Can I Do That? | Pastor Chris Kouba

Hey, it is great to see you.

Let me add my word of greeting to Dave's earlier.

My name is Chris Cuba.

I have the privilege of being lead pastor here at United City.

Man, that was awesome.

That was just incredible.

Uh all morning long.

It's just been amazing to be able to worship our King of Kings and our Lord of Lords and just to know he's in charge.

There's a lot of chaos.

There's a lot of crazy right now, but Jesus is still King.

And so we celebrate that in every way.

Hey, real quick, before we get going, I do just want to uh say a little pastoral word uh to you as a church.

Uh if you're a guest with us, I just want to promise you, I promise you I don't do this every week.

Uh in fact, I don't ever do this.

This is why it may seem sort of rare and feel like I need to, but uh, I just want to say uh a specific just kind of word in light of kind of where things are in our culture, where things are in our world today.

We've got, of course, this election coming up.

You've probably heard about it a little bit.

Uh, we've got some things going on on that.

It was actually pretty amazing though.

This past week, uh, I was just reminded of the beauty of the American democracy experiment that we have done.

We're in the middle of right now.

Uh, whenever I got to go vote, uh, I went to vote early voted this week with my wife, and I got to take my oldest daughter who just turned 18 this summer, and we got to actually go and vote.

And it's kind of cool.

They like, for the very first time voter, you let them know and they're like, first time voter, and that kind of embarrass her kind of a deal.

It was awesome, you know, kind of one of those things.

It was just kind of neat, though, just to think about the very fact that the founders of our constitution set up a system where they were trying to avoid tyranny and dictatorship by actually putting the the bottom of the of the food, if you will, food chain, if you will, on the top of the org chart.

And that's us.

We the people have the opportunity to set the agenda.

We the up, we the people have the opportunity to set the pace.

We the up, we the people have the opportunity to express ourselves through voting.

And I feel like I need to bring this up because I have had this question asked of me uh this past week more than I have ever been asked ever before.

So it clearly seems to be something that is out there.

And the question is this is there a biblical verse that says that I should vote?

And my answer is there's there's not.

There's not a clear biblical verse that says, hey, you should vote, Ecclesiastes 4.12.

It doesn't say that, okay?

But I would tell you there are plenty of verses throughout God's word that do tell us the importance of us living for our neighbor, of us deferring to our neighbor, of us, the Bible tells us in Jeremiah, to seek the welfare of the city.

We are told repeatedly that to love the Lord our God with our heart, soul, and mind and strength, and we're to love our neighbor as ourself.

And the the democracy that we have been afforded and given here in America, we have the opportunity to actually vote for people.

Those people get put into office, and those people in the offices make policies.

Those policies affect our neighbors, the people that are around us.

So, in some sense, I would tell you, while I can't make a go to this verse that says that you should vote.

I would tell you, I think the Bible is super clear that if we're going to love and care for the people that are around us, then we should participate in the process by which they are affected, which is our political process and the idea of voting.

So, as an American, I would tell you, I think it's important that you vote.

Encourage you to do that.

There's early voting that's going on, and of course, the election coming up on November 5th.

But I would also tell you that it's just as important, not in fact way more important, not just that you vote as an American citizen, but that you also vote as a Christian.

Do you have a Christian worldview?

That you walk into the voting booth not just blind and just kind of like, well, who impressed me the most or who do I dislike the least, or whatever it is?

But instead, I am going in there trying to figure out how I can align two imperfect platforms, two imperfect people, and choose which one is closer to what I want the world to be in terms of what God's word says.

Make this super clear that I want to make it make it very, very clear that there all the political issues that are being debated today are not found clear guidance in God's word.

We should instead use the wisdom that God has given to us to debate those things.

But I would tell you, whenever there are certain things where the culture says one thing and the Bible says another, just as we are in this blurred-line series, when there's not clarity on the Bible, then things get blurry when those two things intersect.

That's exactly what you're seeing play out in our political process today.

I've been told today the church just needs to stay out of politics at the end of the day, the church doesn't need to deal with that.

I didn't come to church in order to hear something about politics.

