The Power of AND | Pastor Chris Kouba

It is good to see you.

Thank you for being with here with us on this uh summer series as we are continuing in our series today called Taboo.

I got a few just things I want to mention to you before though we get going.

Uh there's so much that just happens in the summer, and I think we just people are in and out and all of that.

We just want to stop and celebrate a little bit about some exciting things that we're seeing take place in our ministry overall.

One, our United City Young Adult Ministry is blowing up.

It is doing incredible things.

God's been doing some pretty amazing things that's taking place Tuesday nights at 7.30.

They had a worship night in this room a couple of weeks ago.

It was just off the chain, and then just again last week.

And just want to encourage you, if you are a young adult, you know a young adult, uh, come be a part of UCYA Tuesday nights at 7.30.

Uh, just want to celebrate what God is doing there.

Second thing I want to mention to you is that uh a couple of months ago we launched a podcast here at the church.

Uh, it's specifically for men.

It's called Step Up.

We've done about five episodes so far that we've released, and this week we got our very first analytics, and people are actually listening to it.

I just thought that was kind of cool.

Uh, I had no idea if anybody even listened to it whatsoever, but it seems like so many people are listening to it.

We're in the top five podcasts, top percent of podcasts, all over.

So I just want to let you know that's pretty exciting.

We were pretty excited to hear that.

I want to encourage you, women, it's okay, you can listen too.

All right, we we won't we won't we won't get on to you.

It's specifically designed for men, but men, I do want to ask that you uh log on, that you subscribe to this, that you listen.

There's this whole weird algorithm game that's in the background where basically, if enough people do certain things, then basically it's gonna then present it to other folks.

And we want to play the game.

That's just kind of how this whole thing works.

I hate it that that's the case.

That's just reality.

And so they said if we can just get even a few more to be able to sign on to be a part of this, then it will allow it to go even further.

And that's our goal is just to be a resource to you, specifically here in Northeast Houston, but the church at large.

But it's kind of cool to know that Dave and Aren't aren't just talking to ourselves and no one's listening to us.

So that was kind of encouraging.

Third thing I mentioned to you is camp.

We got that coming up.

Uh, we've been talking about that.

It's today.

250 folks headed out to camp.

As you leave today, I think we've got some of these left.

We've got some little wristbands that look like this that we're gonna encourage you to grab as your way of praying with us for those who are gonna go to camp.

I have Nathan Streeter.

I think this is the third year in a row that I've had Nathan Streeter.

I'm hoping that this year he can get whatever God wants to say to him because it's taken a while to get there.

Nathan, in all seriousness, uh, is a leader in our ministry in a big, big way.

Just graduated from a Tasca seed of Gem and Dollar, awesome, and it is an honor to get to pray for you again, buddy.

Uh, but I do want to ask that you would join with us in camp by praying.

Because at the end of the day, whether you're serving, whether you're going, we want to be a part of it by at least praying that God would move in a big, big way.

And there's something that happens whenever you get out of your normal environment and you go to hear from God that he speaks.

By the way, it doesn't just have to happen at camp, all right?

I know some of you are like, man, I would love to have a youth camp right now with just the craziness of your life and all of that.

If you just stop what you're doing for a little bit and you get away from the distractions of the world and you get alone with God, he always is faithful to meet us.

And I just want to encourage you to be with us this week as we celebrate camp.

Grab your Bibles, open them up to John chapter 8.

John 8 · chapter mention

John chapter 8.

John 8 · chapter mention

I want to welcome all of the men and women at our correctional facilities and those joining us online.

Let's give them a hand on the other side of that camera.

We had something kind of cool this week.

We got something in the mail from the Texas Department of Corrections, which usually isn't something you're like, this is gonna be good, you know.

Like, and so we sure enough, we opened it up and it was a tithe check from somebody that's in the prisons that watches us on our Pando app.

We just thought that was pretty cool.

Uh the fact that they feel connected with us and you are connected with us, uh, is just a great thing.

You are not a project to us, you are part of our congregation, and we're grateful for the opportunity to be able to bring this message to you.

The title of today's message is The Power of And.

The Power of And.

There is something incredibly powerful about one word that has three letters.

The word and.

It's when you take something that is good over here, and you take something that is good over here, and you put them together with that and it makes it magical.

It's the secret sauce, it's the extra juice.

I mean, let's just be honest, okay?

Is there anything better than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, right?

