Give It Away | Pastor Chris Kouba

My name is Josh Weist.

I went on the LA mission trip.

I guess growing up I I didn't hang with the Christian crowd.

So the thought of telling people like me or like I had been about God felt very lack of a better word lame.

Um I know that sounds terrible, but growing up I thought Christians were lame.

I actually came forward uh not very long before the mission trip.

I know for sure because the moment things changed my relationship with Christ.

I knew I wanted to serve God uh with everything that I so in order to do that, I guess I just decided to say yes to anything and everything that was asked.

And I heard about a mission trip.

My daughter had had recently been baptized, I was baptized, so we decided we would go on this mission trip to LA.

We went to a baptism on the beach.

Uh afterwards, one of the uh guys from Royal City Church took us around Engleside by their church just to kind of tell people about their church.

In spite of being nervous, I just went for it, I guess.

And it was unreal.

It was it was amazing.

It was mountaintop experience.

I found myself not running but but walking as fast as I could to get to the next person, and the next person, and the next person.

I just wanted to tell everybody that I saw.

But it was really cool.

I I got to pray with a woman, and and uh she had a young son and a little bit older son with her.

I got to pray with her and talk to her a little bit about Royal City Church, and the next day.

Her family came to church.

The Holy Spirit will give you what you need in the moment.

I will say in that moment, the Holy Spirit gave me more than a teaspoon.

He gave me a keeping ladle full of courage.

I thought I would serve, but God just served me.

If you even have an inkling of a thought that maybe you should go, take that step, walk out in moments, and and trust that God will meet you where you need to be met.

Pretty awesome.

Hey, grab your Bibles, open them up to Colossians chapter four, Colossians chapter four.

My name is Chris Cuba.

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

It is so good to see you here in uh part of our 11 o'clock service.

Let me just gonna do a little bit of logistical things real quick before we get going.

Uh we are growing as a church, and we are growing really, really fast, and that is an awesome, awesome thing.

This service alone last week uh had 50% more people in it than it did one year ago.

And every single week, absolutely, that's worth celebrating.

We averaged 20% uh up a year over a year.

Uh, our last our 9 30 service was up 75% over a year ago.

It's kind of crazy what's happening.

It's really, really exciting.

Uh, a couple of things, just housekeeping-wise, that you can really help us out, help usher, help make sure that we're not having to like kind of get seats in the back, which is what we've had to do pretty much every Sunday so far uh this month, is for you to do everything you can when you get here, just move in.

Like it would really, really, really help us.

It lets us get folks uh in where they need to be, particularly as worship starts, that would be a huge help.

And if it makes no difference to you, like whatever service that you attend, it makes zero difference.

You're not serving one of the various hours, or you're not attending a group, something like that.

Uh, if you would consider moving to our 9.30 service, that'll work for like a little bit to help us at 11, and that'll help us for a little bit to help at 9.30.

Uh, but if you would consider doing that, that would certainly help us.

We just want to make sure that we can make as many seats available and possible for as many folks as possible to come and be a part of what God is doing here at United City.

Hey, before we get going though, I want to take this opportunity to welcome all of the men, all of the women in our correctional facilities, those that are joining us online, and my son and anyone else who's sick, all right, that's watching this on the other side of this camera.

Let's give them a hand and celebrate that, okay?

And I also do want to make sure to make sure uh show your attention to the little uh sheet that was there in your seat.

And please make sure to go out to the expo.

We've done an incredible job.

David Humphrey leads this uh effort and is doing a fantastic job to make sure that you know opportunities for you to go outside of yourself.

Just like Josh said, if you will take that step and you will do something, I'm telling you, God's gonna change your life.

You just gotta be heads up and be prepared for it.

There's some local opportunities, there's some amazing ministries we've been partnered with for many, many years.

There's also an unbelievable one.

My wife serves there every Tuesday morning called Carinet Pregnancy Center.

