Live Uncommon: Faith

We put your name above every name. You are a faithful God.

I love, I mean, even these songs we sang today just talk about the faithfulness of God.

The first song, faithful then, faithful now.

You'll never run out of faithfulness. Are you thankful he doesn't run out of faithfulness?

You know, human beings can let you down, right?

But we serve a God who never lets us down. He is faithful. He is faithful and true. Amen.

And we can stand on that. And I don't know about you, but I love the fact that

not only is he faithful, but he ain't dead.

He's risen. And so we can rest in that.

When everything else is shaky ground we can stand and the promises of god know

his faithfulness and i actually even just wanted to read this real quick in

hebrews i love this hebrews 9,

Hebrews 9:12

verse 12 it says he entered jesus referencing jesus once for all into the holy

places not by means of the blood of goats and calves the sacrifices they used

to make but by means of his own blood,

thus securing our eternal redemption.

I don't know about you, but that speaks to the faithfulness of God,

that we have redemption in Jesus Christ.

And when you realize that before you were even born, he was faithful.

Before you were formed in your mother's womb, he knew you. He was faithful.

Let's just take a moment. let's bow our heads and I just want you to reflect

on how good God's been how faithful he's been it's not the absence of storms

it's the fact that he's been with you in the storm.

Come on, some of you, your marriage is a testament to the faithfulness of God.

Some of you in this place say you're reminded, you know what,

I should be a statistic, but the faithfulness of God.

Some of you in this room, you're reminded, you know what, the enemy,

what he intended for evil, God used it for good. God, thank you for being faithful.

And I think it's good for us to meditate on the faithfulness of God and just

realize how good we have it.

We should all be statistics. we should all be separated from the Lord.

But Jesus came in his faithfulness because God said, I'm not willing for heaven to be emptied.

I'm going to bankrupt all of hell and I'm going to fill heaven.

I don't know about you, but that's a faithful God that we serve today.

So Lord, in this moment, we reflect on your faithfulness and your goodness that you are a good God.

And when the world is going crazy, And when things around us are crumbling,

we can trust in your faithfulness that you will never leave us,

you will never forsake us,

you remain with us, you stick to us, the scripture says, closer than a brother.

We thank you for that faithfulness today as we reflect in this moment.

Can we just sing that chorus one more time all my life?

Music.

All my life, all my life. Well, it is good to be in the house of the Lord. Welcome to Unco Church.

You may be seated all across this room. We're excited to have you here today.

Excited to be with you. Even today, I have some really great news,

some great things coming up that we would love for you to get involved.

I can't believe it. We're already three weeks in. and it just seems like God

is producing miracle after miracle after miracle.

Last service we had over 20 people commit their lives to Jesus.

And I think we're just getting started. So we're starting our brand new series

entitled Live Uncommon.

Somebody say live uncommon.

Live uncommon.

We're talking through what it looks like to live uncommon when it comes to uncommon faith.

These are the core values of our church, uncommon growth, uncommon generosity,

and uncommon example. We're going to unpack those over the next four weeks starting today.

So this series is going to hone in on the core values of Unco Church.

We are of the belief and conviction that all, not some, but all of us are called

to live an outspoken and uncommon life as believers and followers of Jesus Christ.

Not just a pastor, not just somebody who's up here with a guitar leading worship.

All of us are called to live an uncommon life, outspoken life as believers and followers of Jesus.

This uncommon life is in direct contrast to the ordinary or the common expectations of the world.

Direct contrast, completely different. This is not about the bare minimum or

this is not about doing just enough to get by.

If we are to live uncommon, it's to fully embrace and exude to the utmost degree

the power of a sold out life to Jesus Christ.

That's what we're talking about. So when we say live uncommon,

our church's name is Unco, which is a prefix for uncommon.

We're not saying that, hey, by the way, compared to other churches, our church is uncommon.

That's not what we're saying. What we're saying is the church,

capital C church of Jesus Christ is called to be uncommon.

