Jesus vs. Secularism | Tyler McKenzie

Nation. How are you doing?

Are you doing good man? It is good to be able to hang

out with you guys on this fantastic weekend and I have a

wonderful treat for every single one of you a couple of years

back. I became friends with a man by

the name of Tyler. Mackenzie he is a bright young

leader in our movement of churches.

He is, in fact, one of my top five favorite people to listen

to if you want to know who I listen to.

So after the long week of life, I'd listen to his sermons his

podcast because I like the way he thinks I like the way he sees

and explains that Jesus to people.

In fact, we spent some time this afternoon.

Our hope is this upcoming September that we're going to go

down to the Lake of the Ozarks with a group of other preachers

and help them craft sermons for their upcoming year.

So they can be a blessing because I want his voice to be

magnified. You are going to be seeing a lot

of him over the coming years because my hope Hope is to

continue to bring him in so he would be a blessing to our

church and as we were going through this, if sermon series I

was going, I got to bring him in.

So I want to welcome you joining from all of our different

locations. And would you put a big Crossing

welcome together for my friend and our friend and our preacher

this weekend? Tyler Mackenzie, I really like

you and this with you. I love you, man, I love you.

Oh man. So not only is it an honor to

preach right at the Crossing which is a church that I have

admired from afar for some time but it is an honor to stand in

my buddy Clayton's Pulpit. This guy.

Okay. So he didn't talk about the

friendship that has just been so valuable that we've built over

the last couple years. I think the first time I

preached at the Crossing was that one of the uncommon Men's

Conference it was such an honor and and since then we got to

place now where a couple times a month we're checking in with

each other. We're pulpit.

APPA, he's gonna come and preach at Northeast and Louisville here

and a few weeks for me. And so I just want you to know,

you know, I've so much respect and honor for Jerry and I

believe that you got one of the best and his successor here in

Clayton. I really mean that and it's okay

for one person to clap. So, Or everybody.

Do we just have like, a bromance Moment by the way.

I hope you all enjoyed that Bromance moment that you just

got to participate in between the two of us.

Okay? Now after Easter, y'all started

this new series called, if, if and I love this series, this

series was built for people like me because I have hard questions

and if your leadership thought that you needed this series and

that means that you have hard questions to and you deserve.

Good answers to your hard Faith question.

Now, here's why I found that the reason why a lot of people go

passive on there. Lukewarm or even back out of

their face is because they don't get good answers to their hard

Faith questions. Once upon a time, when you were

a child your mama, happy Mother's Day, Mom has your mama.

Tried to raise you to love the Lord.

Right, she wanted you to be Christian.

So she taught you all about God but she also taught you about

the Easter Bunny. And as you grew up, what

happened was you started to learn things about bunnies, that

didn't. Support.

What you were taught as a child, okay?

Like you went into biology class and you realize that bunnies.

Don't in fact, lay chocolate eggs.

If a bunny's land of chocolate egg in your heart, don't eat it.

It's not a chocolate egg. I just and you learned that

bunnies don't stand on two feet or like humans for in particular

or like carry baskets around. And so all of a sudden your

childhood beliefs about the bunny didn't hold up with what

you discovered as an adult. And so you lost faith in the

bunny and in the same way you started having questions about

God, hard questions that you ask and you didn't get good faith

answers to you. Ask questions.

Like, you know, well, I found this verse in the Bible.

That's really, really hard for me.

Understand. And it feels like it.

Contradicts that one. It can somebody explain this to

me. And you didn't have a church or

a pastor that stepped into the Gap.

So, you took step back then. All the sudden, you're like,

well, there's this theological thing that I'm really struggling

with because culture says this thing, but Jesus says this thing

and can somebody explain this to me, And nobody stepped in the

Gap and help you out. So, you took another step back

and then you saw a moral failure, in a leader in the

church and then you saw some judgmentalism or whatever.

And before, you know it you've like backed your way out of the

faith, one step at a time, which is absolutely tragic.

And it's absolutely, the reason that your leadership built this

series, so that all these answers, and you have done a lot

of work so far. If you haven't seen the series,

or the sermons in the series, that leads up to this, you got

to get online and watching catch up, right.

You've done a lot of work so far to answer some of these

questions and I would just reaffirm, reaffirm your

leadership in the decision to do that.