Praise God that He has sent an unbelievable, top-notch, open pregnancy center every day of the week in Northeast Houston.

And I want to encourage you, if you're looking for a local place to go and serve, go talk to the folks over at Carinet and all of the various areas that we've got.

They've all listed right here in the little sheet.

Uh we've got local trips and, or excuse me, national trips, and we've got global trips.

Our desire and goal is to see 500 unique, different people go on a mission trip by the year 2028.

I think we're like 71, 72 so far, and so we want you to be a part of that.

And I'm just telling you, whenever you go outside, getting on a plane, on a car, or a bus outside of Northeast Houston, what you will begin to discover is one, we live in a bubble.

And the second thing is that God is doing amazing work outside of this bubble, and it will cause your heart to get on mission so that you'll live differently when you come back into the bubble.

The bubble's not bad.

The bubble's where God has us.

But we also must recognize this is not all there is.

And we've got great church partnerships through church planning nationally.

We've got uh trips that are gonna go to South Asia, we've got all in between, and so I just want to encourage you to take a look at this.

And if you feel the prompting of the Holy Spirit in any way, say yes.

Just say yes and figure out the details later, and I promise you you will not regret it.

We're continuing this morning in our sermon series called You, and what we've been doing is we're trying to look and see how you can have the best version of you in 2024.

In fact, our desire and goal is that this would be the best year of your life.

And here's the irony of this whole series.

In order for you to have a better version of you, you can't start with you.

In fact, the only way that you're gonna have a better version of you in 2024 is if you start with God.

The whole driving principle of this whole series is this better version of you puts God first.

He's the beginning, he's the middle, and he's the end.

Everything's from him, everything points to him, and everything's gonna end up with him.

And so the best thing that you can do if you want to have the best year of your life is not to just put in, go join a member gym membership and eat a little bit better.

The best thing that you can do in order to have the best year of your life is to have the best year of your life spiritually.

And then what you'll begin to discover is that God will move and he will work in your life in such a way that you'll never want to go back.

We've been giving you messages each week.

I encourage you to go back and listen to those online about different practices and different principles and ideas that you can put into place in order to have a better version of you.

The message, though, this morning is this a better version of you gives God to others.

A better version of you gives God to others.

This is a natural and normal thing.

If you ever have something really exciting going on, if you go to a restaurant and you have an incredible meal, you never keep that to yourself.

What do you do?

You either post about it or you also tell people about it.

Man, you gotta go check out this place.

It was awesome.

If you read a good book, if you watch a good movie, you don't just sit around and enjoy it to yourself.

No, what do you do?

You tell your family, you tell your friends, you tell everybody that you can't.

Man, you gotta get this copy of this book.

It was so good.

Or you gotta go watch that movie.

I'm telling you, have you seen the movie yet?

You need to go see the movie.

I promise you, you're gonna love it.

You go on a vacation.

Vacation is a perfect spot for you and for your family.

What do you do?

You come home and you tell your small group, let me tell you where I just went.

You guys have got to go check this place out.

It was perfect.

It was so good.

And in the same way, we believe, as natural as it is to talk about every other area of your life, whenever it comes to the mercy and the grace and the goodness and all the wonderful things that take place in your life when it comes to God, we believe it should be as natural as possible for you to tell them, hey, you're not gonna believe this.

This is what God's doing in my life.

Yet, for some reason, when it comes to the issue of telling someone about Jesus, we all get weird.

We all get anxious, we all get super PowerPoint presentation formal, and it's not natural anymore.

We don't do a PowerPoint to tell somebody else about how great the movie was, but when it comes to Jesus, we're like, I don't, I don't know what I'm gonna say.

And it is a totally, I don't know if it's because of teaching or whatever it is, but I would simply tell you when we do when we give into these temptations to not tell someone else about Jesus, we miss out on one of the biggest blessings that could possibly exist in life, and that is you being used by God to tell someone else about God.