That's everyone. That's every church, every believer.

And we're called to live this life fully. The days of settling,

hear me today, the culture and today we live in, the days of settling are over. Okay.

The days of settling are over. The days of this just being a hobby,

I believe are fading away where we say, hey, listen, and I'll do my Sunday thing,

and then I'll see you next Sunday.

And we live for a spiritual fix instead of living the fullness and potential

of what Jesus Christ offers us.

We're not gonna settle for the common or the ordinary as a church,

but we wanna pursue the fullness of a life fully surrendered and sold out to Jesus.

Hear me today, we cannot live, like I said, Sunday to Sunday,

but we are built to thrive. Hear me today, not just to survive.

We are built to thrive day to day.

Monday through Sunday, okay? And think about however you want.

If you say, hey, listen, I wanna get filled up on a Sunday and then, you know, that's great.

But I honestly think too, as Christians, it should be cyclical to where Sunday

actually exudes the overflow of what God did Monday through Saturday.

So sometimes we treat Sunday like this is the start. I'm going on a little bit

of a tangent here, but this is a starting point when really it's cyclical and

it really should be the overflow. What did God do in your life and through your

life Monday through Saturday?

So we're getting to that. What does that look like? And as we were talking about

living uncommon, we want to talk about uncommon faith.

First off, we need to know this, that you know this, everyone has faith.

Just think about this for a moment with me. I'm going to unpack this. Everyone has faith.

Everyone you encounter in life has faith.

Now, I've never met a person actually devoid of faith because really at the

end of the day, it's not about faith as much as where you place your faith.

Does that make sense?

So you can meet somebody that says, I don't know Jesus and I have no faith in

Jesus. I'm like, well, you do have faith.

You just have faith in something other than Jesus. You have what's called misplaced faith.

And even I would say it takes a lot more faith to not believe in God than it

does to believe in him because the proof contrasts all of it.

Nature screams the goodness of God.

But the very creation cries out that we have a creator.

But I've never met a person in my life devoid of faith.

It's not a question of do you have faith, but where do you place your faith?

Our faith can easily be placed, hear me today, in our bank account.

Our faith can be placed in our governmental party. Our faith can be placed in

our investments Some of you crypto investors in the room And you're like, yes, when XRP hits,

Our faith can be placed in our careers It can even be placed in our own,

hear me today, limited understanding Our faith can be placed in what we know and not what we believe.

And what I wanna encourage us today is God is calling his church to live a life of uncommon faith.

What does that look like? Hebrews 12 says this, therefore, since we are surrounded

by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin which

clings so closely and let us run. Somebody say run.

With endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus,

not looking to my 401k, Not looking to the pretty person next to me.

Not looking to, like, if this right relationship, it'll make everything better.

Not looking to what the government can do for me. Not looking to politics. Not looking to policy.

Not even looking to the flag.

Looking to Jesus Christ, the founder and perfecter of our faith,

who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. How many of you are

thankful for that cross?

Despising the shame and is seated at the right throne of God.

So I wonder if many are not running strongly because A, we don't know what we're

running to, B, we don't know what we're running for, and C, maybe we're just

barely walking in our faith.

And what I wanna encourage you today in my time with you today at this 11 o'clock

service is that God has more.

There's actually a Barna study when it talks about what's happening to our nation,

but I actually look at this, that there's room for God to move in miraculous and supernatural ways.

But here's what's happening in our nation. We need to be aware of this.

Only 16% of American adults, this was a study last year, say God is the most

important element of their life. 16% in the United States.

Just 40% believe that the God of the Bible exists and actively influences human lives.

Only 9% claim to have an intimate, interactive relationship with him.

9%. A mere 14% say that God has total influence over their day-to-day decisions. 14%.

Even among those who profess belief in God, the study reveals a waning reliance on him.

79% say he is important, yet this is a clear contrast.

Yet only 38% claim he is the most important part of their life.

79, almost 80% of people say that God is important, but he's not the most important thing in my life.

