Enemy Territory | Pastor Chris Kouba

What an incredible morning of worship that was.

Incredible time just to be together and to just seeing God's praises.

I want to just introduce you to somebody.

He's already left.

He's in the back.

But the guy that was sitting there at the keyboard is a man named Richie Allen.

And we just brought uh absolutely, yep.

Uh Richie.

Uh he's got four children, uh Ezri and Eden.

Uh Rafe and Lark are his four kids.

And he's been helping us for the last few months.

Uh is just filling in for us and working with us, doing some consulting and things like that.

It's been an incredible experience.

Uh, but Richie is actually an incredibly gifted worship leader.

He's got 30 years of experience, most of that being here in the Houston area.

He actually was a part of the fastest growing church in U.S.

history, apparently.

Uh that's what they're claiming here in our city, Hope City Church, an incredible church that God's done a lot of great things with, helped build the worship culture that is there.

Left a few years ago and has been doing some consulting and has been working with churches on helping build out their teams, creative things, all of the things involved with that.

And uh was filling in for us and was we were working with him on just uh the next step for us, and he just fell in love with our church.

And so this past week, we hired Richie to be on our staff.

So I just wanted you guys to know that, which is pretty exciting.

God's doing some amazing things uh in our ministry here, and I just want to put a plug for you.

If you have any creative event of any kind, you want to be on the worship team, you want to be on the production team, uh, you do graphic design, you do social media, you do websites, whatever it is that God may be given, gifted you to do, uh, we view that that is a key part of what God wants you to do in terms of your expression at your church.

And so I just want you to know, here's a little QR code.

If you are interested in all in any of those categories, we have a ton of different venues and places by which we are needing folks to help serve in all of these various uh areas.

And so we would love to have you fill out the information there.

You can find out more and you can be a part of what God is doing here uh at United City in a big way.

Grab your Bibles, open them up to 1 Peter chapter 1.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

1 Peter chapter 1.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

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

My name is Chris Kuba, and I have the privilege of serving as the lead pastor here at United City.

And I want to take this opportunity to greet all of those on the other side of the camera.

Uh, all of you with COVID that apparently a lot of you have other or sick or whatever it is that's got going on.

Uh, we've also streamed every week to those that are joining us in some of our local correctional facilities and also on our Pando app.

Let's give them a hand and celebrate all of those who are joining with us.

First Peter chapter one is where we're gonna be.

I'm a lifelong Eustonian uh and I was away for a while, but I've I've been a lifelong Astros fan as a result of that.

Huge, huge Astros fan.

Uh the majority of my time growing up was in the 80s and the 90s of the Astros, and so uh this sounds really weird, but it is so true.

I remember where I was in 1986.

I was at Pate's Daycare on 13th Street, and I remember very vividly the room that I was in, and I remember watching the game between the Houston Astros and the New York Mets in the playoffs.

And I remember whenever my parents came and picked me up, I was so upset, I started crying because the game wasn't over, and we went home, and when we got home, the game had gone into extra innings, and I got the opportunity to watch in heartbreaking fashion the Astros lose that multi-inning game to the New York Mets and ultimately to lose the series in six games.

I was a big fan of the Killer Bees, the Biggio Bagwell Bell days, and also the Biggio Bagwell Berkman days, right?

I mean, all of the Killer Bees was totally a big fan, and it's just heartbreaking to see them lose year after year and have all the ups and downs that go along with the playoffs, not a lot of success.

The Cardinals ripping our hearts out in 2004, and then we finally break through and make it in 2005, and then of course we lose to the White Sox in four games.

Been a lifelong stroves fan.

I say all of that to set up that whenever I graduated Bailey University and I moved to the Dallas area in order to go to seminary, I got on staff at a church where the pastor and my boss, I was his intern, his resident, and he was a massive Texas Rangers fan.

And I'm not just saying like he just liked the Rangers.

I'm saying he had seasoned tickets, really good seats, every single year.

If there's 81 games a year, he literally would probably attend 70 of them in person.

I mean, it wasn't like he bought tickets just to kind of dump them off and sell them.

Like he was a diehard Rangers fan.

And you can imagine now I'm in Dallas, I'm around a lot of other people who also happen to be Rangers fans.

So I'm there for a few months working at this great church for this great pastor, and he invites me to go to a baseball game.

