Oh, crossing family. It is so good to be with you.
I want to welcome all of you joining at one of our physical
locations and those of you watching online and those of you
who are part of a crossing inside, I get the opportunity
next weekend to go to the Vandalia prison.
So you guys be praying for that in the morning on Saturday to
preach an Easter message to the Vandalia crew.
I have no clue. I'm going in jail.
Might not come back out, guys, so pay attention.
This could be the last one. OK?
I've got priors. And not only that, it was great
to get some emails this week from some people who've been
watching online. This guy sent some message in
and he just says, I was at a friend's house and he invited me
to watch Church Online and I hadn't been to church in a
really long time. And he just sent out a message
saying thank you. So to those of you who are part
of our online family, we love you and we're so thankful we get
the opportunity to minister to you.
But I got to tell you, if you really want to grow in your
faith, making sure that you can find a group of believers that
you can meet with on a regular basis is going to help your
faith in a tremendous way. God never intended for you to do
the Christian life in the absence of community.
So whether that community is getting together with a bunch of
people or finding another church, we would love to help
you. But while you're hanging out
with us, we're super glad to have you.
I also want to welcome those of you joining for the first time
or the first time in a long time.
And if you're here and you've never been a part of our church,
I want to encourage you take advantage of the QR code on the
seat in front of you. It's a great way for you to get
connected. And if you call this church
home, we update that thing all the time where there's new
opportunities and new ways for you to get connected or
involved. And one of them is camp.
Registration is open. And I want to tell you one of
the best things you can do as a parent is prioritize and invest
in the spiritual development of your children.
I know that there's you got a busy season, busy calendars.
We get it. Jennifer and I have it too.
And you wanted kids to do volleyball camp and baseball
camp and all that stuff. That's great.
I just want you to know there's like a 0% chance that your kids
going to GoPro and whatever it is you're spending money on that
I don't how many of you know, like know, like in your family
you have a professional baseball player Thursday night?
I said how many of you guys know a professional dancer?
And I was like, that was, I should have come up with a
better illustration because I was like, I don't necessarily
want that to be the visual that you guys are coming up to slide
two of my sermon. And.
But there's 100% chance that your son or daughter is going to
need to have an intimate personal relationship with Jesus
Christ. There's 100% chance that their
future spouse is going to need somebody who is grounded in the
word of God. And so I want you to encourage
you to do exactly what Jennifer and I do, which is we prioritize
and we invest in the spiritual development of our children.
And we believe that time away dedicated towards spiritual
development is the fastest way to make that happen.
And so every single year, Jennifer and I make a strategic
investment in our kids and then we also make a strategic
investment to make sure that other kids can go.
And if you want to join Jennifer and I on either one of those,
you can do that on the QR code. Now when we started this 50 for
50 journey and for those of you who are new to our church since
we started, we're just glad you're here.
But some of us have been kind of doing something for 50 days.
We've been spending 50 minutes a day for 50 days trying to GoPro
in our faith. And when we talk about going
pro, this is what we're talking about.
Amateurs make decisions based on their emotions.
Pros make decisions based on their commitments.
So sometimes you're like, I don't feel like praying that's
been an amateur. Sometimes you're going to be
like, man, I don't feel like working out.
That's been an amateur. Sometimes you're like, I don't
feel like reading my Bible. Well, if we made all of our
decisions based on our feelings, we would be complete messes.
But if we go, you know what, I'm going to make some commitments
that this is the kind of person that I want to be.
This is the kind of follower of Jesus that I want to be.
And it has been crazy to hear some of the cool wind stories
from our different locations. A lady in Macomb did her first
24 hour fast and she said she had one of her best encounters
with God that she's ever had. A person in Monmouth said he had
never read the Bible more than two days in a row and he hasn't
missed since we started the journey.
There was a person in Jacksonville who took the sermon
on physical fitness and loving God with our with our strength
seriously. And every single day they're
posting an encouragement and for accountability, the physical
fitness journey that they're going on.
But one of my favorite stories happened right in front of us
last weekend when we were celebrating our fifty year
anniversary on and we were talking about prayer.
A guy came up to the steps after first service and he started to
pray that his nephew's heart would be softened and that he'd
begin our relationship with Jesus Christ.
And so he's just at the steps praying like lots of you guys
are up with the steps praying he gets done.
