Will It Stick? | Pastor Chris Kouba

Grab your Bibles, open with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

1 Corinthians chapter 1.

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

I do want to take this opportunity to greet all of the men and the women at our correctional facilities and those joining us online.

Let's give them a hand and celebrate the fact that we get the chance to greet you.

If you have uh been a part of United City Church for any length of time or you have any relationship or know me at all, then you know that one of the uh personality traits that I uh have in, I like to call it leadership.

I don't know if that's really the case, it's probably something else, but when I am into something, I am all into that thing.

Anyone else out there with me like that?

Like whenever you kind of have a thing, you kind of have a hobby, you spend more money than you're supposed to spend, you spend more time than you're supposed to spend, you spend more energy and effort on those types of things.

I'm kind of one of those people that like I just get all in on what I'm in on.

And I mean, I'm a I tell everybody about it, and I make sure to talk to other folks and tell them how great that they could be for them.

And that is because of that personality trait along the way, there's been some things over the years that I've now look back on, and because I have the benefit of time and the benefit of wisdom, I'm wondering, what was I thinking?

Like, why did I do that?

Like, I don't understand why I got so into that, why that was such a big deal, but at the time it was a big thing.

Let's just try a couple of things.

One, uh, any trapper keeper folks along the way?

Any folks that have trapper keepers?

Any of you remember trapper keepers?

Y'all know what I'm talking about?

Uh you guys, at least y'all have heard of them, right?

You know what I'm talking about, okay?

Like, I it was not cool whenever you were little to be able to admit that you were super into organization, but I was super into organization.

Like I loved it.

I loved having everything nice and tidy and great.

Uh, but I wanted to look cool doing it, and Trapper Keeper was my answer.

All right.

Uh basically, these were just notebooks like you would normally have, but they were super cool notebooks that you could like trade and that you could have.

And so therefore, I was all into trapper keepers.

All right.

Anybody along the way, did you burn custom CDs?

Any burn custom CDs, folks?

Raise your hands, please.

Raise custom C's.

Okay, just so you know, it's illegal, all right?

You just admitted that you did it, all right?

But I did it too.

I was all about custom CDs.

In fact, there was one, Hillary Haynes, who is now Hillary Haynes Cuba, okay, that I was trying to court whenever she was a student at Bailey University.

And so in Waco, I was known to go and to get the keys to her car, to go into her car when she did not know, and be able to put a custom love song CD into the CD player, so that whenever she started that bad boy up, she just had songs that she knew were from me.

All right, she stood no chance.

I had heard no question about it.

I was all about, I had custom CDs for everything, you know, every kind of mood you were in, all right?

Instead of making playlists like you would have on Spotify or Apple Music today, man, you had custom CDs that you would put, and if you're really fancy, you had a six CD changer in that car, and you could just pick your mood and you can listen to whatever it is that you had custom CD and you could buy.

We love these types of things, but I look back and I'm wondering, I don't even own a CD player today to be able to play that.

So, like it was great in the moment, but it didn't really last.

There's a lot of things in life that we have that are like that.

Have you, I'm not gonna ask you to raise your hand, don't want to cause anybody to be exposed.

Has anybody done any of the fad diets that are out there?

I mean, I'm all in on some of these, all right?

You know, you've got Weight Watchers, all right, you've got Atkins.

I totally went through a juice cleanse phase where I was juicing all the time.

Green smoothies, we we did dream smoothies for years.

I mean, we totally go through these types of fads and these types of diets because everything we're trying to do, we're trying to experience change.

Let's be honest.

What we really want is lasting change that requires the least amount of effort and the least amount of change from what we're currently doing.

Which is why we do these things because they they do work, but eventually we get tired of them.

And eventually we want something else that we can kind of grab onto, and maybe we go to the next new fad or the next new thing.

And if we were honest and we were to look back at our lives, we would say, I'm not really sure why I did that.

I'm not really sure why I spent so much time thinking about that.

What I found is true with our lives is also true with our spiritual lives.

