More Than a Prophet | Pastor Dave Kinney

One more time.

Come on, let's go.

How are we doing today?

Awesome.

My name is Dave Kinney.

I'm the executive pastor here at United City, and I'm excited to open up God's word with you this morning.

This is something that we do every single week, all right?

I just don't want us to lose sight of it.

I don't want us to take it for granted.

But on the other side of that camera, there are a lot of people watching these services, specifically the men and women in the correctional facilities streaming through the Pando app.

Church, like you never have before.

Would you help me welcome all of those who are joining with us?

We love you guys.

Absolutely honored to have you as a part of United City.

Um, here's the deal I have five Christmas trees set up in my house right now.

And you might think that that is crazy, but I think it's a good start.

Like I love Christmas.

I'm all about Christmas every year.

Emily's always like, all right, let's get the Christmas trees down, and then we get them down.

And I'm like, but we could put another one right over there, you know?

And I just love it.

I love Christmas.

When I was a kid, I loved Christmas because of the anticipation.

It was so fun.

I love how Christmas is more than just a day, it lasts like an entire month of celebrating.

I grew up in a home where the Christmas list that you would give, it didn't really matter that much.

See, my parents were all about the surprise factor of Christmas.

And to this day, I still love surprises.

My kids now, they make their Christmas lists, and I feel like a couple things.

One, it's always more than I can afford on their Christmas list.

Um, but I also feel like Emily and I do a pretty good job of sticking to their list as best we can, but we're also very practical parents.

All right.

Um, here's what I mean by that.

We will we will wrap up gifts that we would normally give to our children just because we're their parents.

Like a like a toothbrush or socks, underwear.

You know, like we're gonna give them those things just because they live in our home and we're kind of responsible for them.

But on Christmas, we wrap them up, slap a bow on it, and then for my kids, when they open it, it's just more than a toothbrush to them because they got to tear it open and they love to do that.

And so we definitely will keep a little bit of priority on the surprise factor for the kids, though, just because it's really, really fun.

We love to do it.

We love what Christmas morning is.

It is always so much more than we ever thought that it was going to be.

I remember whenever I was growing up um thinking that all of the Christmas gifts were opened, and then only to find out that there was one more, only to find out that there were stockings to do.

And as a parent now, I think it's just the best thing in the world whenever your kids think that all of the gifts have been opened, and then you have to go out to the garage and you come back in with like a bicycle or something like that.

Just, I love it.

I love Christmas, it is so much fun.

How many of y'all grew up in a home where there was some sort of surprise factor on Christmas morning?

All right, y'all are holy and you're my people, and it's the way it should be done, all right?

Like, it's just so much fun.

Why is it so much fun?

Because it was more than you expected.

Tiffany Emmerich, who's on our staff team, she has a great photo of her son Nolan from Christmas a few years ago.

They had finished opening all of the gifts on Christmas morning, and then Tiffany and Ed told Nolan, get all the trash and bring it out and put it outside in the garbage can.

So Nolan gets all the trash, and as he is walking toward the driveway to put the trash in the garbage can, he looks up and he sees a brand new basketball goal waiting for him in his driveway.

Y'all look at his face right here.

It is the best.

That's the greatest.

I love it more than anything.

See, he thought he was just taking out the trash, but it was more than that.

Christmas is it's more than a holiday.

As a kid, it's gifts and playing and no school, and then uh every year you grow up and realize that it is even more than the year before.

It's Christmas movies, it's going to look at lights, and then you're a teenager and you realize that it's even more than that.

It's traditions, it's family memories, it's still getting gifts, but then this is where the pivot happens.

You become an adult, you become a parent, and then you realize Christmas is so much more than you have ever experienced before.

It's seeing the looks on your kids' faces.

It's family time, it's staying up way too late the night before Christmas, assembling something.

It's waking up way too early on Christmas morning.

It's getting eating great meals, it's being with your loved ones, it's celebrating family.

It's more than just a holiday.

Today we are beginning a new series called More Than.

And for the next few weeks, we're going to be talking about how Jesus is more than.