And I would tell you, that's exactly right.

I am not a politician, I'm a pastor.

But I will tell you this: whenever politics gets into theology, I got a problem with that.

And I'm gonna speak to that.

I'm gonna make sure you know what the Bible says so that you can make sure that you say what you need to say when it comes to your vote.

Let me give you a resource by put out by a very, very good friend of mine who also is just an incredible leader in our city, in our community.

Uh, Greg Mott is the pastor at Houston's First.

And Greg has put together a series of videos called the Six P's of Voting.

They are fantastic.

They're about three and a half to five minutes each for each one of the P's.

Here's the little QR code.

Let me just encourage you all to get your phones out right now and to take a picture of this, even if you're like, I already know what I'm gonna vote for.

And I can't believe you're not telling everybody to vote for whoever, all right?

You need to re watch these videos, okay?

And and if you are not sure, you're kind of figuring it all out.

This is a great thing to help guide you in that.

Uh, it's also a great resource to share.

Cannot say enough highly good things about this resource, the six P's of voting put out by Greg Mott.

Uh so please take a look at those and take and see what it says there.

But let me just remind you of the importance of us whenever we go into the voting booth, that we walk into the voting booth with a mindset that again says, okay, where the Bible speaks, I'm gonna let that speak louder than everything else.

I don't know exactly what these other things are.

It can be debated, but I want to see what God's word says.

God's word's super clear on what he says about what we're supposed to do with the poor.

God's word super clear when it says what we're supposed to do about life.

God's word's super clear on what the definition of a family is and the definition of marriage.

God is very clear on religious liberty and the fact that religious liberty should not be afforded just to Christians, but to all religions.

God is very clear that He says what it's not my body, my choice, and I get to define what gender I want.

God's super clear, it's God's body, and you have the opportunity to go and respond to his glory by using your body for that purpose.

So I just want to encourage you one to participate in the process.

One, you can do the early voting, you can also do that uh again on election day.

Also, just want to encourage you to consider being a part of the process.

Um, I would tell you, one of the greatest things that we have here in our church is Norman Funderburg, is the mayor of the city of Umble.

He is a member of our church, he's a God-fearing man.

He is a man who leads with absolute integrity.

I would tell you, I love Norman Funderburg, and so many of you, whether you live in the city of Umble, have been very greatly impacted through this man's leadership.

He loves our community as a believer in Jesus Christ and his position as a mayor of the city.

Praise God for men like Norman Funderburg.

If you live in the city of Newcane, or you live in Newcane ISD, rather, uh, I want you to know that in the midst of the election coming up, you also have the opportunity to vote for school board members.

Be very, very involved in the school board election.

I'm very, very, very excited to be able to tell you that we've got one of our own, Dennis Alters, who is a God-fearing leader in our community.

He's a leader in our church.

And I'm just telling you, Dennis Alters is somebody who we want way more people, just like Dennis Alters, who don't look at the mud slinging of politics and not engage, but we need more Dennis Alters who are serving in positions of leadership in our community.

And I just want to encourage you, if you happen to be in that, I can't tell you how to who to vote for, but Dennis Alters is pretty awesome, all right?

Uh I see Mike Grobowski.

Mike's here in our church.

Uh, Mike is a member of the school board for Umble ISD.

Uh, we're gonna we're gonna get more and more folks involved.

I just want to encourage you.

Consider not just whether you should vote.

You should.

Consider not who you should vote for.

You need to do your homework and you need to make sure that you vote for God-fearing people and do the best that you possibly can with two imperfect candidates.

But I just want to consider, I I would love nothing more than for it to be said that out of United City Church, he raises up local, state, national people who run for office, who view the fact that God has called them to be a part of the process, not just to critique the process, but to be a part of the process of change, and we need more God-fearing people like Mike and people like Dennis and people like Norman and others to be a part of the process.

Let's pray together if we can.

Father, we come before you and we do pray that you would raise up many more people who are God-fearing, who believe in you, who love truth, and we want to see your kingdom advanced here on this earth as it is in heaven.

We're in positions of power and leadership.