Read with me in Colossians chapter 4.

Colossians 4 · chapter mention

Hey guys, we're gonna get to you in just a second.

If we can get some of our ushers to help them out, it would be awesome.

This is what I'm talking about.

We need you to move in and we need you to switch services, okay?

This is what I'm talking about.

It's happening.

Here we go.

Colossians 4, verse 2.

Colossians 4:2

It says, continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

At the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.

Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

In this passage, I want to point out three things to you as to how you can give God to others.

Verses two through four tells us the first one.

It says that we are to give God to others through our prayers.

Verse five says that we can give God to others through our actions.

And verse six says that we are to give God to others through our um through our words.

Prayers, actions, and words.

Let's look first at our prayers.

Look at verse 2.

It says, continue steadfastly in prayer.

What Paul is doing is he's given the church at Colossae uh things to put on their prayer list.

He's saying that I'm asking you to continue steadfastly in prayer.

The word steadfastly is a word that means to experience intensity and with deep anguish.

It also is a word that is used to imply there might be opposition up against it.

What it's essentially saying is this is that I'm asking you guys to continue, even when it's hard, when you want to give in, when you don't want to do it anymore, that's when you need to pray.

He's not saying, hey, if you guys can get around to it, like it, I know you got a lot going on.

I know you have a lot that's happening in your life.

But if you don't mind, it'd be cool if you guys can maybe every once in a while pray for lost people.

No, no, no, no.

He's saying, hey, I want to make sure that you know there are lost people all around you, and it is your duty, your responsibility, your privilege to pray for them.

Look at verse 3.

It tells us what we're supposed to pray for.

He says, pray for opportunities to share the gospel.

He doesn't say pray that people would get saved, although I'm sure Paul would be fine if that prayer got answered.

He doesn't say to pray that God would be able to lead someone along the way to meet another believer who can tell them about Jesus, although I'm sure he'd be absolutely fine with that.

He says, pray specifically for me to have an opportunity to be the one that God uses to share my faith with somebody else.

Ooh, that's different.

I don't know about you, but that's not usually what I pray for.

I pray for my day, I pray for my family, I pray for any needs that come up in my mind, and I pray for healing, and I pray for that.

I don't typically pray, God, would you give me a God moment today so that you can use me to share the gospel with somebody else?

You see, when I'm on a mission trip, I do, I pray that God would open up, give me, open up, meet people that are people of persons of peace, that God would use me that day to speak the gospel.

Then I get back home and I pray that God would save everyone.

He just wouldn't use me to do it.

Like I want him to do awesome stuff.

I just don't want him to actually have me be the one that actually says something yet he says here that the prayer that God says that he's going to answer, which don't we all kind of want to be on God's wavelength to where we're like praying the stuff we know he's gonna say yes to?

He says, if you want to have that kind of prayer, then here's what the prayer consists of.

God, would you use me?

See, a lot of times what we do is we have our over here and we've got our agenda for 2024, and this is what we want to take place in our life, and we're asking God to come and to bless what we've decided we want to do.

And instead, what God says is, This is what I want to do in 2024, and what he's asking you to do is to take what you want to do, and instead align it with what he says he will do.

That's what he wants you to do.

But you gotta understand something.

The reason why we can trust this is because this is the heart of God.

It shows up over and over again.

Look at these scriptures, first Timothy chapter, uh, so 1 Timothy chapter 2, verses 3 and 4.

1 Timothy 2:3

This is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

What this means is this God desires that all the people that you know that don't know Jesus would know Jesus.

Like that alone has to give you some comfort as you go into this process, knowing, like you're going into the process knowing God actually is cheering for you.

Like he wants it too.

Matthew chapter 9, verse 37 and 38.

Matthew 9:37

Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

He says, pray earnestly, not that people would be saved.

He says, pray earnestly that people would go out and tell people how they can be saved.

Do you see the difference?

