Christian-ish: Week 1

Well, good morning, welcome to Church of the Cross, saying,

I'm very excited about these study groups.

My wife and I we just signed up for the

marriage one.

It's like seven steps to a better marriage, and we're like, man,

if we just get two of those, that'll be awesome.

If we can just get two of those seven, that

would be great. Also, I saw that we're having the

World Cup. I will not be participating in that. Running

around not my thing, and but we're.

Gonna be cheering you guys on. We're excited about that.

Remember it's sixteen years old and up, so it doesn't matter.

If you like to play, you can play.

Hey, today, we're starting a new series. It's called christian Ish,

And just to prepare you for that series, I want

you to look at my hands and imagine my hands

represent your feet. Okay, what everybody needs to do right

now is just kind of pull your toes in as

close as you can to the body of your foot,

because I'm gonna be stepping.

All over your toes with this series. Okay. It is

a very straightforward and we're gonna get just very.

Practical, shrewdly honest about scripture and God's call in our life,

and I believe that for a lot of us it's

gonna help us grow, or maybe if we've been stuck,

it's gonna help us get past that. Let's pray, God,

we just give you praise today. We thank you for

your grace, your mercy, your love. Now, Father, God speak

to us, challenge us.

Today in Jesus' name. Amen.

You've heard me say. Growing up, I loved to play baseball,

loved it, loved it, loved it, and I.

Usually liked all my coaches. I had really good relationships

with all my coaches. But then one year I got

a coach. Well, he just wasn't nice.

Is hem I ever had, like just a non nice coach,

kind of mean, grumpy, He's vulgar, a little bit, cuss

a lot, yell at the players a lot.

He was funny.

I remember on one occasion where I missed the foul

ball and he yelled out across the field. Roberts, if

that was a played a pancakes, you'd have been all

over that. I appreciated that, not as much as my

teammates did for the next six weeks, as they kept

repeating at over and over again. But he was just

a type of coach that just was angry all the time, cussing,

yelling at people, mean, And I knew that he had

at one time had a pretty big position in our

systems and was a head coach of a big, big team,

but somehow had lost that and now he was with

us ninth graders, and I don't think he was happy

about that. There's another guy that was a substitute teacher

at our school. When he was one of those substitute

teachers that always did one of those long term sub

jobs and freshman, sophomore, junior, senior year he was.

At our school.

He was always there and he was known as the

mean substitute.

Do you guys ever have that? The mean substitute? He

was always yelling at people, he was always angry.

He's the type of guy who had hit the board,

hit his desk, yell at the kids.

And just me nasty man and just get all over kids.

And nobody liked him and we were just like, oh.

He being in his class. Guys ever been around people

like that?

Well, after I came to christ I got on staff

at my first church there for a few weeks, and

I happened to notice that both of those men were

at church, and I was so excited because I'm like

Christ is doing a big work, Like if he's changing

these guys' lives, Christ can do anything. And so I

went to my senior pastor and I go, listen, you're

not gonna believe that these two guys are at church.

God is up to something, Biggs, And he's like, oho

you talking about? And I told him he was all

those guys have been here for decades. What are you

talking about now? They're regulars. They know everybody, and they've

been coming here for years. They got friend networks, they've

been involved, their kids are involved.

And you know. And I tell you what, I.

Was shocked, to be honest, I was shocked in the

first time that I went up to them and talked

to them. You know how you could tell that someone's

kind of embarrassed. They were embarrassed when they found out

I was on staff, because they knew that I knew

who they really were. Over the next decade as I

was on that staff, I'm happy to report to you that, well,

no fruit church every week, plenty of friends. They did

the church thing, but we never saw growth. Church was

an obligation to them. And one of them, I found

out later had always been trouble for leadership for the

multiple previous pastors, and that's when I learned the really hard.

Lesson as a staff member.

Those just because someone's deeply embedded in the church does

not mean.

That they're hardcore followers of Christ.

No matter of fact, they're more christian Ish, they're christian Ish.

And that's a hard lesson to learn when you're young,

because you think if somebody's been involved for decades, you

think that they were just always growing.

