Romans 13 | Clayton Hentzel

What up, crossing family? I am so excited to be with you

today. If no one told you last week or

so far this week, I want you to know this.

I love you. I look forward to spending time

with you each and every single week.

Last week I had the opportunity to go and visit one of our

locations and I am just amazed at what God is allowing us to do

and be part of all across this region.

Jerry and Allison were celebrating 25 years at this

church and if you don't know that, that's a big deal.

Everything we have come to know and appreciate at this church

started in their hearts and it came about because of their

faith that God would make away. I want to welcome all of you

joining from our different locations, those of you joining

online and those of you part of our inside family.

I also want to wish a special welcome to those of you joining

us for the first time or the first time in a long time.

We are so incredibly glad that you are here, and our hope is

that our time together today will either point you to want to

start or maybe start again an intimate personal relationship

with Jesus Christ. My story is very similar to many

of the people that are sitting in the row with you right now,

that starting a relationship with Jesus Christ is the single

greatest decision that I ever made.

And my biggest regret is that I didn't start it earlier.

And if you want more information about our church or how to take

those next steps in your relationship with Jesus Christ,

I would encourage you to take advantage of the QR code in

front of you. A staff member at one of our

locations will obviously point to that later on at the end of

service. But I want you to know that that

is a resource that we update on a regular basis.

In fact, I want to point out two things on the QR code real

quick. If you guys want to throw it up

there, the first one is we have a marriage retreat going on this

fall. I think we have three or four of

them. When you click on there, I was

talking with someone this week. You're not signing up for all

five, you just are picking the weekend that you want to go the

overnight. Now let me tell you why you

should think about a marriage retreat. 1 marriages are one of

the biggest factors on your level of happiness, enjoyment

and success. And depending on who you

married, sometimes your marriage could have problems.

And kind of like your vehicle, it needs routine maintenance.

And if you put it off for a really long time and then the

wheels fall off, you're stranded on the side of the road.

And you're like, so you don't have to wait for your marriage

to fall apart before you make some strategic investments in

it. And I've never met somebody who

goes, you know what, We were just putting too much time in

trying to make our marriage better.

Okay. I've never, I've never met that

person. So I want to encourage you.

This is not for people who, I mean, if you're in crisis, you

can go, but if you're going, you know what?

I just love this girl and I want to have a better relationship

with her. Sign up.

Second thing that I want to point out on that QR code is

RISE, our women's Conference. This is going to be a great day

for you ladies to focus on your relationship with God.

Let me tell you the truth. Your husband, your future

husband, your exhusband needs a more godly version of you.

So bring your friends, your daughters, bring them back from

college, bring your high school girls, and I want you to go on a

spiritual journey together. We prioritize sending our kids

to camp because we know that time away dedicated to the Lord

is good for the soul. We just came off of our men's

conference and the men will testify that us refocusing and

realigning our lives to God is a beneficial thing.

And ladies, it will be a benefit to you.

Sign up early so that way we can do a really good job of loving

and leading well through that event.

For those of you who are hanging out for a while, or those of you

who are here for the first time, we are in the 3rd and final part

of our study in the Book of Romans.

I told you at the very beginning you kind of break the Book of

Romans into three big chunks. Pillars of Truth In chapters one

through 8, God can be trusted. Then the second chunk is

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

chapters 9 through 11. Trust in God when others don't.

As a Christian, you are going to find yourself in places where

you have to trust God and the people around you aren't.

How do you navigate those moments?

And then we're in this final chunk called noticeable

neighbors now. A faith that never goes public,

a faith that nobody ever notices, a faith that doesn't

make a difference, that doesn't bring about change, is not the

kind of response that our God deserves, or the kind of

response that God accepts. Our faith in Jesus should point

a watching and waiting world to Jesus.

The world we are living in right now and you guys know this to be

true, is tearing itself apart and only God can put it back

together. And he does this through people

like you and people like me, living for him and being

transformed by him. I'm going to say something that

might frustrate you. Ready.

If following Jesus isn't changing you, you might not be

following Jesus because he's perfect.

And if you're hanging out with him and you're looking at you

and you're going, I'm pretty awesome.

I don't see anything that needs to change in my life.

Whoever you're hanging out with isn't him.

Because anytime you interact with Jesus, you're going to be

interacting with somebody who's wiser, greater, kinder, better

at loving, sacrificing. He is going to raise the

standard on you constantly. And so if you're going, you know

what? I'm kind of plateaued.

I really don't have any stories of faith.