We want gospel conversions to happen in our friends and our family and our neighbors, but what we're missing out on is that we need to be praying that God would use us to do it.

Like that's the missing element that allows you to experience the unbelievable blessing of seeing someone being harvested right in front of your eyes.

Look at this, Ephesians 6, 18 through 20.

This is the tail end of what's called the spiritual warfare passage.

And here's what Paul says after he talks about all the things you're supposed to put on and gear up for the day, verse 18, praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication.

To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and pray also for me, that words may be given to me and opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak.

Two different times he says this don't just pray that I'm protected from evil.

Pray that I knock it out of the park when that moment comes.

That I am ready, that I'm prepared, that I speak boldly and with clarity.

Listen to this.

I love this passage.

1 Thessalonians 3, verse 1.

1 Thessalonians 3:1

Finally, brothers, pray for us.

Paul's speaking to the church at Thessalonica, and he says that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored as happened among you.

This means is this you can pray for gospel success.

I'm not saying it's bad to pray for comfort.

I'm not saying it's bad to pray for healing.

I'm not saying it's bad to pray for protection.

I'm not saying it's bad to pray for guidance.

I'll pray for all of those things.

But a better version of you in 2024 is gonna pray for the fervency and the intensity of the gospel to go forth in Northeast Houston this year.

Can you imagine what God would want to do?

With a group of people at church who actually led a campaign to reach more people with the good news of Jesus Christ on their knees?

Do you realize that in your schools, students, that God desires to move in your schools in such a profound way, and he desires to use you to be the answer to your prayer?

I just wonder, do we ask God for the same things he says he already wants to do?

Folks, we're having growth pains, if you will.

Praise God for that.

Can I tell you we can always alleviate growth pains, but we cannot alleviate prayerlessness?

I promise you we can figure out what we need to do in order to get people in and get people out and have them a seat and all that kind of stuff, and we're talking about all those things.

But can I tell you what God longs for?

It's not a church with more seating capacity.

He longs for a church with more prayer capacity.

He desires that you would have a heart for your school, a heart for your office, a heart for your neighborhood, a heart for your sport team in such a way where winning is not the sole goal.

But instead, that God would choose to use you, to be an influence, by you speaking up and acting out in such a way where you get to see that he is using you to answer the very prayer that he has already placed on your heart.

For service, we had the opportunity to uh baptize uh a sixth grader at Riverwood Middle School.

And uh, unbelievable story.

Um, just love how God's moving in this family's life.

Um, but this family, the reason that they came and know about our church is yeah, people people tell them, hey United City's great and all that kind of stuff.

But the reason that they knew is because Dave and Emily Kinney, their son, played baseball on Coach Laughlin's team.

And Coach Laughlin is a great baseball coach.

I mean, a very good baseball coach.

You want to be on his team.

And what was so awesome is getting to see Dave baptize Coach Laughlin's daughter today.

Because I know for literally months Dave has been praying for that family that they would come to be a part of this church.

You see, it's not just you can jump to that, absolutely.

Every baptism has a story.

But how great would it be if you got to be at this part of the story because you've been praying for those people long before they got up in the baptistry.

To where you know this, God can use you from the place of your knees to be calling out to him, to agree with him with what he already desires, to be able to see gospel transformation take place in Northeast Houston and beyond.

Let me keep going.

In fact, let me just mention this really quickly.

I want to just give you a prayer you can pray.

And I promise you, if you pray it, God will answer it, and God will be faithful, and you will see him move.

Lord, connect me with those who aren't connected to you.

Lord, connect me with those who aren't connected to you.

Second thing is your actions.

If you're the only Christian that anyone else is what would I say to the world about your life?

Following Jesus.

What kind of testimony would your life give off?

Colossians 4, verse 5.

Colossians 4:5

It says, conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.

Part of giving God to others involves being wise in what you do and wise in what you avoid.

Being wise in what you do means that you are intentional and strategic with your time.

