Nobody’s That Stupid

And I want to mention, I'm going to put him on the spot, my brother and Christ and my fellow pastor minister. He's like a pastor to me in so many ways. He calls me all the time, checking in on me. Brett Cooper's here. He's one of our main supporters here in our church.

He loves us to death. And he drove down today from Prince George County to just be with us today, to be in church with us. So thank you, Brett, for being here. And gosh, we got some stories. I met him back at Emanuel College freshman year.

I was a little lost puppy. And here comes Brett down the hallway all happy and full of Christ. And he's still happy and full of Christ, man. Every time I see you, man, you're happy and full of Christ. I love that guy.

So thanks for being with me today, man. Good to see you. Well, today I want to talk about, and some of you probably expected a missionary to be here today. And some of you might be out because you thought I wasn't speaking today. Yeah, I know.

When you're online, you're like, oh, the missionary is going to be here today. That's actually going to happen next week. I got the dates mixed up. We bounced around several weeks, and I thought he was going to be here today. But be with us next week as John and Chelsea Vare come and share their hearts for ministry.

They've been a part of our church since the very beginning, and we've been able to support them and encourage them. And they're just a blessing to us, and we want to be a blessing to them. So let's show up and fill some seats up and talk about their mission projects and what's going on in their world. And perhaps you could be a part of supporting them. But this week, I want to talk about something that I think is important.

So I ask us today to really prepare our hearts, okay? Prepare our hearts for what's getting ready to be spoken, that all distractions would be eliminated here during this time, because I think it's very important. Because here's the deal. Jesus was resurrected so that we can be resurrected. See, the point of resurrection, Jesus' resurrection, is so that we can be resurrected.

That's why we gather together on Easter and celebrate resurrection, not just because he is the Son of God. Amen. He's the Son of God. He proved that he was God. He resurrected, but he offered a resurrected life to us.

And he brought to life himself so that we can be brought to life, that we can be brought to life. And there's a lot of negative Christians out there. I mean, let's just be honest, right? That's like, we've got to be miserable, and we've got to, you know, like, got to die to self, and we've got to, you know, put this, and all of that's true. And I'm getting ready to talk about that in a minute, okay?

But there's life in Christ. And, you know, I was having a conversation with somebody one time, and it was another pastor, and he was just like, well, you know, I've given up this, and I've given up that, and I'm so this, and I'm so that. And he was just down and outing himself. And I'm like, I don't want to listen to you, and I don't want to follow you, and I don't even want to be around you. How are you pastoring a church, you know?

Like, Christ has called me to suffer. You know, we've got a lot of negative Christians out there that just talk about suffering, or down and out, face on the ground miserable. But here's what I want to say today, and this is the most powerful, powerful statement that Jesus said in John 10, 10. And I remember walking down the hallway of a church right after I rededicated my life, and I was called to ministry. And I saw a sign, and it said this very statement, the thief comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy.

But I have come so that you can have life, and not only have life, but life to the full. The enemy comes to steal. Not only does he come to steal, he comes to kill. He wants to kill you. He wants to take you out.

Not only does he want to kill you, he wants to wipe you off the face of existence. He wants to wipe you off the face of the planet. That's his whole goal. That's his whole scheme. But here's what Jesus came to do.

He didn't come to make you miserable, okay? Yeah, there's a lot of pain and hurt, and him. But there's joy in life in Christianity. There's joy in life in Jesus that we can't quite understand. We don't’ It doesn't make sense.

And the goal is to get you to this place. My goal as a pastor, my heart, is to get you to a place where you can actually experience life even in darkness. That you can experience joy even in the middle of hurt, in the middle of trials, when things and certainty and chaos is all over the place. Everything is going wild in the world. You can still experience joy.

And the goal is to get every area of your life, your marriage, your emotions, your finances, your purpose in line with God so that you can truly experience what He has for you. In fact, zoe in the Greek, the Greek word for life, is to come alive. And that's what Jesus has done. He came so that you could come alive in your heart. That He could come alive in your soul.