I don't have any stories of me trusting me growing.

The person you're following probably isn't him.

There are two images that Jesus uses to drive this home.

He talks about Christians are supposed to be a lamp on a stand

and a city on a hill. That Christians are supposed to

stand out as being different. We serve as a guide and a

waypoint. The way we work, the way we

manage, the way we lead, the calendar we keep, the way we

forgive, the way we navigate hardships all point to the hope

and the healing of Jesus. When I was in Bible college,

there was a saying that when you preach you should either make

them sad, mad or glad. And sometimes you're like, I

feel like he you get more than those you make us sad and mad.

Well, I have good news for this message today.

My hope is to make you mad, madder, sad, sadder.

And if you're still awake at the end of the sermon, I'll try and

make you glad okay. So I'm just telling you upfront,

you know, we're just going to get through Romans 13 together.

I believe it has a good word for us, but it's a hard word.

You're like, I don't. I don't know what you're talking

about. Let me read the first Chuck

Couple of verses. I'll start with Mad Romans 113,

one through 5. Let everyone be subject to the

governing authorities for which there is no authority except

that which God has established. The authorities that exist have

been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels

against the authority is rebelling against what God has

instituted. And those who do will bring

judgment on themselves. For rulers who hold no terror

for those who do right, or hold no terror for those who do right

but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from the

fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you

will be commended. For the one in authority is

God's servant for good. But if you do wrong, be afraid,

for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason.

They are God's servants, agents of wrath to bring to bring

punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore it is necessary to

everybody. I'm not going to make you say

the word. Let's just get through these

couple verses. OK, submit to the authorities,

not only because of possible punishment, but also as a matter

of conscience. I promise you, I would make you

mad. So let's work our way through

it. God's Word is good from

beginning to end. There's a good thing inside of

you, But let's just deal with the fact that we're a little

sad. Some of you may have seen people

post these very verses right after an election, OK?

And you know, our world is such a better place when people post

their political hot takes. And I'm thankful that they do

that. But I've.

And I know it's interesting to me though, that Republicans only

post this after Republican wins and Democrats only post this

after a Democrat wins. But you never see a Republican

posted after a Democrat wins, and you rarely see a Democrat

posted after a Republican wins. So in other words, we only like

this verse when it's our candidate.

When Trump ascended to the office, submit to our governing

authorities, everybody. I mean, those are the rules we

got to play by. But when Barack Obama was in the

office, this guy's an evildoer. He's the sponest Satan.

OK, that's crazy. Christians are better than that.

Here is what he's going after. Because I'm a glutton for

punishment. I'll just tell you up the front.

Next year I'm going to do a whole sermon series on

Christians response to politics. And if there's any of you guys

left here, I hope you guys, my God, I hope.

I hope. I mean, it'll be great.

It'll probably be a small group, but John will still be leading

worship. And we'll have worship guys at

all of our locations. Some of you might be going, how

could God allow Trump to be president?

How could God allow Joe Biden to be president?

Some of you are more sophisticated than that.

And you're going, I'm not really worried about Joe.

And I'm really not worried about Don.

I'm. I'm worried about how does this

verse play into what I've seen in the history of my life?

What about the genocidal and communist leaders?

Did God really establish Hitler of Germany, Stalin of the Soviet

Union, Kim Jong Un of President Day, North Korea, Paul Pott of

Cambodia, or the massacres that were happening in Rwanda?

Hold on a second. What is happening here?

How could God establish these people and we're supposed to

submit to them? I want to remind you, Paul is

writing this to a church where in Rome Romans were

systematically persecuting Christians.

Jesus Christ, whom we serve and worship, died on a Roman cross.

Roman emperors earned master's degrees in torturing Christians.

It is important here to differentiate what Paul is

saying and what Paul is not saying.

Paul is not saying submit no matter what.

He is saying that as long as what you are being asked to do

is not a violation of God's word and purposes, you should obey.

I should obey. There are a lot of examples in

scripture of people disobeying political rulers governing

authorities for the sake of God's word and God's purposes.

Let me give you some examples to those of you who've read your

Bible. There's the midwives who are

instructed by Pharaoh to kill all the young boys.

They refused to do so. Daniel and his comrades asked

politely to not partake in the dietary customs of Babylon.

When they were captured, they said, would you at least give us

a chance? They are respectful, but they

asked to disobey when they were told that they needed to bow

down to the idol in the desert. They refused to do so when they

made it illegal for the people to pray.