72% believe he is active in their lives, but far fewer consistently depend on

him. Like 66% say God has a lot of influence on their decisions,

yet only, this is the contrast, 33% believe he has total influence over their life choices.

Friends, can I tell you, he's either Lord of all or he's Lord not at all.

We have to get to a point. And you're gonna hear sometimes like,

my goodness, it's like, can we just have a breather, pastor?

Can you just let us up for breath?

This is the time, your faith cannot be contingent on the circumstances and the sways of this world.

Your faith has to be rooted in Jesus Christ.

You know, when I talk to people who are professed believers,

here's what I've heard people say.

First off, they'll say, you know what? I'm a Christian pastor. I go to church.

I go to church.

I'm like, okay, let's go with that line of thinking. You go to church.

Well, I've gone to an Ohio State game many times, but you know what I'm never

thinking is like, I cannot wait for coach to put me in.

Can't wait. Can't wait. I'm ready. I'm ready. Can't wait to catch the ball. Can't wait.

Because me being in the stands doesn't mean I'm on the team. You hear me today.

Okay. One of my favorite restaurants, if you've experienced the pad Thai blessing

that is Royal Thai in Heath, Ohio, does anyone know?

Raise a hand. If you, you know, you know the blessing sister she knows it she

knows it I mean my goodness like I come from Pentecostal roots I almost ran

almost ran I'm just kidding I'm kidding.

But here's the thing. I go to this restaurant. I love to go there.

I love eating the pad Thai.

I've never started to speak in Taiwanese because eating the food doesn't make me Taiwanese.

Now I probably should learn the language. They're the sweetest couple on the planet.

We're going to get them to Unco Church. We're going to have Royal Thai Unco Church in Jesus' name.

Speaking it into existence. I'm speaking as though it were today.

You heard it. Mark it. It's recorded.

Is this recorded? Okay. Mark it down.

Royal Thai on Co-Church. Here we go. But that doesn't make, again, make me Taiwanese.

Are you tracking with me? Just because you go to church and you do the Sunday

thing does not make you a believer in Jesus Christ.

It's full submission and surrender to Jesus Christ that makes you a follower

and disciple of Jesus Christ.

And so we have to get past this because if we're not careful,

what's going to happen in is we

fall into what's called cultural Christianity, where we say, I know God.

I guarantee you, if you were to go to the majority of people,

two-thirds of people would tell you they know God.

One other thing people say is, I was raised in a Christian home.

Well, that's great. I celebrate that. How many of you are thankful that you

grew up in a Christian home? There's some in this.

And then there's some that were not fortunate to grow up in a Christian home.

Here's what I want to say. That doesn't make you a believer.

Having parents as believers, it gives you a spiritual lineage. It's amazing.

But can I encourage you? The next generation is counting on you being the next

line of spiritual lineage and you making a decision for Christ outside of your parental oversight.

And so we can't have this mentality that I was raised in a Christian home.

So then now what? Are you living for Jesus?

Next one people say is I'm a good person, Pastor Desai. I'm a good person.

And the truth of the matter is there are a lot of people I've encountered that

they're genuinely good people.

Good-hearted people, like shirt-off-their-back kind of people,

like do anything for people.

And these are people outside of Christianity.

Sometimes I've actually seen these people act more like Christians than professed Christians.

But here's the thing, being a good person isn't going to save you.

It's not going to get you to a place where you're good enough,

because if that happens, that means it's contingent, hear me,

it's contingent on what I can do, and I'm the savior of my own life.

You cannot save yourself. It doesn't matter how good you are.

It doesn't matter how many hoops you jump through. It doesn't matter if you feed the homeless.

It doesn't matter if you go above and beyond to put other people before yourself.

If you have not submitted and consecrated your life to Jesus Christ,

it will not matter at the end of the age. It will not matter.

You heard me say it last Sunday. It's, you know, good people don't go to heaven.