That you don't have to be dead anymore. Let me just read a story with you. Because for most people, I think, unfortunately, the opposite happens. Most people are in a constant state of deterioration. They're going from life to death.

From the minute they were born, they're dying. But that's not what God wants for us. He wants us to go from death to life. That's the purpose of Jesus, to bring us from death to life. But for many, He goes from life to death.

Let me read this. This was a John Maxwell story. I thought it was really funny. I wanted to share it with you. So it's not theological by any stretch of the imagination, but I thought it was funny.

So, on the first day, God created the dog and said, sit all day on the door of your house and bark at anyone that comes by, that walks by. For this, I will give you a lifespan of 20 years. The dog said, that's a long time to be barking. How about 10 years? And I'll give you back the other 10.

So God agreed. On the second day, God created the monkey and said, entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. Ah, for this, I'll give you a lifespan of 20 years. The monkey said, wow, that's a long time, 20 years to perform. How about I give you back 10 like the dog did?

And God agreed. On the third day, God created the cow and said, you must go into the field with the farmers all day long and suffer under the sun. Have calves and give milk and support the farmer's family. For this, I will give you a lifespan of 60 years. The cow said, that's kind of a tough life if you want me to do this for 60 years.

How about 20 years? And I'll give you back those 40. And God agreed. And then on the fourth day, God created humans and said, eat, sleep, play, marry, and enjoy your life. For this, I will give you 20 years.

But the human said, only 20 years? Could you possibly give me 20, give me the 20, give me my 20, and the 40 you gave the cow, and the 10 you gave the monkey, and the 10 you gave the dog? And that equals up to 80 years. Can I get 80 years, God? God said, okay.

You asked for it. So that is why for the first 20 years, we eat, sleep, and play, right? For the next 40 years, we slave in the sun to support our families. For the next 10 years, we do monkey tricks to entertain our grandchildren, right? And for the last 10 years, we sit on the porch and bark at everybody.

And that's so true. So there's life right there, okay? But in all seriousness, I want to talk about the life paradox. The life paradox. Because what God has to offer you is something completely different than what's expected.

And the challenge for me is to help you see something that seemingly isn't attractional. It doesn't make a lot of sense. But on the other side, it's exactly what's expected. It's exactly what you need, it's exactly what gives you life, and that's exactly what a paradox is. In fact, let me give you the definition of a paradox.

A paradox is a seemingly absurd and contradictory statement for a proposition which, when investigated, may prove to be well-founded and true. So, it's something that seemingly, you know, doesn't work, or we think that doesn't work, but on the other side is it brings life and it brings truth, and we see this all in the Bible. For instance, give and it shall be given unto you, right? The first shall be last. We find rest under the yoke of God.

How do you find rest under a yoke, right? Whoever humbles himself will be exalted. We become wise by becoming fools for Christ, right? In our weakness, he is made strong. We are made strong in him.

And give your firstfruits, and you will be blessed. And all these things. So, we've got all these paradox in the Bible. We've got all these things that, if we walk into, it just doesn't, in the world's eyes, it just doesn't make sense. It's a paradox.

It's something that happens that seemingly seems like the wrong way to go, that wouldn't have much outcome, but ultimately, it's true. And it's real. And it's something powerful. And my heart as a pastor is to try to get these paradoxes in you. But the most important one and the hardest one is what I want to share with you today.

We talked about dreams. We talked about visions in the last so many weeks and having these dreams and these exciting things that God has placed in our hearts. But as followers of Christ, God has called us to this paradox that's really hard for us to take that next step. If we want to experience all that God has for us, if we want to be all that God has purposed us to be, if we want to really experience what God has in for us on the other side, something better, something more real, something different, then we have to take this next step. And the paradox is found in Matthew 8, 35.