I'm a huge sports fan, so I don't even care if I like the team or not.

I'm all in.

Like I love it.

I just love sports and love seeing live sports, and so therefore I was excited to go to the game.

We're there for a few innings, and after a couple innings into the game, he looks over to me and he asks me a question, but it was very obvious in his tone of voice, he wasn't asking me this question out of sheer curiosity.

It was more like a statement.

It was more like a defining moment.

He asked me this.

So, Cuba, now that you are in Dallas, does this mean that you're gonna start cheering for the Rangers and stop cheering for the Astros?

Again, he wasn't saying it just because he was being nice and curious.

He was saying it like it was a test.

And here I am, I'm on staff and I want to do well.

I feel like God's called me to ministry.

I've got a great opportunity and a great church and all these things, and I know that my answer to this question is going to determine how quickly perhaps I am able to kind of move up the ladder, if you will, or if I ever get invited back to one of these games.

So I thought about it as boldly and as confidently as I knew how.

I looked back at him and I respectfully said, I want you to know, Pastor, I'm grateful that I get to be here with you and be at this game.

But under no circumstances will I ever turn on my Houston Astros.

I was a fan before I got here, I'm gonna be a fan while I'm here, and I'm gonna be a fan after I'm gone.

And it looks like I'm gonna have to learn how to live in enemy territory.

I can tell by his reaction he wasn't nearly as enamored with my boldness and courage.

And then in that moment, I took a few steps back as it relates to my status or my uh privilege in that organization, but I would also tell you this: under no circumstances was I ever gonna forsake my allegiance, even if I found myself in enemy territory.

1 Peter chapter 1 is where we're gonna be.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

We're starting a brand new sermon series today through the book of 1 Peter.

If you're looking for something to do in your own personal time with the Lord, let me just encourage you.

We're gonna be walking through the book of 1 Peter all the way up through Easter.

It would be a great thing for you to do is just to begin to read the book of 1 Peter in its entirety.

It only takes a few minutes to read the entire book.

It's an incredible book.

And what we're gonna learn as we walk through the book of 1 Peter is you're gonna see a group of people who find themselves in enemy territory.

They're gonna experience suffering, they're gonna experience trials.

And the temptation that they're gonna be faced with is to turn their allegiance from Jesus and instead, because of the enemy territory, go towards something that is a lot less controversial and a lot less difficult to do.

But I want you to know the main message, there's many of them in 1 Peter, but one of the main messages is this this is not your home.

You gotta hear me on that.

Because the more you try to make this your home, the more you're gonna try to forsake your allegiance in order to fit in an enemy territory.

And so, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna walk you through the book of 1 Peter, and this morning I want to give you some commands that can help you keep your allegiance when it's tough.

When you find yourself and there's nobody around except you.

Let's begin reading in verse 1.

1 Peter chapter 1, verse 1.

1 Peter 1:1

It says Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithhnia.

According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ, and for sprinkling with his blood.

May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

As we go through this letter, it's important for us to establish a number of things.

One, who was this letter written to?

It says here in verse one, the elect exiles of the dispersion.

This dispersion, the area where it's talking about, is in modern day Turkey.

What I want you to envision is this is that you have a bunch of people who are believers in Jesus Christ, but they're now all scattered out in what's called Gentile territory, meaning this.

They find themselves in a location where not everybody is religious and not everybody is celebrating what they believe.

In fact, it actually is an area that is opposed to the monotheistic belief that Jesus, this guy, came to earth, died on a cross, rose from the dead, and now gives you eternal life.

No one bought into that, and so in light of that, they don't find themselves surrounded by a lot of people supporting them.

They instead find themselves in a place where a lot of people are opposing them.

Does that sound familiar?

I want you to understand something.

We don't even come close to what the trials and the suffering and the difficulties that these people were experiencing, but don't forget what I told you earlier.

This is not your home.

And the more you try to make it your home, the more you're gonna try to make everything cohesive and fit.

And the message that is being given to these elect exiles in the dispersion is the same message that goes for us is that we need to understand what it looks like to keep our allegiance when we're not being celebrated.

When not everyone thinks it's great that we profess the name of Jesus.

Key word there, he calls them exiles, which is an important term.

When you're not from a country, you can be one of several things.

You can one, be an immigrant.

An immigrant is somebody uh who is not from here, but they try to make this their permanent home.

