Nation. How are you doing?
Are you doing good man? It is good to be able to hang
out with you guys on this fantastic weekend and I have a
wonderful treat for every single one of you a couple of years
back. I became friends with a man by
the name of Tyler. Mackenzie he is a bright young
leader in our movement of churches.
He is, in fact, one of my top five favorite people to listen
to if you want to know who I listen to.
So after the long week of life, I'd listen to his sermons his
podcast because I like the way he thinks I like the way he sees
and explains that Jesus to people.
In fact, we spent some time this afternoon.
Our hope is this upcoming September that we're going to go
down to the Lake of the Ozarks with a group of other preachers
and help them craft sermons for their upcoming year.
So they can be a blessing because I want his voice to be
magnified. You are going to be seeing a lot
of him over the coming years because my hope Hope is to
continue to bring him in so he would be a blessing to our
church and as we were going through this, if sermon series I
was going, I got to bring him in.
So I want to welcome you joining from all of our different
locations. And would you put a big Crossing
welcome together for my friend and our friend and our preacher
this weekend? Tyler Mackenzie, I really like
you and this with you. I love you, man, I love you.
Oh man. So not only is it an honor to
preach right at the Crossing which is a church that I have
admired from afar for some time but it is an honor to stand in
my buddy Clayton's Pulpit. This guy.
Okay. So he didn't talk about the
friendship that has just been so valuable that we've built over
the last couple years. I think the first time I
preached at the Crossing was that one of the uncommon Men's
Conference it was such an honor and and since then we got to
place now where a couple times a month we're checking in with
each other. We're pulpit.
APPA, he's gonna come and preach at Northeast and Louisville here
and a few weeks for me. And so I just want you to know,
you know, I've so much respect and honor for Jerry and I
believe that you got one of the best and his successor here in
Clayton. I really mean that and it's okay
for one person to clap. So, Or everybody.
Do we just have like, a bromance Moment by the way.
I hope you all enjoyed that Bromance moment that you just
got to participate in between the two of us.
Okay? Now after Easter, y'all started
this new series called, if, if and I love this series, this
series was built for people like me because I have hard questions
and if your leadership thought that you needed this series and
that means that you have hard questions to and you deserve.
Good answers to your hard Faith question.
Now, here's why I found that the reason why a lot of people go
passive on there. Lukewarm or even back out of
their face is because they don't get good answers to their hard
Faith questions. Once upon a time, when you were
a child your mama, happy Mother's Day, Mom has your mama.
Tried to raise you to love the Lord.
Right, she wanted you to be Christian.
So she taught you all about God but she also taught you about
the Easter Bunny. And as you grew up, what
happened was you started to learn things about bunnies, that
didn't. Support.
What you were taught as a child, okay?
Like you went into biology class and you realize that bunnies.
Don't in fact, lay chocolate eggs.
If a bunny's land of chocolate egg in your heart, don't eat it.
It's not a chocolate egg. I just and you learned that
bunnies don't stand on two feet or like humans for in particular
or like carry baskets around. And so all of a sudden your
childhood beliefs about the bunny didn't hold up with what
you discovered as an adult. And so you lost faith in the
bunny and in the same way you started having questions about
God, hard questions that you ask and you didn't get good faith
answers to you. Ask questions.
Like, you know, well, I found this verse in the Bible.
That's really, really hard for me.
Understand. And it feels like it.
Contradicts that one. It can somebody explain this to
me. And you didn't have a church or
a pastor that stepped into the Gap.
So, you took step back then. All the sudden, you're like,
well, there's this theological thing that I'm really struggling
with because culture says this thing, but Jesus says this thing
and can somebody explain this to me, And nobody stepped in the
Gap and help you out. So, you took another step back
and then you saw a moral failure, in a leader in the
church and then you saw some judgmentalism or whatever.
And before, you know it you've like backed your way out of the
faith, one step at a time, which is absolutely tragic.
And it's absolutely, the reason that your leadership built this
series, so that all these answers, and you have done a lot
of work so far. If you haven't seen the series,
or the sermons in the series, that leads up to this, you got
to get online and watching catch up, right.
You've done a lot of work so far to answer some of these
questions and I would just reaffirm, reaffirm your
leadership in the decision to do that.
Now today what I want to do is I'm not actually going to deal
with the questions out here because you've done some good
work on this. What I want to do is I want to
deal with the space back here. Here.