This doesn't mean that the people in your life, your neighbors, your friends, your coworkers, all of those folks are projects.

No, it does not, but it means that you are living on mission.

It means that every day that you wake up, and I believe wholeheartedly this is the case, your street that you live on is not random.

Okay, your third period and your sixth period class, it's not random.

You may not like your schedule, but I promise you, God has you there for a reason.

Your coworkers, the job that you have, the clients that you get to work with, the people that are underneath your influence and your care, it's not random.

It may not be your forever job and the place you're gonna be for the rest of your life, but it is for right now.

And I promise you, it's not random.

God wants to use it.

That sports team that you happen to be on, I don't care how good that you are, and that's the reason why you got chosen to be of that particular team, it ain't because of that.

I promise you, it's not random.

God may have given you those skills to be on that particular team because there's people on that team who need to see somebody who actually loves Jesus.

And I think a lot of times when it comes to giving God to others, we begin to think, man, I'm already stretched too thin.

Like I'm so busy, there's no way I can add anything else to my already crowded calendar.

And I would simply tell you, I don't necessarily believe that God desires to pull you out of your schedule so that you can go live on mission.

I actually believe that God wants you to make the best use of the time and instead recognize that while you are doing your normal living, that's when you can be on mission.

You see, for some of you, God may be wanting to call into full-time ministry and pull you out of where you are and put you in a totally different context, and praise God for that.

But I believe for most of us, God doesn't want to change our position.

He actually wants to change our perspective.

That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespass against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.

We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

God wants to use your school, your work, your job, your sports, your theater, your business skills and mind, your passion so that you can be a reconciler.

He wants you to be wise and strategic in how you use your time.

If you love golf, it doesn't mean you can't ever play golf because you've got to go live for Jesus.

It just means that you live for Jesus while you're playing golf.

If you love baseball, it doesn't mean that you can't love Jesus and play baseball.

But what it does mean is you realize you were made first and foremost to love Jesus and you happen to get used baseball as a means to do it.

Some of you are teachers and some of you are coaches.

I firmly believe you get a paycheck from Umble ISD or you get a paycheck from UCane ISD, but God has you sent on mission to actually live for him in those schools.

I believe he wants to use you, but it changes our perspective.

I'm a reconciler first.

Not only though is it important for us to think about what we do, but it's also we got to be wise in what we avoid.

One of the biggest issues that we have in this Christian culture around us is the fact that basically the idea has been is that you basically are a believer in Jesus as long as you can speak the lingo.

You have a church that you go to every now and then, and when the salad bowl is plasced, you put a little tip in there.

And we assume that's what it means to follow Jesus.

Please hear me.

That's not what the Bible says.

And if you call yourself a Christian, but your life looks nothing different than people who don't claim to know Jesus.

Why are you surprised if they have no interest in what you're trying to tell them about Jesus?

We're about to get into a new series in a couple of weeks in the book of 1 Peter that talks about the elect exiles that were all scattered around, and over and over again it uses this language.

You are foreigners, you are strangers, you are aliens in a foreign land.

And it says, here's how you're supposed to live.

You are to live different, distinct lives.

It should be a noticeable difference between the whole rest of the world and the way that you live.

Yet I have to ask you the question: do you look any different in the way you act, think, or process life than those who don't know Jesus?

I don't want you to hear this as harsh or judgmental, but I do want you to hear this pastorally and honest.

It may be that you're not saved either.

If your life is no different, can I tell you stop buying into a version of religion that allows you basically to look like everybody else and instead buy into a relationship with Jesus that you can't think of ever doing what you used to do.

And those actions are the thing that are compelling to a lost world because they see, man, you're different.

I don't really understand it, and I don't really know what it means, but I just know this.

I want that.

May our lives be set apart in the way that we act.

Colossians 4, 6.

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

You give God to others through your prayers, you give God to others through your actions, and finally you give God to others through your words.