We want the quick fix, we want something that's gonna be changing in our lives.

And so some of you may even be here at United City Church because the last church that you were at for a couple of years didn't work out, and if you were to think about it, the church before that also didn't work out.

And if you think about it, the church before that didn't work out.

You may be the common denominator in all of those places.

But let's be honest, what we do is we kind of just bounce because we assume, well, there's gotta be something else that's gonna allow me to experience lasting change that is gonna cause the least amount of disruption to my current life.

Maybe some of you do that with a group.

Maybe you bounce from one group to another group and to another group and to another group, and maybe some of you are like, this is why I don't even do groups, because my last one didn't work.

Essentially, what you're saying is that you kind of bounce from place to place, and now you've just given up on the process altogether.

Maybe some of you, it's spiritual disciplines.

At the beginning of the year, you're gonna read your Bible, at the beginning of the year, you're gonna pray more.

All of these are great things, and all of these can bring about great change, but maybe you find yourself not feeling it as easy as it used to be.

And so, because of that, you're looking for something else.

The question ultimately I want us to wrestle with today is this how do I experience lasting change?

Not like three-month, six-month, a year type change.

I'm talking like I'm totally different than I was before type change.

Like, how do I experience that kind of change in my life?

I would argue today that if you want to experience lasting change, the only way it's gonna happen is if you experience spiritual change.

Because when you experience spiritual change, it allows you to have the ability to change in all areas of your life.

We're continuing in a series today called Red Flags.

We're looking through the book of 1 Corinthians, and what we're gonna look is that there was one specific issue that Paul needed to address in the church at Corinth, and the issue was over how do you experience change.

You had a bunch of people who were throwing out their ideas and throwing out their suggestions as to how to change, but the reality is it's basically like talking about trapper keepers.

It's cool for a little bit, but eventually it's gonna fade out.

And eventually it's gonna be replaced by something else, or eventually you're gonna look back and wonder, why did I even do that in the first place?

Let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

Let's pick up the reading in verse 18.

He says, For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing.

But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.

Where is the one who is wise?

Where is the scribe?

Where is the debater of this age?

Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified.

A stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Here's the guiding principle that I want to present to you today from this text, and it is this the cross leads to spiritual change.

The cross leads to spiritual change.

The cross of Jesus Christ is where the power is, is what he says.

The cross of Jesus Christ is where the wisdom is.

The cross of Jesus Christ is where transformation takes place, which can lead to change that actually sticks.

You have to know how crazy this would sound to the audience there in Corinth.

That of all things that Paul could choose to say is the wisdom of God and the power of God, the cross is a crazy suggestion.

It would be like in our days saying the electric chair is the power of God.

The methods of terrorists and how they use those methods to terrorize people, it is the power of God.

Like it just wouldn't even add up.

I want you to understand when the audience heard this, they were like, this is crazy stuff.

Yet what we see is that the cross of Jesus Christ is so powerful, it is so wise, it allows it to become something that instead of being something that is so repulsive, you wouldn't talk about it, you wouldn't look at it, and you certainly wouldn't be something that you would want to celebrate, is now become the very symbol and the very thing that we wear around our chest, that we put on our worship centers, that we put and we see and immediately gives us hope.

Why?

Because ultimately it is the cross of Jesus Christ that has power.

Look at what the Bible says.

Keep reading.

Uh in fact, here's what I want to do.

I want to walk you through how the cross can lead to spiritual change.

I'll give you three things.

First thing is this the father initiates at the cross.

The father initiates at the cross.

Remember, the city of Corinth, we talked about this last week, is a world-class city, had all of the top athletes, all of the top musicians, all of the top philosophers, all of the top speakers, all of the top business people.

So the red flag of the day was that Paul was basically saying, there's too many of you who are trying to rely on your business skills, to rely on your singing, to rely on your speaking, to rely on your athleticism, to rely on all of your skills to be able to put forward to think that if I'm just good enough, if I work hard enough, then I can arrive.

