Crossing family. I'm so glad we got an
opportunity to hang out again this weekend.
We are so glad that you guys are here.
I don't know where you're joining from.
I don't know if you're joining at one of our locations, I don't
know if you're joining us from online, or you're joining us
from the crossing inside. All I want you to know is we are
glad you're here, you're welcome here.
This is a family that loves you and that is for you and I'm
excited that we are able to bring back for week 2.
Tyler Mackenzie you guys fell in love with them last weekend.
He preached an incredible message and we have The
opportunity to bring him back this weekend, not only are you
going to enjoy it? And now you're going to learn
from and hopefully connect with Jesus.
But this is also my commitment for you guys to get to know that
not all preachers are tall and heavy that there are actually
skinny fit people who love Jesus.
So would you guys, please welcome back to the stage mr.
Tyler Mackenzie. You know what?
I feel like I'm giving Clayton high-five.
It's like, you know, so it's cool.
Hey, thanks for having me back Crossing fam.
This is part 3. Now of a series that we're doing
on surrounded and today I'm going to talk about crowds now.
You may recognize this iconic poster or picture right here.
It says, actually taken in 1936 in the harbor of Hamburg in
Germany as a Navy vessel as being christened, and then sent
off to see as you see the crowd of workers.
Our are looking at the vessel and they're all giving the
infamous sieg heil symbol as a sign of loyalty to the Nazi
party and Hitler. Well, all except for one that is
This man's name is August landmesser and he's got no tea
on a town for it. Does he Now, I don't know if,
you know, landmesser story, but actually from 1931 to 1935, he
was a part of the Nazi party, but then this picture was taken
in 36, what happened in that year?
Well, according to the story, he met a girl.
A Jewish girl. And he fell in love.
And it's interesting what happens when you wrap your mind
around the whole truth? Now, as his story continues to
play out, it was not good. He wanted to marry this
beautiful woman, he'd fell in love with the government, would
not allow him to so they went ahead and got married.
Anyways, outside of the official blessing of the Nazis, they had
a couple kids but his wife was eventually turned over to a
concentration camp and he was arrested and thrown into prison,
basically, his life was destroyed.
And yet, 80 years later, we look back at a picture like this and
it inspires us. He suffered for what was good.
He was willing to resist popular culture and majority morality.
He stood out from the crowd. And today, it inspires us.
And, you know, when we see a picture like this, I know what
all of us think we're thinking. That's right, August landmaster
stood out. And so do I I'm like him.
Only problem is that most of us aren't and she's just keeping it
real. But but let's be honest, the
crowd is seductive, the crowd is magnetic.
And for many of us without even noticing, we just sort of melt
into this tribe or slide into that crowd.
In order to fit in let me give you a cultural example of this
to illustrate. It has a little less teeth.
So you know most of us wherever our minds around it, So, when I
was a kid, this will date me. You'll be able to figure out how
old I am. I was a kid.
If you wanted to own your favorite songs, you do it in one
of two ways, you could either get a cd part of the CD
generation, my parents had some cassette tape.
So I had some cassette tapes is mostly like Christian music and
George Strait so I wanted to expand my horizons just a little
bit. Nothing wrong with George Strait
Check Yes or No, Love it. Okay but but I you know I needed
some Will Smith and So I got it. I got it.
I got some CDs or the other way you could get music when I was a
kid was you would wait for it to come on the radio.
Do you remember this? And then you would hit record on
your boom box and record it on to to accept tape.
I just am curious and participate with me every campus
here. Just by show of hands.
Let's date the audience, raise your hand.
If you were a part of the I made my own mixtape generation,
anybody make you a mix tape, okay?
I look around when everybody look around you campuses because
this is what we would call the older generation.
Yeah. Now raise your hand real quick.
If you burnt your own CDs that was like your choke a if you're
a CD burner right now, I want you to look around.
Look around look around. Get your campuses look around
because because this is this is what we'd call the getting older
generation. Somebody say you go tell your 14
year old that you burn CDs, when you're a kid and they're going
to be like, with a lighter or like, what do you mean Dad?
