Overcoming the Lie of Labels

Hello, and welcome to the Salt Church Podcast. Thank you for tuning in to this week's message. Join us as we explore God's Word, providing practical teaching for day-to-day living. The message you are about to hear was recorded live at our Sunday morning worship experience. If you would like to learn more about Salt Church, please visit us at saltchurch.

org. We hope that you are encouraged by today's message. We are in a series called Overcomer, and we are in week three of that series. And we've been kind of we've been going through a few things of a few ideas here that a lot of us struggle with just kind of common things in our life that keep us from being all that God has called us to be. Week one, we talked about comparisons.

We talked about how the comparison traps keeps us from fulfilling our purpose because we're always focused on where somebody else's purpose is. Week two, which was last week, we talked about apathy. We talked about the epidemic of apathy and how we live in an apathetic nation, an apathetic culture, and God has something for us, but because of our apathy, we need to break through that apathy and overcome apathy so that we can be all that God wants us to be. This week is really big. It's talking about the lie of labels, but before I go into the lie of labels, I want to talk about next week.

I've asked my brother, Seth, to preach for me next week. He had something on his heart about a month ago that he said he wanted to speak on, and I said, man, if you want to speak on this, you better get on it, because God's got a lot of words for me coming up here in the next series, and if you want to get on this, maybe we could do it at the turn of the year or something, but if you want to get on this, you better jump on it. And he said, let me pray about it, and he got back with me and says, let's do this. So I'm happy that he'll be talking about overcoming sin, overcoming sin. So some of you are like, I will not be here next week, but I challenge you to be here.

We always lean into grace at this church, amen. We talk about sin, we talk about the Bible, we talk about the hard stuff, but we always sway on the way of grace because we know that God has a purpose for you. But I want to hit the lie of labels today, the lie of labels. How would you describe yourself if you could in three words? In three words.

Think about that for a second. How would you describe yourself in three words? What is it that makes you you in three words? Some of you might think about your appearance. I'm tall, dark, and handsome, you know.

Or I'm short, pale, and average. I'm short, tall, and average. So, or I'm fit, athletic, flexible, you know. Or I'm fat. I sit on my couch all the time.

I'm kind of lazy. Or if you're a hipster beard and you like vintage things, or whatever that is. Maybe it's your appearance. Maybe it's your personality. I'm outgoing, or I'm shy, or I'm likable, or I'm kind of a loner.

Or maybe it's a life situation that you're in right now. I'm a husband. I'm a mother. I'm a single. I'm a married person.

I'm divorced. I'm rich. I'm broke. Or maybe it's a hobby. I'm a fan of a, yeah, I'm broke.

I hear a broke out there. Amen. God can make you rich. Amen. Amen.

Or maybe it's a hobby. Maybe you're a fan of a team. You know, you've got this team that maybe you're a Steelers fan. That's who I am, right? Or maybe you're a Redskins fan.

Where are you Redskins fans out there? Or maybe you're a boater, or a knitter, or a surfer, or a swimmer, or a golfer, or a gamer, or whatever it is you are. Maybe you identify yourself in those areas. Or maybe it goes much deeper. Or maybe you're successful or a failure.

Or maybe you're a good person, or you think of yourself as not such a good person. Maybe you think you're bad. It could go much deeper. And that's where I want to get at today. I have a fascination with visual marketing.

I love visual marketing. If anything in this church we try to do well is visual marketing. And sometimes people pick on me. Some of the guys, Chris especially, says you focus on those things so much. Signs and logos and things like that.

But it's a passion of mine. And I love studying visual marketing. I have a degree in marketing. My undergrad is a degree in marketing. And I just love logos and how they look and how they're shaped and how they appeal to people and how they influence people.

And I was thinking about labels and how labels, if you have the right. In fact, there's marketing research. There's research done all the time to how do we create something that drives a person to a particular product? How can we create the perfect design, the perfect logo, the perfect label, the perfect whatever it might be to get that person there? And I was thinking back to my childhood how it influences people and how it even influenced us when we were really young.

Because we had to have that brand, right? We had to have this particular logo. We had to have this particular label. And I remember when I was young, my first thought that I can go back and remember is these pants called jams. And I don't know how many of you remember jams.

And if you don't know anything about jams, you basically take a Hawaiian shirt or some kind of crazy shirt design and put it in pants form. And those things were cool. And we loved jams, man. I had a pair of jams. And I, you know, but the thing about jams, you had this big logo.