Now today what I want to do is I'm not actually going to deal

with the questions out here because you've done some good

work on this. What I want to do is I want to

deal with the space back here. Here.

You see what we're very, very good at is, we're very good at

taking Christianity and putting it under a microscope and asking

really, really hard questions, aren't we?

But what I found is that when people back their way out of

Faith, what they don't ever do is they don't ever take the

world view that they're backing their way into and put it under

the same amount of scrutiny. Put it under the microscope.

See, you do understand our culture has a way Way of seeing

things, our culture has a way of seeing politics.

Our culture has a way of seeing money.

Our culture has a way of seeing sexuality, our culture has a

way, you see what I'm saying and what we rarely do is oh we're so

good at putting the way of Jesus under the microscope and asking

the hard questions of that. But we never do is we never take

the way of popular culture and put it under the microscope.

I want to do that today. See, here's the reality.

You are being constantly relentlessly inundated.

And evangelized with the way of our popular culture, Constantly.

In. In news, reports, whatever, New

Station, you watch, you're being evangelized political campaigns.

You're being evangelist. Targeted ads on social media,

you're being, you're being evangelized, you can't watch

professional sports, you can't go to the store and like look on

your bag right. You can't have you can't have a

conversation around the water cooler at work without some sort

of throwaway comment from, you know, like one of your peers,

your one of your coworkers. You can't pump your gas at the

gas station or use the bathroom at BW3.

He's without a screen in front of you, telling you what product

you need to buy now, or what you should think about this issue or

whatever it may be. We are being relentlessly in

constantly evangelized by the voices of this world and if

we're not careful, we just come to believe that this thing that

we back ourselves into, it's just reality.

It's just the way that everybody sees things, but I would suggest

to you that there is a better way to see things.

There's a way to live your life, that's more in tune with

reality, with truth. Then what the way of our popular

culture might suggest and that is the way of Jesus.

And this is what I'm after today.

Okay. I want to show you why the way

of Jesus is better. Then the way of our popular

culture. Are you tracking with me on?

This is this at all interesting to you, we could talk about

something else. Okay, I'm glad that it's

interesting to you because this is what your kids are asking.

You know, that right? You might not be asking.

This is what young people are asking.

The next generation is saying, hey Mom, I heard this thing

about Justice or her. Hey Dad, I heard this thing

about science or hey, Mom, I heard this thing about gender.

Hey, Dad, I heard this thing about politics from my college,

professor, or from the friend group that I hang out with her,

from this influencer on Tick, Tock, whatever it may be, right?

And I'm having trouble reconciling the two.

Can you help? I'm going to run out of time

today, but yeah, she quick sidebar.

I just gotta talk to young people real quick.

Young people. Can I just say we have to drop

the veneration of celebrities in our culture and celebrate Saints

instead in Christian history, we have so many beautiful Heroes

that have lived, beautiful lives that show us the Horizon of

human possibility that are so much better.

Then the role models of our culture.

We let celebrities set the Horizon of morality and good

for, pretty much everything for things like lingo and fashion,

which is fine. That's not really all that

important to me. But then we let him set the

Horizon for like really important stuff like like

politics or like like morality or or like how we stood our

bodies and our money's. And I always think to myself,

like why? Because he can dribble a

basketball good. Why?

Because she can, she can, she can play play the guitar because

she's, she's pretty, and she's got 10 million followers on, on

Instagram or whatever. Like, why do they, what

qualifies them. But as Christians, we have this

resource, this cloud of witnesses that have come before

us, that we can look to. And we can say, look at pandita

ramabai, look at Desmond Tutu, look at festo Kevin's here.

Look at Mother Teresa, look at these people who stacked up the

years of Holiness and truly lived a great life live like

them. I said let's let the celebrities

set the pace. Now what are we focused on Tyler

stay focused here. Okay focused here's my point.

At the end of the day you get to choose, you get to choose the

way of Jesus and he has a way or the way of our culture and as a

way you choose. And by the way, they won't let

you choose both at the same time, our popular culture will

not let you choose Jesus. When I was young, being a

sold-out, Christian was weird but now things have changed over

the course, the last 20, 30 years, if you're a sold-out

Christian it's actually Seen by our culture as immoral you are,

what's wrong with Society, right?

So it will not let you choose Jesus and the way of popular

culture, Jesus won't let you choose both either.

He says, I'm the way I am the truth.