Are Christ was doing a working your life. But that

doesn't mean anything. Matter of fact. I've been here for

seven years.

I've met plenty of christian Ish people at.

The Church of the Crossing.

If you want to hang out after service, I'll let

you know if you're one of them. Another pastor that

I deeply Myer, shared a story about how he.

Had met someone while he was traveling. They hit it

off big time.

They're having a great conversation, and he asked them, hey,

what do you do and he says, you know, I'm

a pastor. And then that guy, all of a sudden,

you know, does what some people do when they meet

a pastor. They start telling you all their good works,

and he was like, you know, I give money to

the homeless charity. I tried loving on people. And then

one he was really proud of. He's like, I live

with my girlfriend, but we're not having sex, so he

was really proud of that. And then he starts talking

about his Christian values. And then the pastor said, well,

do you have a faith story? He's well, yeah, kind

of sort of. Then he started talking about all these

different religious beliefs. You know, I'm a spiritual guy. I

got into this New Age stuff. I like positive energy,

looked at Buddhism and other religions and I liked them along.

I really like Jesus a lot. And then the guy said,

I guess I'm kind of christian Ish christian Ish.

I was thinking this past week, what is the Indiana

Heartland of America dilemma? What is our dilemma among Christians

in our area?

Well, we lived close to the Bible Belt.

Well, it's very common for almost everybody who lives in

our area to consider themselves Christian, even if their faith

is not their top priority. And we know a lot

of people who go to church on Christmas in Eastern

whether they want to or not. Most people in our area.

They've been baptized as kids. About everyone in our area

believes in God. Everyone wants to go to heaven.

But if you were to ask.

Their friends is that person a Christian, they would probably

say I'm not sure. I think they're christian Ish. So

let's start out for a new word today. Okay, for

this series, christian Ish. Let's try to define it. Here's

a working definition of christian Ish.

It's having a half hearted faith.

Okay, It's where in the label of Christianity without truly

following Jesus. It's being Christian in name only. Your christian

Ish is superficial. It's a watered down version of Christianity.

Christianis means having enough of Jesus to make.

You feel better, but not allow to change your life.

Having enough of.

Jesus to make you feel better, but you just don't

have enough of Him to actually make a difference in

your life. And by the way, this is not some

new phenomenon. Go all the way back two thousand years

ago at the beginning of the church and Jesus addresses

a church from Ladesella and basically he was talking to

them about how he felt his personal feelings about them

being christian Ish. Let's go ahead and look at Revelation three,

and here Jesus gives us message to the church in Ladesella.

It says, I know your d's talking to the Christians

at that church.

He goes that.

You're neither cold nor hot. I wish you were one

or the other. So because you are lukewarm, neither hot

nor cold, I'm about to spit you out of my mouth.

Now, you guys have.

Heard that scripture, if you've been around church for a while,

that's a famous scripture.

And then he goes on to say this. He says,

you say, I am rich. I've acquired wealth and I

don't need a thing.

But you do not realize that you were wretched, pitiful, poor,

blind and naked. Now, back in the first century, we

have this city called Leadesella. And let me just tell

you a little bit about leadicea very wealthy place, very wealthy,

I mean really rich. They we're known for having their banks,

They had luxury clothing, they had a medical center that

focused on eye medicine, and if you wanted something fancy,

you wanted something nice, you went to LEYADICEA Okay, so

kind of think this, think fashion mall, guys, Lake Area

and downtown Carmel just squashed together. Okay, you get my picture.

Have you who here lives in Carmel read your hand?

Have you guys been to downtown recently?

Holy smokes.

Leo just started living with us and I said, Leo,

let me show you around town. I have been a

downtown Carmel for a long time. It's like a year

European city downtown. You need to check this out.

It's shocking what they're doing. I mean it's fancy. I

mean it's fancy. It is fancy. So think as fancy

and as new as can be. This is lea to

see you.

It was the place to be, the place to live.

It was awesome.

But then a massive earthquake kid, one of those that

levels a city.

It was utterly destroyed. Now here's the interesting thing.

Even back in the day, when a city was destroyed

by a natural disaster, the Roman Empire would step in

and they would help rebuild it, kind of like FEMA today.