And I can be found acceptable to a God who's gonna want me on their team.

Instead says, actually, the cross is the power, not you.

It says there that he makes the Jews and the Greeks like this doesn't make any sense to them.

He says the Jews demand signs and the Greeks wanted wisdom.

The Jews, when they were demanding signs, it was about control.

They're essentially saying this, I want to come to you, but I'll come to you on my terms.

So therefore they say this.

Okay, I will come to you if you improve my marriage.

I will devote myself to Jesus if he heals my child.

I will follow Christ if he allows me to keep my autonomy and my freedom and get to do the things that I want to do and not have to do the things that I don't want to do.

I will become a Christian if he performs some miracle on demand when I want at the time that I need it done.

If you were a Greek, you would seek wisdom.

Wisdom means this.

I want to have a logical explanation to every single thing that I see.

And so, therefore, you see that the cross of Jesus Christ is not logical.

It makes no sense.

They wanted to have everything in a neat little box that they could put it in, and the cross is far outside of that box because think about it.

No one along the way is gonna look at the longing in their heart and is gonna look at the problems of this world and gonna think, you know what we should do?

We should have the creator of the universe, he should send his one and only son down to the earth to live on the earth.

He should live a perfect, sinless, obedient life.

He should then be condemned by a Roman court to be able to be executed for crimes that he didn't commit, and then he should die on a cross, the worst possible thing in all of existence at the time.

He should raise from the dead three days later, and then he should offer all of his righteousness in exchange for all of your sin by you putting your faith and your trust in him.

No one's coming up with that.

Like, no one's like, This is what we should do.

It does not happen.

So, what he shows is that the cross belows all of the natural expectations, and that is ultimately what gives it the power.

Look at verse 25 again.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

For consider your calling brothers, not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many of you were uh powerful, not many of you were of noble birth, but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no one, no human being might boast in the presence of God.

Here's what this means you're not so smart that you found Jesus.

You are not so strong that you worked your way to Jesus.

You are not so gifted and so talented and so inspirational when God was up in heaven choosing teams, he's like, Man, I gotta have them.

Like we're nothing if we don't have them.

They're my number one draft pick.

Nobody he said that about.

And I tell you that because what I want you to see is not that you're not worth it.

What I want you to see is you're so not worth it, that makes it even more amazing that you got chosen.

That the Father came to you and said, Hey, I know you know you don't deserve this, but I want you on my team.

I want you to be with me.

First Corinthians 2 14.

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

What does this show us?

That shows us that it's the Father who initiates with us.

It's God who draws you to himself.

We are totally and utterly depraved before a holy God.

The Bible says that even our good deeds are considered as filthy rags before God.

Ephesians chapter 2 says, You were dead in a trespass in sin, meaning there was no sign of life.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

There was no you're so smart you figured it out.

There was no you're so strong you made it happen.

Nothing.

You were dead.

And Romans chapter 5, verse 8 says, But God shows his love for us.

Romans 5:8

And that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The very fact that salvation occurs shows the cross of God is pursuing you.

It's not you finding him.

And praise God that this is the case, that God the Father not only did, and that God the Father not only does, but that God the Father continues to initiate and to call people to himself.

John chapter 3, verse 16 says this, for God so loved the world.

John 3:16

Don't miss these words.

Any cave.

God the Father initiates at the cross.

Second way, and the second reason why we can say the cross leads to spiritual change.

Number two is Jesus saves at the cross.

Jesus saves at the cross.

Look, something happened at the cross that makes it just way more than just an execution of someone who was condemned by Romans as a criminal.

Like there was something way different that happened in that moment.

This is why the cross doesn't serve as an example or doesn't serve as something we're supposed to emulate.

It is something that we are supposed to receive.

Jesus took upon himself the wrath of sinners like you and me.

He paid a debt on the cross that we could never pay.

This is so hard to understand, but it's also impossible to get over.

Every other religion in existence has different interpretations of the same basic premise.

Here is what you need to do in order to get to God.

Christianity is fundamentally different.