And I just want to let you know that this is gonna be some easy and powerful preaching because Jesus defines what more than means.

He is the name above all other names.

He is the king that reigns over all other kings and kingdoms.

He is the Alpha and the Omega, He is the beginning and the end.

And if you have not said amen yet, please go to the lobby, get another cup of coffee, because that is some good truth and deserves some passion and energy from United City Church today.

Come on, somebody.

Hey, here's my deal with you.

Every amen that I get, I'm taking 20 seconds off the sermon.

All right, y'all with me?

Let's go, let's go.

Hebrews chapter 3, starting in verse 1.

Hebrews 3 · chapter mention

Here we go.

Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house.

For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses.

As much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.

For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.

Now Moses was faithful in God's house as a servant to testify to the things that would be spoken later.

But Christ is faithful over God's house as a son, and we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

Everyone flip back one page.

Hebrews chapter one, starting in verse one.

Says, Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

Verse three is an entire sermon in one verse.

If you don't have it highlighted or underwritten or something like that in your Bible, please do that.

Listen.

He, Jesus, is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.

And he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

After making purification for sin, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior, more than the angels, as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Here's what we're going to talk about today.

Jesus is more than a prophet.

He's more than a prophet.

And before you dismiss the seeming simplicity of that statement, I want to remind you that there's a lot of religions that would disagree with this.

In fact, the book of Hebrews, what we just read, is being written to who?

Hebrews.

Jewish people who needed this truth to sink in because they did not have the easiest time believing that Jesus was more than people like Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, John the Baptist, Joshua, and on and on and on.

And even for you and I today, that list that I just gave you, there's some heavy hitters on that list.

But Jesus is more than a prophet.

Here's how I would very simply define a prophet for us today.

A prophet is someone that communicates the will of God.

A prophet is a spokesperson on behalf of God or an advocate for God's way.

And so today I'm going to give you three reasons, and really they're more than reasons, three proofs that Jesus is more than a prophet.

First is this He's more than a prophet, he's God's son.

He's God's son.

See, Moses is the guy that the writer of Hebrews kind of calls out here.

And here's what we know about Moses' dad.

There's a guy named Amram.

Like, I don't know a ton about him.

Never met him.

He seems great.

Seems probably like a great dude.

Moses' dad was a guy named Amram.

Let's look at Elijah, who is uh thought of to be one of the best, if not the best, prophet throughout all of the Bible.

And really, we don't know that much about Elijah's dad.

There's some debate over who his dad actually is.

One thing that we know for sure is that his dad was from the town of Gilead.

Which sounds great.

I've never been there, but wonderful.

Here's the point.

These prophets, as great as they were, had a lineage woven through the fabric of their lives that does not include being called the Son of God.

Jesus, on the other hand, Luke chapter 1, verse 35, and the angel answered, Her, Mary, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

Luke 1:35

Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.

Mark chapter 3, verse 11.

Mark 3:11

And whenever the unclean spirit saw him, meaning adult Jesus, they fell down before him and said, You are the Son of God.

John 1 34, and I have seen and have borne witness to this, that this is the Son of God.

Acts 9 20, this is when Paul was converted from Saul to Paul.

Immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogue, saying, He is the Son of God.

Galatians 4 4.

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law.

Don't forget that.

Born under the law.

We're going to jump back into that here in just a little while.

I want to point out to you that being the Son of God means something that is incredibly significant.

See, Jesus has always been and will always be.

There is no beginning to God's Son.

In fact, the Bible very clearly states that before the creation of creation, Jesus was.

Colossians 1 16, for by him, Jesus, by him, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all through things were created through him and for him.

Hebrews 1 2.

We just read this a moment ago.

But in these last days he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

Romans 11, 36.

For from him and through him and to him are all things.

To him be glory forever.

See, the eternal nature of Jesus, God's Son, helps us to understand the contrast between him and any of the other prophets.

Now here's what I'm not trying to do today.

I'm not trying to take anything away from all the great things that the prophets did in the Bible.