Matthew 8, 35. If you'll turn there with me and follow along with me on the Bible app or wherever you are. And this is Mark's account as he's listening to the disciples that walk with Jesus. He's collecting all this data down from Peter and different people. It says this, Jesus says this, if you try to hang on life without God, if you try to do it on your own, if you're afraid to let go of your life, then what happens?

You will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the good news, what? You will save it. You will save your life. You are going to find life.

And this is not how people live. This is counter-cultural. This is not the way. In fact, we live in a generation that does three things. We believe in self-preservation, that I'm going to preserve myself.

I'm going to defend myself. I'm going to do it my way. Nobody can tell me what to do, right? I'm going to fight and nobody's going to say anything against me. And I'm going to do all I can.

If you say it's wrong, I'm going to go against it because I'm my best God. I'm my best person. I'm going to pick myself up by my bootstraps. I'm going to make it happen. And there's good things in that, guys.

Don't get me wrong. Praise God for life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Amen. We got that. But we like to leave God out of that, right?

The pursuit of happiness should involve God. I got to take care of myself. And everyone is fighting. And I just want to stay alive. And the second thing is self-promotion.

We like self-promotion. We all like our own brand, you know? We've got our own brand. And going on, what people think about us. We care about what others think about us, right?

In fact, we look at our accounts and see how many followers we have. Like, wow, man. I had a pastor share with me the other day. He said when he first started his church, all he cared about is how many followers he had on his blog and post. And he realized that, well, it just wasn't the way to life.

Like, he just cared about packing the house, getting as many people in, and doing it. And all he cared about was numbers and followers, numbers and followers. And he checked his Instagram account, and his Facebook account, and his blog. And he just wanted to see how many followers he had, because he was about himself. He said it was all about me, and my ministry, and my kingdom.

And he opened up his heart about that. And we need to stop looking at how many followers we have, and start looking at the one we're following. Who are we following? Who are you following? Who are you following?

You following the world? You following God? And then we're self-indulgent. If it's out there, I'm going to do it. If it tastes fine, I'm going to drink it.

We eat it. We smoke it. We drink it. We experience it, and that's what we do. That's how we see life.

Sigmund Freud, his thesis was the goal to life is pleasure. It's pleasure. But our goal in life is not pleasure, it's purpose. That's really what makes us who we are if we're living out a purpose. And culture is lying to us.

And the pastor will then prove it. Prove that culture is lying to us. Well, how have those three points helped you in your lifetime as you pursued them? Did they really fulfill you? Are you fulfilled?

No, you're not fulfilled. No, absolutely not. And we need to buy into this simple paradox. So let me give you the larger context in Mark 8, beginning with verse 27. Jesus and his disciples went to this village around Caesarea Philippi.

Caesarea Philippi, man. A lot of us don't understand the context of what this place meant. Brad, I think you've been there, right? You've been to Caesarea Philippi. I'm ready to go on that Israel trip with you, by the way.

We're kind of planning one here. I'm hoping me and my dad and some other pastors can go on an Israel trip and just kind of go to Caesarea Philippi. But anybody who's shared that experience of Caesarea Philippi understands what it really means when you look into the scripture. It was a hotbed for everything that everybody wanted. Okay?

It was the place to be. It was like Times Square in New York, you know? Like, that's where all the stuff is happening. That's where the outside, outdoors, beautiful springs, beautiful gardens, everybody was, it was happening, man. It was like a shopping mall, you know?

There was pagan worship happening all over the place. There was temple prostitutes. Oh, man, temple prostitutes. I could just go here, you know? And there was all that happening.

That was the hotbed of what was going on. And Jesus is here in Caesarea Philippi with his disciples and he makes this bold statement. He says, who do people say that I am? Who do people say that I am? I mean, among all the gods, among all the things that are happening, this is the people place.

This is where it's happening. This is where all the good is. This is where all the pleasure is. Who are the people saying that I am? What are they saying about me?