Uh I mean, jelly is good on its own.

Peanut butter is great on its own.

You put those two things together, like anybody's happy.

It's unbelievable, no matter what age that you are, the universal food that speaks to every American, it seems like, is whenever you take macaroni, which is good, you take cheese, which is good, you put those two things together and everybody's happy.

Macaroni and cheese is the universal food, right?

You never grow out of it.

Like, you know, like, but but it's it's just always something that's gonna be great.

How about chocolate and strawberries?

You freeze them, it's even better, right?

I mean, that's even better.

I had it this morning.

How about some bacon and eggs?

Like they just go together, right?

They're just they're great.

Now, look, if you have a party, if you've got a gathering, if you've got an office thing, and you decide to offer some cake, everyone's gonna love you.

If you decide to also offer some ice cream, everyone's gonna love you.

If you offer cake and ice cream, you've hit the jackpot.

Everybody's gonna show up, right?

Because everyone loves both good things.

Bring them together with the word and, and that's where the power lies.

This morning we are continuing in our sermon series that we started uh called Taboo for the last couple of weeks, and for the next couple of weeks going after this, we're looking at the topics you're not supposed to talk about in church.

We're poking the bear.

We're mentioning the things that you're not supposed to mention.

We're kind of going there.

We're not we're not trying to be controversial, we're not trying to divide, but what we are trying to do is to live out one of our core values, and that is the Bible speaks.

And we know we're gonna let the Bible speak about the areas where the culture screams.

And the topic we're gonna talk about today, the culture has a lot to say.

We're gonna deal today with probably the most taboo topic of all of the taboo topics, and that is the issue of gender identity and human sexuality.

Let me just go ahead and give you an upfront.

Uh I'm gonna ask you, as we have every week, to know that I am not gonna be able to do all the different research and all the different nuances and all the different aspects of this topic.

We have prepared for you a QR code that I want to encourage you to take advantage of that sends you to a link that has not only this week's resources, but all of the week's resources, where we have given you a bunch of articles, books, different things along the way to try to help you so that you can kind of double-click past the message.

We've curated these and we've vetted these, and so therefore, we think you can trust these resources that are out there.

And if you are like, Man, I have some more questions about that, or how do I handle this?

We feel like this resource is something we would point you to that could provide some extra guidance beyond what we're gonna discuss just this morning.

Let me just tell you, I know up front, and I can already tell because the last two services have proved it to be the case, that I am speaking to three different groups of people.

The first group of people is those who honestly do not understand why this is a thing and may know nobody who is in the LGBTQ community.

Honestly, don't even understand how someone could possibly go there.

But it's one group of people I'm speaking to.

The other group of people I'm gonna speak to are people where this is very personal.

This is a topic that maybe brings some shame or some pain for you.

It's a topic that honestly you you're having to deal with questions that you know what the answers are, but you don't know how you're supposed to act.

You have a family member, you have a friend, you have someone very close to you who all of a sudden is asking you to call them a name that is radically different than the name you've ever called them the whole rest of their lives, and you're not really sure if you're supposed to.

You don't know how this whole thing's supposed to work.

Speaking to this group today.

Another group that I'm speaking to are people that may be very out loud and open about this.

Or if I had to guess, probably people who think, because it's a church, I'm not allowed to say a word about it.

But you've thought about this stuff.

You've had this question before.

Did God mess up when he made me?

Just like somebody walked up to me after the first service and said, I why would God give me these desires if he doesn't want me to act on them?

And for you, this is very personal.

I just want to give you a heads-up disclaimer at the beginning.

If I do my job today, I'm probably gonna offend everybody.

All three groups.

And so I don't do that, I'm telling you that up front because I'm not like trying to get you or I'm not trying to be antagonistic towards you, but I am trying to be pastoral to you.

And if we're gonna follow along in the way of Jesus, everybody was mad at him.

Like everybody didn't like how he handled stuff.

And so, as I speak to these three radically different groups, I would tell you if you you feel amens and I'm all in, when you also may feel other times and you're uncomfortable, sit in both and just allow the Bible to speak.

Let's open up and see in John chapter 8.

John 8 · chapter mention

I want to read for you a passage of scripture that shows us that the goal of this message is not to give you one side or the other, one angle or another, talking points that your gun can be loaded and shoot whoever it is that you think you need to shoot when you leave here.

But instead, that you would see the secret to this and really all issues is the secret sauce.

