August 23rd, 2026

Just just keep playing, keep going, keep going for a second.

I didn't say sick as a play.

I didn't hear you.

Isn't it amazing?

Um you ever have that friend that's never on time?

You know, and maybe they're the one next to you, maybe it's your spouse or something.

I don't know.

Um and it feels like sometimes they're never on time, and it's just like, man, you just I'm not important.

I don't matter.

When you show up late all the time.

Isn't it good to know that Jesus is always on time?

Always on time.

Right?

I I love these words.

Right?

I like anybody been in here ever been tossed by the water?

Anybody?

Just me?

Man, my luck.

Well, I'm glad y'all have great lives.

That's good.

Anybody ever been through fire in this room?

Just me again.

Great.

Man, y'all are amazing.

Could y'all get up here and preach to me today?

Because I need some witness.

You know, I mean, there's sometimes when things go in our life and our it seems like everything's going okay, and then all of a sudden the rug is pulled out from underneath us.

Something we weren't expecting happens and it comes and it just hits us hard.

There's never been a moment when Jesus was not with you during those times.

Somebody needs to hear that a little bit more today.

I'm about to get my Baptist on up in here.

There's never been a moment that God was not on time for you.

Isn't it good to know that we love and serve a God who always shows up?

Look, sometimes I forget you and I don't text you back.

Sometimes I am late to our meetings, sometimes you don't get a call from me.

Because I'm me.

Thank God for him.

Because he is always on time.

Can you go back into the server in a moment?

That's my favorite part of the song.

Thank you, God, no matter our circumstance or our situation, the waves and the fire of this world have no control or power over you.

We thank you that you are a God who consistently shows up when we need you.

We thank you and praise you in the name of Jesus.

And the church said, Amen, amen.

Go ahead and have a seats, everyone.

Like I say, thank you, Mom, for that applause over there.

But uh, but my mom's actually right there.

Um and she wasn't clapping.

Um, so there you go.

Um, hey, we are in the fourth week of our new series called All In, right?

It's not a new series anymore.

It's the final week of our series, All In.

We've been working through this whole, this pattern.

Right?

Jesus was asked, what is the greatest commandment?

And it was a debate that was raging on during those times that rabbis would debate what is the greatest commandment.

And Jesus said, You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and with all of your strength.

This is, he said, the greatest commandment.

There is no debate about it.

This is the greatest commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And he said the second one is just as important to love your neighbor as yourself.

But the first one has to lead it.

We've got to love God with everything.

And we've been talking about that over the past couple of weeks.

What does that look like?

What do we talk about around here?

We say the hard part is about knowing God.

The first thing we gotta do is we've got to know God.

We gotta know who God is in our life.

We have to have that relationship with Him.

And then we gotta get God into our soul.

We gotta find freedom from those things, and then into our mind, discover that we have a purpose.

And then the last thing is to find the strength in all of this, and that's to make a difference.

Right?

And I've given you this challenge that I want you to go all in with Jesus this year.

Like all in, right?

It's a poker term, it comes from that.

For those of you that play poker, you know, you have that card, but you just know you're gonna win.

And everything you have, you're like, I'm putting everything in on this.

I'm all in on this.

And I want you to go all in with Jesus this year.

All in.

He went all in for you.

So maybe just give him a year.

Run the playbook that I've been talking about, right?

Go all in just for it's 365 days.

A year is not, hey, doesn't it seem a little bit shorter the older you get?

Years seems a little bit quicker.

You should have seen 930.

They're like, it's going by like this, you know.

It's just it's just a year to go through, just a year to try this playbook, to to develop your to know God, right?

If you know God, if you have that rel if you don't have the relationship with Jesus, let me tell you, can today be the day that you say yes and you accept his life-giving, saving, salvation grace into your life.

But if you do know him, how well do you know him?

Because it's a relationship.

And we want to build that relationship.

The best relationships we have are the ones we spend the most time working on.

The ones we do the work with, as they say.

Right?

And so I want to challenge you this year.

Read the Bible.

Read it.

Get invested and involved in God's Word.

This is the foundation upon which everything is built.

And so we read this, and the more we read it, the more we get to know who God is and who we are because of Him.

Hey, here's the other thing.

Don't just read the Bible.

Show up to Sunday worship.

You're like, I'm here right now.

I know, great.

I love seeing you.

Those of you online, come back.

Yes, we're in a gymnasium.

It's okay.

Jesus is here too.

Come to church.

Let this be the year that you show up to church more than any other year in your life.