It says, This is what God did in order to come to you.

He sent his son Jesus to die on a cross, and what has been done for you can now be received.

1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 18.

1 Corinthians 1:18

Let me read it again.

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing.

But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

I'll be the first to admit it'd be much easier if our message here at United City Church was here are five steps to becoming a better you.

Like it'd be a lot easier if I could give you like leadership messages and leadership talks and just be able to sprinkle a Bible verse in and tell you to go do great, do great things in the midst of your leadership.

Like, please hear me.

If we would be way more attractive in the community, if we would just give TED talks so we make sure we don't talk too long, and then we also then just sprinkle in a little inspirational thought and tell you you'd be the best version of yourself that you could possibly be.

But all of those things are like custom burned CDs.

They're really good for a moment, but eventually you're not gonna have anything to play them on.

It's not gonna last.

You're gonna want something more, you're gonna want something deeper.

You're gonna want something that can actually bring about change.

Make no mistake about it.

The power of God is found in a bloody cross.

First Romans chapter 1, verse 16 says this, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel.

Romans 1:16

For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

To the Jew first and also to the Greek.

That means it's the power of God for all of us.

If you want to experience change, it happens at the cross.

It comes through the gospel message that you were sending and that God the Father pursued you, he initiated, and Jesus accomplished something for you on the cross that now changes everything.

First Corinthians chapter 2.

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

Look at what it says in verse 1.

I and I, when I came to you brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.

For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

So that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Back in 1 Corinthians 1 21, it says that it's from the folly, Paul says, of what we preach that led to the wisdom of God.

Paul is essentially saying this it wasn't because of my great presentation, it wasn't because of my great oratory or anything about me.

I decided to do one thing, and that's preach about Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Let me just tell you, I I really, really love our church.

Like I love our church.

I think our church is pretty awesome.

Uh I think that our facilities are great and gonna be significantly better here just in literally a few short weeks.

It's gonna be pretty cool to see how it's gonna be even better facilities.

I would tell you, I think our worship is really, really good.

Like it's just exceptionally good.

Uh, I would tell you, I think our small group strategy is totally on point.

And the idea of you getting into a group and getting connected isn't perfect, but I would simply tell you this: it's designed for you to be able to find a place of connection and for discipleship relationships to take place.

I think it's totally on point.

I would tell you it's a maze.

I'm so grateful for the fact that we have a kid's ministry who's gonna let you have a lot of fun in a really safe environment, but we're not just gonna basically entertain and babysit, we're actually gonna teach them about Jesus.

We're gonna open up God's word and we're gonna show you what it says, and we're gonna give the kids from the very young age a hunger and a thirst for God's word.

Can I tell you that our youth ministry is absolutely incredible?

It's amazing what takes place in this room on Wednesday nights.

It's amazing to be able to see so many students who've been able to find a relationship with Jesus, who've been able to invite their friends, and they've been able to experience a relationship with Jesus.

And that story goes on and on and on again.

Can I tell you how proud I am and how excited I am about the community ministry and outreach of our church?

The fact that we have the ministry that we do into prisons, the fact that we have the ministry that we do in other languages, the fact that we have the ministry and the access that we do in the local schools and in our community.

It's absolutely amazing.

Can I tell you how much I love the fact that at our church, the thing you're gonna hear every single week, whenever somebody comes up here to preach, they're gonna start off by saying this open your Bibles too, because that's what we teach.

Can I let you guys in on a little secret though?

We say the same thing every single week.

Have you noticed that?

We haven't updated our message in decades.

Literally, we say the exact same thing every week.

Like if you're kind of new here and maybe you only go to Easter and you only go to Christmas, I want to just give you a little bit of a heads up.

We tell the same story every time you come.

We have not updated it at all.

We literally tell you about this baby that was born and we tell you about this resurrection that took place.

It's the same thing every single year.

But can I tell you, despite the fact that we have not updated our message in literally decades, can I also tell you this every single week?

People get saved.

Like you're gonna update this up.

No.

