You are invited to stop treating faith like insurance and start surrendering every area of your life to Jesus as Lord. Take a bold step today by coming forward, declaring you are all in, and letting Him transform your insecurity into security.
There's no place I'd rather be. There's nothing that I'd rather do than get to be the pastor here. I'm so thankful that I'm standing here preaching the gospel to you today. Amen. There's nothing better than standing in the center of God's will for your life.
There's no safer place to be, no matter where he sends you. I remember standing back in June, standing in front of 2 Muslim security guards with AK 40 sevens in Pakistan, feeling the leading of the Holy Spirit to go speak to them and share the gospel with them about *Jesus* and going and doing it and then giving their lives to Jesus. Now, most people would say most people would say, that was unsafe. That was unsafe. But most people don't know what I know.
There's no safer place to be than in the center of God's will. Being obedient to him. *Revelation-12:11* says, they overcame him. In context, they are Christians. Not in the American sense of Christian, where you go to church, you "walk an aisle", and you prayed a prayer 1 day.
A lot of people go to church, walk an aisle, and prayed a prayer to get fire insurance so they don't have to go to hell 1 day, and they can say that they said those "magic words". If that's what happened to you and nothing else changed, you're not a Christian. I love you enough to tell you the truth. A Christian doesn't just believe that Jesus died and rose again and prayed some magic words and go to church every now and then. A Christian has been transformed because they confess with their mouth what they believe in their heart.
Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks that Jesus is their Lord. And there's 2 words in the English language that don't go together. The word no and the word Lord. If you only follow Jesus, as long as it agrees with how you feel, then maybe he's not your Lord. Because you gotta be able to tell yourself no and him yes when he tells you to do something or to say something that you don't feel like.
Because you're no longer the Lord of your life. He is. You grow in that. I'm not saying you get it perfect. But when you walk the aisle and you repent, you're declaring, I give my life to you.
How can you believe that Jesus is Lord, that he created you, that he's good, and that he's all knowing, and that he created you for purpose on purpose? How can you really believe that and not follow him? So to have a mental ascent of belief with no following is dead faith. And it's the church that will be spewed out of his mouth in Revelation. And they thought they were saved and called him Lord, Lord, but they never knew him because they never really followed him.
To follow him is to repent, which means I'm turning from the way that I've always thought and the way that I've always lived. I'm not I don't know if I can get it right every time, but I'm gonna trust you to help me. Yes. Yes. Amen.
Come on. And I give you my life. That is receiving Jesus as your Lord. That is true belief. People say, oh, but Jesus loves everybody.
Of course, Jesus loves everybody. That's why he died for the world, But not everybody loves him.
To love him is to obey him. To know him is to love him, and to love him is to obey him. So when you have the heavenly father reveals himself to you, you have a choice whether or not you follow him or you follow yourself. You follow what he says or you follow
fear. Control, comfort, the idols of America.
Yeah. It's I'm laying my life down to follow what you say is more important than what I've built my life around. I'm reorienting my life to build it around Jesus and the truth. And every time that you put your finger on something that is not oriented around Jesus at the center, then I'm gonna repent of that too and continually grow to look more like you. Or is there gonna be something in your life where Jesus touches like he touched the rich man, the rich young ruler who came
to Jesus and Jesus said, follow this this the commandments. And the rich young ruler said, I've done all of that. Modern day terms, I've been a good church goer. I grew up in church. I walked the aisle when I was 11.
That's great. And I pray that that was real. But when Jesus puts his finger on that 1 thing, is that your Lord or is Jesus? And what is the 1 thing you haven't surrendered? It's time to surrender that too.
Is it your time? Your money? Your friends? What you watch on TV? Your romantic novels?
Your porn? What is it? Because God's coming back. *Jesus* is coming back for a church without spot or wrinkle. And how is it that Christians can claim *righteousness* and *grace* and think that that grace and righteousness gives them a license to live unholy?
