Engaging With Worldviews [LIVE] 06/21/2026

Two young fish are swimming in a pond and they pass an older fish who nods and says, what's up fellas? How's the water today? They get about a hundred yards away from that older fish and the younger turns to his friend and says, what in the world is water? The most powerful influences in your life are the things that you never notice because they surround you every day. Most people don't think that they have a worldview. They think they just see reality as it is, but everybody in this room and every service within the sound of my voice, whether online or in person, we have some assumptions about things like God, success, freedom, identity, money, politics, purpose, and we got them from somewhere. Nobody in this room, as special as your mama told you you are, is an original. We all come from a place. And in Acts 17, if you have a Bible, get over there, Paul is going to go to three cities, Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens, and he isn't simply visiting cities. He's visiting different waters. He's going to three different ways of understanding. And in Acts 17 is one of the more important intellectual chapters in all the New Testament. In fact, 16 shows us that the gospel can circumvent social boundaries. Acts 17 shows us that the gospel is a coherent worldview. The gospel is not just a prayer that you pray so you don't go to hell when you die, but it's a way of looking at the world. The lens through the personal work of Jesus, through him as king, and through the kingdom should shape the way that you look at the world that you inherit and live in. And Acts 17 tells us how to do that. Acts 17 is about Paul's second missionary journey. He leaves Philippi, Acts 16, and he gets on the Via Ignatia, which was the east-west highway across the Roman Empire. It's our modern-day interstate 70.

And it's relevant for us today because, as I told you last week, Philippi is the first time that the gospel comes into Europe. Europe gives us the Western civilization worldview that we live in, and so what we are seeing is the genesis of the way that we look at the world. And my hope today is that you would be able to engage with your faith for the world as it is. Paul understood that ideas shape culture, and that worldviews make civilization, and that the creation of and competition of worldviews tend to coalesce around cities, which means that the church has to engage with ideas in urban centers. It's part of the reason why I never wanted to be a pastor in the country. Love the country, love you if you're from the country, but I wanted to be where the competition and creation of worldviews was coalescing, where we were talking about the world as it is, because I think that the superior worldview against all worldviews isn't an idea, it's a person. That His name is Jesus. And that if we all go to the burbs for cheaper land and homogenous people groups, that we leave worldview to those outside of relationship with Jesus. And so churches have to figure out a way to stay in the city and be for the city. We have to engage with our worldview against other worldviews, and so today my hope is to teach and train you in that way. If you're in the room today and you are like, I would love to know how to take my faith and engage with my neighbors, today is your day. I'm going to give you kind of a fire hydrant, going to try to equip and train you, but let me make this a little bit more personal for you. Because of the size of the city that we live in, before I say amen today, without a doubt, just mathematically, it's not probable, it's absolute, there's going to be somebody who's going to draw their last breath and they're going to stand before God. And when I say things like, I want to make it hard to go to hell in Kansas City, I can't make somebody give their life to Jesus, but we as a church can make it hard to go to hell from the standpoint of making sure that everybody has had an opportunity to hear the gospel

before they stand before God. And why does that matter? Because heaven and hell are real places and real people go there and they go there for an eternity, not just for a couple minutes. And the world is broken and it is ugly and it is divisive and we do not have a means or a worldview to make it better other than the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who is Jesus. And what ails our culture is not a better philosophy or artificial intelligence, it's a better King with a different kingdom. And if we will not tell people about the good news of Jesus Christ, then my question, fellow citizens of Kansas City, is who will? Who will? And what I don't want is to find myself in eternity and to watch as God separates the sheep from the goats. I don't want to be standing there and realize that my neighbor, that somebody that my kids went to school with, that the person that I saw at the grocery store on the regular is not a follower of Jesus, and that I knew them, and that I believed in heaven and hell, and that I had the gospel, and I either didn't know how to engage, or wasn't bold enough to engage, and now it is too late. I want you to take that personally. I want you to take that personally, not as an idea, but as an actuality. Heaven and hell are real, and people in our city, some of which you know, are going to go there. So how do we take our faith and engage with the world as it is? Three cities, here we go. Are you ready? You know that's not going to work, 1115. Are you ready? Thessalonica. Thessalonica, by the time Paul shows up, is the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia.

