lives in Utah.

I'll figure out that later.

I don't know how that works.

But anyways, he is the real deal.

And he's coming in June to our men's fight night.

Come on, somebody.

Come on.

And we're going to have a lot of fun.

We're going to eat a big pig and work out and get manly.

So Adam is coming.

But I haven't become a better version of myself in this body if it wasn't for someone like Adam being able to show me the way and to help hold me accountable to get better and to get more healthy. to be more confident in the body God's given me.

And so I have this app where he gives me these exercises and he gives me nutrition plans.

And how many of y'all know, I could have the app and never use it.

I could have the plan and never actually work on the plan.

In fact, I could even get a little bit more crazy and I could go into the app on the days that I'm supposed to be scheduled to do a workout and I could get in the plan because I have to click on things that say, hey, I lifted this amount of weight this many times and how many of y'all know Adam gets a report on my progress and he'll check in with me if I'm not making progress.

And even though he's in Utah, he's a little bit terrifying.

Do you know who else is terrifying?

My wife.

My wife, there she is.

Hi, you're all smiley back there.

You're cool.

If I'm sitting on the couch a little too long in the Bible, she'll say, are you going to work out today?

Are you going to the gym today?

Why?

Because it's not about being just in the God's word.

It's about being the best God has for my life.

And a part of that is stewarding God's temple that he's given me.

And so she'll ask me, are you going to the gym today?

And I'll go, I guess I am now.

How many of y'all know I'm more terrified of that one than I am that one?

But likewise, right, she holds me accountable to helping get fit and stay in the program.

But I've also told her, hey, we can't just go to Target or Meijer or Instacart and just buy a bunch of crap that we fill our cupboard in because it ain't just about being physically fit.

It's also what we put in our bodies to be healthy.

And so I hold her accountable and like, hey, we don't need all this crap in our house.

Literally, I think I shared this with you a couple weeks ago.

I went into our pantry and I cleared all the crap out and made all my kids cry.

Why?

Because I'm a good dad.

That's why.

And we hold each other accountable to be the best versions of ourselves.

So here's what I want to show you.

How many of you have the New Life Church app?

Okay, if you don't, this is for you.

You're going to go to this next screen.

You could take down Adam.

He's wonderful.

Kind of ugly.

Very, what?

That's not what God wants.

No, he's just intimidating.

He's intimidating.

So here's what we do.

If you don't have the New Life Church app, you need to scan this bad boy right there.

You know how that works?

QR code, scan it, take out your picture.

You can use your phones in church.

All right, do it.

Those of you who didn't have your hands raised, I don't see your phones out.

I mean, in my mind's eye, I saw every single one of you.

Guys, in this moment, I am Adam.

Take your phones out and scan the picture.

I'm trying to help you.

Why?

Okay, I'll tell you why.

Because in the app, there's a personalized spiritual workout plan.

Yeah, exactly.

So when you pulled out your app today, mine sits right here in the bottom section, like all the most important things right at the bottom for me are the Bible, praying app, and the New Life Church app.

Boom.

The big heart mark,

And what we have at the top here are called badges.

And if your badges ain't blue, it means you ain't working out correctly, spiritually speaking.

And so we want to help you activate your Christian faith.

Why?

Because here's the deal.

If you've given your life to Christ and haven't been baptized, then your app badge won't light up blue.

So next weekend, if your badge isn't lit and you've given your life to Christ and you haven't been baptized by immersion, you need to register right now in the app for next week's baptism to take that step of faith.

Why?

Because God commanded all of us to do it.

Amen?

And if you've been baptized and your app is not lit, it means you haven't told us that you've been baptized and given us like a date or whatever.

So it will fill out.

You just need to inform us.

Can I get an amen?

All right.

But if you also take out the app, a little... pop-up screen will show up that says, if you're in church today or watching online at 8.30, 10, and 11.30, you click the button and submit it.

And if you do that on a regular basis, this badge lights up because that's, I'm devoted to the house of God.

Did you know that you cannot be faithful to Jesus?

You are literally disobeying over 40 scriptures if you're not a part of the local church on a regular basis.

You're literally disobeying Jesus if you're not a part of the local church.

So why do we light this badge up?

Because we're Adam.

We're Adam.

We're helping you to be the real deal.

This series called Confident Faith, based in 1 John, is all about this.

You see, most people don't struggle with, I believe in God.

They don't struggle with maybe even I believe maybe in Jesus, especially if you're in the room today.

Most of you are like, I've seen enough evidence.

I see Christianity a little more real than all the others.

In fact, it's not a little more real.

It is the only real.

And so most people don't struggle with that.

What they struggle with is that the life they live actually reflects the life that God calls us to live.

In actuality, it means that I'm actually the real deal.

I'm not a fake Christian.

I'm actually a real Christian.

Because it's possible to say all the right things and still be walking in the wrong direction away from Jesus.

And the question that we have to wrestle with today is this, and over the next couple weeks, is my faith real enough to be seen by other people?

Or is it just something that I say, just a platitude, just a, hey, on Facebook it says I'm a Christian.

Well, guess what?

I could say I'm a car and I could be parked in a garage, but that don't mean I'm a car.

And I'm certainly not a furry, if you know what I'm saying.

If you need more explanation, Lord help us.

So it's time that we can actually become confident that we are actually the real deal in front of God and in front of others.

Why?

Because 1 John 1.5 says this.

It says that God is light.

Say that with me.

And in him, there is no darkness at all.

So here's the big idea.

Discipleship and being a disciple of Christ is not just believing in the light.

It's learning to live a life exposed to it.

Last week I asked this to happen off the fly.

We're going to see if our lights person can do this.

She's ready.

We're going to turn down all the lights to freak you all out because we all talked about the darkness last week.

And the screen is still really bright, so it won't matter.

Okay.

God is light.

And in him, there's no darkness at all.

So if we're the real deal, we don't just stay in the darkness.

We step into darkness.

Can you see me?

It's behind, can you do like a front shot?

Oh.

See, this is what we do in our lives.

We're like, I'm walking in the darkness.

I'm trying to find the light.

This is a good illustration.

I'm not actually finding it.

It's worked out really well.

But here's the, ah.

I didn't prepare them in advance.

How many of y'all see a shadow?

Do you see any part of me that's dark?

In other words, God is light.

There is no darkness in him at all.

There's no shadow.

There's no pretense.

There's no trying more or trying to get better or no growth.

No, that's us.

In him is light and everything around it is darkness.

And so when we come into faith in Christ, right, our sins are forgiven.

The Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us.

We have been given a new life to walk in new freedom with the Holy Spirit of God.

But here's what too often happens.

What too often happens is we got too comfortable living in the darkness that even when we believe in Jesus, we do the hokey pokey.

I put the right foot in, I put the right foot out, I put the right foot in, and shake it all about.

If I'm living the real Christian life, there is no hokey pokey.

I live a life exposed to the fullness of God's light.

I'm not just, oh, but I really like the way I used to do this.

Even though God says, that's not light, that's darkness.

It doesn't mean I'm partially in and partially out.

Do you want to have confident faith, real faith in Jesus?

The Bible says it will be evident by what God can see, but also what others can see.

Are we living exposed to the real life?

Hey, can we give our lights person a hand?

So again,

I have the workout app.

I have a great trainer.

Really knows what he's doing.

Because obviously he's living it himself.

He knows what to do.

He knows how to do it.

And if I want to grow and be better and to get more fit and to honor God with the body that he's given me, I need to follow the plan that the expert puts in front of me.

And so, man, if I want to walk in it, I have to not just pull out the app and click the buttons that say I did it, but I actually have to what?

I actually have to do it.

And it will become evident that whether or not I'm doing it or not, right?

I wish I would have shown 250 pound Dan so that some of you could see it.

Like you could probably find me on Instagram and find it yourself, but can I just tell you, I am more confident now because I've lost a layer of Dan.

And that's what our faith looks like.

As we start walking out of the darkness, we're shedding that broken, sinful light off of us.

We're walking into God's freedom and it becomes evident to everyone.

So 1 John 1.5, God is light and in them there is no darkness at all.

You need to start with this idea.

Number one is that God's very nature defines the standard at which we're supposed to live.

You don't.

And I don't.

God sets the standard.

Why?

Because he created the heavens and the earth and everything in it, which includes you. which means he knows how this whole thing is supposed to work more than you do and I do.

And so when we yield to him and his light, guess what?

Our life works.

It works better.

And so being a disciple of Jesus, it starts with who God is and not just what we feel.

Not just what we think is right or what we think is good, but actually what God says is right and what God says is good.

And we don't just, and listen to this, I used to think it this way.

Some of us, by the way we live and our approach to God and really probably to church and the community and the accountability in it, is we like to shake our tiny little fists constantly.

In God's face saying, I know better than you do.

In front of the creator of all things.

That's what we look like.

We look like that.

I'm going to do it my way.

I know better than you.

If you're going to be the real deal, we don't expect God to change us.

To fit our life and our desires and our expectations.

No, no, no.

We align our life to fit him.

And if God calls it darkness, so do we.

If God calls it darkness and calls it sin, so do we.

We, can I make it abundantly clear?

It's why you'll never see a rainbow flag flying outside these doors.

It's why we won't support the mutilization of kids that want to change genders because they don't think they fit in the way that God created them.

Habakkuk 1.13, watch this, saying about God, your eyes are too pure to even look on evil.

You cannot tolerate wrongdoing.

Can I tell you why Jesus went to the cross to die?

Because the justice of God had to be poured out and God poured out his justice on his son Jesus to pay the penalty of your sin and my sin.

To which you should say, thank you, Lord.

Jesus, you took upon yourself that which I deserved and you did not.

Why?

Because our God is just and he cannot tolerate wrongdoing.

James 1.17 says that every good and perfect gift comes from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights who does not change like shifting shadows.

Every good and perfect gift.

We need to approach God as like, God, what you've given is beautiful and awesome.

We've distorted it.

We've messed it up.

And we need to come back to what you did and how you created it.

Can I get an amen?

And we, check this out.

We will not grow by lowering God's standard.

We grow by stepping into his standard, right?

If I'm working out on the app and I never make progress, my accountability partner, my person who's helping me to get better is gonna say, hey dude, what you doing?

We just playing around here?

Because if so, I ain't got time for this.

Like you should just move on.

1 John 1.6 says this.

It says, if we claim, say claim. that you have fellowship with him, in other words, you claim to be a Christian, you claim, man, I believe in the Lord Jesus, and man, I wanna follow him, I believe he's the way, and yet continue to walk in the darkness.

Now, walk is a continual verb in the Greek language, which means you keep doing that which Jesus came to die for, you're actually not in relationship with him.

If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet continue to walk in darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.

In other words, we're playing the hokey pokey with our faith.

We're saying, hey, I like this God, but man, when you say this, I don't know.

And okay, I'll agree here, but I'm not gonna agree there.

And you're just doing the hokey pokey and part of your life is in the light and part of it's out of the light.

And I want you to have confident faith.

I want you to become the real deal in Jesus.

And so this is what the book of 1 John is all about.

Number two, if you're taking notes, is it's not what you say you believe.

Again, it's the evidence in your obedience to Christ.

In other words, you've acknowledged, man, God, your way is right.

Mine's not.

I'm going to adjust to you.

I'm going to yield to you.

Walking in faith means that my lifestyle changes.

Like when I come into faith in Christ, you can literally see evidence of my life changing.

So for instance,

If you were to give your life to Jesus today and start walking with him, getting in his word, getting around his people, being devoted to the apostles' teaching, getting in the word of God, getting in groups of people pursuing God, and you allow God to change your life, a year from now you will be a different person than you are today.

And everyone would be able to see it.

But can they?

Can they?

Can they see it?

It means walking in faith means your life changes, your direction changes, your pattern of how you live changes.

You're going to be more and more faithful to God than you are to your sinful nature and your sinful desires.

You're walking in the light and not staying in darkness.

John 8, 31 says this.

This is Jesus to the Jews who had believed in him.

Jesus said this.

He said, if you hold to my teaching, you are the real deal.

This is Jesus talking to the people of God who grew up knowing everything about the scriptures.

Probably knowing, like if I were to ask you to stand up right now and quote the Ten Commandments, how many of y'all could do it?

Yeah, do it.

Come on, stand up.

Now you're embarrassed.

Do it.

You're on YouTube right now.

Come on.

Yeah, go for it.

This is great.

Yeah, come on.

You're good.

We're all for you in this place.

Do it.

That's right.

That's right.

No idols.

Vain.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's right.

That's right.

Number six, don't get your kicks from killing one another.

Killing one another.

Do not murder.

That's right.

Number seven, life is heaven when you're true to yourself.

I don't know the song, so you're kind of messing with my own.

Now I lost myself.

Do not murder, do not covet, do not steal.

Yada, yada, yada.

Okay, hey, hey, come on, come on.

Hey, confident faith, confident faith.

Would you have the hands to stand up and do that?

She doesn't either, but she has, anyways.

That's right.

Okay.

And Jesus is talking to Jews who literally would have had the Torah memorized.

They would have known everything that God had to say.

And then Jesus says to them, to the Jews that believe in me, if you hold to that teaching, you are actually the real deal.

Do you want to be the real deal?

Or do you want to be the fake one?

Like I am, I can't do it.

I am sweating so bad.

And by the way, if you're new here, I grew up in a military home.

My dad was in the military.

His dad was in World War II.

Like I'm used to this kind of intensity coming at me.

I grew up an athlete in all the sports.

And so my life and upbringing is all yelling, okay?

So I ain't mad at you.

I'm just passionate about the topic and I'm here to help you and coach you.

I am your Adam.

Okay.

Oh, I ain't got, I don't got time for this.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

Wow.

What was I talking about?

Oh, the real deal means your lifestyle changes to fit who God is and what God says, not just what you want to do.

And not only God will see that, but other people should see that too.

Can I give you one just little example?

God says that he gets all of it.

We are created in his likeness.

Our whole lives should be found in the center of the light.

Did you know that God equates what you do with your money, stewarding God's money, equates to where your heart is before him?

Why he tells believers to bring the tithe into his house, that the first of what he gives to us belongs to the church is because he wants to make sure that the people of God are building the house of God as he builds their house.

Because when you care, when I care about building his house, he takes care of our house.

So let me give you an example.

People are welcome here.

Do I have a trustee in the room?

One of our elders?

Lou, where's your wife?

Get your wife in church, dude.

What are you doing?

You can ask to see any financials here at New Life Church.

You can see the ins and outs.

The only thing we're going to show you is specific salary amounts.

We'll give you the percentages and here's what goes to salaries, but we don't need, I don't need my staff comparing what they make.

Can I, is okay?

Um,

But you can ask any question and we'll give it to you.

We'll send it to you.

You can see it.

You can ask any question you want.

When you live exposed to the light, you have nothing to hide, right?

You build trust.

We have nothing to hide.

You can ask, how do we spend money?

As a believer in Christ, how many of you have stepped into your life group or into the church and said, hey, here's my W-2.

I want to show you what I make, and then I'm going to show you what I give and see if they match up.

Zing!

You see, your walk with Christ increasingly reveals what you actually believe.

When you try to hide things, the scriptures say that what you hide, what you cover, God will uncover.

But what you bring into the light, what you expose, he will cover and forgive and change.

And you will begin to walk in the light to where you go, I don't need to hide.

I have nothing to hide.

Why?

Because I know I'm walking the real path.

I'm walking the real deal.

John 8, 31 says, I already said that one.

Galatians 5, 16 says, so I say, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Walk by the spirit.

The spirit of the living God, if you're a believer in Christ, lives inside of you, dwells inside of you.

And so if you keep walking in the darkness, the Holy Spirit is going to start to groan and moan.

You're going to start to feel convicted.

You're going to start to feel some guilt.

You're going to start to feel some shame.

What is that?

That is godly conviction trying to lead you back into the light.

Have you ever heard of the phrase church hurt?

Church hurt.

Anyone?

Anyone?

Can I tell you what I believe probably 99% of the phrase church hurt comes from?

It comes from people being in the light, knowing that they're being exposed for who they really are.

And when someone comes to them lovingly and says, hey, you're still walking in darkness in this area.

Let me help you come back into the light.

They call it church hurt.

You're judging me.

I'm leaving.

Now, there's probably real actual examples of ways that people have hurt people in church.

Why do I know that?

It's because y'all are a bunch of knuckleheads.

And I'm a knucklehead.

And I probably hurt some of y'all's feelings already today.

But the hope is that we help each other to grow closer to Christ and become more like Christ more tomorrow than we are today.

Can I get an amen?

And when you walk by the Spirit, you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

In other words, when the Holy Spirit lives inside of you, he's going to reveal, hey, nope, that's not right.

You need to go this way.

Hey, when he says to do this, you do it.

And when he says to not do that, you don't do it.

Matthew 7, 16, this is Jesus.

By their fruit, does it say God will recognize them?

No, by their fruit, you will recognize them.

Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?

That's just the end of the verse.

It goes on to a bunch of other things.

So here's the question.

What direction is my life moving in when no one is watching?

So when I'm on that website or on that app watching things that lead me into lust or sin, or I'm having that conversation with a woman who's not my wife, but when I live an exposed life, let me give you an example.

Like when Kelsey and I were dating,

You guys might think this is crazy.

When Kelsey and I were dating, I would literally put her on text message because I'm a pastor who communicates with a lot of people in a lot of different ways.

And if there's a woman that I'm communicating with, she is on every text message, almost every email or somebody else is on it.

Why?

Because I don't want some woman exposing something to me that I'm trying to help her through and some sort of signal gets misconstrued.

Because I will cut off that woman hardcore if it affects my relationship with my bride.

And I am protecting what is most sacred and not letting darkness to come into it.

What is that?

It's accountability.

It's living in the light saying, I have nothing to hide.

Okay, let's get it real for just a second.

I probably said this 10 times.

And so if you've heard this one already, you know, just laugh at my joke anyways.

I love my wife in so many different ways.

And one of the reasons why we have money is because she is a budget hawk.

Like she knows every penny that goes to every place in

Anytime.

Like some of you, it's the husband and the husband gets an alert.

Like this money got spent and wives, you get the text message.

Hey, why did you spend that here?

Women?

Anyone?

Jess, I know that's you.

Yep.

Okay.

That's my staff, my brother and sister-in-law.

What's up?

Yep.

Same thing happens to me.

So if an expense gets made, Kelsey sends me a text.

What's this?

What's happening here?

But here's what happened a couple of weeks ago.

I get this usually on a month-to-month basis.

She'll send me a text like this.

Hey, just so you're aware, we have $17 a day until we get paid.

Now, y'all, we're not that destitute.

We've saved money.

We have money in plenty of places.

We've got emergency funds, retirement fund.

We've got all the stuff, okay?

We're not in dire straits here, okay?

But I get that text because my wife is a budget hawk, and why we have money in extra places is because of my wife.

Can I praise my wife right now?

Come on, somebody.

But here's what happens.

Do you have nothing to hide?

Have any of you tried to hide a purchase yet?

From your spouse?

Like you put it on that card that they don't have access to or you try to hide it?

So I get this text from my wife.

We have $17 a day until we get paid.

And literally, I'm working at home on the message and literally my doorbell keeps ringing.

And it's the 17 Amazon drivers that keep showing up at our house.

And I'm like, well, that's $17.

She gone.

She gone.

Living the exposed life means I have nothing to hide in front of God and in front of each other.

Can I tell you how you're going to build trust and strength in any relationship that you have?

Is that you live exposed to the light.

You have nothing to hide.

Are you following me?

1 John 1.7, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son, then purifies us from all sin.

In other words, we're holding each other accountable to this, which leads us to point number three, the light produces community and cleansing.

It purifies us.

So here's what this looks like.

You can't have real discipleship in isolation, right?

Have you ever heard, I'm sure you've heard of the person.

Have you heard of the person who says, I'm a Christian and never comes to church?

You literally are disobeying over 40 scriptures if you say that.

Why?

Because God is building his church, his community.

The Bible says in Acts chapter two, they were devoted to the apostles' teaching, to the breaking bread and to prayer.

It was a community aspect.

It was participation, right?

Like if you just go sit in your deer stand with Jesus, who is being able to see the fruit that you are living in your life and holding you accountable to walking in light instead of darkness?

Hebrews 10, 24 through 27 says, let us consider how we may spur.

This is like, you know, those spurs on a horse is like, how many of y'all know those things hurt?

Like, would you want to get kicked by those?

That's what Jesus followers look like.

When we are falling short and walking in darkness, we have people around us that give us a little, and we're like, oh, okay.

I'm falling back in.

Let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds if we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, which we know Jesus.

Watch this.

Watch this language.

This is the scripture, not Dan.

It doesn't say Dan chapter 10, right?

There's no sacrifice for sins left for you. but only fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.

In other words, you have now discounted what Jesus has done from you.

You've stiff-armed him and rejected to come into the light.

You can't keep living that pattern.

You need to walk into the light and not stay in the darkness.

James 5.16 says this, therefore confess your sins to each other.

Now let's stop for a second.

Let's do this again.

Say, therefore confess.

Confess.

Confess.

Okay, now let's pretend like you're not talking about someone else.

Let's actually make it personal.

Confess.

Confess.

Confess.

Okay, let me give you some practical for a second.

How many of y'all grew up Catholic?

By the way, in the podcast over the coming weeks, we're gonna dive into Catholicism, Protestantism, where we agree, where we disagree, where we walk away, et cetera.

So if you're interested, I encourage you to go and check out the podcast over the coming weeks.

But how many of you grew up in the Catholic church and you went to the priest to do what?

Confess your sins.

The scriptures say, confess your sins to God.

Yeah, it's really easy to walk into this little room where you can't see the guy and his facial expressions and think you're walking in the light.

By the way, those scriptures actually say that in the Bible, when you're a believer, we are a priesthood of believers.

Okay?

So again, I'm probably messing with some of you.

You're mad at me because I just attacked your Catholic faith.

We're going to dive into this and we're going to be generous.

We're going to be kind.

We're going to be loving, but we're going to go to the scriptures.

Okay?

Confess your sins to each other.

That means you're exposing yourself to the light.

You're saying, hey, I want to grow and get better.

I don't just have an app for getting healthy and fit and nutritious, and I don't have an atom in my life just so I can pretend and just so I can say, hey, I'm really cool, and I have this workout app, and I kind of like the idea of accountability.

I kind of like the idea of growth, but I really don't want it.

Confess your sins to each other.

Pray for each other so that you may be healed.

The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

We have the entirety of our church, it revolves around small groups of men and women and kids and youth and small groups of people where you can live out this dynamic, where you have nothing to hide and you are strengthening and helping each other grow in confident faith.

Can I get an amen?

Galatians 6, one through three says, restore those who fall into sin without falling into it yourself.

In other words, so you say, hey, hey, I see this pattern.

You might have a little blind spot or maybe you've gotten a little bit too comfortable.

You've gotten a little too comfortable with the darkness and we need to bring you back into the light and you gently pull them back.

Now again, they may resist.

They may punch back.

They may run out the door and say, church hurt.

But when your motive is to help them and bring them back to the faith, it's a godly thing.

Restore those who fall into sin without falling into it yourself.

Help each other.

Listen to me.

If you're not in a group, listen to me.

If you're not in a group, you think that you are too important for what God wants for your life.

Because some of you, you're like, I don't have time.

You don't have time for godliness?

You don't have time for accountability to help grow you closer in confident faith?

No.

You think you're that important?

Oh my gosh.

You see, light and walking into the light actually activates the blood of Jesus covering your life.

Cleansing of your sin comes through exposure to the light and not hiding from it.

1 John 1.9 says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Listen to me, God doesn't cleanse what you hide.

He cleanses what you bring into the light.

And the light doesn't just come to shame you, it comes to change you, but you have to step into it.

So I want to give you an example of how this works out.

I want the team to throw back up the dashboard.

Why is the dashboard so important?

It's because there's aspects of our faith that need to be worked out, and this is built-in accountability.

So if you haven't been baptized, we help you to take that step of faith.

If you're not committed regularly, devoted to the house of God, we help you take that step of faith.

This is the groups app, right?

You're

You're in it together.

We're in it together.

If you're not in a life group on a regular basis and that badge isn't lit blue, it means you haven't taken this step of faith to live exposed, to live a life of growth and accountability.

If this badge isn't lit, it means that you're not serving.

Did you know that the Holy Spirit comes inside of you after becoming a believer?

And Jesus said that power will come on you so that you can be what?

My witness.

He puts his spirit inside of you, not just to overcome sin and darkness, but to become a witness to who he is.

So watch this.

If you're not serving the spiritual gifts, God puts spiritual gifts inside of us.

Let me ask you this question.

Did God give you a spiritual gift for you to be a great football player?

Thank you for answering.

Did God put spiritual gifts inside of you to be great at your job?

Did God put spiritual gifts inside of you so that you could just make a good living and pay taxes and die?

No, God put spiritual gifts inside of you to make him known to others by being a servant in his house.

Why?

Because we serve a God who came to serve and not to be served.