Like we literally do the same thing.

Jesus Christ and him crucified.

This is why we tell you that you need to have at least one person that you're praying for who needs to know Jesus, Homer, who just got baptized.

We heard the story about Michael Coughlin.

I don't know where Homer, where you are, but you were the one that Michael Coughlin was praying for on a continual basis.

You came to our Easter service and you gave your life to Jesus, and you just walked up there and made a public testimony about that.

The reason why we tell you to share your faith with others is because for some reason, this really weird story about this God in heaven who sent his son down to the earth, who lived a perfect life, who died on a cross, and he rose from the dead, changes people like Homer.

Changes people like Homer.

It's also the reason why we tell you to invite people to church because you know, you already know what I'm gonna say.

I say the same thing every single week.

I know some of you are thinking, that's not true.

Last time I invited somebody to church, and you talked about giving.

All right.

And you know what we've seen?

Is that when you talk about giving at the end of the service, you also talk about the one who you will never be able to outgive, who is the greatest giver of all, who gave his son Jesus, who came to this earth, he lived a perfect sinless life, he died on the cross, he rose from the dead, and you know what we've seen is on giving messages.

I can't explain it.

But it goes something like this.

People come forward in our public invitation, which we believe in personal and public next time, and they come forward and they say this.

Everything about who you are.

And not only that, but about who you become.

The cross leads a spiritual change.

Number one, because the Father initiated the cross, number two, Jesus saves of the cross, final thing is the Holy Spirit is changing you at the cross.

The Holy Spirit is changing you at the cross.

The cross isn't just this event in the past that bears into my future because one day I'm gonna experience eternal life with him as though something over there affects something in the future and doesn't affect me now because here's what I want you to see is that the cross of Jesus Christ is being applied to me in the present.

The Bible actually describes this as the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit begins to live inside of me, and what happens, I begin to notice, is that now all of a sudden the things that I used to want to do, I no longer want to do.

I want to do different stuff, but I can't explain it.

It wasn't like I just figured it out.

I just begin to be drawn towards godliness.

I begin to experience conviction in my life where before I didn't really care about that kind of stuff, but now I'm kind of like, I don't know if I should be doing that.

God, what are you wanting to do in me?

And you it's one of those things that you just kind of look up and you're like, I'm just I didn't like set out and think I'm gonna be more kind or I'm gonna be more loving or I'm gonna be more patient, but you just kind of look up and all of a sudden God just has begun to work on you in such a way that it happens.

Look at what 1 Corinthians 2 verse 11, it describes this process for who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person which is in him.

1 Corinthians 2:11

So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the spirit of God.

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things really given us by God.

And we impart this in words, not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the spirit, interpreting spiritual truth to those who are spiritual.

And the cross changes you, and then only changes your eternal destiny, changes how you think, changes how you feel, you begin to see things from God's perspective, and it leads to a life where change.

Spiritual change at last.

Take a look and see what this looks like.

I really shouldn't be here, but God had a crazy plan.

It started a long time ago, right?

Growing up, I uh I just never never went to church.

Uh, never heard about the gospel.

Literally, my first memory as a kid is my mom cheated on my dad, he found out it just wasn't a good situation.

He had a gun and he takes my mom, drags her into a into a bedroom, puts her head through the window.

There was a lot of screaming and cussing and fighting.

I ended up living with my mom in Porta, Texas.

But my mom just wasn't the mom that I needed.

She uh was on drugs.

Uh my dad, you know, he he wasn't around a lot to lead me and guide me.

He just felt really abandoned in my life.

And the reality was that I was I wasn't loved.

Ended up meeting a girl along the way and then uh had a kid pretty quick.

Uh DWI had seven felonies spread out between two different counties, so that eventually led to me uh going to prison.

You know, it wasn't great when I got out.

I was a complete monster.

Um and I was treating her obviously not good.

Uh stole from her money like the house we lived in, I created the same house that I lived in when I was a kid.

And over and over she would kick me out.

So um I would try to get my way back in.