Because back then, they were real big baggy pants with wild designs, you know. And you kind of, and you know, you had your high top sneakers and your Reebok pumps, you know. And you're walking around. But you tucked in. You had your T-shirt.

You tucked in your T-shirt, right? You tucked it in. And your jams are way up here. But you had that logo, right? That logo was there.

That label was there. And it was jams. And if you didn't have that label, you weren't in, man. You needed the jams. And then I remember a little, a few years later, and I don't know why, but in my school, in grade school, umbros became real popular.

Was it that, did y'all go through the umbro stage? Like, everybody had umbro. And nobody played soccer. They just liked those shorts. And somehow, they were branded well, and everybody wanted them.

And if you didn't have that umbro logo right on that little, I mean, those shorts came way up here. I, you know, and they split all the way up here. And then, you know. But if you didn't have that logo, and if you didn't have that label there, you weren't in, man. Get the Walmart brand.

There's nothing up there, man. What is that, from Walmart? Was that from Kmart? My day, it was Roses and Kmart. I mean, who remembers Roses, man?

I mean, how many people know Roses? I mentioned Roses the other day, and somebody was like, what? There's still one here? Oh, wow. I didn't know that.

I saw one somewhere in North Carolina not long ago. Like, well, there's still Roses around. But you got that from Roses, or you got that from Kmart, or you got that from Walmart, or wherever you are. And then, you know, in high school, it was Levi's jeans. It still is Levi's jeans.

I think they pretty much have the market share in pants and jeans. But I remember specifically people walking up behind and lifting up your shirt just to make sure that logo and that little swoop on your butt, you know, is there. Because those are Levi's, you know. You're in or you're out, and then, you know, there's obviously Nikes, and then Starter. How many of you wore Starter?

Now, Starter is not the cool brand. But Starter was it back then, man. You had to go to the special shops. It had to be in a sports. You didn't get them at Walmart like you can now.

You can get Starter at Walmart now. You didn't then, man. And you had to have the Starter logo on there. You had to have the zip up, you know, and my coat. North Carolina Tar Heels.

And not only that, Starter! You know, I had the Starter brand. You had to have Starter. And then the shoe thing was just crazy, man. We had shoes.

You had to have nice shoes, right? And my friend came to school and he had a pair of Bo Jackson's. How many of you know who Bo Jackson is? Remember Bo Jackson? Yeah.

Yeah, so not every... He was the athlete in that day. Baseball and football at the same time. And he had those cool shoes. And I went and told my mom, I said, Mom, I want some of those shoes.

We went to the store. She looked at it. She said, Absolutely not. Those things were $150, $200 or more. And that was back in the 90s, you know, early 90s.

But my first pair of shoes that I got were Deion Sanders that were really cool. That were really cool. Not the first Nikes I got, but the first really cool ones. And I had those Deion Sanders. And I remember they had the big Nike check on the top of them.

And you'd fold that thing over. And the swoop was there, you know. And I'd walk around. Everybody would be looking at your shoes. Hey, man, I like those shoes.

You know, yeah. Yeah. I'm in today, you know. Everybody was talking. People were talking to me.

You never talked to me before because I had these cool shoes on. It's crazy how labels, logos. And the funny thing is, these jeans, these are Levi's. And these jeans are made in the same place, in the same factory somewhere in Taiwan, as the Bugle Boys you buy at Walmart, right? But somehow we are influenced.

The logos and the labels of life. And the perfect modern day example is this Yeti-Ozark debate, Ozark Trail debate, right? Is it Yeti or Ozark Trail? Yeti or, you know, I got the Yeti, you know. And apparently tests say that they're just the same, you know.

And you can pay $40 for the mug or you can pay, you know, $8 for the same mug. So what are we going to do? How are we going to do this? How are we influenced? We are so influenced by labels.

It's logos, labels. And unfortunately, our identity is tied to this. Like it or not, we are described by labels. Label, by definition, is a classifying phrase or name applied to a person or thing, especially one that is inaccurate or restrictive. Inaccurate or restrictive.

That comes straight from Webster. So some can be positive and some can be negative. And these labels are usually things that we didn't really necessarily attach ourselves to. Sometimes we do. But usually it's the environment or the way we were raised or the people that were around us that have attached these labels to us.

These labels are usually things we didn't necessarily attach ourselves to. And we all carry labels. And some are positive. You're a hard worker. You're talented.