Because it's just not, it's done job.
Now if you're a part of the burning your CDs generation like
me, you're also So part of the pirate generation your pirate,
did you know this? Let me prove to you.
You're that you're card-carrying pirate.
All right, does anybody recognize this logo right here?
Go ahead. What is it Napster right?
This is the Napster logo born in 1999.
How about this logo right here LimeWire?
That's this this audience knows this a little too.
Well born in 2000. Basically these peer-to-peer
networks were incredibly popular because what you could do to
you, put them on your computer and download whatever song you
wanted to for free. Now, believe it or not
musicians, did it like this? Sales plummeted lawsuits were
filed. Even some really famous
musicians. You like dr.
Dre Metallica. They were all standing up
against this Metallica's lead. Drummer Lars Ulrich said this,
he said if we're going to sell our music on the internet and
whatever way, we so choose we cannot do that.
If the guy next door is it giving it away for free.
Now, I don't know what the statute of limitations is on
this, but I participated a bit in the, do you know, Napster and
and LimeWire. But I had friends in my dorm
that downloaded thousands upon thousands upon thousands of
songs like, they had like, external hard drives for just
the music. Now, one of the worship leaders
at my church, Northeast name's Aaron.
He told me recently goes. It's not that much better in
2022. Aaron has produced enough music.
Now, to where he's got over, a million streams on Spotify and
was like, over a million streams, Dude you must be rich
and you know what he said to me said, nah, know how many that
was Million streams have made me.
Less than four thousand dollars, why?
Well, here's the math. Every stream on Spotify is about
two fifths of a penny, which means in order to make a dollar,
you have to get 263 streams. And most musicians will tell
you, that's stealing. As just Criminal.
It may not prevent Kanye from getting rich, but what about the
local artists in your town, right is trying to make a living
that's stealing and it's kind of hard.
Kind of hard to deal. Now, the reason why I bring this
up today is because out this isn't a fascinating moral
phenomena for us to study together.
You see what happened was? We took a globally accepted
moral Norm, that had been traditionally held by
Generations upon Generations, previous to us and contemporary
to us stealing like pretty much. Everybody has thought, stealing
is bad and all of a sudden we just moved the compass on it.
Armor talking about this in college and some of my friends
would like one Metallica. Does it need the money?
Let's probably right, it probably doing just fine but
it's still stealing. Well, don't judge me.
Get the log out of your own eye. Gotta log in my eye.
You gotta log in yours though is what it's stealing like.
I just want you to notice. I want you to see how quickly we
can take a traditionally embraced globally recognized
moral. No man Norman just move it and
why? Because it benefited Us and
nobody else seemed to care. Everyone was doing it.
It's the power of the crowd. Now to be clear, I don't think
crowds are just like automatically bad, you know,
just because there's majority morality around something or
just because there's a crowd surrounded by something, doesn't
disqualify it from goodness or health.
I just think we should be very suspicious of it.
We're talking about this not long, a Clayton crowds crowds
can be a very fickle thing. And the problem with crowds is
that they move us over time, look at the history of both, the
DNC and the GOP in our country. And what you'll see is that
they've moved beliefs over the last 50 to, Hundred years.
And what happens is people in the party who find their
identity their in oftentimes move with them.
It's the same thing with many of our crowds.
So I'm just saying we should be very suspicious.
We should be careful when we find ourselves in a crowd
especially today. Today with the strength of
public relations and advertising and social media, in order to
manipulate our Behavior, we should be especially careful
when we find ourselves in a crowd.
I want to show you a picture of the, the modern father of PR
manipulation, meet Edward Bernays.
This is Bernays right here. A béarnaise is actually the
nephew of Sigmund Freud. So what bearnaise did was he
took his uncle's insights on psychology and he basically
applied it to PR advertising in the 1920s and you should Google
this guy's achievements, he got Calvin, Coolidge re-elected by
changing his Stern demeanor, he overthrew the Guatemalan
government can go to the next slide.
So that he could sell bananas. He convinced us that bacon and
eggs were breakfast foods. Did you know that?
