Messy Truth | Caleb Kaltenbach

What up, Crossing family? I am so glad that you guys are

here this week. We are in week three of our

sermon series called Truth in Tension.

And before we get into that message, I want to make you

aware of an incredible opportunity that's coming up

very soon. Jennifer and I would like to

invite you to a special dinner here at our 48th St. location in

Quincy on Sunday, October 8th from 6:00 to 8:00 PM.

It's a free dinner. It's no kids, but if you would

like to come and be a part of that dinner, you can actually

use the QR code at your location wherever it's plastered, and you

can RSVP to the Solomon Foundation dinner.

At this dinner, we're going to get the opportunity to share

some stories about how their ministry and our partnership

with their ministry is helping churches across the nation take

their next steps to grow and reach people, lost people,

people that you and I care a lot about.

We're also going to be able to show you a way where you can

partner with them. The Solomon Foundation takes

money from investors. So Jennifer and I and A lot of

the people here in our staff, we take some of our money and we

give it to the Solomon Foundation and we put it on

deposit. And they use that deposit to

make loans to churches, which gives them an opportunity to

grow and make a bigger Kingdom impact.

But at the same time, they give us a great interest rate.

So instead of the money that we have on deposit at a local bank

allowing them to make more beautiful brick branches, it's

used to help people find an intimate personal relationship

with Jesus Christ. Showing up doesn't mean you have

to make a deposit. Showing up doesn't mean you're

obligated to enter into the partnership, but it does give

you an opportunity to see if God could take what you already have

and use it for greater Kingdom purposes.

So before the service is over, take some time and take a look

at the QR code. Click on it because we would

love to be able to spend some time with you.

That being said, we are in week 3.

The same rules still apply. Ready.

No clapping, no emails. And make sure that the way we

operate is with gentleness and respect.

And I am so excited to welcome back Mr. Caleb Callenbach.

Would you come out? If you're my man, give him a big

crossing welcome. Thank you so much.

Thank you. All right.

Hey, it is so good to be with you again, Crossing.

I I am. I'm so grateful, like I said

last week to Pastor Clayton and Pastor Jerry for just his work

and here and this church and all the wonderful things that he and

his wife and the staff have done and the leadership and.

What Pastor Clayton is continuing on and the staff

here, I I said this last week and I'm going to say it again.

If I lived in this area, this is the church that I would attend

because this is a place where it's okay.

Not to be okay but all of us join together and we follow

Jesus no matter what happens. So anyway, if if you're here and

you know you're you're just, you know, kicking the tires,

checking underneath the hood, I hope that you'll keep on coming

back. For the duration of this series

and check out some of the other series that are coming up.

If you've missed any of this series, go on the website and

check it out and or on the podcast you can watch, you can

listen, engage with this church as much as you possibly can.

So last week we got to know each other a little bit, right?

I I got to tell you my story. I got to tell you what was going

on in my life, when and how I grew up and so on and so forth.

So today I'm going to tell you a little bit more about that, but

I'm, I'm going to start off. With with a statement here and

some of you are not going to like this statement.

As a matter of fact, I'm willing to bet all of you will not like

this statement. As a matter of fact, with my

kids right now, my my son who is 16, my daughter is 14.

I'm trying to convince them to say this statement every single

day and I keep on telling them that if you make this statement

on a regular basis, you will be light years ahead in maturity

and character and faith then a lot of adults I know.

So it might be a rough statement for some of you to make, so I'm

going to make it for you. I hope that's okay.

Don't you love it when people confess your sins for you?

That's what I'm going to do today, Okay.

So here goes. You ready?

This is a statement I want you to make every single day on a

regular basis. I am responsible for every bad

decision that I've ever made. I am responsible for every bad

decision that I've ever made. There's some of you out there

and you automatically say, well, no, but he but she but but Bob.

But surely Bob and Shirley, who cares?

Who cares about Bob? And I don't.

I want them to go to heaven. But in this regards, I don't

care. Because here's the thing, even

if they were involved, you at least cosigned on every bad

decision that you have ever made.

I really do. I think nobody likes saying

that. But I think we said that, man,

we would be so emotionally mature and I think we'd be ahead

of her in our character and our faith.

And hopefully my kids will pick up on this.

But that leads me to the next statement I'm going to make.