What's the word on the street? What's going on, guys? And that's a question for all of us. Who do they say that Jesus is? Who do they say that Jesus, when you're out there, who are they saying that Jesus is?

And then they replied, some say, John the Baptist is a guy going around telling everybody to get right with God, right? And get baptized. Some of them think he's just kind of that guy. And some think he's Elijah. He's a guy who never died.

You know, he just went up to heaven. He's going to be reincarnated, come back. And he's that guy, you know, because scripture kind of talked about that. And maybe that's him. And then some of them said he's a prophet.

He's connected to God, but he's not really God. He's connected to God. Does that sound familiar? There's a lot of religions out there that say that. That'll.

They like Jesus. The question is, what Jesus are they following? Because there's a lot of Jesuses out there, guys. There is a lot of Jesuses. There's all kinds of Jesuses, and some of you are following the wrong Jesus.

We like to mix Jesuses, too. We like, I mean, Buddhism likes Jesus. He's a good guy, you know. Islam says he's a great prophet. I mean, we have, but we like to mix religions and we like to mix ideas.

Because what Jesus is there? What are the people saying about Jesus? Who is Jesus? Don't mix up your Jesuses. This is so significantly important.

Who do the people say that I am? Is he just a great prophet? Is he just some guy that has a lot of good teachings that kind of work? Is he just, or is he this? And then he asks the question, who do you say that I am?

I'm going to reframe this. Come here, disciples. The crowd was behind him. When he taught, the crowd would be out there. There would be hundreds of people gathered around, but he had his disciples around the front.

He says, come here, come here. Who do you say that I am? And you know, Peter, he got a lot of things wrong. He was always the first to speak, right? He'd get in trouble all the time.

That's why I love Peter. He opens his big fat mouth, and I do that a lot, and I get in trouble. And I like Peter for that reason. You know, I'm like, oh man, why did I say that? But the cool thing is Jesus loved that because he could usually use that for some kind of correction or some kind of statement for the rest of the crowd.

But in this case, Peter gets it right. He says, with boldness, can we be Peters here? Can we be Peters here? Can we be like Peter? With boldness, he says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God.

And that's who you are. You are him. And this idea of Christ, it wasn't just a last name, guys. Well, his name is Jesus. His first name is Jesus.

His last name is Christ. That's not how it was. It was a title given to him, the anointed one who would break us from bondage. He would break us from bondage. And he says, you are the Christ.

You are the Christ. And you're the only one. And Peter understood that. He says, you're the only one that can fix the bondage that we're in. You're the only one that can heal our marriages.

You're the only one that can heal our emotions. You're the only one that can work on our habits and our attitudes and all the things that we have. You're the only one that can free us from that stuff. You're the only one that can break those chains. You are the Christ.

You are the one we have been waiting for. And we need to be a church that says that to you. You are the one we have been waiting for. You are the true God. You are the Christ.

And in Matthew's account, he says, you are so right, Peter. And upon this rock, I'm so proud of you, Peter, because upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail. Meaning that it will not fail. The church will not prevail as long as it is built on the rock of Jesus Christ. We've got to build a church on the rock of Jesus Christ, who Christ says he is.

Not some idea or some philosophy. And we adopt philosophies and we thought we were a melting pot of different things. But he doesn't compromise on this. He's the Christ, the son of the living God. And then he tells Peter, he says, he tells guys, you know, don't, don't, don't tell anybody about this because it's not quite time yet.

And then he begins to teach them this thing. And this is what really shook them because they were ready to take over the world after that. They're like, yeah, let's go get them. You know, let's get, hey, they've been posturing themselves to be on Jesus's cabinet. I mean, he was going to be VP.

You know, I'm going to, Peter's like, I'm going to be VP, man. You know, I'm going to be secretary of state over here. And we're all like trying to figure out, you know, it's getting ready to happen because Christ is Christ. He's going to break us from the bondage. And then he says this, and he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders.