Nero actually offered the people lad to see it, like,

I'll help you rebuild, you need some money.

But here's what they did.

They actually refused any help to rebuild. Okay, they crossed

their arms and they were like, listen, we got this,

we got the money. As so much money and so

much pride that they wouldn't take any help from Rome.

So what they do They rebuilt the city themselves. Now,

that kind of self sufficiency might look really impressive from

the outside, but let me tell you something.

Jesus saw right through the facade.

He saw that they weren't doing that because they wanted

to be self sufficient. They wanted to let the rest

of the world know they had money and plenty of it.

So Jesus saw through this and this is why. And

once again he says this. He says, you say, I am.

Rich, I've acquired wealth, don't need a.

Thing, But you don't realize again that you're a wretched, pitiful, poor,

blind and naked. See again, their biggest problem wasn't an earthquake.

It was their pride.

They didn't need help from anyone, not even God.

And by the way, this is a dangerous place to

be spiritually.

Anytime you're like, you know what, I got this.

I don't need God, I got this, I can handle this,

I got this under control.

Are putting yourself in a bad spot.

And so, by the way, as history tells us, they

rebuilt the city and it was marvelous.

By the way, it was amazing. They had everything.

They built, theaters, stadiums, public baths. Think of Las Vegas, Dubai,

just that beautiful, new shiny city. It was a destination place.

But they had one big problem. Their water was horrible,

absolutely horrible. They had a pipe their water in from

either two places okay, either one was Heropolis or they

had hot had hot springs, or Colossa that had cold springs.

And as you would guess, by the time the water

actually reached Leadicilla, well, it was gonna be lukewarm.

It wasn't gonna be good water. You and I we've

had lukewarm water. It's not good.

And when Jesus said you're lukewarm, they knew exactly what

he was saying. He said, you're like the water here,

you're you're you're lukewarm.

And then.

Jesus says, here's what that makes me want to do,

and he uses a Greek word.

Look at this Greek word. Here uses this Greek word

e mayo, and mayo means to spit out or to vomit.

And by the.

Way, this is a strong reaction from Jesus. Jesusays, when

I look at you, your faith, how you're living out

your walk with Christ, it makes me want to vomit.

You make me literally want a puke. That's a strong reaction.

And by the way, this this Greek word here, it

means like a violent, forceful getting sick. I can still

remember the first time I told Gina, when Caitlin was

just a little baby.

I said, baby, you take the night off.

I'm gonna be a good daddy tonight and I'm gonna

wake up middle night and I'll feed her.

I'll take care of her. Mama, you've been doing good.

You just need your rest tonight, okay.

And so I was real proud of myself, went to bed.

Caitlyn gets up the middle of night. I go in

there to take care of her, and sure enough, you know,

I'm holding her, feeding her, singing her the only song

I knew, Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star. I still remember that

night and just holding on to her, and then all

of a sudden, when I thought everything was good, she

decided to projectile vomit all over me. I wasn't wearing

her shirt. It's my house don't judge. And it was

the grossest thing I ever experienced.

In my life.

And so you know, like, obviously, guess who's not getting

any sleep that night, Gina, because I yelled for her

to get up, and I'm like, your baby's broken.

And she came in.

She clean up Kitlyn. She gave me a hot towel

and I cleaned up. And I didn't talk to Caitlin

for like three weeks. It was it was, It wasn't good.

The point is, no one wants is Jesus says in essence,

christian Ish Christians make me want a puke. Strong language.

God is said, I can't stomach this. This type of

Christianity is undesirable. It's intolerable. See, christian Ish faith is

half hearted, it's convenient, it's comfortable.

So why can't God stomach.

Comfortable Christianity Here's why. It accepts the benefits of Jesus

without the surrender to Jesus. It accepts the benefits of

Jesus without the surrender and is well.

It provokes a strong reaction from God. Now let's go back, okay,

and let's look at the beginning of this passage. Here.

I want you to pay attention to something. Pay attention

to how Jesus is talked about. Now, how they address Jesus.

It says, here to the Angel of the Church, and lady,

see aright, these are the words of the age men

talking about Jesus, the faithful and true.