*Romans-6* actually says that grace sets you free from sin. So why would you continue to live in it? In *church*, this was not in my notes. But the world needs to see a spotless church. Not perfectionism, but purity in our pursuit of Christ.
And where we get it wrong, falling forward into his arms, getting back up, and not making excuses for the same sin over and over. Because can I be can I be real honest with you? Just to tell you the truth because God loves you enough. And it might offend you, but I love you enough to offend you because I'd rather you walk in freedom and be offended at me for a little bit than bust hell wide open. *Matthew-7* said, many will come to me on that day and say, Lord, Lord.
That means they thought they knew him because Lord, Lord, in that day and age means they thought they were a friend of God. It's like me saying, being gone for a while, coming back saying, oh, Courtney, Courtney, It's so good to see you. And what Jesus turned around and say, depart from me for I never knew you. You workers of lawlessness. And these were guys that healed the sick, cast out demons and prophesied.
And yet in America, there's a lot of people that hadn't healed the sick, cast out demons and prophesied and they just think because they went to church a couple times that they Christians. You understand? What is lawlessness? Lawlessness is I'm doing what I wanna do regardless of what you say. I'll do what you want me to do as long as I feel like it.
But when I don't feel like it, my comfort is my Lord. Come on. Does that sound like the American church? Unfortunately. Time to wake up.
Time to wake up, guys. God's coming back for a spotless church. When you surrender your life to Jesus, like I said, is he full of grace and righteousness? Absolutely. What happens in that moment?
You He puts his Holy Spirit inside of you. He forgives you of all of your sin, past, present, and future. Puts the Holy Spirit inside
of you, you become an **infant in Christ** like a baby. Does that mean you're gonna make a mess? Yes.
Babies make messes, and older brothers and sisters have to clean them up. Yeah? That's okay. Does that mean you're gonna fall? Yes.
Toddlers fall all the time when they're trying to walk. But a healthy toddler is trying to walk. Get me? So when you're born again, you turn, you're an infant in Christ and you fall forward. The heavenly Father picks you up back up and it's 1 step at a time.
The problem is there's a lot of people that they think just because they felt something some Sunday morning like most of you felt during worship, they came to the altar and they prayed, Lord Jesus, forgive me. Jesus is back there by the way. Lord Jesus, forgive me of my sin. I feel so bad. I I wanna do right.
I wanna do right. Help me to do right. And then they get up. They never repented. Why?
Did they ask for forgiveness? Yes. But the Bible doesn't say ask for forgiveness and you'll be saved. It says repent. So they asked for forgiveness, but they stood up still turned this way.
Because repentance means to turn, a change of mind which leads to a change of life. And without repentance, you can stay in this place with Lord ask me help me. I wanna I wanna help. I wanna I wanna grow. I wanna go to church more.
I wanna do this. I wanna do that. Good intentions paid the road to hell. You gotta be hit and then, yes, *Lord*. In that moment, he puts the holy when it's real, he puts the Holy Spirit in you to empower the change.
You're not on your own. It's not self effort. It's not by your works as you're saved. It's by Jesus's. That's the whole reason that he reveals himself so you feel that conviction in that moment.
But in that moment, you gotta choose him and not you and be real about it. That real heart change leads to a real the real fruit of repentance. You know what the fruit of repentance is? *Obedience*. I
ain't playing anymore. Guess what? Your flesh is gonna fight you so hard because your mind has got used to thinking the way the world thinks. You got used to living in fear. You got you you got in the habit of not going to church.
Your mind your your flesh does not want to read the Bible. Your flesh is used to hanging out with those people, drinking those things, listening to that stuff, And the Holy Spirit knows that. He puts the Holy Spirit in unholy people to make them holy. He forgives you, he washes you clean. Right?
Spiritually, but he puts the Holy Spirit in your unholy flesh to redeem you. And that happens 1 step of *obedience* at a time. Confronting the mindset that you've been engrossed in, and being willing to change. With no change, there's no growth.
