I Am... Jesus

Gregg Marutzky: Today I want to talk about who are we.

It's very important we know who we are because, uh, when you start losing touch

with the reality and don't know who you are, you need someone to bring you back.

Right?

And so if you'd like to, you know, some of the, some of the young

people, they're gonna wish they sat next to somebody different.

But if you'd like to.

You can hold hands for just a minute with a person next to you.

'cause that's gonna help ground you in reality.

All right, go ahead.

And then if you are sitting next to somebody that, uh, of the opposite sex,

you're a little hesitant there too.

I know.

So, so go ahead.

This is following direction from the leaders, so it's, all right.

There you go.

We used to hold hands in the huddle every huddle.

When I played football, high school, college.

So it's all right guys to hold hands,

but that's enough.

All right.

Today we're gonna look at who Jesus was and is, and we're

going to talk about who we are.

It's very important to understand your identity.

Let me define ident identity for you for a second here.

It says, identity refers to the qualities, beliefs, and relationships

that make a person or thing unique, recognizable, encompassing, both

personal and social aspects.

Who are we?

Identity refers to the organization of the individual's, drives abilities,

beliefs, and history into a consistent image of self, what you see in the mirror.

All right.

Identity is developed usually in adolescence.

Ericsson and his stages of growth says in every stage there's a crisis.

In the crisis when you're an adolescent or teen, or a youth.

Is gaining your identity, and when you don't go through the crisis and get

it resolved, then in some ways you get stuck and you won't have a full identity.

Identity involves deliberate choices and decisions, and that's why we're gonna

talk about today, particularly about work values, ideology, and commitments to

people and ideas, including the church.

So identity for a church is what we decide and choose to be.

Now if I say we are what comes to your mind?

We are, oh, you didn't watch the same movies?

I did.

Then Marshall, we are Marshall.

Do you any of you remember that movie?

Yeah, it was a great chant.

We are Marshall.

We are Marshall.

We are Marshall.

Why?

Because they had had a tragedy.

Uh, a whole team was lost, their football team was lost.

I think it was in a plane crash.

It might have been a bus accident.

It really stood out to me because I had three cruel older brothers.

And we'd always go to Oklahoma for Christmas to visit our

grandparents, and my mother and dad would drive over Monarch Pass.

We lived in Colorado and we'd go over Monarch Pass and get to Oklahoma.

It's before they had the.

Superhighway and finished the, the tunnel through the Eisenhower

tunnel, through the mountain.

And so we'd go over the pass and my cruel older brothers would

say, Greg, you better, you.

You better start praying because it's on this downhill slope that the buses

always lose their brakes and they'd go off and people die every day on this road.

And we could die, Greg.

And you know.

I don't know how old I was, but it really shook me.

And even when as an adult, when I drive on that road, I'd sort of start

holding my breath and hyperventilating.

Then Kathy would say, now, Greg, breathe.

Greg, breathe.

All right, so don't be a cruel older brother or sister.

All right.

You could scar someone for life.

But when that movie came out, it, it resonated with me because it

was about a team that had an act.

Accident and it really forged that university and they still use that

chant today for their identity.

Who are we?

Who are you?

Some of us are spouses, some of us are parents, some of us are children, some of

us are students, some of us are workers.

We're a lot of things right.

Who are we gonna be collectively together?

That's my question for us this morning.

And as I was thinking about this, I thought, who am I?

You know, and I started making a list of some things that I am, I'm the one

that became a disciple 48 years ago.

I had to count up.

I thought it was less than that, but it was, it was more than I thought.

I'm the one that became a, an evangelist 43 years ago.

I got married 44 years ago this year in May.

This coming year will be my 45th anniversary.

Can you believe someone put up with me that long?

Yeah.

Yeah.

45 years.

It's gone fast.

It's for me anyway.

You'll have to ask her.

40 years ago, sorry Mandy, I'm outing you on your age, but I

became the father of Amanda, Leanne.