It's probably about 100,000 people strong, which at the time makes it a mega city. It is strategic because it is located right on that Via Ignatia, which means ideas, commerce, politics come into and flow through Thessalonica. The thing that you need to know about Thessalonica is they were massively, massively committed to their freedom. I don't know if you've ever heard of another country who talked about their freedom a lot, but that being notwithstanding, Thessalonica was all about their freedom. They were known as a free city that was under Roman rule. Rome allowed them to be self-governing because they were loyal to Rome, and the status mattered, and so city officials always wanted peace and order. They didn't want anything to be politically disruptive, and so the city's prosperity depended on four things. Number one, political stability. Number two, economic success. Number three, no disruption that could ruin Rome's favor. And so when somebody shows up and starts talking about, correctly, a different king whose name is Jesus, it really gets at the foundation of everything that Thessalonica stood for. The Thessalonicans did not think of the gospel as an idea. They understood what it was to take their worldview and turn it on its head, to take their worldview that Caesar was Lord and say, no, Caesar is not Lord, Jesus is Lord. And so a modern-day Thessalonican, somebody in 2026, lives in a city where politics, commerce, and culture intersect, and they place their ultimate hope in four things. Political systems, national identity, economic stability, and cultural influence. I don't know if you've ever been to a place that those four things were at the foundation of the worldview that was shared. And Paul shows up in Thessalonica and he does something interesting. He challenges the Thessalonicans' misplaced allegiances. He reasons with them. He explains to them. He proves the way that their allegiance can't keep their promises.

Paul does not begin with cultural criticism. He begins with, in our language, an open Bible that shows that the king has come and that he was killed on a cross, but he rose again three days later to establish a kingdom, and he will not be an option on the buffet of spirituality, that he is the king of kings and he is the Lord of lords, and that if they're going to be a part of that kingdom, they're going to have to take their worldview and shake it up like a snow globe and put an empty tomb at the middle of it. See, Paul understood that the gospel shakes what culture says keeps you safe. I want you to pay attention to me closely here. After Paul addresses the Thessalonicans, they freak out, and Paul has to escape from the city. Why was the idea of the gospel, why did it hit such a nerve? Was it because they really loved their politics? Was it because they really loved their currency or their nation? Was it because their identity was so closely connected to it that they couldn't handle somebody coming against it? The answer is sort of yes, but why? Because those were the things that they thought kept them safe. Paul comes in, and he wants to flip over the apple cart, and he wants to say, those things can't keep you safe, but Jesus can. And can I tell you, this is an origin story for you and I, because you think the exact same way as the Thessalonicans. You say, how dare you say that? I don't think that way. Let me. prove to you that you do. Are you ready? What's the amount of money that you think to yourself if I made this much money I would be good? And everybody in this room says something close to this, just a little bit more. Where did that come from? It comes from your belief that there is a certain amount of money that will keep you safe. It comes from your stability and your security being tied to something other than Jesus. Can I give you another one?

What's the right amount of influence or power that you feel like if I got here nobody could mess with me? No one could tell me what to do and if they did I could just fire them. What is it? And don't tell me you've never thought about it, you're an American. Can I give you one more? Just in case you don't believe me yet. Who's the right person sitting in a room shaped like an oval in a White House that you think to yourself if they just get elected will be good? Will make it, should I say it? Will make it great again. And underneath that red hat is actually a fear. It's a fear that it's not great anymore. You see, you and I are just like the Thessalonians because they are great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandparents when it comes to worldview. And Paul challenges their allegiance and says no matter how much money you make, no matter who you report to, no matter who's in office, it can't keep you safe. It's not capable. And they freak out because they're not talking about money or politics, they're talking about safety and security. The second city that Paul goes to is Berea. Are you all still with me? Berea was located 45 miles southwest of Thessalonica and unlike Thessalonica, Berea is smaller. It's not small, but it's smaller and it's less politically significant. It's more of a regional center than an imperial hub. It's less economically influential and it's somewhat removed from all the political pressures of being one of the megacities. In our language, we would say it's not a coastal city, it's like in the Midwest. Ancient sources portray Berea as prosperous but not prominent. We would say it's in a flyover state. And the Bible says that because it is not next to Rome or DC or New York City or LA, it kind of does its own thing. And the Bible says, Luke says that the Bereans were more noble than the Thessalonicans and what he means by that is that their character showed up in this sense. They were just a little more down to, down to earth. Kind of like a Midwestern. Just, just enough separated. Not, not, not that we're not prosperous, we're just not Manhattan, are you with me? We're not LA, we're not Miami, we're, we're Kansas City until the World Cup shows up and then come on somebody, let's talk about it now, yeah? And so the, the, there's nothing overtly crazy about them and because they're down to earth, they're open to listening and, and they're humble enough to learn and they're willing to evaluate scripture. Berea is like a modern-day university town. Maybe even with spiritually oriented places like seminaries. Did you know that Kansas City has 40, 40, 4-0 colleges, universities, seminaries, or community colleges? 40. That's a lot, isn't it? 40 in one