I am the life. No one comes to the father,

except through me, you're in the world but not of the world,

okay? So you can't choose both.

You got to choose one of the other.

Today I want to help make a case for.

I think the way of Jesus is better now, have a little chart

for you. Can check out the chart.

This is basically what we're going to do is we're going to

move fast. I'm going to take some of the

big questions of life. Some of the big issues that we

deal with every human that are common to all humans and I want

to just run them through this filter.

We're going to look at the way of Jesus and how Jesus looks at.

We're gonna look the way of popular culture.

Now, popular culture looks at it, we're going to hold them

next to each other. And what I hope you see is that

Jesus is Way, is the better way, by the way.

This is my conversion story. That little chart right there.

when I was in college and I decided that that I Think Jesus

was was going to be my master, and my guide for life, I said to

myself, I better know for sure. This is the right way though.

Before I go all in, I better know for sure.

So I took all the major worldviews Christianity Islam

Buddhism atheism. And I ran them through that.

Chart ran through the filter. And here's what I found, three

things. A one, I found that every

religion is not basically the same despite what people will

say to you. It's not, it's not true.

By the way, that's deeply offensive to.

You know, devout Muslims, Jews Christians.

They'll tell you, it's not the same to, I found that every

religion has some beautiful redeemable aspects to it.

They touch truth that points and three in my own personal

journey. I found that the way of Jesus is

far more emotionally, satisfying and intellectually compelling.

Than any other way. So let's look at some of these

points of reference. You guys ready for this?

Let's just let's just walk through some of them.

Let's let's start with a softball here.

You guys have already dealt with this earlier in this series.

Let's start off with human Origins.

Human Origins. Where did we come from?

Popular culture would say. That in the beginning.

There was nothing and nothing. Created something.

Tell me about this nothing because if this nothing did

something, it's not nothing, it's something.

But no, not okay to don't think too hard about in the beginning,

14 billion years ago. There was a random chance,

explosion, a bomb went off. And when the dust settled, there

was a Rembrandt. Chaos leads to order.

This is the way a popular culture, who banged the bang?

We don't know where did the, The Supercharged ball of matter or

light come from? We're not sure.

We just trust in science. We think life could go beyond

what could be accounted for by just science alone.

Oh we trust and science. Well by the way, if we trust in

science that means that you're not special about you're not

snowflake, you're not, you're just math.

Everybody's walking around with t-shirts today.

Like you matter, you belong your special, right?

You've seen these t-shirts, some reason why somebody might be

wearing one like, you matter, right?

But the fact of the matter is is that if there is no God, then

the shirt shouldn't say you matter.

Should just say you're matter. Decaying matter on decaying

matter for that matter, right? But like that's that's the

reality I want. You think about this?

If there's no God, Life's a pill, it's just the acquisition

of woundedness and then you die. Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch did.

That's life. We laugh but people live live

with us. This is how they see life.

I think of it like I say you're born as a child and then, you

know, maybe you grew up in a rough home.

So you get family wounds and then maybe your church hurts

you. So you get religious wounds and

then maybe you get fired. She get rejection wounds or I

don't know, maybe Aroma romantic partner like breaks your heart

and so you get, you know, these like love romance wounds and

then, you know, you start medicating them, as you get

older because these wounds just become too much and you medicate

them with things, like, you know, substances or fantasies or

experiences that you think will work.

They only work for like a day and then everything just gets

even worse and so you know it makes you miserable and then all

of a sudden father time starts to bend or break you.

So you get the wounds of age and then he died and no one

remembers you anyways. 10 years later, This is the way the world

sees it. now, the way of Jesus is a little bit different, it

says that in the beginning and unfathomably, powerful and

loving God made everything on purpose including you.

He's the designer behind it. All the Christian story actually

Begins by answering the core longing of every human heart,

every human being wants to know. Does anybody want me?

Do I really matter and the Christian Story begins with God.

Declaring, I do. I want you.

God didn't need you. By the way, you understand that?

He didn't need to create us. He existed in perfect.

Community within himself, the Triune God.

So he didn't need you, he created you because he wanted

to, because he wanted you and I promise you, it breaks his heart

that for some of you in this room, he does not have you.

I pray just like me. This sermon would be a part of

your conversion story. How about morality?

We gotta speed up y'all? Alright we're slow me down.