You see what we're very, very good at is, we're very good at
taking Christianity and putting it under a microscope and asking
really, really hard questions, aren't we?
But what I found is that when people back their way out of
Faith, what they don't ever do is they don't ever take the
world view that they're backing their way into and put it under
the same amount of scrutiny. Put it under the microscope.
See, you do understand our culture has a way Way of seeing
things, our culture has a way of seeing politics.
Our culture has a way of seeing money.
Our culture has a way of seeing sexuality, our culture has a
way, you see what I'm saying and what we rarely do is oh we're so
good at putting the way of Jesus under the microscope and asking
the hard questions of that. But we never do is we never take
the way of popular culture and put it under the microscope.
I want to do that today. See, here's the reality.
You are being constantly relentlessly inundated.
And evangelized with the way of our popular culture, Constantly.
In. In news, reports, whatever, New
Station, you watch, you're being evangelized political campaigns.
You're being evangelist. Targeted ads on social media,
you're being, you're being evangelized, you can't watch
professional sports, you can't go to the store and like look on
your bag right. You can't have you can't have a
conversation around the water cooler at work without some sort
of throwaway comment from, you know, like one of your peers,
your one of your coworkers. You can't pump your gas at the
gas station or use the bathroom at BW3.
He's without a screen in front of you, telling you what product
you need to buy now, or what you should think about this issue or
whatever it may be. We are being relentlessly in
constantly evangelized by the voices of this world and if
we're not careful, we just come to believe that this thing that
we back ourselves into, it's just reality.
It's just the way that everybody sees things, but I would suggest
to you that there is a better way to see things.
There's a way to live your life, that's more in tune with
reality, with truth. Then what the way of our popular
culture might suggest and that is the way of Jesus.
And this is what I'm after today.
Okay. I want to show you why the way
of Jesus is better. Then the way of our popular
culture. Are you tracking with me on?
This is this at all interesting to you, we could talk about
something else. Okay, I'm glad that it's
interesting to you because this is what your kids are asking.
You know, that right? You might not be asking.
This is what young people are asking.
The next generation is saying, hey Mom, I heard this thing
about Justice or her. Hey Dad, I heard this thing
about science or hey, Mom, I heard this thing about gender.
Hey, Dad, I heard this thing about politics from my college,
professor, or from the friend group that I hang out with her,
from this influencer on Tick, Tock, whatever it may be, right?
And I'm having trouble reconciling the two.
Can you help? I'm going to run out of time
today, but yeah, she quick sidebar.
I just gotta talk to young people real quick.
Young people. Can I just say we have to drop
the veneration of celebrities in our culture and celebrate Saints
instead in Christian history, we have so many beautiful Heroes
that have lived, beautiful lives that show us the Horizon of
human possibility that are so much better.
Then the role models of our culture.
We let celebrities set the Horizon of morality and good
for, pretty much everything for things like lingo and fashion,
which is fine. That's not really all that
important to me. But then we let him set the
Horizon for like really important stuff like like
politics or like like morality or or like how we stood our
bodies and our money's. And I always think to myself,
like why? Because he can dribble a
basketball good. Why?
Because she can, she can, she can play play the guitar because
she's, she's pretty, and she's got 10 million followers on, on
Instagram or whatever. Like, why do they, what
qualifies them. But as Christians, we have this
resource, this cloud of witnesses that have come before
us, that we can look to. And we can say, look at pandita
ramabai, look at Desmond Tutu, look at festo Kevin's here.
Look at Mother Teresa, look at these people who stacked up the
years of Holiness and truly lived a great life live like
them. I said let's let the celebrities
set the pace. Now what are we focused on Tyler
stay focused here. Okay focused here's my point.
At the end of the day you get to choose, you get to choose the
way of Jesus and he has a way or the way of our culture and as a
way you choose. And by the way, they won't let
you choose both at the same time, our popular culture will
not let you choose Jesus. When I was young, being a
sold-out, Christian was weird but now things have changed over
the course, the last 20, 30 years, if you're a sold-out
Christian it's actually Seen by our culture as immoral you are,
what's wrong with Society, right?
So it will not let you choose Jesus and the way of popular
culture, Jesus won't let you choose both either.
He says, I'm the way I am the truth.