Witness, the ruler of God's creation. Now, pay atention here.

How's Christ described as the faithful and true Witness?

Now?

Why is it he described in the Book of Revelation,

which does this a lot. Why is he called the

King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Son of God,

the Son of Man, save your Messiah, all those other

amazing names.

Why is he called the faithful and true Witness? And

I'll tell you why.

It was an indictment on the people of Leahdesea. What

it's saying is, you're not being faithful. You're not being

a true witness. When people look at you, you're not

being the witness as I've called you to be. People

can't tell the difference between you and the rest of

the world. Now you might be asking, all right, all right,

the same question that historians and theologians have asked, What

was the problem? Why were they so lukewarming, Let me

just explain a little bit. Those of you, you know,

growing up around here, I don't know how big unions

were where I came from. Unions were big. Came from

a still town. Okay, Daddy was a part of a

union Pittsburgh. You couldn't get any work if you weren't

a part of a union. No carpenter, you couldn't even

hire them. They had to be a part of a union.

So unions were a big deal.

Back in the day. Unions and guilds were everything.

And if you wanted a contract, or if you wanted

to work, you couldn't be an independent businessman. You need

to be a part of a guild or a union.

If you wanted to get a big contract to help

maybe help rebuild that city and get very wealthy, guess what,

you had to be a part of a union.

And you needed to be friends of.

All the union guys, all the big players. Well here's

the problem. Back in the day, the unions and the guilds,

they had their own gods. And that makes sense, Like

you know, they pray to this god, like we want

these contracts.

We want our workers to be safe. We don't want

this building to fall down.

So the guilds in the union is they actually had

their own gods. So if you wanted to make money,

if you wanted to be comfortable, if you want to

have status, if you wanted to be someone of the

city and big deal, you better be a part of

a union, which means what you had to go along

with their gods.

And this is what would happen. On Sunday they would

come and they would worship Jesus. But Monday they're back

with the rest of the boys. Why because they needed

to keep.

That money rolling in, they needed to keep that career going,

they needed to keep their status going. And so over time,

this luke warmness, this christianness behavior completely lost, this witness

of Christ and Leiadesea. People ate to see didn't even

know there was Christians there at this point.

You know, it's not crazy to think that.

A group of Christians would be unrecognizable. At my old church,

there was a softball team, and as a church grew,

they had a second softball team and they decided to

play in the bar League, Okay, which is the fun league.

And they're in the bar League because they want to

be witnesses. Well, they're having this big tournament in our area.

And actually it came down to something pretty excited where

the two church teams were going to play each other.

So it's kind of exciting.

There's like fifty or sixty people from the bar league

watching center around and drinking their beer and watching the

two church teams battle it out. And there was a

lot of friendly banter at first, but then as the

game went on, some of the players did not like

the calls of the umpire.

Now here's the thing about this umpire. If you saw

the umpire, the umpire had some health issues.

There were some scabs, there was some swelling up, probably

had some diabetes or something like that, and he just

didn't look healthy. If anything, he needed the church people

to pray for him and love on him and encourage him. Instead,

they started yelling at him all the time. Well as

the game went on. Later on in the innings, one

of the batters hit the ball and it hit the

pitcher in the leg, his thigh. It bounced off so

hard that it landed an outfield. Guess what the pitcher did.

He started cussing him out in front of everybody. And

then as the game kept going on, they started getting

past friendly banter and they start running their mouths to

each other, yelling at each other, and it was just bad.

And here's the bar league, fifty or sixty people having

a great time, Like, you're not gonna leave this church.

These people are crazy. The senior pastor who happened to

be there, by the way, I think he did a

great thing, a courageous thing. He pulled two teams together

after the game and he said, you even bear the Kingdom,

you've embarrassed yourselves. You've embarrassed this church. And he gave

them a good talk. And if you knew his personality,

you would know that was just not him. But he

was appalled by their behavior. Even more, he was appalled

by their witness. One person the next year went and

actually joined a bar league team because they thought they

would have a greater impact for Jesus and a witness than.

Being on the church team. He thought the church team

hurt his witness. Guys, when we.