You ever wonder why we eat bacon eggs for breakfast?
Like, why do we do that? Is it in the Bible?
Is it an it says it in the Bible.
Okay, no, no, it's not in the Bible.
Okay. So bacon, anyways, this, that's
another sermon, it's not in the Bible know, the reason why we
eat bacon and eggs for breakfast because in the 1920s it was I
think it was the Beachwood Packing Company decided they
wanted to sell more bacon so they hired Edward Bernays.
He went out, did some study found that people during the
1920s eight pretty light breakfasts, it was like a juice
or a coffee with a piece of bread, then he went out and
surveyed. Doctors, doctor said it would
actually be healthier for Party hardy your breakfasts.
And so he put together an ad campaign. 5,000 doctors say that
you should eat a bigger breakfast, it's good for your
health and Wham how about some bacon and eggs.
Here, we are a hundred years later and I am mad about it.
I love bacon. I'm just saying.
Notice how they can move us. Maybe my favorite Bernays,
accomplishment was his torches for Freedom Campaign.
He actually convinced women in the 20s that cigarette smoking
cigarettes was a part of women's equality and the 1920s was okay
for men to smoke cigarettes, but it was dishonorable for women to
do so. So what Bernays did was he
capitalized on first-wave feminism I said you want to be
equal to the men, light one up. He even had you know what, the
Torches for freedom is, it's the cigarette, okay?
He even had women March in the 1929 Easter Day Parade, smoking,
cigarettes and fashionable clothes in order to push the
message out. Now in 1929, he published his
book called propaganda. On how to manipulate people and
this was his key argument he said the conscious and
intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of
the masses is an important element in Democratic Society,
those who manipulate this, unseen mechanism of society
constitute an invisible government.
It's kind of spooky and invisible government which is
the true ruling power of our country.
Our minds are molded, our tastes are formed, our ideas suggested,
largely by men, we've never heard of in almost every Act of
our daily lives. Whether in the sphere of
politics or business, in our social conduct, or in our
ethical thinking, we are dominated By the relatively
small number of persons, you understand the mental processes
and social patterns of the masses.
It is they who pulled the wires which control the public mind.
So, his belief is that behind all the moral outrage today,
behind all the Fashions behind all the activist movements and
favored Brands there is an invisible government telling us
the things that we should believe the things that we
should shout the things that we should buy the people that we
should support. And they're really good at it.
Now he wrote this in 1928. Think about how much more
sophisticated they are today. Today we're being manipulated
through type of Technology, called surveillance technology
ever heard of it. It's a coin.
It's a term coined by shoshana zubov the Harvard business
professor and basically, okay here's what serve surveillance
Technologies technologies that you actually welcomed into your
life. This is not like Orwell's
screens that are installed and everybody's home and his book,
you know. Like so the government can spy
on you. These aren't enforced inflicted
upon you. You welcome these into your
life. Your Technologies, you welcomed
into your life because they age your lifestyle smartphones or
provide convenience or offer entertainment.
All the while they gather detailed personal data about
you. And then they analyze it with
sophisticated algorithms to predict your behavior in order
to pitch you goods and services tailored to your preferences.
So just walk through a day with me, okay?
You wake up in the morning, your alarm goes off and you go for a
run or maybe you'll work out while you're working.
Going out your, whoop band or your Fitbit, Fitbit tracks, all
of your vitals and then it uploads it to the owner of the
app. Then you come in, you sit down
for breakfast, you know, you have have something to eat and
you get on your emails to handle a couple emails.
Right. While you're on email gmail is
scanning. All the words that you type for
keywords in order to Target you with ads later that day, then
you get on social media, everything that you like,
everything that you forward, everything, that you share
everything that you comment on. It's recorded and a data profile
is built on you so that they can Target you.
Ads later then you get on blogs or you get on a News website and
cookies. Not the chocolate chip kind
cookies are embedded in your browser.
