Crossing family, I am so glad that you are here as we jump
into First Corinthians chapter 2.
And to help us do that, I've invited my friend Josh Howard to
be our preacher for the weekend. Josh has lived in India since
2008 and has a passion to see the Kingdom of God spread
throughout the world through raising up disciples who make
disciples, leaders who create leaders, and churches that plant
churches. In 2015, he launched a ministry
called Ignite, which has seen over 20,000.
That's right, 20,000 churches started in about 8 years through
movements of multiplication. Josh currently serves as the
global mobilization catalyst for E3 Partners and Director of
Vision and Mobilization for discipleship.org.
He and his wife and their three kids live in the Indianapolis
area. So would you please give a warm
crossing Welcome to my friend and our preacher, Josh Howard.
Man, it it is an honor and a privilege to be here with you
guys and I am I'm pumped. It's been a great weekend.
I got to golf a couple times, which has been great and got to
hang with Clayton some and and you guys have an incredible
pastor. You know that.
Yeah. Give him a hand.
And so thank you and Jennifer,
just for just the you guys are awesome.
Love you guys dearly and appreciate you and and my wife
and my kids also send their love and greetings.
As Clayton said, we live in Indianapolis right now.
We actually had to leave India about a year ago due to
increasing persecution in the area.
And and so we've been living stateside now for about a year,
but the work in India continues. As a matter of fact, it has been
our best year ever. We've seen more churches, plants
that are, more people come to Christ in the last year than
ever in the history of our ministry, which is unbelievable
to see the local leaders taking true ownership and seeing as
many people come to faith as possible.
And it's all been while we've been gone.
Now. I don't know how I feel about
that personally, but no, it's, it's really the goal and the
dream of of every missionary to see that happen.
But let me be real for a second. OK, like Clayton, Clayton gave
some numbers there that blow my mind of what God has done.
As a matter of fact, in the in the first six months of this
year, we've already seen over 30,000 people come to Jesus from
it's, it's crazy. But but again, let me be real,
like it's really easy for a white guy on a stage like this
to take credit for stuff that God's doing across the world.
And, and what you need to know is that there are hundreds of
thousands of everyday ordinary people that are risking their
lives for the sake of the gospel.
And they were sharing their faith every single day and
planting churches in their homes and in coffee shops and
saturating Indian, the surrounding nations with the
gospel. And I just have the honor of
representing them on a stage like this.
They're the real heroes of the story.
Well, Jesus is the hero, but you get what I'm saying?
They're the ones that are out there really going hard after
it. And so Please remember them in
your prayers when you can. They are going through
tremendous difficulty over and over again, but yet they are
advancing the Kingdom at record pace.
And that's only one movement, that God is doing that type of
work across the world right now. And it's really special that we
get to be alive and witness it and be a part of it.
Amen. All right, guys, listen, let's,
let's jump in and pray together. But we're going to, as you know,
we're in a series that just started a few weeks ago on 1st
Corinthians. We're going to be in chapter 2
today. But just in case you need a
reminder, if God doesn't move this morning, nothing's going to
happen. I don't have anything to offer,
OK? Just you're like, well, you
should probably as a preacher have something to offer us.
But you get what I'm saying? Like if, if Jesus moves in this
place, everything can change in the matter of a moment.
But if he doesn't move, nothing's going to happen.
We're going to walk out these doors the same way that we came
in. But if Jesus touches US1 touch
from him is all it takes. Amen.
And so would you just join me in asking Jesus to move, asking his
Holy Spirit to be in this place and to really transform us from
the inside out? You with me.
And so let's pray and then we'll jump in together.
OK, Jesus, we just ask that you would come where your presence
is. There is freedom, there's
healing, there's resurrection power.
God, you are moving in radical, unbelievable ways across the
world right now, and we are so grateful that we get to be a
part of it. But Jesus, we ask that you would
move that way right here this morning as well, right here in
this church, right here on every campus.