Daniel still went to the window and prayed three times a day.

There are certain times when a Christian draws a line in the

sand and says it doesn't matter what the government says, I'm

not going to violate God's word. However, before you guys turn

this into a rally, most of the times that we want to pick a

fight with the government about what the Bible says, it's out of

biblical ignorance. The Bible's never told that.

Our country's never told you not to pray.

Most of the time our issues with our government are about things

we just don't like, not about things that are biblical and not

biblical. Peter and John give us a clear

example of what to do when the authorities try to put the

screws to you. They just healed a man and they

were told by the authorities, don't speak about God anymore.

But look what it says in Acts chapter 4, verse 18.

Acts 4:18

Then he called them in again and commanded them not to speak or

teach at all in the name of Jesus.

But Peter and John replied, which is right in God's eyes, to

listen to you or to listen to him.

You be the judges. As for us, we cannot help

speaking about what we have seen and heard.

If you're going to tell me I can't talk about Jesus, I can't

help you there because in light of everything I've seen Jesus

do, and in light of everything that Jesus done in me, I can't

keep my mouth quiet about him. Or how about this one?

In Acts chapter 5, it happens again.

Acts 5 · chapter mention

The apostles were brought in and made to appear before the same

hedron to be questioned by the high priest.

This is what they said to them. We gave you strict orders not to

teach in his name, he said. Yet you have filled Jerusalem

with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of

this man's blood. Peter and the other apostles

replied, we must obey God rather than human beings.

So there's a time and a place where you go, you know what,

this is the line in the sand, and you're telling me not to

fulfill the Great Commission. You're telling me not to fulfill

the Greatest Commandment. And I can't.

Whatever you got to do to me, do to me because my duty is to God.

But most of the times when we are frustrated with the

government, it is not over a Great Commission issue.

I mean we we caught all kinds of Flack on whichever side you were

during the pandemic. The bottom line is, is the

churches in China have never met corporately, and they can't stop

growing. You could have had church in

your home if you knew how to disciple people.

So we took more of a stand on this constitution than we did on

the biblical practice of making disciples.

Because if we actually knew how to disciple people, even if they

closed the church tomorrow, boarded this place up, there are

some of you who are capable and qualified to point other people

to Jesus, but a lot of us would rather show up and watch other

people point people to Jesus than actually have to point

people to Jesus ourselves. I haven't even got to the matter

yet. That was just the mad.

OK, everybody still breathing? OK, we got shots for you on your

way out to make you go. At least church was fun.

OK, hear me? Paul is saying that

organizational authority is one of God's gifts to mankind.

Leadership matters. Submission matters.

Parents, you know this. When it comes to raising your

kids, parenting matters. Moms matter.

Dads matter. Authority matters.

Submission to authority matters. This week one of my kids called

me and said can you turn the air down upstairs?

It's hot up here. And I'm, I'm like, looking at

the, you know, temperature. I'm like, it's 72, you know,

you're fine. And he's like, it's just really

hot. And I go, are you underneath

your blankets or are you going to use your blanket?

He goes, yeah, OK, OK, well, hold on a second.

Here, take the comforter off and just sleep with the sheet.

And he goes, what about my other blanket?

So my kid called me from upstairs underneath the sheet

and two blankets and his solution.

Turn the turn the air down, Dad. OK, parenting matters.

There needs to be order and there needs to be consequences

for the violation of those orders.

There needs to be level objectivity and consistency in

how justice is carried out. If there were no laws, no

standard, no adherence to laws, no consequences for disregarding

the laws, we would be in an even greater mess.

Paul is saying that we should obey not just because of the

threat of punishment, which is how all laws, all laws come with

a weapon. If you don't, you will.

If you don't follow the speed limit, you will get a ticket.

If you get try to run from the police, you will get arrested.

If you resist arrest, like everything they do comes with a

sword, because there are rules, there are consequences.

And if there aren't, if there are is no standard, there is no

adherence, there is no consequences, then the whole

world would fall apart, even rapidly, than it all all the way

already is. Paul is saying that we should

obey not just for the threat of punishment, but is part of our

check. This devotion to Jesus, our

obedience, our good citizenship, should flow from an obligation

to God. It sends a strong message.

Christians are different. This doesn't mean that we don't

leverage our vote, vocalize our opposition, take advantage of

moments to bring about changes to laws that may or may not

violate our Christian conscience.

However, it does mean that all of these positions should be

rooted in our understanding of God and His Word and the example

of Jesus Christ. Most of the time we are just

frustrated with what we see in the world.