Christianity, man loves you where you are. I love you where you are. I'm not mad at you. God's not mad at you. He died for you.
So I'll lay my life down for you too. I love you right where you are, but I love you too much to leave you there. I'm gonna confront where you are with truth because I love you enough to do that and the truth sets people free. And you'll either run or you'll lean in. And when you lean in, that truth begins to shave away the junk, and you begin to look more like Jesus.
You begin to experience more righteousness, peace, and joy in your life. Go to a church that's gonna talk real. If you're just visiting from another city, go find a church that you're go, and it's gonna make your flesh uncomfortable and offended till you start walking by the spirit in obedience to his leading. Otherwise, that church ain't worth going to. You understand?
Because he's called you to live in righteousness, peace, and joy. And that that takes learning to be conformed into his image 1 step at a time. He's patient. I'm patient because he was patient with me, but I ain't patient with "playing games". I ain't patient with lukewarmness, playing the fence, putting on hypocritical masks, trying to sound real good when I'm around because I'm the pastor.
Man, stop playing games. Just be real. It's authenticity that we can work with, man. You just keep putting on a mask, what you're hiding is only gonna grow more dirty. Secret sin only grows more dirty.
Once you realize that we love you enough, God loves you enough that you can bring everything out in the open. And when you bring it out in the open, the light hits the darkness and exposes it, transforms it so that it can become your testimony instead of your downfall. Amen? This wasn't in the notes. It is what it is.
But no, I I wanna I wanna celebrate our 7 year anniversary because I think it's a big deal. You know, God did an amazing thing, but at the same time, I feel like it's more important to address America, to address our local church. Charlie Kirk, we're going there. My wife watched Charlie Kirk every night almost 99% of the time. Before she went to bed, was watching videos.
She loved loved it. You know why? Because he shared truth. He confronted the culture of the day with the truth of the gospel. I don't know what you're listening to, but he confronted it with truth of the gospel, guys.
He shared the gospel wherever he went. He wanted to be known as a man that stood bold for his faith, and he was. The Bible says in *Matthew-28* that we are supposed to make disciples of all nations, which means we're supposed to confront the culture of nations with the culture of the kingdom of heaven, which is righteousness, peace, and joy. So we're supposed to be bold enough to stand in a culture that says the opposite and love it with the truth because we're so overwhelmed by it in our hearts, it has to come out of our mouths. And what did Charlie Kirk stand for?
Man, he stood for families, healthy families, fathers returning to the their homes, loving their wives and loving their children. He stood for life beginning at conception and the rights of the unborn child. By the way, that's not a political thing. That's a biblical thing. You understand?
And if that makes your flesh uncomfortable, good. Get offended, go read the Bible, then repent. I'm serious. He stood for marriage between a man and a woman. That's a biblical thing, not a political thing.
And we have to be okay with standing up for truth in the midst of a society that tolerates lies that destroy family and destroy people. I don't tolerate lies that destroy people and destroy family. Like Jesus, I wanna stand, proclaim truth, love people enough to proclaim truth
even if they hate me for
it because I love them more than I love what they think about me. That's called Christianity. And that's why the nation is in an uproar about what happened with Charlie Kirk because he's a martyr. He's a martyr. He stood for truth in the gospel in the midst of a society, a lot of society that didn't.
And people saw the authenticity and there are so many testimonies of people I was transgender, but then I've been watching Charlie Kirk for 3 months or 3 years and now I have a a husband and kids. Why? Because he stood for biblical values that restored healthy families. Now, year January, Tertullian, early church father, he said these words, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Why?
Because every time g Jesus died, rose again, said this gospel of the kingdom will be preached everywhere. It was destined to multiply. And so Satan and his horde of enemies raises up mindsets and ideologies to silence the church, but he can't do it. So eventually, he tries to kill it. And all throughout the last 2000 years, wherever there was mass persecution and physical persecution, the "blood of the martyrs", when people boldly stood for faith in the midst of society, no matter what the cost, they did not love their life unto death.
