The Unexplainable Life | Josh Howard

Crossing family, I am so glad that you are here as we jump

into First Corinthians chapter 2.

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

And to help us do that, I've invited my friend Josh Howard to

be our preacher for the weekend. Josh has lived in India since

2008 and has a passion to see the Kingdom of God spread

throughout the world through raising up disciples who make

disciples, leaders who create leaders, and churches that plant

churches. In 2015, he launched a ministry

called Ignite, which has seen over 20,000.

That's right, 20,000 churches started in about 8 years through

movements of multiplication. Josh currently serves as the

global mobilization catalyst for E3 Partners and Director of

Vision and Mobilization for discipleship.org.

He and his wife and their three kids live in the Indianapolis

area. So would you please give a warm

crossing Welcome to my friend and our preacher, Josh Howard.

Man, it it is an honor and a privilege to be here with you

guys and I am I'm pumped. It's been a great weekend.

I got to golf a couple times, which has been great and got to

hang with Clayton some and and you guys have an incredible

pastor. You know that.

Yeah. Give him a hand.

Give him a hand. And so thank you and Jennifer,

just for just the you guys are awesome.

Love you guys dearly and appreciate you and and my wife

and my kids also send their love and greetings.

As Clayton said, we live in Indianapolis right now.

We actually had to leave India about a year ago due to

increasing persecution in the area.

And and so we've been living stateside now for about a year,

but the work in India continues. As a matter of fact, it has been

our best year ever. We've seen more churches, plants

that are, more people come to Christ in the last year than

ever in the history of our ministry, which is unbelievable

to see the local leaders taking true ownership and seeing as

many people come to faith as possible.

And it's all been while we've been gone.

Now. I don't know how I feel about

that personally, but no, it's, it's really the goal and the

dream of of every missionary to see that happen.

But let me be real for a second. OK, like Clayton, Clayton gave

some numbers there that blow my mind of what God has done.

As a matter of fact, in the in the first six months of this

year, we've already seen over 30,000 people come to Jesus from

it's, it's crazy. But but again, let me be real,

like it's really easy for a white guy on a stage like this

to take credit for stuff that God's doing across the world.

And, and what you need to know is that there are hundreds of

thousands of everyday ordinary people that are risking their

lives for the sake of the gospel.

And they were sharing their faith every single day and

planting churches in their homes and in coffee shops and

saturating Indian, the surrounding nations with the

gospel. And I just have the honor of

representing them on a stage like this.

They're the real heroes of the story.

Well, Jesus is the hero, but you get what I'm saying?

They're the ones that are out there really going hard after

it. And so Please remember them in

your prayers when you can. They are going through

tremendous difficulty over and over again, but yet they are

advancing the Kingdom at record pace.

And that's only one movement, that God is doing that type of

work across the world right now. And it's really special that we

get to be alive and witness it and be a part of it.

Amen. All right, guys, listen, let's,

let's jump in and pray together. But we're going to, as you know,

we're in a series that just started a few weeks ago on 1st

Corinthians. We're going to be in chapter 2

today. But just in case you need a

reminder, if God doesn't move this morning, nothing's going to

happen. I don't have anything to offer,

OK? Just you're like, well, you

should probably as a preacher have something to offer us.

But you get what I'm saying? Like if, if Jesus moves in this

place, everything can change in the matter of a moment.

But if he doesn't move, nothing's going to happen.

We're going to walk out these doors the same way that we came

in. But if Jesus touches US1 touch

from him is all it takes. Amen.

And so would you just join me in asking Jesus to move, asking his

Holy Spirit to be in this place and to really transform us from

the inside out? You with me.

And so let's pray and then we'll jump in together.

OK, Jesus, we just ask that you would come where your presence

is. There is freedom, there's

healing, there's resurrection power.

God, you are moving in radical, unbelievable ways across the

world right now, and we are so grateful that we get to be a

part of it. But Jesus, we ask that you would

move that way right here this morning as well, right here in

this church, right here on every campus.