He goes back and his nephew would come with him to church
that day. And so he sits down next to his
wife and then it's the nephew's on the other side of the wife.
And after the service is over, this kids just got tears running
down his face and they're like they start talking.
What's going on? I need this.
I need a relationship with Jesus Christ.
And so after first service, before second service ended or
started, this kid said I want to start an intimate, personal
relationship with Jesus Christ. We walked him up to the
baptistry. We made it happen.
God still answers prayers. Don't you think?
For a second he's not. So today we begin the last two
weeks of this sermon series, and I think they're the most
important of two weeks of this entire series.
And today is going to kind of function as part one and next
week will function as Part 2. And so if at the end of this,
when you're like, I feel like there was more that should be
said, you should come back next week.
And I want to tell you this, next week I will be sharing the
stage with a dear friend who has an incredibly powerful story
that will benefit and minister to every single one of you.
Every single person needs to hear the story.
We're going to be getting together this week and working
on it, but you will be blessed. And so I want to encourage you
to be back here next weekend. And then right after that, it's
Easter at The Crossing. It's not just Easter at The
Crossing, it'll be Easter everywhere, but we will be
celebrating Easter here at The Crossing.
And if you haven't picked which service you're going to, you can
go to thecrossing.net/easter cause a lot of our locations are
going to have a lot of different service times and I want to make
sure that you get the right one. And if you are a person who
loves Jesus, we're asking you to do 4 things.
Bring someone park far away, serve somewhere and pray.
And some of you, there's a special ministry that we're
going to invite you to because there's going to be some people
who aren't going to park far away.
And So what we want to do is we want to recruit.
Have you ever seen, like, that judgy face that grandmas get?
You know what I'm talking about? Like they see what you didn't.
We'd like to recruit some of you to serve in a ministry that
shames people who park too close.
So we're just going to position people with white hair.
It different strategically throughout our parking lot and
you're just going to be out there, OK.
So there's a ministry opportunity for everybody here
at the crossing. OK.
And and if you're thinking I wasn't talking to you, your
family will tell you, OK, they've seen the look.
They've seen the look on your face.
But today we are going to talk about the last words of Jesus
while he was here on earth. And I know that for most of you
we don't need to talk too much about the significance of last
words. Because you get it.
If you were to find out that today was your last day, what
would be your last words? What would you say to your
spouse? What would you say to your
friends? What would you say to your kids?
Now push past the I love you. Like what coaching would you
give them? What advice?
What would be the last nugget of wisdom that you'd want to
deposit? What would be the thing that you
would say to them, that would guide them and that would direct
them? Many years ago on this very
stage, I was ordained in the ministry, and the man who spoke
at my ordination was a man by the name of Roy Weiss.
Roy had mentored my father and was respected all across the
country as a man of God. And he had a deep voice that my
father would emulate whenever I was in trouble.
So my dad would talk like a normal human being until I did
something bad, and then he would go into his Roy voice.
No. Clayton, can you explain to me
why you would do this and bring shame on the whole family tree?
OK. I was like, Dad, that's Roy, OK?
And when Roy would speak, he'd have his hands in like a blade,
and he would get up on his tip toes and he would just stand in
the center and he would just preach a deep message.
And his sermons were transformative.
But what was more transformative was the way that he lived his
life. In fact, he had a success in
ministry and in life that few people I've ever heard of have
experienced. You see, he started a campus
ministry at the University of Missouri and in Columbia.
And the primary goal of his ministry was to teach.
You guys have heard this to teach people that God is real,
Jesus is alive, and the Bible is true.
You've heard me talk about that before at our church.
I got that from Roy. Over 38 years, thousands of kids
left his college ministry to go on become leaders in churches
all across the country. His sermons and hundreds of
churches were incredibly powerful, and the thing that
impressed people the most was how he had entire books of the
Bible committed to memory. His family served together
weekly, visiting prisons, nursing homes and they took on a
regular occasion they would take in Vietnamese refugees to live
in their house. Once 2 Jehovah's Witnesses
called him because they wanted to talk to him.
And he said, I'm a Jehovah's Witness too.
My God is Jehovah and I love to witness for him.
And two hours later he took him out and they accepted Jesus
Christ and got baptized. He's that kind of guy, all
right. And in Roy's lifetime, in
one-on-one conversations, he baptized over 10,000 people.