You're loved. Or some can be negative. You're unloved. There's a disappointment in your life. Maybe there's a failure or you feel like a failure or maybe a divorce or you're a misfit or whatever it might be.

But growing up, for me personally, I dealt with labels. I deal with labels even today. And it's hard to overcome the labels that are built up from your past. I was a preacher's kid. Center of, our family was always the center of attention.

I know I stuttered a little bit there. Sorry. Detention felt like that at times. Center of attention. We pastored many areas when you were young.

When I was young, pastors didn't stay at churches a long time. Every four to eight years or so, you would be at another church. And we were in a lot of different churches. And we were always the center of attention. I was always the new guy.

I'd always have to make new friends. Everybody grew up with each other. So, I'd have to try to figure that out, you know. So, I was always the freckled face. And I was much smaller than everybody else when I was really young.

And there were terrible insecurities because of who my father was and who we were. The pastor's family. They have to live like this. They have to act like this. And it created terrible insecurities because it was a performance mentality that we were kind of under.

And I remember the first time I led worship. It's kind of ironic that I led worship today, you know. Because I wasn't planning to lead. But the first time I remember me leading worship in our church, I worked so hard on it. I had the song down.

I had everything. I thought everything went well, went up there and just played the song and led worship. I thought everything went well. And I came off there and I said, oh, man, that went great. And then I went to my mom.

And I said, Mom, what did you think? She said, Leon, you did a good job. But that song just wasn't for our church, you know. It was just a little too this. And you messed up on this part.

Maybe you could have done this a little better. And I just felt like it was so negative. It was like there was a little positive in there. But it was so negative, it just killed me. And I said, man, maybe I'm not cut out to do this.

Maybe I'm not a worship leader. Maybe I'm not meant to be on stage. Maybe I'm not meant to be any of this. So it took me a long time. It took me months to even think about doing that again.

And then one day my dad came up to me and says, hey, I want you to lead a song for a youth conference we're doing. And, you know, at first I was like, well, you know, last time it was a failure. You know, I don't think I want to do that again. And I remember us going up there and everything went well. It just flowed well.

Everything was wonderful just like I felt it was before. But I still had that insecurity and that lack of confidence in myself because I lived under that performance attitude. And I remember coming off the stage and I was like, okay, here it goes again. And my dad walked up to me and he pulled me to the side. He said, Leon, that was excellent.

Now, my dad didn't just say that, okay? You know, he didn't just say that. That's just the type of family I was raised in. But he said that was excellent. That was great, Leon.

And it just encouraged me towards being a worship leader. And from there I had a lot of worship experience. And because here's the thing, guys, words matter. What you say to people matters. They tag people.

When you use words, whether it's positive or negative, you're attaching a label. So James talks about the words have power, right? They have the power to do things. And the first statement I want to make, and if you're following your notes, the longer we carry a label, it moves us from describing our past to determining our future. Here's some examples.

Research tells us that if schools label a child slow, even if they're average, their performance will decrease. If a child is labeled advanced, even if their average, their performance begins to increase. If a child is labeled homeschool at an early age, they make butter. I'm just kidding, okay? Labels are powerful.

Labels are... I'm just kidding. We got homeschooled here. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm just a little joke there, okay?

Okay, okay. So societies and demographics of impoverished people, here's a great example. Societies and demographics of impoverished people who remain in poverty are by the restrictions that are placed on their life based on labor. If you have somebody who's raised in an impoverished environment, it's really hard to get out of that impoverished environment. Why?

Because of labels. The longer we carry a label, it moves from describing our past to determining our future. Our future doesn't have to be what we think it is based on the label that we've been given, okay? And that's what we want to get to today. Failures won't try new things.

Weak won't ask for respect. The unloved won't seek love in positive ways. That's the labels that are on your life, but you can move past those and you can be successful. You can be strong. You can live with respect.

You can be loved. There's positivity in this if we approach it the right way. So let's talk about overcoming labels today. Let's talk a little bit about that. And I want to point you to Mark 2, the account that Mark gives us of Jesus Jesus and a crippled man that he healed.

And if you'll follow along with me, you can follow along with me on the screen or in your notes, you can go there. And it says, Because a few days later when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. And they gathered in such a large number that there was no room left, not even outside the door. And he preached the word to them. So men came bringing to him a paralyzed man carried by four people or four of them.