Everything you say, to Siri recorded in monetized,
everything you say in front of Alexa record it and monetize, I
kid, you not not long ago, I was talking about ice cream, then I
pulled out my phone and got on Instagram and Ben and Jerry's
was the first ad. Every time you use your credit
card, that data is recorded and monetized and then at the end of
the day after you've used your smart TV and your smart
refrigerator and your smartphone and your Smart Security System,
you put your phone down on the nightstand, you go to sleep and
all that data is uploaded into the cloud to be used against
you. And with this wealth of
information, understand the invisible government knows more
about you than you do. And with that, they're able to
Target you with just the right and add just the right messaging
in order to manipulate our thoughts and behaviors.
This is one of the great discipleship challenges for the
church today. Competing with the invisible
government, we got to realize. When you go on social media,
you're not the you're not the customer, you're the product.
Social media is designed to distract you a dick to you.
Then chop your attention up into little bits and sell it off to
the highest bidder. That's the business model.
That's why you don't pay to be on social media.
Other people do. And and there are multi-million
dollar organizations like the DNC like the GOP.
Like all the major brands, you know, that are spending hundreds
of millions of dollars in order to grab your attention, we are
being evangelized constantly by competing gospels.
To the Gospel of Jesus in classes at school and shows on
TV 24/7. Breaking news and articles
online, smart phone, notifications influencer posts
on Instagram celebrity commencement speeches, throwaway
comments from co-workers you can't pump.
Gas at the gas station without a screen advertising.
You men you can't go to the bathroom at B-Dubs without a
screen literally advertising to you.
I can't watch sports without having to consider Justice
racism, sexuality gender inequality and patriotism
because it is all the Relentless background noise of our life and
it is so easy to just gradually come to assume overtime.
That majority morality is reality.
That popular culture Knows Best. That the crowd is where I
belong. But it begs the question of all
of us today. I wonder what Jesus thinks about
crowds. Wonder what crowd he would want
me to belong in. Now, thank God for scripture.
Because in the gospels, particularly marks, we have lots
of data about Jesus and his interactions with crowds.
In fact, did you know that Scholars call, Mark's gospel?
The gospel of the crowds because Mark emphasizes crowds far more
than any other. So, I want to build with you
with the rest of our time today. A Theology of crowds in which,
we look at Jesus, give and take with him.
You ready for this? Okay, so there's four big points
on how Jesus interacts with crowds.
Here's the first one, first, Jesus consistently draws crowds.
He consistently draws them. I've got a brief outline for
you. If you're a note, taker a Bible,
nerdy can go check me later but it all starts for him in Mark
128 after he heals a demoniac and his street cred, begins to
grow and I'm going to tell you if you hit like if you went to
work this week and you healed a demoniac Clayton's, going to
call you and be like what up, man?
Like your street cred is going to start growing now in Mark.
145, the crowds really began to take off though because he heals
this one leper, I've got to read this passage to you because I
think is just hilarious. Starting in 144 said, Jesus
said, see he's talking A leper. He just said, he just healed.
He said, see that? You say nothing to anyone, but,
just go and show yourself to the priest offer an offer for your
cleansing, what? Moses commanded, as a testimony
to them, verse 45? What did the leper do instead?
He went out began to Proclaim it freely to spread the word so
that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly but stayed
out in the country and people came to him from every quarter.
So what was the Tipping Point for Jesus ministry?
One healed leper. One healed leper.
That was so fired up that he did receive healing from the Messiah
that he would not shut up about it.
And I just got a feeling that the reason why the crossing is
going through some of its most explosive growth and its history
right now is because they ain't just one leper up in here.
There's hundreds of them and I would just encourage you, your
best days will still be ahead of you as long as you continue to
go out and just not shut up about Jesus.
Now, back to our slide here at case we got 145 the crowds
explode. What about Get to chapter 3, the
crowd, so grows so big. It's dangerous.
Check out 39. It says Jesus told his disciples
have a boat ready for him because of the crowd so they
would not crush him. 320, it says in the crowd came together
so that they Jesus and the disciples could not even eat.
In fact, if you read after this, in verse 21, Jesus family comes
up and they start to really show concern for Jesus.
Like I can imagine married be like back up.