Morality the world says really cool fad things like choose your

own morality. Find your truth.

Follow your heart. You do you?

Reject Authority and be your own authority.

And all these little catchphrases play really well on

Twitter, right? But They're terrible life

advice. I mean I would like to eat ice

cream by the gallon every night but that's probably not going to

pay off well in the long run, right?

But you do you If you see. So one sociologist, said,

recently that we have transition from the age of authority to the

age of authenticity in our culture, what he meant by that

was that no longer. Do we look to external sources

of traditional authority to help guide us through life.

Like, we don't look to the church, we don't look to family,

we don't look to government or tradition, tell be our guide and

and helped form us and shape us. Rather we've moved from an

outside in approach to To an inside out approach to

Authority. You see the difference?

So you look into your heart, you find your truth.

You sort out the diverse feelings inside of you and then

whatever you feel, you can impose that on the world.

It's not the age of authority. It's now the age of

authenticity, be your authentic self.

Now, again, I'm just gonna go ahead and tell you that is

incredibly hard to do to build your own identity to build your

own morality to sort out all the the evil and good, but evil

inside of your heart, that is incredibly difficult.

And we're asking our kids to do it by the way.

We're asking our kids to form their own identities and

morality and their own their own 14 years old.

And dealing with high school and peer pressure, and puberty.

And he had somehow, we want them to get with inside their hearts,

and figure out who they are and then branded on social media and

make everybody. Except it's like, that's, that's

a difficult thing to do. All right?

This is no offense to young people in this room, but I

absolutely would say with 100% confidence.

That, that know, a high schooler is, incapable of building their

own identity and morality and purpose on their own in a

coherent way that leads to flourishing over the Long Haul.

And the reason why is because no Can that is God's territory

identity, morality. You try to build it on your own,

it will crush you. You will crumble underneath the

way yet. This is the way the world sees

it. the way of Jesus, on the contrary says, That God designed

us to live in certain ways. He built a moral ecosystem, that

nurtures us when we put our roots in it, we actually

flourish like Riverbank trees. Psalm 1 Oh, the joys of those

who do not follow the advice of the wicked or stand around with

Sinners or join in with mockers, but they Delight in the law of

the Lord meditating on it day and night, they will be like

trees planted along. The riverbank bearing fruit,

every season, their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all

they do. This is the way the the word of

God sees it. Human worth.

Well, the world is full of racism, political hatred, War,

class distinctions, everything down to the clothes, you wear,

and the cars, you drive point out to people, How much you're

worth? This is not the way of Jesus.

In fact, scripture says, every human being is created in the

image of God is died for by Jesus, which means you are

eternally and undeniably valuable.

Some of the great Justice movements in time, including the

civil rights movement in the United States of America were

built on the doctrine of the image of God.

What about work? Well, the world says that this

is one of the key ways you prove your worth and that you gain

power. So work more work harder, work

your way up through your chart dominate, leave a legacy, be the

best. Or if you can't, if your

average. And by the way, most of us are

average, that's the point of the word, okay?

So, if your average don't worry, we've got all sorts of things

that can distract you from your lack of greatness, like bourbon

tours CBD, infused everything. Cookie dough saw that one on

Google the other day. Netflix series, stand-up comedy.

Social media. Pumpkin spice.

Like you don't live to work. You work to live.

So do a little soul cycle. CrossFit, go to an orchard.

Hang with your people, swipe right?

This is the way of popular culture.

You laugh, but this is the way. On the flip side, scripture says

that work is worship. God created us with certain

gifts and we're supposed to leverage those to build

civilization. And to serve others, the

stay-at-home mom and the work that she has been given by the

Lord as as important if not more than what the CEO has been

given. And more important than the

results of the work is the heart of the worker.

How about family? Well the world says it's really

kind of up to you get married or don't have one spouse or for

divorce is no big deal. It's the decision to break up

when you grow out of love, after off the point of marriage is

individual happiness. If you're no longer happy the

right thing to do is leave. And if you have kids, just be

honest with him, one of the most important things to teach your

kids is to be true to yourself. This is the way a popular

culture. Now a scripture on the contrary

though says that family is the backbone to civilization, it's

the system to generate life and raise humans that God designed

Healthy Families, make healthy communities.

That's why marriage is not just a contract.

You opt out of like you would with your cable company.

It's a covenant that you make before God in sickness and in

health for richer for poorer as long as you both shall live.