God, we ask for your spirit to be here and that you would

transform us from the inside out.

We thank you that you were still the God of resurrection power,

that you bring dead things back to life, dead hearts, dead

relationships. God, thank you.

And I pray that you would speak life and healing over each one

of us today and that Jesus, you would do a transformative work

in our hearts. Lord, speak.

May you have the floor and may you speak with boldness and

urgency. Jesus, through this message and

through your word. We pray this in Jesus name,

Amen. Amen.

If you want to open your Bibles to 1st Corinthians chapter 2,

that's where we're going to be today.

Now before we move there, let me let's let's set a couple ground

rules together, OK? I waited a little too long

Thursday to tell this story, and so I'm going to tell it on the

front end. That way you're with me the

whole time. OK?

Is that good with you? I was going to tell you anyway,

even if it wasn't. So that's, that's really good.

Back about two years ago, I was in Dallas, TX.

I was recording a podcast and we were in this little podcast

studio and there were all these pre recorded buttons that you

could hit while you were talking.

So one was a laugh track. I bet every preacher wishes we

had one of those, right Clayton? Like there's times you tell a

joke and you think it's going to hit and then nobody laughs and

you're like, well, that was great.

It'd be great to hit that button.

But my favorite button though, was a the voice of a black

preacher. And when you hit the button, it

would say come on somebody. And let's just say I hit that

button maybe 2-3 or thirty times too many.

OK, like every good point, man. It was come on somebody every,

every time. So listen, it's OK to yell and I

would love to hear some come on somebody's if you like something

that I say, OK, you with me? Hey, there, there you go.

See, we're starting off good here.

All right, Every preacher needs a little pat on the back every

now and then. You know what I mean?

Because this is about me. So all right, First Corinthians

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2. Now that you know, you can yell

out, feel free at any time. But before we start reading, I

want to ask you a question. And, and honestly, this is a

very hard question for even me to ask myself, but I believe

it's important for us to ask it right up on the front end.

And here's what it is. If someone were to follow you

around for a week and they witnessed everything that you

did, everything you said, everywhere you went, everywhere

you spent money, would they be able to tell that you were a

follower of Jesus? Now here's a rule.

You in that week cannot verbally talk about Jesus all the time.

You need to be showing it with the way that you live and the

way that you love and the way that you serve people.

Would your life look pretty much like everyone else's life around

you who are not Christians? Or would it be radically

different? Because I don't know about you

ma'am, but my whole life I think I have struggled with this whole

idea of like my life looking closer to Jesus or the way the

Bible explains my life should be versus looking like everyone

else around me. Do you get what I'm saying?

Like we live in a day, friends, where for example, the divorce

rates inside the church are almost equal to those outside

the church or addiction rates are equal inside the church as

outside the church many a times. I'm not talking about the

crossing. Honestly, Clayton and many

others have told me the transformative work that is

happening here, and it is unbelievable to see what God is

doing in this church. But if I talk about Christians

across the country, many of our lives look very, I mean, there's

very little difference between our lives and those around us

who don't even know Jesus at all.

If I were going to name this chapter something that we're

going to read in just a moment, it would be this.

The unexplainable life. Is your life easily explainable

with the world's wisdom and the world's pathway?

Or is it unexplainable the way that you live, the joy that you

have, the peace in your heart, the way that you love, the way

that you serve? Is that something that when

people see it, they take notice that it is radically different

from everyone around us and the way even Hollywood portrays what

life looks like? It's a tough question, and it's

with that question that we want to jump into this chapter.

And I want you to keep that in the back of your mind as we go

through. But let's look at Paul for a

second. And this is what he says.

First Corinthians chapter 2. I'm going to read the first 5

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

verses 1st and then we're going to jump into the rest of the

chapter. But this is what he says.

And so it was with me, brothers and sisters, when I came to you,

I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to

you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing

while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

I want you to take note of that verse.