Don't make it as something you just do every now and then.

Make it as a priority in your life to come.

Can I tell you that part of this is selfish on my part?

Because it's better when you're here.

It is.

It's a whole lot better when you're here.

Because you were some of you respond to me.

Some of you just stare at me with your arms crossed and are like, entertain me, say something funny, clown, you know, like that type of thing.

But but it's so much better.

I remember the dark days, the darkest day, some of the darkest days of my preaching were COVID.

When we shut down for like, we were shut down for like four Sundays, I think is how long we were shut down.

But and we had it was flat families.

Remember Flat Stanley?

Like it was all flat.

Miss Natalie printed off pictures of all of the different families who sent them in, and she taped them on the pew backs in there, so I'd have someone to look to.

But you know what pictures don't do?

They don't laugh.

They don't say amen.

They don't fall asleep on their neighbor's shoulder or whatever.

You know, at least you're doing something, right?

And so when you're here, it matters and it makes such a difference to me.

I praise God for Melissa Benson.

She was at the 9:30 service.

She was my laugh track during those days.

Because there was only like three people in the room in that giant sanctuary.

And every time I would say something funny, most of them weren't even listening to me.

Manuel was one of them.

Manuel's over there, he was like in the back, he wasn't even out there, and he wasn't listening to me, but Melissa would just go ha ha from the side.

And sometimes you could hear it online, which made it even funnier.

But she was over the board laughing at me so that I could have some confidence.

Because it was hard.

It's better when you're in the room, but can I tell you I'm better when you're in the room too?

Like, I sound better, I look better, don't I?

I look great.

I smell awesome.

Come closer.

It's great.

It's better when you're in the room because you're with the other people.

Be here.

Don't just check it off.

Be a part of it.

Look, if St.

Andrew's isn't your thing, if this is like your first Sunday, find a place with your place.

And go to church.

If you're and if you're going, hey, you know what, Michael?

I'm here all the time.

Great.

Start coming Wednesday nights too.

Come to the Wednesday night worship.

If you want to see something incredible, you want to have your mind blown, go to 9:30.

Watch what happens there.

And the choir steps up here and drops some, the flautist to get up.

Joe gets up and plays his flute.

It's awesome.

Come to 9:30.

Come to church.

Make it a challenge this year.

I am going to be here more than ever.

Because it matters to your relationship with him.

And then the second thing that we've been talking about is when you come into that relationship with Jesus, you bring hurts.

You bring habits, you bring things that you just need, you need to get right.

Remember, Jesus forgives sins, then he heals.

He saves, then he gets to work.

Right?

The guy is lowered on the mat and Jesus goes, your sins are forgiven.

Now get up off of that mat.

Right?

A lot of us are still on the mat.

We know God and we have that relationship with him, but we need to get off off of that mat.

We need to stand up and allow God and Jesus to work on us and heal us, to find freedom in those things that we've carried into our relationship with him.

The best way we know how to do it is through small groups.

And boy, aren't you here at a lucky time because small groups, the new semester starts in like two and a half weeks.

We're kicking off the small group semester.

In the back of every chair, there's a QR code.

You can scan the QR code and it will take you to a little link tree thing that will say in small groups.

You can find all the different small groups for the semester.

They're all in there.

There's men's groups, women's groups, couples' groups, action groups, all kinds of different things.

Join a small group.

You need a place where you know and are known by others.

Because that is the place where we find healing when we gather together with like people who believe the same thing that we believe and we can work.

Because not a single one of you out there is perfect, except my mother right there, Anne.

The rest of you need help.

And small groups are the place where we get it.

And then last week we go from the heart to the soul to the mind.

That you're created on purpose for a purpose.

And I want you to discover that purpose.

And then once you discover that purpose, to put it into action and use it.

Wherever God has called you, however he has called you, there is a U-shaped lock in the doorway to the kingdom of heaven that only you can open.

And if you don't open it, the rest of us miss.

Because that part of the kingdom of heaven isn't here.

We need you to engage that muscle.

We need you to do whatever it is you do.

If you're a bus driver or an architect or a builder or a doctor or an attorney, whatever you are, do it for the glory of God.

On purpose.

But then that's not the last step, right?

Because we want heart, we want soul, we want mind.

And now it's strength.

And do you know where our strength is?

Turn to the person on your left.

Now look to the person on your right.

That's your strength.

Our strength is in one another.

Our strength is in the body.

Our strength is in is in the family of God.

It's the church.