And he gave his life as a ransom for you and I. So here's what we do.

We hold each other accountable.

So if we live exposed to the light, we come into our life groups, we come into our serve groups, and to the dream team, we come into church and we open up our apps and we go, hey, I've got two of them that aren't lit up.

Help me to light those bad boys up.

It's like when I think about coming out of the tunnel at the University of Texas, the greatest football school in the history of mankind.

And when we're in the tunnel, we're as a team, we're like, man, we're about to light these dudes up.

That's not what we're doing as the church.

We're about to light them up with the love of Christ.

Can I get an amen?

We're not about to, like, you know, throw some haymakers.

But it means we're in this together.

We are better together.

Say that.

We are better.

You will get lazy if you're not around people helping you not be lazy.

You will eat crap all day long.

How do I know this?

I have kids.

If they don't have a parent that says, you know what, maybe a little less sugar.

For your well-being and all of our well-being.

Here's a few examples of what... living in the light looks like.

It means obedience to God's word.

What he says, I do.

What he says to not do, I don't do.

If he calls it darkness, so do we.

If he calls it righteousness, so do we.

John 14, 15, Malachi 3, 10, 2 Corinthians 9, 7, faithful giving and generosity, tithing. being a part of God's house.

Did you know that God calls every believer to be a tither?

What is tithing?

It means bringing the first 10% of what God gives to us.

He says when we don't bring it back to him in his house for the community of faith to be built all around us, when we don't do that, we're actually stealing from him.

Can I tell you something?

Don't just live partly in the light.

Let me ask you this question.

How many of y'all were pretty inspired by the kids leading us in worship?

Can I tell you, I'm thankful for faithful givers and tithers who make that happen.

By the way, two of the people who led, we call it big boy church, right?

Big people church.

One of them was a freshman.

The guitar player was a freshman in high school.

And one of them was a junior in high school leading us in worship today. living their spiritual gifts, not to just build up their own kingdoms and their own egos, but building the house of the living God, pouring out their worship before him.

Let me ask you this question.

How many faithful tithers do you think we have at New Life Church?

We had 650 people at Easter last weekend.

Praise be to God, right?

We have about 14 to 16 actual tithers at New Life Church.

Out of 650 people,

14 to 16 who faithfully followed Jesus and bring the tithe.

And you see all of what God's doing in this house.

Imagine what he could do if more of us unleashed the tithe and blessing over his house and he would continue to bless our house.

Average giving at New Life Church right now is about, this is based off of data.

So individual average earnings in our area, our church average is about 3% tithe.

And a tithe is not 3%, it's 10%. faithful giving and generosity, commitment to the local church.

As we build God's house, he takes care of our house, serving others with our spiritual gifts, with our time, talents, and treasure, living openly and honestly in accountability in front of other people, confessing our sins before God, having nothing to hide, exposing it all so that we can walk in true freedom that Christ has given for us.

It means sharing our faith with others.

It means inviting people into the faith.

Why?

Because Matthew 28, 19 through 20, the great commission of Jesus says, therefore go into all the world and make disciples, teaching them to obey everything I've commanded to you.

And if you're the real deal not obeying Jesus, how can you even live out the great commission?

Standing on biblical convictions, Romans 12, 2, so what God calls evil and good, we're gonna share those same convictions.

Discipling and investing in others, especially the next generation of faith, 2 Timothy 2, 2.

If your faith is real, it won't stay invisible.

It will show up in how you live and how you give and who you're friends with and who you walk with and who you're reaching and how you're teaching others about the faith that you possess.

And if it's not evidence of faith in your life that it's producing, if there's no evidence of it, then the real question is, have you actually truly surrendered your life to the Lord Jesus?

Let's pray together.

And if you have it, the time is now.

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

And if you're ready to give your life to Jesus for the first time, definitively step over a line of faith to call on him as Savior and Lord, or you need to come back to him, back into his light, this is your moment.

The Bible says in Romans 10, 9, that if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart, you will be saved.

So when I count to three, I want you to shoot your hand up so that I know who I'm praying with in just a moment.

Ready, one, I'm giving my life to Jesus.

Two, I'm coming back to you, Lord.

Three, lift your hands, shoot it high, and let's pray this prayer together.

In fact, everyone in the room, say it out loud together.

Say, Lord Jesus, I know I've sinned and turned away from you.

Thank you for dying to pay for my sin.

Forgive me.

I believe you defeated sin and death so that I can have a new life.

So now, Jesus,

Be the Lord of my life.

Fill me with your Holy Spirit so that I can change.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Come on, put your hands together for our God who saves.

Full Sermon Transcript

Happy Easter.

Y'all look great.

Thank you.

Took it up a notch.

I normally, if you're new here, I normally do not dress in a suit, but I just felt like something I should do today.

We say all hail King Jesus, and Easter is really fascinating because what happened at Easter ushered in

Some of you are wondering, like, why did we do that song in the beginning?

And what I'm about to tell you.

Easter ushered in a new dawn, a new day, and a new life for all of humanity.

The story of Easter.

In Luke chapter 24, it says this.

It says, now on the first day of the week, say first day.

You know, a couple of weeks ago, I got asked the question, why do we worship on Sundays and not Saturdays?

It's because of this day.

It's because of the resurrection of Jesus happened on Sunday.

Now on the first day of the week at very early dawn, say dawn.

They came back to the tomb bringing the fragrant spices which they had prepared.

Why?

Because they knew he was dead and they thought they would take care of his body.

And yet the women who came, they found the stone had been rolled away from the tomb, but they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

Why?

And it happened that while they were perplexed, and you would be too, if you thought he was dead and buried and all of a sudden he's gone.

It says,

And they said to them, these angelic beings said to the women there, why are you looking for the living among the dead?

He is not here, but he has been raised.

Don't you remember what he said to you while you were in Galilee with him, saying that the Son of Man, Jesus, must be delivered into the hands of men who are sinners, be crucified, and on the third day rise?

You should not be surprised that this tomb is empty."

Why do we need this Easter, a new dawn, a new day, and a new life?

Every single one of us needs that.

Think about this for a second.

Think about what dawn is.

When does dawn happen?

Some of you are very afraid to talk.

You're like, what if I get this answer wrong?

The dawn is in the morning, right?

It's when first light happens after what?

Nighttime.

It's the first light after darkness.

A new dawn breaks through the darkness.

Has anyone ever been afraid of the dark?

Have you been afraid of the dark?

If you aren't saying yes, you're a liar.

And you're in the right place.

I remember when I was a kid, I...

I remember thinking, this was after the time after my parents had finished putting me to bed and I was doing it on my own now.

And I remember very vividly thinking, why is the light switch by the door?

I need it like right by my bed.

Because if I turn off the light switch here, then I've got a long way to get to my bed and that's, it's dark.

Did y'all have a moment like that as a kid where you're like, the lights go out and you're like, oh my gosh, what's in my room?

What's under my bed?

How am I going to get into my bed past all the things that are now crawling out of the spaces and all the noises that all of a sudden become louder and you're like, I didn't hear those noises before.

What's happening now?

And I had this thing as a kid where I'd flip the light switch off and I would run as fast as I can, jump in bed, cover my head with the covers and then I was safe.

Now, you might not have had that particular thing, but I bet you had something.

There was a stuffed animal or there was something that, man, in the darkness, there was something that made you feel safe.

I also remember, fast forward,

To when I was an adult, I'd actually been in ministry for several years.

And I was considering moving to Michigan and considering a different path in ministry.

And so I went out into what I call the wildy, better known as the wilderness.

And I took a tent with me.

And it was just a single person tent, so very small.

It literally fit my sleeping bag and me in it.

And the only things that I took out there to the Wildey was some communion elements.

I took some wine and I took some bread and I took communion and I offered this time to the Lord because I was seeking him to ask him, God, what would you want me to do?

What next step would you like me to take?

And I was considering moving away from Texas and moving to Michigan.

And I was saying, God, you show me the way.

Now, I had been camping a lot in my life.

I grew up as a Boy Scout.

We tent camped.

We did all the things.

I've been backpacking.

But I had never been in the Wilde by myself in Texas, wherever.

I wasn't really familiar with where I was at.

And when the lights go down, like God's light, right, goes down and you're in the wildy, again, going back to my childhood, what is that noise?

And all of a sudden, I start to freak out.

I mean, I'm a grown man.

And how many of y'all know this grown man didn't stay the night in the wildy?

I wasn't quite prepared for that.

I don't even remember.

I think I stayed in my car.

But isn't darkness fascinating?

And when there's a new dawn, the reality is, is whether we realize this or not, the Bible speaks to this, that we are living in darkness.

And for some of you, you don't have to look very far.

You can see it on Facebook.

You can see it on Instagram.

You can see it on TikTok.

You can see it on the news all over the place.

Let me ask you this question.

Do you see it in the mirror?

Because the reality of the Bible and the reality of God, it says that we are all living in spiritual darkness, that we are all sinners.

We are all in darkness.

But isn't there something fascinating about darkness?

Sometimes you realize it's darkness, and you don't like it and you get back into the light.

But there's other times like when the power goes out and you might have a frantic moment, a panic moment for a few seconds when you're like looking for your phone, where's my flashlight, where are my things?

Your kids are screaming, they're panicking, you're trying to figure it out.

But there's something about all of a sudden you start to acclimate to it.

Start to get used to the darkness.

Like it's almost like it becomes familiar.

And spiritually speaking, the Bible says that we've all gotten a little too comfortable with darkness.

And being afraid of the dark is one thing, but staying in the dark and being comfortable with the dark is a whole other thing.

You see, the Bible says that humanity, except for the first two humans, Adam and Eve, humanity, all of us, every single one of us was born into darkness and we've gotten comfortable with it.

We might have grown up in a Christian home or in a biblical home where they teach the Bible and what's right and wrong and good and evil as God defines it, not as how we think it.

And we think about conviction and we try to change our ways.

But then something happens in the darkness, we just become too comfortable with it and it becomes normal.

And we start functioning without God and then wondering where God is.

And it wasn't him who left it, it was us.

Why do we need a new dawn this Easter?

It's because too many of us have gotten a little too comfortable living in darkness.

And we need the light of God to come back on.

We need an aha moment this Easter to come to grips that every single one of us is living in spiritual darkness.

So I want to give you a few signs of what it looks like to live in spiritual darkness.

We know that we should seek God or we want to hear from God, but do we ever talk to God?

Do we ever go to him in prayer or do we just get so used to doing our own thing every single day, just living our lives and not considering God or considering his ways or talking to him or thinking about him, being grateful for him or grateful to him?

That means we've gotten too comfortable with living in spiritual darkness.

It's living a life where we make big decisions and little decisions and just thinking about me and not thinking about, God, what would you want me to do?

What would you want me to say?

How would you want me to act?

Not just on Sunday, but every day, at every moment.

We've started following culture's morality or even our own morality instead of God's morality.

Why?

Because we've gotten too familiar and too comfortable living in darkness.

We start thinking things like, I'll just be a good person and that's going to be enough.

And then we don't realize that God says that there's none perfect, not one, except for Jesus.

And he's why we're here today.

We start building our lives around comfort and entertainment and success, thinking that's going to measure up and that's going to solve all problems.

And we don't even consider that there is eternal judgment facing every single one of us who is living and who has ever lived.

But what did Easter do?

That first Easter, when Jesus was resurrected, the lights came on back into a world that had just become so saturated and so used to the darkness that something new had happened.

The lights came on.

There was a new dawn, the resurrection of Jesus. was eternal victory over sin, death, Satan, and the powers of darkness.

You don't have to be afraid anymore.

There's a new mercy because there is a new dawn.

John chapter one, verse five says, and the light, that's Jesus, shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.

You wonder why you haven't overcome your darkness or why you even aren't aware that you have overcome darkness around you or that you're living in it is because you haven't allowed the light of Christ to shine into it.

Jesus is that light that pierces through the darkness.

The danger, though, is not just the darkness.

It's us getting so comfortable in it that we forget what real light actually looks like.

John chapter 3, verses 19 through 21, it says, this is the verdict.

Light has come into the world and

But people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

And everyone who does evil hates the light.

And by the way, you don't have to just say you hate the light or say you hate Jesus.

You have to just become so comfortable with darkness that you don't even acknowledge him.

Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.

I remember this very clearly after I had moved.

Actually, it wasn't after I moved to Michigan.

It was my brother and sister-in-law were living here, and my niece... was getting baptized, and so I flew from Texas to Michigan to see and be a part of her baptism.

And I'll never forget this.

My brother and I grew up in the same home, and my parents kind of, let me just put it, they were good parents.

They forced us to go to church.

Can I just pat some of you on the back who have your kids in church?

That's good parenting.

But then when we got confirmed, they allowed us to just do whatever we wanted to do.

That was bad parenting.

I'm calling my parents bad parents.

And what happened was my brother decided I'm out, and I stayed.

And so my brother kind of veered off the path, and I stayed with it.

If I had time to share my story, I did veer off the path, even though I stayed in the church.

You can be in the church and not actually be a real Christian.

You're still living in darkness, which we're going to get to.

But I'll never forget this.

I didn't get comfortable with darkness because I was still surrounded by the light of Christ and God's people and God's word.

But my brother, even when his own daughter was getting baptized, I'll never forget this.

He walked into church.

He's like, I feel like everyone's looking at me.

Why?

Because he feels exposed by the light.

You've gotten so comfortable in darkness that

That you're even afraid to come into that which came to save you and free you.

Watch this.

Their deeds will be exposed, but whoever lives by the truth, they come into the light and they do it willingly.

So that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

By the way, you cannot hide from God, whether you're in the church or not in the church, he knows it all.

Because he is the light and he sees all things.

And so what do we need this Easter?

We need a new dawn in our lives.

What is a new dawn?

It's when the light of Christ breaks through even our own darkness.

My question is, do you need a new dawn moment with Jesus this Easter?

A moment where you understand the darkness that you live in and not the darkness that you scream and go, yeah, I see it, it's dark.

And what I see on the news, it's dark.

And on social media, it's dark.

But the darkness that even you've gotten used to.

And now you've called it normal.

This Easter, are you also, do you need to realize that it's also because of what Jesus did?

It is a new day for you.

What is a new day?

It's when you have an aha moment with Jesus, a new dawn.

But the new day is when you actually step into the freedom that Jesus has for you.

Let me put it this way.

Think about someone who's committed a crime, which by the way, according to God's word, every single one of us has.

Not one of us is not a sinner in need of a savior.

Have you ever lied?

If you say no, you're a liar and you're a sinner.

You've offended God and you've broken his moral law.

You don't have to be a murderer or an adulterer.

You don't have to be all profane.

You don't have to steal.

You don't have to do any of those things.

You could just simply lie or manipulate or tweak, and you've fallen short of the glory of God.

And every single one of us, the Bible says, is that. instead of except for Christ.

But think about this for a second.

So a man is committed of a crime.

He's arrested.

I see some police officers in the room.

Have you ever arrested somebody?

Have you ever arrested someone who actually acknowledges they're guilty?

Oh, they do?

Okay.

Because when you watch the movies, the movies say when they're in prison, they just say, who's guilty here?

None.

We're all innocent.

But think about this for a second.

You get arrested and you acknowledge to the police officers.

You acknowledge to the court.

You acknowledge to the judge.

You say, I'm guilty and I deserve the punishment.

And so there you are.

You're sitting in prison knowing you deserve to be there.

But then a jailer walks in. comes up to the prison door, looks through the bars and stares at you and says, hey, you're free to go.

And you're like, this doesn't make any sense.

I deserve to be here.

I committed the crime.

I am guilty.

I know that I deserve this punishment because I am guilty.

But the jailer looks at you and said, yeah, but somebody served your full sentence for you.

And he opens the door and says, you're free to leave.

But because we've gotten so used to living in spiritual darkness, so many of us believe that.

Hey, we've been freed by Christ.

We are forgiven.

We are set free.

He paid the penalty for our sins.

We're free to go.

But because we're so used to darkness, we just stay there.

The door has been opened to walk into freedom.

But we've gotten so used to our sin and so used to our darkness, we've treated it like our blanket, we've treated it like our little stuffed animal and we've kept it close and we stay, even though the prison doors have been opened, we've just stayed in them.

Is that you?

Is that you?

Have you become so accustomed to your sin and darkness that you just feel more comfortable in that prison than actually walking out of the prison door to freedom?

Here's the raw biblical truth.

We are all guilty.

We are spiritually dead according to the scriptures and under rightful condemnation, under justice, deserving of spiritual, eternal death penalty.

Why?

Because we sinned against and offended an eternal almighty God.

We deserve it.

But Jesus at Easter stepped in as our substitute, bore our sin, and satisfied God's justice on the cross in your place and in my place.

And the resurrection proves that God the Father accepted Jesus' payment for your sin.

That our debt is now canceled, our sentence has been served, and we are now free to go.

Colossians 2.13.15 says that you were dead because of your sins.

Look, it's not just the sins of culture.

It's not just the sins you see on the internet.

It's your sins.

It's my sins.

You were dead spiritually because of your sins and because of your sinful nature.

It had not been yet cut away.

Then God made you alive with Christ and he forgave all your sins.

He canceled your record of charges against you and against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.

And in this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities and he shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

Listen to me, there's no one keeping you in the bondage of sin and imprisoned except yourself.

2 Corinthians 5.17 says this means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.

The old life is gone.

The prison doors are open and a new life has begun.

But many people are still sitting in a cell that Jesus already emptied.

But today it's a new dawn and it's a new day and it's time to actually walk into the new life that he's giving to you.

What is a new life?

It means that your identity actually gets renamed.

Have you ever seen in the scriptures how Saul became Paul and Simon became Peter and Jacob became Israel?

When you become a Christian, when you put your faith in Jesus, you get a new identity.

You are no longer a sinner but a saint in God's kingdom.

You are a co-heir with Christ.

You are adopted son and daughter of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

Listen to me.

You are no longer what you did.

You are now who God says you are.

2 Corinthians 5.21 says God made him, that's Jesus, who had no sin to be sinned for us so that in him we might become the sinners.

No, that we would become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

You've been given a new identity.

A new dawn says you're stepping into the light and you're saying, I don't want to live in darkness any longer.

I'm seeing things more clearly.

And it's saying, I've paid the price, the penalty.

I've served your sentence for you to walk out of the jail.

Stop living in it.

Walk into the freedom that Jesus has for you.

Walk into the new life.

Think about this for a second.

I was...

A couple months ago, I was talking to my daughters, and they were asking questions about how I was raised.

And for many of you, if you're visiting, you might know this, you might not, but I was adopted.

And I was adopted at a very young age, actually two weeks old.

And how many of you all know that sometimes your parents withhold information and you get details of things later?

Well, I found out, my mom passed away last year and I found out some details about my story later in her life.

And she said, yeah, actually, it took about two weeks for you to actually come into our family.

Like we didn't know that you were available.

We didn't know any of those things until two weeks later.

And so here's what I found out.

I actually went into an attorney's home for two weeks.

They called my parents and they said, hey, I know you want a girl, but we've got a boy available.

Would you want him?

I didn't know that detail.

I didn't know that I was a second thought.

And so my kids started asking questions about this whole adoption thing because they didn't understand it.

They were all, you know, we had them from birth and they were asking questions as kids do.

And I said, yeah, apparently I was little orphan Danny for two weeks.

And so my kids started calling me little orphan Danny.

And, you know, you didn't choose the family that you were born into, and you didn't choose the family that you grew up in.

Man, I've been in ministry for a really long time, and I've heard a lot of interesting stories about people, and here's what I can promise you.

No matter where you grew up or what home you grew up in, every one of those homes was broken.

Some more than others.

Some were dysfunctional, some with more abuse, some with more neglect, some with more issues.

But you grew up in a broken home because you didn't grow up in a home where there was a perfect person living in it.

Like how many of y'all know you took a kid home from the hospital and you didn't get a license to do that?

You got no training.

And you found out real quick you didn't get no training.

And I think about this girl that I met once and she had grown up in a super broken home and it was full of abuse and addiction and her parents were not there for her, didn't raise her well at all and there was so much darkness.

There was so much abuse and neglect and pain and trouble.

Her environment was filled with darkness and trauma and to nobody's surprise, she ended up living the same way.

And by the way, whether you grow up in a really dark home with a lot of dysfunction and a lot of abuse or a lot of neglect, you're carrying on some good and bad that was handed to you.

And I'll never forget this.

This particular girl, she bounced from home to home to home because she entered the foster system and

And it was okay for a little bit, and then okay for a little bit, but again, she's transitioning from home to home to home, trying to figure out, she's living in all this darkness and she's starting to take on the traits and all the things that she was taught and the behaviors and the things that were dysfunctional and broken.

But then one family decided, you know what, it's time for that brokenness to stop.

It's time for that issue, for you bouncing around from place to place,

In all of this dysfunction, in all of this chaos, it's time for that to end.

And they decided, hey, we're going to invite you in.

And we're going to make you our own.

We're going to welcome you into our home.

And we're going to adopt you as our daughter.

We're going to give you stability that you've never had before.

A new home.

We're going to adopt you into our family as a daughter.

And we're going to give you a new name.

Soon after, right, this girl, she's like, wow, this is like, what just happened?

I've never experienced anything like this before.

And by the way, the light of Christ can be very disoriented when you've been walking in darkness for so long.

Because all of a sudden, it's like, whoa.

And she experienced this.

She had this new stability, this new home, this new love, and she's

She tells me, she said, I went to school the next week and I started taking a test.

And how many of y'all know when you get a test, and it's probably all digital now, but back in the day, she was a teenager.

She's like, I wrote my name on the top of the test.

I turned it in.

And then the teacher came back to me and she just politely said, hey, I just want you to be aware you wrote your old name.

And I know it's going to be hard to get used to, but you actually have a new name now.

And she's like, yeah, I'm just so used to the old one.

I'm so used to the old way.

How many of you all know that that's the reality of our faith?

The biblical truth and reality is that God adopts us by his grace, not because we earned it, but because of what Jesus did for us.

In faith and repentance, turning away from our own darkness, we then become buried with Jesus in death and raised with him to new life.

Our old identity, our old ways, our past life, gone.

The old labels, ways, friends, experiences no longer define us because we are now adopted children of the most high God and we have a new family and a new name and we have a new life.

Romans chapter six, verse four says, therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

You see, this Easter is about having a new dawn, an awareness that we are all sinners in need of God's grace and mercy and salvation.

You can't earn it for yourself.

He paid the ultimate price for you.

Will you receive it?

And will you realize that you've been living and you've been so accustomed and you've gotten so used to darkness that you're even living in the prison still, even though you've maybe acknowledged Jesus and maybe you've tried to seek him, but you've stayed in prison rather than walking into freedom.

And can I tell you something?

Jesus didn't die to defeat your sin and to defeat death so that you could still keep living in it.

The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the same power that he promises to you and I to walk through those prison doors into freedom and into a new life.

You no longer have to hold on to those old ways, those own sinful patterns, that brokenness, that shame, that guilt.

You can be made new.

And no one's keeping you there. except for you.

God did the work in Jesus.

Easter gave us a new dawn, the light of Christ that breaks through our spiritual darkness that we can have an aha moment to see clearly who he is and who we are and why we need him.

He's given us a new day where freedom actually becomes real if we would just step into it. and a new life.

Our identity is forever changed.

And then he gives us a new family adopted into being sons and daughters of the most high God.

And in a couple weeks, two weeks to be exact, we're going to have baptism in this room.

And we're going to have a baptistry wheeled into here.

And what's going to happen is you're going to identify with the death, burial, and resurrection.

You're going to

You're gonna say, Jesus, I'm stepping into this water.

And we say this, we say, because of your faith in Jesus, not yourself, in Jesus, because he paid the price for your sins.

He paid your sentence.

He served it completely so that you can walk out and be free.

And when you come into those waters, we say because of your faith in Jesus, in nobody else, not in your wealth, not in your entertainment, not in anything that you think you can accomplish on your own, but in Jesus alone, we baptize you in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Buried with Christ into death, which means your old life is gone.

It's buried.

It's forgiven.

The sentence has been paid. and you're raised to walk in a new life.

Why?

Because you've been covered by the blood of Jesus.

Your old life is gone and your new life is here.

Will you step into it?

Romans 6, 4 says, therefore we have been buried with him through baptism.

Baptism is a public sign of an inward commitment to Jesus saying, Jesus, I believe in you and not myself.

Stepping into a new dawn, a new day and a new life.

Being buried with Christ. in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life in him.

And so if that's you, if you've never been baptized by immersion, we invite you to do that in two weeks.

You can sign up on the app.

But friends, because of Easter, the lights are on.

The prison door is open.

And your new name has been given.

Will you receive it?

John 3.36 says this, whoever believes in the Son, that's Jesus, has eternal life.

But watch this.

Be very clear today.

This is the light of Christ shining through the darkness.

But whoever rejects the Son will not see life.

For God's wrath remains on them.

For some of you, you've gotten so used to the darkness that you've just stayed in it.