And since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was laying on. And when Jesus saw their faith, 100 lines saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, son, your sins are forgiven. Now, some teachers of the law were sitting there thinking to themselves, why does this fellow talk like that? That's blasphemy. He's blaspheming.

Who can forgive sins but God alone? And then immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts. And he said to them, why are you thinking these things? Which is easier, to say to the paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven, or to say, get up, take your mat, and walk? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.

So he said to the man, I tell you, get up, take your mat, and go home. And he got up, he took his mat, he walked out in full view of them. This amazed everyone. And they praised God saying, we have never seen anything like this. What an amazing story.

So in context, Jesus is teaching. He's very popular. People are gathering. He's in this house. And people are gathering.

And the house is overflowing. And it's really hard to get to Jesus. I kind of think of Zacchaeus, you know, how he had to climb up in the tree, you know, in another story in the accounts. And because he couldn't see Jesus, because Jesus was so popular. But he's teaching in the house.

And people are gathered around. And then there's this crippled man. And I want you to think about a crippled man for a second. Today, in our society, the cripple are taken care of, usually. We have government assistance programs.

We have things that, or ministries, or institutions that are created to better help people live a successful life. When they go through disability, when they have disabilities, or when they're handicapped. We even have special needs situations in public government facilities to help people. But in this day, there was none of that. There was none of that.

If you were crippled, you were put out on the streets, you were labeled unproductive to society, you were a beggar, you were a street person, you were worthless, you were ostracized from society, you were unemployable, you were a burden to society, and you were unwanted. And even, they took it theologically, and biblically, as you were a sinner because your parents sinned. Because your parents sinned, you're this way, so you're cursed. So, people in this situation, in a crippled, handicapped situation, did not have a chance. They didn't stand a chance.

But this man had people in his life. He had four men in his life that believed that he could live past this label that he was given. And they saw Jesus, and they took him to Jesus. And not only did they take him to Jesus, they went through extreme measures to get him to Jesus. They climbed up on a roof and tore the roof off of somebody's house, they had no idea who it was, and lowered him into the roof to Jesus.

They went to extreme measures to pull this crippled man to Jesus. If we look at verse 5, it says, seeing their faith. Jesus saw their faith. Jesus said to the paralyzed man, my child, your sins are forgiven. So, my first point is, the faith of those around you matters.

The faith of those around you matters. Your friends will carry you towards Jesus or pull you away from him. Do you hear me there? Your friends, the people you hang around, the people you surround yourself with, will carry you towards Jesus or pull you away from Jesus. Show me someone who's weak in their faith, that's weak in their attitude, or they're negative, or whatever.

I'll show you who their friends are. Who do you surround yourself with? If you're, and on the other side of it, if you're a person of faith, your faith matters. Who you put yourself around matters. Your influence matters.

Maybe you've got a child that's wayward. You have an adult child that is wayward today, and you've been praying for them. Guess what? Your faith matters. Live for Jesus.

Run radically to Jesus. Let them follow you as you follow Christ, because your faith matters. Maybe you have a significant other that is far from God. Maybe a wife or a husband that is far from God today, and you've been praying and asking. Your faith matters.

I'm reminded of the story of Lee Strobel, how he struggled with Christ. He was an atheist, and his wife got saved. He and his children were going to church, and he did not like that at all, because he was a devout atheist, and he had done the research, and it just didn't make sense, and he thought it was the craziest thing in the world. But you know what his wife did? She didn't try to force him to church.

She didn't try to do anything to change his mind. She simply prayed for him and continued to live for Jesus. She stayed in her faith. She walked. She took the kids to church.

She stayed with Christ, in Christ, praying for him. And one day he recognized what she had, and he wanted it. And he came to her one day, and he said, I can't do this life anymore. I don't know what's happened to you guys, but I want what you have. Her faith mattered.

And the rest is history. If you're familiar with Lee Strobel, he's wrote several books. His biggest book, it was A Case for Christ, an apologetics book about the deity of Christ and the research around the legitimacy of that. Just a great man of God and working in the church. And it was because of his wife's faith that he is a Christian today.

And it can be because of your faith. If you're a teacher and you have a student, your faith matters, right? Your faith matters. Keep your faith forward. Here's another point here.

Transformation rarely happens in isolation but in community. Transformation rarely happens in isolation but in community. That's why we talk about small groups. That's why we talk? We encourage people to come to church on Sunday and be together.

You cannot be a Lone Ranger Christian. There's no such thing as it in the Bible. Why? Because transformation doesn't happen alone. Yes, we can get away for times and be with the Lord.