Why? Because it wasn't about their life anyway, it was about standing for Christ. It was about him, loving him and being obedient no matter what, no matter who, because when we gave our life to Jesus, we died to ourself anyway. We're all in for him. It's not about us.
I don't live for myself anymore. I live for Christ. It's the only way to live, guys. So when a Christian stands like that and then they're martyred, murdered, Martyred. Those watching where the seeds of the gospel have hit their heart, it produces fruit in their lives.
It causes radical miracle grow and cause that's why a lot of you are back in church today. You saw what happened over the last week, the murders, the craziness, and you said, man, I gotta get back to church. Why? Because the blood of the *martyr* is the seed of the church. It's a call back to what God had sowed into your heart.
And are you gonna follow him all out? Or is this going to be like a church camp revival when you were 14 and 15 years old? You make a New Year's resolution, you get back in church for a week, you feel good about yourself, then you go about your business because it wasn't really repentance. It was just feeling some kind of way. You heard me?
Now, if we are supposed to stand for the gospel, *truth* of God's word, then we must be citizens like in in our culture. Paul did that. The Bible says, Philippians-3:20, that we're "citizens of another kingdom". Let's read it. Pull up Philippians-3:20.
I don't have this 1 memorized, so I'm gonna have to read this 1. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it, we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Right? When you were born again, when you gave your life to Jesus, if you have, you became according to 2 Corinthians-5:17, a new creation** in Christ Jesus. And then, he reconciled you back into your relationship with God because you didn't have 1.
Not for real. You might have religion. But when you really know God, you know his voice like a father knows a son. A son knows a father. Amen?
So he reconciled you back into relationship with him. In 2 Corinthians-5, I don't know, 19 20 something says, you're *ambassadors* of the kingdom of heaven. Now, Paul believed this so much that he considered himself more a **citizen of the kingdom** than he did a citizen you know what? I wasn't gonna read this, but I'm gonna go ahead and do it. *1 Corinthians-9*.
Watch this. This is crazy. Verse 19. For though I am free This is Paul writing. For though I
am free from all, I made myself a servant at all
to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews, I became a Jew in order to win the Jews. To those under the law,
I became as 1 under the law, though not myself being under the law, that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law, I became as 1 outside the law, though not being outside the law,
but under the law of Christ, that I might win those outside of the law. To the weak, I became the weak, to the that I might win the weak. I've become all things to all people, that by all means, I might save some. I do it for the sake of the gospel, that I might share with them in its blessings. Now, it's very very interesting.
I find it mind blowing almost that it says in verse 20,
Paul wrote, to the Jews I became a Jew. Wait.
What was Paul born as?
Paul was a Jew. But yet, it says to the Jews, I became a Jew. Why? Because when he gave his life to Jesus, he became first a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, more than he was a Jew. When you give your life to Jesus, you are transformed and unified by the Holy Spirit with all other Christians around the world, and spirit runs deeper than blood.
I'm unified more with my brothers and sisters in Christ in India, in China, those that I've never met before, than I am with some of my own blood family members that don't follow Jesus. I'm a citizen of the kingdom of heaven before I'm a citizen of America. And my role as a Christian, Christ follower, is to bring the culture of the kingdom of heaven, righteousness, peace, and joy into the place where God put me. So to the Jews, I became a Jew, Paul said. Those of you, you are first.
If you've given your life to Jesus, you've been transformed. You're a citizen of the kingdom before you're
an American citizen. You're a citizen of the kingdom before you're white, black, red, yellow, or green. Before you're a Mexican, an African American, a a white Caucasian American, before your whatever you came from, your citizenship, your identity is first in Christ. And if if it's not in that order, then you're out of order. Your unity is first with the people of God, and your allegiance is first to the kingdom of heaven and standing for what the kingdom of heaven stands for in the midst of the culture he sent you to, boldly proclaiming it.