And Jesus is calling you out of that darkness into his marvelous light this Easter.

The question is, will you step into new life that Jesus has secured for you?

Let's pray together.

And if you've never put your faith in Jesus in this moment, definitively crossed a line of faith saying, Jesus, I believe that you did that for me. and you've been living in the old life for too long, today is your moment to step into a new one, to receive Jesus, not just as your savior, but to start calling on him as Lord.

And if you're wanting to make that decision to put your faith in Jesus today for the first time,

I'm gonna count to three and I want you to take a step of faith.

When I say three, I want you to shoot your hand high in the air as an act of faith saying, here I am, Jesus, I believe and I put my faith and trust in you.

I receive you as my savior and I'm gonna call you Lord.

One, I'm giving my life to Jesus.

Two, Jesus, I make you Lord.

Lord.

Three, raise your hand as an act of faith.

And let's pray this together.

Everyone in the room, let's pray this out loud together.

Say, Jesus, I believe you are alive.

You defeated sin and death so that I could step out of my old life and into your new life.

Forgive me.

Make me new.

Change me.

Lead me.

I give my life to you.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Come on, put your hands together for our God who saves.

Full Sermon Transcript

And so I want to encourage you, if you've been sitting on the sidelines, I didn't even say this first service, I just felt called to.

If you've just been kind of been sitting on the sidelines, get involved here, get engaged, start serving, go all in and see how God uses you and uses your sacrifice to align with so many others that are doing the same to reach more people, to reach more youth, to reach more families, to reach more broken homes for the sake of the gospel.

Are you with me?

Amen.

Amen.

Well, man, I'm excited to bring the word today.

I just have a special word today as we dive into Romans chapter eight.

And I believe I was sent on a mission with a specific word.

And if I can kind of speak prophetically to you today, here's my word for this house for this morning.

And it's this, that God wants you to win.

Amen.

Y'all awake today?

God wants you to win.

That is really good news.

Which is to say, God wants you to live victoriously.

Now, some of you may have bristled when I said that, that God wants you to win, because maybe you saw a pastor on TV saying something similar, and they had a very different endgame.

And their endgame for you was to give them money, and they were preaching a message that God's heartbeat for you is to be rich and healthy and wealthy and all of these things.

And that's not the gospel that I'm talking about.

That's a prosperity gospel. gospel idea, but the idea that God wants you to win and live a victorious life is the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Amen?

Let's build some biblical context, because some of you are still looking at me a little skeptical, like, who is this guy?

Real pastor will be back next week, but for this week...

Let's look at John chapter 10, one of my favorite verses in all the Bible.

Jesus says this, the enemy came to steal, kill, and destroy.

And then Jesus says this, but I come that they may have life and have it more abundantly.

What is God's end game for you?

Abundant life, richer life.

What's God's endgame for you for the rest of 2026?

That you would have deeper relationship, deeper connectedness, deeper times of worship than you did in 2025.

This is the good news of the gospel.

God wants you to win and to step into a life of victory.

That is his destiny for you.

And he's even went as far as to stack the deck of your life in your favor for his glory and for your good.

This is who he is.

God wants you to win.

Paul's going to help us build some context around just how good that news is and also kind of build some pillars that I believe we can stand on because the reality is if we live life long enough, that reality about Jesus that he wants us to win will be challenged.

Amen?

Some of us have experienced some things in life that have caused us to call into question every single thing we've ever believed about ourselves, about the world, and about God.

We live life long enough, we're gonna experience some of those things.

So we need some things that we can take home with us.

We need some platforms that we can stand on that when that day comes, we don't fall into the sea, but we keep our feet planted on solid rock.

But more importantly, our perspective of our Savior Jesus remains the same.

So we're going to look at Romans chapter 8 today.

The Apostle Paul's writings, Romans chapter 7 and 8, it's like the Mount Everest of theological depth.

Like anytime I read it, I study.

I've never done a series on it because it's so intimidating.

It's the kind of text that you read through and you read a verse and you read another verse and you have to go back and reread the first two that you just read.

Then you get a couple more verses and you have to go back and reread all of those because it's just so dense.

I love it.

But Romans chapter 8, we also see what I like to call the great coffee cup Christianity story. verses.

You know what I'm saying?

The ones we have on the cup, it's usually a really weird translation with a little line at the bottom that takes the whole scripture out of context.

We see a lot of those in Romans chapter 8, but here's my favorite one.

In the very beginning, Romans chapter 8 verse 1, there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Amen?

Amen.

There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

We see from this point on many, many coffee cup Christianity verses.

We come down to verse 28, and here's a really popular one.

And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to him.

This is good news.

From your pain that you might experience from the trial, God is going to use all of it for your good.

We drop down to verse 29.

Paul says this, Friends, you have a destiny, and here's what it is, to be more like Jesus.

And so here's my heartbeat today.

My heartbeat today, my mission today is I feel called by God to help you know what you may struggle to feel.

To help you know in the deepest part of who you are, what you may struggle to feel.

Because there's a difference between knowing and feeling.

Amen?

This is true in so many areas of our life, but it's definitely true in our relationships, specifically our earthly relationships.

Now, I am joined today by my beautiful bride of almost 13 years.

I call her my Caucasian queen.

Cece is here.

And shortly after we started dating, here's what I knew.

I knew that that girl loved me.

Because I loved her.

I knew what I knew, and I knew that I loved her.

And I felt like I loved her.

And I just really believed in my heart.

I had this feeling and sense that she loved me too, but I didn't know no, because she didn't say it.

And so I got this plan.

I'm like, I'm going to tell her.

We've been dating long enough, in my mind.

It's time to tell her.

So we were living in Traverse City at the time.

We were taking a day trip to Grand Rapids, and I prepared this speech.

Y'all would be so proud of me.

It was spectacular. put Nicholas Sparks to shame.

I mean, it was just poetry.

And I prepared this whole speech where at the end, I was going to just drop the album.

Like, let's do this.

And so we're downtown Grand Rapids.

We're at this little coffee shop.

It was like a movie scene.

Of course, no one's in this coffee shop.

We're sitting by the window looking at the busy street and

And I start down my speech.

And I'm not here to brag and make it about me.

I nailed it, okay?

I did.

I did.

It was awesome.

Timing was perfect.

I don't remember all the details, but it was like, you're beautiful inside and out.

God brought us together.

I love doing ministry with you, blah, blah, blah.

I mean, just perfect.

Bing, bing, check, check, check, check.

And in my mind, I had played this movie, right?

I knew how this ended, where it's just, you know, she gets the single tear and just, you know, some of that.

And then she throws her arms around me.

You know, that's the movie that I was playing.

But I get done with my speech, and I get to the end, and I'm just like, just want to let you know, P.S., I love you, girl.

I didn't say it like that, but it was... I said I love you.

And she paused and then paused again and looked out the window and the light was shining like on her hair, like just like beautiful, like, you know, moment.

And I'm like, okay, we're pausing way too long now.

And she looked out the window and looked back at me and inhaled and she went, okay.

And in that moment, everything that I felt and everything that I knew changed immediately.

There's a difference between feeling and knowing.

Now, first service, I didn't finish the story, so I'll finish the story.

25 minutes later, which were the longest 25 minutes of my life, we're going into the car.

I'm so frustrated.

I feel like an idiot.

And she goes, John, and I'm like, what?

And she goes, I love you too.

And I was like, I'll take it.

I will take it and run.

There's a difference between the way we feel and what we know, amen?

If you know something in the deepest part of your being, it doesn't matter if you feel it or not.

Isn't that interesting?

See, once I knew it, then I can become comfortable with it.

The same is true for those of us that desire to walk in victory.

You see, some of us, maybe we've desired to walk in victory.

Maybe we've even tried to walk in victory.

But for you, maybe there's a part of your past that maybe the devil hangs over your head.

Maybe you hang over your own head.

Maybe you disqualify yourself from believing that you can truly walk in victory.

I would call these people those that find themselves defined by defeat.

I'm talking about there's a part of your life where you feel like you're on the hamster wheel.

You know what I'm saying?

You're putting in a lot of effort, but you're not going anywhere in this specific area of your life.

You feel like you're putting in effort, but you have no forward progress, no forward motion.

Maybe it's the habitual sin you keep coming back to.

You can't seem to beat the mindset that you keep letting drive your emotions, that anger you keep slipping into.

And you feel like if your life were a game, that you were definitely down on the scoreboard at halftime.

You see, it's a very toxic spiral concept and idea that to be defined by defeat because it has a very distinct outcome.

When you're defined by defeat long enough, it rewires your way of thinking.

And it rewires your way of thinking in this way that you actually start to believe that you are destined for defeat.

These are the types of people that would be like, well, I guess that's just my lot in life.

I can't expect to have that.

I can't expect to have this type of life that other people have, the blessings that other people have.

I can't expect to have a peaceful family, a rich, loving marriage because I've done too much.

I've seen too much.

I've been through too much.

I have this thing in my past.

Therefore, I am disqualified from experiencing this.

And if that's you today, church family, my prayer is that by the spirit of God, the word of God, by the presence of God, that you would allow God to rewire your way of thinking about victory, that you can step into a life of victory and winning in your business, marriage, relationship with your wayward son or daughter, you name it.

God wants victory in it all.

And so,

How are we going to step into that?

The Apostle Paul is going to give us a clue.

So let's read together in Romans chapter 8.

We're going to jump to that next verse in verse 31.

We'll read this and then we'll pray.

Paul writes this, "'What then shall we say in response to these things?

If God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things?'

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?

It is God who justifies.

Who then is the one who condemns?

No one.

Christ Jesus, who died, more than that, was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

As it is written, for your sake we face death all day long, and we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

No, in these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither angels the present, nor the future, nor any powers, neither height, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in us.

Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Can we get a good amen, everybody?

Can we bow our heads this morning?

Father God, we come before you.

Jesus, we exalt you.

Holy Spirit, we invite you.

And we say thank you for meeting us here.

God, thank you for providing a place that we can experience you afresh and anew week in and week out.

God, I pray a special blessing on this house at New Life.

And I know the best days are ahead.

And so, God, I thank you for more life change, for more restoration, for more healing that is to come through the work that you're going to do in and through this house.

God, as we dive into your word, God, we ask that you would illuminate some things to our hearts and minds that we would be otherwise unable to uncover today.

God, I thank you that I'm going to decrease and disappear in this moment, that you might increase, and that you would speak in such a way that would be transforming for every single person in the room.

So God, right now, we just give recognition to the fact that you are here in this room with us today, and you're wanting us to leave here changed and transformed.

And we pray that you're going to do all of this through the power of your spirit, through the work of your son.

In Jesus' name, everybody said.

Amen.

All right.

So we're going to share some meditations today.

You could also call them points.

I like points, but we aren't called to write points down.

We're called to meditate on the word of God.

Amen.

And so I want to share with you some meditations.

Here's the other things.

These aren't John's meditations.

That would be like New Age thing.

That would be like witchcraft.

We're not into that, right?

We're going to actually pull these meditations out of the Word of God and allow them to bear its weight on us, okay?

So we're going to meditate on some of these points that Paul is making inside of this scripture. but I want us to get on the same page because ultimately we need to understand some things about the idea of these things that we're going to be declaring and the power of words.

But let's build some context.

Verse 31 says this, the apostle Paul says, what then shall we say in response to these things?

Notice Paul didn't say, what shall we feel in response to these things?

Paul didn't say, what shall we do?

No, he said, what shall we say in response to these things?

Friends, there is power in the words we say.

There's power in what we declare over our life.

Now, some of you might be skeptical about that.

You see, I believe that some of us have been defined by defeat because all of the thoughts rolling around in our head become louder than the words that we're willing to declare out loud and over our life.

Here's what the Bible says in Proverbs 18, that the power of life and death are in the tongue.

And so we read scriptures like that and we're like, nah, that's probably not what the Bible means.

And then James says that the tongue is a world of evil amongst the body, that it is itself set on fire by hell, that it can literally dictate the path of someone's life.

And we're like, that's probably not what James means.

But what if it is?

But what if it is?

So allow me to make a little bit of a case for this.

There's this rule in Scripture when we study theology called the rule of first mention, which is to say, anytime something's repeated in Scripture, the very first time it's mentioned, you want to give careful attention to that first time.

So let's go all the way back to the beginning of Scripture, all the way back to the beginning of the narrative of the Bible in Genesis chapter 1.

Did you know that the first words that were uttered in the beginning of Scripture were uttered not to communicate, but to create things?

There was nothing, darkness, void, darkness hovering over the face of the deep.

And in this environment of darkness and chaos, God spoke and said, let there be light.

Words were used to create.

Our words, friends, have power.

If you didn't know, this is why you have memories of years ago and something that someone said to you, some smart-alecky remark or comment, and you can barely even remember that person, but the words that they said still haunt you to this day.

You know what I'm talking about?

Words can cut deep.

Words have power, the power to bludgeon to death or the power to build up.

And the Apostle Paul is making a case saying, use your words every day in every single environment to speak life that will ultimately change your life.

And so with this as our lens and our backdrop, this is how we're going to make these declarations.

These declarations, by the way, we're not manifesting anything.

This is new age.

This is witchcraft.

That's not what we're talking about.

You see, this is what the devil likes to do, likes to distort that which God set up for our flourishing.

Then the world distorts it, and then we hear a word like meditation.

We're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what's that?

No, that was God's original idea and plan for you, to meditate on his word.

And so let's do it together.

Let's take back what the devil stole.

Everyone breathe in.

Everyone breathe out.

Meditation number one, God is for me.

I want to encourage you to just write these down today.

Maybe you're like, I'm not a note taker.

Just punch them into your phone.

And I'm not one of those pastors that's like, you only go to heaven if you take notes, right?

But I'm just saying like, why take a chance, right?

Just write it down.

God is for me.

Here's what the Apostle Paul says in verse 31b.

If God is for us, who could be against us?

Come on, turn to your neighbor.

Say neighbor.

God is for me.

Turn to your other neighbor.

Apologize to him for choosing him second.

And say, neighbor, God is for you.

God is for you.

If God is for you, who can be against you?

But let's turn this rhetorical question into an actual helpful reality for our souls.

Think about this, like really think about this.

If the God of the universe, this is a God who holds planets in his hand, who tells storms to shut up, this is God. is really for you, is really fighting on your behalf, is really on your side, what do you actually have to fear in this life?

Right?

Like this is what the Apostle Paul knew.

Like they would go after the Apostle Paul.

We're going to let you live.

And he's like, well, for me to live is Christ.

We're going to kill you.

Well, to die is gain.

We're going to torture you.

I don't consider my struggles of this present world to compare to the future glory.

You couldn't touch this guy.

This is what the Apostle Paul knew.

He was onto something.

God is for us.

Who can be against us?

So here's the analogy that I like to use.

So we are in Portage, as I found out last service through much discovery.

Not Kalamazoo and not Matawan, right?

We're in Portage.

So imagine the local YMCA in Portage is having a basketball game.

And so all of the locals are coming out.

All the guys, I know I said first service.

I know there's guys in this church, right?

They're like, I could have played division one ball, but I hurt my knee.

Like, you know, those types of people, they all come out with their beer guts and all the things.

And they're putting teams together.

And the organizer of the event comes to you and they're like, you can pick your team and you can pick any basketball star in his prime, past, present, or future from the NBA, but just you.

Let's get some crowd participation.

Who's your first pick?

I heard Kobe.

Jordan, God bless you.

Yes, thank you.

Thank you.

I shared first service.

I shared this message at another church, and we got like six players deep before they said Michael Jordan.

I'm like, this is blasphemy.

Get out of here.

Anyways, we had Kobe.

Sorry, what was the other one?

Jordan, yes.

Third?

Jordan?

Larry Bird.

Larry Bird.

Let's just stop at those three, okay?

Because my guess is that would be enough to win against this beer league, like beer gut, 40-year-old, like washed up players, right?

Right?

We get Jordan.

We get Larry Bird.

We get Kobe.

Like that's enough.

My guess is when you're rolling up to that ratty YMCA gym, you're not going to be nervous like, I wonder what the outcome's going to be.

I hope we get the dub.

Like, that's not going to be the mindset.

Like, I don't know about you.

For me, I'm going in with a little bit of like, you know what I'm saying?

A little bit of swagger.

Why?

I know how this is going to end, whether I play or not.

Like, I know what the outcome is going to be.

Can I tell you something, friends, when it comes to your own walk with Jesus?

Have you thought about who's on your side, who's on your team?

The God of this universe has placed on your team the dream team.

Here it is, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And he's fighting for you. and he's alongside you, and he's with you, and he's working on your behalf, and he's stacking the deck of your life in your favor.

And I don't know if you've read the back of the book, we win, you win, and the devil loses.

The game is rigged.

That's my favorite part of Christianity.

The game's rigged.

If God is for us, who can be against us?

Here's our second meditation this morning.

Everyone breathe in.

Everyone breathe out.

You are chosen.

You are chosen.

Friends, this should feel like a warm blanket for your soul, that the God of this universe has chosen you.

This should put a little pep in your step.

Here's what the Apostle Paul writes.

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?

Come on, say, God, I am chosen.

I am.

I am chosen.

You've been chosen.

God picked you up out of the muck, out of the mire, and set your feet on solid rock.

This is really, really good news, church.

See, this is how I used to clap back at kids that used to make fun of me for being adopted.

You see, I was adopted by my foster parents at the age of three.

If you didn't know, I know I've shared this before, I find that incredibly offensive because I was placed with them when I was 11 months, which means it took two whole years for my parents to be like, I guess you're cute enough, we'll keep you.

Whatever.

And then I was adopted by the two whitest people on God's green earth.

If you've ever seen the animated Beauty and the Beast, Belle's dad, Maurice, that's exactly what my dad looked like.

Like, exactly.

And he retired from GM and then moved us up to Indian River.

If you didn't know, that's the whitest place in America.

Population, 1,200 white people.

And our family.

Yeah.

And there would be these kids that would meet me and then figure out who my parents were and figure out who I was.

And this would be the way they would make fun of me.

It was so creative.

They'd be like, bro, you're black and your parents are white.

It's like, that's brilliant detective work.

Thank you.

It's like, good one.

And my parents who were very, very feisty at the time, way more feisty than they are now.

This is how they told me to respond to them.

And this is what I would say.

They would say that like, your parents are white and you're black.

And I'd be like, well, your parents were stuck exactly what you look like as soon as you popped out of your mama.

My parents chose me.

And that's what I would say.

Isn't that a great comeback?

You were chosen.

God picked you.

Here's what the word of God says.

Here's what makes this way more mind blowing than that adoption story that I just shared.

The Bible says from the foundations of the universe, God was peering through time and he saw you.

Now, some of you just got just warm and fuzzy because you think that the version of you that God saw was the you in 10 years when you're finally that varsity Christian that you've always wanted to be.

You're finally the best version of yourself, and you don't get angry anymore, and you don't struggle anymore, and you don't have this stupid little sin anymore that you're trying to stop.

You're finally this nice, sparkly Christian.

When the good news of the gospel is that from the foundations of the universe, the God of heaven was peering through time and he saw you at your worst.

He saw you at your lowest moment.

He saw you in your greatest moment of weakness, in your darkest place.

And that's what he was drawn to.

And he was looking through time and he's like, that's what I want.

That's what I'm going to send my son to do a great work for.

That's who I'm going to woo and draw into relationship and connectedness with me.

That's who I'm going to teach how to love more deeply, how to worship more aggressively, how to be even more generous.

That's who I'm going to choose to be on my team.

Friend, you're chosen.

You're chosen.

Here's our third meditation this morning.

Everyone breathe in.

Everyone breathe out.

I am free.

I am free.

Here's what the apostle Paul writes, verse 34.

Who then is the one who condemns?

No one.

Christ Jesus, who died, more than that, was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

Okay, don't miss this.

For this all to make sense, we have to go all the way back to the very first verse in Romans chapter eight, verse one, where he said, there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

I don't know about you, but I remember studying this verse growing up and I'm like, how's Jesus going to pull that off?

Like for any of us, we're pretty awful.

We're pretty wicked.

We're pretty awful people.

We cheat, we steal, we lie.

We're all liars, friends.

Some of y'all are like, I don't lie.

Can't say that I have, Pastor John.

Welcome to the club.

Nobody lies to you more than you.

Friends, I've been pastoring since I was 17.

No one's lied to me more than me.

And so we need something.

We need someone outside of ourselves to be for us what we are completely incapable of being for us.

Enter Jesus Christ, son of the living God.

And he's going to do this work for us.

And so...

How is he going to get this done?

How is it that there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ?

Jesus is found in the verse we just read in verse 34.

It's hidden in there.

Let's find out.

Because Jesus sits at the right hand of God and he's interceding for us.

Jesus is sitting right now.

Oh, I love this.

Jesus is sitting next to the God of the universe right now as we speak and he's talking to him about you.

Jesus has his daddy's ear.

And he's speaking on your behalf.

And he's speaking life.

And he's speaking for you.

And he's praying for you to his father.

Isn't that really good news?

This wasn't something Jesus started doing. after he went up into the sky, like, beam me up, Scotty, into the sky.

This isn't something he started doing, like, I guess I'll start interceding for.

This is just who he was.

We see this even in the closing moments of his earthly ministry.

As he's nailed to a tree.

Nails driven through his hands and his feet by Roman soldiers.

And he's sitting there hanging, every breath about to be his last.

And as these Roman soldiers are mocking him and laughing at him and ridiculing him and spitting on him, Jesus isn't doing what I would be doing.

Because if I were up there, I'd be like, Jesus, God of heaven, strike these fools down.

Torch these guys down.

No, Jesus, he's hanging on a tree and he's interceding for these Roman soldiers.

And here's what he's saying.

Forgive them.

They don't know what they're doing.

And so here's the big question, church family.

We don't have any evidence that these Roman soldiers suddenly saw that, heard that, gave their life to Jesus, surrendered their life to Jesus, started living for him.

I would say it's probably much more likely that they did not.

And so if Jesus is going to take the time in his last few moments on earth, in his last few breaths, to intercede for these toxic Roman soldiers that most likely never formed a relationship with him, how much more is Jesus interceding for you, beloved?

To those he calls friends, to those he calls family, those he adopted into sonship, with the most high God, how much more does he intercede for you?

Friends, how dare we live life thinking we're destined for defeat?

How dare we walk through life with our heads hung low?

Friend, you are free, you are chosen, and God is for you.

Here's our last meditation this morning.

Everyone breathe in.

Everyone breathe out.

God's love has got me.

God's love has got me.

Can you say that with me?

God's love has got me.

Come on.

God's love has got me.

When it feels like all is lost, God's love has got me.

When the political landscape looks like our country is going to burn, God's love has got me.

When our jobs are making us lose our minds, God's love... has got me.

When we're dealing with pain on the outside, dealing with pain on the inside, God's love has got me.

When our household isn't operating the way we want, but in the meantime, God's love has got me.

For those finishing college, but it's too hard or too boring, God's love has got me.

For the parent trying to figure out their wayward son or daughter, friends, God's love has got me.

And friends, even if gas jumps to $5 a gallon...

God's love has got you.

It'll change your life, friends.

These meditations will change your life.

If you let it be more than just a fun-sounding message on a Sunday, let it be more than just words on a screen or words on a page, but if you let the Holy Spirit allow this scripture, God breathed.

Do you know what that means?

The original language is theopneustos.

It's the breath of God.

That's what this is. into your heart and into your soul.

Will you let the spirit of God breathe these meditations into your life and you meditate on them and you saturate in them and you let him bear its weight on you.

It'll change your life.

Start declaring some things over your life, church family.

My wife and I started this a few years ago.

Here was our scripture we've been meditating on.

We actually say it out loud over each other that he will return the years the locusts have stolen.

It's from the book of Joel.

He will return the years the locusts have stolen.

We say that to each other, we pray that over each other, believing in faith that he's going to do what we're incapable of doing.

Because there's parts of our life and our relationship, we felt like we were on a treadmill, like why can't we figure this out?

When we started declaring things over our life, meditating on the word and letting it be more than just some line on a coffee cup, it started transforming our lives.

And so I'm here to personally testify my own experience for you.

It'll change your life.

You'll be someone who learns to walk in victory as the apostle Paul would say in verse 37.

Now, when all of these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

This is how God wants you to live your life free.

Fully, free, completely.

Not 99% free, not 99% known.

In fact, I would argue to be 99% known by the world around you is to be unknown.

That 1% that you try to keep outside of your relationship with God, God knows it.

God sees it.

God just wants you to hand it to him. so that you can experience complete freedom, not 99% freedom, friends.

That might feel like it's enough for you, but has it been worth it?

Has it been worth it?

Has that guilt been worth it?

Has that way been working?

Has that addiction turned out for you?

Friend, it never does.

It never does.

You see, coming up on three years ago now, I buried my father.

And we had a few month runway before he went to be with the Lord.

And I remember talking to him.

We were together this one evening.

And I just wanted... him to just have a sense and a feeling that he could just share anything that he wanted to get off his chest.