And some of you will not agree with me, but here you go.

I don't believe that human beings make good decisions on

their own. I just don't.

I don't trust human beings. As a matter of fact, this is

what I've taught my my kids when they get angry or impatient, you

know? They're like, dad, why are you

so patient? I said, well kids, when

everybody do you look at as a moron, it's easy to have

patience with them. Some of you are like, well,

that's not very Christian. Hey, I'm watering it down from

what Paul said in Romans 3. He said no one is good.

You know, everybody has done evil.

Everybody heads towards malice. So me calling you a moron is

compliment compared to that. Here, here's the deal.

You see it all throughout our society people don't make a

decisions like like a few years ago I was flying on an airplane

and there's this lady sitting right next to me.

I don't know who she is, I just know she was middle-aged lady.

I can say that because she's not here and I don't know how old

she was. I'm just guessing and and we get

to cruising altitude. Home Girl takes off her shoes

and socks and starts clipping her toenails.

I usually don't say anything, but this time I looked at her

and I said seriously. She said, oh, is this bothering

you? I said yes, Your toenail is on

my shoe. It wasn't there like a minute

ago. She said, well, I guess I could

do this when I get home tonight. And I said I love that plan,

let's go with that plan. As a matter of fact, that's when

I clipped my toenails. I said my wife and I.

I've been married for like 1718 years and they have.

She has never seen me clip my toenails ever.

She's like, well, I'll try cutting them at home next time

people. This is who's running our

country right now. Okay, we are in trouble.

People don't make good decisions.

You see it on social media. You you see people really as a

society, we've always done this, but social media either either

exasperates it or it brings it out into the light that we

undervalue logic and truth and we overvalue reactions and and

emotions and feelings. All of a sudden logic and truth

do not matter as much as feelings, perception, so on and

so forth. This is this is where it comes

down to in the history of this world.

You can look all the way back in, in Egyptian history.

You can look in the 1st century history of Rome where there was

a lot of sexual depravity. You don't find any culture that

primarily identifies by their sexuality or their gender

identity. This is literally a new thing,

and I'm of the opinion that if it's something new like that,

then it's not a good thing. I just don't think so.

Now I know Solomon says nothing new under the sun.

So the the idea of of us identifying by anything other

than God, I mean, yes, that is not new, right?

We've been in an identity crisis ever since Genesis 3, when Satan

tempted Adam and Eve and said if you eat this fruit, you will be

just like God. In other words, it's not enough

for you to be you. You've got to be something else.

You've got to be something greater.

You've got to rule the destiny of your own life.

And right now we live in a very dangerous and tumultuous time.

Now as I said last week, we talked about messy grace and and

the and the big idea that I got across to you last week

hopefully is that Grace is for everyone and that includes

anyone. Dot, dot, dot, Even the any ones

we don't like and they don't like us and they voted for

people we didn't vote for. And didn't invite us to that

party and work for that organization and go to that

church. Of course I'm not talking about

anybody in this church. All the other churches, right.

Grace is for everyone and that includes anyone even the anyones

that we may not like. And and there are a lot of you

I'm sure who who like that. There are some of you who like

man. I'm wondering a bit more truth.

Well welcome to you know my second sermon here week three.

You're going to get it because those of you who really like

last week, you may not like this this week, and that is part.

Of of tension that Pastor Clayton is going to talk about

later on this series that you've got to live in the middle of.

We're not called to try to reconcile everything.

We're called to follow Jesus. And so this whole idea about us

being able to identify by our sexuality and our gender is

really not only theologically dangerous, it is just dangerous

just in general. Let me let me let me tell you

what I'm talking about. So one time Jesus was teaching.

It was during, I believe, if not near, the last week of his life.

And the Pharisees were always trying to trip up Jesus.

You know, they were the celebrity pastors.

And then you have the teachers in law.

They were the seminary professors that had five

doctorates, and they lived in their mother's and father's

basement playing with her pet tarantula.

They had no life. They played Tortigo together at

the age of 70. Still that's who these people

were and they hated Jesus and they're always trying to trap

him. And so they find Jesus and

they're like, hey, you know can a woman divorce or can a husband

divorce his wife for any reason whatsoever.

And I love Jesus's response in Matthew 19 versus 3 through 6.