I've never heard of anybody like him, and my ordination was his
last public speaking engagement. Soon thereafter, he was
diagnosed with cancer, and because of a huge mistake that
the doctors made, it went from being something that was going
to be treatable to something that was going to be terminal.
Instead of suing the doctors and nurses, he asked for an
opportunity to meet with them so he could share the gospel with
them. He's this kind of guy.
As Roy's time on earth was coming to a close, he invited
all of his kids, all of their spouses, and all of his
grandkids into the room. And Roy talked to them about his
love for them and his love for the Lord and the joy and the
privilege of being a Christian and following after Jesus.
And then he said, my time on earth is drawing to a close and
I am finally going to be reunited with my Lord and Savior
Jesus in heaven. But before I go, I need to know.
And then he went one by one and asked this question of every
kid, of every spouse, of every grandkid.
Will you meet me there? And waited for their response.
The last words of this family talking to Roy Weiss was him
asking the question, will you meet me there?
This series has been built around 2 critical sets of
verses. The first one's mark Chapter 12.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,
with all your mind and with all your strength.
The 2nd is this. Love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no commandment greater than these.
And if we're really going to love God with our all, that
means that we should take His last words seriously.
And what were His last words? They're the second set of verses
that have guided us this entire series, Matthew, chapter 28.
Then Jesus came to them and said all authority in heaven and on
earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey
everything I have commanded you, and surely I'm with you always
to the very end of the age. If we are going to call
ourselves Christians, we must be in the business of making
disciples, in making people followers of Jesus.
Some of you might be asking, well, how do you make a
disciple? How do you make a follower of
Jesus? Guess what?
Jesus gives us the answer. We make disciples by going by
baptizing and by teaching people to obey.
That means that as Christians, there should be evidence in our
lives through our going as we go into our homes, as we go into
our neighborhoods, as we go on our travel teams, as we show up
in business meetings with the intentionality of pointing
people to Jesus every single day, you and I have an
opportunity to appoint someone to Jesus to introduce them to
Jesus over time. The result of that kind of
intentionality should be them being brought to a point of
decision where they say, you know what, I'm going to make a
decision to follow Jesus or not. And that would be evidenced by
whether or not they're going to be obedient in the area of
baptism. But when that happens, it's not
over. We continue to teach them to
obey the word of God and the Spirit of God.
And this is where it gets kind of tricky for us as Christians,
because for years many of us have confused maturity in Christ
because we think that maturity equals knowledge.
Now let me say this up front, because I don't want an e-mail.
Knowledge about Jesus is not bad.
How many of you want to know more about the woman you
married? Dear God, we need some help
there, right? Like I, there's so much I don't
know because I keep doing things wrong, evidently, right?
I don't even fold towels anymore.
I just start and then she takes over.
OK, anyhow, maturity is somebody just Amen to me.
God bless you. I I love this church.
OK, so knowledge is not enough. You're like, you know what?
I want to know more about God. That's great, but that's not the
end goal, and it never has been. It's not been more about how
much knowledge about God can you cram into your head.
We go to church and we listen to the sermon so we can know more
about Jesus. We signed up for a Bible study
because we want to know more about the Bible.
We watch a sermon on YouTube about a specific topic because
we want to know more about this biblical topic.
And all of this is good. Don't hear me?
This is a good thing. It's a worthy goal, but it's not
the end goal. Maturity is not so much about
knowledge. Maturity is not measured by
knowledge, but by obedience. I'd wonder if I were to rank you
on a scale of zero to 1010 being the highest.
And I would have just said if maturity is knowledge, how many
of you would have given yourself a really high score?
And then I were to say, OK, well, what if we were to measure
maturity by obedience, actually putting into practice what you
know? Would you have still given
yourself a really high score? We are actually warned in
scripture that knowledge without obedience is worthless and
dangerous. I'm going to read one of those
tough passages. I hope you guys are here next
week. Luke, Chapter 12.
The servant who knows the Master's will knowledge and does
not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be
beaten with many blows. Jesus is giving you an
illustration and he's going. Knowing what you're supposed to
do and not doing it will get you in trouble.
Let's keep reading, but the one who does not know and does
things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows.
In other words, if you're knowledgeable but you don't
actually apply it, you're going to get in more trouble than the
person who doesn't know and messes up from everyone who has
been given much. Much will be demanded, and from
the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be
asked global Christianity. We are some of the most elite
consumers of knowledge. We have access in ways that
other countries would envy. We know so much, but we struggle
to obey. And we know this to be true.