So I'm like, dad, I just want to, I want to get so real with you.

Like, I want you to know, like, what kind of regrets do you have?

I just want you to go into glory, just completely light.

What kind of regrets, what kind of, and he said, son, not one.

And he said it with a big smile on his face.

And that wasn't because my father lived perfectly.

It's not because he parented perfectly.

It's not because he was a perfect husband, but it's because he lived in that kind of hope and victory.

He lived knowing that Jesus wanted him to win.

And so everything that he struggled with, he would just kind of offload on the God of heaven.

Every wrestle that he had, every fight, every argument, every tension, every sin, every addiction, everything, he would just continue to lay at the feet of Jesus.

And he would be in his last days on earth like this, lying in a hospital bed, waiting around for Jesus to take him home. and he was so light and he was so carefree because he knew he lived a life fully surrendered to God.

Here's what my father knew.

He knew the same thing the apostle Paul knew.

Let's read our last verse, 38.

Here's what he knew.

He was convinced that neither death, nor life, neither angels, nor demons, neither present, nor future, nor any powers, neither height, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Amen.

We bow our heads this morning as we close.

I want to pray for you today, church family, but I just want to give an opportunity maybe for the person that's here.

Maybe you've never formed a relationship with Jesus.

Maybe you've never said yes to Jesus.

Maybe you've been around the things of God.

You've been around Jesus' people, but you've never actually said yes to him.

You've been hearing about conquerors and victory and how Jesus wants you to win.

And you've been believing that for every other person in the room other than you.

And you want to try to believe, continue to believe the lies of the devil that you've fallen too far, that you're out of God's reach and out of God's love.

Can I tell you, Jesus wants you to have a fresh start with him today.

And let me simplify.

Sometimes people like to overcomplicate that.

Here's what Jesus says.

If you confess your sins, he's faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

The moment you go from the direction you're going in the direction of Jesus, that's where God meets you.

First Corinthians, Paul writes, if anyone's in Christ, they're a new creation.

Old things have gone, new things have come.

If you want a new life and a new relationship with Jesus, you can start that today.

And I believe he's whispering to you today, come home.

And so as we all continue to bow our heads and close our eyes, I just want to ask you today, do you want to walk with Jesus?

Do you want a fresh start with him?

So all I'm going to ask you to do on the count of three is to just lift your hand in the air.

And you might ask, well, why are we gonna do that, Pastor John?

Well, Jesus says in his word, if you recognize me here on earth, I will recognize you before my Father in heaven.

And so do you want to walk with Jesus today?

One, two, three, all over this room, just lift your hand.

Yeah, awesome, I see you.

I see you in the back as well.

Anyone else?

Yes, yes, I see you, I see you.

Anyone else?

It's not too late, it's not too late.

Awesome, awesome, awesome.

You can put your hands down.

Well, church family, I wanna lead you in a prayer

And I'm going to ask, we're all going to pray this prayer out loud because we want to support all those that are praying this prayer for the very first time.

So you can just repeat after me.

Say, dear Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for me.

I repent of my sin.

I turn away from my sin.

Help me to live for you the best that I can.

And fill me with your Holy Spirit from this day forward.

Amen.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Full Sermon Transcript

And so, man, we need to lift up God's design for it.

At the very beginning of this series, I used the illustration of an airplane.

I said, man, nobody gets into marriage hoping that they'll take off, start flying, and then crash and burn.

But the reason why they do is because they don't understand how the creator of marriage designed it to work.

In other words, if someone's going to make a plane, they design it because they understand the laws of how it can be flown.

You follow what I'm saying?

Like they have to understand some laws.

What are the laws?

Like the law of aerodynamics, the law of gravity.

Like if I jump off this stage right now, I will land.

Okay.

Some of you don't believe that I could do it, but I could.

Okay.

But just like the creator of that which helps us to take off, fly, and land, so too does the user of that plane know how to use that plane and know the design of it and why the design matters and the laws.

We actually have a pilot sitting right here.

And how many of y'all know that you want your pilot to understand the laws of how a plane should be flown and not flown in order for it to take off, fly, and land? to which everyone would say amen.

So we shouldn't treat marriage any different because marriage was the first institution, the first thing that God ever created for mankind to have a relationship with one another.

Before he created the church, a government, before he established anything, there was what?

Marriage.

And so if we're gonna have a good marriage, a lasting marriage, a fulfilling marriage, we need to understand God's design for it.

And so what we've been sharing over this past seven weeks, and now this is the eighth week, is God's design for marriage.

And so we've been talking about the laws that God established for this thing in which he designed it.

But if the users in that marriage don't understand the laws and know how to live them out, we will take off, start flying, crash and burn but we don't want that amen we don't want that and so we've been sharing what are God's laws of how he could design this thing but I got to tell you something even if you know the laws even if you know the scriptures you study them inside it out even if you hear the the greatest pastor who ever lived preach them you're supposed to laugh harder at that

I'm not that arrogant, okay?

I know I fell well short of the best pastor ever.

But no matter who's teaching it, and even if you go to counseling, or even if you have people that love you that can help you and point you toward God's things, without what we're gonna share today, without this law, you can still take off, fly, and crash and burn.

That's because without this particular law at work in your life and in your marriage, it won't work.

Today, we're going to talk about the pinnacle of this series, and that's our need for the law of God's power.

I forgot that I'm controlling the screen today.

The law of God's power at work in our lives.

Let me ask you this question.

In Exodus, when the people of God were in slavery, how did they get free?

Did they get free because Moses was a good speaker?

No, it actually said that he had a speech impediment.

He was a stutterer.

Was it because he was a good man?

Actually, no.

He actually killed someone.

He was forgiven by God. but they actually got free because of God's power exhibited on behalf of the people.

So we need God's power to be free from our brokenness, free from our sin, free from our dysfunction and return to God's ways and to overcome our selfishness, our own desires, our own pride in order to have God's best for our life.

And every one of us needs it.

And everybody said, amen, we need God's power.

And so the law of God's power is simply this.

Colossians 1.27 says, Christ in you is the hope of glory.

In other words, you without Christ is still lacking.

You in your own best efforts, me in my own best efforts, still need God's power at work in order to have God's best for our lives.

We have to have it.

Christ in you brings us this hope.

And so if you want hope in your marriage, it's available to you.

And his name is Jesus.

So I want to work with this definition today on the law of God's power.

And it's this.

That God gives us his power to live a redeemed life.

What is a redeemed life?

It means that, has anybody ever seen a redeemed car?

Like a restored car?

Like how many of y'all know you could take a sweet car, name a classic car to someone who loves cars.

67 what?

Impala.

Mustang.

Whatever.

You could take that thing out of the junkyard.

You could make it all sorts of pretty.

You could put lipstick on a pig.

But if it doesn't have a good engine, it still won't operate and be redeemed and restored back to its original design and intent.

What we're after is God's return to the original design and the intent for it.

And so it's God's power that brings us back to live a redeemed life.

And the redeemed life provides us with the ability to overcome our own sin, our own brokenness, our own addictions, our own pain, bondage, heartache, and even generational curses.

And for some of you, I bet there's stuff in your, in how you were raised, in your in what was said to you, how marriage was modeled, and not even just in your parents, but even your parents' parents and parents' parents' parents that God passed on you and you didn't even know it and you have brokenness and addiction and pain in your marriage because you didn't even do it.

You just took it on and kept living that way.

But God wants to break that cycle to bring it back to his goodness, and he does it by his power.

And so if you see this action in your life where you have sin and you have brokenness and you have addiction and you have pain, you have bondage and heartache, and you have generational curses, can I tell you something?

You will pass down those generational curses to your kids if you don't stand up and say, God, I need your power at work in my life today.

I do not want... want to pass on to my kids that which was passed on to me.

And marriage is said, amen.

But we got to be able to see it.

What marriage, what marriage cannot be redeemed by God?

Is there any marriage that with God's power cannot be saved, redeemed, and restored?

If the God of the universe, the living God, can speak creation into existence, don't you think his power has the power to change your marriage?

If he freed the Israelite people from captivity, if the living God raised Jesus from the dead, you don't think he can raise your marriage from the dead?

How does it happen?

Not by just having a really cool pastor.

Not by having this awesome building in church.

And by the way, I'm grateful for it.

It's not gonna happen just by reading the word and applying the word.

It happens by God's power himself.

What did we share at the very beginning of this series?

We said that every marriage is a match made in... No, someone wasn't here for that message.

Someone over here.

Every marriage starts as a match made in hell.

Why?

Because you got two sinners that come into a marriage and you bring hell into your marriage, whether you acknowledge that or not.

Here's how I know this.

Some of you have been told that the only guarantees in life are what?

Death and taxes.

Well, not if you're a believer because if you're a believer in Christ, death has no power over your life.

Taxes, yeah, okay, sure.

But I can promise you one thing.

There's one guarantee in marriage and that is you as a sinner will sin against your spouse.

You will hurt them.

You will betray them.

And vice versa, another sinner who comes into the marriage will hurt you.

You will sin against them and they will sin against you.

That is a promise.

That is a guarantee in every single marriage.

Is there any marriage, anybody out there who's been married who can say, nope, nope, never sinned against my wife.

Never against my husband.

Never betrayed them.

Never lied to them.

Never tried to hide anything.

Never did anything wrong.

By the way, if you want to raise your hand, you should probably find another church because we can't help you.

The reality is, is that what we are after is we are after pulling God's power.

We're about pulling heaven down into our marriage so that we can live a redeemed marriage and a redeemed life, not just hold on to our brokenness, sickness, and unhealth and sin and hold on to hell.

And for so many of us, we've been holding on to hell, but God can redeem by his power.

Can I get an amen?

And he can redeem any marriage. so that that marriage can experience redemption, wholeness, and holy happiness.

But the question is, if I need God's power, how do I actually activate it in my life?

How does it actually play out?

And so I wanted to share with you two things of how you can activate God's power.

And it's really just two things.

One is God's principles.

Do you know what we've been talking about over the last seven weeks and now in the eighth week?

We've been talking about God's principles.

We've been talking about God's laws of how he designed marriage.

You didn't create marriage.

I didn't create marriage.

Nobody created marriage.

God created marriage.

If he designed it and he created it, he knows how it works better than you and I do.

And so we've got to understand God's principles in order to live God's principles.

You have what?

The creator of it and the user of it.

Both need to know these laws, God's principles.

But then there's a second thing that has to happen.

How do you activate God's power?

You have to know God's principles and then you have to begin to exhibit Christ Jesus' character.

You have to live as Christ.

What does it say?

Christ in you there brings hope.

I don't know if you know this or not, but I don't wake up every morning and go, hey, I wish a little more of Dan would be exhibited in my marriage because I've seen that and how that plays out.

And it doesn't always work out.

Can anyone nod if you agree?

Make some noise.

Any familiarity out there?

And so I need Christ's character.

I need to take on more of who he is and less of who I am.

That's why I made the statement, if you think that you aren't a sinner who has sinned against your spouse or that you don't need some of this, that you don't need God's power in your life, we can't help you.

Because how many of you all know the scriptures that say that everyone has fallen short of God's glory, that everyone is a sinner in need of God's power of redemption in their life?

And so I want to show you this graph for just a second as we walk through this for our marriages.

I'm going to pull this off to the side so you can see it.

You guys can't, so if you need to move, you can.

But this is so important.

And by the way, this isn't from me.

It took me a lot of time to recreate it.

But this is a graph that is shown by a pastor who pastored for 45 years.

Guys, I'm 45 years old.

So I wasn't even born when this dude started pastoring.

And he has personally counseled marriages, probably 100,000, I mean, maybe not 100,000, that's a lot, but tens of thousands of marriages over a 45-year period every single day for 45 years.

And I'm brought to bring his wisdom into the equation so that we can understand it today.

It's a guy named Greg McPherson.

And he says, here's how you activate God's power in your life and in your marriage.

And how many of y'all know that your actions, my actions, produce what?

Man, one person is paying attention.

Yours and my actions produce fruit.

And it either produces good fruit or it produces... So this is going to be very helpful for many of us today.

So the first character trait of Christ that we need in us to have the hope of a godly marriage, the hope of glory, is we need Christ's integrity.

Christ's integrity.

The fruit of having integrity, of living as a whole person, is the fruit of trust.

Trust.

Trust, my friends, is the currency of every relationship.

Where there is no trust, there is no relationship.

Are you hearing what I'm saying?

If your business partner can't trust you, you will no longer be business partners.

If your husband and wife, if you can't trust each other, you will no longer have a marriage.

Your kids, as parents, if you don't have trust and keep it, if you don't bear this kind of fruit with integrity, you will lose the relationship.

Can I tell you who has the utmost integrity that always does what he says he's going to do and always carries this out?

His name is Jesus.

We need more of him in us than we need of ourselves.

The fruit... of integrity is trust, but the antithesis of integrity is deception and hiding.

Hey, married couples, if you are putting an expense, a purchase on a card that your spouse doesn't know about and then finds out about it later, that's not integrity.

That's hiding and deception.

If you can't let your spouse see your phone and who you're texting or who you're calling or your email, you're sowing what?

Distrust into your marriage.

If they can't open up your screen and see your search engine or see what you're looking at, if you're trying to hide, if you're trying to mislead, you don't have integrity and you need God's power to change that inside of you.

What is the bad fruit?

It's broken trust.

It's broken trust.

Now, just to be cute, my staff, we were going through the message notes and they gave me some feedback before they did this.

And they said, hey, the broken fruit, did you notice how it's black, decayed, and it's upside down?

They said, you know, when it comes to integrity and trust, when it comes to marriage, maybe you should put an upside down pineapple.

Either half of you don't understand what I'm saying or you're too afraid to laugh.

And I told them I wasn't going to do that because I figured I'd never get you back.

By the way, ask someone who's laughing what that means.

If you're a Christ follower wanting to have a godly marriage, you should not ever have an upside down pineapple anywhere near your life.

Because you need to have a life of integrity.

The second character trait of Christ is that of honor.

We have a phrase that I want kind of to emulate throughout our entire culture as a church.

And it's the culture of honor.

I thank you.

I didn't ask them to do it.

Apparently, they started in the beat saying, hey, let's welcome Pastor Dan to the stage.

And honestly, that was our staff saying, hey, let's honor the pastor, our leader of our church.

Can I tell you something?

That's why I redirected and said, Jesus deserves all the glory, honor, and praise.

But I'm grateful for a culture where we honor people.

But a phrase that we have in our church is we want to honor up, we want to honor down, and we want to honor all around. that we are to be people of honor, honoring one another, honoring marriage.

By the way, I just want to give a shout out to our student ministry who showed up to tag all your cars today to promote Easter.

Come on, let's honor our students.

And a bunch of them over here, I'm destroying them in our March Madness bracket.

And so let's honor that.

So that was a bit of dishonor right there.

Yeah, you're beating me.

I told my wife last night, I'm like, if you don't know, I graduated from the University of Texas.

And some of you don't even care about this, and it's totally fine.

But I didn't pick Texas at all.

And they keep winning, so they're destroying my bracket.

Anyways, I'm glad they're winning.

But we want to be a people of honor.

Why?

Because Christ honors the Father.

He honors us with his actions.

He honors us with his words.

And how many of y'all know that the Bible says that we have the power of life and death even in our tongues?

What you say... to your spouse or to other people is either honoring them or dishonoring them.

And can I just say this for just a second?

This morning I was convicted by the Lord because my 10 year old marched into my bathroom with a bit of disrespect on her tongue.

And I was like, we're not doing this in the Smith house.

I was cutting it off.

By the way, parents, you should cut it off.

But then you probably need to take a look in the mirror and go, where did they learn that?

And do you know what I know is a fact?

The number one thing that I think on this list that God has whacked me upside the head and the heart in is, Dan, watch what you say in honoring or dishonoring people, but especially your wife.

And how many of y'all know we have a podcast that we go deeper into the message during the week?

If you haven't heard of it, it's called Table Talk.

And on it, my wife is there and we literally live our lives pretty much in wide open color.

So you'll see it live and in action.

And I was told by someone, hey, sometimes you never let your wife talk.

Hey man, I've noticed you kind of cut her off from time to time.

Now, my sister-in-law has said that I have a disease that causes me to do that, so it's actually clinical, but that doesn't mean I don't need to get better.

I used to say I have the spiritual gift of sarcasm, but how many of y'all know that sarcasm, the root of that is actually tearing of flesh, and when you use sarcasm, you're actually tearing that person apart.

And so I can either say, you know what, I'm the pastor.

I don't care what you all say.

I'm going to just do my thing and not listen to my wife and overcut her.

Or I can see my kids saying disrespectful things to me and realize they learned it because that's how I've spoken to my wife.

And if I want to change generations of what I'm passing on, it needs to change right here.

It needs to change in me. first and what happens what is the fruit when you honor someone they feel valued and loved but when you disrespect them they feel unloved and it and the marriage will grow cold if your marriage feels distant check your words check what you're speaking into them the next one is is forgiveness

This is really the pinnacle of the Christian faith.

And the fruit of forgiveness... Am I in the right one?

Yeah, I am.

It's really hard for me to do this and this at the same time.

I know women, you can multitask, but men, we're, you know... Come on, laugh.

Forgiveness produces healing.

Forgiveness produces healing.

Check this out for a second.

When I forgive someone... that has sinned against me, guess what happens in my own heart and soul?

It gets a little more free.

It's not holding onto a grudge.

It's not darkening and tearing me apart.

It's forgiveness that's offered.

It changes me when I offer it to someone else.

The fruit is healing, but the antithesis of it is criticism and judgment.

Again, what your words say and will really reveal who you are.

How many of y'all know that Christ says that forgiveness as a believer, you're to forgive people 70 times, seven times, basically saying you should forgive continually, forever.

Why?

Because how dare you receive his forgiveness and not extend it to someone else?

Let me ask you a question for just a second.

How long did it take Jesus to forgive those who were literally putting him on the cross?

By the way, you and I put him on that cross.

It wasn't just the Roman soldiers that were there, but the people who whipped him and stabbed him and nailed his hands and his feet to the cross.

How long did it take Jesus to forgive them?

Weeks?

Months?

Years? literally seconds on that cross when he said, Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.

But the antithesis is critical, man.

Do you know what happens when you're just constantly critical and judgmental?

It's literally saying, man, I'm perfect.

I'm perfect.

And you start to forget all the ways in which you need forgiveness and you need redemption and you need to change.

When you have this critical, judgmental spirit, what you're exhibiting is, I'm perfect.

And I don't need forgiveness.

And so I'm just going to jab you every step of the way.

What are you saying and speaking over your life?

Honor, integrity, forgiveness.

Can't see where I'm at.

So if you don't forgive, it breeds contempt and bitterness in your own life.

The last one is humility.

The Bible says that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. which basically says, coming back to the beginning of, God, you know better than I do.

I need to change my life to look more like yours, to change my life to reflect your principles and your values and your character.

God, I need less of me and more of you. work in my life and here's again the fruit that it produces it produces grace you you have humility to extend grace to others and you have the humility to go God I need your grace because I am a sinner and I need to be forgiven and I need to be changed and I need to get better and I need to grow the antithesis of humility humility is pride.

Again, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

And the bad fruit that's produced is manipulation and control.

The quickest way you can see whether or not you have pride in your life and not humility is manipulation and control.

If you're trying to be the master of everything, you need a dose of Christ's humility.

If you're trying to manipulate every situation and every outcome, control your husband, control your wife, God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.

And so I want to talk to you about the one at the top today because it's really the one that, again, is the foundation of the Christian faith.

It's the most important for our own lives.

And honestly, hey...

The creator of that plane knew the law of... Just thought I'd weave that in real quick.

Let's hope it doesn't crash and burn on top of us.

But I want to talk to you about what forgiveness is and what forgiveness isn't because forgiveness is something that was offered to you by Jesus.

Some receive it, some reject it.

But if you're a Christ follower and you've received Christ's forgiveness, he therefore says to you and I, how dare you not extend it to other people?

Especially in your marriage.

Because there's no perfect person in your marriage.

There's one sinner who will sin against the other and another sinner who will sin right back.

So we need God's power and Christ's character of forgiveness at work in our lives, in our marriage.

So I want to start with what forgiveness is not because I think a lot of people, they won't forgive other people or they won't forgive their spouses because they have a misunderstanding of what forgiveness is.

The first one is forgiveness is not minimizing sin.

It's not minimizing sin.

It's not just sweeping to the rug and ignoring it and not thinking about it, just letting it happen.

It's not minimizing the offense.

The second thing it isn't is it's not lacking anger.

Some of you are like, well, I can't be angry.

That's not Christ-like.

Can I tell you what the Bible says?

The Bible says that God hates sins.

Your sin, God hates.

My sin, God hates.

We should not wrap our lives and hold it like Linus' blanket saying, hey, this is good for me.

Why does God hate sin?

Because it destroys you.

And it destroys me.

Do you think that we should love what God loves?

Do you think we should hate what God hates?

And we, so it should make us angry.

When we are sinned against, but we also do what the Lord's Prayer says, what?

Forgive those who have sinned against us just as we have been forgiven.

So we should also get angry when we sin against our spouses.

It should make me mad.

It made me mad this morning that I saw disrespect come out of my 10-year-old daughter's mouth at me, and then I had to take a step back and say, she heard me say something like that to my bride, which is unacceptable to the Lord, and it should be unacceptable to me as a man married to my bride.

Young people these days.

You know, I was once a young person.

I still am because I just gave you this illustration.

But you could go out anywhere in public.

And by the way, I try not to go out in public very often because I just want, sometimes I see the disrespect coming out of young people.

I just want to choke them.

Scrap this out of the message so the internet's going to explode and I'm going to have the cancel culture at me and whatever.

But here's the reality, I don't wanna choke on them, I'm not gonna hurt your little baby, whatever.

But you need to stop dishonor in your own life and out of your own mouth.

And you need to change that also in your kids.

Because what you change in your life, or what you don't change in your life, you are going to pass on to your kids.

How many of y'all want to pass on Christ's integrity, Christ's honor, Christ's forgiveness, Christ's humility to your kids, and not all the other things?

I think I need a little more of you to say amen.

Like, amen.

Forgiveness is not enabling sin.

Forgiveness is not saying, yeah, I know you did it.

You can just keep on doing it.

That's not what forgiveness is.

As a matter of fact, Christ says when he confronts us, he said, even to the woman caught in the act of adultery, he said, I forgive you.

I don't condemn you.

But what?

Stop doing it.

Why?

Because it's still hurting you.

And it's still hurting other people.

It's still causing consequences in your life.

Forgiveness is also not neglecting justice.

Let me give you a funny example.

My wife and my kids made brownies yesterday.

They were delicious.

And honestly, I came out.

I was putting our son to bed, and I come out, and they were just newly finished.

They had put him on the stove, and the whole house, like, just, you know what I mean?

And I don't have a whole lot of self-control when it comes to this kind of stuff.

So I, like, I went, I beelined it to, like, where the smell took me.

I'm like a little dog.

And man, I cut me up some slice, and how many of y'all know I went back for a few more?

And here's the reality.

What if my wife and kids would have made those for someone else, and they had told me, don't touch them, and my self-control went, you know what?

I'm still going to eat that because I just can't control myself, and I'm just going to get some.

How many of y'all know there would be a consequence to my actions of eating the brownies that were not meant for me but for someone else?

Can I tell you something else?

Have you ever heard of or seen the story of a mom or dad who was able to go to a prison and literally forgive face-to-face someone who killed their son or daughter?

Can I tell you what forgiveness is not?

Forgiveness is not them just being able to get away with no consequences for sin.

Our God is just, and he brings about justice in the world to protect innocent people.

So someone can extend to that person, even the person whose kids were killed by that person, and say, I forgive you.

But they still experience a consequence to the action that they took.

Forgiveness does not mean we're just neglecting justice.

Psalm 99.8 says this.

It says, Lord our God, you answered them and you are to Israel a forgiving God.

How many of you are grateful for the forgiveness of God in your life?

That he does not hold your sin against you.

Past, present, future.

That he paid the final debt that you owed because you sinned against him.

He forgave Israel and he has forgiven you, though he still punished their misdeeds.

Why?

Because punishment teaches us right and wrong, good and evil.

There's still consequences to our sin.

If I betray my wife, how many of y'all know there's consequences to my sin?

If I eat the brownies that she told me not to eat, there's consequences to my sin and my rebellion. in your house, if you're kids.

What are you texting?

Oh, she's just got notes.

See, I don't have, there's no consequences.

Come on, let's honor this young lady.

Let's honor this young lady.

If I catch y'all doing some stuff on your phones, it's not notes like this one, I'm gonna... That could have gone really wrong.

I'm glad you're sitting in the front row.

Why?

Because note takers are world changers.

Forgiveness is not denying pain.

And here's the, let me share with this, here's the scripture that people use.

They'll say, well, God remembers sin no more.

Amen?

He removes it from the east as it was.

The phrase is, forgive and... Forgive and...

Can I tell you, you are not God and it's going to take you longer to forget than it does him.

