All right. How's everybody doing, well?
It's good to see you Crossing Church.
I hope you're doing well. It's exciting to be in the house
of the Lord, with the people of the Lord were celebrating two
anniversaries today Mount Sterling, nine years thankful,
father for that and Hannibal, 11 years.
So we're thankful for both of you all the impact that you do
in the communities that you you serve and together as a body of
Believers, we get to serve 10,000 square miles of
communities and it's just absolutely incredible.
It's incredible to be part of this church family.
I'm so glad that you're here. We want to welcome your Insider
online as well and that together we can be one body serving the
lord and learning from the Lord together.
So on Thursday I Preach this message and it began with
talking about people being canceled and there was this look
on people's faces and I don't know you.
I don't know if you know what this feels like but I'm standing
up here and I'm saying stuff and people are kind of looking at
me. And I'm like and I as I'm going
through this and I'm going to do, you know what it means to be
cancelled. And how many of you don't know
what that means? And there's a bunch of hands
that actually went up. So I want to explain it so that,
you know, you're with me on the front end so American culture,
maybe culture in general World culture.
If you do something that you shouldn't do or these the
culture perceives that you shouldn't do or say something
that you shouldn't say that doesn't fit in with like
whatever the culture. Saying the norm is then there is
like a, there's something that culture can do to you.
And that is cancel you, which is which means that that, you know,
you'll lose your job, you'll lose your.
Whatever means that you have to communicate with other people,
you may be eliminated from social media, you know?
And all of those things together would be defining what being
canceled is, okay. Okay, and it's happened a lot in
our culture and people do get cancelled for all sorts of
reasons. And right now, if you're
watching TV and you maybe into this, you may not be into this.
There's this big trial going on between Johnny Depp and Amber
Heard and it's a 50 million dollar defamation lawsuit.
That Johnny Depp is bringing because allegations were made on
social media that he was. Abusive to his former wife,
Amber, and because of that, he lost opportunities to be able to
star in major Motion Pictures and now all the stuff is coming
out and it's cray-cray, right? It's like whoa.
Like the the stories that if you're listening to any of that
the stories that you're hearing is like wow and it all goes back
to Johnny Depp being cancelled but there's a lot of people
famous people that have been old JK Rowling was the the author of
all the Harry Potter and Potter novels was canceled because she
made comments about trans culture, Ellen DeGeneres
canceled because of a toxic work environment.
Lots of people cancelled over sexual misconduct like Harvey.
Weinstein are Kelly, Louis, c.k. Kevin Spacey Bill O'Reilly
Justin Timberlake, you go on and on and on people being canceled
for that sexual misconduct even a former president was Canceled.
So, and when you think about this cancel culture, some of
these, I think, for many of us are very understandable, but
some of them, we might have different opinions even argue
about it because you'll have an opinion about whether or not
someone should have been or should not have been canceled.
Now, we live in a, in a, in a culture in an age where this is
the reality and it kind of goes along with political
correctness. Correctness and doxing you can
look that if you don't that is gaslighting that to political
and class polarization. And we might be want to be very
careful about what we say or what we post because we don't
want to upset the wrong people, right?
And if we do upset the wrong people what might happen to us.
Yeah, you might get cancelled and nobody wants to be
cancelled, right? And with social media, it is
pretty easy for people to say, all kinds of things about you.
That may or may not be true, right?
And then, if they do on social media, there really is very
little, if any recourse to defend oneself, it's just
something that you have to, you have to put up with I mean,
wouldn't we all agree that there's a lot of trolls on
social media? And you don't want to get into a
fight with a troll, you don't want to get into a match with a
skunk because you're going to end up, stinking, right?
And so, what do you do? How do you respond?
Even this church is not exempt from forms of canceling, or
doxing, or gaslighting. We endured incredible opposition
last year. When a covid outbreak happened
at our camp, every major news Outlet carried stories about us.
Now, that was happening at camps all across the country, but we
were the ones that got all this coverage and it was hard.
I mean, people, I mean saying all kinds of evil things.
I mean you can't even imagine some of the emails that we
received as a church because of that.
But before I paint this Church as a victim in full disclosure.
I want you to know that there have been times in the past
where this church is cancelled people.
What Yeah, there's been times when we've had a sincere belief,
that there was a legitimate physical danger, that someone
would pose, if they came in, like, we've been threatened, or
something like that or there were people that were seeking to
divide us with false teaching or something.
And in the past, there have been times for the safety of our
congregation, we've actually canceled P.