And scripture says that divorce is always tragic, ask anybody

who has been divorced. This is not judgmental or

condemnatory. They'll tell you even in

situations where it's biblically permissible, abuse adultery,

abandonment, even in those situations.

It hurts my generation. I'm a millennial.

I was good. Nobody booed.

Okay. So so my generation like the

millennial generation is the first generation.

That's largely a by-product of divorced families.

And asked a psychologist to explain what happens to a child

when Mom and Dad breaks up. It's just tough.

So when husbands and wives push back and they resist by

committing to one another when fathers and mothers are present

and engaged in the lives of their kids, we see the

undeniably positive impact on society.

This is the way of Jesus. How about sex?

Well, the world says, it's just an appetite.

Not a big deal. Has nothing to do with your soul

or anything like that. And with options like abortion

out there. You can do it with no long-term

responsibilities attached to it. So feed your appetite have

multiple partners swing your marriage.

Watch porn consent is all that matters.

That's the way of popular culture.

Who's ever been hurt by a little bit of sex. to, which reality

says who hasn't Like who hasn't been hurt in some way name?

One person. If you're honest, Who doesn't

have some sort of deep pain in their past?

From sex betrayal divorce, and Fidelity.

Abuse addiction porn. Trust issues.

Body. Image, our culture's attempt

over the last half-century to cheapen sex is at best naive and

at worst. What's led to horrible, divorce

bikes, abortion spikes, and all the power abuse cover-ups, which

is why scripture has such a high view of it.

People like, say Christians, have a low view of it, with a

high view of it. You understand that, right?

A high view. We think it is so beautiful and

so powerful. Those walking in the way of Just

recognize it as a good gift and one, we will not treat

flippantly. So that's why the way of Jesus

is highly restrictive. And because of that our culture

dehumanizes and shames US in demonizes US for it.

But the reason why God put the boundaries on it that he did is

because he loves us. I've heard one Pastor say sex is

like a fire and its proper context.

It can warm the home outside of its proper context.

It can burn the home down and ain't that true?

Let's do two more. How about suffering?

our culture says you got about 80 years, so live it up while

you can Pain though. It is to be avoided at all

costs. It is an interruption to life.

That's why we've transitioned from the helicopter parent to

the lawnmower parent. You guys know about lawnmower

parents now, okay, the helicopter parent hovered, the

lawnmower parent, most everything down, every pain,

every adversity, every character building opportunity.

There's mome down for your kid, right?

Oh, you gotta be - let me talk to your teacher.

Oh, your coach is sitting you on the bench.

This game. I'll deal with this later.

Oh, you forgot your homework. Just stay home from school

today, honey. Don't worry, I'll write you a

note. No booze allowed, though.

Now, scripture has a different look on pain and suffering.

Do you know this scripture actually says be real suffering

is not avoidable. It's inevitable.

It's a part of life. Ascend marred world.

So all we have to do is we have to learn to deal with it.

Well, and it gives us all sorts of spiritual resources to do

that. It reminds us that Jesus

suffered for us with us. He knows what it feels like to

suffer. In fact, if Jesus descended to

death itself for you, where will he not go to be with you, you

better believe, he's walking through your daily sufferings

with you. In fact, James one goes as far

to say that if you walk through the fiery furnace of suffering

with Jesus, they will actually come out the other side, pure

more mature. Wiser for it.

And Revelation tells us that one day suffering, will be done away

with. There will be no more death, no

more sorrow, no more crying, no more pain, all these things,

Gone Forever, thanks to Jesus. We have a Living Hope and him.

This is the way Jesus. Which brings us by the way, to

the last one. This is where I want to end

today death. The world says that life must be

prolonged as long as possible because death is the cosmic off

switch. And honestly, that's why so many

of us fear it. So much.

It's the way the world sees it. but Jesus, on the other hand,

well, Jesus said I conquered it. Jesus says there ain't nothing

last 2000 years. To put me back in the grave.

And the follower of Jesus says, oh death, where is your Victory

O Death? Where is your sting?

We are undeterred by death. In fact, we look at death and we

recognize that death is just a door.

A door to Jesus. Adore to Life, Life After Life.

This is the way of Jesus. All right.

Now, while we were out of time, I had like, seven more that we

could have done. But I think you get the point.

So, I'll end where I began. These are two stories.