God, we ask for your spirit to be here and that you would
transform us from the inside out.
We thank you that you were still the God of resurrection power,
that you bring dead things back to life, dead hearts, dead
relationships. God, thank you.
And I pray that you would speak life and healing over each one
of us today and that Jesus, you would do a transformative work
in our hearts. Lord, speak.
May you have the floor and may you speak with boldness and
urgency. Jesus, through this message and
through your word. We pray this in Jesus name,
Amen. Amen.
If you want to open your Bibles to 1st Corinthians chapter 2,
that's where we're going to be today.
Now before we move there, let me let's let's set a couple ground
rules together, OK? I waited a little too long
Thursday to tell this story, and so I'm going to tell it on the
front end. That way you're with me the
whole time. OK?
Is that good with you? I was going to tell you anyway,
even if it wasn't. So that's, that's really good.
Back about two years ago, I was in Dallas, TX.
I was recording a podcast and we were in this little podcast
studio and there were all these pre recorded buttons that you
could hit while you were talking.
So one was a laugh track. I bet every preacher wishes we
had one of those, right Clayton? Like there's times you tell a
joke and you think it's going to hit and then nobody laughs and
you're like, well, that was great.
It'd be great to hit that button.
But my favorite button though, was a the voice of a black
preacher. And when you hit the button, it
would say come on somebody. And let's just say I hit that
button maybe 2-3 or thirty times too many.
OK, like every good point, man. It was come on somebody every,
every time. So listen, it's OK to yell and I
would love to hear some come on somebody's if you like something
that I say, OK, you with me? Hey, there, there you go.
See, we're starting off good here.
All right, Every preacher needs a little pat on the back every
now and then. You know what I mean?
Because this is about me. So all right, First Corinthians
chapter 2. Now that you know, you can yell
out, feel free at any time. But before we start reading, I
want to ask you a question. And, and honestly, this is a
very hard question for even me to ask myself, but I believe
it's important for us to ask it right up on the front end.
And here's what it is. If someone were to follow you
around for a week and they witnessed everything that you
did, everything you said, everywhere you went, everywhere
you spent money, would they be able to tell that you were a
follower of Jesus? Now here's a rule.
You in that week cannot verbally talk about Jesus all the time.
You need to be showing it with the way that you live and the
way that you love and the way that you serve people.
Would your life look pretty much like everyone else's life around
you who are not Christians? Or would it be radically
different? Because I don't know about you
ma'am, but my whole life I think I have struggled with this whole
idea of like my life looking closer to Jesus or the way the
Bible explains my life should be versus looking like everyone
else around me. Do you get what I'm saying?
Like we live in a day, friends, where for example, the divorce
rates inside the church are almost equal to those outside
the church or addiction rates are equal inside the church as
outside the church many a times. I'm not talking about the
crossing. Honestly, Clayton and many
others have told me the transformative work that is
happening here, and it is unbelievable to see what God is
doing in this church. But if I talk about Christians
across the country, many of our lives look very, I mean, there's
very little difference between our lives and those around us
who don't even know Jesus at all.
If I were going to name this chapter something that we're
going to read in just a moment, it would be this.
The unexplainable life. Is your life easily explainable
with the world's wisdom and the world's pathway?
Or is it unexplainable the way that you live, the joy that you
have, the peace in your heart, the way that you love, the way
that you serve? Is that something that when
people see it, they take notice that it is radically different
from everyone around us and the way even Hollywood portrays what
life looks like? It's a tough question, and it's
with that question that we want to jump into this chapter.
And I want you to keep that in the back of your mind as we go
through. But let's look at Paul for a
second. And this is what he says.
First Corinthians chapter 2. I'm going to read the first 5
verses 1st and then we're going to jump into the rest of the
chapter. But this is what he says.
And so it was with me, brothers and sisters, when I came to you,
I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to
you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing
while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
I want you to take note of that verse.