I am the life. No one comes to the father,
except through me, you're in the world but not of the world,
okay? So you can't choose both.
You got to choose one of the other.
Today I want to help make a case for.
I think the way of Jesus is better now, have a little chart
for you. Can check out the chart.
This is basically what we're going to do is we're going to
move fast. I'm going to take some of the
big questions of life. Some of the big issues that we
deal with every human that are common to all humans and I want
to just run them through this filter.
We're going to look at the way of Jesus and how Jesus looks at.
We're gonna look the way of popular culture.
Now, popular culture looks at it, we're going to hold them
next to each other. And what I hope you see is that
Jesus is Way, is the better way, by the way.
This is my conversion story. That little chart right there.
when I was in college and I decided that that I Think Jesus
was was going to be my master, and my guide for life, I said to
myself, I better know for sure. This is the right way though.
Before I go all in, I better know for sure.
So I took all the major worldviews Christianity Islam
Buddhism atheism. And I ran them through that.
Chart ran through the filter. And here's what I found, three
things. A one, I found that every
religion is not basically the same despite what people will
say to you. It's not, it's not true.
By the way, that's deeply offensive to.
You know, devout Muslims, Jews Christians.
They'll tell you, it's not the same to, I found that every
religion has some beautiful redeemable aspects to it.
They touch truth that points and three in my own personal
journey. I found that the way of Jesus is
far more emotionally, satisfying and intellectually compelling.
Than any other way. So let's look at some of these
points of reference. You guys ready for this?
Let's just let's just walk through some of them.
Let's let's start with a softball here.
You guys have already dealt with this earlier in this series.
Let's start off with human Origins.
Human Origins. Where did we come from?
Popular culture would say. That in the beginning.
There was nothing and nothing. Created something.
Tell me about this nothing because if this nothing did
something, it's not nothing, it's something.
But no, not okay to don't think too hard about in the beginning,
14 billion years ago. There was a random chance,
explosion, a bomb went off. And when the dust settled, there
was a Rembrandt. Chaos leads to order.
This is the way a popular culture, who banged the bang?
We don't know where did the, The Supercharged ball of matter or
light come from? We're not sure.
We just trust in science. We think life could go beyond
what could be accounted for by just science alone.
Oh we trust and science. Well by the way, if we trust in
science that means that you're not special about you're not
snowflake, you're not, you're just math.
Everybody's walking around with t-shirts today.
Like you matter, you belong your special, right?
You've seen these t-shirts, some reason why somebody might be
wearing one like, you matter, right?
But the fact of the matter is is that if there is no God, then
the shirt shouldn't say you matter.
Should just say you're matter. Decaying matter on decaying
matter for that matter, right? But like that's that's the
reality I want. You think about this?
If there's no God, Life's a pill, it's just the acquisition
of woundedness and then you die. Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch did.
That's life. We laugh but people live live
with us. This is how they see life.
I think of it like I say you're born as a child and then, you
know, maybe you grew up in a rough home.
So you get family wounds and then maybe your church hurts
you. So you get religious wounds and
then maybe you get fired. She get rejection wounds or I
don't know, maybe Aroma romantic partner like breaks your heart
and so you get, you know, these like love romance wounds and
then, you know, you start medicating them, as you get
older because these wounds just become too much and you medicate
them with things, like, you know, substances or fantasies or
experiences that you think will work.
They only work for like a day and then everything just gets
even worse and so you know it makes you miserable and then all
of a sudden father time starts to bend or break you.
So you get the wounds of age and then he died and no one
remembers you anyways. 10 years later, This is the way the world
sees it. now, the way of Jesus is a little bit different, it
says that in the beginning and unfathomably, powerful and
loving God made everything on purpose including you.
He's the designer behind it. All the Christian story actually
Begins by answering the core longing of every human heart,
every human being wants to know. Does anybody want me?
Do I really matter and the Christian Story begins with God.
Declaring, I do. I want you.
God didn't need you. By the way, you understand that?
He didn't need to create us. He existed in perfect.
Community within himself, the Triune God.
So he didn't need you, he created you because he wanted
to, because he wanted you and I promise you, it breaks his heart
that for some of you in this room, he does not have you.
I pray just like me. This sermon would be a part of
your conversion story. How about morality?
We gotta speed up y'all? Alright we're slow me down.
Morality the world says really cool fad things like choose your
own morality. Find your truth.