And then Megan Beth, and it was a great day.

I remember she was born in the Boulder Hospital and, and, uh, I took a break

after everything had settled down to go home and shower and come back.

We were up all night and the first, uh, song on the radio

was by Mary Menlow, Mandy.

I wasn't a real emotional guy, but I just started crying.

Maybe I was tired, but also it was just so beautiful.

It was, it was God saying, you named her right and she's yours.

You got a little baby girl.

I, I think she knows that story.

If not, I cried.

And then 10 years ago, and, uh, Sienna just had her birthday last week

and so I, that one was an easy one.

I became a grandfather for Sienna and then McKenna came a Dean

and Kensington and Maddie's here in the audience this morning.

And it's awesome being a, a grandpa.

I gave her a, a, uh, bottle this morning for a little while, as

long as she could stay still.

And then, uh, she spilled it on me.

And so, uh, but, uh, it's awesome.

That's something I am, I'm a professor, I'm a professional counselor, but

most of all, I thought about it.

What matters most is I'm a disciple, and I hope that's what you.

Care about the most in your life, and I want to be like Jesus.

I know when I became a Christian, I wanted to be saved.

Frankly.

I wanted to get control of myself, get control of my anger, get control of

some of my issues I wanted to change, but the longer I've been, a com been

a Christian, the more and more in love with God and in love with Jesus,

and now there's nothing more that I want them to be just like Jesus.

So if I could say to myself, I could look in the mirror and say, hi, Jesus,

I'd, I'd be feeling good about myself.

Now that sounds a little weird as I say it out loud.

I fought it though when I've looked in the mirror, you know, be like

Jesus today, Greg, don't be you.

Be Jesus.

All right.

Be better than you.

So we're gonna look at who Jesus said he was.

Seven verses in the book of John.

He says who he is.

He says, I am.

I am this, I am that.

So it's a self portrait that he paints with words for us to really

get a good picture of who he is.

And I think each of these things we're gonna look at are things that you and I

need from God and need from Jesus and need to imitate so we'll have better lives.

You probably heard this sermon before, but I want us to embody these things.

I want us to really embrace them so we become like him and so that

whatever things that he knew he needed to be for us, we can be

for ourselves and for each other.

So let's look at a list of all these things that, uh, he is all right,

because that's what I am means.

It's I is.

Be all right.

He was cool before we got Cool.

All right.

He said, I am, I am, I be, I are not are he wasn't Plural.

I is.

Okay.

So I am, I am the way, the truth and the life.

John 14th, six.

And we'll have a whole sermon series about each one of these.

We'll go into depth on each one of them today.

I'm just gonna give a, a little overview on it, but, uh.

There's great profound meaning to Jesus saying, I'm the way, and

throughout the scriptures, I love reading the Book of Proverbs because

it starts off talking about the way, the path, which path are you on?

Don't be on the path with bandits.

Don't be on the path with thieves.

Get on this straight and narrow path.

Be on the wise path.

Don't be on the foolish path.

Talks about the way that we live our lives.

Jesus says, I'm the way, I'm your guide.

You follow me.

If you, you let me guide you, you can have a good, fulfilling, meaningful

life, or you can go on your own way.

You don't have to have a map or you can follow me and I'll be your map.

I'll be your guide.

I'm the true vine.

We know what vines are about.

Some of us.

Anybody, well, I shouldn't push this, but anybody been to a winery?

All that's where you see vines and great things come from vines.

All right.

But they're, they, they're interwoven and they're attached, and you don't see

where one ends and another one begins.

It's just this interconnectedness.

So Jesus is saying, I can connect you.

I can connect you to the source to God.

I can connect you to each other.

I can even get you connected to yourself.

'cause there's a long distance between head and heart, all right?

You can think things but not feel things, so you need to be connected.

We need a vine in our lives.

He says, I am the shepherd.