I'm not really sure who uh actually said this first.

I've seen it attributed to a lot of different people.

But there's a common phrase, you may have heard it, preach the gospel.

If necessary, use words.

Here's the problem the Bible doesn't say that.

In fact, the Bible actually implies and suggests that we have to actually use our mouths to tell people about our faith.

Like we are supposed to actually be tellers of Jesus.

Now look, I I I I love merch, all right?

We we sell merch here at the church, okay?

Uh I I've got merch myself that's got kind of you see logo on it, and and I've got uh, you know, a polo, and then I've got you know some pullovers, uh, I've got a hat, we've got some of those things.

Ladies, we hear you.

We're gonna get some girl-looking stuff as well.

That's gonna be in the next round.

And we're gonna out throughout the year encourage you to buy merch and to wear merch.

Uh, we do this with youth.

I was at the high school the other day, and I saw a ton of ton of our folks with UCY shirts on or Girl World or whatever it may be, and we get the merch out there.

We're gonna make sure the kids' ministry, we've got UC Kids merch.

We love this stuff.

Every time you get baptized, you're gonna get baptized in a United City church uh church, church, church shirt, and you're gonna encourage you to wear that.

We even tell you about it, wear this out and make sure that people know where you go to church.

And we love this, all right?

And we're gonna continue to do that because we think merch is awesome, it's a great marketing strategy, right?

It allows you to go and walk around and begin to show it, and people are like, man, that's pretty cool.

Tell me about United City, and and you have the opportunity to tell people about our church, but can I please tell you what we want more than you wearing it the merch is for you to use your mouth.

Like I'm telling you, if you have the opportunity with someone, and the only options that you have, I can tell them about Jesus or I can invite them to United City.

Don't mention United City.

Tell them about Jesus.

I think too often we want to let our logo speak more volumes than our mouths.

And I'm telling you, wear your logos, wear your stuff.

But it's so much more important, not that they know where you go to church, but why you go to church.

Because I would tell you, I think we're a really great church.

I think God's moving, I think our staff team's amazing, I think some of the things that we do are absolutely awesome.

But Jesus is what changes people's lives.

And at the end of the day, we want to be a conduit and a means by which people can have a relationship with Jesus and live it out.

And so we've got to make sure that we are using our words.

Oh, you've got to get out of city?

Yeah, let me tell you why.

Let me tell you what God's done in my life since I've been at this church.

Let me tell you what he can do for you.

That is the most important follow-up statement that you will ever make to the merch.

1 Peter chapter 2, listen to this.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

Here's what it says, or excuse me, chapter 3.

It says, But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect.

Hey, why do you have that shirt on?

And that's what your answer is.

Let me tell you about Jesus.

Let me tell you something.

This church, they talk about Jesus.

You know what Jesus has done?

Jesus died on a cross for your sins, he rose from the dead, and he's transformed my life.

I can't explain it.

I don't really understand maybe all of it just yet, because I'm kind of new to it, but I do know this.

There is life there, and I want that life.

And I don't want to go back and do anything different.

For some of you, this means you're gonna need to use prescripted outlines like the Roman Road or like the Three Circles, or maybe the good news, bad news.

Some of you may need to use an old school tract.

Old school doesn't mean not effective.

They can be highly effective for you to give a tract to someone.

Some of you, you may need to build relationships with people and be patient with their questions, questions you may not know all the answers to, but questions you can say, hey, let me look into that and let's get back together and talk this through.

And that's an awesome thing for you to do.

And for some of you, it means you need to tell them your personal story, your story of what you were like before you met Jesus, your story of what Jesus did in your life, and your story of what your life is like now that you've found Jesus.

No matter what you do, the key is this that you use your words to express your faith.

Some of you are like, well, I'm not really sure I can do this.

Let me give you three super practical suggestions of things that you can say to somebody else this week that you know that doesn't know Jesus.