I, I chose to know nothing except Jesus and him crucified.

I came to you in weakness, with great fear and trembling.

My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive

words. I mean, Paul's kind of throwing

himself under the bus here. You know what I mean?

Like I came to you and, and, and I was shaking and trembling.

I didn't speak very well. My words weren't very wise, but

I came with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your

faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power.

Here's a question, friends. Is your life impressive, or is

it powerful? Is your life easily explainable,

or is it filled with the supernatural grace and power of

the Spirit of God? Man, that's tough to think

about, isn't it? Now Paul, I love what he says

here because he literally laser focuses on Jesus right away,

right? Like he literally says when I

came to you, I chose basically to proverbially, proverbially, I

can't say that word. Can you get?

I need to come on somebody right now.

Thank you. I appreciate.

I needed that, Clayton. Thank you.

He, he basically says like, I forgot about everything else.

And I lasered my talk, my focus and my life on Jesus, his work,

his life, his death, burial and resurrection.

Everything about who I was and who I am is going to be about

Jesus. That's what Paul's saying.

And here's the question we've got to ask ourselves if we're

going to live that unexplainable life.

It starts with having Jesus at the center of everything.

And man, I don't know about you, but and listen, I'm not

preaching at you today. I'm preaching with you because I

have also struggled with this my whole life.

I mean, how many of you, like me, have kind of added Jesus

sometimes as almost sprinkles on top of our already good life

rather than it being the foundation of everything?

Do you get what I'm saying? Like Jesus becomes something we

add on top as long as I, you know, maybe read the Bible every

now and then, or pray every now and then, or go to church at

least once a week or maybe a couple times a month, something

maybe I go to small group or whatever.

Rather than Jesus being the laser focus of our lives, he

becomes kind of like a side hustle rather than our full time

gig. And man, what Paul is trying to

remind the Corinthians is of his life.

When I came to you and preached and spoke, it was #1 in the

Spirit's power. But more importantly, it was

laser focused on Jesus. You saw that in my life.

That's what he's saying. You saw it in my life.

You saw it in my preaching. You saw it in every aspect of

who I am. Jesus bled out of me every

moment. Man, How, how long to live that

way? Do you know what I'm saying?

Like there there's something in me that when I talk about this

even out loud and I read it, it's like, man, I I long to to

have that life. But there's constantly this

battle way, you know, being waged inside of us that draw our

attention away from Jesus and on to all the other stuff of the

world. Do you know what I'm saying?

And then rather than him becoming the focus, although

that's our intention, we are constantly divided in our mind

and in our attention and our focus.

And, and then pretty soon, man, there, there have been seasons

in my life, friends, if I'm not preaching, where there may be

weeks that go by where I don't have like a long period of time

with Jesus, where I'm focusing on him and talking to him.

And now when I'm preaching a message, oh, I better prepare

for that because I'm in front of you and I don't want to fall on

my face. You know what I mean?

Are you with me? And so today, friends, listen,

if we are going to live an unexplainable life, it has got

to start at the center. After this message, we're going

to sing a song literally called Center and they start out by

saying maybe we've made all this too complicated.

Maybe we've over complicated life.

Maybe we need to go back to simple things.

And the simple thing is this, friends, Jesus cannot just be a

side hustle in our lives. He has got to be King and Lord

sitting on the throne of our heart and the main focus of our

every second. And then people will begin to

take notice that there is something different about us

when our lives begin to look like Jesus.

Amen. Every day a little more like

Jesus. Holy Spirit, make me more like

Jesus. Now he goes on verse 6.

This is what he says. We do, however, speak a message

of wisdom. So he said, I didn't come to you

with wisdom, but I do speak in wisdom.

What's he talking about? Right.

And this is what he says. We do, however, speak a message

of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of

the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing.

No, we declare God's wisdom. So he is making a comparison

between the wisdom of this world and godly wisdom, or what I

would like to call Kingdom wisdom.