Go around and associate ourself with Jesus, but we act

like the rest of the world, it hurts the Kingdom,

it hurts the witness of the church. See, many Christians

don't realize they are living like the rest of the world.

Jesus again says, listen, you don't even realize that you're wretched,

You're pitiful, you're poor, you're blind, you're you're naked. And

maybe I'm describing you today. Maybe you're in here like, hey, James,

I'm doing well. I'm okay financially. I got food, I

got cars, I got technology.

I'm fine until you're not.

And then a diagnosis comes, the spouse leaves, the child

or grandchild becomes a strange. Or maybe you finally get

everything you ever wanted and find out I'm still empty.

You're rich in things, but you're poor in the spirit,

and you don't even realize it.

Again, Jesus says, you say, I'm rich, I got it all,

have acquired wealth.

I don't need a thing, But you don't realize that

you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blinded.

I counsel you. Here's what he says.

To buy for me, gold refined in the fire, in

other words, holiness, so you can become rich, white clothes

to wear, in other words, lift out your faith. Let

people see that you are washed in the blood of Christ,

so you can cover your shameful neckedness and south to

put on your eyes so you can finally see. Sometimes

I think we think we're fine. In reality, we're not fine.

That's the problem.

A lot of Christians think I'm doing okay, I'm fine,

but their behavior says something else.

I used to love two people watch. Anybody here admit

that you like the people Watch? I love the people Watch.

And back when I was younger, I could be pretty immature,

not like the standard of maturity I am now, and

I would love to watch people and I would get

a little judgie. I like to make fun of people,

especially when I was young, and as people would be

walking by me in a mall, I'd have little thoughts,

funny little things in my head. And I still remember

being at the Tri County Mall in Cincinnati. I don't

even think that mall is open anymore, but I would

at the Try County Mall in Cincinnati, and my wife

decided to go into an anchor store.

I did not want to do that. That sounded horrible,

and so.

I set myself out side of the anchor store on

a bench by myself. I put my arms up like this,

I lean back across the legs, and I want to

do some people watching. Now you have to understand this

way this mall was set up. It was like a

right angle, so people would come towards me and then

they would cut right in front of me. So it

was almost like a fashion runway for me for me

to judge. And I would and I would just watch

people as they would come by, and I would I

would think about things, and I would think things like.

Oh, do you own a mirror?

Or oh, that's three sizes too small, or oh, those

poor buttons of those pants, I bet, I bet there's

so much pain, or who did your hair? Edward scissor hands?

And and oh my gosh, how did he get hurt?

And marry him. He's got to have some money. Let

me tell you.

Too much makeup, not enough makeup. Oh, don't wear open

toe shoes with those toenails. More clothes on you, for

the sake of everyone.

Put on clothes. Come up now. Don't act like you

haven't done this.

Okay, I'm not preaching to a bunch of mother Teresa's here. Okay,

some of you have done that today since you've been

at church.

Don't make me testify. Let me tell you we do

this well anyway.

So I'm judging having a good time in my head.

And here's the funny thing. As I stared at them,

I noticed that everybody was staring back at me, and

I thought, well, maybe that's just because of the angle here.

You know, look, look, look, look. And I didn't think

anything about it. And I'm sitting there with my arms up,

and then everybody stared at me. But then, you know,

some middle schoolers came by. Do you guys know what

middle schools they're like? They can be not ours, not ours,

ours are great, but middle schoolers can be the meanest

humans on this earth. And finally, these middle schoolers walked

by me and they giggled and they pointed, and I'm leaning.

Back, like what's wrong with me?

And then I looked down and what I had not

realized was that when I put both of my arms up,

that my polo shirt had risen up. My belly had

been hanging out the whole time, blubber everywhere all over

that mall.

And here's the thing.

I think that I am doing so good that I

could judge everybody else, when in fact I had the

biggest problem. Sometimes we think we're fine now we laugh,

but spiritually many of us walk around think we're fine,

we're luke warm, we're self deceived. And so here's what

I want to do today. I want to help you

diagnose yourself. Okay, here's five signs you might be lukewarm.

Number one, you crave acceptance from people more than you

do God. In other words, you're gonna go along the crowd,

even hurts your witness. This is what the people did.