Follow your heart. You do you?
Reject Authority and be your own authority.
And all these little catchphrases play really well on
Twitter, right? But They're terrible life
advice. I mean I would like to eat ice
cream by the gallon every night but that's probably not going to
pay off well in the long run, right?
But you do you If you see. So one sociologist, said,
recently that we have transition from the age of authority to the
age of authenticity in our culture, what he meant by that
was that no longer. Do we look to external sources
of traditional authority to help guide us through life.
Like, we don't look to the church, we don't look to family,
we don't look to government or tradition, tell be our guide and
and helped form us and shape us. Rather we've moved from an
outside in approach to To an inside out approach to
Authority. You see the difference?
So you look into your heart, you find your truth.
You sort out the diverse feelings inside of you and then
whatever you feel, you can impose that on the world.
It's not the age of authority. It's now the age of
authenticity, be your authentic self.
Now, again, I'm just gonna go ahead and tell you that is
incredibly hard to do to build your own identity to build your
own morality to sort out all the the evil and good, but evil
inside of your heart, that is incredibly difficult.
And we're asking our kids to do it by the way.
We're asking our kids to form their own identities and
morality and their own their own 14 years old.
And dealing with high school and peer pressure, and puberty.
And he had somehow, we want them to get with inside their hearts,
and figure out who they are and then branded on social media and
make everybody. Except it's like, that's, that's
a difficult thing to do. All right?
This is no offense to young people in this room, but I
absolutely would say with 100% confidence.
That, that know, a high schooler is, incapable of building their
own identity and morality and purpose on their own in a
coherent way that leads to flourishing over the Long Haul.
And the reason why is because no Can that is God's territory
identity, morality. You try to build it on your own,
it will crush you. You will crumble underneath the
way yet. This is the way the world sees
it. the way of Jesus, on the contrary says, That God designed
us to live in certain ways. He built a moral ecosystem, that
nurtures us when we put our roots in it, we actually
flourish like Riverbank trees. Psalm 1 Oh, the joys of those
who do not follow the advice of the wicked or stand around with
Sinners or join in with mockers, but they Delight in the law of
the Lord meditating on it day and night, they will be like
trees planted along. The riverbank bearing fruit,
every season, their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all
they do. This is the way the the word of
God sees it. Human worth.
Well, the world is full of racism, political hatred, War,
class distinctions, everything down to the clothes, you wear,
and the cars, you drive point out to people, How much you're
worth? This is not the way of Jesus.
In fact, scripture says, every human being is created in the
image of God is died for by Jesus, which means you are
eternally and undeniably valuable.
Some of the great Justice movements in time, including the
civil rights movement in the United States of America were
built on the doctrine of the image of God.
What about work? Well, the world says that this
is one of the key ways you prove your worth and that you gain
power. So work more work harder, work
your way up through your chart dominate, leave a legacy, be the
best. Or if you can't, if your
average. And by the way, most of us are
average, that's the point of the word, okay?
So, if your average don't worry, we've got all sorts of things
that can distract you from your lack of greatness, like bourbon
tours CBD, infused everything. Cookie dough saw that one on
Google the other day. Netflix series, stand-up comedy.
Social media. Pumpkin spice.
Like you don't live to work. You work to live.
So do a little soul cycle. CrossFit, go to an orchard.
Hang with your people, swipe right?
This is the way of popular culture.
You laugh, but this is the way. On the flip side, scripture says
that work is worship. God created us with certain
gifts and we're supposed to leverage those to build
civilization. And to serve others, the
stay-at-home mom and the work that she has been given by the
Lord as as important if not more than what the CEO has been
given. And more important than the
results of the work is the heart of the worker.
How about family? Well the world says it's really
kind of up to you get married or don't have one spouse or for
divorce is no big deal. It's the decision to break up
when you grow out of love, after off the point of marriage is
individual happiness. If you're no longer happy the
right thing to do is leave. And if you have kids, just be
honest with him, one of the most important things to teach your
kids is to be true to yourself. This is the way a popular
culture. Now a scripture on the contrary
though says that family is the backbone to civilization, it's
the system to generate life and raise humans that God designed
Healthy Families, make healthy communities.
That's why marriage is not just a contract.
You opt out of like you would with your cable company.
It's a covenant that you make before God in sickness and in
health for richer for poorer as long as you both shall live.