I'm your mentor.

I'm the one.

I'm your tutor.

I'm the one that's gonna put my arms around you and encourage you.

I'm your coach.

I'm gonna pump you up sometimes I'm gonna challenge you to stretch yourself.

I'm gonna teach you the things you don't know.

All right?

Some of us had fathers that taught us, some of us didn't.

Jesus says, I want to be your shepherd.

I'm gonna be the door for the price is right.

No, I'm gonna be the door where you get to win.

Whatever choice you make, I'm gonna guide you to the right door, the right

place, the right choices to make, you know, life's made of, made up of choices.

Where you choose to live, where you choose to go to school, how you choose

to work, who you choose to marry, you know, or not Mary, you know, whatever.

Jesus says, I'm the door, I'm the bread of life.

I mean, you gotta eat and bring into yourself the right

things or you won't live.

I'm gonna feed you.

I'm gonna feed your soul.

And he says, I'm the light of the world.

You ever just been in a gloomy place?

We are so blessed living in Southern California.

Don't ever move to Boston.

I moved to Boston for two years.

Happiness was Boston in the rear view mirror.

For me.

I grew up in Colorado, and contrary to what you see on the news and what

most people think it is, sunshiney more in Colorado, the sun shines more,

there's less clouds, there's more sunshine that gets to the earth than

almost anywhere in the United States.

And so I'm a sunshine boy.

I like the light and then I got, the second place I lived was California San

Diego, and it gets a little cloudy in the morning there and then it burns off.

It's a lot of sunshine and the two places I've loved to live the

most is Colorado and California.

And I lived in Nebraska for a while.

Not a whole lot different than Boston.

Very cloudy and gloomy and dull.

I'd have to go in the house and just turn on all the lights.

Our electricity bill was terrible because I can't stand the,

the gloom, the gray, the dull.

I like the light.

I like the light.

I like to see the beauty.

You know, without light, there's no beauty.

Everything's ugly and dull.

With light.

We have colors and we have brightness.

Jesus is the light of the world, and the last one, the resurrection and the life.

You know, if there wasn't resurrection, we'd die.

We'd be dead all over just like rover.

I think that's funny, but you don't, all right.

You're dog lovers.

So I, I'm not really a dog lover.

We had lots of dogs growing up.

They'd run off.

We lived out in the country and unfortunately some of them

even get run over by cars.

So I didn't get real attached.

Some of you, it's part of the family.

I, I apologize.

I shouldn't have told that joke.

My wife will scold me on the way home, you know.

Craig, when will you learn?

When will you learn?

Yeah, when I grow up.

When I grow up.

But I love resurrection.

I love resurrection.

It's what converted me.

A book who Moved the Stone really solidified my faith that

it really answered the question that there's more to life.

And if you don't think there's more to life than just what we

see and what we can create and what we can imagine, then that's a

pretty existential and dreary life.

And I feel bad for, uh, the generations that have.

Have come in the last few generations because most of the philosophy, the

undergirding philosophy that you're taught in school is a nihilist philosophy.

It's not a faithful, it's not a transcendent philosophy.

It's a philosophy.

It's a secular philosophy that says.

Nothing is really true.

Nothing really matters.

It's an existential philosophy that says whatever you think is fine

and it's nihilistic, it eventually the ends in a dead end road.

And that's why the anxiety and the depression of young

people have gone through the roofs because that underlining.

Philosophy that your professors are com, their perspective, their worldview that

they're coming from, they don't tell you 'cause it's too depressing, depressing.

And they don't even want to think about it much because they'll get depressed.

All right.

But it, it isn't a transcendent one.

God got kicked out of the academy, out of the universities during the enlightenment

and we're trying to bring him back in.

But you're not gonna find God.

You're not gonna find faith.

You're not gonna find spiritual power.

You're not gonna find a higher being or a higher meaning at any secular place.

And so just realize that and don't look for it there.