I have to get away sometimes and pray and seek His guidance and listen to Him and be in quiet places, but we can't be there forever. I need community. You need community. This crippled man had community. He had four men around him who believed in him and believed that he could be more than he was, and they took him to Jesus.

They pushed him toward Jesus. They dropped him in a roof to Jesus, and they were with them through the whole process. Your faith matters, and transformation rarely happens in isolation but in community. Going back to verse 5, it says, seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, my child, your sins are forgiven. Okay.

When you think about that, and it's very odd, yes. It seems very, very strange. What? My sins? This man is laying on the floor.

He's been given labels his entire life. All you have to do, Jesus, is reach down and heal him, right? And everything's going to be better. He can work. People will accept him again.

People will do things for you. He'll be okay if you just reach down, Lord, and just do it. But the first thing he says is, your sins are forgiven. Instead of healing the man, he forgives him of sins. So the solution is not another label for this man.

The solution was something else, which leads me to this point. Jesus heals the source, not the symptom. Jesus heals the source, not the symptom. And some of you were walking in church today, and you have a lot of symptoms on your life. You walked in, and you're like, this is my first time in church.

If people only knew, or maybe you've been going to church for a while, if people only knew my private life, if they only knew my struggles, if they only knew the symptoms of my labels, if they only knew they would not accept me. I'm going to keep quiet. I'm going to keep comfortable. I'm going to stay back. Because if people only knew, you know what?

Jesus was standing at the door when you walked in this building today. And you know what he said? Welcome home, my child. He doesn't care about any of your symptoms. He only cares about the source.

Jesus heals the source, not the symptom. Your marriage was in jeopardy, or is in jeopardy, he doesn't care. You were an addict, he doesn't care. You're disappointed, you're a disappointment to people, he doesn't care. You feel like a fake, he doesn't care.

It doesn't care, he doesn't care. Jesus is standing at the door saying, come home, child. The source, not the symptom. He has a better, he doesn't have just a better label for you. He has an identity, a better identity for you.

He reaches to your identity. And the difference between a label and an identity is this. And number two, a label may describe you, but your identity in Christ defines you. A label may describe you, but your identity in Christ defines you. Galatians 3.

28 says, there is no longer Jew nor Gentile. You know what that means? It doesn't matter your race. Slave or free, it doesn't matter if you're broke, poor, or rich. Male or female, it doesn't even matter your gender.

For you are all one in Jesus Christ. You are all children of God. If you go to verse 10, verse 10 of Mark, Mark 2, so I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins. Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, stand up, pick up your mat, and go home. Now, here's the thing.

Larry jumped up. He walked out. He celebrated. He was healed. Everyone was amazed, and they praised God.

Happy ending. Hallelujah. Wonderful. And the story stops there, but the story doesn't actually stop there. Because this crippled man, I'm calling him Larry, okay?

Y'all heard me say Larry because I wrote my notes. I'm going to call this crippled man Larry because he doesn't have a name, because we don't know who this guy is. So here's Larry, and he jumps up, and he walks out, and he's praising God. I know that was kind of odd that I mentioned Larry there, and I didn't really explain that. Um, everyone was amazed, and praise God.

But Larry still had to go through life. Larry still had a tag on him. Larry was still the crippled man that was on the street corner that Christ healed. And everywhere he goes, and everywhere he eats, and wherever he works, people would look at Larry, and they'd whisper about Larry. That was the guy.

Remember that guy? Remember? He did. He was that guy. He's that guy.

He's that guy. And Larry was probably like, why can't I just be me? Why? I just want to be me. I want to be me.

I think about Rahab, and you look at her in Scripture, in the Old Testament, and even in the New Testament. Eight times in the Bible she's mentioned, and six out of the eight times she's mentioned to be a prostitute. Rahab the prostitute. Rahab the prostitute. She had that tag on her.

And it's like we go through a washing machine. It's like taking a pair of pants and putting it through a washing machine, and the label, you know, washes, and it fades, and all that. But it's still there. And we often have those labels. And even through life, we'll still have labels.

We'll still have things on our lives that are there. But instead of focusing on the label, think about what God has done. See, what God did is he used it for his glory, and he uses your labels for your glory. He turns it around, which leads me to my third point, what the devil meant for evil, God will use for good. God used Rahab.