This is the way that God designed us to bring us together as a people and to go into the world.

That's where we find our strength.

It's together.

Because we were created just wired to want to make a difference.

All of us have this in us.

That we just want to leave an impact on this world, that we want to make a difference somehow.

In 2 Timothy chapter 1, I don't have any of the scriptures this week because I saw a lot of squirrels, and we know we have a tendency to see squirrels, and there was a lot of squirrels this week.

2 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

But if you if you want 2 Timothy 1, 9 is where I am.

For God saved us and called us to live a holy life.

He did this not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time.

This is the way God wired you.

Before time began, he thought of you and he called you for something holy.

Before time began.

Like, not before your parents met.

Way before that.

He's like, oh I can't wait to see how she moved.

I can't wait to see what he does.

You were called before the beginning of time to be holy.

What does that word holy mean?

It means set apart.

Right?

It means to be set apart.

It means to look, we need to look differently than the rest of the world.

We need to operate, we need to act, we need to speak, we need to do things and go places that are different from the kingdom of the world because we don't bow down to that, we bow down to the kingdom of God.

And when we are set apart and operating in our calledness, the people who are sucked down into the death of the kingdom of the world will see the light of the kingdom of heaven.

You were called before the beginning of time to make a difference in this world.

Yesterday we went to um the convocation at Trinity University.

I just learned that.

And it was great, and it was really cool, and it was really it was a really neat experience, and um something that I don't think AM or Texas schools like that do.

Um TCU does, that's right.

But but this uh this convocation was really neat, and uh the president she got up and she spoke, and um and she was great.

I loved what she had to say, and um, and then the provost got up.

Isn't that a title that when you say provost, you just have to shh push your glasses up kind of deal?

Yeah, the the academic officer of the university.

Um, like all of us are smart enough to even understand what that means.

She gets up and she speaks.

And her, and I looked over at Jenna at one point, I was like, this is one of my sermons without Jesus.

Like she is like, in you, she's speaking to all the students, the freshman class, right?

In you, you have the power to change the world.

And I kept leaning over to Jenna, like, for the kingdom of God.

Like, this is my sermon, you know.

You are uniquely created.

What you bring to this community is amazing and unique, and we want to bring it out of you for the kingdom of God, is what I kept saying.

I was like, come on, somebody.

You know, it because it was, but that message is out there, it's wired into all of us.

Even academics realize that there is something inside of us that wants to change the world.

For those of us who go back to that heart part and we know God, we know what it is.

It's that we've been called to change the world for him.

See, but there's the catch right there is even though you want to make a difference, we want to make a difference, but we want to make a difference doing something that makes a difference.

Right?

When Paul's talking to the Corinthians, his first letter to them, there's this whole debate going on about this guy, Apollos, who came in after Paul did in the church, and he's teaching a little differently than Paul did, and there's a there's kind of a scuffle going on in the church.

Well, I'm a disciple of Paul, I'm a disciple of Apollos, and and Paul writes to him, he's like, Stop! Who's Paul?

Who's Apollos?

This is nothing.

It's about Jesus.

Stop talking about us and start talking about him, the foundation that I laid for you.

Build everything on that.

There's gonna be other builders who come in, but are you doing something that makes a difference?

He says this, 1 Corinthians 3, verse 12.

1 Corinthians 3:12

Anyone who builds on that foundation, Jesus, may use a variety of materials gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw.

But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done.

The fire will show if a person's work has any value, if the work survives, that builder will receive a reward.

But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer a great loss.

The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.

See, we're wired, it's in us to want to make a difference.

But one of the places where I greatly disagreed with what the provost said yesterday was she said, we want to see every single one of you, and you bring your individual truth to the conversation.

I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, ma'am, Dr.

So-and-so.

There is one truth one way, one truth, one life.

This is it.

This is the truth.

This is the foundation.

There are a lot of people who are going to build something on top of it, but we want to ensure that what we are doing to make a difference makes a difference.

That it advances the kingdom of God.

Hey, I gotta tell you, one of the one of the great and glorious things that we get to celebrate next year is our 75th birthday.

Isn't that cool?

St.

Andrews will celebrate 75 years of ministry next year.

And do you know what we gave ourselves as a birthday present?

Bathrooms.

Yeah, you thought I was gonna say something different.

We gave ourselves potties.

Come on, somebody.

Right?

Because if you've been here for any length of time and you were here when we were back in our old sanctuary that was built in 1958, do you remember how many potties were in that room?

Two.