There's somebody who would say, I know that my citizenship is somewhere else, but I'm gonna try to make this a place that I put my roots down and this becomes my home, even if I don't have status here.

It's a people who try to orient their lives around trying to make the current existence in the place that they are more comfortable, more convenient, and more settled.

In light of this, what you're gonna see is immigrants are gonna think things like this, they're gonna think about how can I make this situation not temporary but more permanent.

They're gonna think about things to try to make their existence better, like, oh, how do I get a better job, or am I ever gonna get married, or how do I get a better house?

None of these things are bad thoughts, but the immigrant orients his life around those things.

Let me give you another way that people approach life whenever they are not from a particular place.

They treat it like a tourist.

This is whenever you go and you visit another country or you go and visit another place, and your main objective is just to take the highlights and then get out of there as fast as you can.

If maybe the culture that you go to speaks a different language, your objective is not to go and learn the language.

Your objective is to go find all the other people who speak your language.

You may go and eat a local meal, or you may go and experience a little bit of that culture, but you're not gonna be full, full in that.

You're just gonna kind of dive in, do what you need to do, and then you're gonna get out and go to your restaurants that you're more familiar with.

A tourist is gonna be somebody who, when they go to another place, they look for Starbucks.

Because they know Starbucks.

Starbucks is safe, and you can kind of go there, and you know you're not gonna get anything that's different or weird or something that you can't explain.

You see, a lot of believers they live like immigrants or they live like tourists.

What I mean by that is that sometimes believers, what they'll do is they'll say, Well, I know ultimately my citizenship is in heaven, and that's where I'm gonna go, but man, I am really interested in making sure that life's good right now.

Like, in fact, that's kind of all I think about.

I don't think about heaven a whole lot.

I mainly think about things right now.

The other side of that is some people begin to think like tourists, they're believers in Jesus, and so in their minds, they know ultimately they're gonna go to heaven, so they want to be all around believers, and their idea is I want to enjoy the world, but I don't want to engage with the world.

I want to stay as far away from all of those bad people who are going to a bad place, and I just want to exist over here in my little cocoon by myself until I get taken to my ultimate place.

Here's what Peter says, though.

He calls them exiles.

What is an exile?

An exile is someone who's not trying to become an immigrant of the world because you know you're a citizen of the heaven, but you recognize that I am gonna be here for a while, so instead of me trying to avoid it or make it my permanent home, I'm gonna see what I can do to bless it, knowing it could just be a season.

Meaning God could choose to move me or redirect me or go somewhere else with me.

All I know is this while I'm here, even if I'm opposed, I'm gonna live in such a way where I can be a blessing.

We're calling this series Nomad, and it's a picture that you are someone who doesn't make the world your home.

You're just passing through, but while you're here, you invest in the welfare of the land where you live.

Jeremiah chapter 29, verses 4 through 7.

Jeremiah 29:4–7

It says, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

Build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their produce.

Take wives and have sons and daughters, take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters, multiply there and do not decrease.

Verse 7, key, key verse.

But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find welfare.

You see, a nomad thinks differently.

He thinks in such a way where he's like, look, I am here, and while I'm here, I'm gonna be a blessing.

Here's what's interesting: 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 6, though, it says that they are experiencing trials of various kinds.

1 Peter 1:6

Meaning, I'm not just gonna be a blessing to those who are nice to me.

In fact, the message of 1 Peter is this: you're a blessing to those who actually oppose you, to those who make you suffer, to those who make it hard.

And suffering isn't a sign that God is not with me.

In fact, suffering is part of the process to prove God is with you.

The author of this letter, very first word in 1 Peter chapter 1, is Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

Think about the Peter, he's of course one of the disciples.

Peter had some of the most highest of highs and the lowest of lows.

Peter was somebody who, whenever Jesus was walking on water, he looked at him and said, Hey, can I come do that too?

And Peter got to walk on water.

Jesus, Peter was one who, whenever uh Jesus said that that people, who do you say that I am?

It was Peter that stepped up and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Peter had incredible highs.

We also know that Peter, while he was walking on the water towards Jesus, took his eyes off Jesus and began to sink.

We also know Peter, despite the fact that he was the one that stuck out his chest with all of his bravado and said, If everybody else denies you, I will never deny you.

And hours later, he denied Jesus three times.