How many of us know how to eat right?
Don't raise your hand. I'll just do this for me, but
fail to do it. How many of us know that being
bitter hurts us more than it hurts the person that we're
bitter at, but we stay bitter anyway?
How many of us know that selfishness is a relationship
destroyer and leads to loneliness, but we act selfishly
anyway? You can know something and not
obey it. It happens all the time.
So instead of maturity, we should focus on faithfulness.
Our goal should not be hey, I'm going to become mature and just
know a whole lot. What we should focus on is am I
being faithful to what I know? And a disciple, a follower of
Jesus, if you want to call yourself a Christian, should
have evidence in at least three areas.
I'm not saying these are the only three, but these are like
the big three. So the first one, this is good
news for us because you guys probably already have an A+
knowledge. We should know God's word.
We should read God's word. We should gain an understanding
of who God is, who Jesus is, and what they have done on our
behalf to bring about our salvation and the desires that
they have for us to walk out in our everyday life.
But knowledge is not enough. We also need to apply it to be
obedient to the scriptures. This is the story of the wise
and foolish builders. And listen, I know some of you
who've been coming to our church for a really long time.
You're like Clayton. Do you really talk about this
chunk of scripture, like, every two months?
Yeah, because it's that good. And there's a lot of people in
our church who have never been here before that they don't know
it yet. So I'm going to say for them.
So if you're already a master at this verse, just stand up so we
can all look at you and OK, OK, just watch this with me,
Matthew, Chapter 7. Therefore everyone who hears
these words of mine and puts them into practice, this is
obedience is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
The rain came down, the streams rose, the winds blew and beat
against that house, yet it did not fall because it had its
foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these
words of mine and does not put them into practice is like, you
guys say this word. I didn't want to call you that
man who built his house on the sand.
The rain came down, the streams rose, the winds blew and beat
against that house, and it fell with a great crash.
Now let me show you something. Some of you are going to be
tempted to go, man, when I follow Jesus Christ, it's just
going to be up and to the right. It's just going to be Skittles
and rainbows for the rest of my days, right?
And then you started your relationship with Jesus Christ
and you're like, hey, it's raining.
No, listen, watch. Watch both of them heard.
Both of them experienced rain. Both of them had a stream rise
on them. Both of them had winds blow that
beat against the house. Both of them went through the
same stuff. One decided to obey and at the
end of the storm was still standing.
One chose not to obey, and at the end of the exact same storm,
their house fell with a great crash.
Now, there are definitely things that happen when you start an
intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ and you
receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
It keeps you out of certain storms, and we are incredibly
thankful for it. But I need you to know this,
because we're not like a health and wealth church here.
If you follow Jesus, the Bible tells you that you could be
persecuted, that you'll experience hardship, that you
may lose things, you may have to take a stand that other people
don't have to take a stand for. And just so you know, God
promises in His word that he sees it and he will reward you
for it. But whether you're a Christian
or not, people that you care about and you love are still
going to die. Whether you love Jesus or don't
love Jesus, you're still going to have people in business rip
you off. You're still going to have
employees steal from you. Whether you're a Christian or
you're not, your kids are still going to act up and have to be
13. Like when you become a
Christian. Your kids don't just go
91011151617. We have to go through all the
years of demon possession just like everybody else.
The difference is, is we go through the storms with Christ,
and when we take what Christ has given us and we apply it to our
lives, the assurance that we have is after the storm will
still be standing. That is what knowledge plus
application gives us. Now you can You can spend all
the time and energy you want watching videos of how to play
poker. And you can spend all the energy
you want to in the world watching people teach on how to
pitch a fastball or a curveball or a slider.
And you can watch all the videos in the world about how to hit a
volleyball. You can watch them all, and you
can learn from the very best in the world.
But until you begin to put it into practice, the knowledge is
of no value. It does not serve any purpose.
So once we are applying what we are learning, the Bible commands
us to share it, to tell people about it.
We were not just to be people who breathe in.
We're to be people that breathe out.
We're not just supposed to be consumers, but distributors of
all that God wants to do. And how could you and I possibly
say that we love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and
strength and not share the love of God to the very people that
Jesus died on the cross for? This is what a Christian life
should look like. Knowledge and application,
obedience and sharing equals faithfulness.