So there's a difference between the wisdom of the world or the

pathway to success that we've been preached about our whole

lives by the world, or the Kingdom pathway that Jesus lays

out for what our life should look like.

And so here's a question we should continually ask

ourselves, not does this make sense?

Because a lot of times the what makes sense to the world and

what we've been preached about to our whole lives about, right

is actually not the Kingdom pathway that Jesus lays out.

So one of the questions we could kind of test things with is this

not doesn't make sense because there's a lot of stuff that

makes sense that may not be in line with the Kingdom of God.

Do you get what I'm saying? Oh, it makes sense that if I'm

in love with somebody, then I might as well give all of myself

in every single way to that person, whether or not there's a

long term commitment or not. That makes sense.

But is it the Kingdom pathway? It makes sense for me to keep as

much money for myself and my family as possible, but is that

the Kingdom pathway that Jesus is laid out?

So the question should not be, does it make sense?

The question should be, does it please the King?

See, that is what I just heard her.

Come on, somebody. Thank you.

A little louder, please. OK.

All right. Thank you.

There you go. You can't whisper it, guys.

Come on. OK, Listen, not doesn't make

sense. Does it please the King?

That is the one of the key, one of the key evidences that Jesus

is the center of everything. If you are focusing all

decisions through the filter of does this bring a smile to my

King's face? That's a whole different

lifestyle, friends, you with me. Like if we're making every

decision on is this going to bring joy to my king?

Is this going to bring a joy to his heart?

Is this going to put a smile on his face?

Like literally every night before bed and every day before

my kids go to school, we are praying together.

Help us put a smile on your face, Jesus.

That is what a Jesus centred lifestyle looks like.

And that's what it means to live in a in a Kingdom wisdom rather

than a worldly wisdom. Are you with me?

Hey dude, I'm liking this. This is I just snorted.

That was great. I don't know what it is.

Since I turned like 35 I've started to snort when I laugh.

I don't know what it is, but apparently my wife does not like

it. So listen, the wisdom of the

world will say things like this, right?

Like get on the path of success. Save as much money as you can.

Make sure that you are the one that is the center of

everything. Your happiness, your comfort,

your joy, your immediate family are the ones that get all of

your time and attention and money.

Make sure that you're having as much pleasure in your life as

possible. And that makes sense in the

world's eyes. But what doesn't make sense is

when, when we start living in these Kingdom principles, it

doesn't make sense to the world. As a matter of fact, polls say

in a few minutes that it's foolishness to those who don't

know Jesus. It is foolishness to them that

we are going to give away more to people across the world or to

the poor than we keep for ourselves.

Like that's, that's foolishness. Who would do something like

that? Who would give away 10 or 15 or

20% of their income, not to taxes, but to help poor people?

Like, who would do something like that?

That doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make make any sense

that you know we will smile and have joy and peace in the midst

of something like cancer. It doesn't make sense that when

we get a bad phone call from the doctor, we still have a sense of

foundation and joy because we know that we have an eternity

with Jesus. That doesn't make sense.

It doesn't make sense whenever you have horrible marital issues

and rather than filing for divorce immediately, you go

through reconciliation and offer forgiveness instead of revenge.

It doesn't make sense to the world.

Do you get what I'm saying? And so if we're going to be on a

Kingdom pathway, then we cannot be asking, does this make sense?

Because that will lead us in the wrong direction.

The Bible is clear. There is a way that seems right

to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

We have got to be living Kingdom principles on a Kingdom pathway

with Jesus at the center of it all.

This is what Paul is trying to remind the Corinthians.

And then he goes on and says this.

I'm going to skip down to verse 8.

None of the rulers of this age understood it.

We just talked about that, right?

People who don't know Jesus, they may not understand the

pathway or the life that we're living for.