John chapter 20 is one of the most vivid, incredible pictures in all of the Bible when it says that Jesus came back to Peter after that denial and he basically restored him in every way.

John 20 · chapter mention

And what we see is that instead of Peter being discarded and no longer able to use, Peter instead was used by God to reach the Gentiles and now ultimately to write you this letter.

And the message of 1 Peter is one of hope.

It's saying that no matter what happens, you can have hope.

And I love it because of all the people, Peter, the one who had experienced these highs, highs and these low lows, could have easily thought that he was no longer able and eligible to be used by God for anything.

What does God do?

God looks at him and he says, Peter, I'm not done with you.

I write the last chapter.

And so Peter is writing not just words of hope, he's writing experienced hope.

Let me just stop and say this.

If you're here today, no matter what your story and what your situation and what your background and what your baggage is, I want you to know this.

God writes the final chapter.

There is still hope for you.

God doesn't see you as discarded and irrelevant and no longer worthy.

God instead looks at you and sees you as somebody that he can experience his grace and you can experience his hope so that you will be someone who tells everybody else, no, I'm telling you, he changed my life.

And I want you to know about it too.

What I want to do is I want to actually pick up the reading in verse 13.

Verses 1 through 12 is actually some of the greatest preaching ever on the resurrection.

And so if you will allow me, I'm skipping 1 through 12, and we're going to come back to it on Easter Sunday morning.

So we're going to pick up in verse 13, go through the rest of the chapter.

But here's what I want you to see.

The four commands this passage is going to give us about how to keep your allegiance when you're in enemy territory.

Here they are.

Look up, live different, lead confident, and love deep.

We'll walk through each one individually.

Look up, live different, lead confident, and love deep.

Let's begin reading in verse 13.

It says, Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Verse 13 says, Therefore, we know what that means.

It ties back.

Let me give you a brief summary of the first part of the chapter.

It talks about the living hope, the fact that we have something that we can look forward to, something that we can know is for sure.

It's undefiled, it's unperishable, it's unfading.

It's going to be kept in heaven for us.

And so the idea is this is that I am supposed to look towards that hope and be able to use that as a guide to help me when I'm experiencing the trials of various kinds.

How do I do that?

It says there, therefore, prepare your minds for action.

That is not just saying, okay, I need to believe this, I need to make sure to do this and all that kind of stuff.

Instead, it's an active process where I'm allowing the word of God to give me confidence.

And that confidence comes because I'm looking up.

Preparing your minds for action can also be translated as gird up your loins.

The image is this is that you, the men back in those days, would wear these long robes.

And if they were ever gonna run, they had to go and pull that robe up and tuck it into their belt, and that's how they would run and be able to have their legs being freed.

The image here is this is that we are to prepare our minds actively by doing everything that we can to remove all distractions and instead be freed up to believe the actual truth.

Let's be honest, most of the time, when it comes to the battles that take place in our life, they are not necessarily taking place in the battlefield, they're instead taking place in our minds.

I'm a huge Cowboys fan.

Been a Cowboys fan my whole life.

I know that kind of doesn't add up whenever you talked about the Houston Astros, but just I have.

So I just continue to be a Cowboys fan.

And so, of course, this year I was excited about the Cowboys, number two team, uh, number two seed in the NFC playoffs.

They're going in.

They have one of the top offenses in all of the league.

They've got one of the best defenses in all of the league.

They are 14 and 0 at home spanning the last two years.

They've been pretty dominant at home.

And so I am honestly excited, thinking this is going to be the year.

They're playing against the Packers.

The Packers barely got into the playoffs on the very last day, the number two seed versus the number seven seed.

And so there's all this reason for optimism, have them at home.

And so then I go into this game, and of course, all the commentators are reminding every Cowboys fan, every chance they get, that the Cowboys have never made it to the NFC Championship since 1995.

Did you know the Cowboys have never, they choke every year?

Cowboys every year, they're good, but then they fall apart.

But this is this year is going to be different.

That was, of course, all of our thoughts.

The game starts, the Green Bay Packers get the kick, they take the ball all the way down and score on their very first drive, 7-0 Green Bay.

No problem.

We have the best offense.

We're not worried whatsoever.

The Cowboys get the kick, they go and make a couple of first downs, and then all of a sudden, Dak Prescott goes back for a pass, throws it.

It's a pick six.