And I'm gonna encourage you to go think about who that is and ask them one or all three of these things.

Okay?

Here's the first one.

How can I pray for you?

How can I pray for you?

When they get over the awkwardness or the like, you what?

You wanna pray for me?

Then say these amazing words.

Can I do it right now?

Can I do that right now?

Folks, what I found is that I've had lost Jehovah's Witness neighbors.

I've had lost Hindu neighbors who didn't turn me down to pray for them.

What I discovered is that no matter how much of an atheist that you are, you typically will be like, well, I don't believe in that, but yeah, you can.

People will at least do that.

And we live in this kind of Christian subculture where like everyone's supposedly a believer, and I would just simply tell you this the very fact that you ask these words, hey, how can I pray for you?

You have no idea how much that could be an open door to a spiritual conversation.

And it gives you the opportunity to be able to speak God into their lives, and you don't even know when the last time maybe a prayer was uttered on their behalf.

Second question I want you to ask is this Can I tell you about something that's changed my life?

Can I tell you about something that's changed my life?

This is a great lead-in for you to share your story.

Here's the beauty you don't have to have some prescripted thing memorized because it's your story.

If you know Jesus, then you can say what happened before, and you can say what's happened after, and you can simply make sure that the main point isn't dramatizing the before or the after, it's the middle.

This is what Jesus has done for me.

It's changed my life.

I'm just not even the same person anymore.

Honestly, it's not like everything's perfect in my life, but I would just simply tell you this: I've just got peace.

I know God's with me.

And I just I would love for you to know about that.

That's simple.

You're like, well, maybe you're like, bye.

I grew up in the church and I don't really have a really elaborate before, and I really don't have a really elaborate after.

Do you realize Galatians chapter 2, verse 20, it says this, I've been crucified with Christ.

Galatians 2:20

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

What this means is this is that it doesn't matter how elaborate your before and after story is, if you know Jesus, he's your story.

That's the story that you have shared.

Simple question.

Hey, can I share something that's changed my life?

Let me give you the lesson.

Will you go to church with me?

Will you go to church?

Incredible testimony of Joshua.

Joshua Hasten and just how God's moving in his life and his family and how God used him on this mission trip.

When I recall, the story goes, though, that his daughter, who was a student at Cape Park High School, had a friend.

She said, these magic words.

Hey, do you want to go to church again?

Do you want to go to church again?

She came to you.

She loved it.

Joshua, he said, Christians are lame, right?

So he comes home and hears his daughter went to church.

One, I'm guessing, I'm not speaking for Joshua here, but I'm guessing he was totally fine with her being in church as opposed to being something else.

There's a lot worse things you can do than being in church, maybe, right?

And so he hears that she goes to church, and then he hears that, whoa, she had a good time, and he began to get curious.

And as a result of his curiosity, it led him to go to church, and he realized, man, church is totally lame, but this Jesus guy, he's not.

And he walked forward.

He was sitting right back over here, were you not?

I remember you back there.

And he comes forward and he gives his life to Jesus.

He didn't know any better that you're supposed to basically do the deflect and dodge method and not go on any mission trips and not get in a group, all of those types of things.

He just assumed people actually do what the church tells you that you should try to go do.

And that is, he just started saying yes to everything he possibly could, including going on a mission trip.

And in the midst of going on that mission trip, all of a sudden he began confronted with this reality.

Oh, I'm supposed to actually tell somebody else about this kind of stuff.

He didn't have all this real big formal training and years of practice and all these types of things.

He just simply told them what happened to him.

And then there's some lady that is in LA who came to Royal City Church.

You want to know why?

Because Joshua Haston didn't know enough to tell them no, they're just not supposed to go on a mission trip.

He just said yes, went on that mission trip, and invited her to come to church.

And then now somebody in LA he doesn't even know.

Went to Royal City Church.

Here's the deal we're going to make with you.

We want you to be the folks that God uses to be able to speak the gospel in other people's lives because at the end of the day, we know that's going to have the greatest impact.