But I I just I I can't I cannot do it.

I can't.

I I just can't.

I had lived so long in the in this in the darkness.

I'd lived so long in this this shadow world.

I I was hiding in the shadow world, but I had started started to see this light, and I had got some sobriety.

And uh then I was coming to church.

When I would come to church, it was like the the pastor was like, he was talking directly.

There was nobody else here, nobody else was in the church.

He was talking directly to me, and it it literally opened my eyes.

How could he how could he do that for me?

How?

I I know what I've done, I know how I've hurt people.

I I tried quitting, I tried doing all the things myself, and it never worked.

God was with me in all those moments.

Time when I overdosed.

I ended up in the hospital.

He was there.

I'm telling you, I know he was there.

In the prison, my family didn't care about me and forgot me, but God was there.

He was there.

All the pain and the suffering that I went through wasn't for nothing.

He was there.

You know, there's been a generation that's been changed now.

Um, like I said, my family, there wasn't talk to Jesus or God or any of those things, and so now that that talk.

See, my parents, they had never, they didn't love me.

I was abandoned.

I was forgotten.

God did not forget.

I mean, he said he sent his son for me to die for me.

And so I found that that true love in him.

And I know my father, my heavenly father will never feel.

I know Jesus will never feel.

And there's a lot of things that tell you, do this, take this, try this, do all these things, but there is only one hope.

And that hope is in Jesus.

There's only one way that you can really turn from that life and turn to a life in Him and have true purpose, and that's what I have.

I want to ask you to let me be the one speaking to you, and you're the only one in the room.

You experienced lasting change.

I want you to know that James's story can be your story.

You need to know this.

You don't have to be in prison in order to be behind bars.

Some of you are in total bondage due to your past, due to your choices, due to the thoughts that are in your head.

God wants you to be free.

He wants you to experience life.

I want you to know that you can do that with a cross.

You can experience change.

I can't really fully explain it.

I just don't want to see it.

I want you to know this.

You don't have to be able to explain it all.

I want you to experience that same change in your life.

All you gotta do is come to the end of yourself.

Stop trying to change and fix yourself.

Turn your life over to Jesus.

Let me ask you to pray this simple prayer faith with me if that's you right now.

But I just want to give you a heads up.

Change your life.

Just pray these words, dear God.

I want to receive your son Jesus to be my Lord, to be my Savior.

I believe that He died on a cross for me.

I believe that He rose from the dead.

Right now, I invite you to fill me with your Holy Spirit to forgive me.

Change me.

Forgive me.

I want you to keep your heads bowed and your eyes closed.

If you are here today and you just pray that prayer faith with me, I want you to know this.

We're believing public next steps.

We don't want you to be quiet.

We don't want you to be cautious.

We want you to be bold.

And so in just a moment, we're all gonna stand up and that's gonna be your cue.

That it's time.

There's gonna be some folks at the heads of the aisles and on the sides.

You just go to the first one closest to you.

You just tell them that you just prayed and gave your life to Jesus.

Others of you need to come and join United City Church.

I want you to know this, we're not a perfect church, but we're gonna talk about a perfect Jesus.

We're gonna talk about the cross.

We're not gonna update our message, we're not gonna change it, we're not gonna somehow figure out a way to enhance it.

We want to tell the same thing 50 years and a hundred years that we're saying right now.

That's that God sent his one and only son, Jesus, to die on a cross.

Rose from the dead.

You want to be a part of a church that's not gonna change its message, even if it changes its methods.

You come and be a part of United City Church.

Maybe some of you need to be baptized like these two that we saw.

Maybe that's your public next step.

I can just see on Homer's face, he just was giving me the fist just there in the back of the service.

I'm telling you, he loved every aspect of that, and what an unbelievable story and testimony it is, Homer.

So grateful to see how God's moving and working in your life.

Can that be your story too?

Maybe your next step today is to go public by believers' baptism.

Would you come?

Let us schedule that.

Maybe others need prayer today.