It's a some piracies came to him and asked is it lawful for a man

to divorce his wife for any and every reason?

Haven't you read? He replied that at the beginning

the Creator made them male and female, and said for this reason

a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his

wife, and the two will become one flesh.

So they are no longer 2 but one flesh.

Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate

man. And you talk about a mic drop in

that moment? Because the the all the Jewish

people in the 1st century, not only in in, you know, Judea, but

also in Samaria, AKA formerly known as the Northern Kingdom,

they were having these conversations all the time

because wives could not divorce their husbands, but husbands

could divorce their wives and there are a lot of rabbis that

said, hey, you can divorce your wife for anything.

You wake up in the morning and you know your your wife looks

different. You can divorce her.

She doesn't give you the remote. You can divorce her.

Doesn't watch your show. You can divorce her, burn your

food. You can divorce her.

Now, not every rabbi taught that.

But of course you could imagine the most popular rabbis taught

that right? Because we love it when things

are palatable and works out for our own good.

And yet Jesus's response is so. Magnetic and it is so focused

and is so full of grace and truth.

And so first of all, he quotes Genesis 127.

And here's a hermeneutic Bible study methods tip for some of

you who are Bible nerds. Here's a Bible nerd nugget for

you guys. Whenever you see an Old

Testament reference in the New Testament, go back to the Old

Testament and not only read that reference, but read the verses

above and below it. So let's take a look at Genesis

Genesis 1:26–28

1, verses 26 through 28. It says.

Think, God said. Let us make mankind in our

image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in

the sea and the birds in the sky, and over the livestock, and

all the wild animals, over all the creatures that move along

the ground. So God created mankind in his

image. In the image of God, He created

them. Male and female, He created

them. God bless them.

And said to them, be fruitful and increase in number, fill the

earth and subdue it, rule over the fish and the sea and the

birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on

the ground. Because when Jesus just quoted

Justice 127, have you not heard that in the beginning God made

them male and female? He He's quoting that their minds

would automatically go back to this entire passage.

And what Jesus is saying in that moment, He's saying, not only is

he affirming the original genders, male and female.

But he's also saying that women have value too.

You cannot treat them like livestock.

Do you not remember that God created them as well and that

they are made in the image and likeness of God and in the

Hebrew, that word image, it means to be cut out of a stone.

It's like you're chiseling away at a rock or a piece of wood and

and you're trying to create what's in your mind.

It's not going to be an exact replica.

Like Hebrews 1/3 says that Jesus is the exact replica of God, but

for us, you know, we're just a representation.

But but we look like Him in in our empathy, in our ability to

perceive spiritual things. We have to look like Him if

we're going to be his representatives and subdual and

subdue and rule over the earth. And then he says let us create

them in our likeness. In Hebrew, that means to sketch

something. Again, not an exact replica, but

it looks just like the same. And so we bear that image.

And Jesus is saying you cannot treat women that way for your

own pleasure, for your own good. That is not how God created men

and women. And then Jesus quotes Genesis

224. Now I love this Look at what

Genesis 224 says. That is why a man leaves his

father and mother and he is united.

To his wife and they become one flesh.

Now what's amazing about this is that you you see right here 2

pictures of marriage. You have the marriage between

the father and mother and you have the new marriage between

the son and his wife. And this word, united in Hebrew,

is a covenantal word. Throughout the Old Testament,

it's used to signify different covenants and the binding

together of an agreement between God and between people.

And usually it's made with blood.

And then it says they will become one flesh.

And that one, that word, one there in Hebrew is the word had,

and it means plurality and unity.

Like for instance, Moses sent the spies in the Canaan.

He said bring me back one cluster of many grapes.

It's the same word used in the Shama of Israel, Deuteronomy

6426. Hero Israel, the Lord our God.

The Lord is aha, the Lord is 1, and I think he's kind of

foreshadowing his trying nature in that moment.

And you see, Jesus had every opportunity to define marriage

as anything else, but he doesn't.

He says marriage is as God intended.

He doesn't even deal with the modern day.

Disputes and controversies. No, he says.

Let's go back to the beginning. Let's go back to what God said,

and he affirms that. And he has.

Just when you read on, he has a very narrow view of divorce.

Why in the world would Jesus have an open view of marriage?