Well, one of you, yes, one for the women and one for the men.

Two.

There were two toilets.

We sat 600 people.

They didn't have codes back in the 1950s, clearly.

Right?

I mean, two in a like two toilets.

Hey, we're going to church.

Everybody go to the bathroom.

It's Hold It for Jesus Sunday.

Right?

I mean, if you were here, remember Christmas Eve and Easter services, the lines?

Oh my gosh.

It was horrible.

You know how many single bathrooms there are in our new building?

Single, just single bathrooms.

Five! That's more than two! Isn't that amazing?

There's five bathrooms.

And if you have never been in that building and this is your first Sunday, I know I'm fake focusing on potties a lot, but it's a big deal.

Especially if you ever went into those bathrooms.

Like I had a guy who's the other day goes, I went into that bathroom one time and said, Never again.

Never again will I go in there, right?

Sometimes you just had to, but you know, five bathrooms, just single bathrooms.

That's not to mention the really big rooms at the front of the building that are gonna have multiple stalls for men and women.

Like I am thinking about creating a potty passport where every time you use one, you get a stamp, and then we celebrate once you go through all of them.

I know this is so weird, but it's just like it's gotta happen because it is so glorious.

We gave, we're giving ourselves bathrooms.

You know why we're doing that?

Because in 1952, a group of people who will never get to use those facilities decided that Jesus mattered enough to plant the flag for his kingdom on this corner.

That's why.

Because 75 years ago, people who knew they were called to make a difference in this community did something that continues to make a difference.

Because the name of Jesus is still preached from this corner of Robin Hood and Chevy Chase.

And you know what my prayer is?

That in 75 more years, it will still be.

Because of what we do today.

Because our church is growing.

You know how I know that?

Run up those stairs right now and look at the next generation that's gonna take over.

You know another way that I know that?

I come to the 9.30 service and see the amount of babies that we have.

We've had so many babies recently.

They're not all at 9.30, some of them are here at 11 o'clock in the house right there.

Woohoo, what's up, Car?

Um, yeah, we have we've had we have like we have a little baby list on our whiteboard in the office.

There's like 15 of them.

I don't know what's happening either, but you're welcome.

Yeah.

I I said this at 9.30, and it was hysterical.

I'm gonna say it again.

I was like, the amount of babies we are having is outpacing the amount of deaths that we are having.

And I pointed to the side of the room.

Come on, somebody, yeah.

They they didn't think it was as funny as I did.

But I want to do something that makes a difference, not for today, but for things that I won't even see, so that the name of Jesus will continue to be preached.

That's that's why some.

I can't do it on my own.

There's no fun in that common when you join me.

And when I join you.

Because here's the thing.

Whatever you do if you're living in the colony that you have outside of these walls is great.

And I may not be necessarily connected to you in that.

But I am connected to you in what we do here in St.

Andrew.

And what we do here matters.

And we can't do it without you.

Like I want to do something that makes a difference.

With people who wouldn't want to do something that makes a difference.

Ecclesiastes says that two are better than one.

That's easy math.

Two are better than one.

When we join together as the body of Christ and do the work that God has called us to do, watch out, kingdom of the world, because St.

Andrews is coming.

And we're bringing Jesus with us.

I need you to jump in, though.

We need you to see this is the last part.

We talk about no God, it's Sunday services.

That's the primary way we do it.

Find freedom is all about small groups, discovering your purpose.

We want to take you to the growth track and help you figure those things out.

But then the strength of it, make it a difference, that's their dream teams.

Our dream teams are what make this engine go.

Look, you have an amazing staff here at St.

Andrews.

There are some amazing people that work here on your behalf, and they're here all the time.

Ministry hours aren't normal hours.

And those days aren't normal days.

And they show up time and time again to help things move forward.

But this place doesn't operate without dream teams.

Without the people who raised their hand and said, I'm going with you.

I will volunteer.

That's their volunteers, right?

Miss Natalie has our biggest dream team.

There are so many people who want to help out with the kids' ministry because the kids are cute and they're wonderful, and you get to finger paint, stuff like that.

It's great.

Some of you, that scares you to death.

That's okay, we're not calling you there.

But it's amazing to see what happens.

And there's so many of them that they don't work, they don't volunteer every Sunday.

Some of them do because they want to, but it's like once a month here and there.

Here's the deal: when we move into that building, I need more ushers.

Look, there's it's bigger than this.

And we need more ushers to pass the buckets and to help people find seats.

We need greeters.