We are not balancing it based on what do we see in Scripture?

Now that you're mad, let's get madder.

Our struggle is sometimes we think God and country.

God and country. The cross.

Red white and blue. OK, I'm, you know, I got tattoo

on my right arm with Jesus Christ.

Got tattoo on my left hand. OK, this is what the Christian

worldview is God and country. Let me explain.

Think through the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the I wonder how I can pledge

allegiance if I've already been bought and paid for by the cross

of Jesus Christ. Hear me.

I am an American, and I am proud to be an American.

But we are way better Americans than we are Christians.

We are more proud of our political party than the Prince

of Peace. We spend more on fireworks than

we do on advancing the Great Commission of Jesus Christ.

We know every word to the National Anthem, America the

Beautiful and Lee Greenwood's God Bless the USA, which I've

seen him in concert when I went to see Kenny G Yeah, that's how

uncool I am. We know all the words to those

songs, but we say we have a hard time memorizing scripture.

Some of you are frustrated with things that I have just said to

you. And that is probably because you

are a better American than you are a Christian saying the

Pledge of listen, I don't have a problem saying the Pledge of

Allegiance. I'm just saying God and all the

way down here, like, right here is America.

Come on. Rednecks, lifted, trucks,

fireworks. Get her done.

It's cool, but it's not even close to a God who sent his one

and only son to die on the cross for our sins.

Amen. All right, now let's get sad.

This is why you have to pay taxes for the authorities or God

servant to give their full time to governing.

Give to everyone what you owe them.

If you owe taxes, pay taxes. If revenue, revenue, if respect

and respect, if honor, then honor.

Remember, Paul was telling the Christians in Rome to pay taxes

to an ungodly, unfriendly, dangerous empire.

Taxes inside of this verse would be like your income tax.

Revenue in that verse would be like your tariffs or property

taxes, or sales taxes. In short, Christians pay taxes.

They even pay taxes to governments they don't agree

with or approve of. Christians pay.

If we owe respect, we give respect.

If we owe honor, we owe honor, Christians pay.

We're different. Other people might have a past

due balance, not Christians. Our word means something.

God is our Savior. He bought and purchased us, and

we are a reflection of Him. So the way we handle our

finances, the way we handle ourselves around other people,

is different. Other people are late, but we

don't make obligations we can't keep.

And when we meet people, we treat them in a way that

acknowledges their position, their service, and their

accomplishments. You can disagree with their

actions. You can dislike their motives,

you can even despise their policies.

But you should respect them and honor them, because Jesus Christ

died for them and God created them.

One of the rules we have here on staff, One of our core values

for our staff is we treat people with a high level of respect.

No matter how stupid many stupid pills somebody takes, they are

made in the image of God, purchased by the exact same

blood that I was purchased by. God loves them, and so I need to

treat them with respect. And so you're like, but hold on

a second. I would much rather overthrow

the government. I'd much rather lead a

rebellion. But listen, when we're doing

that, we are oftentimes leading those on secondary issues, and

our primary job is to point people to Jesus.

If we're going to go to jail, do so because of your commitment to

Christ, not your tax returns and taking too many stupid pills?

Sadder this sermon delivers, Let no debt remain outstanding

except the continuing debt. To love one another, For whoever

loves others has fulfilled the law.

The commandments you shall not commit, adultery you shall not

murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and whatever

other command there may be are summed up in this one command.

Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to a neighbor.

Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Why is this so sad? Because many of us, myself

included, would like a little more leeway when it comes to

loving, In addition to us keeping up on our payments, our

financial obligations, demonstrating that our word is a

good word, an honorable word, we are told that we never get out

of our love debt. Some of you, you've paid off a

car note. Some of you, you've paid off

credit card debt. Some of you can't wait till you

pay off your mortgage. You never get out of love debt.

You never pay off the balance. It is a bill that comes due

every year, every month, every week, every day, every hour.

There's only one debt. We have to love people, and we

like to love certain people, don't we?

Yeah, of course we do. We like to love people that like

our love, appreciate our love, have the stuff you like, have

power, have something to offer you.

But what about what about what about the people we don't like,

Who can't give you anything? Who have nothing to offer you?

I'm supposed to treat them the way I would want to be treated

too? I got to be honest with you.

God, I like loving you. And I like loving the people

that are nice to me. I'm not a big fan of loving some

of the people I meet in the store.

There's certain people that I don't like having to love that I

see on TV. There's certain people when I'm

driving that I want to point to Jesus, I have to love them too.