If they had understood it, they would not have crucified the

Lord of glory. Do you hear that like when you

live in the in the worldly pathway, you're going to screw

up massively. There will be horrible decisions

that you think are right where you miss the heart of God

completely. And that's what happened when

these with these men, like they literally thought they were

doing the right thing by destroying Jesus, putting him on

the cross, crucifying him. And what happened was they miss

the very heart of God. They miss the King of glory

because they living their own pathway and making sure that

they made sense in their own minds and hearts.

And friends, listen, when you're on the worldly path to wisdom,

you will miss the heart of Jesus and that scares me to death.

Man. Man, I don't want to run this

race as hard as I can and then realize my ladder was up the

wrong wall the whole time. That analogy didn't make sense,

but you get what I'm saying. Running ladders.

Where's he going with this? And I, I don't, I don't want to,

I don't want to wake up one day and realize that everything I

poured my blood, sweat and tears into is going to be burned up

and none of it lasts for eternity.

And then there's a promise that he's that that that Paul offers.

Listen to this. He pulls it from the book of

Isaiah, verse nine. However, as it is written, what

no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no human mind has

conceived, the things God has prepared for those who love him,

what a beautiful promise like when we live this Kingdom

pathway. What he's saying is, listen, you

can't even imagine or dream the blessings that God has prepared

for those who choose to walk that path for their, for the

entirety of their lives. You have no idea the blessings

and, and the emotional stability and the peace that someone will

have whenever they're following the Kingdom principles that God

has laid out. Now, listen, what I'm not

preaching, I want to make it very clear, I'm not preaching

some sort of, you know, prosperity gospel here, that

when you follow Jesus, everything's going to be peachy

and everything's going to be OK. That's not what Paul was trying

to say either. Because we're in a real battle

every day, friends, you know that you're with me like we live

in a broken, messed up world and we have a real enemy that when

we choose to follow Jesus like that laser focus, we will

immediately have a target on our back that the enemy will

consistently and constantly fight us for.

OK, he's going to do it. So the, the, the thing here that

Paul's trying to say is not that you're just going to have a

perfect life if you choose this pathway.

He's saying in eternity, what Jesus is preparing for us is so

much greater than anything we could ever imagine on this

planet, that it will be all worth it.

No matter what problems or difficulties you face, it will

be all worth it in the end. And being in God's favor, in his

heart and his love is going to be so much greater.

The joy and the peace that you're going to experience is

going to be so much greater than what the other path is going to

provide because it will leave you unfulfilled.

It'll leave you without peace, and it will leave you wishing

that you did things differently. And so, friends, may we choose

the path that Jesus is truly calling us to.

Amen. Because at the end of the day,

listen. Jesus never promised you that

you'd have a life without trouble.

He never promised you that that the enemy would not attack.

As a matter of fact, we see it all throughout the Bible.

Like Jesus or or God did not save, for example, Shadrach,

Meshach, and Abednego from going into the fire.

He saved them in the middle of the fire.

He didn't save Daniel from going to the lion's den.

He saved him in the middle of the lion's den.

He didn't save Lazarus from dying.

He saved them in the middle of the grave and called his name

out in resurrection power. He didn't even save himself from

going to the cross, but instead he took it for us, sacrificing

himself for us, which is foolishness to the world, and

then rose back from the grave three days later, defeating

death. That didn't make any sense.

But he didn't save himself from the grave.

He saved himself out of the grave.

And so no matter what you may be going through, friends, Jesus

meets you in the fire, He meets you in the den, He meets you in

the grave, and then he calls your name and brings you out.

And no eye has conceived or perceived, no mind has conceived

what God has planned for those who truly love him.

Amen. And This is why Paul over and

over again is trying to remind these Corinthians, Man, listen,

focus your life on Jesus. Focus your life on him.

Don't go with the wisdom of this world.

Go with the wisdom of the Kingdom.

Please, the King, not those around you, make sure that he

has your first, yes, make sure that he is your priority because

He is going to be the one with you, whether the water is high

or low, whether there's fire or not in the good signs and the

bad, Jesus promises, I will never leave you or forsake you.