We said you can't come to any of our locations, and I would say
that in the past 25 years, that's happened, less than 20
times. Times, but it has happened.
All that to say, we are what we should be.
Well, aware of this reality, this, this reality of cancelled
culture. So, with that in mind, today, I
want to talk to you about the most famous person of all time
that was canceled. And cancelled, literally in
every way a person could be canceled and what that
cancellation means to you. Jesus was canceled.
You follow and I follow. The one person who was cancelled
above all others in this series, that we're going through right
now, it's called surrounded. And what we've been exploring is
the various groups or individuals that surrounded
Jesus in his ministry and like last week when Clayton was
preaching was talking about his disciples and you know I think
that's kind of a positive look, but I'm taking the opposite of
that today and taking a look at the negative because This was
also surrounded with people who opposed him.
He was surrounded by opposition. And I don't know if we ever let
it sink in just how saturated Jesus is environment was
constantly with opposition and I'd like to start by kind of
proving that to you, okay? So Jesus was opposed even before
he was born. I mean, how many of us can say
that that we were opposed before we were born?
If you look back at the gospel narrative, what you'll find is
that Joseph and Mary. Endured all of this opposition
from family, friends, and neighbors while she was
pregnant. Now, some of that may have been
understandable at the time, because he or she is a girl of
fourteen or fifteen, she's betrothed to Joseph and then she
turns up pregnant and she tells her family.
It's by the Holy Spirit. Now, I'm sure that that would
have been a hard one for them to believe.
As a matter of fact, they didn't believe it.
If you look at the inference of the rest of the Gospel
narrative, you'll see that they actually didn't believe in it
and I'll tell you why, because they went to Bethlehem in order
to register for the census in, Jesus was born there.
So she was in her. Third trimester was late term
when she had to make that trip. But it would that that census
was for everyone. Who was of the house and the
lineage of David, the king, and both, she and her family, and
Joseph. And his family were of that
lineage. Which means their entire Clan,
their entire family would have had to go from where they were
living up in that area of Nazareth, all the way down to
Bethlehem to register for the census, which means they should
have traveled together. But when you read the gospel
narrative, you find that Mary and Joseph are alone.
And when they get down to Bethlehem, they can't find
lodging. Why are they alone?
Why wouldn't a girl of fourteen or fifteen?
That's getting ready to deliver a child want to be with her
family to help her in that delivery?
The inference of God's word is that they had been completely
canceled. By their family.
Jesus was opposed when he was still in utero opposed when he
hadn't even been born yet. Jesus was opposed at his birth
and as a baby how are you opposed?
I mean all babies are just, you know, they're beautiful cute.
Right, how could you be opposed as an infant?
Well, you may recall that the wise men came soon after Jesus
was born and they went to Herod the king and they said, where is
he? Who is born?
King of the Jews? Herod's thinking to himself?
What? The king of the Jews?
And they start talking about prophecy and all sorts of
things. And, of course, hair in the back
of his mind is going, I don't want anyone usurping, the throne
from me. And so, Jesus is still an infant
Harrison's out this decree to Bethlehem, every child under two
years old is to be killed. So there's this massacre That
happens in Bethlehem but Joseph's warned in a dream
before this happens and so Mary. And Joseph, and the little baby
Jesus end up going to Africa to Egypt to hide.
To survive. Jesus was opposed even as an
infant, Jesus was opposed by his own people.
In Nazareth, when he reached the age of 30, it's a matter of
fact, it's recorded that in his first sermon.
The outcome was not what you would really want an outcome to
be. If you were preaching to people,
he laid it out in his first sermon this opposition and he
would have died at that very moment.
If it wasn't for divine. Prevention.
This is a long scripture but I want you to read through the
story with me to Luke chapter 4, it says Jesus returned to
Galilee in the power of the spirit in the news about him
spread throughout the whole Countryside, he was teaching in
their synagogues and everyone, look, everyone, praised him,
that doesn't sound like opposition, they all appreciate
it was re must have been really good with his preaching and
speaking. So he went to Nazareth where had
been brought up. In other words, this is home,
right? And on the Sabbath day, he went
to the synagogue as was his custom and he stood up to read.
And the scroll of the prophet, Isaiah was handed to him
unrolling it. He found the place where it was
written. The spirit of the Lord is on me
because he has anointed me to Proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to Proclaim freedom for the prisoners and
recovery of sight for the blind to set the oppressed free and to
proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
And then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the
attendant and sat down the eyes of everyone in the synagogue
were fastened on E. They began by saying to them.
Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.
All spoke well of him. Well, that doesn't sound like a
posed and were amazed at the gracious words that came from
his lips. Everything on that.
He sang. That's so nice that everybody
agrees with, right? And then there's this statement
Oh this statements a lot bigger. It falls a lot harder than you
might think. Isn't this Joseph's son?
They asked which means what isn't Jesus?
A oh you know the word. and all of a sudden, the sermon flips
180 degrees Jesus said to them, surely you will quote, this
proverb, to me, physician heal yourself words from the cross
and you will tell me do here in your hometown.
What you've done, what you've heard that you did in Capernaum.
Truly, I tell you he continued. No, Prophet is accepted in his
hometown. I assure you that there were
many widows in Israel in Elijah's time when the sky was
shut for three and a half years. And there was a severe famine
throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any
of them but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of sidon
and there were many in Israel with leprosy.
In the time of Elisha the prophet yet.
None of them was cleansed, only Naaman, the Syrian, and all the
people in the synagogue were. Look at that word.
Furious. When they heard this and they
got up drove him out of the town and took him to the brow of a
hill on which the town was built in order to throw him off the
cliff. I hope none of my sermons in
this way. There's not very many Cliff.
You have to go anyway. But he walked right through the
crowd. Now there's the divine
intervention, he walked through the crowd and went on his way.
Jesus was opposed by the people in his own Hometown.
The people that he grew up with You know, Jesus was also opposed
by the entire religious establishment of Israel as he
began to do his ministry. He was constantly and
relentlessly opposed. He was opposed because of his
associations. He was called a friend of
sinners, he would actually eat meals with tax collectors and
prostitutes people that the rest of his culture had already
canceled had already dismissed as basically worthless trash.
and he wanted them to understand that the healthy don't need a
doctor, but the sick, even though they were really all
sick, And so he told them Parables to try to help them
understand what he was actually doing.
He told the parable of the lost sheep that the shepherd went to
go get that one lost sheep, even though the 99 were safe, he told
the story of the woman searching for the Lost coin, even though
she had nine, she wanted to find that one coin she lost because
it has so much meaning for her. And then he concluded with the
story of the lost, son. The Prodigal Son.
And so he saw the world as prodigals as lost boys and girls
that needed to find their way home to their father.
But the religious establishment, did not believe it.
Didn't follow it. They, they opposed him.
They opposed him when he healed people.
Can you imagine why would you oppose a person whose healing
other people? Well, because he did not fit in
to all of their social norms all of their rituals and not the
law. He never violated the law, but
they had all these Traditions, that surrounded the law that he
did not subscribe to. So, He healed the leper and
actually touch the leper and buy their oral Traditions.
That made you ceremonially unclean, but he did it anyway.
He showed his love, not just by healing from a distance, but by
being up close and personal, he healed the woman with the issue
of blood because she thought of all you need to do is Touch the
Hem of His Garment and I'll be healed and she was And of
course, those Jewish religious leaders would say well, that
makes you ceremonially unclean because she touched the Hem of
your garment. Jesus is going.
She's healed. She's a daughter of Israel.
There was a paralytic that was let down through the roof.
And Jesus said, before he healed him of his paralysis, he said,
my son, your sins are forgiven. People got so angry.
They didn't really care. That he was physically healed
after Jesus said, which is it easier to do tell?
This guy is sins are forgiven or to tell him to take up his bed
rise and walk. And this amazing Miracle happens
in front of them, but the religious leaders can only think
that he said that his sins were forgiven or the demoniac in
Gandhara when he crossed the Sea of Galilee to get some quiet.
And peace, here comes a man filled with demons naked running
at Jesus that would be frightening in and of itself.
Jesus recognized what was going on, stopped him, ask him his
name, the Demons Inside of him answered.
Our name is Legion for. We are many wasn't possessed by
a demon. He was possessed by a multitude
of demons, and when he cast the demons out, they went into a
herd of pigs who immediately, ran off a cliff and killed
themselves and the people of that town, instead of having a
parade, For Jesus, who completely healed this
frightening, man that had terrorized their Community
begged him to leave. Their Shores.
He was opposed. He was opposed by them because
of what he taught in forgiving sin, they said he broke the
Sabbath even though he never did.
What he did do, though, was something against their
Traditions. They can, they thought he was
guilty of ceremonial uncleanness When asked, who is my neighbor?