Paul gets real specific. You can tell that he's writing

to people who take stupid pills. It's hard to say you love

someone when you're cheating on them, having sex with somebody

else's spouse. And I love you, man.

Actually, consequently, I kind of love your wife.

OK? It's hard to say that.

It's hard to say you love somebody.

It's hard to say that you love someone when you're trying to

kill them, when you're trying to steal from them.

Then he says, coveting This one's a little bit more close to

home. This might be all of our secret

sins. Because when you and I covet

something, we're wishing that we had what they have.

They pull up in a nice truck, and I wish I had that truck.

Why does that guy have that truck?

And I have this truck? I wish I had that truck.

He doesn't deserve that truck. I deserve that truck that he

has. Tell me if this isn't us, we're

okay with other people having a high salary.

As long as ours is higher, we're okay with other people having a

nice house. As long as our house is nicer.

I don't have a problem with you going on nice vacations as long

as my vacation is nicer. I don't care if you have a good

marriage as long as my marriage is nicer.

You can have a hot wife. As long as my wife is hotter you

you can have a great retirement. As long as my retirement is

nicer and when I find out that you have something that I don't

have, I think you don't deserve it and I deserve the things that

you have. How can you love somebody when

you want bad things to happen to them so that way better things

happen to you? When we do this, we raise

ourself up on a platform. And that is the opposite of

love. Because love wants better things

for others. That when they have something

nice, we rejoice with them, we're excited for them.

Oh, that's great news. I'm so happy for you.

And you get back in your jalopy and you drive home.

Now hear me Because some of you, you don't ever listen to the

whole sermon. You just listen to the jokes.

I don't want you to confuse this, this kind of love as the

absence of boundaries, the absence of responsibilities, or

the absence of speaking hard truths.

Love means that we are seeking what is in their best interest.

We are modeling ourselves after Jesus Christ.

We desire for them to grow and experience the riches that are

found in life with Christ, and we are willing to sacrifice our

good for their good. Parents.

You get this. We naturally give up things for

the betterment of our kids. What Paul is saying, what God is

trying to get across to us, is take that same level of

sacrifice that you have for your kids and spread it around God's

desire. Jesus's hope is that his people,

you and me, would be known for our love.

And if you do not have to get uncomfortable, sacrifice, give

up things, push through pain or emotions, you may not be loving

as well as you would like to think that you are.

If the only way you love is the way you like it, and when it's

convenient for you, you might not be modeling the way of

Jesus. You've made it.

Let's at least get glad for a little bit.

Romans 13, verse 11 through 14 And do this understanding the

Romans 13:11–14

present time. The hour has already come for

you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation

is near now than when we first believed.

The night is nearly over, the day is almost here.

So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of

light. Let us behave decently as in the

daytime, Not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual

morality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.

Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and do not

think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.

Here Paul offers us a better way to live.

He urges us to pick the way of light instead of dark.

He calls us to act decently instead of acting out.

He says there's a better way than carousing and being driven

by your appetites. There's a better way to live

than being drunk all the time and having sex all the time with

different people. There's a better way than

fighting and rioting and quarreling and being jealous.

There's a better way. In all of my life I have never

met someone who has fully given themselves to this kind of

behavior, who's thankful my life was just really going downhill.

Then I started getting drunk all the time, having sex with all

kinds of different people and getting in fights, and it's been

up and to the right. I never met that person that

once. You know what?

I was just, it was really going downhill.

And then I just moved upstairs from a bar and just said I want

a part of everything that's happening.

Never met that person. You know, my marriage was going

just really downhill. And then I just started sleeping

with other people's wives. And I'll be honest with you,

that might be the best thing that's ever happened to my

marriage. I've never heard that testimony.

Here Paul is saying there is a better way to live, and the

better way to live is God's way of living, that there is a

better way of living in the light and clothing ourselves in

the Lord Jesus Christ. He's saying put on Christ.

How would he live? How would he behave?

How would he treat others? How would he spend his time?

How would he organize his calendar?

How would he arrange his priorities?

How would he focus his energy? I have never met anybody who is

glad that they stopped following Jesus's better way.

Not once. And Paul tells us to do this.

And he leads off by saying understanding the present time.

He is not talking about what time it is on the clock.

He's talking about the importance of the hour in light

of this moment. Think of how people behave after

a health scare, in light of these recent realities, they

start turning all kinds of things around.

I'm going to start dieting and exercising today.