Saved people do. So it's people who realize, and we live in a society,

a world today that tells you that, hey, by the way,

you get your kudos from being good.

And then we start to define what is good.

And then we start to get deceived on, wow, who's defining good?

Are you following me today? because if we don't have an understanding of the

only one who lived a perfect life, not you, not me.

If we don't have a true north of compass, the meter, whatever our metric is

of measuring good changes and it moves over time because culture changes.

And good will change with culture, but you know who never changes?

The Lord. Jesus never changes.

He never changes. Other people say, I know God. I know him. I know him.

You know, even scripture says that there was many people, they knew him,

but they denied the power therein, meaning they knew him.

Like we did this stuff. We know God.

We tried to cast out demons in your name. We tried to do all this stuff. Like we knew him.

It's like, no, but you didn't, you weren't following him. Yes, you knew him.

I know people even right now, and I'm praying the Lord would get a hold of their

heart and get a hold of their life. They know God, they know the truth.

And yet there's something within them that's in the heart of every man and woman,

a flesh that says, I'm not willing to surrender and submit.

So you can know the truth and never experience the fruit of that.

You can go to church. You can be raised in a Christian home.

You can be a good person. And what I'm saying today is if we're going to live

an uncommon faith, if we're going to live this out, it has to be something where

it's not behavior modification, but it's heart transformation.

Not modifying that, hey, we look the part. You see me? You see me? I look the part.

But that we would have hearts that would be transformed from the inside out. Are you with me today?

From the inside out, Matthew 7 says this, says, not everyone who says to me,

Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will

of my father who is in heaven.

Many will say to me on the day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name,

and in your name drive out demons in your name?

Did we not serve at Unco Church in your name?

Did we not give finances at Uncoachurch in your name?

Did we not go above and beyond for people around us? Were we not kind and courteous to people?

And yeah, we did all these things in your name.

And then it says, Jesus said, I will tell them plainly, I never knew you. I never knew you.

Think about how heartbreaking of a statement it is to be that close and yet

never know him, to know of him, but never truly know him.

He says, away from me, you evildoers. If we're to break down the word faith

in the Hebrew, it's from a word called emet. Somebody say emet.

Say E-M-E-T, E-M-E-T. And it means firmness.

It means trustworthiness. It means reliability, constancy or consistency. It means faithfulness.

And here's what I wanna encourage somebody.

Your faith means nothing if you're not walking it out.

So when we think about even the breakdown, whew, in Jesus' name,

when we think about, it's going to use the stage as an analogy,

apparently it's not one to cooperate.

I can talk about the stage and you know what? I'm going to preach on the stage

and you know what? Our team's going to use the stage and like,

we're thankful for the stage.

But if I never walk on the stage, I'll never know how firm the stage is.

I'll never know that it can hold the weight. And so when we talk about faith,

it's great to profess your faith, but it's another thing to actually walk out your faith.

And the beautiful thing of it is that it can stand the weight of your life.

It can stand the turmoil that we go through. It can stand the storms of life.

God's word has the answers. Come on, friend.

This is so important for us to realize, but we have to start at the ground zero

and understand that faith in Jesus has to be our foundation.

Like, where's our foundation? If

we're to walk confidently, where's our foundation? It starts with Jesus.

Jesus said this. He said, I'm the way, in John 14, the truth and the life.

No man comes to the Father except through me.

Well, that's a pretty strong statement, especially in today's world. isn't it?

This is a gospel declaration. Jesus is saying, hey, by the way, I'm king.

This is Jesus saying, I am Lord. I am king.

You know what? The beautiful thing about the story of Jesus Christ is he invites us into the story.

We don't change who he is. He is who he is, whether we acknowledge it or not.

But he is king and he is Lord. And when he's saying, I'm the way,

the truth, and the life, He's saying, by the way, like I don't share places.

When he says, I'm the way, I am the way. Acts 4.12 says this,

salvation is found in no one else for there is no other name,

no other name under heaven to mankind by which we must be saved.