Father, we know that ultimately, while we have a say in this election that's coming up, ultimately you are the one who puts people in the positions of authority.

So, Father, may we honor them.

May in the words that we say, in our passion, let it not overtake our Christian witness.

May we, Father, in these days, Lord, vote our values.

May we care about the things that you care deeply about.

Father, may we do so in a way that is wins.

Allowing a neighbor who may vote completely opposite us across the street to still want to be a part of our family, to still be a part of our friendship, to still be a part of our fellowship here at United City.

Father, we pray that you would guide and direct us and lead us today, even as we open up your word together.

It's in the name of Jesus that I pray.

Amen.

Hey, grab your Bibles, 1 Corinthians chapter 8.

1 Corinthians 8 · chapter mention

First Corinthians chapter 8 is where we're gonna spend a little bit of time today.

1 Corinthians 8 · chapter mention

We are finishing up our series in the middle of the book of 1 Corinthians called Blurred Lines.

And today we're gonna specifically talk about our rights and our freedoms and how we're supposed to live with those.

I mentioned our right and our freedom to vote.

You should for sure do that, but it's way more than just voting.

All of us have rights and all of us have liberties, and we ultimately have to make a decision.

What is the guiding principle as to how we use those rights and express those rights and express those freedoms?

Because it can't be Paul's argument is this.

Well, if you can, then you then then you should do it.

That's not what Paul says is the guidance.

In fact, as believers, we should have a different moral compass.

We should have a different guidance, uh, a different a different compass that leads us in motivation of how to express our freedoms based on whether, despise just based on whether we can or not.

The argument in 1 Corinthians chapter 8 through chapter 10 is that people who know Jesus, who have a relationship with him, should be led by a different source.

1 Corinthians 8 · chapter mention

They should have different guidelines for what they do, what they choose, and how they live.

1 Corinthians chapter 8 and 1 Corinthians chapter 10, the reason why we're doing such a big chunk of scripture is because the issue at hand is food that is sacrificed to idols.

1 Corinthians 8 · chapter mention 1 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

And there was some controversy over how do you handle that.

Let me explain the context.

You kind of know a little bit about what was happening.

You have basically this pagan religions and they have these pagan temples, and you would have people that would bring sacrifices as per the pagan rituals, and they would bring the best animal possible.

But the entire animal wasn't necessarily sacrificed, just a portion of it.

And so what they would do is they would give this sacrifice, and then they would ultimately take the leftovers and they would sell them at a discounted rate.

Some entrepreneurs got together and they're like, there's a business opportunity here.

Like we have the opportunity to make some money, and so what we what we we the people that are that are that are giving them, the pagans, they're sacrificing, and because they're making these as sacrifices, they're not allowed to eat this meat.

The Christians, on the other hand, are poor.

They're over there looking at this.

These are prime cut meat sold at a discounted rate, and they're like, this is awesome, right?

And so they're buying up this meat right and left, and they're eating it.

And the problem was you have people that came out of this lifestyle who saw this as pagan idolatry, who now come over here and are Christian, and you see a food in front of them, and they know, well, wait a second, that was over here offered as a sacrifice.

And they're their minds, they're like, well, if it was offered as a sacrifice, then it must be tainted.

And so all these, they're telling these Christians, well, you're gonna be tainted if you eat this.

And these Christians are like, No, we're not.

What are you talking about?

And they're like, Well, there's like a demon in this pagan sacrifice that's being carried over into this cooked food.

Whereas I like to think whenever you smoke something, anything that's bad gets taken out of it, right?

Right?

Okay, so so so you have this whole thing where this question is, how do I handle food that is sacrificed to idols?

Now we don't have the same issue today.

This is obviously a cultural thing, and it's easy just to dismiss it and act like it's not there.

In fact, I would tell you, if you know of any cheap places to buy really good meat, if you'll find me after the service, I'll be out in the lobby.

I would love to know where that is because I for sure want to go and buy some of that.

But the issue is essentially what do you do in issues where there's a gray area?

Where like it's not super clear what do I, how do I handle this, and people disagree.

Let me give you a couple of gray areas that maybe over time I know I've dealt with, maybe you've had some experiences with as well.