And by the way, he is not forgetting anything.

He knows everything.

He is choosing to not think about and not remember your sin because he placed the penalty for your sin on his son. and it's paid for.

It's not that he doesn't remember.

Of course he does.

He's God.

He is choosing to enact forgiveness and saying, I'm going to remember your sin no more.

But I can promise you, if your spouse sins against you, has an affair, husbands, if you have an affair on your wife,

The next time that you've asked, you're working out forgiveness.

You're trying to bring your marriage back.

You're trying to bring your life back into God's ways.

You're trying to follow his principles and get back his Christ character.

You're trying to rebuild trust that your actions lost.

But how many of y'all know that when you start speaking to another woman, the next time she's not gonna trust you and she's gonna feel the pain again the same pain that she felt the first time you told her that you sinned against her in that way she's gonna feel that pain every time you interact with another woman and you have to take steps to rebuild trust but can I tell you something by the power of God and the forgiveness that you've received and extended to others, God will take you on a journey to where you can remember it no more.

But forgiveness, just in a nanosecond, isn't just we forget the pain.

Which was the next point, and I did that last service.

I just should have mashed those two together.

Forgiveness is also not a one-time event.

It's continual.

If you've ever been in a marriage, the quickest thing that will kill your marriage is not being a forgiven person because you need forgiveness.

I need forgiveness.

I need to be authentically owning my own crap and turning back to God for his forgiveness and for the forgiveness of others.

And guess what that does?

It builds trust because I'm not hiding.

And I'm not misleading.

And I'm inviting God's power to be worked out in our lives.

The last one, and this is going to hit some of you very hard, is it's not earned by repentance.

And for some of you, you're withholding forgiveness, waiting for them to do something.

Waiting for them to change.

Do you know who didn't wait on you?

Christ.

Even on the cross, right?

Forgive them, Father, for they do not know what they are doing.

How many of y'all can realize right now, I don't know what I'm doing.

Man, the words that I speak to my wife, I want it to stop, and yet it keeps happening.

God, I need your power to change.

So let's talk about what forgiveness is.

Forgiveness is choosing not to hold someone's debt against them, just like Jesus didn't hold the debt that you owe him against you.

Jesus Christ came and gave his life as a ransom for many.

Forgiveness is letting God know

Be the one who deals with the debt.

When you're in a godly marriage, when both people are pursuing Christ and his word and they're devoted to him, you need to give room for the Holy Spirit to do his work, to convict, to change, to redeem, to restore.

Do you know, from time to time, I look back and I go, man, I'm a really good pastor, but a really bad Holy Spirit.

You need God's power.

I need God's power.

Forgiveness is, I forgot to put the last one on the screen, sorry.

Forgiveness is a one-time decision and it's an ongoing process.

For those who have been forgiven little, for those who have been forgiven much,

If I want my wife to forgive me for eating the brownies, how much more will I need her to forgive me for you name it?

And vice versa.

Forgiveness is also praying for the offender's blessing.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever including marriage and anyone in it.

That whoever would believe in him would not perish, including your marriage, but have everlasting life.

For God so loved who?

Anyone.

So pray for the offender's blessing.

Pray for the living God to come into their life, to change them and to redeem them.

But here's

Here's what you need to be aware of.

How many of y'all know that we have the opportunity to make a decision to either play on team Jesus or to play on team Satan?

And the decision is yours.

Yours alone.

I can't make that decision for you.

Nobody can.

And Satan loves it when you play God.

Satan also loves it when you diminish the cross of Jesus Christ.

Man, you've been forgiven.

You've received it.

Man, thank you, Jesus, that you don't hold my sin against me.

You've forgotten it.

You've chosen to forget it.

And then you won't extend it to your spouse?

How dare you?

Satan loves it when you breed division.

Jesus prayed, Father, I pray that they would be one.

Satan loves it when you crush a repentant sinner.

Someone actually wants to put in the work.

They see what God says.

They see his principles and

And now they want to say, Christ, I want to exhibit your character.

And they acknowledge, hey, I know this is going to take time to rebuild trust.

I know I've hurt you and I know I've got to put in the work to build myself more into a godly man, a godly woman.

Satan loves it. when you do his job for him and destroy yourself with bitterness.

Because not giving forgiveness to someone who sinned against you is like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies.

A mother or father who goes into a prison and can forgive someone who's killed their son or daughter can be freed from the weight, can be freed from the bitterness, can be freed from the bondage of unforgiveness while that person is still in prison.

How many of y'all know that Jesus said, when you visit someone in prison, you are visiting me.

But how many of y'all know that that means they're still in prison?

So some of you might have a marriage and

Someone has sinned against you so violently.

They have hurt you.

They've abused you.

Forgiveness is not enabling sin.

It's not sweeping it under the rug.

It's not saying, you know what, you just keep on doing what you're doing.

For some of you, forgiveness is saying, I'm going to forgive you just like Christ has forgiven me, but I'm calling the police and they're going to jail.

And I'm going to let God deal with them.

Charles Spurgeon said about forgiveness, he said, to be forgiven is such sweetness that honey is tasteless.

And those who have been forgiven by Christ, you know that there's a weight that's been lifted.

There's a joy that's unexpressible.

There's something about I don't have to perform as much anymore because Christ has forgiven me and his power is at work within me.

And it's just so much sweeter.

But yet there's one thing sweeter still.

And that is to forgive.

As it is more blessed to give than to just receive, so too forgiveness rises a stage higher in experience than even to be just forgiven.

So here's the big question today.

The big question today is, are you forgiven?

And the second question is do you have God's power at work in your life?

Because without you being forgiven by Christ Jesus, you will not have the power of the Holy Spirit to be enacted in your life, to be restored and redeemed and changed.

As we approach Easter and Good Friday, we know that even while Jesus was hanging on the cross, there were two thieves, two criminals beside him.

One rejected him and his principles and his character.

And he got what he deserved.

He didn't just get physical death.

He got eternal death and separation from God.

But there was another who acknowledged who God is, who Jesus is.

And he said to Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

And he received God's forgiveness for his life.

Can I tell you what Jesus did not do?

Jesus did not get off the cross to go down and around to the other cross in order to take that guy down to remove him from the penalty of his earthly sin.

He still paid the penalty.

But Jesus said what?

Today, you will be with me in paradise.

Are you forgiven?

Because the Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

And salvation is available to anyone who asks, just like restoration of marriage is available to anyone who asks, they will receive.

But God's power is enacted by you saying, I'm going to follow your principles and your ways and being filled with the Holy Spirit of God.

How do we know this?

Because in 1 Corinthians 1.18, it says, for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.

In other words, they don't have the humility to say, I'm doing this wrong.

I'm messing it up.

I need to change.

I need forgiveness.

I need honor and not disrespect coming out of my mouth.

I need Christ's integrity.

I need Christ's character to overtake me.

I need the humility to realize it.

One of the people next to Jesus did not have the humility to receive it and one did.

Who are you today?

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we pray that we would acknowledge that every single one of us, we are sinners in need of a Savior.

And for some of us, we've received that gift.

And God, now we're asking for the power of the Holy Spirit to be able to extend that gift to other people.

To invite others to experience that same salvation and that same power that's at work in us. that anybody can be saved, anybody can be changed by your power.

And so is true of any marriage.

No matter how broken or messed up it is, by your power, it can be changed.

But it starts with us asking for you to come into our lives, to be our Savior and our Lord. to receive from you the forgiveness for which you've already given your life for.

And so right now, if that's you and you want to start a relationship with Jesus today, to be forgiven, to be saved, and to begin a new life with Jesus, I want you to take a step of faith. whether you're in the room or watching online today, I want you to simply take a step of faith and say, I need Jesus.

And by doing that, you're gonna say, you're gonna raise your hand on the count of three and you're gonna say, Jesus, I turn to you to be my Savior and Lord.

Or two, I'm coming back to you, Jesus.

Three, shoot your hand up in the air as an act of faith saying, here I am, God, I receive your forgiveness.

You can put your hands down from your heart to God.

Everyone in the room, in fact, say this.

Say, Jesus, I need you.

I need your forgiveness.

And right now, Jesus, I exchange my sin for your perfection.

I pray that the Holy Spirit would fill me to give me the power to overcome sin and death and to have eternal life.

Come inside of me and change me.

In Jesus' name.

And everybody said, amen.

Come on, give it up for everyone who prayed that prayer today.

Full Sermon Transcript

Two things for you to do real quick.

Pull out your phones and if you have the New Life Church app, mine is at the very bottom here.

I have the most important things right here.

So if you want to align your phones like Pastor does, I have like a folder full of a bunch of stuff.

And then the Bible, the Pray First app, and the New Life Church app.

Come on somebody.

How many of y'all know that my life is aligned correctly?

All right, anyways, if yours doesn't look like that, get yourself together.

All right, but click on the New Life Church app, and on the top page for For You, it'll show take the New Life Church growth survey.

I want you to click that and do the survey.

If you don't have the New Life Church app,

We're going to throw up this QR code for you.

You guys understand how to work those things, right?

I don't have to explain that because apparently I don't know how you do either.

But you can scan this QR code to take the New Life Growth Survey for us.

This will be very helpful to us.

Please do this.

Here's why.

New Life Church is in a season where we have four years remaining in this particular location.

We are in a leased space and our trustees, our elders have been planning, figuring out, okay, what is gonna be the next for us?

And so we hired some consultants to come in and do a lot of analysis, to do some deep dives, to make sure that we're doing the most wise thing possible to steward the resources we have and continue to have the best kingdom impact we can possibly do.

And so we're uncovering a lot of stones.

We're doing a lot of research.

We will have people coming here next weekend.

You'll see people running, you'll see people every weekend here, but specifically you'll see people kind of looking in every corner and looking in every classroom.

Matter of fact, even Saturday, they're coming with some sort of technological equipment that scans the building that allows them to have 3D scans.

Who knew that they could do that?

That's crazy talk.

But anyways, they're coming to do all these assessments.

But one of the things we want to assess, we want to hear from you.

And so we want to gauge what we're doing as a church.

We want to hear from you.

We want to get your info on some things.

Can you do that for us?

All right, do you know the assignment?

Are you ready to accomplish the assignment?

All right, thank you so much.

As a matter of fact, planning is important.

And so when you think about this series that we've been in, right, Loveology, I've shared from God's Word a bunch of laws that God created based on what marriage is supposed to be.

Marriage was the first thing that God ever created.

Before he created the church, before a government existed, before any entity was created, marriage was the first thing.

And so we need to come back to what does God have to say about marriage?

And so loveology is that, is all of these laws that help us to have a godly, successful marriage.

Pop quiz, for those of you who have been listening throughout this series, I would like you to name all of the laws in order.

Are you ready?

Law number one, which is what?

Supremacy, three of you.

Well done.

Well done.

It was so long ago, right?

The law of supremacy.

What was the second one?

Covenant.

The law of covenant.

What is the law of covenant?

The law of covenant is come hell or high water, we're staying in this.

Right?

Hell is going to come into your marriage.

High water is going to come into your marriage.

You're going to face some difficulties.

You're going to face some challenges.

And so we need to get past some of those things and say, hey, we're in this for the long haul because God said what he has joined together, let no one separate.

Can I get an amen?

And so we need to have that as a foundation, the law of covenant.

The third one was the law of... Nailed it.

Who was that?

Come on, somebody.

Jordan.

Law of priority.

It means... go back and listen to this one.

This was genius.

And mostly because I took it from a bunch of different pastors to help.

But we don't need a bunch of mama's boys in marriage, right?

Can I get an amen?

Like we need a husband to make sure that his bride is number one in his life and his mama isn't, okay? and so if you miss that message go back because it we really need this to play out in our marriages and too often we end up confusing relationships once we get married and we start to anyways you go back and listen the fourth one was what the law of come on guys come on gentleman the law of his power we got some work to do ladies the law of his power

Men, we have a superpower to be lived out in the context of our marriages to build up our wives, right, as Christ builds up the church.

Can I tell you something?

There's nothing that Jesus cares about more than his bride.

Gentlemen, wake up.

There's nothing more you should care more about than your bride.

What's wrong with you people?

Can everyone do this for a second?

Okay, all right, everyone's kicking.

All right.

The next one is the law of her power.

We were both created in God's image, and so we bear Christ's power to work in our marriages.

And so a husband has his power, a wife has her power, and women, you need to consider that literally there's no one on planet Earth that can speak into his potential and set him up for success in all ways by even the words and affirmations that come from your mouth.

Like if my wife woke up every day and said, Dan, today you are going to be a dragon slayer.

I'm going to be like, you're right, babe.

Here we go.

And there's something about a woman, a wife's power, that she has the unbelievable, uncannity, God-given power to either put wind, the unbelievable hurricane force wind into a husband's sails, or she can be so critical and so all over him all the time that he is just deflated all the time and will never live up to God's potential for his life.

It's a powerful message.

So go back and watch it if you haven't seen it.

The next power was what?

The law of?

Pleasure.

Wow, one person was listening.

How many of y'all did your homework?

You did your homework?

Well, we're going to come back to it, so we'll see.

Today...

I'm going to bring you a message that I said to you out of the gates that the number one is the law of supremacy.

If you don't have the law of supremacy, none of this would happen.

None of it will work.

Likewise today, if you don't have this one, you will crash and burn.

Your marriage will not succeed if this one is enacted, and it's the law of, you already saw the screen, the law of planning.

The law of planning.

Planning.

I don't think I would have to argue very hard with all of you to suggest that we take planning very seriously in our world.

Do we not?

Like, how many Michigan fans do I have out there?

A lot, a good number.

I had some Purdue fans in the last service, and so there was a little bit of attention in the room because they play each other today for the Big Ten Championship.

But how many of y'all know that a team that goes onto the court has a what?

A plan.

A game plan.

They have coaches that scout and they watch film and they have a plan and the plan has to be executed in order for them to succeed.

How many of y'all are in the business world?

Like you have to have a plan.

You have to have a vision, a mission.

You're going somewhere together and when there isn't a plan, you flounder.

How many of you know that's true in your classrooms?

Like teachers, do you have a, what?

A teaching plan?

Do you have a plan?

Do you have a plan of how to raise your kids?

Can I tell you something?

So many of our marriages crash and burn because we plan in every part of our lives, but not in our marriages.

In other words, we know the things that we are supposed to do, and I hope I've done a good job.

Can you just say, pastor, you're incredible.

Thank you.

I needed the affirmation for a minute.

I have laid out for the last seven weeks the plan of God, the design of God for what he wants in marriage.

And can I tell you something?

I can't enact the plan for you.

Let me put it a different way.

After this series is over,

Don't call me and ask me to speak into your marriage.

I already have.

Don't call our staff.

Don't call your life group leader.

Can I tell you why?

We've already given you the roadmap.

If you're a believer in Christ, you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you, which means God himself is there to be your helper.

Can I tell you who's better than me?

The Holy Spirit of God.

Can I tell you something else?

You have the Bible.

You can read it just like I can read it.

We've given you the plan, but if you don't plan to enact it, you actually plan to what?

You plan to fail.

If you fail to plan, you will plan to fail.

And so if you don't put it into action, how many of y'all know a good strategy is just worthless if you don't actually do it?

And so the law of planning is simply this.

Pastor, you're a pretty good preacher.

You're pretty funny.

You get intense from time to time.

It feels like you hate me, but I don't, I promise.

But I can't do this for you.

You have to take it and do something with it.

And I want to look at the book of Proverbs, because the book of Proverbs today is a wisdom book.

And if we go to Proverbs chapter 6, starting in verse 6, it says this.

Go to the ant...

You sluggard.

Application.

You make plans in everything in your life, but many of you don't make plans in your marriage and you wonder why your marriage is struggling.

Go to the ant, you sluggard.

In other words, you're lazy.

And some of you, you're not lazy in so many areas, but you might actually be in your marriage.

Go to the ant, you sluggard.

Consider its ways and be what?

What's the difference between knowing what to do and wisdom?

Knowledge is knowing what to do.

Wisdom is actually doing it.

And so if we want to be wise in our marriages, we got to go to the ant.

How many of y'all know that you were coming to church to look at some ants today?

Watch what the scripture says.

The scripture says about an ant, it has no commander, it has no overseer, it has no ruler.

In other words, it doesn't have people telling you day in and day out, here's what you're supposed to do.

How many of y'all are like, but there's a queen ant, right?

Is there anybody in the room who knows what a queen ant's responsibility in the world is?

It's to not make any kind of commands.

She doesn't rule anything.

She just simply does what?

She makes babies. that's what the Queen does consider the ant there's no commander no overseer no ruler in other words when you wake up every day there's not someone telling you go do it you have to have that for yourself are you picking up what I'm putting down don't be a sluggard be like the ant

An ant stores up its provisions in summer.

In other words, it goes to work.

Do you know how many days a week an ant works?

Every day.

Every day the ant goes to work harvesting and collecting and it repairs things, and it also protects the colony.

Can I tell you what the ant does?

It reminds me a lot about the church because we don't go to work just for us, just for selfishness.

Like if in our homes, like as men and women, we go to work to provide for the family, for the house.

We work for the collective within that house.

Can I tell you how Christ's church works?

His bride

We don't just work for ourselves, we work for the benefit of the community, right?

So when you walk in the doors and you see people who are on camera or lights or leading worship or serving coffee or whatever, that's what, can we just give a shout out to our dream team ants right now?

All of us benefit because we're working for the collective good.

We're not sitting there all selfish, just thinking about us all the time. consider the ant it gathers its provision it makes a plan it actually holds some back in other words it budgets an ant budgets have you heard of a budget anybody heard of a budget some of y'all like you got degrees upon degrees upon degrees and you don't even know how to budget an ant doesn't just spend all it makes like it it keeps some behind so it's prepared why because it has a plan.

Proverbs chapter 14, starting at verse 15, it says, the simple, can I make a translation for just a second?

This is the Dan translation, so I want you to chuckle when I say it.

The moron believes anything.

Sounds like, get on social media and the internet right now.

Hey, we'll believe anything.

The simple believe anything, but the prudent gives thought to their actual steps.

Do you wake up in the morning and go, hey, I maybe should consider what I'm doing in my marriage, how I speak to my husband, how I speak to my wife, how I care for her, how I care for him.

Again, coming back to last week's question, right?

What was the homework assignment?

Does anyone remember the homework assignment I gave you?

One of you.

The law of pleasure.

The law of pleasure is what?

You're to fulfill your marital duty, husband to a wife and wife to a husband, which means when you're called by God to fulfill your husband or your spouse sexually, you show up like this.

I'm here to serve.

Come on, you can laugh.

Come on, it's funny.

And the homework assignment was what?

Wives, you were supposed to go home and make a list of the things that your husband could do physically to you to pleasure you in the context of marriage.

Yeah, kids, that's right.

Sex is good and godly.

God created it.

Newsflash, you wouldn't be here without it.

Go back and listen to that message if you haven't heard it.

It's the best message I've ever preached in my life.

And right, what did I tell women?

I said, women, you need to draw pictures, not find them on the internet.

You need to draw pictures because your husband is a little bit dense.

You can't expect him to know what to do.

You got to actually tell him.

And by the way, one of the greatest gifts that you'll get in marriage is you begin to learn each other.

You begin to go, this is what actually pleases my wife.

This is what actually pleases my husband.

Does anyone see the genius of God in that?

But it's been so hijacked from the enemy, we don't even want to talk about sex anymore.

But when it's in the context, man, the power of sex that God designed, when it's in the context, when it's in that stone hearth, it's beautiful.

It's mesmerizing.

It's powerful.

It's beautiful.

And it adds warmth and vitality, not just to the married couples, but to the entire home.

But outside of the context of marriage, right, a fire, when it's protected, when it's in the place where it's supposed to be, when it's outside of that, can wreak massive destruction.

And so many of you, you're even having struggles in your current marriage in this particular law because of things you might have done or things that have done to you, and it's still bearing some consequences even today.

And we've got to come back to the way God designed this.

So we give thought to the steps that we're gonna take.

We wake up and we consider, man, how can I pour fire on my marriage today?

How can I stoke the embers that are in the fireplace and make it absolutely incredible with my words, with my actions, with what I'm thinking about?

How many of y'all remember your dating lives?

Pretty well.

Guys, just for one second.

How many times did you start ditching your bros to go hang out with your girlfriend?

Like you were, it was, I'm not gonna use the phrase that the culture says, you know what it is, all about your homies.

But there was a season when you're like, man, she's gorgeous and you guys are not.

So I'm gonna hang out with her a little bit more.

But guess what happens?

You get into marriage and all of a sudden you don't do that anymore.

And here's what I'll tell every couple that's going to get married.

Here's what I'll tell them.

You need to do what it took to get her in order to keep her.

But for some reason, we end up in marriage and we become successful business people and successful in careers and

Successful in this and successful in that and put all this energy and planning and execution and even raising kids.

And then all of a sudden our marriages are struggling void.

And it's because we became lazy in the most important thing, the first thing that God ever created.

And so what we typically see because of laziness in marriage is atrophy and not health.

We see chaos and not order.

We see weakness and not strength.

We see immaturity and foolishness.

Why?

Because we're just going through the motions.

We're just doing everything that we think to do, and we're making plans for all these other things, and yet the most important thing is just being skipped over.

It's being ignored.

There's no plan, and we're not executing a plan.

Strength, health, order, maturity, and wisdom require, scream this out loud with me.

Require what?

It's up there now, right?

It took a minute.

It requires what?

I can't do it for you.

Is that landing on anyone today?

I cannot do the work for you.

Let me put it a different way, okay?

Last week's homework assignment, you don't want me involved in that conversation.

Matter of fact, the law of pleasure, you don't want me there at all.

Nor do I want to be.

You've got to do the work.

And it's not just in that area.

I'm using that area because you understand the extremeness of it.

But when forgiveness needs to reign and rule in your marriage, when covenant, come hell or high water, needs to reign in your marriage, I can't do the work for you.

If you've got things that need fixing or things that need to be worked on, I can't do it for you.

I can help.

I can show you the scriptures.

I can pray for you.

But you've got to put it into work.

So here's the law of planning, the definition I want to give you today.

If we're going to build godly marriages, we must make wise plans.

We must do what the scripture's been telling you.

Do you believe that I've done a pretty good job as a pastor laying out what God has designed for marriage over the past several weeks?

Thank you.

I feel affirmed.

Thank you.

I feel encouraged.

I had to do that for myself a few times.

I'm like, I just, I need to, you know.

So, anyways.

And here's the reality.

And this is true of anything in your life.

The marriage that fails to plan should plan to fail.

And here's what's crazy.

When I have couples come and they're wanting to get married, and here's one of the first things I tell them before we talk about anything when it comes to the ceremony.

I tell them, you need to think through what your marriage is going to look like and spend just as much time and energy and money on what the marriage is going to look like as much time, if not more, than what you put into planning for the ceremony.

And too many of us, we just plan these elaborate, unbelievable ceremonies.

And I've never met the couple that comes into my office asking me to officiate a wedding or a staff that comes in and goes, hey, I really wish that in five years this whole thing is going to fail.

But when they fail to plan in their marriage to keep it godly and to keep it healthy and

They are planning to fail because they do not execute a plan that God has already given.

And so I want to go to Ephesians chapter five.

It says, be very careful then how we are to live.

We're to consider, may it not be unwise, but wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil.

Man, there's, Satan is coming at you with a lot of different things about how to live and we need to realign our lives to God's word and to God's ways.

Can I get an amen?

And so what is the phrase there?

Carpe diem.

Have you heard that before?

What is that?

Seize the day.

That's from the Bible.

It literally just said it.

Make the most of every opportunity.

How many of y'all wake up in the morning and you just have this ant-like sense of I'm going to make my life count today?

You're going to execute a plan.

And you execute a plan in so many different areas of your life, but when it comes to the first thing that God ever created, we just treat it flippantly.

We just think it's just gonna happen.

Hey, we're gonna be married for 100 years, and we didn't put any energy, we didn't put any work into it.

We just let it happen.

I've never, ever met the couple who has had that play out well.

Not one.

Not one couple.

Successful in a lot of ways.

And their marriage is crumbling.

And no one's responsible.

I don't know how to tell you this in a nicer way.

It's nobody's fault but your own.

You have to take responsibility to not only have God's plan for your marriage, but to actually do the work to enact it.

1 Timothy 4.8 says it this way.

It says, for physical training is of some value.

Time out.

How many of y'all go to the gym?

You work out, you try to eat pretty good, pretty well.

That's probably not the right phrase.

Yeah, young man, love it.

Physical training is of some value.

Did you know, what is it, Planet Fitness that has like a do not grunt rule or something like that?

Is that right?

I don't know what they call it, but literally at Planet Fitness, it's like a no shame zone or something like that.

And it's like, don't go.

In other words, they're talking to all the men that are a bunch of meatheads just trying to show off.

But I know a few guys where it's literally like they're svelte.

Like every inch of their body is ripped and jacked and shiny.

And it's why they oil themselves is weird, but whatever.

And you're like, hey.

That dude works hard.