Two ways to go about life. There's the way of Jesus and the

way of our popular culture and you get to choose and you can't

choose both, they won't allow it.

But you must choose one. And I think one leads to

flourishing and one leads to destruction.

You know, as a pastor Benny your pastors will tell you this We

have a unique job, we get to sit with people in their High

moments in life. Like this baptism videos.

You said like we get to walk through some of the most amazing

things with people but we also have to sit with people in their

low moments when they're facing darkness and death and sin had

on every week. Not a week goes by where I'm not

with somebody who's at a rock-bottom moment in life.

I've been a pastor for going on 13 years now and I can tell you

this for certain the last three years, there has been more

Darkness, more send more Brokenness, more ugliness in

this world than there were the 10 years before that it has been

a difficult three years and I see it in the life of the people

that I Shepherd I believe right now that the alarm bells are

going off the way of popular culture is not working, right?

We are mentally ill at historic rates lonelier than ever more

untrusting than any generation ever.

More fragile to suffering and pain.

And we have this like low boil, seething rage underneath it all

just waiting to explode on the institutions or the people that

failed us. And we keep thinking to our

self, there has to be something better than this, right?

Like we got every technology and luxury known to man.

At our fingertips, to the United States of America, yet somehow,

we can't be happy. There has to be something better

than this. And yet, you know what we do

rather than, I don't know, trying something else.

We just keep going further and we think if I just go further

into the way of culture, if I just indulge in it more, if I

just work a little harder and make a little bit more money or

try some more of that, ER, or go a little bit Wilder with this

experience. Then maybe that'll work or we

just ignore the alarm Bells, altogether thinking, they're

just going to turn off on their own, they won't look what if The

reason why the alarm bells are going off is because we are

running a broken system. What if the reason we're in the

mess that we are in right now is because it is the necessary and

inevitable ends of the false gospel.

Of our popular culture. I believe that's the truth.

But I also believe that that's just one story.

There is another story, a better story and it is the story of

Jesus, the way of Jesus. So I would invite you today,

make this story your story. It was a moment just like this

in my life that led to my own personal conversion.

Let to me laying it on the line for Jesus and saying, here's my

life. I'm for you.

If you feel butterflies in your stomach, if you feel

intellectually or emotionally compelled to they, perhaps

that's the spirit drawing you in.

So I would encourage you today to lean in.

Here's what Jesus says, John 10 verse 10, he says the thieves

John 10:10

purpose is to steal to kill and to destroy, but my purpose is to

give rich and satisfying life. I'm the Good Shepherd.

The Good Shepherd sacrifices his life.

For the Sheep. For all of us in this room right

now and for those of you who are still watching online, you heard

this compelling message today from Tyler.

There's these two ways, these kind of these two camps.

If you will you have over here in the way of Jesus, where, you

know, that we have a good shepherd, just like we read in

that scripture that he laid his life down for you, for me, that

he created us in His image and he has all these good things for

us. He offers forgiveness, he Offers

his love. He offers his grace, he offers

new mercies every single day and then, on the flip side, on the,

on the other side of the coin, you have what the world says who

we are or or even who we say we are.

And we're trying to do these things and we're trying to

follow our heart and we're trying to do things the way we

feel we should do them. And for those of you in the room

and for those of you online, if you are not walking in an

intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ, You're right

here. And life may be hard right now,

and you may be asking a lot of questions right now, you may be

hurting right now. And when you're on this side,

when you're following your heart, and when you're falling,

what the world tells you this, this is as good as it gets what

you're experiencing right now. There is no better than what you

are experiencing and this moment But the good news is.

Jesus closes the gap. And he looks at every single one

of you. And he says you don't have to

follow that. You don't need to follow your

heart, he says you can come And I have given my life for you.

I've laid it down for you. All you need to do is you need

to start waving the white flag waving it and saying I Surrender

declaring today that your story changes in this moment when you

say I need Jesus, I want him, I want to follow him, I want to

walk on this side with him, he's going to be there to guide you

and direct you. And he's going to be there to

pick you up when you're going through a struggle, or when

you're going through a hard time.

You're hurting or when when you're experiencing Death Around

you or a bad diagnosis, he's right there.

For those of you who don't have a relationship with Jesus, you

have to let go of this side. You have to say no to that, no,

to yourself. Yes, to Jesus.