And then the chief priests and teachers of the law. And that the. He must be killed, and after three days he will rise again, and this just shook their world because they had never thought of this before, and they still couldn't get it even after that. I think to the cross, even all the way to the cross, they still didn't get it until Jesus was actually dead on that cross. It shook their worlds.

It shook their worlds. And then Peter, and this is where Peter messes up afterwards. He does something right, and then he does something wrong, and he pulls Jesus to the side. And you never want to hear Jesus say this to you. I mean, the Son of God says this to you.

It's probably pretty bad. He says, I rebuke you, Peter. Get thee behind me, Satan. Get behind me. You do not have in mind the things of God.

You have the things in mind of men. You have men in mind. You have your own interest in mind. You're interested in your own success. You're interested in your own self-promotion.

You're interested in your own self-preservation. You're self-indulgent. That's what you are. That's who you are. That's what you're being like.

And then Jesus says, you know, I don't quite, people don't quite get this. So, you know, hey, crowd, come in. Let's talk. Let's talk. Let me just share a little more with you.

Let me talk a little more about it. Perhaps there's some confusion about what this really means, because I'm going to share this paradox with you. He says, and then the crowd came together, and he says, if anyone would come after me, they must deny himself or themselves and take up his cross and follow me. He says, I want you to understand that. Now, for us, when we hear cross, we're thinking peace.

We're thinking of buildings with crosses on it, you know. Oh, it's so lovely. It's so beautiful. We like that. But this was not a sign of peace for them.

This was a sign of death. This was dying. This was a brutal punishment, a crucifixion. Nobody wanted to be crucified. Roman citizens weren't even crucified because it was so awful.

And he's saying, you need to take up your cross and follow me. You're going to have to die. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it. Get this, guys. Whoever wants to say, don't miss this.

Whoever wants to save his life, this is the paradox, will lose it. But whoever loses his life, and this is my heart. Brett, this is our heart, right? This is our heart because we want you guys to experience life so badly. Us as pastors want you.

This is why I fight for you. This is why I pray. This is why I preach the way I do. This is because I want you to get past. If you could take that next step, you can experience life.

For whoever will lose his life for me and for the gospel will save it. For what good is it for a man to gain the whole world? You can have the whole world. You can have things. You can have jobs.

You can have followers. You can be the king of your own kingdom. But what good is it when you lose your own soul? And you ask yourself that when you're before God one day, you're standing before God, you would easily say, it's worth it. But why not begin now?

Why wait till then? Like, live life by losing it. Losing life. You need to die. We need to die.

If we want to experience life, we got to die. We got to die. And then he goes on to say this, if anyone is ashamed of me. Oh, this is a big one. Okay, church.

This is a big one. If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this. Adulterous and sinful generation. Does that sound familiar? Adulterous and sinful generation.

We see it all around us. Are you gonna go with them? Are you gonna be with me? And are you gonna be ashamed of me? And many of you are ashamed of him.

You gotta be all in. And you're not experienced in life because you're not all in. And he says, whoever is ashamed of me will—and he makes this powerful statement. He says, I'll be ashamed of them before my Father. So you need to be brave.

You need to be courageous. You need to stand up for me. I love you that much. I will not be ashamed of you. I was not ashamed to give myself on the cross for you.

Would you be ashamed ashamed of me? Some of you will leave this building today and not mention Jesus Christ once this week. You'll powder it. You'll walk around it. You'll say things.

You'll do things. It's almost there. But it always goes back to you and what I'm doing and that in my life and how I did this and how I did that. No. Not without your God, Jesus.

Are you willing to say, my God, my Jesus, are you willing to be like Peter? The Christ, the son of the living God, the one we build this church on. The church flourishes because we build on Jesus Christ and no other rock, no other idea, no other philosophy, no other thing will change the world. No other thing will influence the world but the way we do. We have been here 2,000 years ago when the church was erected there.

It is still going and it's moving and it's a movement that will never stop. And God is calling us to carry that movement on the rock that he built. I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail. The gates of hell will not hold it back. The holds of hell cannot keep you from breaking through this and going out and changing this world.