That is not my goal.

I mean, you look at Elijah, what he did was incredible, and we should absolutely, as the church, honor what he did.

He confronted the king and queen about how the fact that they worshipped false gods instead of worshiping the one true God.

He called down fire from heaven.

By God's power, he caused a drought that only dissipated whenever he himself prayed for rain.

He was part of miraculous events that stand the test of history.

And look at Moses.

Moses is a baller.

Like Moses is he turned his staff into a snake.

He was used by God to bring about the plagues in the land of Egypt, like turning their water into blood, frogs, gnats, boils, hail, darkness, invading their land, all so that Pharaoh would set God's people free, which by the way, he eventually did do.

And after he sets them free, Moses is leading the Israelites, not just a few people, almost a million people, leading them toward freedom.

And then look at what happens.

They come toe-to-toe with the Red Sea.

No way around it.

Moses calls up to heaven and says, God, what do we do?

And God's like, split it in half.

Just cut it in half.

And then walk across on dry ground.

So that's exactly what they do.

They go across on dry ground, get to the other side.

Moses turns around and tells the sea to close, and it totally demolishes all the enemies that were in pursuit of them at this time.

See, what they did was absolutely incredible.

How they were used by God is amazing.

But we can't allow that to become the primary focus.

That is not the main thing.

After all, is it more impressive to be used by God to split the Red Sea in half?

Or from the very foundations of creation to be the one who would have created the Red Sea, knowing that in time it would be split in half, and then a few thousand later, people in northeast Houston would be still talking about it.

That is the God that we serve.

Hebrews chapter 3, verse 5 and 6.

Hebrews 3:5

We read this just a moment ago, but I want it to sink in.

It says, now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant to testify to the things that were spoken later.

But Christ, Jesus, God's Son, is faithful over God's house as a son.

One of the things I love about the street that Emily and I live on is there's a bunch of kids.

I love the fact that it is a very normal thing for me to come home from work and there to be a bunch of random kids in my backyard.

Alright, they're hanging out with my kids.

Emily and I love being the house that all the kids kind of go to.

So I'll get home and I'll see them all out there, and typically it ends up being just a bunch of boys because I have two sons and they're out there doing like Lord knows what.

All I know is this every time I walk out there and there's a bunch of kids in my backyard, a giant mess is inevitable.

Like it just is going to happen.

Baseballs, footballs, golf balls, wiffle balls, softballs, which by the way, I don't even know where those came from.

No one in our house plays softball.

I mean, it could be toy bow and arrows, toy rockets, shoes.

Here's the deal.

I talked to someone this week who's expecting their first child, and so I'm just gonna bring them up to speed.

If you're a parent in the room, you can say amen.

Here's what you need to know about kids.

If you are a good parent, if you're an adequate parent, you'll you'll buy your children shoes, right?

Come on, right?

All right.

Um now, shoes typically are to be worn on their feet, right?

Which is awesome.

Like that's kind of the point.

So you'll, as a parent, buy them so that they can wear them on their feet so that when they're playing, they they can have shoes on their feet, right?

Y'all keeping up?

All right, I know it's complicated.

Here's the deal.

What they do when they go outside and play is they love to take their shoes off and then just play in their socks.

And then their socks get holes in them or mud or whatever it is.

That's just like that's what kids do.

They love it.

They'll wear their shoes inside all the time, especially when they're dirty, but when they go outside, they gotta get those shoes off.

And here's here's what happens: they never like delicately take their shoes off and then set them by the back door while they go play.

They take them off and just throw them.

Like they're everywhere.

Like it is a normal thing.

We have found shoes in the bushes of our home.

This is not a lie.

I promise, this isn't preacher talk.

There have been my son's shoes found on the roof of our house.

It's insane, but I digress.

There's shoes everywhere, slingshots, hockey sticks, and a million other toys or shovels or rakes or whatever it is that my boys and all the neighbor boys are playing in the backyard.

It is an absolute mess.

And here's what happens every single time.