Like he didn't just sit on his couch playing video games and then just looks like that.

How did he get like that?

He had a plan.

And not only did he have a plan, but he executed the plan.

And not just in lifting weights and running or doing cardio.

They also ate right.

They thought about the things that they put in their body.

They had a plan and they executed it.

For some of you, this is like a mini message.

For some of you, you need to realize that physical training has value and some of you actually need physical training.

And you need to think about what you're eating.

And you need to think about what you're doing with your bodies.

The next phase, and by the way, if you're married, you're to do that for the benefit of your spouse.

Can I get an amen?

You want your sex life to flourish?

Man, if you're Chewbacca, shave your back.

Right?

I used that last week.

If your wife doesn't like sleeping next to Sasquatch, like, do something.

All right?

Physical training has some value.

It has value.

Don't miss that.

It has value.

But godliness has value for what?

For... Has any of you ever heard me, like, feel like I attack youth sports?

Like...

Like you're like, pastor hates youth sports.

No, I don't.

I love sports.

I was a college athlete.

I love sports.

But can I tell you what I don't like?

I don't like parents who are so putting their kids and their whole identities and their whole lives into something that eventually is going to end.

It's going to be over.

And for most of them, it's at the end of high school.

They don't go to college.

And most of them will never end up in the pros.

And then you put so much energy and time and money into this thing.

And then they get to the end of it.

And by the way, this is my own story.

They get to the end of it and they go, I have no idea who I am.

I don't know what value I actually have.

I have no idea why God put me on this planet.

I literally had that moment when I finished playing football at Texas.

Where I looked in the mirror and I was like,

Everything I was was an athlete, and now it's over.

Now what?

Godliness has value for all things.

God says, even in his word, he says, train your kids in the way they should go, and when they get older, they will not depart from it.

In other words, hey, parents, we need to raise kids in godliness because they are going to hopefully have a godly marriage someday and be godly parents someday.

And it doesn't just happen by accident.

It's intentional.

It's having a plan and executing the plan.

So I want to give you, and it holds promise for both the present life.

The Apostle Paul says right now.

It has promise.

It gives you value right now and the life to come.

How many of you know that Jesus says that he's preparing his bride for the wedding supper?

He's preparing you and I, the church of Jesus Christ.

He's preparing us for what he has prepared for us.

And he wants us to execute his plan.

So I want to share with you four truths that come from the book of James.

The book of James, chapter 4, verse 13, it says, Now listen, you who say, today or tomorrow we will go to this city or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make money.

Why?

You do not even know what will happen tomorrow.

Time out.

What this verse is saying is that when it comes to life, you're kind of treating it flippantly.

You're like, yeah, we could do this.

We could do that.

We'll do this for a minute.

We'll go over here and we'll invest in that.

And then we'll earn some money and make some business.

And how many of y'all live your lives just with a, ah, we'll figure out what happens when it comes?

Again, in marriage, when we have that approach, when we have that mentality, when you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

No one ended up in a marriage that said, man, I just hope this thing crashes and burns in five years.

But when you have the mentality of like, yeah, we'll just...

We'll deal with it sometime when it comes.

And what James is saying, he literally says, what is your life?

You need to consider it.

You need to think about the things that you're doing.

And what he does is he shares this.

He says, you, your life is like a mist that appears for a little while and it's gone.

Can I tell you what happens in marriage if you don't make a plan for it to succeed?

If you don't live out what we've been teaching in this series? you will then get to, you'll go down the wedding runner, you'll have a marriage ceremony in the context of a bunch of friends and a bunch of family, and you don't have a plan for how to make your marriage successful and strong as we've been sharing from God's word.

In other words, you're not putting in the work to execute the plan that God has already designed for it, and then you end up five years later going, why the heck is my marriage a disaster?

It's because you treated your marriage flippantly.

You put everything else first.

You started saying, man, I'm going to build my career, and I'm going to be awesome in business.

And some of you even used the term godliness in saying, man, I'm just going to be the best person at this job, and I'm going to rise the ranks.

And meanwhile, your spouse, and it could be husband, wife, it doesn't matter, is at home going, I don't even know this guy anymore.

I don't even know this girl anymore.

And then you go, I've been married for five years and... Now it's over.

Because I didn't make a plan.

And because I failed the plan, I actually planned to fail.

Our life is just here for a little while and then vanishes.

And so the first point I want to make to you today is...

Life is short.

You have to align yourself.

We have to align ourselves with God's design, with God's priorities, with God's laws in mind.

Otherwise, it's going to wreak havoc and disaster.

We'll end up with atrophy and not health.

We'll end up with weakness and not strength.

We'll end up with chaos and not order.

Are you following what I'm saying?

Life is short, so you can't sit there right now and go, man, I'm just going to assume that I'm going to fix things in my marriage later.

I'm going to pay attention to my marriage later.

I'm going to enact date night again in a couple months when we get to a season where I can actually do that.

The law of covenant and the law of priority, right?

Come hell or high water, we're going to stay.

And so mistakes are going to be made.

But guess what?

Forgiveness reigns in marriage.

That's how you have staying power.

When you realize that as Christ has forgiven you, I'm going to extend forgiveness to my spouse.

And not just because I feel like it, but because it's commanded.

Come hell or high water.

And my spouse is always going to be before my kids.

My spouse is always going to be before my career.

And they can't just know that.

You can't just say that.

You actually have to exhibit that.

They have to know it.

They have to feel it.

The next verse says, instead of just flippantly going through life, going, hey, we can do this, we can do that, we can do that.

Instead, you ought to say, if it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this.

In other words, we've been giving you pretty, how many of y'all feel like I've done a pretty good job of teeing up what this is supposed to look like from God's word?

Like, I'm working really hard to help you, but again, I can't do it for you.

I'm not married to your wife.

I'm not, I can't, are you, do you get it?

I'm moving on.

The next point is Jesus reigns, which comes back to the law of supremacy.

We can't just say, I'm going to figure this out on my own.

Guess what?

That's not working for anyone.

The heart is deceitful above all else.

We will chase this and that and this and that, and then we come to a conclusion four or five years into it.

Man, if I just would have... stepped into what God said, and maybe I wouldn't have seen as much chaos, and maybe I would have not had as much atrophy in relationship with my spouse, and maybe it would have been a little stronger rather than weaker because I applied godliness, a plan.

In other words, the law of supremacy, if Jesus is truly supreme in your marriage,

It means that his word, what he says, can settle and will settle every argument.

Every argument.

When scripture says to forgive, we forgive.

When scripture says to love sacrificially, we love sacrificially.

We don't just think about ourselves.

We might consider the aunt.

The aunt just isn't thinking about himself.

He's thinking about the other people.

That's why the law of pleasure homework assignment was so important because you were able to share with your spouse and your spouse could actually learn from you what pleases you and then they show up, I'm here to serve.

Why?

Because they're thinking not just about what they can take, but what they can give.

Scripture says... Lost where I was at.

Oh well.

Moving on.

Here's the same verse again, but at the end.

Instead you ought to say, if it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this.

I kind of already said that out loud.

We will do this or do that.

In other words, enact Scripture.

The Holy Spirit lives inside of you.

You're studying the word of God.

Make plans.

Can I tell you something?

A great strategy is worthless without the execution.

Let me give you two examples of how this is applied to our spiritual lives.

How many of y'all would believe that if I wasn't paid by the church to be here on Sunday mornings, that I would be here every Sunday morning?

Do y'all believe that?

And by the way, I wasn't always paid.

Like I did go to church before I became a pastor and it was not a thing.

Like I didn't ever wake up on a Sunday morning and go, should I go to church today?

No, because I knew the plan and every weekend I executed that plan.

Every weekend, every day.

The Bible says that his word is to be our daily bread, which means our literal sustenance, what we need to live our lives on, build our houses on, build our lives on.

When I wake up every day, the first thing I do is I walk to that tap that goes directly from heaven into my coffee cup, right?

Heavenly bean juice.

And it pours into this.

It's beautiful.

It's black.

Don't put any of that other crap in it.

Otherwise, it's not from heaven.

It's from the Satan.

But I get that and I go sit down in the same seat every single day.

I pull open my Bible because I need a word from God before I ever need to hear a word from myself or from any of you knuckleheads or from the news or from whatever.

I need to hear from God.

Guess what?

I don't have that on my calendar.

And for some of you, what I need to share is early in my walk with Christ when I was new,

I made a plan, and how many of y'all know that I would make a plan to get in God's word every single day, the first of the day, and I would fail at that plan.

But I had a plan.

And I would execute it some days, and I would not execute it other days, and I would execute it some days.

Does anyone know what I'm feeling?

Can any of y'all say, yes, I've been there, pastor.

I've been there, pastor.

I've been there, just like you.

But every single day of my life now, it doesn't matter if I'm traveling.

It doesn't matter whether I'm at home, in a hotel, wherever I'm at.

Every single day, I go to the tap, bean juice, word of God.

I'm executing the Lord's plan for my life.

Every single day.

Every single day.

Why?

Because godliness is valuable for everything.

But if we don't have a plan, and if we don't execute that plan, we're just living like this.

And then, all of a sudden, we go, whoa.

I didn't want that to happen, but now my marriage, my life is over.

So we need to plan protected time together with the Lord, with our spouse.

Like how many of y'all had regular date nights when you were before marriage and now you're like, how many of y'all had a date last week?

Married couples.

Come on, somebody.

You're our heroes.

We want to be just like you.

Crushing it.

Let me give you another thing.

Making a plan for the law of pleasure. many of y'all are tired of hearing it that's the enemy not the Lord okay we had pastor we have pastor friends I'm not gonna name their name their names but they're telling us a story about how their kids were they're older now some of them are married they had some teenagers in the last couple years and they told us that they literally that are like we don't know how to have sex anymore because our kids are always there and we don't want them to hear us or whatever

Anyone feel what I'm saying?

So they made a plan.

They booked a hotel room, drove to the hotel room, insert, execution, and then drove home.

Didn't even stay the night, just

Can I just, I love that because they made a plan to keep their marriage healthy, but can I tell you something else that we need to get past?

Our kids need to know that our marriages are healthy.

And when it's in the context of what God designed in marriage, now I'm going to have a hard time convincing my wife of this.

Just going to be honest, just being real.

But they need to know this. that one of the most beautiful things that can happen, that God designed in marriage, that can warm the entire house, when it's in the context of marriage, as God designed it, it's beautiful, it's mesmerized, it's awesome, it produces health, not atrophy, strength.

We can't be afraid of that.

And a matter of fact, our kids need to see

Man, mom and dad, they got it going on.

And it's awesome.

And they can tell.

And she's smiling.

And he's smiling.

And they're both happy.

That's right.

Nicole?

I want you guys out there.

We're putting you on social media this week.

And let's see what the internet does with it.

You gotta make plans.

You gotta make plans.

You gotta make plans.

Listen, if couples don't intentionally plan fun together or times of laughter together, man, how many of y'all are taking yourselves way too seriously that you can't even laugh in your marriage?

The Bible says that laughter is good medicine.

If you don't plan for intimacy intentionally, life will squeeze all of that out.

Are you hearing what I'm saying?

And then the scripture goes on and says, as it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes.

In other words, you're like so proud of your work ethic and the business world.

You're so proud of getting buff at the gym.

You're so proud of your kids accomplishing all this and the ball fields and all this.

And the Bible literally says all such boasting is evil.

Sobering.

If anyone then though knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it's sin for them.

In other words, we've seen what God has to say about marriage.

It's up to you to enact the plan.

You have to do the work.

Sure, we have life groups available.

If you've got some healing that needs to happen in your marriage from past things that you've done or happened to you, whatever, we'll get you a counselor.

But you need to bring this back to the way God designed it.

And when it happens, it will be redeemed and it will be wonderful and beautiful.

Can I get an amen?

So we gotta do what matters most because knowing truth is not enough.

Obedience to God's word is what will transform your marriage.

So if you know that your spouse feels insecure about the relationship you have, then you need to create a plan to make sure she's not insecure in it.

Like you shouldn't be, sorry, you shouldn't be texting someone else of a different sex or whatever.

Like you should have nothing hidden, nothing.

Nothing hidden.

And by the way, for some of you, it might not be a side piece that you have.

It might be your job that she sees as the side piece.

Because you've made your job more valuable than she is and she feels it.

Reassure them, your spouse, with your words and your commitment.

Instead of just assuming they just know, you have to enact a plan to make sure they know.

If you know your words, which they do, the Bible says that our words have the power of life and death in them.

Is your spouse feeling defeated or feeling crushed with your words?

Or are they feeling lifted up and like a wind, a tornado-like wind have set them to sail?

Blessing them.

Stop saying things that wound and start saying things that strengthen.

Over the past few weeks, we've talked about the law of supremacy, covenant, priority, his and her power, pleasure, and now planning.

And we have one week left and you're not going to want to miss next week.

But knowing these laws isn't enough.

Knowing the way is not enough.

Wisdom is actually applying, actually doing what God says to do.

Strong marriages happen when we remember that life is short, that Jesus reigns, we make intentional plans, and we actually do what matters most.

Psalm 119, 58 through 60 says, I've considered my ways.

In other words, I've actually thought about what I'm doing.

And I've turned my steps to God's ways.

I'm going to hasten and not delay.

I'm going to do this right now to obey God's commands.

And when we do it, we will see God bless it and make it flourish like we've never seen before.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we pray for every marriage.

Lord, we pray for every future marriage.

God, right now, we pray that your spirit would lead.

Holy Spirit, you give us the power to enact your word.

And so right now, God, I pray that every single person in the room would know that they have everything they need for life and godliness, especially in their marriage.

They've got your Holy Spirit.

They've got the Word of God.

They've got the Church of God.

They've got an amazing pastor, if I can't say so myself.

So Jesus, we thank you for all the things you've put into our lives to make sure that we can live out your ways.

Let us not take it flippantly.

Let's actually put in the work.

Let's consider the ant.

And right now, if there's anyone in the room that's like, man, this stuff is...

This stuff is awesome.

Listen to me.

This does not come from me.

This comes from the very mouth of the living God.

And if you're in the room today and you don't have a relationship with the living God, I want to invite you to do it, to have one right now.

Because the world is going to teach you all sorts of crazy things, but the Lord can lead you to life and life everlasting.

And so if you want that today, I want to invite you to take that step of faith on a count of three. to say, here I am, Lord, I'm choosing you.

I want you to shoot your hand up in the air on the count of three.

One, I'm giving my life to Jesus today.

Two, I'm coming back to you, Lord.

Three, here I am.

Shoot up your hand and let's pray this prayer together.

Everyone in the room out loud, 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, amen.

Come on, put your hands together for everyone who prayed that prayer today.

Amen.

New Life Church, we know that when you make the decision to follow Jesus, you are making the single most important decision that you will ever make in your life.

And we want to walk alongside you in that.

We want to help you plan for how you are going to get to know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior.

So as you exit today, our worship hosts have a free book for you.

It's a 21-day devotional to help you get started on that walk with Jesus.

Inside, there is a connection card.

We would love for you to fill that out.

We need your name, your phone number, or your email, and that way we can reach out and help you get started on your walk with Jesus and get connected to the family here at New Life.

Friends, have a wonderful week, and we will see you next Sunday.

Full Sermon Transcript

Also, can we praise God for the fact, look at all the young people.

Like, isn't that amazing?

There's a hunger and thirst for God in this group of young people right now that I have never seen in my 20 years plus ministry.

And I just want to say, like, we shouldn't take that for granted.

That is an amazing gift that God has given.

I also want to just say real quickly, pray for the leaders that were here also on Friday night.

Because my wife was one of them, and she's still catching up on her slumber from that night.

She got like how many hours of sleep?

Four hours?

That's not normal for her.

She's a solid 10-hour night type of lady.

So are you grateful for your leaders?

Was it awesome?

Guys, do you think you should get one?

Youth guys.

Hey, come on, somebody.

I do want to bring something real quick to you.

We have this thing called Access Conference that we've been taking our youth to, middle school and high school students.

For the last five years, we've taken them to Memphis, Tennessee, to a great church there that we've learned a lot of stuff from.

And students, how many of you have been to Access?

How many of you are going back to Access?

Some of you are like, I don't know, but let me tell you something that's really cool.

The first year we took them, we had like a handful of students, like maybe seven.

That's not quite two handfuls.

Then it keeps on building to the point where I looked at last year's registrations for the Access Conference, and the first registrant happened after Easter last year.

Guys, Easter isn't here yet, and we have 32 already registered.

We only took 34 last year.

So that's amazing.

Like, praise God for that.

I will say we did share that we have this thing called Kingdom Builders.

It's a team that uses the gift of giving to go above and beyond the tide to meet needs and to invest in kingdom work to make a bigger impact.

And we express to them on a regular basis things that we would have God, we ask that what would God have us do to participate in that?

But really you can too.

If you go to our giving link, there's the tithe and the regular giving.

And then there are, of course, kingdom builders that you can make an impact in in a bunch of different lanes.

But I want to encourage you to consider, ask God how you might pour into or invest in the next generation here.

Because sending them to the Access Conference is really galvanizing for many of their faith walks and makes a huge difference in why we're seeing so much momentum in our youth.

Last week, we shared that we have a couple of students that needed scholarships.

We encourage them.

They do applications for those scholarships.

And we encourage them to at least pay for the deposit, which is $200 out of 600.

And many of them are doing that.

But we still have about, what did you say, about $2,300 in need for scholarships that I believe that we can handle that, church, right?

Can we do that?

And so you ask God.

There's no pressure.

You ask God how God would have you contribute.

And last week I said that there was about $45,000 worth of need.

And so if there is

If someone who wants to give $45,000, no one's going to argue with that.

But $2,300, and we're going to make sure that all the students that have currently expressed they didn't need a scholarship get a scholarship.

To God be the glory, and all of the church said, amen.

Well, we're in week number six, I believe, in this series.

It's called Loveology.

And I just want to come out of the gates, as I had in many of these messages, and just say that I'm going to 100% kick the hornet's nest today.

So I'm going to mess with a lot of you, probably most of you.

And the reason for that is because the topic for today is the law of pleasure.

We've been in this series and we've talked about all these laws that God made.

How God created marriage.

How God created this thing called marriage, relationship for it.

And marriage is to be honored by all, not worshipped by all.

Can I get an amen?

And so we need to all honor it.

And one thing that will help you to understand this particular thing, the law of pleasure, yes, right out of the gates.

Let's be honest what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about sex, all right?

So glad that we chose to have all the ladies right in front.

You're going to learn this, but I'm also speaking to all the guys as well because you need a godly man to make sure this is done right.

But here's what I know.

Sex is powerful.

And God designed it to be powerful.

But one of the things you need to think about is when it's in its context, it's like a fire.

So think about this for just a second.

I had some in-laws, my brother and sister-in-law, who had a fire in their home about a year ago.

And they had to move out for a good amount of time for restoration to come in.

And there was so much damage.

Why?

Because fire has power.

Amen?

Amen.

And when it's out of context, when it's out of place, when it happens at the wrong time, at the wrong place, it can wreak massive amounts of damage and destruction.

But when it's in its proper place, a fire can be one of the most beautiful things that one can experience.

It can be warming.

It can be delightful to look at and experience.

And it could, even if it's in the home, if it's built in this beautiful stone hearth in the middle of the home, it can literally bring heat and warmth and be a blessing to all in that home.

But when it's taken out of its context, it can wreak massive destruction.

Because sex is powerful.

And so today when we go into this topic, I want to share with you a definition that I'm coming to you with for the law of pleasure, and that is

That sex, the law of pleasure, is God's unabashedly design for marriage as a beautiful stone hearth where passion burns the hottest and brightest in order that it may warm the entire house.

That's the beauty of how God created this.

And so I want to talk to you for just a minute the truth about sex in marriage by giving you seven foundations of what we need to believe about this.

The first is one, sex was God's idea.

In Genesis chapter 2 verse 24, it says that's why a man leaves his father and mother and he's united to his wife and they become one flesh.

I don't, hopefully I don't have to describe this to you in detail, but one flesh is not just this ethereal idea, it's not just one in mind or spirit, it literally is physically they become one flesh.

Any questions?

Ask your parents.

Okay.

The number two, sex is a powerful reality.

Genesis 2.24, they become one flesh.

Okay.

It's powerful.

And why do we see so much destruction and distortion with it?

It's because we haven't kept it in its proper place.

One husband, one wife in the context of covenant marriage.

And we've literally cheapened it to you get some of it and you get some of it and you get some of it.

And it's wreaked massive destruction because it's been taken out of its proper place and its proper context.

Number four, sex is talked about.

Oh, no, this is number three.

Sorry for those of you taking notes who got really mad at me for a second.

Number three, some of y'all need to take a zany or something or just ask the Holy Spirit to calm your nerves for a second.

Number three, sex was God's idea.

Exactly.

I'm coming back to it again.

Sex was God's idea.

Watch this, Genesis 2.25, Adam and his wife were both naked and they knew no shame.

That's what God wants to have husbands and wives experience in their biblical covenant relationship in marriage.

They're both naked and they feel no shame.

There's no havoc.

There's no issue.

There's no distortion.

There's no manipulation of it.

Number four, sex is talked about in the Bible a lot.

In fact, there was a guy named Noah, right, who built this massive ark and God destroyed the earth and he put the two, two by two, right?

You guys understand that story?

Do you know why God destroyed the earth?

Sexual sin.

Sexual distortion.

And here's the irony.

Noah got out of the boat and sinned sexually again.

Right out of the gates.

We've continued to wreak havoc in which God created to make it beautiful and in its context be absolutely amazing and awesome.

There's a guy named Abraham, which do any of you have the news or social media or any of this type of thing?

Abraham, you're still seeing the ramifications and the consequences of Abraham's not being able to keep it in his pants today.

What do you mean, pastor?

Islam came from Abraham sleeping with a woman who wasn't his wife.

That's where Ishmael came from.

And it's been wreaking destruction and havoc ever since.

If you don't think that this thing is powerful and doesn't have consequences, beauty when it's in its right context, and absolutely utter devastation when it's out of its context, just look at the headlines today and you'll see its reality.

Sex is talked about with Isaac and Jacob and Lot and Joseph and Daniel and David.

Solomon, Ruth, Esther.

There's literally two whole chapters in Proverbs that talks about the gift of sex and the warnings of sex.

The entire book of the Song of Solomon is about sex.

So sex is talked about in the Bible a lot.

Number five, sex is Satan's main target for perversion.

Perversion.

Romans 1, 24 through 25, it says, therefore God gave them over in their sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, to the degrading of their bodies with one another.

He gave them over.

In other words, he said, you can keep doing it if you want, and you can keep experiencing the consequences and the destruction of it.

They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the creator.

Number six, sex needs to be renewed in our minds.

Why?

Because you've been taught some things that are wrong from a biblical perspective already. are not quite accurate for how God designed it, and we need to renew our minds to come back to, God, what would you say about this gift that you created and how you designed it?

Romans 12.2 says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by the testing you may discern what the will of God is.

How many of y'all know that if you don't go to church and learn about sex, you will certainly learn about sex from the world?

I had one person say, I think she told my wife this.

She's like, I'm so glad Pastor Dan talks about sex in church because then I don't have to.

By the way, parents, you should still talk about sex because it's a gift given by God.

Number seven, sex should be talked about at church.

Why?

Genesis 2.24, that's why man leaves his father and mother and he's united to his wife and the two become one flesh.

Here's the deal.

You and I need to understand something about God's creation and God's design.

Marriage and sexuality and pleasure was the first institution that God created. before he created a government, before he created a church, a tabernacle, a temple, a school, a team, anything.

The first institution God created was marriage and sex.

The first thing.

So why do we talk about a church?

It's because God created it, he designed it, and he talks about it a lot in his scripture.

And I would argue that it's better to learn what God has to say about this topic than just learning about it on the internet.

Can I get an amen?

So I want to give to you two commands today for sex in the context of marriage.

That beautiful stone hearth where it can be hot and bright and give warmth to the entire house.

In 1 Corinthians, we're going to go to 1 Corinthians 7, chapter 7, verses 1 through 5.

So if you're having your Bibles today, go to 1 Corinthians 7, verses 1 through 5.

In 1 Corinthians 7.1, the Apostle Paul says, now for the matters that you wrote about.

In other words, he had gotten some letters from the church in Corinth saying some things about what was happening in that church, and he's addressing it.

From the matters you wrote about, it is good for a man not to have sexual relationships with a woman.

In other words...

The church in Corinth wrote this phrase.

It is not good for a man to have sexual relations with a woman.

Are you following what I'm saying?

So here's what was happening in that context.

In the Corinthian church, in the book of 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul is literally bushwhacking all of these crazy ideas that they have.

He's like, you've learned this.

You've thought that.

You've experienced this.

You did that.

You did this.

You thought this was good, but it's actually wrong.

You thought that was bad, but it's actually good.

And I need to bushwhack all the things that you thought you knew and actually bring you back to what God actually says.

And so when he gets this letter from the Corinthians church and they say, it's not, what does he say?