It's the and that's found in the way of Jesus.

John chapter 8, beginning in verse 3.

John 8 · chapter mention

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst, they said to him, Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery.

Now, in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.

So what do you say?

This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him.

Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.

And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.

And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground.

But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.

Jesus stood up and said to her, Woman, where are they?

Has no one condemned you?

Jesus said, No one, Lord.

She said, No one, Lord.

And Jesus said, Neither do I condemn you.

Go and from now on, sin no more.

In this one incident, Jesus shows us and models for us how we are to respond to and how he responds to those of us who do things against what God says that we should do.

He displays the perfect balance between grace and truth.

He shows what it looks like to have compassion and empathy and grace.

And he doesn't compromise on the commands and the truth.

He shows that the way you deal with people of any type of situation isn't with just lectures, but instead you balance that with love.

What he shows us, and what I want to argue, is that the model to model the way of Jesus on the issues of LGBTQ, you have to always hold intention these two things passages and people.

Passages and people.

And so we got to make sure that you one, focus on the passages, because if you focus, here's the problem: if you focus too much on the passages and you blow off the people, you become a talking head who loses the mission we were created for in the first place.

On the other hand, if you err too far on the side of the people, then what you're doing is by trying to be loving and caring, you're actually being unloving and uncaring to them because you're not allowing God to be the one who defines what love actually is and what love means.

And so, in your attempt to be kind, you're actually being cruel.

You see, we can't go one extreme or the other.

We have to find the tension, which is the way of Jesus.

I want us to look at the passages.

I want us to look at the people, and then I want us to consider how to live an and life like Jesus.

First of all, let's look at the passages.

Let's look at the passages.

A couple of weeks ago, we we said that in everything we do in this series, we're gonna quote from the Bible.

So I just want to let you know, some of you, if you disagree with what God's word says, you're gonna disagree with everything I'm about to tell you.

And I would tell you, go back and listen to that message and show you why I believe you should listen to the Bible.

For some of you who actually believe the Bible, you're gonna hear what I say and you're not gonna like it because it's uncomfortable.

And I would just tell you, just because it's uncomfortable doesn't mean it's not true.

We instead must let the Bible speak.

Let's look at what it says in Genesis 1, verse 26 and 27.

Genesis 1:26

Then God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness.

And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created man in his own image, and the image of God he created him, male and female, he created them.

This speaks to the idea that God created humans as special and distinct, and he gave them personhood.

The idea of gender is mentioned specifically in verse 27, which shows us that it is not just a biological or anatomical reality, it is a spiritual reality.

Because literally, we are not just like everybody else, but instead, human beings are different and distinct because God put his stamp on them.

His stamp is his image.

We are to be image bearers, which is why we talked about it a couple weeks ago.

We uphold the sanctity of all life, born and unborn.

Let me look at one chapter over, Genesis chapter 2.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

We see the origin of marriage.

Verse 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

This verse right here is quoted so many times in the New Testament by Jesus, because you have people that come up to Jesus trying to find the exception to the rule.

And that's the same thing that people do today.

Well, what about this?

What about this?

What about this?

And they did the same thing to Jesus every time, bringing up divorce.

Well, what about this situation?

And what about this situation?

And every time what Jesus does is he answers by saying, You're looking for the exception, and I'm trying to tell you the design.

Folks, if you miss this starting point, this issue becomes fuzzy and clouding.

If instead you embrace this starting point, it's actually pretty clear.

God created gender and he created marriage in a way that allows him to be the one who blesses it and defines it.

Here's what I would believe Jesus' stance on gender and sexuality.

It is the official statement standard stance of United City Church.

I get asked this all the time.

What do you guys think about this?

Here's where we are.

Sexual activity is to be between a male husband and a female wife in a committed married relationship.

Sexual activity is to be between a male husband and a female wife in a committed married relationship.

Literally anything that falls outside of that definition is outside of God's design.

Sin has entered the world, and we know we see a lot of different variations and aberrations of that, but that's not what God designed.

And in John chapter 8, when Jesus looks at the woman that's caught in adultery and he says to her, And from now on, sin no more, he's basically telling her, Don't do anything outside of the origin, anything outside of the design, the intention which is a male husband and a female wife committed in a married relationship.

John 8 · chapter mention

He's saying, I don't condemn you for what you've done, but don't go do it again.

Don't miss the clarity in his voice.