If you don't know what a pick six is, what that means is that the Green Bay Packers intercepted the ball, ran it all the way back for a touchdown, and now all of a sudden it's 14 to 0.

And the camera catches a picture of Dak Prescott, and you see his reaction.

And his reaction was eyes were huge, and it had this feeling.

Oh no, here we go again.

Now, as a Cowboy fan, I recognize that feeling because you know what I was doing at home?

Oh no, here we go again.

And if you look at how the Cowboys played the rest of the game, I don't know all the players' mindsets and all of that, but it sure did feel like they had this feeling, oh no, here we go again.

And all of a sudden, the Green Bay Packers run out to a massive lead, and the Cowboys look like they had lost all of their heart.

You see, whenever you have trials that come up, you're gonna have one of two reactions.

You're either gonna have the oh no, here we go again, or you're gonna have the let's go, we got this mentality.

Now we say I'll simply tell you this.

If when bad things happen to you, when trials come to you, when suffering comes upon you, you've got to make a choice right now before it takes place.

Am I going to say, oh no, here we go again?

Or am I going to say, We got this?

We don't have to be fearful.

I'm going to look up and I'm going to find my confidence, knowing, you know, no matter how much we are behind, I know we're going to win.

Romans chapter 12, verse 2.

Romans 12:2

Look at what it says.

Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

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

We got to think different.

And it doesn't just mean positive coach speak where I tell myself, no, you got this because you're great.

That's not what I'm asking you to do.

Look at the end of verse 13.

It says, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

You are to set your hope by looking up and being reminded of what Jesus is going to do.

You can get through this because you know what is coming.

This means that I can be honest and say, look, life is hard.

There are times when it is really difficult to keep my allegiance when so many enemies around me are trying to tell me to think different.

I can say that sometimes I'm going to feel like I am all alone.

But here's what I would simply tell you: the message of 1 Peter is this I can look up and I can know the promise of my future will allow me to get through the difficulty of my presence.

Folks, and please hear me.

No, it's coming.

But when it comes, prepare your minds for action.

Set your hope fully on the mercy and the grace and the hope that comes with Jesus Christ.

Let's keep reading.

Look at verse 14.

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.

But as he who called you as holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.

Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy.

Second command that helps you keep your allegiance when you're in enemy territory is to live different.

Is to live different.

Verse 14 through 16 speaks of holiness.

It's going to come up over and over again throughout the book of 1 Peter.

This means to be set apart.

This means you have to be different in every way.

I know this may sound crazy, but you're not supposed to look like everybody else.

I think sometimes when we get on intimate territory, we're trying so hard to fit in that we end up having no distinctive aspects about our lives that would show that we're a believer in Jesus.

You see, in the way that we think, in the way that we act, and the way that we respond, in the way that we do all things, we are to be different, holy, set apart.

This is a prayer that I've been doing in my own life every now and then in my time with the Lord that I want to introduce to you.

And I'm going to ask you to kind of put your phones down and I'm going to ask you to participate in this.

It's going to feel super weird, but I'm going to ask you to press in.

And I promise you, if you will do that, it actually will be super, super helpful.

So just if you would, everybody bow your heads and close your eyes for me.

Bow your heads and close your eyes for me.

I want you to take your hands, and I want you to put your hands over your eyes.

Your hands and put your head over your eyes.

We are to be different in what we look at.

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

Father, I pray you would protect our eyes from the things that we should not see.

And that you would help our eyes to long for the things of your beauty and your glory that will remind us of you.

I want you to take your hands and I want you to put them over your ears.

Put your hands over your ears.

We are to be different in what we hear.

Father in heaven, I pray that you would protect us, go before us, keep us from allowing the mind-numbing noise of this world to fill our ears.

Father, I pray that you would help protect us from the doomsday that we hear all around us that leads to fear and anxiety and apathy.

Father, your word says that you speak a word behind us saying, This is the way, walk in it.

Lord, may we recognize your voice.

Lord, would you be so good and kind to us to speak to us?

And Lord, may we hear that voice of yours louder than every other noise that's fighting for its attention.

I ask that you take your hands and put them on your head.

We are to be different in what we think about.

Father, we pray that we would take every single thought.

We would take it captive and make it obedient to Jesus Christ.

Father, I pray that you would protect our minds from going through all of the scenarios that ultimately you are in control of.

So, Father, may we submit our minds to you.