They worship the false gods because they wanted to keep

those contracts. But Jesus says, woe to you when everyone

speaks well of you. Number two, you rationalize your sin.

Do you justify your sin? Do you make excuses like

it's not a big deal. I'm not hurting anyone. But

God's word says, woe to those of you who call

evil good and good evil. Number three, here's a big sign,

big big sign that you are maybe struggling with being

christian Ish. You rarely share your faith, not because you're shy,

but because you know the people around you really know you.

Number four, you only turn to God when you need something.

He's your nine on one call, not your daily guide.

Number five, You're not much different.

Than the world. You gossip, I you curse. You watch

shows that dishonor God.

You rationalize, sin, you party, you pursue money, you claim Jesus,

but all of your actions say otherwise.

And scripture says, do not love the world or anything

in it. So here's a question of the day.

You're like, hey, James, I came to church to worship

to be inspired by the message and encouraged today, and

I just found out that maybe I'm not doing so hot.

Now.

Growing up, I would hear a sermon like this and

I'd be like, God must seriously dislike me or not

want me. Maybe he's a shame to me. So here's

a question of the day. Is Jesus mad at you?

And I want you? And understand that Jesus loves you deeply?

Matter of fact?

In the same passage, here's what he says, I correct

and discipline everyone I love. See if you're feeling convicted

right now. Conviction is not commnation. That's love.

And what else did Jesus say? So Jesus, all right, listen,

I correct those that I love that I want to

be in.

Relationship with, that I am in a relationship with. So

he says, here's what I want you to do now

that you've realized that you are in this.

Situation and you're christian Ish. Here's what I want you

to do.

I want you to be diligent and turn away from

your indifference.

So how do I stop being christian Ish?

Well, I can give you seventeen things to write down

right now, but no one wants to do that. But

let me give you something you could start doing today.

Okay.

One, you could do one thing every single day that

requires faith. Every day, do something that makes you trust God.

Maybe it's forgiving someone who's hurt you. Maybe it's inviting

someone to church. Maybe it's volunteering. Maybe it's praying for

a stranger. Maybe it's tithing for the first time. Maybe

it's worshiping even when you don't feel like it. Every day,

do one thing that requires faith. Here's why, because without

faith does it say Hebrews eleven six, Without faith, it

is impossible to please God.

And here's what happens. When you start walking in faith.

You care more about God's approval than man's.

You confess your sin instead of rationalizing it.

You're bold in share in your faith because you're convicted.

You see God daily.

Not just when you're in trouble, and you live differently

in this world.

You're not christian Ish, You're alive in christ.

Did you notice anything about the list I just gave you.

There's nothing, only anything that Jesus wants anything from you.

He's not saying give me this a me that. No.

He wants you. He wants to be in a relationship

with you.

He wants to walk with you, he wants to do

life with you.

He wants to live with you. He wants to be

You're a lord and your savior.

So please understand, as we close out this passage, Jesus

is still knocking. How's he close out this passage? After

he says, hey, you're lukewarm. This isn't good.

You think you're good, but you're not.

And then he says, I'm only disciplining you because I

love you. Now turf your ways. And then here's what

he says. He says, I stand at the door knock.

If you hear my voice and open the door, I

will come in and eat with you. He's off fer

his relationship right. In fact, the Greek word here for

knocking is a continuous knocking.

He's not asking for part of your heart. He wants

all of it. He died so that you could live.

So open up the door. If you're here today and

you realize that you've.

Been living a christian Ish life, today's the day that

you say, no more.

I've been playing around. I have enough of.

Jesus, but not enough to change my life. He is

knocking at your door today. If you feel conviction, that

is from him, and he is saying, I'm calling you

to me.

I watched this growing up.

My dad was someone that you can describe as christian Ish.

My dad make sure the family was in church every

week we were here.

Every week we were at church.

My dad ran to sound and also he had Christianese

language down. He was pretty good at it, you know, like, hey, brother, sister,

been the Lord bless you.

All that stuff, you know, and he had.

So he could talk the talk, he did, the wall,

he did all that stuff that made him look like

a Christian. But every one of us who lived with

him knew that he was not a follower of Christ.