We need people who are out there standing outside.

I know today you don't want to do it, but other days to stand outside and to say, hey, good morning.

If you're new here, can I direct you to children's check-in?

Can I show you where the nursery is?

Because it's gonna be a big campus.

We're gonna need people.

Can I introduce you to one of our five single bathrooms?

Or maybe you just need the whole big one right there.

To show people around.

We're gonna have a hospitality area that I'm giddy about.

Just giddy.

We're gonna have a an espresso machine.

That's right.

You want espresso?

I got your espresso.

You want a latte?

Yeah, you do.

You want a London fog?

Come on, my London fog fans in the house.

Yes.

We're going to have a really big commercial, great espresso machine that's gonna be pumping stuff out with coffee supplied by summer moon.

Oh yeah.

That's because my mom told my big brother that he had to supply the coffee.

It's gonna be awesome.

But you know, I can't make you a latte on Sunday morning.

You know why?

I have other things to do.

I need you to.

You know what we know what we really need?

Is we need people in a parking team.

Because when this is what's gonna happen.

When that building opens up, and we have our first service, which is Easter Sunday.

Come on, somebody.

You know what you all are going to do?

Park down there.

You're gonna park on the streets again.

You're gonna go back to your old habits and your old ways.

Because I know that you know there's a parking lot right there.

And you know how I know you know that?

Because you're parked there right now.

But what's going to happen is once the building's back over there, you're gonna be like, you know, I know there's a parking lot on the west side of campus, but this is a whole lot closer.

You know what Coach Bruce Corb's old coach used to say when he would call you?

You're lazy.

Say, you're lazy.

We need parking people to do this.

I'll give you a whistle.

You can blow it, people.

Because here's the thing when you park on the street, Mrs.

Cantu calls me and she yells at me.

She does.

She's like she's Lisa's height, she's like this tall.

But she's a mighty woman, and people park, and she's yelled at Matt too.

She yells at the contractor.

People park in front of her driveway, and she can't get out to go to her church.

And here's the thing: she's not coming to our church.

She's Catholic, very Catholic.

She's gonna go tell the Pope on us, I'm afraid.

So we need parking people to help people understand that, hey, you can park over here and then walk through our beautiful courtyard.

Especially if you have kids, drop your kids off.

We need you.

We need you to jump in and to join a dream team.

And there's, hey, look, there's a lot, there's a lot of dream teams out there.

There's a lot of things that you can do.

Some of you don't like people.

We don't want you to be a greeter.

Sorry, I like you angry people that are staring at me right now, go, would you wrap it up?

You're not a greeter.

You're not greeting, you're not material.

Valentine right now.

Look like you're, I feel like I'm going to court.

Um, you know, you're not a greeter.

There's other, but these things, there's things for you to do.

There's these hard copies over there by Trent.

You can also scan the QR code and find out the different ways that you can be involved.

Because let me tell you something.

You are my strength.

You are the strength that carries the kingdom of God forward for St.

Andrews.

It's not just me, it's not just Lisa, it's not just Miss Natalie, it's you.

Because what St.

Andrews is doing matters.

The message that we have, the truth that we have to share is important and needs to be heard because there are people who don't know God yet.

And we need to introduce them.

There's people who are lost in the fire and the waves of this world and they need to find freedom.

There's people who are just going through the motions of this life and don't realize that there's more.

They need to discover their purpose.

And maybe those of us who know all of those things, maybe it's time that we step up and be the strength.

Look, I hope that this message has inspired you to scan the QR code, to go get a thing, to join to find a dream team and join a dream team.

If it happened, if it hasn't, I hope the Jewish side of my family has come out and you feel guilty into this.

Jesus gave his life for you.

You can't give one Sunday a month.

Either way, be my strength.

And let me be yours.

And let's move the kingdom of God forward in the ways that God has called, uniquely called St.

Andrews.

Because I don't know if you've ever been to another church.

There's no church like our church.

And I love that.

I love you.

And I love what God has called us to do.

And together, watch out, kingdom of the world, because we're coming.

Let us pray.

God, we thank you and praise you for the way that you have called each one of us, your sons and daughters.

Help us, Lord, to step into all that you have for us, to be your church, to be the strength of the kingdom of God, to move forward, proclaiming your truth in the world that needs to hear it.

We thank you and praise you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

May the Lord make his face to shot upon you lift his countenance unto you.

And give you his peace.

Amen.

Amen.

Have a wonderful Sunday, a blessing.

We'll see you soon.