Because he says, no. There's one interpretation of

it. And by the way, this, this, this

Genesis 224 is used a couple other times in the New

Testament, both by Paul. Paul uses her first in First

Corinthians 616 and following he says Do you not know that he who

unites himself with the prostitute is one with her and

body? For it is said the 2 will become

one flesh. But whoever is united with the

Lord is one with him and spirit flee from sexual immorality.

All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but

whoever sins sexually sins against their own body.

Do you not know that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit?

Who is in you, whom you have received from God?

You are not your own. You were bought with a price.

Therefore, honor God with your bodies.

A lot of people, when they talk about homosexuality, when they

talk about sexual diversity or the expression thereof, The

quote 1st Corinthians 6, nine through 10.

And while I do believe that that is true, I think that First

Corinthians 616 through 20, specifically 18 through 20, is

so much more powerful because. Basically what Paul is saying is

when you become a Christian, you don't get to do what you want to

do because you do not belong to you anymore.

You belong to God. God defines you.

Not your sexuality, not your gender identity.

Those are a part of you, but they are not the primary aspects

of you. Not your job, not your family,

not your spouse, not a person, not a family.

No. None of that.

You are defined by God. We learn in Colossians one that

ever that Jesus is the head of everything.

That he created everything. We were created by God for God

to be defined by him and to glorify him.

That's why I love one of my favorite quotes throughout

church history is in the Westminster Confession of Faith.

The first article where the chief end of people is to

glorify God and enjoy him forever because we no longer

belong to us. Like, seriously, you don't make

good decisions. Why do you want to belong to

you? You don't like we sat down, You

told me your story. I can tell you real quick.

Yeah. You don't make good decisions.

You don't. If you doubt me, go to Los

Angeles International Airport and see how that thing was put

together. Kansas City's just got a new

airport. Brand new.

It's beautiful. You should have seen what we've

had to deal with for the last several, I don't know, 200

years. Whoever made that did not make

good decisions. And by the way, if you're a

Christian, you already admitted you don't make a decision when

you repented. And you said, I have to repent.

I cannot live my life on my own. I need to surrender to God

daily, starting today, and he needs to take priority in my

life, and he needs to live my life for me.

That's what repentance was all about.

But then Paul uses Genesis 224, leverages it in another passage

that you might be familiar with. If you've gone to church at all,

in Ephesians chapter 5 it says for this reason a man will leave

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

his father and mother and be nine with his wife and the two

will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery, but

I am talking about Christ and the church.

However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves

himself and the wife must respect her husband.

You see, you don't just belong to God, but when you're in a

marriage, you belong to that person as well.

And you see that the definition of marriage painted and and

throughout the New Testament and embedded in Genesis 224 that you

have this male female relationship.

And and yet again, somehow we think now that we are smarter

than they were back in the 1st century.

We think that we are smarter than all orthodoxy put together.

And what we figured this out. They didn't know that then, but

they knew that now. Like I've heard people say, you

know, Paul had no idea about monogamous samesex

relationships. Really.

You don't think so? I think so.

Like I really do. We're talking about the guy that

wanted to go to Spain. I I think he knew exactly what

that was. Even Plato refers to that this

is not that is not a new invention but identifying by

that is a new invention. One other First I want to point

out to you real quick and then I want to get to the main point

because it's it's super super important and I was told I could

go under time. If I go over time there's a

sniper. So Matthew 22 Jesus replied you

are in error because you do not know the scriptures or the power

of God. At the resurrection people will

neither marry nor be given a marriage.

They will be like the angels in heaven.

Do you know what this is saying? That marriage as we know it is

not going to be in heaven. You know what else this is

saying? That sex is not going to be in

heaven. I believe personally that God

designed sex to be expressed in a marriage between a male and a

female. Like, I I remember last year I

was talking to my son about about sex and I said, well, you

know, there's not going to be any sex in heaven.

And he looked wounded. He was like, why?

Like, dude, you never even had a girlfriend.

He's like you trying to make me more upset.

I said, Joel, I know hormones are rage.

And you know, you're at that time, he was 15.

I get it, you know? And I really do.

I'm a high school small group leader.

I that's how I volunteer in my church.

Even though I'm on staff, I volunteer by doing that.

And so I get it. I have like 10th grade guys and

I love them, but they're morons, complete morons, but they love

Jesus, and I'm excited about that.