Come to church and we'll give it to you.

Amen.

Shameless plug, way to go, Greg.

Amen.

Who are we?

We're the church.

We're the place you can find God.

Who are we?

I want us to be Jesus.

That's that.

I, I posed the question, who are you?

And I want you to say more than anything, I'm Christlike, I'm Christian.

I'm like, Jesus.

He's my hero.

He's my example.

He's all these things in life.

The vine, the way, the shepherd, the bread, the light, the

resurrection and the door.

And so that's who we are as an, as a church.

We're a little bit fragmented.

I have an outside perspective, so I'm not saying it critically

'cause I'm here and I'm gonna stay here and I'll probably die here.

So I don't wanna make any, I don't wanna be antagonistic.

I don't wanna be ornery.

All right?

But I want us to be our best, and I want to be a part of something great.

All right?

And I want us to come together and really figure out our identity together,

who we are, and I want it to be.

Biblical and act like Jesus.

All right, so before I tell you what I really hope we decide together to be,

and if you read my article, you already know where I'm going, but, uh, I, I sent

that out late last night, so most of you didn't have time to read it 'cause

I want you to listen to the sermon.

All right?

But the, the article will follow up the sermon, but here's a

verse and, and Steve read it.

Just as the body's one and has many parts, but all its parts form one body.

So it is with Christ.

For we're all baptized, that's our birth by one spirit into the body of

Christ, the church, whether Jews or gentiles, slaves or free anybody, we're

all given the one spirit to drink.

So we're all connected.

But the only way you have community.

The only way you have family, the only way you have committed relationships is

if you make covenants with one another and covenants that mean something sacred.

Vows in a wedding can help your marriage the rest of your life.

I still remember, especially one thing the preacher told Kathy and I to do

really, he didn't tell her, he just told me, he said, don't go to bed angry.

He kept and he was looking right at me.

And Greg, you know why I'm saying this.

He was the father of my roommate.

He knew me well.

We got engaged in his house.

Uh, well, we went to dinner first and got engaged.

Then we went and celebrated his house.

So he knew me, but he knew that I had anger problems at that time.

And so he's, he's just telling me, don't ever, and Kathy and I

have tried to live up to that.

All right, and so I want us to live up to some covenants.

Let's define a covenant first, though.

All right.

Stay with me here.

Covenants are shared commitments to one another.

What we're gonna share with each other, we can depend on each other for.

Covenants are like wedding vows in a marriage ceremony.

They're based on the commands of God and they're necessary

to define community or church.

They're very necessary.

Covenants create unity due to these common commitments and covenants

are vows to God and one another.

So let's make some covenants based on who Jesus is.

Let's make some covenants that say we're gonna love God.

Because Jesus is the mind.

We're gonna imitate Jesus because he's the way, the truth and life.

We're gonna love each other because he's the good shepherd.

We're gonna worship God because he's the bread of life.

We're gonna be on his mission because he's the light of the world.

We're gonna have one another.

Discipling mentoring relationships, deep in depth relationships because

he's the resurrection of life, and we're going to be committed to the body.

Because he's the door.

If you don't have covenants based on scripture, why even have any?

All right.

I mean, I use the Bible a lot when I do a wedding because that's sacred stuff.

That's a foundation for that couple, and I know they're not gonna get it

from the secular society that we're in.

So that I, they need me to help 'em to have that foundation that can help their,

their family and their marriage last.

And we've gotta have a biblical spiritual foundation as a church

for us to be a strong church.

Amen.

For us to be the OC Church.

So these are the covenants, Simon.

Inviting all of us to embrace, to love God, to really be lovers of God.

Who are we?

We're lovers of God.

Who are we?

We're imitators of Jesus.

Who are we?

We love other people.

Who are we?

We're worshipers of God.

We love to worship.

We love to pray.

We love to praise.

We love to see, right?

Because that's who we are.

We're missionaries of Christ.