And scripture says that divorce is always tragic, ask anybody
who has been divorced. This is not judgmental or
condemnatory. They'll tell you even in
situations where it's biblically permissible, abuse adultery,
abandonment, even in those situations.
It hurts my generation. I'm a millennial.
I was good. Nobody booed.
Okay. So so my generation like the
millennial generation is the first generation.
That's largely a by-product of divorced families.
And asked a psychologist to explain what happens to a child
when Mom and Dad breaks up. It's just tough.
So when husbands and wives push back and they resist by
committing to one another when fathers and mothers are present
and engaged in the lives of their kids, we see the
undeniably positive impact on society.
This is the way of Jesus. How about sex?
Well, the world says, it's just an appetite.
Not a big deal. Has nothing to do with your soul
or anything like that. And with options like abortion
out there. You can do it with no long-term
responsibilities attached to it. So feed your appetite have
multiple partners swing your marriage.
Watch porn consent is all that matters.
That's the way of popular culture.
Who's ever been hurt by a little bit of sex. to, which reality
says who hasn't Like who hasn't been hurt in some way name?
One person. If you're honest, Who doesn't
have some sort of deep pain in their past?
From sex betrayal divorce, and Fidelity.
Abuse addiction porn. Trust issues.
Body. Image, our culture's attempt
over the last half-century to cheapen sex is at best naive and
at worst. What's led to horrible, divorce
bikes, abortion spikes, and all the power abuse cover-ups, which
is why scripture has such a high view of it.
People like, say Christians, have a low view of it, with a
high view of it. You understand that, right?
A high view. We think it is so beautiful and
so powerful. Those walking in the way of Just
recognize it as a good gift and one, we will not treat
flippantly. So that's why the way of Jesus
is highly restrictive. And because of that our culture
dehumanizes and shames US in demonizes US for it.
But the reason why God put the boundaries on it that he did is
because he loves us. I've heard one Pastor say sex is
like a fire and its proper context.
It can warm the home outside of its proper context.
It can burn the home down and ain't that true?
Let's do two more. How about suffering?
our culture says you got about 80 years, so live it up while
you can Pain though. It is to be avoided at all
costs. It is an interruption to life.
That's why we've transitioned from the helicopter parent to
the lawnmower parent. You guys know about lawnmower
parents now, okay, the helicopter parent hovered, the
lawnmower parent, most everything down, every pain,
every adversity, every character building opportunity.
There's mome down for your kid, right?
Oh, you gotta be - let me talk to your teacher.
Oh, your coach is sitting you on the bench.
This game. I'll deal with this later.
Oh, you forgot your homework. Just stay home from school
today, honey. Don't worry, I'll write you a
note. No booze allowed, though.
Now, scripture has a different look on pain and suffering.
Do you know this scripture actually says be real suffering
is not avoidable. It's inevitable.
It's a part of life. Ascend marred world.
So all we have to do is we have to learn to deal with it.
Well, and it gives us all sorts of spiritual resources to do
that. It reminds us that Jesus
suffered for us with us. He knows what it feels like to
suffer. In fact, if Jesus descended to
death itself for you, where will he not go to be with you, you
better believe, he's walking through your daily sufferings
with you. In fact, James one goes as far
to say that if you walk through the fiery furnace of suffering
with Jesus, they will actually come out the other side, pure
more mature. Wiser for it.
And Revelation tells us that one day suffering, will be done away
with. There will be no more death, no
more sorrow, no more crying, no more pain, all these things,
Gone Forever, thanks to Jesus. We have a Living Hope and him.
This is the way Jesus. Which brings us by the way, to
the last one. This is where I want to end
today death. The world says that life must be
prolonged as long as possible because death is the cosmic off
switch. And honestly, that's why so many
of us fear it. So much.
It's the way the world sees it. but Jesus, on the other hand,
well, Jesus said I conquered it. Jesus says there ain't nothing
last 2000 years. To put me back in the grave.
And the follower of Jesus says, oh death, where is your Victory
O Death? Where is your sting?
We are undeterred by death. In fact, we look at death and we
recognize that death is just a door.
A door to Jesus. Adore to Life, Life After Life.
This is the way of Jesus. All right.
Now, while we were out of time, I had like, seven more that we
could have done. But I think you get the point.
So, I'll end where I began. These are two stories.