When it's almost dinner time, I'll go outside and I'll tell the kids they need to clean the backyard up, and then it's gonna be time for dinner.

Here's what I mean.

I will tell all of the children that are in my backyard that they need to clean the mess up.

My kids, the neighbor kids, here's what I'm getting at.

In that moment, those neighbor kids, they are my servants.

They belong to me.

All right?

They are doing what I told them to do, and they are not leaving my house until they clean up the mess that they made.

Here's a caveat.

If you're a parent in the room and you know that your kid comes over to the kinny house and plays in the backyard, I'm not treating your kids like free labor servants, all right?

We give them capri suns sometimes, and they're great.

They're having a good time, all right?

But they don't leave until things get cleaned up in my backyard.

And then here's what happens: once everything gets cleaned up, I send those kids away.

They go to their own homes for dinner.

Why?

Because they're not mine.

I I then invite my sons to come into my house so that they can have dinner.

Why?

Because they are my sons.

Those other kids, they aren't mine, therefore I treat them differently.

They don't come into my house and get to eat dinner every day, but my sons do.

There is something different about them because they are my sons.

I want you to see something very, very important about God.

I want you to see how he differentiates between his son and anybody else.

It's called the transfiguration.

It's found in the New Testament, either in Matthew 17, Mark 9, or Luke 9.

This happens before Jesus is delivered up to be crucified.

It's Jesus, and he goes with Peter, James, and John.

They go to the top of a mountain, and while they're at the top of this mountain, Jesus' face begins to shine as bright as the sun, and his clothes turn bright white.

And then seemingly out of nowhere, Moses and Elijah show up.

Like down from a cloud from heaven, Moses and Elijah show up, and the three of them are talking.

Jesus, Elijah, and Moses.

And what Peter does is he interrupts their conversation and he says, Man, you guys are so lucky to have me here.

He says this.

In every every one of these accounts of this same story, he says this.

He says, I'm gonna build an equal tent for each of you.

So Jesus, I'm gonna build you your tent, and Elijah, I'm gonna build you your tent, and Moses, I'm gonna build you your tent.

And here's what I want you to understand.

This is in all three accounts of this same story.

The Bible says this.

While Peter was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed him, and a voice from the cloud said, This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.

Listen to him.

And when the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.

It's like God in heaven was saying, Hush! Let me let me add some clarity for you today.

Those other two, Elijah, Moses, they are not mine.

They're like the neighbor kids playing in the backyard.

But Jesus is my son.

He should not be thought of, treated, or listened to in the same way as anybody else.

Listen to him.

It's different.

It's God's son.

Jesus is God's son, and that is significant.

I believe even in the season, the Christmas season that we're in right now, you could task the most brilliant theologians and historians to find out the birth dates of all of the Old Testament prophets throughout all of the Bible.

But here's my question to you Do you know Moses' birthday?

Do you know Elijah's birthday?

No.

But the birth of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is celebrated worldwide, and it's even more than that.

In fact, the entire calendar system that we use, BC AD, 2024, is built on the birth of King Jesus of Nazareth, who was born onto this earth as God's one and only son.

It's different.

He is God's one and only son.

He's more than a prophet.

He's God's son.

And if that wasn't enough, if that wasn't enough, it's not just that he is God's son.

Point number two He's more than a prophet because Jesus is sinless.

Jesus is sinless.

Again, uh Elijah, Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Micah, Jeremiah, and all the other prophets that we see in the Bible, they were great.

One thing that they have in common is that God used them all in incredible ways.

But another thing that they have in common is their sinfulness.

Let me remind you just for a moment, like Moses had kind of an anger management issue.

Remember, he got into a disagreement with the guy and ended up murdering him.

Elijah got so scared of Queen Jezebel that he ran into the wilderness, swallowed in self-pity, and because he doubted God's plan, he prayed to die.

Daniel himself confessed to turning his back on God, allowing shame and rebellion to define his life for a season, actively disobeying what God had told him to do.

Jeremiah, the prophet Jeremiah, he was kind of a whiner.

Like he just was.

He was kind of a whiner.