I grew up in a situation to where if you were around the presence of alcohol, like you were in the same room where alcohol was, you were gonna go to hell.

And then I've been around other people who like had alcohol all the time.

They didn't abuse it, they didn't misuse it, they didn't get drunk, but they had alcohol and it was a very normal part of their deal.

And it was just like, what do I do with this?

I remember growing up watching the 230 kickoff on Fox, and you watched the 230 game, and it was awesome, but you had to be very, very careful and you had to be really, really attentive to the TV because the moment that that game was over, the Simpsons were gonna come on, and if you got caught watching The Simpsons, your life was over.

And then I'd go to church, and there were people quoting The Simpsons at church, and it was like, what in the world is going on here?

Okay, uh, I still to this day think that country music is from the straight, straight from the pit of hell.

I really do, okay.

My wife and my two girls drive around Northeast Houston like you can't have a good ride unless you got country music playing on the radio, right?

I've lost control of my home, all right?

It's not okay.

Some of you think Enneagram is the key to unlocking a relationship with somebody else.

What Enneagram number are you?

And once they tell you, it's like, oh, all of a sudden now I know who you are.

We understand each other, we know what this whole thing's like.

Some of you think Enneagram is a tool of Satan.

And you look at that and think it is a horrible, awful thing.

What do you do with these areas where it's gray?

It's not super clear what we're supposed to do.

First Corinthians chapter 8 deals with this.

1 Corinthians 8 · chapter mention

Let's begin reading in verse 1.

It says, now concerning food offered to idols, we know that all of us possess knowledge.

This knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

If anyone imagines that he knows something, but he does not yet know as he ought to know.

But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.

Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that an idol has no real existence, and that there is no God but one.

For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we exist.

From these three chapters, I've got three principles to guide you.

One from chapter eight, one from chapter nine, one from chapter ten.

Three principles to guide you for life as a believer.

The first one is this choose people over privileges.

That's the guiding principle of chapter eight.

Choose people over privileges.

The argument being made here in chapter eight is by these believers who are like, well, if I'm over here and I got this meal that's being presented in front of me, and I know that this food isn't tainted, I know that demons that is not gonna be in the meal, I know that that God isn't real, and so therefore, that God somehow can't have done any power or control over this food, then that knowledge trumps everything else, and so therefore, I can do whatever I want to do with my rights to eat whatever meal, and I shouldn't have anybody tell me that I can't.

And what Paul is arguing is that knowledge alone is not enough when it comes to how we live as a believer.

It instead says the motivating factor should be love.

Literally, I should lay down my rights and my freedoms if it makes you feel more comfortable.

Look at what it says beginning in verse 7.

However, not all possess this knowledge, but some, through former association with idols, eat food is really offered to an idol, and their conscience being weak is defiled.

Food will not commend us to God.

We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.

But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.

For if any one sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged?

If his conscience is weak to eat food offered to idols.

And so by your knowledge, this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died.

Thus sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.

Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat lest I make my brother stumble.

Simply put, if it's gonna cause a problem, don't do it.

Don't do it.

It doesn't mean that you can't do it.

It just means that you're choosing not to do it because it's not worth it.

Let me give you a couple of applications of this.

Uh, one very common one that's been used is that of the issue of alcohol.

The Bible is very clear.

It does not say that alcohol is strictly forbidden.

It does not say that you are not allowed to drink alcohol at all.

However, it has got tons, I mean literally tons of passages that speak to the wisdom whenever you're going to use alcohol if you choose to do so.

It gives you wisdoms and warnings telling you that you can't mess around with this thing.

Like you got to be very, very careful with it.

But let's say you heard those warnings and you've decided that you are able to drink alcohol and you want to enjoy it.

It's your rights and it's your freedoms.

And there's somebody else who comes over to your house, or somebody else that you're around, and that person is an alcoholic.

Or that person is struggling with alcohol.

It is a vice for that individual.

And what he's saying is that just because you can drink, you should lay down that right and that authority to do so in honor of somebody who, by doing so, you may give them the indication that they're good, they can handle it when the reality is they can't.