Two ways to go about life. There's the way of Jesus and the
way of our popular culture and you get to choose and you can't
choose both, they won't allow it.
But you must choose one. And I think one leads to
flourishing and one leads to destruction.
You know, as a pastor Benny your pastors will tell you this We
have a unique job, we get to sit with people in their High
moments in life. Like this baptism videos.
You said like we get to walk through some of the most amazing
things with people but we also have to sit with people in their
low moments when they're facing darkness and death and sin had
on every week. Not a week goes by where I'm not
with somebody who's at a rock-bottom moment in life.
I've been a pastor for going on 13 years now and I can tell you
this for certain the last three years, there has been more
Darkness, more send more Brokenness, more ugliness in
this world than there were the 10 years before that it has been
a difficult three years and I see it in the life of the people
that I Shepherd I believe right now that the alarm bells are
going off the way of popular culture is not working, right?
We are mentally ill at historic rates lonelier than ever more
untrusting than any generation ever.
More fragile to suffering and pain.
And we have this like low boil, seething rage underneath it all
just waiting to explode on the institutions or the people that
failed us. And we keep thinking to our
self, there has to be something better than this, right?
Like we got every technology and luxury known to man.
At our fingertips, to the United States of America, yet somehow,
we can't be happy. There has to be something better
than this. And yet, you know what we do
rather than, I don't know, trying something else.
We just keep going further and we think if I just go further
into the way of culture, if I just indulge in it more, if I
just work a little harder and make a little bit more money or
try some more of that, ER, or go a little bit Wilder with this
experience. Then maybe that'll work or we
just ignore the alarm Bells, altogether thinking, they're
just going to turn off on their own, they won't look what if The
reason why the alarm bells are going off is because we are
running a broken system. What if the reason we're in the
mess that we are in right now is because it is the necessary and
inevitable ends of the false gospel.
Of our popular culture. I believe that's the truth.
But I also believe that that's just one story.
There is another story, a better story and it is the story of
Jesus, the way of Jesus. So I would invite you today,
make this story your story. It was a moment just like this
in my life that led to my own personal conversion.
Let to me laying it on the line for Jesus and saying, here's my
life. I'm for you.
If you feel butterflies in your stomach, if you feel
intellectually or emotionally compelled to they, perhaps
that's the spirit drawing you in.
So I would encourage you today to lean in.
Here's what Jesus says, John 10 verse 10, he says the thieves
purpose is to steal to kill and to destroy, but my purpose is to
give rich and satisfying life. I'm the Good Shepherd.
The Good Shepherd sacrifices his life.
For the Sheep. For all of us in this room right
now and for those of you who are still watching online, you heard
this compelling message today from Tyler.
There's these two ways, these kind of these two camps.
If you will you have over here in the way of Jesus, where, you
know, that we have a good shepherd, just like we read in
that scripture that he laid his life down for you, for me, that
he created us in His image and he has all these good things for
us. He offers forgiveness, he Offers
his love. He offers his grace, he offers
new mercies every single day and then, on the flip side, on the,
on the other side of the coin, you have what the world says who
we are or or even who we say we are.
And we're trying to do these things and we're trying to
follow our heart and we're trying to do things the way we
feel we should do them. And for those of you in the room
and for those of you online, if you are not walking in an
intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ, You're right
here. And life may be hard right now,
and you may be asking a lot of questions right now, you may be
hurting right now. And when you're on this side,
when you're following your heart, and when you're falling,
what the world tells you this, this is as good as it gets what
you're experiencing right now. There is no better than what you
are experiencing and this moment But the good news is.
Jesus closes the gap. And he looks at every single one
of you. And he says you don't have to
follow that. You don't need to follow your
heart, he says you can come And I have given my life for you.
I've laid it down for you. All you need to do is you need
to start waving the white flag waving it and saying I Surrender
declaring today that your story changes in this moment when you
say I need Jesus, I want him, I want to follow him, I want to
walk on this side with him, he's going to be there to guide you
and direct you. And he's going to be there to
pick you up when you're going through a struggle, or when
you're going through a hard time.
You're hurting or when when you're experiencing Death Around
you or a bad diagnosis, he's right there.
For those of you who don't have a relationship with Jesus, you
have to let go of this side. You have to say no to that, no,
to yourself. Yes, to Jesus.