Can I encourage you in something today? If your way is taking you away from

his way, it's the wrong way.

If there's people in your life, their way is taking you away from his way,

They're going the wrong way and you may have to make some decisions With your

friendships and your relationships like hey, I don't know.

I know you're going this way, but here's where i'm going And that's not always popular is it?

It's not always easy It's not always to be outspoken that but but if he says

I am the way what he's saying is hey Hey wake up. There's not multiple paths to faith.

There's, there's, there's not this, this idea, like, Hey, by the way,

like, like you do this, if you're a good enough person and like,

we're all going to the same place where, you know, we're all like,

we, we, you know, we got good intentions. We want to be like, we're all trying.

We're, we're, we're doing our best. And you know, no, no, no.

He is the way, not a way.

He is the way that's right. The way.

So we have to treat our lives. And when we speak, and when we exude that faith,

that we boldly proclaim and boldly say, there is no other way.

There is no other way. Listen, the other night, I always like,

Saturdays are weird. If you're a pastor, it's weird because you're thinking

about Sundays. You're thinking about the message.

You're thinking through like, okay, how is this going to come across?

What am I going to say here?

What's this going to be? And then honestly, I think there was a lot of spiritual

warfare that's attached to it as well.

But I'm in the gym. We have this small gym, this little clubhouse.

I'm working out and I have worship music playing.

And then I have this service. I'm listening to this pastor and it's blaring on the TV.

And then these young men come in and I knew they weren't believers in Christ.

But you know what the funny thing is? The first inclination that came to my

mind, the first little seed was like, hey, by the way, you may need to turn

that down a little bit because you don't want to make them uncomfortable.

I'm just, can I just be real? Okay. Okay. Like you don't think about,

you don't think this stuff. Okay. All right. Okay.

Okay. All right. We're all good. Okay.

Okay. I felt like Joe Pesci for a second. Okay. Okay. Okay. But that came across

my mind and instantly I recognized what it was. I'm like, no, like I'm not ashamed.

I'm like, I'm not worried about it. I want these guys to know I'm a believer and like, I'm good.

I'm good with them having worship music on. I'm good. And they want to turn

it off. They can go turn it off, but I ain't turning it off.

And even then I'm like, all right, like, bro, like I'm listening more than you.

Like you ain't, you ain't getting control of the TV.

So yeah, not on my watch, buddy. You're going to listen to this message. Would you want to or not?

Does that make sense? That's, that's just kind of the day to day.

But if he's the way we have to live our lives with a boldness that says he is the way.

And they're not multiple ways. Not only is he is the way, but he is, he says, I am the truth.

He's the truth, everybody.

How many of you know that our world is in desperate need of truth?

Truth. There's a lot of deception, a lot of lies, a lot of lies.

John 8 says this in verse 31 through 32, to the Jews who had believed him,

Jesus said, if you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.

Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

We wonder why people are shackled and in bondage is because they've fallen for

a lie that their truth is the truth.

Hey, live out your truth. That's your truth. You live your truth. You do your truth.

It's your truth. It's a very cultural norm right now. Like, hey,

that's their truth. No, no, no, no, no, no. No, we're getting it mixed up.

There is the truth, Jesus.

And everything else is deceit and lies.

But the enemy is crafty because he'll try to convince us. Baba actually says,

I always think about this. He says he's the prince of the air.

And I think about news media. I think about music.

I think about, and again, man, I love getting down some good music,

just like anybody, but I'm telling you, we gotta be careful what we're listening to.

We gotta be careful with what we're watching, what we're digesting,

because what happens is if we're not careful, we fall into, oh,

we assimilate what is their truth.

And can I just be really clear with you? The only steady, constant truth is

like when you're like, what's the truth?

Go to God's word. How many of you have God's word with you today?

Raise up your Bibles high. Raise them up high. Let's go.

Let's go. Love it. We want people. Bring your physical Bible.