He sinfully allowed doubt and despair to take deep root in his heart, so much so that the people around him could see all of the doubt that he had in God, but he couldn't see it himself.

Here's what I want you to understand.

Two very quick things.

Ready?

One, these people, the prophets, they were sinners who had severely messed up.

Their lives were messy, their sin was deep.

And without a doubt, the burden of shame and pain and hurt that they carried was heavy.

And yet God used them.

Anyone need to hear that today?

And yet God still used them.

I think if we had the opportunity to sit down with all of the prophets in the Bible, then they would say, Your past does not prevent God from being able to use you in the future.

So here's what I want you to understand.

Your mess ups, your affair, the pain that you have caused other people, the lying that you've done, the wrong that's been done to you, all of the broken parts of your life and of your story, your apathy, you not pursuing God the way that you know you should, you sitting here in December of 2024, remembering all the commitments you made to God in January of 2024, knowing that you flaked on him, all of the things that you have done wrong, all of the sin that you have, God can and still wants to use you.

He does.

Second thing we can learn from this right here is if you understand where and how these prophets fell or they missed the mark, where they sinned, it will be like a magnifying glass to your understanding that Jesus didn't.

Second Corinthians 5 21.

For our sake he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Hebrews 4 15.

For we don't have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

First Peter 2.22.

He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.

Hebrews 7.26.

For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.

Jesus is sinless.

One of the bunny trails that I went down this week as I was preparing is that so many of the prophets, almost all of them, they really had a similar role and a similar message.

And here's what their message was turn to God, reject sin, and pursue righteousness.

And that's a great message.

Like I would amen that message even for us today.

But I want you to see something really important about dealing with sin.

All of these prophets lived under what was called the law.

And the law was delivered to the people through the prophets by God, and it was a list of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of rules.

That's what the law was.

Hundreds and hundreds of rules.

And operating outside of these rules, breaking any of these rules for any reason at all, was sinful.

And what the Bible teaches is that when you sinned, whether on purpose, by accident, by mistake, broke any of these hundreds of rules, or broke one of the Ten Commandments given by Moses, then you had to atone for that sin.

Leviticus 4, Leviticus 17.

You had to atone for that sin.

You had to do something to be made right with God.

A sacrifice was necessary for you to be made whole.

It could be something like, again, in Leviticus chapter 4.

Leviticus 4 · chapter mention

If you were thought of as an influencer within that society, then you had to sacrifice a bull if you messed up.

On purpose or by accident, you would have to bring a bull to the temple, kill it, and allow its blood to drain so that you, for some reason, would be atoned for in that sin.

If you were more middle class, then you had to get a male goat or a male lamb without any spots or blemishes and bring them, and that is how you would atone for your sin.

That is how you would be made right with God.

If you were lower class, then you had to get a female goat or a female lamb.

And by the way, if you couldn't afford any of these things, which was a sin on its own, right, if you couldn't afford to do this, then you had to get a certain number of turtle doves and birds, Merry Christmas, and you had to kill them, sacrifice them, drain their blood, and that would somehow atone for your sin.

This is so important for our understanding of how Jesus is more than a prophet.

Sin still exists.

You are a sinner.

I am a sinner.

Romans 3 23.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

But when Jesus came, when he died, when he rose again, he defeated sin and death.

And what was unfinished with the law, it was unfinished.

There was not enough bulls or goats or lambs or birds to cover the sins of the world.

The law was unfinished.

What was unfinished with the law was finished with the work of the cross of Jesus Christ.

Romans chapter 6, verse 10.

Romans 6:10

For the death he died, he died to sin once for all.

One sacrifice, one perfect lamb, the atonement for all sin, past, present, and future, for all humanity throughout all of human history.

No more sacrificial system, nothing left unfinished, the debt of sin gone, the sting of death gone, the stronghold of living up to rules and laws gone, just the life-giving, resounding message of Jesus hanging on the cross, saying, Tatelestai, it is finished.

Done, covered, paid for.

You have been made right with God because of what I have done for you on the cross.