Rahab was in the lineage of Jesus Christ, a prostitute, a terrible person, as the world would see it. And God used her. Her label was there. It never went away. And still, we use Scripture today.

We use the Bible today to communicate truth and encouragement to us. She still has that label even today. But God can turn the bad into good. He wants to use those labels. He forgives you.

He redeems you. He sets you free. You can be an overcomer. And here's the truth. God can use your past to change someone's future.

God can use your past to change someone's future. I used to be called this, but now I'm that. I used to be called broke, but now I'm rich in the Lord. I used to be an addict, but now I'm free in Jesus Christ. I used to be a failure, but I'm a success because Jesus is my Lord and Savior.

I was once unloved, but God loves me now. I was once insecure, but I am confident in my Lord Jesus Christ that he who began a good work in me will complete that good work until the day of Jesus. I made mistakes, but you know what? God has chosen me with all of my mistakes, with all of my flaws, and you are not the voice that's in your head that your head is telling you to be. You are a child of God.

You are a believer in Jesus Christ. Therefore, the King of Kings has brought you into this family. So those three words that you described yourself at the beginning of this service, you can now say these three words, child of God. Child of God. I am a child of God.

I want you to say that with me. I am a child of God. I am a child of God. Your labels may describe your past, but you will overcome because Your identity is defined in Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ alone. Your future does not have to be determined by your labels, by your restrictions, but Jesus Christ has a plan, has a purpose for you.

Who you are is declared by Jesus Christ. So are you going to let the lies of labels keep you locked down in your past is the question. What if everybody in here was able to overcome the labels in their life? Imagine, imagine a church that could overcome this identity crisis, this label crisis, the lies that have been placed on us and be all that God has called us, the purpose. If we all walked in our lane, if we all walked our course, imagine a church with purpose, with design.

The most powerful King is our Father. Did you know the power and grace of God, that Jesus that was standing at the door when you walked in is available all the time? Whether you've been a believer for a long time and as labels start to attack you, just, I want you just to look to Jesus and see what he says about you. Let's pray together. I believe that God wants to do something in the life of people here today.

Let me just ask a question while our heads bow and our eyes closed. Let me just do this. Maybe you've been a believer for a long time and you've been struggling with the lies of labels. Maybe you have something that's been restricting you from your purpose. It could be a failure.

It could have been a mother, father, grandmother, grandfather. A friend, an abusive situation that has kept you from being all that you can be in Jesus. If that's you today, I want to pray for you. Can I pray for you? Can I pray for you?

Is there anybody here? If you would, I'm not going to embarrass you. Just lift your hand. Just say, Pastor, I've got a lot of labels on my life. Can you help me?

Can you pray? Amen. Amen. Amen. I want to pray for you.

I want to pray for you. Father, in the name of Jesus, everyone that raised their hand in here today that is struggling, God, I pray that there would be a breakthrough of power in the name of Jesus that would overcome any label that's in their life, that you would help them see and know that there is truth in you and you alone, and that the labels that the world has given them, the failures that the world has pegged on them, the insecurities that were placed on their life is not them that their identity is in you, and that what the devil meant for evil, God is using for good. So encourage my brothers and sisters today who are hurting, who are going through these situations. Lord Jesus, I pray in the name of Jesus that you would just radically change and transform their life by the power of your name, and that we would be a community that comes beside them and helps them in their needs and in their hurts and brings them together. Because transformation rarely happens alone.

It's always in community. There are those of you here that are in another story. Perhaps you walked in here today and you were just, you know, coming to church today and maybe something struck you and hit you deep. We call that the Holy Spirit. Maybe it was something in the song, maybe it was something in the message, whatever that was.

That's no mistake. That's the Holy Spirit working in your life. And He's calling you. And He wants a relationship with you. He doesn't care about all those labels.

You walked in that door, you said, man, you know, if they only knew. Jesus already knows and He doesn't care. And what He says, if you confess to Him and believe that He is the Son of God, that you can be saved, that you can have a relationship with Him, that your new life can start now. He says there's abundant life in Him. And if that's you today and you want to give your life to Christ with all heads bowed and all eyes closed, I'm not going to embarrass you.

I'm not going to call you to the front. But I want you to make a confession of faith. If that's you, if you would just gently raise your hand. Come on. Come on.

Amen. Come on. Will you pray this with me? Lord Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God, that you died on the cross for my sin. I receive you today in the name of Jesus.

Change my life. Change my heart. Transform me from the inside out. Amen. Amen.

Amen.