After I came to Christ, I had a deep burden.

I've shared the story before. I had a deep burden

for my father. And one night, real late one night,

I went to my father and I said, Dad, Christ

has changed my life.

You know that.

I shared my story with my dad, and then I

asked my dad to come into a relationship with God.

And my dad looked at me and he says, James,

I'm just not ready to do that. And I remember

going to bed that night just crushed. But asking God

saved my dad's soul again. He's at church every week,

he's serving. He has enough of Jesus, but not enough

to change him.

And not long.

After that, I went to go use the restroom in

our house and I heard a faint yell yell for help,

and it was my dad. And I went in there

and he was having a massive heart attack, and so

I grabbed a hold of him and put his arm

over mine and helped him hobble to the vehicle, put

him in the back seat. My mom came and she

was sitting in a seat next to me, and we

were going to Ushio.

To the hospital. We knew it was bad.

And then I put the car in reverse, get about

halfway down the driveway. Then I put it back in

a park and I said, Dad, you might die, and

if you die right now, you're not going to go

to heaven. I want to make sure that you know

that you have Jesus as your savior. My dad muffle something,

couldn't really understand. It was more like I'm going to

kill you if I survived this, I don't know. My

mom looked at me like, this is not the time.

And guess what. Probably wasn't the time. But I just

wanted my dad to know Jesus so much.

Gets to the hospital, he's staybleized, find out he's got

to have bypasses and all this other stuff. And then

the nurse comes out many hours later and said, Steve

wants to see his son James. And so I went

back into the room. There's my dad, and my dad

shared with me, he is I've had some time to think, obviously,

because I'm done playing around dumb, playing church. And my

dad said, I just gave my life to Christ.

Tell you something. I watch my dad.

He was a man of the word in the word

every day, a prayer warrior. If I really need prayer

really bad, I call my dad.

He is now my biggest encourager on this earth, super encourager.

My dad led Sunday School I think for maybe the

next fifteen years and every year now. My dad is

still my dad, all right, he still does crazy things.

But let me tell you something our whole family agrees upon.

My dad wholeheartedly has sold out to Jesus. At every

single year he becomes a better man and more like Jesus.

Do you guys know that he was in his forties

and have been in church his whole life before he

made that decision. How many of you in here today

are christian Ish?

And you know you know if you are? What does

Jesus do?

He calls to you, he knocks, and he says, come

into a relationship with me.

Here's what I want to do now.

I want to pray for those of you to make

that turn today to move from being Christianish to being

fully surrendered to Jesus. Let's close her eyes and let

us pray pray this prayer along with me. If today's

a day that you want to shift from being Christianish

to being totally surrendered to Christ Jesus, I come to

you and thank you for your grace and your mercy.

Thank you for not giving up on me, thank you

for loving me. Jesus. I'm tired of playing church. I'm

tired of being half hearted. I'm tired of being luke warm.

I surrender myself wholeheartedly to you today.

You were my Lord.

I ask for your forgiveness, and I'm asking your Holy

Spirit to lead and guide my life. Thank you for

your grace. If everybody, if your eyes still closing and

head bow, raise your hand. If you just prayed that

prayer with me, raise your hand. If you prayed that prayer. Yeah,

I see those hands, Amen, I see those hands. Praise

the Lord. Now. I want to pray for those of

you who maybe have never came into a relationship with Christ.

Pray this prayer along with me. If you want to

walk into a relationship with Jesus. Jesus, I come to

you now, and I ask you, Jesus, to become my savior,

to become my Lord. I believe Jesus that you died

on the cross for my sins. Three days later you

resurrected by the power of God, and I'm asking you

to forgive me my sins. Become my Lord. I give

you my life. Holy Spirit, lead and guide me. You

raise your hand. If you just prayed that prayer with me, Amen,

I see that hand. See that hand, I see that hand.

Amen.

Can we give those in this room? It took a

bull step of faith today with a big a big hand.

Let's give them a big.

Hand, encourage them to there. Let us stand and let

us sing, and let

There not be an ounce of Christianish worship in this

room as we close out the service today