That is the message.

He's sinless.

See, God used Moses and the prophets like him to deliver the law, but Jesus in his sinlessness fulfilled the law.

He's more than a prophet.

He's God's one and only Son.

He's more than a prophet.

He is the sinless sacrifice made on your behalf and on mine.

And he's more than a prophet.

He is the one and only true Savior of the world.

Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world.

See, see, none of the great things that all of the prophets did throughout all of the Old Testament, even some of the New Testament, none of the great things that they have done could ever compare to the Savior work that Jesus did, which offers you eternal life today.

The work of the prophets, it went unfinished and earned their followers 400 years of silence.

That blank page, this one right here, in between Malachi chapter 4 and Matthew chapter 1, this right here represents 400 years of silence.

Malachi 4 · chapter mention Matthew 1 · chapter mention

It represents an unfinished work.

It represents what the law could never do.

It represents hopelessness, it represents silence.

And then with the birth of Jesus Christ, the silence was broken.

Luke chapter 2, verse 11.

Luke 2:11

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, a Savior who is Christ the Lord.

So the captivity that Moses hoped deliver the Israelites from, Jesus proves that he is Savior by delivering you from sin and death itself.

Elijah, Ezekiel, Deborah, Isaiah, Daniel, Zachariah, and all the other prophets like them with their messages of do things this way, do things that way, don't do it this way anymore, go that way.

And even John the Baptist, who as a prophet prepares the way for Jesus, all point to Savior King Jesus, who in John 14, 6 says, No, I am the way.

I am the truth.

I am the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me and what I have done to save you.

But the prophets had a message from God that they delivered to the people.

But listen to me, United City.

Jesus is the message of God delivered to the entire world.

That is the truth for you and I today.

There is not a prophet, there is not a priest, there is not anyone else who was sent down from heaven, born of a virgin, while still being God's one and only son, who lived a perfect and sinless life, who died the death that covers all the sin over all the people, over all the earth, throughout all of history, and then three days later rose from the dead.

He's more than a prophet, he's God's one and only son.

He's more than a prophet, he's the sinless sacrifice made on your behalf on mine.

He's more than a prophet, he's the savior of the world.

And bonus points for you today, just because I've got a little bit of time, he's more than a prophet because one of the greatest things that differentiates him from the prophets is Jesus is alive.

He's alive.

See, Moses, he's dead.

Ezekiel, he's dead.

Abraham, he's dead, Isaiah, he's dead, Jeremiah, he's dead.

Elijah, he's dead.

Sort of.

Go research that one on your own.

Here's the point: they're all gone.

Jesus is alive.

Revelation chapter 1, verse 17.

Revelation 1:17

This is Jesus speaking.

Listen.

Fear not.

I am the first and the last and the living one.

I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore.

I hold the keys to death and hell.

And spoiler alert, he also holds the keys to eternal life in heaven.

And today he extends to you the opportunity to give him the keys of your life, to make him your Lord, to make him your savior.

If you're here today and you're like, I get it, Dave.

Like, you could have saved 25 minutes.

Jesus is more than a prophet.

Got it.

Amen.

Sounds good.

What am I supposed to do with that message?

I prayed about this right here, and I really mean it from the core of who I am.

This Christmas season, if your next step is simply thinking more highly and more often about the more than nature of King Jesus, I am thrilled with that.

That's incredible.

And I believe that the heavens will rejoice at you taking that next step today.

Christmas is it's more than a holiday.

It's more than the traditions and the fun.

Jesus is more than a prophet.

It's more than a baby in a manger because honestly, the manger doesn't matter as much if there wasn't a cross and an empty tomb to follow.

It's more than a day.

Let this Christmas be more than it ever has been in your life before.

Let it be a time that you can look back and say, that's when my life changed.

That's when my view of Christmas changed.

That's when my view of Jesus changed.

If you've never given your life to Jesus, allow him to be more in your life than what he's been up to this point.

More than a nativity scene.

More than a service that you attend to make your family happy.

More than a service that you attend out of tradition.