Amen? Amen. Come on, dude. And, man, he he he has this crazy plan to make that happen, and this crazy plan is not my idea. It's actually his idea.
*Ephesians-3*. We talked about it last week, but I'm a hit it again. Paul said in verse 8, to me, though I'm the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Unfallible, unconceivable riches of Jesus, which are conceived by the leading and empowerment of the Holy Spirit which he puts in you when you give your life to Jesus. So as you seek him, he reveals the inconceivable mysteries of Jesus, which is cool.
And then it says, and to bring to light to everyone, what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all these things. Watch this. This is the mind blowing thing I talked about last week. So that through the church everybody say the church. The church.
The "manifold wisdom of God" might be made known to the rulers and authorities in heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he realized in Jesus Christ our Lord. Manifold wisdom, again, simply means multifaceted wisdom of God. So the mystery of the ages and the purpose of the mystery of the ages, which is putting Christ in you so God can get glory through your life, the purpose of that is to reveal his God's multifaceted wisdom through the church. I mean, time I think of
that, that's crazy to me. Because American culture downplays the effectiveness of the church so much. But the Bible says, it's his purpose. His plan for revealing his multifaceted wisdom is through the "body of Christ" unifying together and doing things for his glory. And it's not just some random plan that he came up with, it's his eternal purpose.
Like, he
had planned this before the foundation of the world. And remember what I said last week, Ephesians-5:1. Be imitators of God as dearly loved children. So when you have a new revelation of the way that God thinks, it's an invitation to you to imitate that way that he thinks in your daily life. So we need to raise the level of the importance of the church in our life because God wants to use us as a part of it to reveal his multifaceted wisdom.
Wow.
We talked about last week the church as the **"bride of Christ"** because there's multiple different analogies and we're just taking our level of honor to of the church that God says about the church to its rightful place. And we we said, I'd encourage you to go back and listen to it. But remember, Adam was put to sleep, which represented death, and Eve was in Adam. But God took Eve out of Adam. He took his rib out and made the rib into a woman, Eve, his bride.
So she was in Adam. She came out of Adam. Right? God breathed life into them. And now they had to live a life of becoming 1 flesh, of laying down their preferences to become 1.
In the same way, the second Adam, 1 Corinthians-15 says, Jesus Christ came and he died on a cross, the representation of Adam being put to sleep. And the soldiers speared him in the side in blood and water. What happens at birth? Blood and water comes out. Blood and water came out of Jesus on the cross representing the spiritual birth of his bride, the church.
The Bible calls the church the bride of Christ. It's kind of important. Don't neglect Jesus' bride. How did you treat his bride in your lifetime? I wonder if he's gonna ask us that 1 day.
I don't wanna be caught saying, nah, she's alright. I didn't really like her to Jesus. You know what? I liked you, but I didn't like your bride. I talked bad about her when nobody was looking.
And maybe we need to wash the bride in the word of God, speak about what the bride of Christ the way that Jesus did. Amen? So it's not just the bride though. In Ephesians-5, it says, the 2 will become 1 flesh, and that he's talking about a great mystery about Christ and the church. So those 2 becoming 1 flesh, meaning that Jesus doesn't just hold the church at high value as his bride, but it even goes further.
He says the church is his body. So to talk bad about the church is to talk bad about the body of Christ. It's to talk bad about *Jesus* and his plan for revealing the multifaceted wisdom of God to the world. Let's go to Colossians-1. Verse 15.
He is the **invisible God** or the image of the invisible God. That's Jesus. The firstborn of all creation, which is crazy because Jesus came as the physical image of the invisible God. You wanna know what the father's light? Look at what Jesus did in every way.
But then he created us in his image too to be a reflection of him to the world around us. How cool is that? For by him, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him, Jesus, and for him. And he is before all things,
and in him all things hold together.