But my son, I told him, you you cannot imagine this, but God has

something greater. And yet we cannot base our

identity on something that will not even be in heaven.

Like when you look at the four loves, you know that that we

find overall in the New Testament Paleo, which is

brotherly relational love, strage, which is parental family

love, Agape which is godly love. And then you have you have

Aeros, which everybody knows what Aeros is, #1 aeros is the

only love that cannot exist on its own.

All the other loves can exist on their own, but Aeros is the one

that has to be within the boundaries of the other three

loves. Because anytime Aeros is not

joined together with the other three loves, it explodes.

It's like lighting a fire outside of a fireplace.

You got to have those boundaries.

But yet Eros and marriage as we know it will not be in heaven.

Why? Because the greater marriage

will come just like in the Old Testament.

People sacrificed sheep and doves and bulls and goats and

lambs. And some of you are glad you

were not alive in the Old Testament right times because

you cannot kill Lammy. But none of that took away sin.

But yet all of that set up an understanding of somebody dying

in our place for our sins, so that when Jesus came and died,

there's no longer a need for animal sacrificial system.

Genesis 224. The the the covenant of marriage

that was designed as we as as Paul teaches in Ephesians 5.

And personally, what I think John probably thought of when he

wrote Revelation 19 through 22, we see that that marriage,

marriage we have today is the greatest point of marriage is to

point to the greater marriage between Christ and His bride,

Christ in the Church, the bride and the bridegroom.

And when that happens, there will no longer be a need for

marriage. And so we cannot stake our

primary identity in something that will not even be in heaven.

Get all the other loves will be there.

But we always talk about this because it's easy to manipulate

it for ourselves. Here's what I want you to know

today, and here's the messy truth of this.

And truth is not messy. But it feels messy, right?

It feels messy, and we don't agree with it when it enters,

when it kind of collides with our emotions and our life

experience. Here, here's what I want you to

know. Your identity in Christ should

never compete against anything else in your life.

Your identity in Christ should never compete against your you

should never be in competition with your sexuality.

You should never be in competition with anything, with

your gender, with your friends. Because here's what I found, and

this may not be true with you, but I found that with most

humans, most believers, most Christian humans, most of the

time. Not all the time, but most of

the time. When something else competes

with somebody's identity in Christ, this loses.

Because everything else you can leverage to make put yourself

back on the throne of your own life.

And that's what we see happening with sexuality.

And yet you need to remember that you do not belong to you.

If you have become a believer, the last decision you ever made

was to accept Jesus. Every other decision belongs to

him. Again, I'm not saying that Paul

does. Take a look at Glaciers 220.

I've been crucified with Christ and I no longer live.

But Christ lives in me and the life I now live.

I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave

himself for me. You don't belong to you.

You are dead and you are alive in Christ.

What does it look like to live this out here?

Here are just some quick principles.

Real quick. Got to go through these.

The first one is this. Trust God's words over trends

and traditions. You can't trust traditions.

It had become tradition to divorce whoever you want, marry

whoever you want. And you know, to just throw away

marriage and not to, you know, even care about it.

And they were throwing away marriage in a different way than

we are today. But yet you see this right here.

Traditions are still created by humans.

Sometimes they're good. A lot of the time they're not.

And trends, man. Hey, come and go quickly.

If you build your life and your values on what's trending,

you're going to be worn out soon because you're always going to

be changing your values. You see, Jesus was rooted in

God's word over and above everything else.

OK, here's the second principle. We don't need to know why if we

trust who. Like, do I believe that there

are people are samesextracted? Absolutely I do.

Do I believe people were born that way?

I I don't think there's a gene personally, but I know people

that were never abused, never hurt, never beaten, never

bullied, and yet they that has been their perception of

themselves from and how they felt ever since they can

remember. But that doesn't mean that

doesn't invalidate God's word. Because Jesus is interested in

surrender. He's not interested in in us

trying to perfect ourselves. He's interested in surrender.

Daily surrender. Trust me, I have a lot of

unanswered prayers. We don't need to know why if we

trust who. I got to give you an example, my

mother's partner Vera, when she died of cancer that killed me.

We didn't get along that well, but my mom and Vera had been

together for 22 years. When I found out she had cancer.