May we think in such a way where we actually do believe that you are on your throne and you are still in charge.

And Lord, may that give us peace.

May that calm our souls.

May that let us rest in you.

I want you to take your hands and I want you to put them on your mouth.

We are to be different in what we say.

Father, your word says that the tongue has the power of life and death.

Father, I pray that you would convict us and protect us from gossip, from slander, from any unwholesome talk that might come out of our mouth.

Instead, Father, as it's the occasion, would we use our mouths to build others up?

Father, would you let us be a people?

Speak life.

We should speak hope.

Speak love.

Speak encouragement.

I want you to take your hands and I want you to put your palms up in front of you.

Put your palms up in front of you.

You are to be different in how you act, in what you do.

Father in heaven, your word tells us whether we eat or whether we drink, we do it all for the glory of God.

So as we leave here today, God, I pray that whether we are going to go to school, whether we're going to go to work, whether we are going to be in our neighborhoods, wherever it is that we may be, Father, may our actions reflect that we know you and know you intimately.

That we walk with you.

Father, I pray that the work of our hands and the movement of our feet would bring glory and honor to you in all that we do.

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

Amen.

I want to encourage you in your time with the Lord, maybe make that a prayer of yours.

You need to know in enemy territory, the goal is not to fit in, the goal is to be different.

And I believe that simple act of praying shows us the aspects of holiness that God desires for us to have.

Let's keep reading.

In verse 17.

Conduct yourselves with fear.

Very key phrase here.

This is the command of this passage, it's right there.

Conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.

Knowing that you were ransomed from the feudal ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you.

Who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

Next command that you need in order to keep your allegiance and enemy territory is to lead confident.

Lead confident.

You're scared and afraid because of a relationship that you're in or a relationship that you want that hasn't happened yet.

And so as a result, there's a lot of fear that it's not at all what he's describing here.

Instead, he is describing reverential awe, meaning that I respect and believe Jesus so much that my fear of him overrides any other fear that might come up in my life.

Nick Saban, a couple of weeks ago, stepped down from the University of Alabama.

And whether you are a Nick Saban or an Alabama fam or not, it is hard not to agree that Nick Saban was the greatest college football coach of all time.

He was there for 17 years at Alabama.

Let me just give you some of these stats.

They're insane.

He won six national championships.

He was number one in the country 109 weeks, which is equivalent to 763 days, or just over two full calendar years.

This stat's insane.

He had more first round picks, 44, than he did losses 29 during his time in Alabama.

To me, this is the craziest out of all.

Every single player that was recruited by Nick Saban in the 17-year career that he had there at Alabama, who stayed for a total of four years at the university, every single one of those players won at least one national championship.

The guy was a winner in every single way.

Don't miss this.

In 48 hours, he was replaced.

The greatest college football coach of all time.

In 48 hours, his locker, his desk, his parking spot, and his job title is gone.

Replaced.

Folks, it's not if, it's when you will be removed, forgotten, or replaced.

I don't tell you that to depress you.

I tell you that because what I would see is most people, when it comes to the fear that they have in their lives, the reason why they're so afraid is because they're fearful that all that they've accumulated, all that they've done, all the money that they have, all the accolades, the fame, the influence that they have, they're fearful that one day those things are gonna go away.

Or they're fearful that all the things they're striving for and all the things they want in life and all the things they're trying to do, and one day they're not gonna be able to actually achieve those things.

And what Peter is trying to tell us is when we're in enemy territory, we don't have to be afraid of whether we're known or successful or have all these accolades.

Instead, we can lead confident, knowing we're none of those things.

And we're here as long as we're here, and if God wants to take us home or if God wants to move us somewhere else, that's totally fine because ultimately our confidence is not in ourselves, our confidence is in the grace and the mercy and the story of Jesus.

And so, therefore, I don't care who the next president is, I don't care what the job situation is, I don't care about how that relationship goes.

Ultimately, I'm not defined by those things.

I'm instead defined by the fact that Jesus Christ is on his throne and that hasn't changed one.

So I can live and lead confident.

Knowing that if you found out the worst about me, that's okay.

Because ultimately it's not my story.

It's God's redemption story in my life.

That is the foundational message.

And so, therefore, if I'm in enemy territory and everybody's telling me about all the things I need to change and all the things that I need to turn from, and all the stances and all the commands and all the things that are wrong and that are outdated, I can simply say this.