And he is the head of the body, the church. So the body of Christ is the body of Christ with Jesus being the head. So we are the reflection in the hands and feet of Jesus working in the world by the power of the Holy Spirit. The manifold or multifaceted wisdom of God, the level of value that God holds for the church is way more than I could imagine. *Lord*, help me to see and treat the church with the honor that you treated.
Not just real church. We're not a cult, guys. We're 1 part of billions of people that follow Jesus as Lord all around the world. But we're a local part, and there are local bodies, local aspects of the global body of Christ. Maybe we're a finger.
Maybe we're a member. We're a finger together. We don't might not have all of the the stuff the church down the street does. The wrist probably has more skin than the finger. The wrist has more blood flowing through it.
The wrist has an artery that the finger doesn't have. Well, man, if God's called you to be a part of the finger, be a part of the finger, not the wrist. Don't get church envy. You know what I'm saying? Because here's the deal.
The wrist can move 1 way, but it can't move like the finger can. Because they're both called the different things as a part of 1 body with the wisdom of the head as led by the Holy Spirit. Without the finger, the wrist can't do what God's called it to do. Without the wrist, the finger can't do what God's called it to do. Amen?
Amen. Now here's the crazy part. You were created on purpose with many amazing purposes that are a part of God's body. Now, let's just pretend this is the body of Christ. And from my knee down, my right leg decided, nah, I ain't gonna be a part of the body right now.
I ain't going to church. I don't feel like it. I ain't gonna put in to use the gifts and talents that they had designed for me to have to be a part of the body because I'm mad at them. I don't like them. Get offended or something and just remove themselves from the body.
Now, what does the rest of the body have to do when from my knee down, the right leg is deciding, nah, I'm done. It has to compensate. Oh, it can still function. It can still do stuff, but it has a lot less strength than it would. Make sense?
The head has to make different plans because this part of the body is being obstinate. Make sense? Now it looks a little bit more awkward to the world. They might even make fun of the body. Why?
Not because it's
not an amazing body, because it's not operating the way it's supposed to, because something's deciding it's gonna be absent and not be a part of what it's supposed to be a part of. Still works. Still does amazing things, but it's not quite as powerful as it could be.
Make sense? What have you been neglecting in the body of Christ as preventing it from operating as it should? Little o u. Little o u were created in the image of God with gifts, talents, and abilities, with the Holy Spirit inside that God wants to use for his amazing purposes. You're invited to be a part of a global body of Christ and a local body of Christ to reveal his multifaceted wisdom to the world around you in your world.
And that takes radical faith to get over your insecurity and yourself to believe that God can use you like that. But that's the gospel. He created you. He forgave you. Then he credited his righteousness to your account, and it it requires you to get over yourself and into Jesus in order to get in the game.
And when you do, guess what happens? The church that you're called to be a part of, which I'm assuming it's this 1 because you're sitting here, becomes more powerful and able to reflect the character and nature of God to the world around it. I'm gonna share with you something I've been waiting to share. My wife, every time I says it, she rolls her she rolls her eyes. Every time I say it.
**trophic cascading**. I'm gonna talk to you about trophic cascading. I just think it's it's amazing, but I think it puts in in words what I'm trying to say. So I'm gonna read a paper I wrote a long time ago. Not all of it.
Don't worry about it. But I'm gonna read part of it to explain to you trophic cascading. The eradication of the last wolf pack from Yellowstone National Park happened in the year 1926. Don't fall asleep. This started a process known as trophic cascading.
The absence of this **apex predator** allowed the elk populations to dramatically increase, shifting their grazing and migration patterns. A lot of people would think, man, that's really good. Well, the elk spent more time grazing in the valleys and the gorges. This overgrazing called caused the trees to begin to die off. The lessening of the trees then lessened the beaver population, which also affected the reptilian and amphibian populations.