We're brothers and sisters.

When I hug you and I say, brother, great to see you.

I mean it, I have three ornery brothers and I have a lot of great brothers.

A couple of my brothers have come around now, alright, so I

shouldn't, I shouldn't poke on 'em.

They may even watch this online.

So I gotta be careful.

And I have a few nephews and nieces that watch me preach, so I better be careful.

They're gonna tell my dad my, uh, not my dad, my brothers, and,

and they're ones bigger than me especially, so I better be careful.

When you're the youngest, somebody in your family is bigger than you.

All right?

Thankfully one of them wasn't.

All right, Johnny, time for story.

Ready for story.

I love reading the stories of Jesus because there's so interesting and it

what's interesting, some of 'em, and this is just me and maybe this is bad about me.

But some of them, there's always some conflict, right?

There's always antagonists and protagonists.

There's always some kind of drama.

There's always some kind of stirring.

And so let's read this story in John chapter eight because, uh, it can

really teach us something about how important these I am passages are.

Once more, Jesus said to them, I'm going away and you will

look for me, and you will not.

You and you or, and you will die in your sin.

Wow, that's tough language where I go, you can't come.

This made the Jews ask, will he kill himself?

Is that why he says, where I go, you cannot come.

But he continued.

You are from below and I'm from above.

You are of this world, and I'm not of this world.

I told you that you will die in your sins if you do not believe what.

If you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be,

you'll indeed die in your sins.

Who are you?

They ask just what I've been claiming all along to you.

This replied, I have much to say judgment of you, but he who sent me is

reliable and what I have heard from him.

I tell the world.

They didn't understand that Jesus was telling them about God the father.

So Jesus said, when I am lifted up, when you lift up the son of man, then you will

know that I am the one that I claim to be.

So believing these claims about Jesus, his deity, his divinity, are so important

and that I do nothing on my own, but I speak just what the Father has taught me.

The one who sent me is with me.

He has not left me alone for, I always do what pleases him.

The rest of the story, stay with me at this.

The Jews exclaimed.

Now we know that you are demon possessed.

Why?

Because he said they were from below.

Anytime someone's offended and they don't have a response, they get personal.

So they got personal with Jesus.

Said your demon possessed Abraham died and so did the prophecy.

Yet you say that if anyone keeps your word, he will never taste death.

Are you greater than our father Abraham?

He died and so did the prophets.

Who do you think you are?

And Jesus answered.

I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born, I am.

I is.

At this, they picked up stones to ston him, but Jesus hid himself

slipping away from the temple grounds.

Let's talk about this I am statement.

He is always in the present tense.

He says, I am, I is.

I be because he's always present.

I was would convey that there was a time that Jesus didn't exist so to.

That we can't use that about Jesus.

It's always I am that he is one commentator guy in woods says The verbs

here are quite significant, that with reverence, Abraham's signify signifies

a beginning to come to be, but that of Christ is that he evermore existed.

Jesus claimed deity like God, Jehovah when he said, I am who I am.

Exodus three.

14.

God uses the same language about himself, and then Jesus uses it here in John

eight, verse 58, that he is who He is.

That he is, I am.

And then in verse 21 through 23, this is what got under their skin.

You are from below.

Beneath.

I'm from above.

You are of this world.

I'm not of this world.

You know, I was a smart kid.

When I went to college, I wanted to figure out my life and what

I was gonna do with my life.

And I thought, you know, all these philosophers, all these theologians,

all these people talk about, you know, their the way to live.

They try to tell us young people how to live right.

And I thought, you know, I'll read it.

So I read a bunch of it.

I read all these.

Philosophy books and all these theology books.

And I finally decided, well, there's two choices.

Either I can choose to believe.

The guy that said he was from above, that he was from where we all

want to go, the transcendent, the other world, heaven, eternal life.

And he came here to tell us about it and he proved himself with his miracles

and he really proved himself with his death and then his resurrection.