It's when they start using the word today instead of tomorrow.

They're going. We got to start right now.

It starts right now. Or you meet people who are

getting ready to graduate from college or have a big promotion

coming up, or or getting ready to take a big test in light of

what's coming, in light of the present realities.

This is the time not to give up. It's the time to step up and

press in. Have you ever noticed that

people, everybody starts behaving around Christmas bonus

time, like you get all kinds of words of encouragement.

Oh boy. I'll tell you what, I just

really appreciate the way you lead.

And I'll be Have you lost weight?

My goodness, you're attractive. Anyhow, I'm going to go back to

work, right? Everybody starts like, hey, it's

November, we got to start being nice to the boss because it's

Christmas bonus time. Or one of my favorites is the

Midwest Spring Break diet, where everybody eats their last meal

on Super Bowl Sunday and then starve themselves because

they're going to Cancun. And they think that somehow when

they bring that pasty white body outside, everybody wants to look

at it, OK? They ain't looking at you.

If they don't look at you all year, they ain't looking at you

there, OK? Just the truth is you don't look

better with less on. That's just who you are.

Or for some of you who are young people, you got the LGN Diet.

When you're getting ready to go on your honeymoon, you got the

Look Good Naked Diet. You're like, you know what?

We got a big moment coming. We got to be ready for it In

light of these present realities.

I'm going for a run, He's saying, in light of these

present realities of the fact that Jesus has died on the

cross, resurrected from the grave, and is one day coming

back in light of this reality, in light of this present time,

how you and I live matters. What we do matters because of

watching. World is watching.

And they are wanting some help. They're wanting some hope.

They're wanting a North Star. And how we respond in this

present moment matters more than you could ever know.

Remove them to a time of decision.

Jon Bon Jovi has a lyric. You guys all know it.

Cut through the heart and you're to blame.

Darling, you give love a yeah. And to those of you who are in

here, who started a relationship with Jesus Christ, we probably

owe you an apology. As Christians, we've given Jesus

a bad name. We've hurt you, We've let you

down. We've caused you harm.

But I want you to know that he hasn't.

He is the one who is responsible for all of the good in us, and

we are responsible for all of the bad.

And I can tell you the deep down inside we all have the desire to

live the life that God purchased and the God called us to.

But man, we mess up. And I'm just, I tell you that

not to make an excuse or permission slip.

I'm telling you, those of you who don't have a relationship

with Jesus, when you start following Jesus, you're going to

read through the Bible, and you're going to realize that

that's kind of par for the course that everybody you're

going to read about in Scripture, with the exception of

Jesus, screwed it up, screwed it up bad.

But God has used imperfect people to bring Jesus into this

world, and by God's grace, we're hoping that he will allow us to

be a part of your story. And if you're here today and

you've never started an intimate, personal relationship

with Jesus Christ, I can tell you there's nothing better.

And if you have questions about what that is, if you've been

putting it off in just a few moments, I at least want to

encourage you to to ask the question whether you're here in

this room or you're watching online.

If you're watching online, you can click on the button that

just appeared in the chat. You don't have to leave here

without some answers, without some clarity about how to move

forward in your relationship with Jesus.

To those of you who are Christians, some of you are

going Clayton doesn't know the lyrics to Jon Bon Jovi.

It shot through the heart. If I had quoted a Bible verse,

would you have been that? Would you have caught me?

If I had taught bad theology this today, would you have

caught me? Maybe we're better Americans

than we are Christians. And maybe the reason it's so

hard for us to reach the people we deeply care about is because

we're more committed to our Constitution than the word of

God. So, Christians, while it is

inevitable that we will fail, maybe we should spend a little

bit of time owning that. There are times when we have not

given Jesus the honor, the reputation that he deserves.

Maybe we've given him a bad name.

So would you join me in spending a little bit of time on your

knees in prayer, apologizing to him that in light of everything

that he has done for us, we have represented him so poorly?

And I think God loves it when his people say they're sorry.

Don't you like it when you when someone tells you they're sorry?

And then maybe we could ask God to realign our focus and help us

do better. Would you stand with me, God?

This moment is waiting. It's waiting because every

single one of us is on the edge of making a move towards you or

staying right where we are. Every one of us has an

opportunity to get outside of our comfort zone, to take a step

of faith, to ask a question that we don't know the answer to, to

push ourself in an area that we've kind of given ourself

permission slips and God, I'm praying that you would nudge

every single one of us. Give every single one of us the

strength and the courage to take that step.

And I pray. Amen.