Erosion increased causing a changing in the way the rivers ran. Coyotes became the apex predators causing a decrease in mice and rabbits, which combined with the lessening trees, also lessened the bird population. In the year 1995, the wolf pack was reintroduced. So 1926, wolves taken out Yellowstone National Park, a trophic cascading effect infected the whole ecosystem and made it not as it was created to be, and it even affected the way the rivers ran. Now, spiritually speaking, in the Bible, the river represents the river of the Holy Spirit.
When you're not in the ecosystem of the church that God's called you to be in, doing your role that God's called you to do, it affects the way the Holy Spirit is poured out in that body. Things shift. Watch what happens. *Redemption is written into creation*. 1995, the wolf pack was reintroduced to Yellowstone Natural Park National Park.
And over the last 20 years, Yellowstone has seen a restoration of each negatively impacted area. The elk population decreased because the wolf started eating them. The grazing habit shifted to be less in open valleys. Watch what happened. The tree tree heights quintupled in 4 years.
God loves redemption. More trees meant more birds and beavers. More beavers meant more reptiles and amphibians. Both the removal and reintroduction of the wolves started a trophic cascade that shifted everything from the top of the food chain to the very way the rivers behaved. The rivers started acting like they were originally intended when everything was back in the ecosystem as it was supposed to be.
I wonder how the Holy Spirit would move in power and real *church* if you were apart. And the giftings and talents and abilities that God's put in you were healthily connected and plugged in in unity with this local body of Christ. That's why you're here today. If you haven't given your life to Jesus, it's an invitation to surrender your life to Jesus as Lord and experience a real relationship with him. But that invitation to make Jesus your Lord in that relationship is not a personal personal decision that that doesn't matter to anybody else.
It actually is an invitation into a family. The family of God. That's what it is. And you have a family here at this local body, if this is where God places you, that we want to do whatever it takes for you to know the love of Jesus and live out your God given purpose. Whatever it takes means our role is to lay our life down so that you can experience and know the same Jesus we know in the same way we know and even greater.
How do we do that? We engage the culture with the love of Jesus. Just like I told you, we stand for truth in the midst of society that's trying to preach the opposite until society is made a disciple of Christ. That's why you're here. You heard about us on Google.
We're using Google to engage the culture with the love of Jesus. And once you're engaged, you got a decision. Are you gonna follow Jesus instead of yourself? When you make Jesus the Lord of your life, that shift begins to take place. He forgives you of everything.
It's an amazing amazing thing. He turned me from depression to joy, from insecurity to security in his purposes. He he made I used to think I was the center of my own universe, then I surrendered my selfishness to him. He became my Lord and taught me what it means to love. And then I'm walking with him 1 step at a time.
It's amazing. That's really peace. And this ain't a front, guys. It's really me. If you can do it for me, can do it for you.
He really can. So here's what I'm gonna do. I'm tired of the way church used to be. Everybody bow your head, close your eyes, nobody looking around. We ain't gonna make anybody ashamed.
I'm tired of that. Don't bow your head, close your eyes. Look up here. You know why I'm tired of that? It created a bunch of fearful Christians who were scared about what other people thought about them.
If you don't start your Christianity unashamed, you're probably not gonna continue unashamed. If you get if you got an excuse to be comfortable, you're probably gonna continue to to live that way, searching for comfort and thinking that's Christianity. Nah, man. Christianity is stepping outside of your comfort zone, following Jesus, and the only way that you can follow him is growth. Growth requires change, and change requires conflict.
Confronting the areas of your life that don't look like Jesus. That's the only way. And, man, if you can't stand for him in a church, you probably ain't gonna stand for him in the world. Makes sense? But man, if you're if you're really if you really want to know Jesus, I wanna lead you to Christ.
I wanna lead you into a relationship with him. So here's what I am gonna do though. I'm gonna ask you all to stand. And then I'm gonna ask if in your heart, you know you've never really surrendered to Jesus as Lord, and it's time. You're ready to surrender to Jesus as Lord, and you don't know, you don't matter.
It doesn't matter to you anymore. Who knows about it? I want you to come forward to the altar. I want you to take a bold step. Say, I'm all in.