He ain't doing No more healing until he eats his dinner.
Get some veggies in front of his boy like honestly, that's where
it's at. Now, back to our outline here by
in 310, it's a go back and read this later, but in 310, we
actually start to see the psyche of the crowd though.
We get to see their motives because it tells us that the
crowds come with a consumption, a consumer mindset.
They come because of what they can get.
Rather than what they can give, which is important to know about
crowds, then we finally get the chapter 6.
We see the Pinnacle of Jesus crowd growth because he feeds
the 5000. I think the reason why they
wrote down this number, is because it was a big number.
We gotta count This Crowd. What the scripture say is that
it was 5,000 men. So if you add the women and
children that were there, it could be 2x 3x more.
Incredible. So, Jesus draws crowd.
He could draw crowd. Now, here's the second thing he
know about Jesus, and crowds s, Jesus compassionately loves the
crowds. He can passionately loves the
crowds as well. So it's, it's interesting in the
Pinnacle moment, right? Before he feeds the 5,000 in
Mark, chapter 6, do you know what's going on?
The disciples have just come back from a mission trip.
He'd send him off in pairs. They've come back.
They've got some stories to tell Jesus.
They're excited about seeing the power of God work through their
lives and it says they're hungry and tired.
So Jesus like let's go on a men's Retreat.
Let's just get away, let's talk about it, right?
And as they're going, well, pick up in, Mark 6, you can read the
text for yourself. It says, they went away in the
boat to a deserted place by themselves.
Many saw them going, right? And they recognize them.
So they hurried there disrupted. The you know, men's Retreat or
whatever and they're on foot all the towns from all the towns and
arrived ahead of them next slide.
It says as he went ashore Jesus saw the crowd and I wouldn't
have been annoyed by the crowd, to be honest.
I'm trying to get away with my friends here.
Okay. But it says, Jesus saw the crowd
and he had compassion for them because they were like sheep
without a shepherd and he began to teach them many things.
I would have been annoyed with the crowd but Jesus loved the
ground taught the crowd. Fed the crowd.
Now that's the first two points Jesus is relationship wasn't
always so peachy though. With the crowd Point number 3
here, Jesus draws them. Jesus compassionately loves him.
But what you'll also see is that Jesus strategically resists the
crowd as well strategically Next, slide.
Here, there are several references here of how Jesus
asks. How about spirits and people to
keep his identity secret, the spirits listen, the people don't
always. We see in 6 33 34 that Jesus
wants to withdraw from the crowd into solitude.
We also see in Mark, chapter 4 in the most puzzling passages in
all the Bible. Because In this passage Jesus
confesses to his disciples that he actually designs parables, in
order to puzzle crowds, have you ever studied this for?
Okay, so it's no stretch. So strange starting in chapter 4
verse 1. Okay, it's just follow with me
because it's just one of those weird things.
This is during the initial wave of Jesus ministry.
The crowds are starting to explode and so forth.
Verse 1, it says he began to teach Beside the sea.
Such a very large crowd gathered around him, that he got into a
boat on the sea and sat there. And while the while the whole
crowd was beside the sea and on land, he began to teach them
many things in Parables. Now, after that he teaches the
parable of the sower, you may be familiar with that one or not,
but apparently the people in the crowd and the disciples didn't
really totally understand what Jesus was saying.
So later that evening the disciples approached Jesus and
they asked him for an explanation on it.
This Is what Jesus says about Parables verse 10.
It says, when he was alone, those who are around him along
with the 12. So, this isn't a crowd right
smaller group. They ask them about The Parables
and he said to them, read, this is just strange y'all.
He says to them to you has been given the secret of the kingdom
of God. But for those outside,
everything comes in parables, in order that, they may indeed
look, but not perceive and may indeed, listen, but not
understand, so that it may not turn.
And be forgiven. Now, this is an incredibly
complex passage that we do not have the time to deal with in
full today. But here's what I want you to
notice Jesus admits that he creates parables in order to
puzzle the crowd, So it beckons the question.