And he says, if I can raise myself, then I can raise you.

And that's what you're gonna want when you die.

And so this is how you're gonna know I am who I am and I'm gonna go back up.

And so I was there, I came down, I went back up, and everybody else is gonna

tell you they've never been there.

But listen to me though.

Listen to my philosophy, listen to my religion, listen to my teaching.

I've never been there, but I think I've figured out a way to get there.

So follow me and let's go there together.

I'm like, I'm not following nobody that's not been there and nobody that can't

prove it to me, and Jesus has proven it to me through the resurrection.

I told you that's made all the difference in my life.

I am.

Seems so simple and yet it says so much.

It declares Jesus deity and Christ is divine.

Jesus was from above.

Therefore, we must seek the things above.

Jesus attaches our salvation to believing this one simple

statement, unless you believe I am, and you will die in your sins.

And so that's why I want our covenant as a church to be.

We are Jesus.

We are gonna be like him.

We're gonna be binds for ourselves and for other people.

We're gonna be the way, the truth and the life.

We're gonna be shepherds.

We're gonna be the bread of life.

We're gonna be the light of the world, we're gonna be resurrection,

and we're gonna be the gate that helps people find the way.

Amen.

That's what a church ought to be.

If people can't come to church and say, that's church, that's where God is.

That's a sacred place.

There's some holiness there.

I went to church.

I looked it up in the phone book as a sophomore in college.

My first year I didn't go to go to church.

I lived a terrible life and I transferred schools and said,

I'm gonna change my life.

And I looked it up in the phone book.

My brother had gone there.

He says, this is a church you ought to go to Greg.

He was five years older than me, so he was long gone.

So I looked up in the phone booth and I went there and I was observing.

And one thing I hated was they hugged each other.

So some of you may leave and they, they make you hold it

other guy's hands, you know,

you don't have to, all right.

But you know, I walked away feeling those people.

Really are true Christians.

That's all I want our church to be.

When people come in, I want 'em to say they are really Christians.

They're wild and crazy Christians.

They're happy Christians.

They're a little bit weird.

Even at times, I don't relate completely to 'em.

They hug each other and they're always smiling, and some of them

are really happy, you know, but I think they're really Christians.

I convinced my roommate and the kid next door to come to church that night.

Not 'cause I didn't want to go by myself, but because I told

him, I think this is for real.

You guys ought to check it out.

And one became a Christian.

The other wanted to, his father told him he, he wouldn't pay for his school and

if he left the, their family's faith.

And so he never did.

We're still friends.

I'm still working on him.

He's an athletic director in New Mexico.

I'm still working on him, you know?

'cause I know the seed was planted that those guys are really Christians.

Amen.

That's all I want us to be, and I'm gonna go quickly here through these.

I want us to love God with all our heart.

Based on Matthew 22.

I want us to commit to that and we'll go through these

covenants over and over again.

I want us to imitate Jesus in our daily life, to not be fake and hypo hypocritical

Christians, that people, that that destroys the foundation of Christianity.

When Christians act just like the world, I want us to be true Christians.

Amen.

And then I want us to love each other the way Jesus loved.

I think that's what the world needs.

It was a song when I was a young kid.

What the world needs now is love, sweet love.

You know, and I still believe it.

I still believe that's all we all need, that we can get hard and crusty without

good love, real love, that we need to love each other and that we need to worship.

We need to come together.

'cause so often not when I'm up here preaching, but when I'm just singing

and sitting there or listening to someone else, or listening to a prayer,

I get touched by the Holy Spirit.

I get touched by God.

See he's here.

He's wandering around and he's wanting to touch us.

All right.

Haven't you ever felt it Sometimes, haven't you all of a sudden got emotional,

haven't you all of a sudden just got excited, haven't you all of a sudden

just thought, yeah, or a peace comes over you or a good feeling or hope comes

into your heart and it happens to be more at church than any other place.