It's vital that we don't change this, confuse this, or redefine this.

God created gender, God created sex, and God created marriage.

This has been a historical position of the church, and it is backed by biblical conviction.

And any suggestion to redefine or attempt to change this is at its core a denial of truth of God's authority as designer and creator.

We said it a few weeks ago.

God is the one who wrote it, and so God is the one who gets to define it.

First Corinthians chapter 6, verse 9 and 10.

1 Corinthians 6:9

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

That is super, super clear.

First Corinthians chapter 6, verse 13, the end of that verse, it says, the body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

1 Corinthians 6:13

I want to make sure you point something out here that sexual immorality is not justified by the alphabet.

Any variation away from a male husband and a female wife in a committed relationship is outside of God's design.

Meaning, this those that are in LGBTQ fit in that category.

And those of you who don't fit into that, who slept with your girlfriend last night, you also fit in that category.

Like, let us make sure that we don't either publicly or quietly yell our amens and not realize it talks about us too.

Like, I want to make sure that we understand the issue of sexual immorality is not something to be messed with, and it's not just because of that community.

To do so is misreading the scriptures to fit a narrative that maybe you've been taught along the way you're supposed to have.

Instead, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 18 through 20 says, flee from sexual immorality.

1 Corinthians 6:18–20

Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?

You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.

So glorify God in your body.

Two things I want to mention about this passage.

First thing I want you to see is that when it comes to the issue of sexual immorality, what it says there is that you are not to manage it, you are not to try to control it, you are to flee from it.

Every other sin the Bible tells us that we are to fight, we are to stand, we are to put on the spiritual armor of God and fight against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, over the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

It tells us that we are to battle and war against sin.

When it comes to the sexual immorality, it says, run away.

It's not how close can I get to the line without crossing it, it's how far away can I get so that I don't even know where the line is.

Like I'm to flee sexual immorality.

So please understand when it comes to the issue of LGBTQ, it's not a matter of whether this is okay or this is okay, it's a matter of are you pursuing purity?

And by the way, for those of you that aren't dealing with things related to LGBTQ and you're dealing with other sexual sins, the same thing holds true.

All of us are to pursue purity.

Second thing I mentioned to you about this passage that's very interesting is I want you to see that it doesn't say that sexual sin is a greater level of sin, but it does imply that it has a greater level of consequences.

Folks, this is why this is a big deal.

I get asked this question why do you get why does the church care so much about who I sleep with?

What does it matter?

Because your soul's on the line.

Like there's something deeper going on than just physical activity.

The Bible actually tells us that sexual expression, in the context it was designed for, provides not only satisfaction and wholeness, but literally mirrors the gospel.

Ephesians chapter 5, listen to this.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

It's a passage about marriage, it's talking about mutual submission and sacrifice, incredible study.

If you want to do it on your own.

Ephesians 5, though, in verse 31, it reads like this Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

Do you recognize that?

That's what we read before in Genesis.

He's quoting the origination of how marriage started.

And here's verse 32.

This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ in the church.

This shows us sex isn't just a happiness thing or a physical thing, it's a gospel thing.

Like literally, whenever you live out the way God is designed in a married-committed relationship, you are showing not only the joy and the life that God gives by his blessing when you live out his design, but you're also mirroring to the world.

This is what Christ did when he sacrificed for his church.

Like it's a living, walking testimony, which is why, on the other hand, an aberration of that is not only something that does not reflect the gospel, it distorts the gospel and it dehumanizes people.

And there's a reason why you see when that begins to crater, how the society also begins to crater as well.

Spoke about this a few weeks ago.

Let me mention it again though, in Romans chapter 1.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

It talks about what happens when we begin to just deny that God exists.

Verse 24, it says, Therefore, God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.

Because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever.

Amen.

For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions, for their women exchanged the natural relations with for those that are contrary to nature, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women, and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

What this tells us is that the issue of L B G GTQ is not an issue of personal rights, it's about who is God.

To believe in God means he gets the rules and he gets to say what's good.

To forsake God means you put yourself in the place of God, and then you begin to define how things go.

Let's speak to the other side.

We know the passages, and if I had to guess, most people in church are like, yeah, that's right.

I know those.

You may not be able to quote them, but you know them.

There's another side of the and, and that is the people.

That is the people.

We're not dealing with straw men and hypotheticals here.

We're dealing with real people, with real souls, with real desires, with real hurts.