That when we are doing all three of those things, we're learning
about God, we're applying what we learn about God, and we're
sharing with people around us. That would make you and I
faithful followers to Jesus. What happens if you only go one
out of three? What happens if you go two out
of three? Let me show you what happens if
you just go two out of three. Watch.
I'm learning about God. I'm applying it to my life, but
I'm not sharing it. You know what that makes us
selfish means our heart is more concerned with ourselves than
the eternal destination of the people around us.
For us to know the truth, to experience the blessings of
living it out and not share the blessings of a life with God,
with the people around us, makes us incredibly selfish people.
You guys have probably seen this one more than the other one.
Knowledge sharing, but no application.
They make hypocrites. How many of you?
Carefully, How many of you know of a hypocrite?
OK, we just not participating today like it's Saint Patty's
Day. We did a bar crawl last night.
We're just here. Be glad we're here.
OK. And I'm wearing green.
I've got green batteries because if you punch me, I'll knock you
out. OK, Now how many of you know a
hypocrite? OK, how many of you are married
to him? Wow, I got a couple of you.
Oh, you're going home alone. All right, now there's a real
tension here, isn't there? Because not only do we know
hypocrites, we've been hypocrites.
I was having a conversation with a guy last week, and he was
talking about some of the pressure that he's been
receiving for coming to The Crossing from people in his
family circle. And they belong to a different
kind of church. And what they said is The
Crossing is where people go who've had a divorce or
committed an affair. And I was kind of like, yeah,
that's us. We're also for the bad dads and
the gossipy moms. We're also for the drunks and
the one finger wagging drivers. We're for the porn watchers and
the unkind, uneducated keyboard warriors.
We're for you too. We're for the coaches who cuts
too much at practice and for the parents who get out of pocket on
the sidelines. We're those kind of people.
We one time had a guy in Macomb get so excited about what God
was doing his life that when we did our Easter stuff, he went
out and he put our Come to the Crossing for Easter sign on his
tailgate, which was awesome. Problem is, it was right next to
a Confederate flag and I had a biracial daughter and I'm kind
of the sun will rise again, the South will rise again, or kind
of in conflict with one another. And I don't.
I didn't really have the heart to rip it off, but I was going
this is not the advertisement that I want.
We had a guy locally wearing a crossing shirt, do a dine and
dash and get caught on security camera and everybody blasted it.
The cool thing is like three people in our church all called
to try and pick up the tab for the guy who dined and dashed.
And if you're thinking of a cheap way to eat, just do that
because we feel guilty to preserve our reputation.
I'm just going to ask you to keep it under 50, OK?
You don't need the queso, all right?
I don't know how many people when I was the pastor up in
Macomb got pulled over for drunk driving wearing our crossing
gear. It was like the uniform for
drunks in Macomb. And I need you to hear me.
We are for you. If you meet somebody that you're
going, no church would take them.
You had better know deep in your heart You can bring them here.
But it shouldn't stay that way. That you and I, when we leave
this place, we represent Christ, and people are making their
decisions about Jesus by how you and I conduct ourselves.
We should be the best employees, not the worst ones.
We should be the best bosses, not the worst ones.
We should be the very best drivers.
That's why we're not doing stickers.
Because I've watched you in our own parking lots.
I don't want that. Oh yeah, there's people cutting
me off. They go to the crossing like, I
don't want to get cut off on Sunday.
I'm already getting cut off all six days out of the week.
Hear me, the way you and I behave, the way we obey the
teachings, they're like, oh, you're seriously excited about
Jesus, but you're not applying any of what you learn about
Jesus. We should be the best at
forgiveness. We should be the best at
sacrifice. We should be the best at
selflessness. So hear me.
I got no problem for us being the church that welcomes in
jacked up people, because if we didn't allow jacked up people,
you'd just be standing at an empty stage.
But we should love the Lord our God enough to trust him to take
what He's given to us and put it into our life and live it out.
And then people can see the proof and the way we live when
we share it, that we should have a different ethic.
You and I should have different priorities.
We should walk a different path. Drew Moore, a dear friend who
was talking to some of us here on staff, recently asked this
question. Are you a disciple worth
reproducing? If somebody were to live the way
you live, would they get closer to Jesus, or would they stay the
same? Or would they fall apart?