I am with you to the very end of the age and then I will be with

you for eternity. And there is no one on this

planet that will give you that type of promise.

Amen. It's OK to say come on somebody

right now, go ahead listen verse 10 actually, you know what let's

I want to skip down to the very end here.

We're going to go to verse 16 because there's one phrase that

Paul ends with and kind of a drop the mic kind of moment that

I want you to see and this is what he says for who has known

the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him.

But we have the mind of Christ. We have the mind of Christ.

In the previous verses he goes around and talks about how when

we have the Spirit of God inside of us, we now have access to the

heart and the mind of God. Because only the Spirit within a

man knows his thoughts. No one else really does.

So when we have the Spirit of God inside of us, we now have

access to the heart of God and to the mind of God.

And not only that, God gave us the gift of this book, the

Bible, so that we can know his heart and personality and His

spirit, so we can have his mind and his heart as well.

Isn't that beautiful? I mean, he doesn't just leave us

and say, listen, you're going to have to figure this out

yourself. He gives us these amazing gifts

through the Bible and through his Holy Spirit, where we now

have access to his heart, We have the mind of Christ.

That's what Paul says. But here's the question, guys,

do we really? When we're not living a Jesus

censored life, we can say all day long that we are Christians,

but then deny him by the way that we live.

There's that old quote that goes like this.

The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today are

Christians who proclaim Jesus with their lips, walk out the

door, and then deny Him by their lifestyle.

That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.

You see, there is a way that we can sing about Jesus, talk about

Jesus, do everything we can for Jesus.

But when our mind is divided and He's not the center of

everything, we can talk all day long, but then deny Him by the

way that we live every day where people can no longer see him or

even evidence of Him in our lives.

Do you get what I'm saying? And so rather than having the

mind of Christ, we have a divided mind or a religious mind

or a mind that is addicted or a mind that is filled with

pleasure, or a mind that desires comforts, or a mind that is

focused on getting what you want to get rather than what God

desires. Like we have all sorts of

battles going on in our mind. And Paul is trying to remind us,

listen, you are filled with the Spirit of God.

You are a child of the most high God.

And when you accept Jesus, you are filled with his Spirit.

And now you have have access to his mind and his heart, so you

can know what is good and what is wrong.

You can know what is Kingdom wisdom versus what is godly

wisdom. And so lean into the heart of

Jesus and have a desire to please him above everything

else. And so, friends, it is time for

us together to lay aside the path that the world has tried to

pitch to us over and over and over again and pick up the

Kingdom path that Jesus has called us to.

It's time to make him the center of everything.

It's time to give him 100% of who we are.

It's time to lay down our hearts and say, Jesus, listen, I've

been living divided. You've not been the center of

everything. I've been living my own path or

the path of the world rather than the Kingdom path.

And man, I long, I long for you to take over everything.

And so I'm laying it all down today.

Jesus, come in, film me, give me your heart, give me your mind so

that I can now live with you at the center of everything.

Amen. We're going to move now to a

time decision, OK. Well, every time the gospel, the

good news of Jesus Christ is preach, a miracle can happen,

something unexplainable, something that the world can't

quite comprehend. And here's what I believe.

It could happen right now. It could happen in this moment,

in this space, in this room. And for those of you who are

watching online, wherever you're watching from, somebody can

start an intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

And here's the best thing. You don't have to walk through

this life with your own strength.

You don't have to try to be strong enough.

You don't have to try to walk in with your own wisdom.

You can walk out with godly wisdom.

And here's probably some hope that you need to hear for some

of you in this room. You don't have to try so hard to

be good because that is exhausting to try to be good and

to do good. The simple gospel, listen, the

simple gospel message is this. We are bad, God is good.

And Jesus meets us right in the middle, steps into the gap, and

he rescues us and he gives us this free gift of salvation that

is available to everybody. Listen to my voice this morning.