So we gotta love coming together at church.

'cause this is where God.

He says, where two or three are gathered my name, that's where I'm gonna be.

So we can always find God on Sunday morning.

Well, I like to find God out on the ocean.

Good for you.

You can also drown out there.

Okay.

I like finding God on top of a mountain.

Me too.

I love to ski.

I love the mountain there.

I love the, the evergreen pine forest, you know, but you can

also fall off the mountain.

Right?

It's pretty safe in here.

Right.

It's pretty safe.

Worship God, participate in the mission of God.

I gotta have meaning in my life.

I'm a sixties kid, all right?

I, we went to the moon when I was a kid.

We also killed our leaders, three of them, JFK and RFK, and MLK.

You know, it was reinforced in my heart.

This world isn't a very safe place.

All right.

But we can do anything if we come together in unity and in love.

And I still believe that.

I'm still a sixties, not hippie, but I'm a believer.

All right.

You know the hippies, they just, they checked out, they

did drugs and checked out.

We still got a bunch of them outside Boulder in Netherlands.

They kicked them out of Boulder 'cause it's too expensive.

They live in Netherland now.

All right.

That's an aside.

Let's keep going,

and we're almost done.

Practice one another.

You know, even though I was on teams growing up and I had

brothers, I also got lonely.

I got lonely.

I was the youngest.

My parents both worked.

I'd always get out of school first.

I'd go home.

I was a good kid though.

I cleaned the house.

My honorary brothers would come home and mess it up.

They're too big for me to smack 'em.

I still live in a clean house.

Ask my wife, you know?

'cause I'm a good mama's boy.

Any other mama's boy, you won't raise your hand.

I know,

but I gotta have meaning.

I gotta have meaning in my life.

I'm not an existentialist.

I'm not a secularist.

I don't believe in nihilism.

I don't believe this is all there is.

I don't believe all that garbage that some of my professors tried to spew on me.

And I pray you don't listen to some of that filth and ignorance.

It isn't knowledge.

All right?

And look at their lives.

Don't just look at what they teach.

Look at their lives.

All right?

But I participate in the mission of God because everybody needs Jesus.

Everybody needs him.

Amen.

And we need to practice these relationships and we need to

participate fully in the body.

It's not the most popular thing right now in Orange County.

You know, there's some mega churches, but even as you're driving up here, I mean,

roads are so empty on Sunday morning.

Yeah.

It's sort of sad and it really makes me sad when I go to a

big athletic event, go to.

Go to SoFi or somewhere, or Dodger Stadium, people get so excited.

And I'm not down on the Dodgers.

I'm a Dodger fan.

I'm an Angel fan.

I'm a Rams fan, not a Chargers fan.

Excuse me.

Sorry, I'm a Bronco fan.

I'm not down on fans, but I wish there were just that much and

even more excitement about Jesus.

Are you with me?

Amen.

So I have some dreams.

I'll share those in the leaders meeting.

But we are, who are we?

Church.

Let's decide.

Let's decide together.

I pray that you decide to commit to these seven things to be just like Jesus.

If you're like Jesus, you're gonna be awesome.

If you're not like Jesus, I don't know.

Can't promise.

Can't promise.

So who are we?

I pray, we're disciples, OC disciples.

All right.

I'm not gonna lead you in a chant.

I wasn't a cheerleader.

All right.

But we are OC disciples.

We are the OC church.

We are brothers and sisters.

We are Christians.

That's what I own.

And I'll say it publicly.

I'll say it loud and proud.

I'll say it in public.

I'll preach it.

I am Christian.

I am.

A follower of Jesus.

I believe it with all my heart, and I pray.

My action item for all of us this morning is that you would decide who you are,

especially in your faith, and you'd decide that you're gonna be like Jesus.

Amen.

And if we all do, yeah, as we all do, then we're gonna be an awesome church.

God bless you.

Thank you.

Amen.