You've got a need, you've got a family member, you've got a friend, you've got someone that you know that needs to know Jesus.

You desperately want them to experience his grace.

Would you just come and let us pray with you by name for that person?

Father, I pray you'd move in these moments we have left.

Thank you in advance.

The power of the cross, the wisdom of the cross is better than anything else that we could ever come up with.

And so, Father, I pray that we would let the cross do its work in these moments.

Let people respond and make decisions today that they'll be so glad that they did.

In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

Would you stand up?

And as you stand, our team is up front.

We are ready to receive you.

You come as God is leading you to respond.

Come on.

He continues to move each and every week in our church.

I hope that as you leave here today, that you will have the gospel of Jesus Christ as close to your heart.

You will have the gospel of Jesus Christ not only apply, but it would be something that you talk about.

It's not something that we just basically keep to ourselves, it's something that we are supposed to declare to the world because it is the hope, it is the power of God in every way.

Hey, I want to encourage you if you want to know more about United City, uh, the best place to do that is through Growth Track.

Growth Track takes place during this hour.

We've got services at 8:30 and 11, uh, excuse me, 8:30 and 11:30 that you can go to.

But at 10 o'clock is when we meet for Growth Track.

And so if you've never been to Growth Track, let me encourage you to consider being a part of that four weeks.

We'd love to have you be in that.

Also, just want to give you a heads up.

Next week, uh, you're gonna come into the lobby, it's gonna look a little bit different.

Uh, I've invited some friends of mine from Israel.

Uh, whenever I take groups that go there, we have an opportunity to let folks come and to buy some of those beautiful olive wood carvings.

And uh obviously things with what's going on in Israel right now, that is not able to take place.

And so uh it looks something like this right here.

And so just want to let you know uh there'll be some opportunities for you to perhaps buy some Christmas gifts and things like that.

Just for you to you don't have to do this.

I'm just giving you a heads up that that's gonna be coming.

But I mainly want to also do this as a way just to remind us uh that we need to be praying for Israel.

We need to be praying for the peace of Jerusalem.

The Bible tells us very clearly that that is one of the things that we are to do, and those who bless Israel will be blessed.

Doesn't mean we bless and think everything Israel does is perfect, but it does mean this.

We want to make sure that we bless the nation of Israel and believe in what God is doing.

And so I'm gonna have some of my friends here next week uh that are gonna be not only selling these opportunities for you to pick up some Christmas gifts, but also we're gonna have a chance to be able to just hear a little bit of an update of how we can more specifically play for the believers that are in Israel and that are in the surrounding regions.

Uh, of course, we saw this past week with some of the activity and things that were taking place uh that the tensions are very, very high.

So we want to continue to pray for what God is doing there and asking that God in his favor would go before the nation and the people of Israel.

I'm gonna pray for us as we close.

Father in heaven, we come before you and we thank you.

Thank you so much, God, for the fact that you meet us where we are.

Thank you for the power of the gospel.

Thank you for the power of the cross, thank you for the wisdom of the cross.

Thank you, Lord, that it is the thing that truly saves.

We pray, God, that with the difficulty of all the situation that's taking place overseas as well, that somehow in your way, God, you would apply the cross to that.

And that, God, we would be able to experience peace, that you would be able to experience unity, and that God, you would be able to allow the gospel to be able to go forward even in the midst of great controversy and difficulty.

Lord, we love you.

We thank you so much for all the ways that you've blessed us.

It's in Jesus' name that I pray.

Amen.

Wow, what an amazing message we got to hear this morning.

I hope the Lord showed himself to you in a fresh and new way.

Hey, if you made a decision today to follow Jesus or a decision for Christ, we would love to process that with you.

And so text the word next to 55498, and someone from our team will be more than happy to reach out and process that with you.

If you missed the message or you missed a note or two and you want to go back, don't worry.

We've got the option for that as well.

It's gonna be available on Spotify as well as Apple Music.

This has been an amazing morning.

We love you guys so much, and we hope to see you next week.

Bye bye.