Like, let's go. We have free Bibles for you, by the way. If you do not have

a Bible, we've already given out 60 plus Bibles in two weeks.

60 plus bibles okay like

that so i want you to fall in love with god's word because this is truth when

i don't know where to go this is where i go i don't know what to what to think

here's where i go he is the truth and here's here's also something we need to

understand faith in jesus is not enslavement it's freedom.

And the lie of the enemy convinces you, it's like, hey, it's all about rules

and regulations. It's like, no, actually

there's freedom within those boundaries of what he asked us to do.

You know, if we're to talk about the truth, a lot of this stuff,

I'm going to give you just a little bit of a nerdy nugget. You ready?

You ready? Okay. A nerdy nugget. It's coming at you. In the 16th and probably,

I mean, closer to the 17th century when it first started was called the Age of Enlightenment.

Everyone ever heard of the Age of Enlightenment? Okay.

It's when men start to philosophize and start to come up with the idea that

they could come up with the solutions for mankind devoid and absent from faith.

This is nothing new, but that they could come up with the solutions that they

could figure out the truth.

They could figure out what was needed. So just do your study, Age of Enlightenment.

When that stuff started to come up, they started to philosophize and started

to talk about, hey, listen, maybe we can come up with a solution for mankind.

Maybe we can be the fix. How many of you know that never goes well?

That never happens. Well, every time man gets involved and we try to be the

fix, we screw it up royally because we can never fix what only Jesus can.

We can never fix the sickness of the soul, but Jesus can.

We see that, but we have to realize again, there's only one truth.

The truth is Jesus existed.

Jesus died. And thank goodness, Jesus rose again.

That's the truth. That's the truth today. I love this too. Cause you know,

it's not, sometimes we feel like, well, what if I have questions? Questions are great.

I love questions. I think questions with the right heart lead to the truth.

And if you've been a part of, maybe you were raised in a culture where it was

wrong to ask questions, I think that's wrong.

And I want to let you know that if you have a heart that you genuinely seek

the truth, he is the way and you're going to find the truth.

You're going to find the truth.

Elizabeth Elliot says, faith doesn't eliminate questions, but faith knows where to take them.

Doesn't eliminate questions, but faith knows where to take them.

In other words, he has the answers. You have questions? Great.

So do I sometimes. He has the answers.

You have doubts and worry? Great. So do I sometimes. He has the answers. Do you follow me today?

And then finally, we know that Jesus proclaimed and said, not only am I the

way and the truth, but I'm the life.

Are you thankful for life today and more abundantly?

We talked about it last Sunday, but isn't it amazing we have a Savior who came

to give us life and life more abundant?

In other words, He's going to fill you up, and then He's just going to keep pouring out.

Now, that's a decision you have to make. Do you accept that life,

that life-giving gift that He has to offer?

And when He says, I'm the life, you know, John says this. He says,

Jesus said, I am the bread of life. I'm the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me will never go hungry and whoever believes in me will never

thirst, will never be thirsty.

If you find yourself in a place, friend, where you have been trying all these

things that the world has to offer, and none of it satiates the hunger,

I want to encourage you and introduce you to the man in the Lord Jesus Christ,

that he has an answer to your hunger and your thirst.

And the world cannot give it, and the world cannot take it away.

They don't have the answer and by the way once you have the answer they can't

take the answer from you but I want to encourage somebody today at exactly 12 p.m.

As we get ready to close that he has life for you some of you today I even felt it,

this Sunday some of you today you've accepted things that have been spoken of you words of death,

and that's become your mantra of life that you've said, you know what?

This is who I was told I was. This is who even things I spoke over myself.

Here's what the enemy has been speaking over me. And I just want to cut through

the noise today and say he has life and life more abundant for you.

Life, and life more abundant. And all you have to do is reach out and get a hold of it.

It's available for you. C.S. Lewis said this.

It's not up on the screen, but I love this. He said, if I find myself,

I find in myself desires which nothing in this world, nothing in this world

can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.