Would the only difference be what you do on the weekend for
75 minutes versus them? When it comes to making a
disciple, I've heard many, many times, and I've felt this many,
many times myself, that you just don't know enough.
Like how could I possibly make a disciple or a follower of Jesus?
I just don't know enough. See, we prioritize knowledge,
but what if it's not an issue of knowledge?
What if it's an issue of obedience?
What if making a disciple is living out what we've already
known in our heads and starting to live it out in our experience
and then applying it in our lives?
A ministry friend who I hope to have come preach here next year
is working in India and he is pioneering A discipleship making
movement in India with radical results.
And he talks about duckling discipleship.
And this is what he means by duckling discipleship.
OK, I did this last on Thursday, and somebody's already made me a
shirt because I said, you know, Jesus is my duck.
OK, this is not you. If you're thinking, Oh my
goodness, I don't think I can leave.
No, you're here. This is Jesus.
OK, Jesus is the big duck. Now, does this duck know
everything? No, It just knows that that's
where Jesus is. And it's going.
I'm going where Jesus is. Now, watch, watch, watch, watch,
watch, watch. What does this duck know?
This ducks us. Actually, this ducks the crop
Saint Patty's day. All right, that's that's mostly
us. But let's just say you're here.
All right, How much does this guy know?
Not a whole lot. He's just being obedient to what
he knows. Which is the duck in front of
me's one step ahead of me. That's duckling discipleship.
If I'm just obedient to what I know, when you read the Bible
and gain knowledge, and you become obedient to that, and
then you share that obedience with the duck behind you and you
go like this, they can go one step forward.
I don't happen to know everything and you might be on
Clayton. This is great because I love the
fact that I'm not responsible for knowing everything, I'm just
responsible for being obedient to what I already know.
But how could it possibly be effective?
Well, this is what it would create.
It would create a group of people who were following Jesus,
who would invest in a group of people who would want to follow
Jesus. And you don't have to know
everything to start making a family tree or a spiritual
family tree. So my friend in India, he has
24,000 of these not people groups, 24,000 groups of people
who are following Jesus. Now this is going to mess some
of you up because it's messing me up.
Some of the people who've started, like, you know, 200
churches have never read the Old Testament.
You want to know why they haven't got there yet.
In the last two to four years, they've been opening up their
New Testament. They've been reading it.
They've been obedient to what it says, and they've been telling
people about it. And other people are like, yeah,
I want to go with you on the journey.
And then they read the next chunk of scripture, and they're
obedient to that, and they tell people about it and they get
some people together who want to go on the journey, and then they
read the next passage of scripture.
We're thinking, man, I don't know if I could do anything for
God until I have the whole Bible memorized.
They're going well, I'm just going to be obedient to what I'm
seeing right in front of me. But there are entire churches
that are being born in India of people who haven't even read the
entire Bible yet. They're just duckling disciples.
They're reading the Bible, and they're being obedient to it,
and then they're trying to share it with as many people as
possible. Going and making disciples is
not an option for us. These are our marching orders
from our commanding officer. This is a directive from the
Creator of the universe. This is the plea of the one who
died on the cross on behalf of you and me.
The one who loved us when we were unlovely, The one who made
us worthy, redeemed us, saved us.
And because of that, how could you and I do anything less?
What worthy mission could beat that for us to expand our lives
than to know God, obey God, and share it with the people we love
the most? I believe that if we were to do
that, I think if every single person in all of our locations
were to spend time knowing God, obeying him, and sharing him, we
would experience the transformation not only in the
world that we desperately want, but the transformation in us
that is long overdue. We're moving to a time a
decision. There are some of you in here
right now and some of you watching online who have never
started an intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ,
and I need you. I need you to hear me.
One of the greatest gifts that you can give your family, One of
the greatest gifts that you can give your friends is the
knowledge of where you will spend eternity.
And Roy Weiss looking at his kids.
His final question is, will you meet me there?
And how would you answer that question today if one of the
people in your life were to say so?
What's going to happen after you die?
Will you meet me there? And this is the most spiritually
contested time at our church, because I basically say about 25
different things every single week.
It's like 1 of 25. I'm like a used car salesman.
Well, I'm not new. Jesus isn't used.
He's new. Well, he makes you new and nor
the illustration. I say about 25 things, OK.