But if you do nothing else, will you partner with us and will you simply say these magic words to somebody else?

We got a church, with me.

And here's the deal I'll make with you.

We will absolutely, unapologetically, every single time we gather here in a worship service, we will give a clear presentation of how someone can move from death to life, and they will get to know Jesus, and we will give them an opportunity to respond to that gospel message.

And here's what we have discovered time and time and time and time again.

And it only changes a girl, it changes her dad, it changes the family.

And now the Hasten family is gonna have an entire existence that is so inconceivable than what it was gonna be six months prior.

All because someone just said at Kate Park High School, hey, you wanna go to church?

Who does God need you to be the answer to your prayer to share the gospel with somebody else?

God desires and he wants you to give him to others.

He doesn't want the church to do it for you, he wants you to be the means by which he does it.

Some of you here today, you're the target.

You may not have realized it, but now you're like, oh, that's why they invited me to church.

It's right.

Because we know this.

Jesus Christ has changed our life, and we've never gotten over it.

And we desperately want that for you.

We want you to experience the grace and the mercy and the revision of Jesus for all of your sins because he died on a cross and he rose from the dead, and he invites you willingly, with all of your shortcomings and all of your mess ups, to come into a relationship with him where he takes all of your baggage and he gives you all of his righteousness and goodness.

That's the exchange.

Makes no sense.

Which is why we've never gotten over it.

We want it for you.

Some of you may be religiously lost.

You know the drill, you know the language, you know all the things, but if you were to be honest and you look at your life, you have no shred of evidence whatsoever that suggests that you're any different from other people who don't know Jesus.

The only thing that's different about you is the fact that you go to church on Sundays and they don't, but that's it.

Please hear me.

Going to church on Sundays isn't gonna save you.

Only Jesus will save you.

And so for some of you, maybe you need to realize that you're the target.

God desires a relationship with you.

He doesn't want your roles and your religion.

He wants to walk with you and change you and make you new.

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

I'm gonna ask you if that's you today, if you're watching me online, do the very same thing.

If you want to know Jesus, you're religiously lost, or you realize this is what you've been looking for.

Would you repeat this prayer with me right where you're seated?

You don't have to say it out loud, say it in your heart.

Dear God, I know I'm a sinner.

I believe you died on a cross for my sins.

I believe you rose from the dead.

Right now.

I ask you to come into my life.

Would you change me?

Did you transform me?

Your life is my life.

I'm all in.

If you just pray that prayer of faith with me, I want you to do me a favor.

No one looking around, look up, and I want you to see we've got some folks in the front.

We've got some folks on the side.

What I'm gonna ask you to do is in just a moment, we're all gonna stand up and I want you to go straight to them.

I want you to go right to where they are.

I want you to tell them, I just prayed that prayer gave my life to Jesus.

Others, if you want to come and join United City Church, I want you to know this.

We're gonna be a church that exists for those who are not yet here.

We're gonna be a church that's gonna pray that God would use this place beyond all that we could ever ask, dream, or even think.

We're gonna be a church that prays that God would use us to be the very answer to the prayers that He's praying on behalf of the people in this area that He wants us to reach.

God's calling you to be a part of a church like that, which you come forward and lead the way today.

Others need to be baptized when an unbelievable testimony will arise.

I'm so proud of you.

I'm so proud to see how God's gonna use you at your school.

See these students giving their lives a public testimony of baptism.

Maybe that's your story.

You've given your life to Jesus, but you've not followed through the believer's baptism.

Would you come today and let us schedule your baptism?

For some of you, you need prayer.

You've got a lost friend, you've got a lost neighbor, you've got a lost child, you've got a lost parent.

And maybe you just want to pray.

Father, I pray you take this moment of invitation.

Use it for your glory.

Call people to yourself as you're so faithful to do.

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, 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 going to 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, I'm not sure.