You instead should defer, it says, to a weaker brother.

Let me just stop right here and give you a little quick pastoral warning in Northeast Houston.

What I just said does not apply to anybody under 21.

I know that's shocking, but I just want to give you a heads up.

It is a sin and it is illegal to drink if you were under 21.

I know this is crazy that I'm about to have to say this.

I live in Northeast Houston, so I know that I need to.

If you are a parent, it is illegal and it is immoral and it is a sin to serve alcohol to kids who are under the age of 21.

And too many parents act like over here, I've got my rights and my freedoms to drink as though my rights and my freedoms have no bearing on people who are not allowed to do it, and they act in such a way where it's about their rights instead of saying, Are you wise in the way that you handle your home?

Like, are you making decisions that are gonna actually foster a relationship with alcohol that is biblical, or instead, are you feeding a life of addiction simply because you want to be cool?

That's just a side note right there.

Okay, let me back up.

Let me give you another example of this application of this principle.

I live in Northeast Houston, I have to say it.

Um another application of this, let's say you got a Netflix show.

Let's say you got a Netflix like kind of series of shows that you watch, and like they're your shows, and you love them, and you're all about it.

Okay, and if somebody comes over to your house and they may struggle with lust, they may struggle with something else, they may have some other kind of thing, and they're just not comfortable around those types of shows.

For them, it is better for them not to kind of like open up and watch some of those shows because it kind of leads them down a place where it's not going to be a positive thing.

And so, therefore, if you're over here and you say, Well, I've got my rights and my freedoms, it's my house, it's my Netflix account, it's my TV, I can do whatever I want to, he's saying that's not the right way to live.

Instead, we should say, Hey, is this okay if I watch this?

Like, are you good with this?

And if they show the slightest bit of hesitancy, then you're out.

Like you just don't watch it.

You can either watch it on your own, or maybe you don't need to watch it at all.

But either way, what you do is you don't exert my rights.

I instead live with this primary thought is this gonna be helpful to you?

And how can I love you in the way that I respond?

Now, some of you are thinking to yourself, maybe, well, man, that just means I'm gonna have to kind of constantly live worrying about other people think.

I'm not.

Trying to say that, but you probably need to live a lot more thinking about what other people think than you currently do.

Because most of us are really mostly concerned about how we look and about what we want to do and about our rights.

And what Paul is suggesting is that no, we live in such a way where I'm going to choose people over privileges.

I'm not going to demand my rights.

I'm instead going to say, hey, is this okay?

I want to make sure you're comfortable.

And if not, I won't do it.

It's totally fine.

Chapter 9, let's begin there.

Uh if we go to the beginning of chapter 9, really the first 18 verses talks about an argument over whether a pastor should get paid for his work or not.

I assume that you guys did not want me to do a deep exegetical study on that particular topic.

I'll give you the Cliff Notes version.

I am allowed to get a paycheck.

Now let's move on to verse 19, okay?

It talks about the way that a believer should live, particularly in the context of a church.

Pick up reading in verse 19 of 1 Corinthians 9.

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.

To the Jews I became as a Jew in order to win Jews.

To those under the law, I became as one under the law, though not being myself under the law, that I might win those under the law.

To those outside the law, I became as one outside the law, not being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ, that I might win those outside the law.

To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak.

I become all things to all people that by all means I might save some.

I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

The second principle to guide you as a believer, number two, choose the lost over liberty.

Choose the lost over liberty.

One of our core values here at United City is that lost people matter.

When I say that, I don't mean that saved people don't.

What I do mean is that there's a priority that is given to the fact that God has called us to be on mission.

That mission that he ultimately came to the earth for is to not only save us, but then we now are meant to try to get as many people to go to heaven with us as possible.

Like he's literally called us to evangelize the lost.

He's called us to be able to train up the next generation of pastors and church leaders to reach the lost.

Jesus taught himself that if you have a hundred sheep and 99 are all found and one of them gets lost, you leave the 99 and you go looking for the one that is missing.

We have this phrase that we say here at United City that the most important people are the next 100 at United City.

That's not to try to suggest that somehow you aren't important.