And if you've never done that before, if you've never

surrendered your life to Jesus, you can do it in this moment.

In this place and you can experience newness, you can

experience New Life found in Christ.

And just a little bit, every single week is part of our

services and the band's going to come out and and the people all

around this Auditorium here, 48th Street, we're going to

stand and we're going to sing, and you may be feeling that

inside of you. Just like, man, I feel like, I

feel like God is calling me. I feel like he's telling me I

can't do this on my own. I need him.

And you want to talk to somebody about what it looks like to

start that relationship. One of our pastors is going to

be right by the baptistry when this song starts and they would

like nothing more, they would actually love it.

If someone came forward, it's your story today and and you had

questions or yours, like, what's my next step or or how do I

accept Jesus? How do I get into the Waters of

baptism? How do I just start walking in

the way of Jesus? They will be there for you when

we start singing, if you're online when there's an

incredible chat hosts, that also love to help.

Help you take that ginormous best, step that you'll ever take

in your entire life. Many eternity lies in the

balance. Based on this decision.

Do you choose Jesus? Do you choose the way of Jesus?

Who is the way who is the truth? Who is life?

What are you choose culture? Do you choose the world?

You choose what you feel inside, one leads to destruction, one

leads to life and my prayer is that anybody and everybody in

here that here's this matches message and has not responded to

it that you would chase after that way.

For those of us in this room, we chose this way.

We chose the way of Jesus, we laid our life down, we're

following him, we were obedient the area of baptism, and we came

out of that water and newness, some of us need to check our

pants. And what I mean by that is we

are over here and what we've been doing is we've been keeping

one foot in with Jesus, but our other leg keeps going out

further and further and further and further, I don't know how

much further I can go in these pants.

And you rip your pants. You're walking around with a

hole in your pants because you're trying to keep one foot

with Jesus, but yet you want culture to start playing into

what what you feel and you haven't fully surrendered in

area or you're walking away with what what he has for you and

what he wants for you, and you're just like, but I'm for

Jesus, but you keep going out towards what culture is telling

you and maybe today for you. And this time of decision, it's

time for you to put your legs together again.

Confess some things that you are doing.

That is not of him. And run back to him.

And fully devote your life in every area.

I don't know what it is for you. It looks differently for every

single person, but this time is for us to confess to repent,

which means simply means to turn away from the way of the world

and turn back to Jesus. And that's what this Moment In

Worship is all about. It's not for us, just to stand

and sing in our seats and men just think we're going to.

It's going to get better. If if I keep trying no it's us

taking a step forward. Forward humbling ourselves

before him and saying, I don't want this anymore, I need you to

carry it and so I'm going to encourage you that in this time

of decision that you would come up here and you lay some of

those things down, you just be honest with the Lord and say I

know this is where I'm this where I've been and it's not

where I want to be. I want to I want to continue to

follow the way of Jesus or for all you mothers out there all

you moms out there. Maybe your mom's right next to

your grandma's, right? Next to you have a sister who's

a mama, you know, a mama. You just want to come up and

bring them forward and you want to Circle them up and just thank

God for them. That's what this moment is about

to that you would experience such an incredible moment with

your family and praying for your family and the Legacy that

you're leaving behind. All because of this, the way of

Jesus, making his name, famous, and taking this, good news, this

good message to the world. I love to do that with you right

now. Would you stand to your feet as

we go into this time of War? She was to go into this time of

response. Heavenly Father God.

I thank you so, so much. For every single person who is

listening to my voice in this room who's watching With Us

online, I'm thankful for you. Jesus, you came down.

You live this, perfect life. You lay down your life for us so

that we can have life God in this world.

We're faced with so many different choices.

So many different directions Jesus.

I pray that our eyes are fixed on, you were fixed on your way.

We're not fixed on what the world is offering us or what the

world has in front. Uh sir, what our hearts are

feeling God, I pray that you give us Clarity of Mind, God.

I pray that we don't conform to the pattern of this world but we

will be transformed by the renewing of our minds and that

renewing starts. When we let you transform us,

when we let your words move us. When we let your convictions

lead us and guide us. And God, I pray for this moment

right now, that as we come before you, we lay things down

to you, we pray. All this in the mighty name of

Jesus. Amen.

Let's respond Church. Let's move.

All this in the mighty name of Jesus.

Amen. Let's respond Church.

Let's move.