That's fine, your problem's not with me, your problem's with him.

But I can tell you this: I'm not turning to be a Rangers fan, I'm an Astros fan as long as I live.

Folks, the same thing should be true when it comes to your faith.

Let's keep going.

Last thing.

Verse 22 having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere, brotherly love.

Love one another earnestly from a pure heart.

Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable.

Through the living and abiding word of God.

For all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass.

The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.

And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

Final command to keep your allegiance in the midst of enemy territory.

Love deep.

Love deep.

The last command is to love.

We're gonna see throughout this series that we are gonna be asked to treat people differently than the way they treat us.

When you experience trials and persecution and struggles, you're gonna want to get even, you're gonna want to get revenge, you're gonna want to make others pay, you're gonna rage and frustration.

But what God calls us to do because we are in a different place, not because we just have fairy tale hope, oh, it's all gonna get fixed and it's all gonna be better.

We instead are realistic and know, no, it might get a lot worse.

Like that loved one may not actually make it back.

Like it's not just gonna be all rainbows and roses.

I instead know my hope is not built on my current present reality, which is not my home getting significantly better.

My hope is built on the fact that I know God will get me through this here now, and that God has a place for me to go.

And in light of that, I know how much I have been loved, which means that I can love others.

He's gonna tell us to love those who are lovable, and he's gonna tell us to love those who are so hard to love.

Ultimately, the reason why we can do any of this is because of the fact that we have a savior.

God the Father sent his one and only Son, Jesus, to come down to this earth to live a perfect, sinless, obedient life.

He was mistreated, he was falsely accused, he was beaten, and he was broken.

And he endured all of those things looking to Jesus.

What the Bible tells us now to do.

The founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

You see, what we are people who easily forget.

And so the Bible tells us there's two main ways that he wants us to continually remember what he has done for us, the love that he has given to us.

One is through the testimony of baptism.

What an unbelievable picture we just got to see.

We got to see the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus displayed as a reminder to us.

That's our story.

That's why we get so fired up about baptism because it is not only the next step of obedience in the life of a believer, but it is also a picture of God's love for us.

He also tells us to take supper together, the last supper.

He tells us that we are to take the bread and we are to take the cup, and by doing that, it helps us to remember and reflect on God's love for us.

This time I'm gonna ask our men, if they would, go ahead and get in position and make your way forward.

What we're gonna do, tell you how this is gonna go.

We're gonna give you past the trays.

If you're a believer in Jesus and you're one of us here at United City, I'm gonna encourage you to please take this family meal together.

If you're somebody who's not a believer in Jesus, that's totally fine.

We just simply ask you to let us have this kind of family moment together.

And then I'm gonna be speaking to you here in just a moment.

But as the men come forward and as they pass the place, I just want to encourage you to take the elements we're gonna be stacked on top of each other and just wait until every single person is served, and then we'll have the opportunity to celebrate this act of love given to us for Jesus together.

He took the breath by giving the fact that he'd given his life, his body, dying across our sins.

And by taking of this supper together, it allows us to be reminded of the fact that our salvation wasn't cheap, our salvation wasn't free, our salvation was cost, and this ultimate act of love that Jesus did to us allows us to love deep, even those people.

It's gonna cause us to suffer, it's gonna cause us to struggle, we're gonna disagree with us, and when we find ourselves in that location of enemy territory, because of the love of Jesus shown to us at the cross, we can keep our allegiance to Jesus is Lord.

On that night he took the bread and he broke it, and he said, As often as you eat of it, do it in remembrance of me.

He said, as often as you drink it, do it in remembrance of me.

Encourage you to put your cups down there.

There should be a spot in your seeds.

You don't drop it.

I'm just gonna ask if you would, though, to back your head and close your eyes for me.

Some of you have been trying way too hard to get every single thing you can out of this life.

And what you've discovered is while there may be moments of enjoyment and moments where it's good, at the end of the day, you still need more and you still want more.

And that doesn't mean that there's something wrong with this world and you just gotta search hard and go and find that little missing link.

What it means and it shows you is this you weren't made for this world.

You were made for another world, and God, who created you, desires that you live and reign with Him when you die, but that you also experience the joy of eternal life that comes here on this earth to where you know I can live as an exile and a nomad.