I, I chose to know nothing except Jesus and him crucified.
I came to you in weakness, with great fear and trembling.
My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive
words. I mean, Paul's kind of throwing
himself under the bus here. You know what I mean?
Like I came to you and, and, and I was shaking and trembling.
I didn't speak very well. My words weren't very wise, but
I came with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your
faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power.
Here's a question, friends. Is your life impressive, or is
it powerful? Is your life easily explainable,
or is it filled with the supernatural grace and power of
the Spirit of God? Man, that's tough to think
about, isn't it? Now Paul, I love what he says
here because he literally laser focuses on Jesus right away,
right? Like he literally says when I
came to you, I chose basically to proverbially, proverbially, I
can't say that word. Can you get?
I need to come on somebody right now.
Thank you. I appreciate.
I needed that, Clayton. Thank you.
He, he basically says like, I forgot about everything else.
And I lasered my talk, my focus and my life on Jesus, his work,
his life, his death, burial and resurrection.
Everything about who I was and who I am is going to be about
Jesus. That's what Paul's saying.
And here's the question we've got to ask ourselves if we're
going to live that unexplainable life.
It starts with having Jesus at the center of everything.
And man, I don't know about you, but and listen, I'm not
preaching at you today. I'm preaching with you because I
have also struggled with this my whole life.
I mean, how many of you, like me, have kind of added Jesus
sometimes as almost sprinkles on top of our already good life
rather than it being the foundation of everything?
Do you get what I'm saying? Like Jesus becomes something we
add on top as long as I, you know, maybe read the Bible every
now and then, or pray every now and then, or go to church at
least once a week or maybe a couple times a month, something
maybe I go to small group or whatever.
Rather than Jesus being the laser focus of our lives, he
becomes kind of like a side hustle rather than our full time
gig. And man, what Paul is trying to
remind the Corinthians is of his life.
When I came to you and preached and spoke, it was #1 in the
Spirit's power. But more importantly, it was
laser focused on Jesus. You saw that in my life.
That's what he's saying. You saw it in my life.
You saw it in my preaching. You saw it in every aspect of
who I am. Jesus bled out of me every
moment. Man, How, how long to live that
way? Do you know what I'm saying?
Like there there's something in me that when I talk about this
even out loud and I read it, it's like, man, I I long to to
have that life. But there's constantly this
battle way, you know, being waged inside of us that draw our
attention away from Jesus and on to all the other stuff of the
world. Do you know what I'm saying?
And then rather than him becoming the focus, although
that's our intention, we are constantly divided in our mind
and in our attention and our focus.
And, and then pretty soon, man, there, there have been seasons
in my life, friends, if I'm not preaching, where there may be
weeks that go by where I don't have like a long period of time
with Jesus, where I'm focusing on him and talking to him.
And now when I'm preaching a message, oh, I better prepare
for that because I'm in front of you and I don't want to fall on
my face. You know what I mean?
Are you with me? And so today, friends, listen,
if we are going to live an unexplainable life, it has got
to start at the center. After this message, we're going
to sing a song literally called Center and they start out by
saying maybe we've made all this too complicated.
Maybe we've over complicated life.
Maybe we need to go back to simple things.
And the simple thing is this, friends, Jesus cannot just be a
side hustle in our lives. He has got to be King and Lord
sitting on the throne of our heart and the main focus of our
every second. And then people will begin to
take notice that there is something different about us
when our lives begin to look like Jesus.
Amen. Every day a little more like
Jesus. Holy Spirit, make me more like
Jesus. Now he goes on verse 6.
This is what he says. We do, however, speak a message
of wisdom. So he said, I didn't come to you
with wisdom, but I do speak in wisdom.
What's he talking about? Right.
And this is what he says. We do, however, speak a message
of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of
the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing.
No, we declare God's wisdom. So he is making a comparison
between the wisdom of this world and godly wisdom, or what I
would like to call Kingdom wisdom.