I'm going to say that one more time because that's profound.

If I find myself in myself desires, which nothing in this world can satisfy,

the only logical explanation is I,

you, me, we were made for another world. There's only one answer.

His name is Jesus.

And that's what, that's how you start to live an uncommon life of faith,

not cultural Christianity where we just, we do our thing and then,

you know, But we live in community together.

We disciple. We see people come to the faith.

Last service, like I said, we had over 20 people that made a commitment.

Okay, this is going to blow your mind. But I want to make sure these people,

I want them to be discipled. And I'm praying to God.

We're trying to connect with as many people and do as best as we can.

Over the past three weeks, over

the past three weeks, we have had over 70 commitments to Jesus Christ.

They're they're accepting life and they're trading it for death,

and what the enemy intended for evil God turns

it for good and I want to speak over somebody today that you convinced yourself

that you don't deserve life so you're content with death and it's all around

you it's how you speak it's how you act it's the people you surround yourself

and I wanna challenge you today.

God has life for you, an abundance for you.

You can take that to the bank. Listen, put him to the test.

See what happens, how he transforms your life. See how he changes you from the inside out.

See how he takes that heart of stone where you just felt numb.

See how he takes that addiction and breaks it off of your life.

See how he transforms your marriage when you make him the center of your life.

See how he transforms your family when you become the father and the mother you're supposed to be.

See what happens when Jesus gives you life.

And that's what we're all about here. You know, unashamedly,

we want people to live an uncommon life.

But it starts with faith in Jesus. Romans 10.10 says this, and we're going to

close. For with the heart one believes and is justified.

With the heart and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Can I tell you, it's one thing to just talk.

And I really want, I want to implore you. Because the thing is, I don't even know.

This may be the last time you and I see each other. I don't know.

And that's not a statement of fear. That's just a fact.

We do not. Bible says we're not promised tomorrow. James says life is but a vapor.

We are not promised tomorrow. Also says do not worry about tomorrow because

tomorrow will worry about itself.

So I trust Jesus for today. Trust him for today.

But it's very easy to give lip service. Imagine if we were to twist that scripture around.

If I just moved my mouth, but my heart was never activated.

Culture of Christianity. But what if I surrender and submit my heart to Jesus

and then out of the heart, the mouth speaks?

The fruit. That's where it starts. And that's what God has planned for you.

Can we stand to our feet today?

Listen to me. If you hear nothing, I say, remember this. Jesus is not content to be your hobby.

He wants to be the Lord and Savior of your life.

He is the King, and He wants you to acknowledge Him as that in your life.

That means that He is invited into every facet of your life.

You invite Him in. That means we're not just doing this cultural Sunday thing,

like, okay, let me get my Sunday fixed.

See you next Sunday. Woo, great, great message, Pastor. Awesome.

But if it's not here, if it's not transforming you, then what are we doing?

But if we truly believe that we serve a God who overcome death,

overcame death, overcame the grave, who overcame all of our sin,

then we better start living like it.

We better start living like we know in whom we believe, in whom we trust.

So I'm going to ask for two prayers. A, first prayer I'm gonna pray today is

for those that you do have a belief in Jesus, you know him, but you've kind

of been doing the cultural Christian thing.

Haven't been plugged in. You haven't made yourself available.

Maybe your next step, maybe your next step is to serve, to get outside your comfort zone. Great.

Maybe your next step is to get into a rooted group like what we talked about.

You can sign up at church center.

I don't know what the next step, maybe it's just connecting with somebody here,

somebody that you could trust. We're getting to know each other.

We're going to, we got time.

We're going to continue to get to know each other and build community here.

But maybe it's finding somebody you trust and say, you know what?

I need discipleship and I need encouragement.

You know, by the way, you're a disciple of Jesus, but you're called to disciple others.

If you made that decision, it's not just on a pastor to do that.

You are the church.

So in your workplaces, your schools, wherever you go, God has somebody that only you can reach.