How then does the crowd come to a fuller understanding of Jesus
and his teachings? Well, we actually see it modeled
for us in this text right here. You have to move from the crowd
to the Core How did the disciples come to an
understanding? Well, they leave the crowd and
they get around a bonfire with Jesus later that night and he
takes him to a deeper understanding of the text.
Look at 4:33. I says, with many such Parables,
he spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it.
He did not speak to them except in Parables, but he explained
everything in private to his disciples.
So one might go as far to say that Jesus knew the crowd was a
good work, but it was not his great work.
His great work wasn't feeding the 5000 per se but it was
discipling. The 12 intensely for three and a
half years. I'm gonna go ahead and tell you
today. If the summation of your
relationship with, Jesus is just coming and sitting in the crowd
once or twice a month. You're missing out on something.
Now, last key Point, here about Jesus relationship, with crowds
Jesus, consistently draws them, compassionately loves them
strategically, resist him. But also Jesus courageously
defies the crowds Mark chapter 15 verse 12.
It says pilot spoke to them again.
We're now at Jesus crucifixion and them is the crowd.
What do you wish me to do with the man?
You call the king of the Jews? They shouted back.
Crucify him. Pilate asked him.
Why? What evil has he done?
But they the crowds shouted, all the more crucify him.
So pilot wishing to satisfy the crowd released Barabbas for
them. And after flogging Jesus.
He handed him over to be crucified.
A week earlier, they were saying Hosanna as he wrote in, on Palm
Sunday, on a donkey a week later, they are shouting crucify
him. And why bottom line is, his
agenda was not theirs. So they crucified him for it.
He was a messiah, just not the sort of Messiah that they
wanted. They wanted a messiah who would
wage peace with a sore. He was a he was a messiah that
would wage peace with a cross and he had the audacity, this
Jesus to look at the crowds and call them to carry their cross.
Mark chapter 8, Shadow this statement to the crowd says,
Jesus called The Crowd. with his disciples and he said to them,
if anyone had become my followers, let them deny
themselves and take up their cross.
And follow me. And I got imagine that that
lesson didn't land well with the crowds because crowds don't come
for what they can give they come for, what they can get crowds,
don't carry crosses. They put people on them.
Now, quick review, can you throw the for up there again, all
together? And here's what I found, this is
fascinating to me, I found that if you stay in the crowd
eventually, you will experience all the things.
The crowds experience in Jesus with the church today.
You know, I've been, okay, I'm going to Ministry for 10 years.
It is incredible to me as I was praying over this message, how
the crowds experience with Jesus maps on the crowds, experience
with Jesus body. The church today, the church is
the physical embodiment of Jesus, where his hands and feet
were his physical representation in the world today.
And I found that the road. I mean, the relationship is so
close. First off, you will feel drawn
into the church crowd many of you.
Come on Sundays because there's an energy here, you can sense
the presence of God. Next, you will certainly feel
loved when you come into the church.
Crap, some people greet you at the door and hand you a cup of
coffee, some is gonna remember your name.
You'll get practical teaching that changes your life,
something to love on your kid. If you get six, I'm gonna show
up at your hospital room or they're going to send you a
meal. That's an amazing thing.
But you also feel resistance. Eventually, if you stay in the
crowd, eventually, if you stay in the crowd for too long, then
your relationship with Jesus starts to get stale but you
don't want to own that. So often times you just blame
that people be like, well, you know, I snatched this church,
doesn't take people deeper someone needs to, then we need
to go deeper here. But then when someone's like,
well how come and get in a small group then?
Well, I tried one of those and those people were weird.
Like I'm getting a Bible study then well, you know, I don't
have six Tuesday's in a row travel ball.
Well, I just read this book in your spare time than well, I'm
just not a reader you know. Now, look, I want you to notice.
It's not that. Anybody stopped loving you.
It's not that there's like, not a see open for you in the crowd
every Sunday. There always is the coffee's
warm. Come on, come hang out with us
on the weekend. It's just that often times.
People just tend to move on to those who actually want to be a
part of the core. Not just the crowd.