Jesus picked the one person that they would all hate in unity,
and that was a Samaritan because all the Jews hated Samaritans.
So, he told the parable of the Good Samaritan where he's the
hero and the priest, and the levite, the higher-ups in Jewish
religious culture there, the villains that didn't want him a
lot of friends or influence a lot of people positively.
And maybe the cherry on top was, when he told The Story of
Lazarus and the rich man, some of you may remember a story in
the Bible where there was a poor man named Lazarus Lazarus, who
was sick. And he had he was covered with
sores and he begged at a rich man's gate.
But the rich man would go in and out of his property and never
take notice of him and eventually Lazarus dies.
The Bible says that he was gathered to Abraham's bosom,
basically heaven and it says, later on the rich man died and
he was in the fires of hell. And the rich man could see
Lazarus way off and begged him to dip his finger in some water
too. Place it on his tongue because
of the torment that he was under.
What you may not know, is that the description of the rich man
is exactly the description of a man named Caiaphas?
Who was the high priest at that time?
So Lazarus, the story may have been a real person who died at
the Gate of the high priest. Not exactly a story.
You want to tell if you're trying to make points with the
religious establishment he was opposed By the religious
establishment. He was also opposed by the
Romans. Now, the Romans really didn't
care anything about Jesus. To him, he would that to them.
He was just another religious zealot, but when his own people
turned against him, pilot was worried that there would be an
uprising and so sentence him sentenced him to death on a
cross. So to the Romans, he was just
another criminal a religious zealot who was stirring up
problems. and so they crucified him and even when Jesus was on
the cross, And there were thieves on either side of him
that were being crucified along with him.
One of those thieves opposed him.
Jesus, if you're the Son of God, save yourselves and us he said
in his own Agony, the other Thief argued against that
they've saying, don't you fear God this man has done nothing
wrong. He was opposed at every turn and
you know what? I haven't even mentioned Satan
yet. The fact, is that every moment
of Jesus life, every moment of his life he was facing
opposition, he was surrounded by opposition.
It was the kind of opposition. That's a lot worse than social
media. It was the kind who would leave
him and forsake Him and reject him and hate him, and wish him
dead and curse him, and torture, him, and kill him in the most
ruthless way without even an ounce of Mercy.
And you, and I can see him inside of our minds right now.
Suspended Between Heaven and Earth and nailed to that cross.
He's bleeding, he's sweating, he's dying in agony.
He's been rejected by mankind because of his love and his
compassion, he's been rejected by God because of all the sin
that he's bearing for the whole world. and in that moment of
suspension, You see the most violent picture of cancellation
and when he took his last breath and died on that, cross, a Roman
soldier made sure of it by putting a spear up underneath
his rib cage into his vital organs.
When they were sure he was dead. They took him down and pride his
body off of that, horrible cross and entombed it.
And they said there, he's canceled.
Oh, but three days later. There was a rude awakening
coming. Because they have this whole
cancellation thing, all wrong. Jesus wasn't canceled, he was
doing the count, the canceling, he was doing it.
Listen, he canceled his own death, who does that Oh yeah,
you cancel me. You killed me.
Watch this, boom. He rose from the dead, he
canceled the stripes that were on his back, those stripes
forget it. They're gone the wounds from the
crown of thorns that were on his bride canceled those, he
canceled the curses that were shouted at him.
He canceled the Roman Authority. He canceled the Jewish relators
judgment upon him. He only kept the nail prints in
his hands and his feet and the and the scar on his side to
prove who he was. And he wore them like Badges of
Honor, he canceled, the separation between God.
And man, that was in the temple that nine inch thick Veil
ripped. From the top to the bottom
canceled. That separation between God and
him and God in you. He canceled the payment.
For all of your sin, he canceled the power of the law over you.
He canceled the power of sin in your life.
He canceled. Listen, your death, he canceled
your hell, he cancels, Satan himself.
You know what he did? He canceled our cancellation
That's what sins done to us. Spiritually speaking.
It canceled us all Turned us into hopeless people.
But like we sang a little while ago, Jesus Is Our Hope.
And he canceled that cancellation.
Now, some of you said, oh let's pray and sing, it's time that
sermons over. Oh no, it's not.
I'm just getting started. Listen, Jesus knew this was
going to happen. It had been prophesied, Isaiah
prophesied, that he would be opposed.
Look at Isaiah 53:3. He was despised has 700 years
before. Jesus was born.
He was despised and rejected by mankind.