I flew back to Kansas City, home of the greatest NFL team in the

world, by the way. I said that last week, and some

of you did not come forward at that.

And I think you need to come forward and accept my homes

after service, stop making part of worship.

But we'll have a meeting afterwards.

I flew back there and I made a deal with God.

I know you're not supposed to, but give me a little latitude

here. I think God was okay with it.

I said God, I'm going to be there like like 4 days, three

nights or no. Sorry, four nights 5 days.

And it's my last goodbye to Vera, my second mom that I

didn't get along well with. But I loved her and I'm like I'm

not. I made so many mistakes.

When I first became a Christian, I was just beating her over the

head with the Bible. Just rip int because that's what

I thought you were supposed to do.

I didn't know about relating with people and all that kind of

stuff. I had to, you know.

Anyway, that's whole another sermon.

But I said, I'm not going to do any of that, but you've got to

open up the door. And and my mom had turned our

dining room into a makeshift Hospice room.

And every single day I was waiting for God to open up the

door, waiting for God to open up the door.

Vera's only awake a few times during the day because the

cancer was taking her quickly and she didn't want any

treatment. So it was really eating away at

her. And on the very last night, I

was the one chosen to stay up late with her.

And I was upset. Like you ever had that moment

when you're wrestling with God, you're like You said you would

do this, but you're not doing this.

And that's how I felt. Oh, my God, you've got

something. Please.

I kept my end. Please.

And I kid you not. In that moment, Vera opened up

her eyes. She looked at me and she said,

Caleb, what do you think is on the other side?

I said, Vera Jesus. And if you trust Jesus right

now, that same grace that saves you in this moment will carry

you into the next life. And I told her about Romans 81.

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who in

Christ Jesus. I share the gospel with her.

And you know what? She said no.

And she looked at me and she said, you want to know what I

think about you? You're weak, you're flimsy.

You're not strong enough to make it through life on your own.

Use Jesus as a crutch. And I said, well then, Vera,

you're halfway to salvation because he's not my crutch.

He's my wheelbarrow because I'm not strong enough to walk.

He needs to push me. As a matter of fact, I'm not

even in the passenger seat of the car he's driving.

I'm not even in the back seat. Jesus has got me chloroformed,

bound and gagged with duct tape in the trunk because that's how

I cannot live my life. I have to rely on His power and

His strength. And she said no.

And unless a miracle happened, she went to go face Jesus, went

to go face the Father without Jesus.

And I mourned that. And that happened because people

did not present truth with grace like what we talked about.

They said truth, but as I said last week, you can have correct

doctrine but be a heretic and how you treat other people and

carry it out and live it out. Here's here's something else.

Last last couple things I want to say.

First thing is this. Your faith and identity are

meant to be lived out in community.

You were baptized into the body of Christ.

You are joined together with his body.

You are not an island unto yourself.

You cannot survive in that way. You have to have community.

You have to have relationships. People best find and follow

Jesus and community, not in isolation.

And if if here's a question that I want to leave you with, if

you're really kind of struggling through this, and this is a

question that I think you need to be asking yourselves on a

regular basis, here it is. Will you trust what Jesus says

even if you disagree with him? Are you willing to trust what

Jesus says in the words of Scripture, even if you disagree

with him? Are you willing to trust what

Jesus says, even if your romantic dreams never come true?

Are you willing to trust what Jesus says, even if no one

understands you? Are you willing to trust what

Jesus says, even if it means saying no to yourself every

single hour of the day? Are you willing to trust what

Jesus says, even if you disagree with him?

Because I don't agree with Jesus on everything, and you don't

either. Like if God gave me an

infallible eraser. Revenge gone.

I'm good at revenge. I have plans.

You know the whole. Love your enemies.

I'm going to add a footnote. Some.

Some of them. Not all.

Some. I can manage that, because then

I get to choose, right? No.

I was bought with a price. I no longer belong to myself.

I belong to him. I'm in a covenant with my wife

that belongs to him. It is his covenant, not mine.

Truth is not messy, but it feels messy when it intersects with

what we believe and what we think.

Hear me out on this. Your identity in Christ should

never compete against anything else in your life.

Let's move to a time of decision.

Crossing family, you just heard another incredible message.

What I want to ask you is what are you going to deal?

What are you going to do with what you just heard?