You see the crowd wants Jesus to change their world and there's
nothing wrong with that, but the core wants to help build his
world. And that's the next level, these
people, the core. Aren't consumers their
contributors. They fans their followers.
Jesus knew that the change the world.
He would need to not just feed the 5,000 but disciples the 12.
Now, here's the deal. If you stay in the crowd to Long
eventually I mean you're not gonna crucify Jesus like the
Jeff. Yeah.
Could crucify Clayton? I mean I never cruise fine but I
found that people just tend to leave eventually.
Eventually, folks just just sort of bow out.
Because Jesus is constantly summoning us beyond the crowd.
Again, one more time, Mark 8:34. He called The Crowd with his
disciples and he said to them. If anyone wants to become my
followers, let them deny themselves take up their cross
and follow me. And, you know, we would all like
to pretend that if Jesus were around today, he'd be on our
side, right? Like, he'd vote like us.
He tweet like us. He talk like us.
He think all the same things that we do, same bumper stickers
on his car, same stickers on his computer, right?
Like, he would be on the same Pages us, but the reality is
that, if Jesus would here, You today he be looking all of us in
the Isam, deny yourself and take up your cross.
He treat all of us like he did the disciples like the Rich
Young Ruler and he would look straight through us into the
idols of our heart and call us to repent.
The question is Would we? What do we just remain in the
crowd? But we move to the Core.
Would we follow him to the bonfire later?
Take the next step and sacrifice, or would we just sell
crucified us food? I'm tired of hearing about
self-denial. I'm out of town.
So let me conclude this way. It can feel lonely.
It can feel lonely when you leave the crowd.
It can be disorienting, it feels like a loss of relationships.
It can even feel like a loss of a world view altogether.
But I want you to know today that it's worth it, because
there's a better crowd than whatever crowds you're in.
See, the beautiful thing about following Jesus is that when you
make an individual decision for him, you are Incorporated
through baptism into the family, of God, or in other words, you
get a new crowd, the Jesus crowd.
You got a new Squad that I can count on and that you can rely
on. It's just amazing passage in
Mark chapter 10 where Jesus and the Rich Young Ruler that kind
of goes down the Rich Young Ruler.
He leaves sad because he can't give away all of his money and
Peter freaks out. Remember this, Peter freaks out,
he's like, who can be, who could be saved in?
And Jesus looks at Peter and he says to them, anyone who
sacrifices for me, in this life will be given a hundred times
more in this life. And when we read this, we like
is Jesus of prosperity preacher. Lexi telling put ten dollars in
a plate and you'll get, you know, what is that?
When mass that 10,000, I'm a Bible reader, not a math, you'll
get 10,000. Oh, that's not what Jesus is
saying here. it's not Prosperity, theology when he's
talking about here, Is the relational wealth that you gain.
When you step in to his crowd to the Jesus.
People when you move from crowd into the core, like you get two
sisters that you never had growing up.
The brothers that you never had growing up, you get the
spiritual mothers and the spiritual fathers that you never
had growing up. You get too crazy, uncle to, we
won't Point him out in a room but we all know, right?
You get the Multicultural perspective that you never had
the multi generational perspective that you never had.
You got the friends that you Never had the wise
accountability that you never had the loving affirmation that
you have never had the last 10% speaking.
Pastor and community that you never had a financial safety.
Net that you never had an army of strong backs, willing to Bear
any burden that you carry day in and day out, hundred times more
Jesus 100 times more indeed and some Look, I don't want to
romanticize this. The church ain't perfect.
It's a great church but we get a lot wrong here.
But isn't that what unites us. The fact that we all know we get
a lot wrong but the one thing we give right is Jesus.
So, I am inviting you today to move.
I'm inviting you today to get up out of your seat and decide to
move from the crowd to the Core. Does it look like for use in
baptism? There is a prayer.
Do you need engage with scripture?
Did you get into a group? You need to just find your
people or meet your pastor. I don't know what the next step
is but in this moment today I'm calling you to take it.
I believe Jesus. It's calling you to take him.
So right now we're going to move into a time of decision today is
your day moved out of the crowd.