Let me get it right.

It's good for a man not to have sexual relationship with a woman.

Let me tell you what's happening.

These people had come to Christ, had so distorted sex and the gift it was and so taken it out of its context that they started teaching them about God's ways that they started to go to the complete opposite extreme to where they literally would say, all sex is bad, don't touch it, don't do anything with it.

That's what they're saying.

And Paul is going, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. you've taken this a little too far.

Yes, we need to address some things about sexuality and sex in marriage because there's clearly been a distortion of it in the culture that this church lives in.

But you've taken it too far when you say don't have sexual relationships with your wife.

And so he's correcting some poor thinking.

He's saying, man, we need to come back to a renewal of mind.

He wants to bring them back from how they're confused on what is right and wrong, and he's correcting bad thinking, and that's what we need to do today.

Because Satan has manipulated and distorted this topic so much so that you are, how many of y'all, raise your hand, you're uncomfortable with the fact that we're talking about this right now?

One of you.

The rest of you are liars.

They started saying, they had over-corrected this idea of sex so far that they started saying, don't have sex at all, it's bad.

How many of y'all think the church has that position?

I'm here today to correct that thinking.

1 Corinthians 7, 2, Paul's response is,

Again, now for the matters you wrote about, that's first one.

It's good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.

Then he comes back with a hammer and says, but since sexual immorality is occurring, which is why they were addressing it and taking it to extremes, he says each man should have sexual relationships with who?

His own wife.

Not a side piece.

Not one over here and one over there.

A man leaves his father and mother, he's united and they become one flesh.

Not multiple fleshes.

One.

Each man should have sexual relations with his own wife and each woman with her own husband.

How many in New Life Church are grateful for God's gift of sex?

Okay, I am, y'all need to pick it up, okay?

I am going to be very honest.

I am ashamed of you right now.

Guys, come on.

How many of you are grateful for God's gift of sex?

Every one of you needs to raise your hand because you wouldn't be here without it.

Don't know how else to say that to you guys.

So at New Life Church, we think sex is amazing because God created it.

And so, man, we encourage people to keep it inside of God's design, one man, one woman, husband, wife, in the context of marriage.

And so when that doesn't happen, we encourage people to repent when and where that's not happening so that they come back to take it back into its design and back into its context.

We're grateful for God's grace and forgiveness when we do screw up and need to repent.

But I need to tell you a warning because too many Christian parents have allowed this.

Too many Christian homes, too many Christians have just kind of just sidestepped this.

You need to understand something.

Jesus said something like this.

If your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out.

If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off.

Otherwise, you're at risk of your whole body going into hell.

That's from Jesus.

He doesn't treat sin as flippantly.

Why?

Because it wreaks massive destruction in your life.

And he wants you to come back to his goodness the way he designed it.

But you have to repent and turn and change and come back and put it into the way God designed it.

Can I get an amen?

And so, man, I shout out young couples who are getting married and having kids and expanding the kingdom of God. doing things God's way and treating what God has given as precious instead of just treating it as cheap.

Marriage, I believe, should be pursued with all of our might and even not put it off because all that is a lie from the enemy to put off God's great design for our lives in marriage.

And here's the lie I've heard the most in probably the last several decades is,

We'll talk about this more in the podcast probably, so if you watch the podcast, you should come join us and watch that.

Anybody a fan?

Okay, all right.

Just curious.

How many have been taught or told or you think, well, I can't get married until I graduate?

That's a lie from the pit of hell.

College.

College.

The disciples were teenagers and were married.

Okay?

Let me tell you something.

God cares more about what he created first, marriage, than he cares about your piece of paper that you're getting at a university.

A more powerful force in human history is the marriage and the family beyond a piece of paper.

Can I just tell you, can I just be very honest for a second?

Yeah.

We got a bunch of losers out there in the world with a piece of paper not doing anything with their lives.

One of you wanted to clap.

You're okay.

You can clap.

And how many of you got a piece of paper and you're like, I don't even use it anymore?

You don't even want to acknowledge it, but you know it's true.

For some, it's massively important, okay?

Dr. Nofsinger, you needed it.

Thank you for doing surgery on people with the certificate you got, okay?

But it's still a lie.

It's been overemphasized.

And some of you are like, you're teachers.

I'm looking at a teacher right now.

You're like, should I be nervous?

I'm like, no.

Keep teaching our kids.

It's a beautiful thing.

But it shouldn't go before and prevent you from going into God's great design for what this looks like.

And so I just want to encourage you, man.

He cares about marriage or future marriages more than just... And now that I've officially lit the internet on fire, I'm just going to go ahead and kick the hornet's nest even further.

Are you ready for that?

Women, and this is not just, this is not for, I'm going to come back to men, so just bear with me for a second.

This is not to condemn you or to shame you, but you have literally been taught through everything on the internet, the websites, social media, everything, that giving yourself away is what gives you value. and you've treated the commodity of sex and your value as a human being, and you've given it away so freely that it's become cheap and freely available, and now you're with a man, sorry, that won't take responsibility that God gave him.

The value of marriage, it's why I preach so hardly on stop living together if you're not married.

Because whether you realize this or not, I'm not an idiot.

Like, I know if you're going to shack up and live together, you're like, well, we're not doing it.

Shut up.

Like, yes, you are.

Yes, you are.

And so what happens is we begin to give guys, and I'm using women for example, we begin to give guys this thing that we think is the most valuable, and then we end up getting in relationships with complete idiots who just use us and devalue us and never step into their God-given responsibilities.

Similarly, and this is where I get into confrontation and light the internet on fire, with even this context of education or career.

By the way, when I say that, women, I don't want to devalue the fact that God has given you unbelievable talents and insight and minds and abilities for education and for anything you could possibly pursue.

But can I tell you something?

The way God designed this thing, that God made them male and female, one flesh.

And he literally, the first command, and I know some people have dealt with infertility, and this is not, I'm not, I'm preaching to the standards, not the caveats or the exceptions, because I know that there are those.

But what tends to happen is we all think we're the exception, we all think we're the caveat, and that's not true.

But here's the reality.

We have so pushed off marriage and so pushed off this gift and because we believe lies of culture that all of our value is in education or in pursuing a career that literally women now find themselves 30, 35, 40 years old and the biological clock in which God has actually created them has now prevented them from stepping into the design that he had for them in the beginning.

Are you following what I'm saying?

And so what happens is we have these career ladies, and by this way, this is a massive push of the enemy in our culture today.

Don't get married.

Don't have kids.

Don't enter into this beautiful God-given design.

Put it off as long as possible.

And what happens for women, this is not true of men.

Men actually said, there are studies about this.

I almost brought this in.

There are studies about this that men's greatest value in a marriage actually reaches its peak in like when they're 40.

To which all the women said, I can understand that because he's still a 12-year-old.

And by the way, even when we're 40, that's not going away because we like that about us.

Okay?

But we still need to step into godly manhood and responsibility.

But for women, biologically speaking, when you put it off so far to where you're pursuing career and education and then you start to get to it later, literally your biological clock is turned off and you can't get it back.

Are you hearing what I'm saying?

This is a manipulation of the enemy.

This is a distortion of the enemy to take you away from God's design.

So we can't treat this as cheap, but as precious.

We can't give away ourselves cheaply.

We need to honor God, and God says he will honor you.

By the way, I believe that we're going to change the tide of culture by teaching our young people this.

The value of marriage. and how to get into it biblically, how it should look.

And even for older people, I want you to be affirmed.

Or for some of you, you have to come to terms with, this is how God designed it, this is how God made it, and you need to rethink and be transformed by your mind.

Yes, I did some things wrong.

Yes, I got some things out of order.

But you need to be affirmed in the fact that you can repent and step back into God's design and pass that on to your kids rather than pass what the enemy meant for your kids.

Because there is grace, there's forgiveness, there's no condemnation.

But women, if we so push the culture to the front end where all of our value is just our education and all of our value is just in our careers and we miss the beauty of how God designed this, one man, one woman in the context of marriage to enjoy sex together and to be fruitful and multiply, then you hit 45 years old in your career and you just can't get this back.

Are you hearing what I'm saying?

You're stuck.

And so we need to talk about this openly and honestly about it so that we don't lie to our young people and that they get to the same place that we may have found ourselves in.

How are we doing out there?

You good?

Anyone feel awkward?

Me too.

Okay, let's go.

So here's command number one.

Command number one from the scripture is married couples be sexually active.

Be sexually active.

Married couples.

1 Corinthians 7.3

He says, the husband should, say this word out loud with me, guys.

Okay, you need to act like this is your verse.

The husband should, his marital duty to his wife.

So here's where understanding the original Greek language is so important because you're just like, hey, fulfill.

Okay, I'm going to do this.

We're going to have sex.

It's going to be awesome.

Let's go.

But Paul actually uses a unique verb tense here.

So how many of y'all know there's different types of verbs?

Like there's past tense verbs, like this is something that happened in the past.

There's future tense verbs, where it's like, this is something I want you to do in the future.

But the verb here, husbands, fulfill your marital duty, is a present imperative verb.

So the verb in Greek is actually used for a direct order from God.

It is a command.

And it's not a one-time direct order to which all men said, amen.

It commands you, guys, to fulfill your marital duty to your wife in an ongoing, continual way actually into eternity.

Until you go home to Jesus or Jesus comes back for you, this is you fulfilling your marital duty forever, continually.

A husband is given a direct order from God to fulfill his duty to his wife by giving her ongoing continual sexual pleasure, conjugal rights, into the glory of God.

To which every guy said, amen.

And one of the things that I think is missed in this text is that God wouldn't command this if he hadn't created women as sexual beings too.

He wouldn't give a command to a man to fulfill an obligation, a responsibility, if he had created woman to just, I don't like it.

Do you know why you don't like it?

It's because you've been taught distortions, or it's been abused, or it's been taken out of its beautiful context.

And we need to bring it back into the beauty of how God created it.

Can I get an amen?

So God created both men and women with sexual desires and needs that can and should be met in marriage.

So men, say, here I am.

Say, married men, it's your Bible.

Notice I said married men.

It's your Bible-commanded, God-given duty when your wife comes to you, and by the way, wives, you should come to him, and say, hey, boo,

I'd really like to... This is your response, men.

Yes, ma'am, reporting for duty.

You're never going to forget that.

Which means, men, but here's the deal.

This means that you need to listen... talk, give foot massages, whatever she wants to preheat the oven.

It's been said that men are like microwaves and women are like crockpots, my wife says, which we're not talking about six hours.

Ain't nobody got time for that.

What?

I'm here.

What?

What?

You need to listen to your wife.

Talk to her.

Ask her, what would you want?

What do you need?

What would you like?

Can I tell you something?

I want a church full of happy, godly, satisfied, sexually women.

Women, say amen.

Thank you.

Now here's something that's going to make you really uncomfortable. as if you weren't uncomfortable yet.

How many of y'all have heard of the Puritans?

The Puritans are known as a Christian sect of people that are typically known for kind of some extreme over-the-top viewpoints.

But there's literally historic documentation of this happening in the Puritan church where a woman would read this verse and hold her man to account.

And when he's not, she would literally go to the pastor or to the elders of the church and say, hey, my man is not fulfilling his marital duty.

And then, here's where it gets interesting.

The elders would do an investigation.

How that happened, I have no idea. but they would do an investigation and then they would call a church meeting.

If they found that the guy was in the wrong and he was not fulfilling his marital duty, they would call the church together and have a church meeting.

And they would say, we've gathered here today because it has been found that Sam Smith, after a careful investigation by the elders, that we are bringing charges against him today, that in the bedroom, he is a lame duck, right?

It's a true story.

It's not fabricated.

And here's what would happen.

All the men in that church meeting would lead the church meeting and have a conversation with his wife and say, how can I make sure to fulfill my marital duty to you because I do not want to be like Sam Smith next week.

I've asked the staff and the elders if we should bring this back into New Life Church, and so far they haven't bought into it.

And so if you need help with this, I'll recommend some of our elders to you to talk to.

So here's what this looks like practically.

A wife, a bride, women, you need to communicate.

You need to, it's not just on a man to initiate.

Most of the time, the man is always initiating this.

And part of the reason for that is because the man has probably historically been coming to you just wanting his needs met and not wanting to meet your needs, not to make your needs met.

So let's get this clear.

Women, in marriage, we need to be able to communicate.

Again, they were both naked and had no shame.

So you need to be able to share your sexual needs, your sexual wants, your sexual desires, so that your man can understand how to please you and serve you to fulfill his marital duty.

Women, stop expecting your husband to know what to do.

We're idiots, right?

So many of you say, you're literally like, I just want him to guess what's in my mind.

And then when your man doesn't and you don't get fulfilled, you then criticize him for just wanting to get it all for himself when he didn't do it right.

Women, you got to communicate.

You got to help us with this.

But pastor, that seems so weird.

Can I tell you something?

That's because this has been so hijacked by the enemy that you can't even have the most beautiful conversation with your spouse that God designed.

And we've got to take it back.

Married couples, are you ready to take it back?

Are you ready to take it back?

Ladies, we are men.

Let me make it clear again.

I don't recommend getting on the internet and finding pictures to navigate and show us in detail what to do, but you might need to draw pictures.

Explicit, clear.

If you think we need explicit, clear instructions on how to fold the laundry or how to do the dishes or how to do, why do you think we, thank you.

Thank you.

Women, I'm trying to help you.

So women, here's your assignment this week.

You need to come up.

I'm not kidding, by the way.

I'm not kidding.

You need to come up with a list of what pleases you.

Married, married women, married women.

You need to come up with a list of what pleases you because for a man to fulfill his marital duty, he needs to come to the table with your needs and your wants in the forefront of his mind saying, I'm here to serve you and to please you.

Not to just take, but to give.

Men, you need to come up with a list of what pleases you.

I'm sure you've made it clear already.

And here's what needs to happen.

Ahead of time, you need to prepare your hearts, your minds, my heart's here, hearts and minds and everything and say, okay, I am going to remove all the distortions.

I'm going to remove all the lies.

I'm going to remove the abuses of what I may have experienced before because I'm going to step back into the context to which God designed for this, the beauty of it, the warmth of it, the greatness of it, the amazing thing of it.

I want God's best for my marriage.

And so we need to come to that, exchange the lists, and both of us simultaneously with a little, you need to have some agreement because we're not here to abuse each other.

We're here to serve each other, okay?

Have I made that clear?

And you need to both come to the table with those lists.

And when you get that list, your response is?

I'm reporting for duty.

Okay.

I'm here to serve and not just to take.

I'm here to please you.

Men typically struggle with memorizing scripture.

This one they should have no problem with.

I thought that was funny.

Anyways.

Paul gives us the reason for this command.

In 1 Corinthians 7.4 it says the wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband.

I think I skipped a verse.

Did I skip the verse where it says, a husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife?

Go back to that one.

And likewise, the wife to her husband.

Did you see that one?

So the same command, men, you are to fulfill your marital duty to your husband, or to your wife, excuse me, wrong church.

Now I've really lit the internet on fire.

The husband shall fulfill his marital duty to his wife and likewise the wife to her husband.

It's the same command.

It's the same command.

1 Corinthians 7.4, Paul explains the reason for the command.

In 1 Corinthians 7.4, it says the wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband.

Amen.

Can you imagine the liberal progressive feminists who are in the room right now?

They would be going ballistic at that one verse.

But let me tell you how this practically plays out in a marriage for the Smith family.

So we now belong to each other.

Hers is mine, mine is hers.

So in a marriage, she has a right to tell me things about what she likes and what she wants from me physically, sexually, et cetera, et cetera.

Why?

So I can please her.

Let me give you an example.

If I shave this cleanly and I have a baby face, like a little baby's butt, she will be so mad at me.

She has made it abundantly clear, do not shave your face. right?

She also likes it tight.

Like she doesn't like, I call them beardos.

Sorry.

She likes it tight.

Okay.

So I take that.

I'm like, okay, I want to be attractive for my wife.

Similarly, multiple times in our marriage, Kelsey has said something to the effect of like, hey, I'm going to get my haircut tomorrow.

What about a bob?

And I go, don't you dare.

That's my hair as much as it's your hair, and I like you.

I like those long, flowing, golden locks.

Like, don't do that.

Let me give you another example, men, because you need, again, explicit, detailed instructions.

And women, I'm helping you here, and so say amen after each one of these statements, okay?

This is your responsibility.

Translation, if she doesn't want to sleep next to Chewbacca, shave your back, okay?

If she wants to look at two eyebrows and not just one, find a razor.

Women, you're not saying amen.

I'm trying to help you.

Okay, it's very quiet.

If she's tired of your gross looking feet, get a pedicure.

If she says you stink, you do.

Go take a shower with soap.

I graduated from the University of Texas.

I'm a Texas Longhorn, and there's a guy named Matthew McConaughey, which many of you probably know, and he was around our football program a lot, still is around the football program a lot, and he had a unique smell to him, and here's why.

His mama told him that he had a unique man scent and that he didn't need to use deodorant or whatever, and I wonder, Matthew, did you ask your wife?

Because your mama, it doesn't matter what she thinks anymore, okay?

So this is, here's what this is.

This is a beautiful invitation of God for husbands and wives to be at their best, most attractive selves, listen to me clearly, for each other and not for anyone else.

To be at their best, most attractive selves for each other and for no one else.

And so what do we do in marriage?

We love and we lead our own bodies in a way that is attractive to the other in marriage.

And so if she's explicit, hey, I love your beard, have a beard.

If she loves it clean, have it clean.

If she loves you showering, go take a shower.

If she, she, I'm preaching.

Pastor John Piper puts it this way about this specific text.

He says, this text implies that husbands and wives have a spiritual duty to try to be attractive to each other.

None of us, repeat after me, none of us can compete with the sex symbols of the day, nor should we even try.

There are some of us that put far too much emphasis on physical appearance, but the biblical tension here is between the service, excuse me, the nervous self-consciousness about every wrinkle, pound, gray hair on one side versus the other side of just being thoughtless, negligent, that would give consideration to how our partner in marriage would want us to dress or eat or bathe or even act in public.

The exhortation in this scripture unequivocally is that we should work and care to be sexually satisfying to our spouse.

So here's the emphasis Paul is sharing.

In marriage, sex is not about rights.

It's not about selfishness, but a responsibility to serve each other in covenant love.

Paul is essentially taking an ax to any form of selfishness and he's putting it out to pasture where it can be cut off and killed so that all that is left is two servants trying to serve each other to the best of their ability.

This is the beauty of God.

And this is a sacred gift.

So the emphasis for each partner is not you owe me,

But rather, I owe you.

I belong to you.

My life, my love, including my body, is here to serve you.

I am yours, and you are mine.

Here's command number two, and I'm closing it down.

Command number two, married couples, don't not be sexually active.

Yes, it's the exact same command.

The fulfillment of this phrase is ongoing into eternity. perpetually.

1 Corinthians 7.5 says this.

He says, do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time so that you may devote yourselves to prayer.

How many of y'all just don't have sex just for prayer?

None of you.

That's your only out.

That's what he says.

But then he says, then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of control.

So here's what happens.

We know that sexuality is all around us.

And what happens is a woman, because we've so distorted this thing, is we get into a fight and women, you're like, you're going to use this as a chip to be bargained with.

And you're like, I'm not going to give you this until you get this and you agree with me here.

And you use it as a manipulation tool to get what you want.

Can I tell you something?

You are sinning.

And you're wondering, man, why is my husband looking at other people online?

Have you fulfilled your marital duty?

Same lies, men, even right now, before you even get into marriage, stop giving yourself away flippantly, cheaply.

Put it in its rightful context.

But here's what happens, ladies, for just a second.

If you withhold or deprive your husband or your wife from sex, you are in sin and you need to repent.

Ladies, when you withhold sex from your husbands, again, we are preaching to the standard of God.

We're not talking about caveats.

We're not talking about exceptions.

You could be like, well, my wife's abusive or my husband's abusive or this happened to me when I was, you know, 8 years old or 15 years old.

We're going to bring this back to the beauty of how God intended it.

Can I get an amen?

We need to restore it.

But what happens is, ladies, when you withhold sex from your husbands, when you think he doesn't deserve it, then you actually ended up massively complicating the problem.

You've actually invited dysfunction.

You've invited spiritual warfare.

And you've invited division and discord into marriage when you turn sex off.

And can I tell you something?

Nothing will kill your marriage quicker.

But we're fighting.

I heard a pastor years ago give this marriage hack.

I wish I would have come up with it on my own because it's genius.

Married couples, you ever been in a fight?

Is it Tuesday?

Yeah.

Here's the hack.

Instead of using it as a manipulation tool or a reward, hey, when we get this right or you act this way, I'll give it to you as a reward or I'm gonna manipulate you and try and get you to do this or that.

What if you're in a fight and you take a step back and go, hey, we're gonna go back to what God, how God designed this thing.

We're gonna go back to covenant.

We're gonna go back to responsibility, to fulfill our marital duties to each other.

Here's what happens.

You're in a fight.

Instead of putting sex off as a reward for, hey, we solved the fight, you bring it to the front end and watch what God does.

Because when two married couples actively say, yes, Lord, I'm reporting for duty.

I'm going to do everything I can to please my spouse, to fulfill her desires, to fulfill his desires.

When two servants of God are leaving selfishness behind and come back to a covenant relationship the way God designed it, seeking to serve and pleasure each other, you'll get done with that.

Here's the marriage hack.

You'll get done with that

And you'll go, wow, that was amazing.

What were we fighting about?

Because how many times have you been in a fight and you look back and go, what the heck?

That was so dumb.

Because when you get in a fight, if you're just trying to win, you both lose.

I'm gonna skip my seven pages of note here so I can close this.

I'm gonna give you seven things as we land the plane today really quickly about what we need to learn about sex in marriage as God designed it.

Number one, sex is for pleasure.

God designed it that way.

Number two, sex is for knowledge.

Remember when I told you to create your list and share it with each other?

There's no greater way to learn who your spouse is, what her desires are, what she wants, what he wants, what she wants, and come to serve each other.

Sex is for knowledge.

Sex cultivates servanthood.

Sex is mutual.

It's not manipulative.

It's not supposed to be abusive.

It's mutual.

And sex, when it's beautiful and in its right context, it brings more comfort than you can possibly imagine.

Number six, sex cultivates unity and it renews covenant before Almighty God.

And number seven, sex wages spiritual warfare.

By bringing the two back together... to let the enemy's attacks go by the wayside.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we pray for every marriage in the room.

God, we pray for past marriages that have been broken, that you now can step into and heal and restore.

God, we pray for young people who are hearing these words, that they would put them into practice, that they would see the gift and the beauty of what you have created, God, not as something that is wrong or evil, but when it's in its proper context, it's beautiful and warm and amazing.

So God, we want to honor you with our marriages.

We want to honor you with our actions.

God, we want to see the beauty of it restored.

So God, we pray against all the manipulations, all of the distortions, all of the abuses, and come back to how you beautifully designed this wonderful gift, the gift of pleasure.

And right now,

Something you need to understand, if you're new to church or just checking this thing out called Christianity, you need to understand something.

Relationship is at the utmost priority, the top of the list between God and you.

He wants to restore a relationship with you that we've broken because of sin.

And so we come back to him.

We have a chance to respond to him and say, God, I have missed the mark.

I have sinned.

I have done it the wrong way.

I've gone against you and it's wreaked havoc in my life.

But God, now I want to return to you and return to your ways.

If that's you, I want to encourage you to take a step of faith today.

Right now, on the count of three, saying that's me, by shooting your hand up in the air, on the count of three, one, I'm giving my life to Jesus today.

Two, I'm coming back to him.

Three, shoot your hand up in the air.

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

Say, Lord Jesus, forgive me of my sin.

Take my sin.

And in exchange, I receive your righteousness.

Jesus, I make you the Lord of my life.

Fill me with your Holy Spirit.

In Jesus' name.

And all God's people said, amen, amen.

Come on, put your hands together for everyone and pray.

Full Sermon Transcript

Thanks, guys.

My youth crew and Dan.

How nice.

Thank you.

Well, good morning, everybody.

I am so excited to be here with you.

Everybody doing good?

I'm just going to address it now.

I'm a little stuffy.

Dan was like, if you're taking medicine, you sound weird.

So I took medicine between first and second service.

We'll see if it clears up anytime soon.

But we're here.

We're going for it.

We are in our Loveology series.

We're on week five.

So if you're new here and you're like, this is my first week, you are jumping into message five of one of my favorite series I think we've ever done here.

And I actually told someone in the lobby, this might shock you, I don't really like relationship series.

I don't know why.

I have no reason except they're just not my favorite.

This has been maybe one of my favorite relationship series.

So if you're new, I would highly encourage you get on the New Life Church app.

You just search New Life Church Kalamazoo.

That's our app.

Go back and listen to the first four messages because every single one of these is built on from the last one.

It's really crazy.

They all go back to number one.

So it's like right now, you're like jumping in at like the very end of a movie.

And the end of the movie is awesome, right?