You can become a walking miracle when you step into that.

And honestly, isn't that quite relieving to know that you don't

have to earn your salvation, That it's not up to you, it's

not up to your wisdom, it's not up to your strength.

It is a free gift of God. And Scripture says it very clear

in Ephesians chapter 2 that is by grace that you've been saved

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

through faith. It's not about what you've done.

It's a gift of God, not by work, so that no one in this room and

no one online can boast. Just like the letter in First

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

Corinthians chapter 1 ended last week.

Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.

And that's what Jesus does. That's what he's in the business

of doing. And nothing listen to my voice,

nothing would please the King more than for someone to say, I

choose you Jesus, to start believing and trusting in Him

and allowing yourself to surrender your old way of

thinking, surrender your old life, surrender your old ways,

surrender the relationships that that are around you, surrender

your job, surrender your time, and start living a life that is

surrendered to the King. What would please the King more

than that? I don't know, but I'm hoping

someone will say yes to Jesus for the very first time.

If that's you, if you want to start that relationship in this

room and you have questions, there's things just going

through your mind and you're wrestling through some different

things and you are like, Nope, today's the day.

I put it off long enough. There's going to be a couple

people right up by the baptistry that would love to answer those

questions. I would love to have those

conversations with you. Whatever it looks like, don't

miss it in this moment. For the rest of us in this room,

who started that relationship with Jesus?

Maybe you're like me and you're asking that question about your

own life. Does my life reveal the King to

others? What are the things that are

getting in the way? This is your faith.

Does your obedience please Jesus?

Think about all the areas of your life.

You can just pick one if you want.

Do your does it line up and does it please the king?

If not, what do you need to confess in this moment?

What If not, what do you need to turn away from in this moment?

You know, in just a little bit, as we stand up and sing, in just

a little bit, you're going to see some people come to the

front. They're going to get down on

their knees. They're going to humble

themselves. They're going to do business

with him. What is it for you that you need

to turn away from? The call I heard so plainly,

though, is this. In a roundabout way, we need to

stop blending in out in that world and we need to start

standing out. I know we're about to enter

hunting season and Camo is about to be in style once again, but

can we stop blending into a broken world?

They don't need to see us blending in.

They need to see us standing out.

And so I'm asking, is this a church that is going to stand on

boldness, that is going to just declare with their lives,

declare with their mouths that Jesus Christ is Lord in every

area of our life. And we have an opportunity right

now to do just that, to boldly come before the King to get down

on our knees and just pray out to him.

And I would just say a great practice to start standing out

is to maybe start standing out in this room because for some of

us, we, we get to this moment and we're like, this moment of

decision is not for me. This, this moment of, of coming

down in front of people is not for me.

What is my wife going to think if I go up front?

What is my husband going to think?

What is my, oh, my coworkers up there?

What if they see me? My boss is here, but if we can't

boldly declare and come to the Father and hum and humility and

prayer and hear, how in the world are we going to stand out

there in the midst of this world?

So I'm going to invite you, be bold in this time.

Stretch yourself, humble yourself, and just ask Jesus, I

want to draw close to you. You could do it right now.

You don't have to wait for me to say Amen.

You can get up and move and you can get down on your knees and

you can start declaring my life is yours.

Let's live a life unexplainable. Let's give everything to Jesus,

including this moment, including our prayers.

You guys stand with me. Come on, start moving somebody.

Jesus, we love you. Thank you for this time.

We want to live a life that doesn't make sense to the world.

We don't want to live with, with our own wisdom and our own

strength. We want godly wisdom.

And so right now we cry out to you, we get down on our knees

and we pray, Come Lord Jesus, we need you.

We depend upon you, Jesus. And so God, in this moment, as

we we sing and remind ourselves, you are the center of our lives.

You are the center of our our prayers.

You are the center of our attention.

You are everything because without you we are nothing.

And so God, we give this moment to you and your name and that I

pray. Amen.