A man of suffering familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces, he was despised and
we held him in low esteem, the Bible calls him, the stone that
the builders rejected. Look at Mark 12, the stone, the
builders rejected has become the Cornerstone.
That's the most important Stone. The Lord has done this and it is
marvelous in our eyes. He's become a stone of stumbling
for those who would oppose him in First Peter chapter 2.
It says, now to you, who believe this stone is precious.
Amen. But to those who do not believe
the stone, the builders rejected has become the Cornerstone and a
stone that causes people to stumble.
And a rock that makes them fall. They stumble because they
disobey the message, which is also what they were destined
for. But you know what?
That was all part of God's plan. Because saving you?
That was his plan. He endured the cross because of
the joy of seeing you come back into relationship with your
heavenly father and now listen here's where we're going.
He calls you to follow him in that opposition?
What? What I thought, if I accepted
Jesus Christ, as my savior, everything is rainbows and
butterflies. I thought if I accept Jesus
Christ, as my savior, it's all going to be great now.
Well, depends on your point of view.
Jesus said that if you would follow him, you would be opposed
that. You'd be hated that.
You'd be persecuted. Listen to his voice in Matthew
Chapter 5 blessed are those who are persecuted because of
righteousness that's following him for theirs is the Kingdom of
Heaven. Blessed?
Are you when people insult, you persecute, you falsely, say, all
kinds of evil against you because of me.
Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven.
For in the same way, they persecuted the prophets who were
before you, wow, He said that no student would be above his
teacher, that if the teacher endured it, the student would as
well. This is in Matthew chapter 10.
It says, the students not above the teacher, nor the servant
above his master. It is enough for students to be
like their teachers and service to be like their masters.
If the head of the house has been called, this is another
word for Satan. How much more the members of his
household so do not be afraid of him.
For there is nothing concealed. That will not be disclosed or
hidden. That will not be made known.
He said they hated me, they'll hate you.
That's in John 15:18. If the world hates you, keep in
mind, it hated me first. He said, pray for people who
persecute you on account of me. Look at Matthew 10:35 for.
I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter
against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her
mother-in-law me. This is going to get it.
This could get in your own family, right?
This opposition, a Man's enemies will be the members of his own.
Sold some of you have experienced that.
Some of you, that's part of your testimony right now, anyone who
loves her father and mother more than me is, not worthy of me.
Anyone who loves their son, or daughter?
More than me is. Not worthy of me.
Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me not worthy
of me. Wow, opposition, Jesus was
encircled by it. And when we step into his
Circle, We step into opposition. There's not a place here where
there's Middle Ground. I know a lot of us.
We go we kind of like if this was the line like how well
here's here's Jesus Circle and here's kind of my worldly life
and you're kind of living a schizophrenic spiritual life
where you're trying to be in both places at once.
It really doesn't work out that way to step into Jesus circle is
to step into opposition, to be surrounded by opposition.
And you got to ask yourself if you're not.
It opposed, because of your faith.
Are you standing in the right place?
Are you standing in the circle of Jesus?
Some of you are going. Wow you had me going there right
up until you know you canceled our cancellation.
And now I'm kind of going man. It's all supposed stuff.
Why would I want to go and step into that Circle?
Because that doesn't sound like a good place.
Oh oh! Yes!
It is. Salvations in that Circle.
You want that? That's where it is.
Salvation is in a circle Grace is in that Circle.
Piece is inside that Circle, hope is inside that Circle and
purpose, and joy, and meaning and understanding and truth and
love and light. And every other good thing
because that is where Jesus is. And when you're with Jesus, all
of those things are realities, but you have to be inside his
Circle outside of that circle is where all those who attempt to
cancel Jesus. It is the place of opposition.
I stand inside the circle with Jesus.
But I don't stand alone. Anybody here standing with me,
anybody in this, anybody across all our locations standing with
me. Stand inside that Circle.
You know why I stand with my savior?
Do you stand with him? I can't hear you.
Do you stand with him? I stand in the Heavenly light of
my heavenly. Father, do you stand in that
light? I do too.
It's awesome. I stand empowered by the Holy
Spirit. Do you stand empowered by the
Holy Spirit. Praise God for that.
I Stand surrounded by a spiritual family who has crossed
over that line. Isn't that awesome?
Say man, I stand with my armor on and so should you but listen
I stand stepping as close to the edge of that Circle, as I can
get without crossing over so that I can grab ahold of a hand
in the form of a fist set against me.