That's not what I'm trying to say.

It's instead trying to say that the reason why we exist is not to be a holy huddle, really glad that we got saved.

Our reason that we exist is to try to find everybody else that we possibly can that is all around us who don't know the hope and the joy that we have, and to try to lead them into a place of having a relationship with Jesus.

There's a priority, there is a preference, there is a distinct importance to reaching the lost.

Paul, his argument in chapter 9 is that look, I have every right to get paid.

Like I have every right to be compensated for all that I do, but I lay all that stuff down because none of the stuff matters.

What matters most is are we reaching the lost?

Are we reaching more people with the gospel?

I have liberties and I have rights that I can claim, but Paul's saying none of those things matter more than seeking and finding the lost.

What he's describing is what I pray is true about United City Church.

That we will do whatever it takes to reach the lost.

That literally anything short of sin we're all in on to go and reach the lost.

Like we believe that wholeheartedly.

Now we know that we're not changing the message.

We go back to the beginning of 1 Corinthians in the series called Red Flags, where we looked and saw 1 Corinthians 1, 2, and 3.

It made it very clear what the message is.

The message is Jesus Christ and him crucified.

That doesn't need updating, that doesn't need to be changed, that just needs to be the thing that we land on.

But once we've landed on the message, now we gotta go over here and talk about the methods, and we should update the methods as many times as we possibly can in order to make sure that the message gets heard.

So therefore, I don't treat the church like a cruise ship.

What does a cruise ship do?

Cruise ship, you come on, and the entire thing from the moment that you arrive is meant for you to have a great time.

It's meant to entertain you, it's meant to feed you, it's meant to meet your every need.

If you ever have a problem at any moment along the way along your cruise ship, you just go and find one of our great crew attenders and great crew members and let them know, and they will be more than happy to go in and try to figure out how your experience can be better.

And then at the end of the trip, what happens?

You get a comment card and you get to rate how all the various things went, and you get to tell them what they need to do in order to improve so that the next time you go on the cruise ship, it can be even better than the last one that you went on.

Church, we are not a cruise ship.

We are not a Christian.

We do not exist to entertain you and me.

It's not what we exist for.

We instead exist to try to get this message in whatever methods that we need to have in order to get it to those people that are not here right now.

Like that's our goal.

That's the purpose.

That's the point of all that we are doing.

And so we gotta ask questions like this: what are we gonna do to reach the lost?

How can I give of my resources to ensure that more people hear the gospel?

How can I serve?

Where can I go?

Where can I share so that more people will hear about the life-changing message of Jesus?

Practically, let's talk about what this means.

This means that for some of you, you need to go to Growth Track, you need to become a member of United City, you need to go talk to John, you need to go talk to Cody, you need to go talk to Lily, you need to go talk to somebody in our kids' team, and you need to go and shadow for a couple of weeks so we can train you and go through the trainings that we have in place so that you can go teach a third grade life group.

And you can tell these kids the fact that God not only has created them, but God has a plan and a purpose for their lives, and that God desires to be able to use them mightily, and you can tell people about Jesus through a third-grade serve team group.

Some of you, what you need to do is you need to go contact Carinet Pregnancy Center, an amazing ministry that we have the opportunity to partner with, and you need to go sign up to be a client advocate.

And what you'll do is you'll have the opportunity to go through a bunch of training, and after you've done all that training, then you'll be able to meet with an abortion-minded client who goes into the center, and you'll be able to sit down and tell them that God not only has a plan for their life, but also for the life of the unborn child that is inside of them.

And then only are you gonna be able to tell them about how the what they thought was an accident or what they thought was a mistake or what they thought was a tragedy can actually be a beautiful chapter in the story that God is writing in the midst of their lives, you also can have the opportunity to tell them, and oh, by the way, you have a savior who loves you, who wants a relationship with you, who died on a cross, rose from the dead, and he wants to call you his.

Maybe that's what some of you need to do.

Maybe some of you need to sign up for a mission trip.

I have a number of mission trips for the rest of this year.

We got a bunch scheduled for next year as well, where we're gonna be going on mission trips to go and visit places, uh, some of our national church plants, some of our international church plants.