Let him be your Lord.

Let him be your savior.

He has done the work to save you from your sins.

He wants more for you.

He wants a relationship with you.

I'm gonna ask everyone to just bow your heads right where you are.

We have plenty of time.

Don't worry about time.

And if that's you today, you would say, I have never given my life to Jesus.

I have up to this point, he has been a story that I've heard.

It's been a holiday I've observed.

But it's never been personal for me.

I've never given my life to Jesus.

I've never acknowledged him as King, as creator, as savior.

But today, I want to do that.

If that's you, would you just do me a favor and look up at me?

I'm not gonna make you do anything weird.

Just look up.

I see you.

I see you.

You don't have to be shy about it.

I'm not gonna call you out.

I just I wanna I want you to know that I'm about to say something directly to you.

Find my eyes.

I see you.

I see you.

Awesome.

I see y'all.

Today I want to give my life to Jesus.

I see you, man.

You mean that?

Love that.

It's awesome.

If that's you, and today you want to give Jesus the authority of your life, you want to acknowledge him as King and Savior, then I want you to pray this prayer after me.

And here's what I want you to understand: there is nothing magical or mystical about this prayer.

These are Dave's words, but it's an effort to help you understand what's going on in you and communicate that to the Lord.

Ready?

Say, dear Jesus, today I give you my life the best way that I know how.

I believe that you created the world.

I believe that you are God's son.

I believe that you are sinless.

And I believe the work of the cross was good enough for me.

So, God, would you come into my life?

I surrender all to you right now.

If you just prayed that prayer and you mean it in your heart, then here in just a moment, we're gonna stand and sing, and we're gonna have some of our team members up here at the front by the stage.

And here's what I want you to do.

Here's what I want you to do, man.

I want you to just come up to them and simply, just very simply say, I want to give my life to Jesus.

That's it.

I want to give my life to Jesus.

They'll pray with you.

We want to help you discover your next step.

You might be here and you might say, Dave, I know my next step.

My next step is to be baptized.

I've given my life to Christ, but I've never gone public with my faith.

Today, if you'd like to be baptized or schedule your baptism, then come forward and tell someone on our staff.

We would love to schedule that for you.

If you'd like to join United City Church, here's the commitment from us to you.

We are going to preach God's word.

And we are going to make much of Jesus as Savior of the world.

If you want to be a part of a church like that, then you come forward today.

We would love to pray with you.

We would love to link arms with you.

So I'm going to pray.

We're going to stand and we're going to sing.

Lord Jesus, we give you these next few moments.

God, I pray that the people that prayed that prayer with me, even in the quietness and the stillness of their own hearts, God, would you fill them with boldness?

Would you fill them with courage?

Would you help them understand that taking a next step is of you?

God, I pray that your word would be alive in people's hearts today, that you would be made much of, that you would be exalted in the heavens, that you would be exalted here at United City Church, and that we would magnify your name and nothing else, that you would receive glory because you are the perfect Son of God, the sinless Savior sent to us to give us eternal life.

Jesus, we make much of you today and much less of ourselves.

We respond to you in this moment.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Y'all stand up.

Let's sing together.

Our staff team is up here.

You make your way forward in prayer.

You make your way forward tonight.

Church, would you pray with me?

Jesus, thank you for moving in this place.

Thank you for the power and the authority of your word.

God, thank you for the message of hope.

I pray that today that the hearts that would receive it would be blessed.

God, that you would help them understand who you are, who you created them to be.

And Jesus, today we do acknowledge you as more than a prophet.

We acknowledge you as more than able.

We acknowledge you as more than worthy of our praise and of our worship.

Jesus, we believe that you are God's Son, that you are the Savior of the world.

And we worship you for that today.

God, would you continue to move in the hearts of people as they leave here?

Would they be willing and ready to share this good news with the world?

It's in Jesus' name that I pray.

Amen.

What a powerful message.

We are so glad that you chose to be with us today.

We look forward to seeing you next Sunday.

Our services are 8 30, 10, 11 30 in Espanol at 1 p.m.