And And my heavenly father and my savior so that I can grab
that hand and pull them into the orbit of my canceled Savior, and
Lord, who dies, and lives again, to break through that hard heart
and fill them and me with life. That's what it's all about and
if standing in opposition is the price to pay for pulling people
into the orbit of Jesus will then, come on.
Because there's nothing more beautiful in this world.
Then finding a person who finds their heavenly father and
experiences the joy of a savior. We're moving to a time of
decision. Hahaha.
So I still got to preach an Easter Sermon.
I just did it today because that's what it's all about.
That's the joy of it. so I'm going to ask you a hard
question, Can you say? That you have stepped Over The
Line. Into an intimate personal
relationship with Jesus Christ. And I know that some of you
might be thinking, well, that line you're talking about
Jerry's kind of a metaphorical. It's kind of like a nebulous
kind of spiritual thing, not really.
Not really. Jesus, gave us some very
concrete things to do to Define that because he knows we need
those kinds of concrete things that we're kind of tactile
people were, you know, senses people, right?
And that's why he, that's why he said, unless you confess me
before others, I won't confess you before my Father in Heaven.
Some people may Wonder because there's a lot of churches that
don't do what we're doing right now and that is offer an
invitation Like in a minute, everybody's going to stand up,
we're going to ask people to come up.
And respond to an invitation. An invitation to do, what an
invitation to confess, Jesus Christ, as Lord.
There's going to be somebody standing right over there at
that baddest tree. And if you've never made that
decision, you could confess that today, you know what you're
doing when you do that. You coming up that line, you're
taking a hard look at that line. And you're going stepping over
the line. It's a physical tangible way,
right? You know what's going to happen?
Then they're going to dress you up and some clothes that are
they're going to get wet. You're going to get in that
water. Well, that's going to be
uncomfortable. I don't look good wet.
You're gonna get in that water, and you're going to confess
Christ, publicly, and openly, I believe that Jesus is the
Christ. The son of the Living.
God, I want him as my personal Lord and Savior stepping over
that line. And guess, what's going to
happen? This was going to happen.
They're going to lay you down in that water and they're going to
raise you back up out of that water.
There was a line, you stepped, over long time ago, it was
called birth. You know that as pretty big
moment, your life, right? Birth.
You know, Jesus told Nicodemus, in the Book of John you must be
born again. He said, how can I enter back
into my mother's womb and come out at this?
Make any sense to me, he goes you need to be born of the water
and the spirit you need to be spiritually.
Born, you know what you're experiencing.
You're experiencing a birth. Not only that in Romans chapter
6, it says, when you're laying down in that water, when you go
down in that water, you are uniting with the death of Jesus
Christ. Like they lay you down in death.
Under that water buried, that old person of person used to be
buried you come up out of the water just like Jesus raised
from the dead, you raised to newness of life.
Stepping Over The Line. I invite you today.
Everyone here in this room, everyone online.
I invite you to take advantage of stepping over the line today.
Some of you are going already stepped over that line, Jerry.
Well good. Praise the Lord.
How many of you are struggling with one foot on either side of
that line? How many of you?
Are struggling with the idea of opposition.
It's you just want everybody to get along.
And so you won't stand up for your faith.
You'd rather kind of be stealthy.
Kind of under the radar. You don't want people thinking.
That you might actually be one of those crazy people that
actually take God at his word. Some of you may be committed to
your faith in Jesus Christ, but you're carrying the burden of
someone else. That's losing their way.
And you need God to put you in an opportunity where you can
share make a difference. You know, the steps are all
around this stage and all of our stages at all of our locations.
For Christian people to come up and do business with God.
And there is never a time that you were.
You honestly bend your knee to your heavenly father That he
doesn't provide more than you ever could ask or imagine and he
will today. Regardless of what burden you're
carrying that you need to lay down.
I'm telling you you're going to meet your heavenly father up
here. And he's going to make a
difference. Would you stand with me?
Let's pray together in Jesus name, Heavenly Father.
We come before you. And we realize that in and of
ourselves we couldn't have done any of this, but it was all
accomplished. Completely.
And amazingly accomplished when your son died on the cross and
rose from the dead and I pray. Father in this moment that
whatever you may be saying to our hearts as you speak in that
quiet voice. That we would listen.
And then we would obey. I pray, God, give us the courage
to move. Even if it means moving into a
circle, we're on the outside of that Circle.
There's opposition for the sake of the one who endured all the
opposition of the world. So that we could live and move
in his Circle. In Jesus name, amen.