And it is amazing to me how frequently I hear people say
back to me something I never said.
Satan uses this moment to twist things up in your life, to slow
things up in your life, to get you to think that I'm saying
something that I'm not saying. And so for just a second, I want
you to hear me. If you're in here and you don't
have a relationship with Jesus Christ, I just want you to know
that I firmly believe that there is no greater way to experience
life and purpose and fulfillment, joy and
satisfaction. There's no better way than
inside of an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
That's just that's just what life on earth is like.
But we're not just talking about earthly things.
We're talking about eternal things.
And the Bible clearly states that it is destined for man to
die once and then to face judgment.
And when you die, you will stand in front of a righteous and holy
God. And you can stand on your own
merit, or you can stand on the merit of Christ who became sin
for us, who took our iniquities. All the things that you've done
bad, the things you know you've done bad, the things that you've
told other people, the things that they've read in the
newspaper, that's just part of it.
He knows everything you've done. The dark stuff you've done, the
stuff that nobody knows that you've done.
The Bible says that everything is uncovered and laid bare
before him. There is no evil secret thought
that's been hidden from God. And that should terrify us,
because we've fought evil things.
If the people around us knew all the things that we thought in
our heads, they would run from us.
And those things stand in judgment against us from a God
who requires perfection. But look at me.
Instead of running from you, God ran to you in the person and the
work of Jesus Christ. He went to the dark places of
your soul that nobody dares go, including you, and said, I will
die for that, I'll save it, I'll redeem it, I'll repurpose it,
and he opens up his hand and says, give it to me.
And what some of you think, 'cause I hear it all the time,
is you got to get some stuff figured out first, and then you
can start that relationship with Jesus.
But if you could figure it out, God wouldn't have had to send
Jesus if you could fix you. How many of you guys let me just
talk to guys, Women. Just listen in, guys.
How many of you have ever tried to fix something on your car or
your house? Keep your hands up.
If it didn't go the way it was supposed to, keep your hand up.
If it got more expensive than you originally anticipated, How
many of you have received a ban from your wife on continuing to
try and fix things? Yeah, Jennifer's over here going
preach. Our earthly methods aren't going
to work when we're dealing with spiritual and eternal realities.
So you have a choice. You can make it worse, or you
can make it. Gods take your sin, take your
mess ups, take your insecurities, take your dark
thoughts, and you can make it worse.
Or you can go God, Are you sure you want all of me?
You want every part, every nook and cranny, every bad thing.
And God's going, Yup, I want it. I wanted so much that I sent my
son to get it. And you're trying to earn a love
from God that you can't earn. That's freely given.
And if you're here today and you have never started an intimate
personal relationship with Jesus, my testimony.
You'll hear this again on Easter.
My testimony is 2 phrases. And if you're a part of this
church and you believe what I'm saying, you can uh huh.
With me if the greatest decision you've ever made.
Is starting a relationship with Jesus Christ, can I get an AHA?
And if your biggest regret is that you didn't do it sooner,
can I get an AHA? Hear that testimony?
It's not just mine. It's people in every row in this
auditorium. And if you've never started,
walk right over there by the Baptist.
As soon as the people get up to pray and find and start that
relationship, that makes all the difference.
To the rest of you, to the Christians, I'm asking you to do
one simple thing. I'm asking you to pray whether
you come up here to the steps and you pray whether you get
down on one knee in the seat that you're in.
Maybe you go over to the bathroom, put your hand in the
water, maybe you step out and you put your hand up against the
wall so you can just kind of be away from people for a second.
Go, God, I want to make a disciple.
I want people to find what I found in you.
Help me to know, help me to obey, and help me to share.
The world that you guys are desperately wanting to see is
waiting for us to take our faith seriously.
Would you stand with me, God bring a holy repentance on this
church and on me for every area of our life that isn't yielded
to you? God help us to take seriously
the call that you're offering to us.
God help us to take seriously our faith and the implications
of those who don't have one. God help us to be people that
pursue you and pursue the people you came to die for.
God, shift us, mold us, move us to become the people that you
called us and destined us to be. Because at the end of the day,
God, we're just nothing without you and God.
I know that this time in our church is special every single
week. And so I'm just going to ask you
to do what only you can do in ways that only you can do it.
And hopefully, Heavenly Father, you'll start a fire in this
church that Satan can't put out. In your name, I pray.
Amen.