So there's a difference between the wisdom of the world or the
pathway to success that we've been preached about our whole
lives by the world, or the Kingdom pathway that Jesus lays
out for what our life should look like.
And so here's a question we should continually ask
ourselves, not does this make sense?
Because a lot of times the what makes sense to the world and
what we've been preached about to our whole lives about, right
is actually not the Kingdom pathway that Jesus lays out.
So one of the questions we could kind of test things with is this
not doesn't make sense because there's a lot of stuff that
makes sense that may not be in line with the Kingdom of God.
Do you get what I'm saying? Oh, it makes sense that if I'm
in love with somebody, then I might as well give all of myself
in every single way to that person, whether or not there's a
long term commitment or not. That makes sense.
But is it the Kingdom pathway? It makes sense for me to keep as
much money for myself and my family as possible, but is that
the Kingdom pathway that Jesus is laid out?
So the question should not be, does it make sense?
The question should be, does it please the King?
See, that is what I just heard her.
Come on, somebody. Thank you.
A little louder, please. OK.
All right. Thank you.
There you go. You can't whisper it, guys.
Come on. OK, Listen, not doesn't make
sense. Does it please the King?
That is the one of the key, one of the key evidences that Jesus
is the center of everything. If you are focusing all
decisions through the filter of does this bring a smile to my
King's face? That's a whole different
lifestyle, friends, you with me. Like if we're making every
decision on is this going to bring joy to my king?
Is this going to bring a joy to his heart?
Is this going to put a smile on his face?
Like literally every night before bed and every day before
my kids go to school, we are praying together.
Help us put a smile on your face, Jesus.
That is what a Jesus centred lifestyle looks like.
And that's what it means to live in a in a Kingdom wisdom rather
than a worldly wisdom. Are you with me?
Hey dude, I'm liking this. This is I just snorted.
That was great. I don't know what it is.
Since I turned like 35 I've started to snort when I laugh.
I don't know what it is, but apparently my wife does not like
it. So listen, the wisdom of the
world will say things like this, right?
Like get on the path of success. Save as much money as you can.
Make sure that you are the one that is the center of
everything. Your happiness, your comfort,
your joy, your immediate family are the ones that get all of
your time and attention and money.
Make sure that you're having as much pleasure in your life as
possible. And that makes sense in the
world's eyes. But what doesn't make sense is
when, when we start living in these Kingdom principles, it
doesn't make sense to the world. As a matter of fact, polls say
in a few minutes that it's foolishness to those who don't
know Jesus. It is foolishness to them that
we are going to give away more to people across the world or to
the poor than we keep for ourselves.
Like that's, that's foolishness. Who would do something like
that? Who would give away 10 or 15 or
20% of their income, not to taxes, but to help poor people?
Like, who would do something like that?
That doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make make any sense
that you know we will smile and have joy and peace in the midst
of something like cancer. It doesn't make sense that when
we get a bad phone call from the doctor, we still have a sense of
foundation and joy because we know that we have an eternity
with Jesus. That doesn't make sense.
It doesn't make sense whenever you have horrible marital issues
and rather than filing for divorce immediately, you go
through reconciliation and offer forgiveness instead of revenge.
It doesn't make sense to the world.
Do you get what I'm saying? And so if we're going to be on a
Kingdom pathway, then we cannot be asking, does this make sense?
Because that will lead us in the wrong direction.
The Bible is clear. There is a way that seems right
to a man, but in the end it leads to death.
We have got to be living Kingdom principles on a Kingdom pathway
with Jesus at the center of it all.
This is what Paul is trying to remind the Corinthians.
And then he goes on and says this.
I'm going to skip down to verse 8.
None of the rulers of this age understood it.
We just talked about that, right?
People who don't know Jesus, they may not understand the
pathway or the life that we're living for.