And you've got to face a lot. You're going to face a lot of opposition and this is what he's getting at. You cannot be ashamed of me. You've got to go out. And this is why we get baptized.

Some of you are afraid to be baptized. Come on. You've got to be out there. You've got to get baptized in front of your local church, in front of everybody and say, I am a follower of Jesus Christ. I don't care what the world thinks.

I don't care what people think of me. I know where life lies and I'm walking in that direction. That's the paradox that we need to walk into. And he's given us a higher place, not for the sake of putting you down, not for the sake of, Oh, I'm a miserable Christian, but he wants to give you the life you always wanted. See, that's it.

He wants to give you the life that you always wanted. You thought you, you thought life was this, but man, Jesus has so much more for you. So here's, here's a statement of parable. You can't have resurrection without death. You can't be given life unless you die.

You can't be given life unless you die. It makes no earthly sense, but that's because you're earthly, but it makes complete heavenly sense. So Paul talks about to the Galatians church, three things, and I'll give these to you quick, and then you can go get your fish tacos. Okay. I've already called out dinner or lunch today.

Paul talks about crucifying ourselves. He's really big on this guys. And this is like just, I love spending the summer, just digging deeper into this stuff, you know, in the fall, we give these nice messages to help people who are far from God. But I believe that we got a house full of people who want to really go after God and want to change this world. And this is what we need to do guys.

You do things. First of all, you got to die to yourself. I'm not talking about a physical death. I'm not talking about go out, kill yourself. No, it's just, it's not what he's talking about.

He's talking about dying to our, to who we once were. In fact, he says this in Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. Yeah, I'm crucified, I'm crucified. That statement again.

I'm crucified with Christ. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. If you really want to live and have the best that God has for you, a resurrected life, you need to tell God every day that he has you completely. The day I gave my life to Christ, I said, God, you have it all. And I continue to do that every day.

When I wake up in the morning, I throw my hands up in the air and I say, God, you have everything. Even, even, all that flesh starts to creep in, all that stuff starts, God, you have everything. And I want to challenge you at this. Listen, you need to make your agenda his agenda, okay? You need to give him your complete life.

Everything you walk out and do that day, it is God's. It is not yours. You need to give him your text messages. You need to give him your work appointments. You need to give him your, your, your phone calls.

You need to give him the people that you connect with daily. You need to give him everything because you will not experience life unless you do this. And I, and you need to say this prayer. Let me just give you some practicality. This is kind of point and application.

Okay. I pray every day and I do this. I say, God, I give you my mind. I give you my ears. I give you my eyes that I won't look certain ways.

I won't hear certain things. I'll stay away from gossip. I'm going to have my thoughts in the right place. I'm going to, where my hands go, where my feet walk. So from the, my mind all the way to my feet, I give it to God.

I surrender it to God. I surrender everything to God. Paul says I die every day. You have to die every day guys, because the flesh creeps in. When you stop dying, you start becoming like the world again.

When you start pulling back, you start becoming like them again. And, and you start losing purpose and you start losing identity again, and you start losing all these things. But God, you need to die daily. Paul had to do it. We have to do it.

We die daily. We die daily. Secondly, I died in my flesh. I died in my flesh. This is your body and your soul, your emotions, your, your, your, your, your, the natural parts of you, the lust, the greed, the pride that, that you struggle with.

And I need to die to that. Here's what he says to Galatians church. He says for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh for these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. You want to do the right things, right? But you can't do it on your own.

And there's this battle going on. There's this tug of war going on your heart. There's, there's Satan on one shoulder and the angel on the other, and they're kind of pulling you back and forth and you're, and, and we need to die to this state. We need to, you know, push them off of here, kick them, kick them away. You know, little, little paper football things.

Get out of here. Yes. I'm with God. We have to battle that. In fact, he says, Paul says this, those who belong to Jesus Christ are crucified or have crucified the sinful nature with his passions and desires.