This is going to be awesome.

But you're like, wait, I kind of missed some key factors in this.

So go back, listen to it.

There are some amazing messages in there.

Last week I told Dan, I think he preached one of my favorite messages of his of all time.

So if you missed that, I would highly encourage you go back and listen.

Also, we do a podcast that releases every Tuesday that answers any questions that you may have had from the message on Sunday and goes deeper into it.

Because what we said is, I have 33 minutes and 7 seconds to bring you the message and

And so you're being discipled for maybe an hour in here on a Sunday morning, and then you're discipled by the world for the whole rest of the week, right?

When you're scrolling Instagram, scrolling Facebook, going to work, you're being discipled by the world.

And so we wanted to try to help give you some more information, go deeper in the word, answer any questions you may have.

So we have that podcast on Tuesdays, but if you have a question from this message that you're like,

Well, you didn't address that.

Or, but what about this in my marriage?

You can get on to our Instagram, which is newlifechurchkzoo, K-Z-O-O.

And on our Instagram story, there will be a question box.

And you can submit any question that you may have.

And how I know that this series is really hitting a lot of you is we have had so many questions submitted.

A lot of times we'll get to a podcast and we're like, well, no one asked any questions, so let's make up our own. or let's ask chat what questions it may have.

But this time we say it's been mailbag episodes, which means every episode is just full of questions that you guys have asked, which is amazing.

Now, some people revolted last week because there was no question box.

I literally like, where is the question box?

I have questions.

Probably because it was about a husband's power in marriage.

And so I got some questions from the women.

That's because we had to pre-record last week's podcast because we were out of town.

So if you still have ones from last week too that weren't answered in the podcast, we tried to kind of jump ahead and think of what your questions would be.

But if we didn't answer them, submit them this week.

We can tackle husband and wife's power on this podcast.

Sound good?

Housekeeping?

Done.

All right.

Today we are talking about the power of the wife in a marriage.

And some of you may think, well, that's great.

I don't know why I'm here.

I am 12.

Or maybe, like, I have a lot of baggage and I don't ever plan to get married again.

Or maybe my marriage is so far on the rocks that there is no hope for us.

But what we talked about, even from the beginning of this series, is the Bible says that marriage is to be honored by... all marriages to be honored by all that means that everyone in here needs to learn how to honor marriage so whether you're 12 whether you've gone through a divorce whether you're in a shaky marriage whether you're in a great marriage this applies to you

Also, if you are 12, why not learn how to have a marriage God's way instead of the world's way?

Because if you look at the statistics, marriage in the world's way isn't going so well.

I think right now marriage in the world's way, over 50% ends in divorce.

So let's try to rewire the way that we look at marriage and learn how to do it in a godly way so that we can be like that couple who's 80 coming in, holding hands, ready to go, saying, man, I'm going on 50 years and this is awesome.

That's my grandparents.

My grandparents sleep on the couch at the cottage when we go up north and I have to tell them that I don't want to hear anything.

If you know what I mean.

That is a healthy marriage right there.

I think they're like 88.

And they are so in love.

My grandma still pinches his butt.

It's disgusting.

Anyways, so let's be like them, right?

I don't know.

Feels weird that I brought that up.

Good thing my mom's not here.

Let's learn how to do marriage God's way.

So no matter where you're at, also if you've gone through a painful divorce, there is no shame.

God has redemption for you.

He wants to rewrite your story.

So I would encourage you, lean in, know that he has something for you in this, in his word.

So first, let's look at what power is when it's defined by the word of God.

God made mankind in his image with power given by him to create, to protect, to help, to serve, to defend, to provide, to nurture, to teach, to forgive, redeem, and love deeply.

How amazing that he gave that to us, that he entrusted us to have power.

God gave husbands and wives then unique power in their masculinity and femininity.

That means that Dan has certain powers in our marriage that I don't have.

That also means that I have certain powers in our marriage that Dan doesn't have.

So if you weren't here last week, like I said, go back and listen to Dan's message on a man's power in the marriage.

Because that is very unique power that I don't carry.

And today, women, are you ready?

I want you to flex.

Yeah, thank you, Shannon.

She was ready.

Yeah.

Because we're going to talk about the unique power that we carry.

But the important thing about understanding these powers is because if we don't get them, then we see foolish marriages that don't understand that we each have unique powers, and then the foolish marriage is wasting them neglectfully.

Or what do we see?

There's an understanding that there's power, but it's not used in God's way.

And there's an abusive marriage that's perverted destructively.

And some of you are coming in from that.

And you're like, well, when I hear the word power, I go, whoa.

Because I've seen this abused.

And I want to tell you that was probably a power that was not used under God's authority.

But the godly marriage, that's what we're after today.

The godly marriage wields this power wisely.

We're both using our powers given to us, ordained to us by God, and then we're wielding it wisely.

So what is the law of wife's power?

The wife exercises her God-given feminine power to respect her husband so he grows strong because of her wise help.

This is the wife's holy calling.

To help her husband grow strong because of her wisdom and her help.

This is her sacred privilege.

It's a privilege that I get to do this for my husband.

And it's a weighty responsibility.

It's something that can't be taken lightly or that I can just say, oh, it's Tuesday.

On Tuesdays, I don't do that.

Only on Fridays.

Only on Fridays do I use this power.

No, it's a weighty responsibility that we are supposed to use all the time.

But what did we talk about last week?

How God doesn't bless all men.

He only blesses men that are under his authority.

It's the same for women, right?

God doesn't just say, all of us are blessed to use this power whenever you want.

No, he says, only when you submit to me under my authority will I bless you.

Some of you might remember the analogy that Dan used last week in a knighting ceremony, right?

He had a man come up to the stage, and when he knelt before the king, then he was knighted and given the power.

Now, if you had other people standing in the background watching, were they given the power at the knighting ceremony?

No.

What do you have to do?

Kneel before the king.

What do we have to do to get our God-given power and marriage?

Kneel before the king.

You don't get it if you're just standing around in the background.

Well, I don't think I'm going to open the word of God.

Well, I don't think I'm going to obey.

Okay.

Well, I don't think I'm going to lead my family in church.

Well, I don't think I'm going to do anything it tells me to do.

Then you're one of the ones standing around in the background.

You're not kneeling at the feet of Jesus.

We are given this power when we are blessed by his authority.

So let's look at what women were created to do in the marriage.

Women were created from man to be the helper.

And some of y'all are like, that is not the word I was hoping for.

Like, superwoman?

Maybe.

Cool.

Not helper.

But let's look into this a little further.

Genesis 2, 18, and then 21 through 23.

It says,

So what did God do?

He made man fall into a deep sleep.

And while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and then closed up the place of the flesh.

Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib that he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

I love what Dan shared last week, just a side note about how a woman was made out of the side of man.

Not made out of the front, like she's better than.

Not made out of the back, like she's less than.

Made out of the side, we're equal.

Made out of the side, made out of his rib.

How cool is that?

So woman is created for a man to be the helper, right?

I will make a helper suitable.

And I don't know about you guys, but when I hear that word helper, I'm like, great.

I'm meant to do the dishes and the laundry and sweep the floor and keep the house going so that he can go live his really cool life and then come home and be fed.

Maybe just me.

But when you look into the word helper in the Hebrew, it's not someone who's secondary, who helps the primary.

The word helper is ezer in Hebrew.

It means aid or strength.

Strengthening someone in a way that they cannot do for themselves.

So I have the power to strengthen Dan in a way that he could never do on his own.

Ezer.

You know what else that word is used for?

Ezer in Hebrew appears 21 times in the Old Testament.

Do you know what it describes?

God himself, when he is describing himself as the helper or the shield to Israel.

When God is saying, I am Israel's Ezer.

I will be the helper.

I will protect you.

And when we're looking at current events, it's pretty crazy to see that that was how God described himself.

And I don't know about you, but if I'm going to be used as any, if I'm going to be described as any word in the Bible, I would love to be described as a word that God also used to describe himself.

It's not secondary.

It's not less than.

It is crucial.

It is vital.

It's a way that my husband cannot strengthen himself.

And it's a way that God described himself, a shield, a help.

So what's the wife's sacred call?

She's the helper.

What's her sacred call?

Her sacred call is completion.

In Genesis 2.18, the Lord God said what?

It is not good for man to be alone.

I will make a helper suitable for him.

When you look in Genesis and the creation story, God made light and darkness.

He's like, good.

He makes land and sea, right?

Good.

Vegetation, good.

Animals, good.

Man, good.

He's like, not good.

I mean, it's true.

I checked it.

I double checked this morning.

He just said, it's not good for you to be alone.

We were one of the first answers to a problem in the Bible.

That is not false.

Guys, it's true.

You guys are, it's not even, I didn't even mean it as a joke.

Sometimes I intentionally joke.

This is actually like accurate.

But women, your answer is to be embraced, not problems to be solved.

We were the first answer to a problem.

It's not good for man to be alone.

So he said, I'm going to create a helper suitable.

But for us to be the answer to a problem, we have to actually serve in our role and serve in our strength.

That's how you be the answer to the problem.

I was looking up what other things, so that you can fully understand this concept, what other things don't function well on their own?

Fire without oxygen.

Right?

If you want to put a fire out, you just snuff it.

You take out the oxygen and then fire's gone.

It can't be alone.

Do you know that the eye can't see very well without any light?

If you take light away, there's no sight.

I and light.

What about a seed?

If I just kept a seed in my hand, would it sprout?

No.

Seed needs to be planted in soil.

The Bible says truth needs to be paired with what?

Love.

Truth and love together.

Another one that I was thinking of is calling.

God places a calling on your life, right?

Every single one of us, when he created you, he said, this is going to be their calling.

This is going to be their calling.

This is what I have prophesied for you to do.

This is what my plans are for you.

But you have the calling, and then you have to have obedience.

The calling is never fulfilled in your life if you don't step forward in obedience, right?

We saw that video talking about discovery class that's happening right now where you can learn how to serve, how to use your gifts, how to impact other people.

And it said his life was changed.

Her life was changed.

Their story was changed all because what she said?

Yes.

Calling in obedience.

All things that were never meant to be alone or that aren't good when they're alone.

And I think so many of us women, for a long time, we felt the lie that we were the problem.

So then what do we do?

Then all of a sudden, there's a big feminist movement, right?

Of, well, I'm a feminist.

I was listening to something where a lady had on a t-shirt that said, the future is female.

But I started thinking that truly isn't loving our God-given role because a lot of times that movement means we're wanting man's role.

So we're not loving our femininity, we're just wanting man's role.

The future can't just be female because then there's no future at all.

The future has to be both male and female completing each other, right, for there to be a future.

Working together in our own God-given individual roles.

The future is male and female.

And our role is completion.

What's our specific focus?

Respect.

Respect.

Ephesians 5, 1 through 21 and 33 says, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

And then it says, wives specifically, submit to your husband as to the Lord.

For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church.

His body of which He is the Savior.

Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself.

And the wife must respect her husband.

Our specific focus is respect.

But when I was looking at this verse, something stuck out to me right in the beginning.

It says, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.

Wives, if you're not submitted to the Lord, it's gonna be really hard to find the strength to submit to your husband.

But when you submit under the Lord's authority, then it becomes easier because you're finding your strength in the Lord.

You're not finding your strength in your husband.

You're saying, okay, God, I'm submitted to you.

What do you want me to do?

And then everything else falls into place.

As the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands.

What does a church look like that's not submitted to Christ?

Chaos.

What does a house look like with a wife that's not submitted to her husband?

Chaos.

Now we look at this and I think, if you look at a house and you have no head, right?

Dan is called to be the head of our house.

What if you don't have a head?

That's a corpse.

It's a dead house, right?

And Dan spoke to this last week.

He said when God went into the Garden of Eden after Eve had sinned, but who was called out for Eve's sin?

Adam.

Adam.

And God said, where are you?

And what has he been saying to headless households for all of time?

Where are you?

He keeps saying, where are you?

So if you have a headless household, that's a corpse.

What if you have two heads?

That's a freak.

We don't want either.

So I did, I...

I told last service that I usually preach at youth every week.

Youth is really fun to preach at because they are extremely vocal.

Extremely.

And we have a few students right now that like to give constant feedback.

So I was preaching on dating the other week, and it was about how like, you know, Adam didn't have a girlfriend until he had a job.

He tilled the land before he got Eve, and the student was like, right?

And then I was like, and if you can't drive, you can't take her on a date.

If your mom's driving you, that's a play date.

And he was like, right?

And so our worship leader, Sam, decided he was going to take that role last service.

So every time I said something, it was right.

And I said, I feel more comfortable when people respond to me.

Because most of the time, well, even if they're not supposed to be responding in youth, they're responding anyways to each other.

So it's like I'm just used to a lot of conversation.

So thanks, Dan.

Anyways, so we don't want a headless household, and we don't want a household with two heads.

Either, thank you.

Either is very weird.

So women, stop trying to take your husband's seat at the table.

If you think about a dinner table and the husband is supposed to be at the head, I'm supposed to sit next to him.

And some of you are sitting in this saying, my husband's not a believer or my husband's not the spiritual leader.

So take the example, he's gotten up and he's left his seat at the table.

And some of you are like, well, he's not there, so here I am, eating your dinner, leading the whole household.

I'm the spiritual leader.

What happens one day when your husband says, I'm ready to step in.

I'm ready to be the spiritual leader.

There's no seat for him.

You've taken it.

So how does he feel like he can step back in and be the leader when you're there already?

And some of you are longing for your husbands to take it and they don't even feel like they have the ability anymore because you are trying to take the mantle that was never given to you.

You're trying to bear a burden that you actually weren't given the power to hold.

And you're wondering, why am I so tired?

Why am I so angry?

Why am I so burnt out?

Because God never gave you the strength to sit in that seat.

God gave your husband that strength.

And if he's not there yet, that's between him and the Lord.

That's not for you to step into.

I promise it's not a burden you want to bear.

And it's not one that you're called to bear.

Wives, you will watch your husband go from being a boy to a man when you start to be his wife and stop trying to be his mother.

If we want to have godly sons and godly husbands, we speak to the possibility of the man of God that they're growing into and stop nagging the one that we think is less than.

He goes like this.

Like, we're at the price of admission.

He claps because this one's really hard for me.

I remember one day when Dan came home and he said this so lovingly that it was like I couldn't even, I couldn't get angry.

He came home and he said, why is it that you have the ability to make everyone else feel like a million dollars, but you can't do it for me?

And I was like,

And then I started to think, what have I said to you today?

It was like, I probably made fun of you in staff meeting.

I probably ignored you at lunch.

I probably argued with something that you said in front of the kids.

I'm really good at nagging him and not speaking to the possibility of who he can be or not even speaking to the strengths that are already in him.

We need to become an expert in our husband's strengths, not their weaknesses.

And you know, when you focus on their weaknesses, all you're going to see are more weaknesses.

But when you focus on their strengths and when you speak into them, you're going to start to see more strengths.

And you know what they're going to want to do?

They're going to want to grow stronger.

It's like when you go to the gym and you start to see that first ripple.

And you're like, ooh, I'm going to up the weights.

That's what your husbands want to do when you start to acknowledge their strength.

They're like, I'm going to up the weights.

I'm going to start doing more.

I'm going to start growing into that man of God that they're seeing because that's who I want to be.

We were on a trip this week, and we were in line for a taxi, and I heard the woman behind me say to her husband, when we get in this cab, can you not tip him $5 on a $6 ride?

Like, just like that.

And I wasn't invited into this conversation, but I invited myself.

And I turned around and I said, it sounds like you have such a generous husband.

She's like, he does that all the time.

I was like,

It was that quiet.

So I was like, sounds like we should continue this conversation because we have nowhere else to go.

So I was like, did you guys enjoy the show?

We got to see Wizard of Oz at the Sphere.

It was really cool.

And I said, did you guys like it?

And the guy said, you know, today's my mom's birthday.

And she died a few years ago.

And this was the first movie she took me to as a kid.

So it was really special.

I was like, the wife.

I wish we could have seen It's a Wonderful Life.

I was like, this poor husband.

And then I thought, oh my gosh, I do that.

And I was so mad at her.

Dan can tell you, we got in the cab and I was fired up.

She was like yelling at a lady who came forward in a wheelchair and cut the line.

It was just absurd.

But I was mad.

And then all of a sudden, God brought to my mind a moment earlier in the day when we were standing and we were talking to this guy and he told us about all this money he had won in blackjack.

And I said, Dan, why can't you be more like him?

And in that moment, I cut down my husband's calling.

I cut down how hard he works.

I cut down his pride.

Thinking, this is just funny.

Like, why can't you be like him?

Not knowing if this man has a gambling addiction, I probably fed that in him.

And God said, you did the same thing earlier today.

And you're judging this woman now.

And you just cut down your husband in front of strangers.

Instead of saying, Dan, I love that this is what you called us to.

I love that we get to lead this church.

I love that we get a front row seat to people's lives change.

I never would have said yes to this if it wasn't for you prompting me.

I love that Vegas really probably isn't your thing.

I love that you don't have a gambling addiction and that you set a budget for our family and that you help us save and that you help us be wise with money.

Instead, I said, why can't you be more like him?

Wives, we have to be so careful.

Man, the words that come out of our mouth have the power to cut them down instantly.

We have to become an expert in their strengths.

And then I tell you, after that, they're going to want to keep getting stronger because they're going to know that it's recognized.

What's the wife's secret weapon?

Inner beauty and quiet strength.

You're like, did you just say quiet?

I know, right?

I'm not very quiet either, if you can't tell.

Peter 3, 1 through 7 says, So what if he isn't a believer, right?

We talked about what if his seats open at the table?

What if it's just an empty seat and you're trying to lead your kids?

You're dragging them to church by yourself.

You're praying over their beds at night all alone and the table's empty.

The head of the table is empty.

What do you do?

Dan spoke to this last week for what husbands do, right?

They win them over by the washing of the word.

That's how they win over their wives.

How do we win over our husbands?

By purity and actions.

So we keep going.

When we're tired, we keep getting up.

We keep showing up to church.

We keep taking our kids.

We keep praying at the table.

We keep praying over our husbands.

We keep blessing the house.

We keep playing worship music through it.

By our purity in actions, and you know what we do?

We get together with godly friends that are going to speak into the possibility of who your husband can be.

You don't get around a group that's going to bash him. that's going to say, let's drink a bunch of wine and talk about how terrible your husband treats you.

Because that feels good in the moment, right?

But then you still have to go home to that husband.

And then you're even more mad at him than you were when you left to go hang out with those friends.

So you get around some godly friends that say, hey, if we start praying for him, if we all start coming together and we start believing that God can do this,

You win them over by your faith and by your actions.

Because women, that 22-year-old on TikTok is not going to give you the best advice.

I want you to look for an old couple coming into church, maybe with gray hair.

They're holding hands.

They're rocking like 60 years of marriage.

Maybe they can't even stand for worship, but one hand is up.

And you're like, I'm going to talk to that woman.

You know who I always ask?

My grandma.

I'm like, man, she really grosses me out, but that woman knows how to have a healthy marriage.

And when I'm 86, I want to be just like that, and I'm sure Dan does too.

So I'm going to talk to her.

Right.

And I'm going to get around some people that are generations above me that are doing it really well. that are loving marriage, that are thriving.

And I'm going to start asking them questions because you know what I promise you?

Not all of their seasons were easy.

It's not like they just showed up and had to walk in the park for all of marriage.

They had to fight for that marriage.

And they're going to tell you how they did it.

Get around some people.

Get around some people.

In the church, that's what the church is for.

You can get a good message and you can get, you can't really get worship as great as you can in here, I'm sorry, online.

This worship is incredible.

You can get a message just like this online.

But you know what you can't get is this community.

You can't get these people that can pour into you.

They can come alongside of you.

They can check in on you.

They can say, how are you doing?

You got to get that in the church.

So I have a little, is it called an acronym?

I think it's called an acronym.

An acronym to help you remember how to be the helper.

H, women, what do you do to be his helper?

You hope in God alone.

You stop speaking to your husband as the source of all of your happiness because he's going to let you down, just like you're going to let him down.

But you start speaking to him out of the source.

You find all of your strength from God.

You hope in God alone, not in your husband alone, in God alone.

Then you encourage him with biblical truth.

How do you do that?

You got to be in the word to know the biblical truth.

You lavish your husband with affection.

I am not PDA and I have to make an effort.

But you know what I've started to love?

I've started to love some public hugs.

Yesterday we were in airborne, I was like, hug me.

He was like, what?

I was like, hug me.

And he did, and it was great.

Lavish your husband with affection.

Pray for him with conviction.

Stop treating prayer as your last line of defense, but as your first offense.

You wake up in the morning and you cover him with prayer.

Before he goes out the door, before he goes to work, you plead the blood of Jesus over your husband.

He has a heavy mantle that he's carrying and you pray over him.

You empower him with confidence.

You say, Dan, today you're gonna go slay dragons.

Anything that you need to do today, I believe that you can do it.

If no one else in the world is saying it to you, I want to be the one who's saying it to you.

You can do it.

God has called you to this, right?

You empower him with confidence and then you respect him with honor.

There's times I disagree with the way we parent.

I say the way we parent and I disagree with it.

Because I'm not going to let my kids know that I would do it differently.

Because he's the man of the house.

And you know what?

Our kids are a lot better because he's the one making the decisions.

Because I respect him with honor.

They have a better bedtime.

They eat healthier.

They actually know how to follow rules because Dan's the one in charge.

You respect him with honor.

Proverbs 27, 15 says, I want you to think of your least favorite noise.

For me, it's when someone has hands in a chip bag.

Everyone have their least favorite noise.

That's what it's saying a quarrelsome wife is.

It's that noise. over and over and over again and it makes you want to crawl out of your skin that lady in the taxi line wasn't even my wife weird statement never would be make that clear i wanted to crawl out of my skin in the 10 minutes i was in that line the dripping of water on a roof

A quarrelsome wife.

We don't want to be that, do we?

But Proverbs 12.4 says a wife of noble character is what?

Her husband's crown.

So he gets knighted before the king, right?

But what do we get to do?

We get to put his crown on his head.

What an honor it is to be the one to crown our husbands.

You know, my son, he's three, and his favorite thing to do right now is dress up.

And you know, as soon as he puts on that dinosaur, he's no longer Ollie.

What is he?

He's a dinosaur.

When he puts on that firefighter, what is he?

Shh.

When we put that crown on our husbands, what are we saying?

You're a king to me.

You are a king to this house.

You are a son of God and he crowns you as royalty.

And there's a five-year-old boy in every man in this room that when you dress them up, they're going to believe exactly who you say they are.

So let's be wives of noble character that put the crowns on their head.

Let's pray.

God, we thank you so much for your word.

We thank you that marriage was one of the first institutions in the Bible and that we get to witness it, we get to honor it, and we get to play a part in it.

God, I pray right now for strengthening of marriages.

God, for redemption of broken stories of marriages.

God, for the learning of young people of how to have a healthy marriage as they get older.

I pray right now that you would do a work in every single person in this room just through your word that is preached.

I thank you that you teach us how to have a beautiful love story.

But right now, if there's anyone in this room right now who has yet to put their faith in Jesus, I want to tell you that you can't truly experience a powerful love story here on earth if you haven't experienced yet the greatest love story of all time.

And that's that God sent his son to die for you to forgive you of all of your sins so that whoever believes in him will not perish but will have eternal life.

And so if that's you today, if you haven't put your faith in Jesus, I want to give you that opportunity today.

Or maybe you've walked away from him and you need to recommit your life to him.

So on the count of three, if that's you, I'm going to ask you to raise your hand with all heads bowed and all eyes closed so that we can pray a prayer together this morning.

And you'll know because the Bible says he knocks on the door of your heart.

It's like he's messing with you.

He's saying, this is your time, child.

Come home to me.

So on the count of three, you're going to raise your hand.

One.

Two, three.

You can shoot your hand up in the air if that's you, if you want to rededicate your life to Christ.

Amen.

I see your hands.

That's awesome.

What an honor it is to pray with you.

You can put your hands down from your heart to his.

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 spirit.

In Jesus' name.

And everybody said, Amen.

New Life Church, let's put our hands together for those who put their faith in Jesus.

Full Sermon Transcript

Man, I actually got some really good encouragement last week.

I don't know if you know this about preaching God's word, but you don't always get that.

Matter of fact, I shared with you that the first two weeks of this series will probably be a little bit offensive to the world and what the world teaches and thinks that marriage is and love is.

And then I told you last week that it would probably be a little bit more confrontational even within the church.

It's going to probably mess with some dynamics of what you believe about family and about husbands, about wives.

I just want to get out of the gates and just say, buckle up.

It's going to get saucy today.

And I'm going to tell you why it's that way.

It's because you have been taught and manipulated and you've been bought into a lie about what manhood is and what womanhood is.

And we're going to confront that today with the word of God.

Are you ready?

I had said, are you ready?

Okay, so you're like, I'm not sure until you say it.

So let me give you this out of the gates, right?

What was the first week of this series?