If they had understood it, they would not have crucified the
Lord of glory. Do you hear that like when you
live in the in the worldly pathway, you're going to screw
up massively. There will be horrible decisions
that you think are right where you miss the heart of God
completely. And that's what happened when
these with these men, like they literally thought they were
doing the right thing by destroying Jesus, putting him on
the cross, crucifying him. And what happened was they miss
the very heart of God. They miss the King of glory
because they living their own pathway and making sure that
they made sense in their own minds and hearts.
And friends, listen, when you're on the worldly path to wisdom,
you will miss the heart of Jesus and that scares me to death.
Man. Man, I don't want to run this
race as hard as I can and then realize my ladder was up the
wrong wall the whole time. That analogy didn't make sense,
but you get what I'm saying. Running ladders.
Where's he going with this? And I, I don't, I don't want to,
I don't want to wake up one day and realize that everything I
poured my blood, sweat and tears into is going to be burned up
and none of it lasts for eternity.
And then there's a promise that he's that that that Paul offers.
Listen to this. He pulls it from the book of
Isaiah, verse nine. However, as it is written, what
no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no human mind has
conceived, the things God has prepared for those who love him,
what a beautiful promise like when we live this Kingdom
pathway. What he's saying is, listen, you
can't even imagine or dream the blessings that God has prepared
for those who choose to walk that path for their, for the
entirety of their lives. You have no idea the blessings
and, and the emotional stability and the peace that someone will
have whenever they're following the Kingdom principles that God
has laid out. Now, listen, what I'm not
preaching, I want to make it very clear, I'm not preaching
some sort of, you know, prosperity gospel here, that
when you follow Jesus, everything's going to be peachy
and everything's going to be OK. That's not what Paul was trying
to say either. Because we're in a real battle
every day, friends, you know that you're with me like we live
in a broken, messed up world and we have a real enemy that when
we choose to follow Jesus like that laser focus, we will
immediately have a target on our back that the enemy will
consistently and constantly fight us for.
OK, he's going to do it. So the, the, the thing here that
Paul's trying to say is not that you're just going to have a
perfect life if you choose this pathway.
He's saying in eternity, what Jesus is preparing for us is so
much greater than anything we could ever imagine on this
planet, that it will be all worth it.
No matter what problems or difficulties you face, it will
be all worth it in the end. And being in God's favor, in his
heart and his love is going to be so much greater.
The joy and the peace that you're going to experience is
going to be so much greater than what the other path is going to
provide because it will leave you unfulfilled.
It'll leave you without peace, and it will leave you wishing
that you did things differently. And so, friends, may we choose
the path that Jesus is truly calling us to.
Amen. Because at the end of the day,
listen. Jesus never promised you that
you'd have a life without trouble.
He never promised you that that the enemy would not attack.
As a matter of fact, we see it all throughout the Bible.
Like Jesus or or God did not save, for example, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego from going into the fire.
He saved them in the middle of the fire.
He didn't save Daniel from going to the lion's den.
He saved him in the middle of the lion's den.
He didn't save Lazarus from dying.
He saved them in the middle of the grave and called his name
out in resurrection power. He didn't even save himself from
going to the cross, but instead he took it for us, sacrificing
himself for us, which is foolishness to the world, and
then rose back from the grave three days later, defeating
death. That didn't make any sense.
But he didn't save himself from the grave.
He saved himself out of the grave.
And so no matter what you may be going through, friends, Jesus
meets you in the fire, He meets you in the den, He meets you in
the grave, and then he calls your name and brings you out.
And no eye has conceived or perceived, no mind has conceived
what God has planned for those who truly love him.
Amen. And This is why Paul over and
over again is trying to remind these Corinthians, Man, listen,
focus your life on Jesus. Focus your life on him.
Don't go with the wisdom of this world.
Go with the wisdom of the Kingdom.
Please, the King, not those around you, make sure that he
has your first, yes, make sure that he is your priority because
He is going to be the one with you, whether the water is high
or low, whether there's fire or not in the good signs and the
bad, Jesus promises, I will never leave you or forsake you.