So I want to speak first of all to the folks that are here, maybe quietly, struggling with this.

Questioning.

Did God mess up when he made me?

Why would God give me this if he doesn't want me to act on it?

Really comes down to worldview.

You see, here's what the world's gonna tell you.

The world's gonna tell you that when there is a dissonance between what your body feels and what your mind says, then you need to change your body and follow your mind.

What you feel, that is what's right.

What you want, that is what you should have.

That has to become true, that has to be good and right for you.

And the world is gonna tell you that is gonna provide the ultimate satisfaction.

Let me tell you what God says.

I want to love you enough to let you hear this truth.

Romans chapter 12, verse 1 and 2.

Romans 12:1

Let me read it to you.

I appeal to you, therefore, brothers.

By the mercies of God, I want to make sure you see something, because what you're about to get after this is gonna be really hard to do.

But what I want you to see is that it's based upon 11 chapters of displaying God's mercy.

So I'm not asking you to do this because I'm mean or I'm gonna judge you or I'm about to get you.

I'm asking you to do this because I love you.

That's what he's saying.

He says, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Meaning this: I am to literally, because God's been so good to me, I am to submit my body as a sacrifice to him so that he gets to determine what happens with my body.

He gets to be the one who orders my steps.

He gets to be the one who leads and guides me as I go forward.

Look at what it says in verse 2.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

That by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Did you see it?

What you see is in verse one, I am to submit my body to the Lord, and then he renews my mind.

The world would tell you this: that what you need to do is listen to your mind and change your body.

What God says is you instead submit your body and God will renew your mind.

Let me tell you how this has played out for me over time.

I've had situations where basically I read something and I don't like what it says.

I don't like what it's asking me to do.

And therefore, as I've seen, it's not usually for me like a light switch, or all of a sudden I just kind of figure it all out.

I get knowledge, and then all of a sudden I'm like, oh yeah, I don't know why I didn't think of that.

And then I do the right thing.

Instead, God begins to do things along in my life through conviction and other means by which the transformation process begins to happen.

And eventually I look up and the very things that I used to despise, I now long for.

I now want to do the things of God.

I'm not telling you if this is your story and something that you're struggling with, that just because you heard a couple of verses today, you're like, oh, okay, now I know I won't like that person.

That's not how it's gonna work.

But I would tell you this: the more you continually submit your body and you begin to seek the Lord, I can assure you of this, God can begin to bring about transformation that isn't just limited to your sexuality.

Instead, it is so much better and deeper, and He can allow you to experience the joy with which you were created.

Let's talk to another group of people.

There's a group of people that are here, and here's your story.

You have a family member.

A daughter, son, parent, a friend, somebody very close to you.

What are you supposed to do?

They're asking you to interact and like you know it's not right, but it doesn't feel good in the moment to just quote some verses to them.

So what do you what are you supposed to do?

I think it's important as we've approached this issue that we understand that the greatest need for those in the LGBT community is not for them to become straight.

The greatest need for those in the LGBT community is not just for them to identify with the gender that they were assigned at birth.

The greatest need for anyone in the LGBT community is for them to come to the realization that apart from Jesus, they are not going to be able to have a relationship with God.

And so, therefore, we must take them to Jesus, who died on the cross and who rose from the dead, and let him figure out what to do with uncomfortable situations.

Which, by the way, is exactly what he did with you.

All of our stories, if you're a believer in Jesus, is that you came to him a confused mess, and then now you look up and you're a little less of a mess.

That God, in his grace and his mercy, didn't judge you for where you started, but he instead continues to sanctify you into what you're gonna become.

And as a result of that, well, I would just tell you we must be careful in our criticism for people who have very difficult situations as to how they're gonna handle holidays and how they're gonna handle interactions.

And I would just simply tell you this: don't make every interaction about sexuality, make every interaction about Jesus.

Pray more than you preach.

Allow yourself to be someone who receives God's mercy and grace to deal with the tension, but also know this Jesus can handle it.

And our primary objective must be to get people to Jesus more than it is for the culture to know where we stand.

It is my prayer and my hope that we at United City Church would be a place where prisoners, homosexuals, transgender, drunks, cohabitors, poor, rich, those who were obviously lost, and those who are steeped in religion and who are religiously lost, those who looked at pornography last night, and those who also had a relationship outside of marriage to all come, not to be welcomed and just celebrated, but instead that all of us collectively and all of us together can submit ourselves before Jesus and say, Hey, here is all my mess, and allow his grace and his mercy and his forgiveness to come over us in such an overwhelming way that we say, I don't know what to do, but I know I am never going to be the same.