We, we crucify it. There's that crucify word again. Wow. You got to get rid of it. You got to kill it.

It's got to be dead. How do we do that? Practically? First one, we pray and we ask God to surrender our bodies, right? This one, we worship.

We worship. We get no worshiping experience. We, we put on some worship music guys. When you start about in the morning, when you're, when you're getting ready to do your day in those, those, those passions and those things creep in that aren't supposed to be there. Like the fleshly stuff.

You need to put on some worship music. You need to start worshiping. And guess what? When you start worshiping, there's something special. There's something God does when you begin to worship.

You invite His presence in and it changes you. It makes you different. It makes you act different. It makes you think different. It gives you joy.

It gives you like a motivation. I can't explain it. All I knew is I experienced it, you know. And when I start worshiping God and I put on that worship music, a fresh breath of God's air comes breathing into my life. If I don't do that, then I'm lost.

I'm not feeling it, you know. Like I go out with, and some of you are grumpy and angry and have bad attitudes and you're going around all the time and you're woe is me and all that stuff because you don't do this. You haven't sacrificed the flesh. You haven't allowed the Spirit to come in. And look, I'm a Taipei personality.

I'm always up to something, you know. I'm always like walking fast, you know. Like I chill at home pretty good. Miranda will say that. You know, she says I work.

I'm probably the guy guy. I can chill hard and work hard, right? I chill hard and work hard. But I'm always got something going on. I got my dad's kind of thing going on.

We always have this like real quick walk, you know. We're like walking everywhere. Like we're on the mission to do something. Brett knows my dad really well. You know, we're always like, you know, like that's just how we are.

This has got, I got to have something going on. But there's always something going on. But you know what? My mind's going and I'm thinking about the things that I have to do that day and what I, but when I get in the Spirit of God, there's a peace and rest that comes over me so that I can really process what God wants for me that day. A peace that comes over me.

And then thirdly, finally, we got to die to the world. We got to die to the world because some of you have way, way too much of the world in you. You have way too much of the world in you. And you're not going to be able to have that amount of the world in you and Jesus in you too. You can't have Jesus Lord of your life and the world Lord of your life as well.

Be more specific, Pastor. And I'm not going to be more specific because you have the Holy Spirit. You know, because the Holy Spirit has already convicted you. He's already shared that with you. And he's working with you because he's already revealed all that you need to move forward and take that next step into this paradox that he's called you to.

Some of you need to watch out, watch what you're listening to, what you're watching. Surprised what some of you watch. And you share it with your pastor. And it's like, are you really watching that? I was like, I mean, what are you watching?

What are you listening to? Where are you hanging out? There's something to be said about holiness. There's something to be said about being set apart. There's something to be.

We are different, guys. We are not like the world. And we've got too much of the world in us. And God can't take us to that other side, that better place that he has for you. Exactly what you wanted all along that you didn't even know you want until you set aside some of these things.

And if this, imagine a church that was like this. Imagine everybody in this church that would just honor this, would die to the world and walk this out. And what power we could have and what difference we could make that we would lose our lives so that we could gain it. And we could show the world what truth is. We could show the world what real joy is.

We could show the world what real passion for something greater than ourselves is and how it transforms societies and life. How do we do that? We elevate God's word. Look what Paul says, may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Okay?

There's that crucify word again. Keeps coming up a lot. Paul, why do you like that word so much? Because he understands that there's true life. The other side.

There's true life on the other side. And here's what John says in chapter 17, verse 14, I give you them, or I have given them your word, and the world has hated them. I have given them your word. I've given you the word. Some of you have questions about life.

Some of you have questions that you don't understand, and they're right here in front of you, of who you need to connect with, who you need to surround yourself with, your life partner, your vision, your ministry, all this stuff, it's right here, and we refuse to see it because we have so much of the world in us, and we don't know how to get the word in us and get the world out of us. And the world hates it, hates it, hates it. For they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. He's talking about us. He's talking to his disciples.