And if you've never done that before, if you've never
surrendered your life to Jesus, you can do it in this moment.
In this place and you can experience newness, you can
experience New Life found in Christ.
And just a little bit, every single week is part of our
services and the band's going to come out and and the people all
around this Auditorium here, 48th Street, we're going to
stand and we're going to sing, and you may be feeling that
inside of you. Just like, man, I feel like, I
feel like God is calling me. I feel like he's telling me I
can't do this on my own. I need him.
And you want to talk to somebody about what it looks like to
start that relationship. One of our pastors is going to
be right by the baptistry when this song starts and they would
like nothing more, they would actually love it.
If someone came forward, it's your story today and and you had
questions or yours, like, what's my next step or or how do I
accept Jesus? How do I get into the Waters of
baptism? How do I just start walking in
the way of Jesus? They will be there for you when
we start singing, if you're online when there's an
incredible chat hosts, that also love to help.
Help you take that ginormous best, step that you'll ever take
in your entire life. Many eternity lies in the
balance. Based on this decision.
Do you choose Jesus? Do you choose the way of Jesus?
Who is the way who is the truth? Who is life?
What are you choose culture? Do you choose the world?
You choose what you feel inside, one leads to destruction, one
leads to life and my prayer is that anybody and everybody in
here that here's this matches message and has not responded to
it that you would chase after that way.
For those of us in this room, we chose this way.
We chose the way of Jesus, we laid our life down, we're
following him, we were obedient the area of baptism, and we came
out of that water and newness, some of us need to check our
pants. And what I mean by that is we
are over here and what we've been doing is we've been keeping
one foot in with Jesus, but our other leg keeps going out
further and further and further and further, I don't know how
much further I can go in these pants.
And you rip your pants. You're walking around with a
hole in your pants because you're trying to keep one foot
with Jesus, but yet you want culture to start playing into
what what you feel and you haven't fully surrendered in
area or you're walking away with what what he has for you and
what he wants for you, and you're just like, but I'm for
Jesus, but you keep going out towards what culture is telling
you and maybe today for you. And this time of decision, it's
time for you to put your legs together again.
Confess some things that you are doing.
That is not of him. And run back to him.
And fully devote your life in every area.
I don't know what it is for you. It looks differently for every
single person, but this time is for us to confess to repent,
which means simply means to turn away from the way of the world
and turn back to Jesus. And that's what this Moment In
Worship is all about. It's not for us, just to stand
and sing in our seats and men just think we're going to.
It's going to get better. If if I keep trying no it's us
taking a step forward. Forward humbling ourselves
before him and saying, I don't want this anymore, I need you to
carry it and so I'm going to encourage you that in this time
of decision that you would come up here and you lay some of
those things down, you just be honest with the Lord and say I
know this is where I'm this where I've been and it's not
where I want to be. I want to I want to continue to
follow the way of Jesus or for all you mothers out there all
you moms out there. Maybe your mom's right next to
your grandma's, right? Next to you have a sister who's
a mama, you know, a mama. You just want to come up and
bring them forward and you want to Circle them up and just thank
God for them. That's what this moment is about
to that you would experience such an incredible moment with
your family and praying for your family and the Legacy that
you're leaving behind. All because of this, the way of
Jesus, making his name, famous, and taking this, good news, this
good message to the world. I love to do that with you right
now. Would you stand to your feet as
we go into this time of War? She was to go into this time of
response. Heavenly Father God.
I thank you so, so much. For every single person who is
listening to my voice in this room who's watching With Us
online, I'm thankful for you. Jesus, you came down.
You live this, perfect life. You lay down your life for us so
that we can have life God in this world.
We're faced with so many different choices.
So many different directions Jesus.
I pray that our eyes are fixed on, you were fixed on your way.
We're not fixed on what the world is offering us or what the
world has in front. Uh sir, what our hearts are
feeling God, I pray that you give us Clarity of Mind, God.
I pray that we don't conform to the pattern of this world but we
will be transformed by the renewing of our minds and that
renewing starts. When we let you transform us,
when we let your words move us. When we let your convictions
lead us and guide us. And God, I pray for this moment
right now, that as we come before you, we lay things down
to you, we pray. All this in the mighty name of
Jesus. Amen.
Let's respond Church. Let's move.
All this in the mighty name of Jesus.
Amen. Let's respond Church.
Let's move.