Whenever you sign up for a mission trip, we're gonna train you how to share your faith.

And what you will discover is that whenever you're thrown in the midst of a mission trip and everybody's there and they're all trying to share their faith, even if you don't know the language, you're gonna find boldness and courage to be able to speak because the Holy Spirit is gonna speak a word behind you and he's gonna tell you what it is that you say.

And then whenever you come back home, because you've been trained and you know what it's gonna look like, you're gonna see you've got the same boldness and the same courage to go across the street that you did to go talk to that person in a different language.

Maybe for some of you, that's exactly what you need to do.

Maybe for some of you, what you need to do instead of signing up for that softball team or signing up for that baseball team or signing up for that volleyball team and thinking that this is the key to a college scholarship or this is the key to my child being able to fulfill all of their dreams instead.

Is it possible that maybe God has you on that team to be a missionary around those people who don't know Jesus?

Is it possible that God wants to use the thing that you love the most to be the very means by which you get to talk about Him the most?

But it's a radically different set of thinking because one says all about how can I make this work best for me?

This one says, How can I use this thing that I love that God has given to me to actually work best for him?

Folks, you gotta choose the lost over liberty.

How do you know you've won?

Look at what it says in verse 24.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize?

So run that you may obtain it.

Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.

They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we and imperishable.

So I do not run aimlessly.

I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Literally, our goal is not a trophy at the end of the season or any amount of worldly possessions.

Our trophy and our prize should be seeing people baptized, discipled, and connected to the Lord and his church, because I know that will outlast any temporary prize.

We have so far this year seen 247 people baptized at United City Church, which is absolutely amazing.

And we want to pray and we want to beg and we want to ask that God would allow us to have even more because as a staff team, we got together this morning and we not only talked about and we celebrated the fact we have five people scheduled to be baptized, we talked about every single one of their stories.

We talked about the fact that this morning we had in our first service, Max comes to my house every single Sunday night for life group, for freshman group.

He's a drummer, he's a freshman at Summer Creek High School.

And struggling with this decision for quite a while, but man had that unbelievable joy all over his face.

We had the opportunity to baptize a teenager from Humble High School out of a brand new life group that has started on Wednesday nights to try to target and reach kids from Humble High School.

And we had the opportunity to baptize them.

We had the opportunity to baptize a senior at K Park, which is an incredible opportunity.

We had the opportunity to baptize a mom and her daughter.

I mean, how great is this, folks?

There's story after story after story after story after story.

And what I want you to see is this is that that's the prize.

That's the goal.

That's the win.

It's not to get your guy elected, it's to reach people for Jesus.

Like, I don't want to act like those two things are mutually exclusive, but we got to make sure one doesn't save us, the other one does.

So don't in the midst of your politics lose your witness.

But instead realize that we should live and act and lead in such a way where we see how can I lead more people to Jesus?

How can I help our church get more people to come and to hear about Jesus?

How can I do whatever it takes?

What do I need to give so that more people know about Jesus?

Look at 1 Corinthians 10, go down to verse 23.

The beginning of chapter 10 speaks a lot about the same topic of chapter 8.

And he kind of shifts and almost makes like a summary section in this last part of chapter 10.

Pick up with me in verse 23.

All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful.

All things are lawful, but not all things build up.

Let no one seek his own good but the good of his neighbor.

Same idea we've been seeing over and over again.

Skip down to me to verse 31.

It's almost like a summary statement.

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Third thing I want you to see from chapter 10.

Final principle to live as a believer.

Number three, choose glory over grind.

Choose glory over grind.

And our daily lives can feel like a grind.

Our normal can feel like a duty.

Our existence from day to day can feel like a burden.

Because it is live.

We know how this works.

Whenever you win, you know what people say?

Can you win next week?

Can you have a good year?

What do people say?

What about next year?

It's just this constant feeling.

It's just never enough.

So what God is inviting us to do is to have meaning and significance where everything that we do and every interaction that we have and every breath that we take can be used as an opportunity, not to live for ourselves, but to live for Him.