He's praying for his disciples, but he's praying for us, us as believers. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil ones. So he says, I don't want you to just take them to heaven. I want them to be here. We have to be here.

We need to be here. We need to be here. God has chosen and purposed us to be here. He doesn't want to take us out. He wants to leave us in, but not to be of the world, but that you would protect us from the evil one, that they are not of the world, even as I am not of it.

And then he says this, sanctify, sanctify them by the truth, because your word is truth. Your word is truth. So I'm going to give you something to take home. I want for the next seven days, all eyes, all eyes, everybody, for the next seven days, I want you to take 15 minutes in the morning, and I want you to do this, five minutes in prayer, five minutes in worship, and five minutes in the word, and see if your life doesn't change. See if your attitude doesn't change.

See if your perspective doesn't change. From death to life. He's bringing us from death to life. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word.

Thank you for the power of the Holy Spirit. Thank you for being in our presence, Lord. Thank you for life. For you have come so that we may have life. And life abundantly.

Life to the full. Not just life, but life to the full. Life at every angle where we can experience joy. We thank you for that, God. We're so grateful.

That we don't have to be deteriorating like the rest of the world. That we're not going towards death, but we're going towards eternity. And help us, Lord, to see. Help us, Lord, to hear. Help us, Lord, to know.

Help us, Lord, to be people like Paul has called us to be, and as Jesus has called us to be. It's people who crucify, who are crucified, so that when we die, we can truly live. Because so many of us are Christians, but we're not living like we're supposed to live. And we're not experiencing the things that God has for us because we haven't crucified ourselves, Lord. So help us, Lord.

And we start by giving our time to you through prayer right now. We believe in the power of prayer over this place. We're calling out to you, Lord, because we know that we're connecting with heaven right now. That we're aligning with heaven right now, God. That you hear us, and you are here, and you are moving in our midst through our prayer, Lord.

And we are praising and praying, and we're not only praying, we're praising. We're praising, God. It doesn't matter what. What's going on in this world, we're praising God. Even when things are going bad, we're praising God.

We're praising you, God. We're worshiping. We're lifting our hearts up to you. And we know that that changes things. And then we're leaning on your Word.

We know that your Word is true. We know that everything that we ever need in life is written right here in these pages, preserved for us. A miraculous work that has been preserved through time, has been tried to be destroyed, eradicated. People have been martyred for this Word. People have been burned at stake for this Word.

But it's preserved throughout time for us today. Let's take this. We take this Word seriously because you have everything because it's miraculous and it's the Holy Spirit that is speaking to us. So God, I pray over this congregation. Inspire us.

Lead us to be more like you. Not more like the world. Not for our own personal benefits. But that through you and in you, we find true meaning and true purpose. And it's everything that we ever wanted.

We don't need to be all those things that I mentioned in this message. We don't need to be about ourselves. Because in you, we are all. You are enough. You are all that we need.

You are all that we need. Give it to us in the day. And with that same spirit of worship and prayer, with all heads bowed and all eyes closed, there are some here today that have walked in this room and never taken the first step to knowing this powerful Jesus that is the Christ, the Son of the living God. There's a lot of Jesuses that have been preached to you and taught to you. But let me tell you the truth that this is the only God, the only true God.

He is the way, the truth, and the life. Nobody goes to the Father but through Him. Buddha didn't do it. Muhammad didn't do it. Nobody else.

Nope. There's no other way to heaven but through the grace of Jesus Christ. And you can give your life and you can give your heart to Him today. And you just pray this with me. Believe it in your heart.

And you'll watch God come in and make you a different person, save you and rescue you and bring you to life today. So pray this with me, God. I believe that you are the Son of God. You are the only Son of God. That you died on the cross for my sin.

Today, I give my life. I give my heart to you. I surrender everything to you, God, today. Make me new. I walk with you from this day forward.