And I'm gonna bless those around me, but I'm not gonna be dependent upon those around me for my meaning in life.

See, I'm telling you what I've experienced, and so many other people in this room have experienced the joy of Jesus Christ.

It has changed our life radically, and we want that so badly for you.

So if you're here today and you know you've got a hole and emptiness in your life and in your heart, I want you to today receive Jesus.

Just pray this simple prayer with me, dear God.

I want to have life.

I want to know you.

I believe that you sent your son Jesus to die on the cross for me.

I believe that you rose from the dead, and right now I receive your gift of eternal life.

Would you change me?

Help me not live for this world, but help me to live for the world to come.

Father, thank you for changing me, for forgiving me of all of my sins, for making me new.

It's Jesus.

Name, I pray.

Amen.

Would you look up as you look up?

If you just pray that prayer with me, I want you to know that your life has changed forever.

But I'm gonna ask you to do in just a moment, we do a public invitation.

I'm gonna ask you in just a moment to step out from where you are to come forward.

And one of our team members is gonna be up here and on the sides, and we would love nothing more than to celebrate with you and know about your decision.

Maybe you're here with a friend or a family member and you may be a little nervous.

Just grab them.

I promise you, they'd love to go with you and come forward and make your decision public.

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

We are a church that is gonna believe, we're gonna lead confidently, we're gonna look up, but we're gonna we're gonna live differently.

We are gonna be people who love indeed.

God's calling you to be a part of a church like that.

I'm gonna ask that you lead the way.

By your coming, you're gonna inspire and encourage others.

Maybe some of you need to be baptized.

We saw two that were just now baptized, we're about to baptize two more in our Spanish service.

God is moving in our church.

Maybe your next step, just like Hayden today, you're never too late.

You're right on time to take your next step with Jesus.

If that's you today, would you come forward and let us schedule your baptism?

Maybe others of you feel like God's calling you to ministry.

I want you to know this.

I want to celebrate with you in that.

And we want to equip you and help you in every way.

If that is you today, why don't you come make that public?

Why don't you stand?

And as you stand, however God is leading you to respond, you come right now as He is calling you.

Oh, praise all who pay my dead, praise this line, oh, praise the one who paid my dead, praise this, praise this time, oh, plays on pay my dead, praise this time, oh, take my dead, praise this night up, oh, praise the one Praise my dead, praise this.

God is so faithful that keeps moving.

Child coming forward, giving her life to Jesus.

Got a family over here.

We showed uh Mary Soul's video at our Easter service last year about how God radically changed her, coming out of prison, went over to Oaks of Righteousness, and now it's been a key part of what God is doing here in our Spanish ministry.

Recently got moved, came with family members just to get prayed for.

I mean, it's just I never get over it.

And I hope that we as a church never get over it.

Uh, church family, you're gonna hear in the days ahead, we got all kinds of ideas and things that you're gonna be hearing about uh that are gonna help us to continue to reach even more people.

But I'm just telling you, every single person has a story, every single person has their own recollection of how God has changed their specific life.

We're so thankful for it.

We're praying for even more of it in the coming days with uh encounter coming up.

So, Pat, why don't you come up and why don't you close us and tell us how we can also be praying this week for an amazing encounter with God in you?

Yeah, hey, can we just celebrate with all the people who responded in the room this morning?

It's incredible.

What an awesome kickoff to a new sermon series.

Hey, again, encounter weekend.

Uh if you felt like we've said it once, we're gonna say it a thousand times.

Encounter weekend is this weekend.

If you want to get involved, you want to register, you want to sign up, maybe to get your student signed up.

I promise you, this is gonna be uh actually it's not, it is going to be the most impactful weekend of their life.

We believe it in faith.

And they just can't afford to miss it.

Money's never a reason to miss Encounter Weekend.

So if you want to register your student, you can scan that QR code.

If you want to sign up to serve, from driving kids to being a host home to showing up and just helping with security and setting stuff up and tearing it down.

They make quite the mess.

We'd love to have you guys be a part of Encounter Weekend.

At the very least, commit to praying for Jesus to change the lives of all the students who'll be here this weekend.

We love y'all so much, and we'll see you next Sunday.

It's gonna be incredibly rowdy.

Y'all prepare your heart.

We'll see you soon.

Amazing message we got to hear this morning.

I hope the Lord showed himself to you in a fresh, 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.