I am with you to the very end of the age and then I will be with
you for eternity. And there is no one on this
planet that will give you that type of promise.
Amen. It's OK to say come on somebody
right now, go ahead listen verse 10 actually, you know what let's
I want to skip down to the very end here.
We're going to go to verse 16 because there's one phrase that
Paul ends with and kind of a drop the mic kind of moment that
I want you to see and this is what he says for who has known
the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him.
But we have the mind of Christ. We have the mind of Christ.
In the previous verses he goes around and talks about how when
we have the Spirit of God inside of us, we now have access to the
heart and the mind of God. Because only the Spirit within a
man knows his thoughts. No one else really does.
So when we have the Spirit of God inside of us, we now have
access to the heart of God and to the mind of God.
And not only that, God gave us the gift of this book, the
Bible, so that we can know his heart and personality and His
spirit, so we can have his mind and his heart as well.
Isn't that beautiful? I mean, he doesn't just leave us
and say, listen, you're going to have to figure this out
yourself. He gives us these amazing gifts
through the Bible and through his Holy Spirit, where we now
have access to his heart, We have the mind of Christ.
That's what Paul says. But here's the question, guys,
do we really? When we're not living a Jesus
censored life, we can say all day long that we are Christians,
but then deny him by the way that we live.
There's that old quote that goes like this.
The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today are
Christians who proclaim Jesus with their lips, walk out the
door, and then deny Him by their lifestyle.
That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.
You see, there is a way that we can sing about Jesus, talk about
Jesus, do everything we can for Jesus.
But when our mind is divided and He's not the center of
everything, we can talk all day long, but then deny Him by the
way that we live every day where people can no longer see him or
even evidence of Him in our lives.
Do you get what I'm saying? And so rather than having the
mind of Christ, we have a divided mind or a religious mind
or a mind that is addicted or a mind that is filled with
pleasure, or a mind that desires comforts, or a mind that is
focused on getting what you want to get rather than what God
desires. Like we have all sorts of
battles going on in our mind. And Paul is trying to remind us,
listen, you are filled with the Spirit of God.
You are a child of the most high God.
And when you accept Jesus, you are filled with his Spirit.
And now you have have access to his mind and his heart, so you
can know what is good and what is wrong.
You can know what is Kingdom wisdom versus what is godly
wisdom. And so lean into the heart of
Jesus and have a desire to please him above everything
else. And so, friends, it is time for
us together to lay aside the path that the world has tried to
pitch to us over and over and over again and pick up the
Kingdom path that Jesus has called us to.
It's time to make him the center of everything.
It's time to give him 100% of who we are.
It's time to lay down our hearts and say, Jesus, listen, I've
been living divided. You've not been the center of
everything. I've been living my own path or
the path of the world rather than the Kingdom path.
And man, I long, I long for you to take over everything.
And so I'm laying it all down today.
Jesus, come in, film me, give me your heart, give me your mind so
that I can now live with you at the center of everything.
Amen. We're going to move now to a
time decision, OK. Well, every time the gospel, the
good news of Jesus Christ is preach, a miracle can happen,
something unexplainable, something that the world can't
quite comprehend. And here's what I believe.
It could happen right now. It could happen in this moment,
in this space, in this room. And for those of you who are
watching online, wherever you're watching from, somebody can
start an intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
And here's the best thing. You don't have to walk through
this life with your own strength.
You don't have to try to be strong enough.
You don't have to try to walk in with your own wisdom.
You can walk out with godly wisdom.
And here's probably some hope that you need to hear for some
of you in this room. You don't have to try so hard to
be good because that is exhausting to try to be good and
to do good. The simple gospel, listen, the
simple gospel message is this. We are bad, God is good.
And Jesus meets us right in the middle, steps into the gap, and
he rescues us and he gives us this free gift of salvation that
is available to everybody. Listen to my voice this morning.