Where we don't just try to make ends meet and do the best we can.

But instead, we see the fact that God wants us to be fulfilled in a way that is beyond what a spouse or relationship could ever give us.

He wants to show you a calling in your life where everything that you do can be for a holy ambition.

He wants to give you a reason for getting up and going to the office that is beyond just providing for your family, but instead is providing for the kingdom.

He wants to see your school not as a means to the next step, but as an opportunity to learn and to educate yourself so that you can have greater gospel impact.

He wants to fill you with this Holy Spirit so that you can see, no matter how many people are looking or how many people are watching, you know that God's looking and God's watching.

And because of that, you can live with a holy awareness and a holy opportunity.

God doesn't just want the Sunday parts of you, He wants the whole thing.

He wants to redeem every single thing that you do, He wants to see the things that you hide on your phone.

He wants to see the thoughts that you have when you're all alone.

And he wants those things to be holy.

But everything that you do, everything that you say, everything that you listen to, everything that you look at, everything that you think, and every reaction that you have can all be used for holy things.

Would you bow your heads and would you close your eyes?

Instead of your life being a grind, living for your glory.

I want to close in a little bit of a different way.

To live for his glory.

I want you to get your hands out, both hands, and I want you to first of all cover your eyes.

Put your hands over your eyes.

Everybody, do it with me, please.

Cover your eyes.

Would you protect our eyes from vile things?

And at the very same time, would you give us eyes to see those who are hurting, those who are desperate, those who are in the midst of the crowds that feels all alone?

Would you put your hands over your ears for me, please?

Just put your hands on your ears.

Lord, I pray that everything that I hear would be pleasing and honoring to you.

Would you guard my ears from unworthy talk?

But instead, what you let me live each day, listening closely to your voice, so that I can glorify you.

May I my ears hear a word behind them saying, This is the way walking.

May we do it.

I want to ask you to put your hands on your head.

Lord, would you protect our minds and let them be transformed?

Let them be used by you.

Help me not to think about thoughts, about my interests, my comforts.

But let us be a people who lead with love and think about others.

Give us a mind that thinks about others, thinks about the lost, thinks about your glory.

Put your hands over your mouth.

Lord, I give you my mouth.

Speak good and not evil.

Father, we want our lips to be used to spread the good news of Jesus.

Would you protect us from speech which doesn't build up, but let our tongue be a source of life?

I ask that you put your hands out in front of you face up.

Lord, I give you my hands to do good for others.

I am ready to act.

You tell me to act.

I'm ready to give.

But let it also indicate our willingness and desire to be a blessing to others with what you've blessed us with.

You can put your hands away.

Just continue to keep your heads bowed and your eyes closed.

Where's the Lord telling you to go?

What's he wanting you to do?

Would you commit right now to follow him?

Some of you need to begin a relationship with God.

Your life is all about you.

And you're seeing it just never adds up.

It's never enough.

It's because you weren't made to live for yourself.

You were instead made for a relationship with the one who created you.

So I want to invite you to give your life to Jesus today.

Trust in him.

Turn from your sins and give your life to Jesus.

Pray this simple prayer with me.

Dear God, I want to know you.

I don't want to live for me anymore.

I want to live for you.

I believe you died on a cross for me.

I believe that you rose from the dead, and right now I receive you into my life.

Thank you for forgiving me.

I'm going to ask you to do something here in just a moment.

Just a second, we're all gonna stand up.

If you're in the balcony, you need to make a decision.

We've got some folks that are gonna be at the bottom of each one of these steps.

You just come straight there.

If you're not making a decision today, I'm gonna ask that you not leave early.

If you not shuffle around, it is a major distraction, and I'm asking you not to do it.

Those of you that are on the floor, you need to make a decision today in just a moment.

We've got some folks that are gonna be in the front.

I'm gonna decide to ask the same thing of you.

If you're making a decision today, I'm gonna ask that you come forward right away.

If you're not, please do not leave early.

Please do not shuffle around.

You stay right where you are.

I promise you we'll be done in just a moment.

If you're here today and you just gave your life to Jesus, I'm gonna ask you in just a moment to come forward.