First Corinthians chapter 6.

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

Let me read it again for you, verse 9.

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

By the way, that's a big temp.

The goal is to assume we're all included.

Verse 11.

And such were some of you.

You were washed.

You were sanctified.

You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

If we believe this to be true, then we will befriend, we will be kind, we will be gracious, we will be sensitive to those who are different than us while not compromising on what we believe to be true.

Simply put, we will follow Jesus and we will have the secret sauce.

The and.

Truth without grace is mean.

Grace without truth is meaningless.

We are against sin and we are for people.

Would you bow your heads and would you close your eyes all across this room online as well?

I just want us to pray.

I want us to pray for God's truth and God's love to fill our hearts.

On a tough topic.

And I want so desperately for God to help us be an An people.

If you're here today and you've been all about the passages, would you just ask that the Lord would give you a greater heart to those who are different than you?

If you're here today and you would say you've cared more about people, you haven't really seriously considered enough the passages.

Would you pray and would you ask the Lord to give you a greater hunger for his word?

A greater hunger for truth.

Maybe you need to study some more.

You need to love some more.

You need to seek some wisdom because of a difficult situation that you're walking through personally.

Would you just ask the Lord to meet you right now where you are?

What is the next step that he's leading you towards?

Some of you are here, and today's tough.

This is a struggle that you deal with.

This is a struggle that's a part of your life.

I want you to know that God loves you and He wants you to be honest with Him.

But He also wants you to experience His mercy and His grace that's provided by Jesus that will never leave you the way He finds you.

Whether you're in the LGBTQ community or whether you're totally outside of it, it doesn't matter where you are today.

I want you to know this whenever you come to Jesus, he takes you right as you are.

And he receives you just as you are, but he also loves you enough to not let you stay the way that you are.

He wants you to be the way he's made and created and designed you to be, like any loving, good father would.

So I just want to ask that today, if that's you and you want to receive Jesus, you want to experience a relationship with him, the Bible tells us that we can't do it on our own.

Because of our sin, it's left it left a distance and a separation between us and God.

But the Bible tells us that God sent his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to die on a cross.

He rose from the dead and he invites you to have eternal life.

If today that's you and you want to receive Jesus, would you just pray this simple prayer of faith with me?

Dear Jesus, I receive your forgiveness for my sins.

Just right where you are, just pray these words.

I believe you died on the cross for me, and that you rose from the dead.

I give you my life, all of it, every single part of me.

And I make you my Lord, I make you my Savior.

I pray you would change me, you'd save me, forgive me.

It's in Jesus' name that I pray.

Amen.

Would you look up here?

I want you to know our team is about to be up front, all up uh front and on the aisles.

And what we're gonna ask you to do, if you just prayed that prayer of faith with me, you just gave your life to Jesus, we're gonna ask you to come forward.

We're not gonna embarrass you, we're not gonna like call you out, we're not gonna put you up on stage and introduce you or anything like crazy like that, but we do want to celebrate with you, and we do want to hear from you.

The Bible says, if you confess to me before men, we'll confess you before my fathers in heaven.

We want to celebrate that today.

And so, in just a moment, I'm gonna ask you to lead the way.

Others, if you want to come and join United City Church, you would say, Hey, man, this is a church that's all about compassion and all about conviction.

That's our tension, that's where you want to live, that's who you want to be.

Not just about this taboo issue, but about all the issues.

So, if God's leading you to be a part of United City, would you lead the way today?

God's leading you to be baptized, taking your next step of faith.

You come and let us schedule your baptism.

Maybe you need prayer today.

Prayer for yourself, prayer for a family member, prayer for someone close to you.

Maybe you have a need altogether.

It's separate from anything we've talked about today, but it's heavy on your heart today.

We don't want you to be alone.

We're gonna pray with, we're gonna pray for you.

Father in heaven, we come before you and we thank you in advance for what you're gonna do.

As you call people to yourself, we thank you.

It's in the name of Jesus 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, way.

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

So text the word text to 55498, and someone from our team would be more than happy to reach out and process that.

If you missed the message or if you missed the 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 TV.

This has been an amazing point.

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

Bye-bye.