So I wanna encourage you today, reach out. and we're gonna do everything we

can to equip you as best as we can because I believe in the church.

I believe the church is God's plan A. There's no plan B to redeem the world.

I believe that Jesus is coming back for his church and we need to be ready.

So if today you say, you know what, I just need maybe a kick in the spiritual

pants and I just wanna live uncommon again.

And you know, I just started to live that common life.

Just started to go through the motions. You know, it's easy to do that.

I don't wanna condemn you today. It's so easy to feel that way.

The busyness of life and the stresses of life and families and bills and like,

we got to do this. We got to take the kids to sports. We got to do this.

Can I just tell you, just put him back where he belongs first, first, first, first.

Keep him there. Don't move him.

I'm gonna pray over you right now. Father, we pray over every person in this

room. Let us live a faith that is uncommon to the world.

Not just Christians that profess the faith, but Christians that live their faith.

An uncommon thing that people see, the people in this room living it out.

And they say, there's something different. I want what they have.

What is that? What is that? And great question. Let me introduce you to Jesus Christ.

What is that? Let us live with boldness, courageousness, with a zeal.

And I pray, Lord, that even too, that as Paul told Timothy to stir up the gifts, stir up the gifts.

I pray that if there's gifts in this room that have been dormant and people

have, you know, I know God's asking me to do this, but I've just been sitting.

I pray that today would be your day of activation again, that you would stir those gifts up again.

You wouldn't go dormant, but you live proactively for Christ.

So Father, we pray over that in the name of Jesus. Holy Spirit,

fill them up from the top of their heads to the soles of their feet,

that you would empower them with power from on high to be bold and courageous

in their faith, in their workplaces,

in the highways, in the byways, that we would see this region.

We've said it from the beginning. This will be a church for Licking County,

not just a church for Newark.

We're gonna be a church that's gonna see this region, and 182,000 people in

Lincoln County. God, we wanna see change.

I wanna see thousands of salvations.

I wanna see thousands of baptisms. I don't know what's in store,

but God, I do know that you wanna use your church and we are your church.

Help us to be a piece of that pie, a piece of that puzzle, and that your church

would go forth in victory and power in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name.

And then finally, if you have not made a decision for Christ.

And finally, this is like, I get excited about this because this is like all

of heaven just shudders.

I mean, it's like, they're so excited. And then hell is like, no, no, no, no.

We're losing another one and another one and another one and another one and another one.

And I can't help but think 70 plus salvations over three weeks,

like, okay, I wanna see some more today.

But here's what I want you to do, not out of coercion, but because the Holy

Spirit spoke to your heart and you're like, it's time to get right with the Lord.

We're in crazy times, everybody. But here's what we do know.

Our trust and our faith needs to be in him. It cannot be in anything else.

All other ground is sinking sand.

You know that song on Christ the solid rock I stand? All other ground is sinking

sand. We have to put our faith and our trust in what's most important.

And today, if you've not made a commitment for Jesus, I'm going to ask you to do something bold.

I'm going to ask you to lift your hand. We're not closing our eyes.

We're not bowing our heads.

I'm not giving you a moment to make this because like, oh, I feel ashamed.

You should not feel any shame. First off, that's an attack of the enemy.

That's a lie of the enemy that would convince you, by the way, we're going to go nuts.

We're going to go crazy. We're going to love it.

And all of heaven celebrates when just one accepts Christ.

So you say, listen, it's time for me to get my life right. I'm ready to repent

of my sins and I'm ready to turn.

That means repentance is turn to a 180 and start walking and living uncommonly for Christ.

If that's you today, if that's you today, I'm telling you today is your moment.

So I'm not gonna belabor the point. If that's you today, on the count of three,

I want you to raise your hand. One, two, three, raise your hand all across this room.

Thank you for those hands. Thank you for those hands.

Thank you for those hands. I see you. Thank you for that hand.

Thank you, Jesus. Come on, give Jesus a shout of praise in this place. Come on!

Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord.

Music.