You can just simply hear it, or you can figure out a way to put

it into practice. Recently I was interacting with

one of my boys and they were asking me if they could.

Have a phone. And we're kind of in that phase

where you're trying to figure out if you can have a phone or

not. And I go, you're just going to

have to trust me. And they go, why?

So I started to go through the list.

Have you ever worried about where you're going to sleep at

night? Nope.

Took care of that for you. I got your back.

Boo. Have you ever worried about

where your next meal's coming from?

Nope. We take care of that for you.

Do you figure out whether or not you're going to be closed in

time for school to start? Nope.

We got you. Do you worry about whether or

not there's going to be money in the bank to be able to buy a

vehicle to take you where you need to go?

Nope. Already got that.

Do you worry about whether or not we're going to have the A/C

fixed or not fixed, or whether or not we're going to change out

the filters so that way things don't get clogged?

Or do you make sure that the house gets cleaned so that way

there's not stuff getting dirty all over?

Do you worry about any of those things?

Well, no. Why?

Because you take care of it. Yeah, you trusted me in all of

these other areas to be working for your good.

So when it comes to your phone, like this little part of your

life, you can trust me here too. And when it comes to a

relationship with God, to be a Jesus follower is to say I am

trusting God with my eternity. I'm trusting you with my sin.

And if you're like me. Your sins that you're trusting

Jesus with are not small ones. They're pretty sinking big ones.

If you are trusting Jesus with your eternity, if you are

trusting him with your sin, do you think you can trust him with

your sexuality? Do you think if you've trusted

God with the biggest parts of you, do you think you can trust

him with maybe some of the smallest parts of you?

If God is good anywhere, He's good everywhere.

That means that there is not an area of your life that you

cannot turn over to him. Now this goes for everybody.

Your issue may not be sexuality. Your issue might be anger.

Your issue might be greed. Your issue you have all of us

have an issue. My question is, will you trust

him with it? Because you have two choices.

You can trust your own decisions or what the world is telling you

to do, and the Bible tells us what that's like.

It's like building your house on the sand.

Or you can trust God's plan and God's purposes.

And what he's saying is build your house on the rock.

And we know this because we've been alive long enough to know

that storms are going to come. They're going to come for your

family. They're going to come for your

relationships, they're going to come.

My question is, at the end of the storm, there's only one

promise, not that stars don't come, but that those who trust

in Christ will still be standing after the storm.

And if you have never started an intimate personal relationship

with Jesus Christ? You have a bad foundation, and

if you have not started an intimate, personal relationship

with Jesus Christ, your future is bleak.

The Bible says that the way to the Father is through the Son.

He is the way, the truth, and the life.

Jesus says I've come to give you the truth, and the truth will

set you free. He has a good thing for you.

You've been hearing me say it through this series.

God's way is the best way and the best way for you to handle

your life. Is the place it in the hands of

Jesus? And in just a few moments at all

of our different locations, you're going to have an

opportunity to go over by the baptistry.

And somebody on our team would love an opportunity to talk with

you about what it looks like to have an intimate, personal

relationship with Jesus Christ. What it means to trust them with

your whole life, with your sin, your salvation, your

yesterday's, your today's and your tomorrow's.

And for those of you who call yourselves Christians, it is

time for us to embody and live out the love.

And the grace and the truth that Jesus shows to us.

I'm going to ask you guys to come up to the steps and spend

time on your knees praying, praying for the people in your

life that you care about. Pray for your family, your

friends, your coworkers, your neighbors.

Because everybody is struggling with how to pursue a better

future. Everybody's trying to figure out

how to navigate the challenges of this world.

And we have the greater answer. And that answer is Jesus.

And I'm going to ask that you would pray that God would use

you to point people to him. Did you pray with me, Heavenly

Father? I am so thankful for this

church. I'm thankful for what you're

doing in our hearts and our campuses and in this region.

And I'm asking you to do a mighty work in us.

To those of us who are struggling to trust, give us the

ability to To those of us who are having problems with our

faith, God. We're asking you to increase our

faith and God to those of us who are navigating sticky and

challenging and painful circumstances.

Got help us to turn them over to you and to your guidance and to

believe deep down in the core of our being that your way is the

best way. And help us as a church to do

our very best to point people to you and you're my pray.

Amen.