You can become a walking miracle when you step into that.
And honestly, isn't that quite relieving to know that you don't
have to earn your salvation, That it's not up to you, it's
not up to your wisdom, it's not up to your strength.
It is a free gift of God. And Scripture says it very clear
in Ephesians chapter 2 that is by grace that you've been saved
through faith. It's not about what you've done.
It's a gift of God, not by work, so that no one in this room and
no one online can boast. Just like the letter in First
Corinthians chapter 1 ended last week.
Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.
And that's what Jesus does. That's what he's in the business
of doing. And nothing listen to my voice,
nothing would please the King more than for someone to say, I
choose you Jesus, to start believing and trusting in Him
and allowing yourself to surrender your old way of
thinking, surrender your old life, surrender your old ways,
surrender the relationships that that are around you, surrender
your job, surrender your time, and start living a life that is
surrendered to the King. What would please the King more
than that? I don't know, but I'm hoping
someone will say yes to Jesus for the very first time.
If that's you, if you want to start that relationship in this
room and you have questions, there's things just going
through your mind and you're wrestling through some different
things and you are like, Nope, today's the day.
I put it off long enough. There's going to be a couple
people right up by the baptistry that would love to answer those
questions. I would love to have those
conversations with you. Whatever it looks like, don't
miss it in this moment. For the rest of us in this room,
who started that relationship with Jesus?
Maybe you're like me and you're asking that question about your
own life. Does my life reveal the King to
others? What are the things that are
getting in the way? This is your faith.
Does your obedience please Jesus?
Think about all the areas of your life.
You can just pick one if you want.
Do your does it line up and does it please the king?
If not, what do you need to confess in this moment?
What If not, what do you need to turn away from in this moment?
You know, in just a little bit, as we stand up and sing, in just
a little bit, you're going to see some people come to the
front. They're going to get down on
their knees. They're going to humble
themselves. They're going to do business
with him. What is it for you that you need
to turn away from? The call I heard so plainly,
though, is this. In a roundabout way, we need to
stop blending in out in that world and we need to start
standing out. I know we're about to enter
hunting season and Camo is about to be in style once again, but
can we stop blending into a broken world?
They don't need to see us blending in.
They need to see us standing out.
And so I'm asking, is this a church that is going to stand on
boldness, that is going to just declare with their lives,
declare with their mouths that Jesus Christ is Lord in every
area of our life. And we have an opportunity right
now to do just that, to boldly come before the King to get down
on our knees and just pray out to him.
And I would just say a great practice to start standing out
is to maybe start standing out in this room because for some of
us, we, we get to this moment and we're like, this moment of
decision is not for me. This, this moment of, of coming
down in front of people is not for me.
What is my wife going to think if I go up front?
What is my husband going to think?
What is my, oh, my coworkers up there?
What if they see me? My boss is here, but if we can't
boldly declare and come to the Father and hum and humility and
prayer and hear, how in the world are we going to stand out
there in the midst of this world?
So I'm going to invite you, be bold in this time.
Stretch yourself, humble yourself, and just ask Jesus, I
want to draw close to you. You could do it right now.
You don't have to wait for me to say Amen.
You can get up and move and you can get down on your knees and
you can start declaring my life is yours.
Let's live a life unexplainable. Let's give everything to Jesus,
including this moment, including our prayers.
You guys stand with me. Come on, start moving somebody.
Jesus, we love you. Thank you for this time.
We want to live a life that doesn't make sense to the world.
We don't want to live with, with our own wisdom and our own
strength. We want godly wisdom.
And so right now we cry out to you, we get down on our knees
and we pray, Come Lord Jesus, we need you.
We depend upon you, Jesus. And so God, in this moment, as
we we sing and remind ourselves, you are the center of our lives.
You are the center of our our prayers.
You are the center of our attention.
You are everything because without you we are nothing.
And so God, we give this moment to you and your name and that I
pray. Amen.