place, kind of right there in the middle, down to earth, still have traditional values, still open to say hello and what's up, still open to helping your neighbors, still open to having a conversation. Berea is a place with universities and seminaries and, and maybe even research institutes and did you know that Kansas City has 33 medical centers and 15 research institutions? This is, this is a place where, where we are still open to having relationships and still open to learning and, and still open to considering. And so, Paul does the same thing that he did with the Thessalonians, but with a different temperament. He challenges with, in our language, open book. He challenges the Thessalonians about their allegiances, and he still brings an open book to the Bereans, but he doesn't challenge them, he teaches them patiently. Because he's not cynical, because he's not defensive, because he is able to hear somebody's questions. And so, in Graceway's language, we would say that he took them through D1, just slowly, just at the pace that they need. And can I tell you, this is one of the challenges for the church today, to cultivate Christians who are open and humble, who are not closed-minded, narrow, and rigid, and they still know what's true, they still know how to discern truth, and they still know how to stand on truth. This is getting harder and harder, because we're getting more and more myopic and tribal in the way that we look at the world, and it's important for me to just say, here, this world isn't your home, so you ain't got to act like it is. Thirdly, is Athens. Are you all still with me? Athens, Paul goes to the Areopagus, which we know as Mars Hill, and Athens is one of the most influential cities in human history. At this point, its political power had diminished, but culturally, it was a juggernaut in the Greco-Roman world, and is still a part of the ingredients that make us who we are. Athens is famous for being the home of Socrates, Aristotle, Plato. It is renowned for philosophy, education, rhetoric, literature, architecture, art achievement. It contained the Parthenon, public forums, countless temples, schools of philosophy.

In fact, Luke tells us of two different schools that come from the Athenian worldview, and real quickly, let me tell you about them, because they also shape our worldview. I'll prove it to you. The first is the Epicureans, and the Epicureans believed that God existed, but was up there somewhere, and that pleasure was life's highest good, and that avoiding pain was really important to maintaining pleasure, and that materialism explained reality. So, here's their worldview. I'm just trying to have a good time, get as rich as I can, and not have anything bad happen. Does that sound familiar to you? You think you came up with that? No, no. That's just the water that you swim in. It comes all the way back to Athens. The second is what's known as the Stoics, and right now, the Stoics are having a bit of a resurgence, largely, I think, because most Americans live like Epicureans. And so, tech bros and social media influence are talking a lot about guys like Marcus Aurelius and Stoics, and here's what a Stoic believed, that divine reason permeates creation, that rational order governs the universe, that life's highest aim isn't pleasure, it's virtue, and that the thing that you need to deal with to be virtuous is your emotions, your feelings. So watch what happens. A culture spends a lot of time just trying to have a good time, just trying to get rich, just trying to live for the weekend. Yes, God exists, but he's up there somewhere, and while they're trying to do all this, they make a little bit of a mess. So the Stoics come along and say, pleasure isn't the highest pursuit, goodness is. And so, be disciplined. And so, get up at 4.30 in the morning. And so, do sauna and cold plunge. And so, take this supplement, read this book, don't listen to your emotions. And so, yes, God exists, but it's really about your mind, not your feelings, but none of

it's about who. None of it's about God. It's all about us. It's a humanistic way to look at the world. But Athens is spiritually curious. They're spiritually curious. Listen to what Acts 17 says about them. All the Athenians and the foreigners who live there, which is an interesting thing there that the Bible would go out of its way to say, the Athenians and the foreigners who live there, would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. And this is where you go, see, Tim, we're nothing like the Athenians, really. We're not a culture that loves talking about something new and spend all of our time looking at something new. You say, no, that's not me. Can I show you, just let me, let me show you something real quick. You ready? Are you ready? Am I boring you? OK. You ready? Have you ever looked at how much time you spend doing this on your phone? I'll bet you it's close to all the time. I talked to a comms and marketing person last year, and she said, no matter how big the scandal is, we know if we can muddy it up and survive for three to seven days, society will move on. Where did we get that from? Athens. That's where we got it from. And how does Paul engage with the Athenians, the Athenians who are our modern day tech bros?

This is Silicon Valley. These are people who find their highest meaning in intellectual achievement, in personal authenticity. It's my truth. You have your truth. I have my truth. Authentic in how I view the world, said the great theologian Oprah, right? Yeah, self-expression. I just need to be able to express who I am. So here I am at first watch eating eggs and pancakes. Hope you click it and affirm me. Yeah, just self-expression. Just want you to see what I'm doing, what I'm about, yeah? Technology. Just wish there was an app that made my life a little bit easier. Won't it be great when they have an AI thing that does this thing for us? That'll be awesome. Scientific progress and philosophical pluralism. This is the American waters, which is the Athenian waters, and I could go back even further than that. And what does Paul do? Paul responds. The Bible says he's provoked. Not provoked, angry. The word means sharp distress. It's part frustration and the other part grieving, and why? Because he can see through the thing to see the idols that undergird the thing. In fact, in Athens, it's interesting, they actually had a bunch of temples and a bunch of idols, and so when Paul is walking around, he's walking by temples and he's walking by idols, and he literally walks by an idol. This is where Athens was.

They believed in all the gods, and they actually had a temple and a statue, an idol, for the unknown gods. So here's what they say. Everybody is welcome, and we're up for everything, and just in case we miss you, here's a temple to the unknown gods. And Paul's walking around and he's increasingly grieved. He's increasingly frustrated. Why? Why? Because he understands that idolatry dehumanizes us. Psalm 115 says that idols have mouths but cannot speak, eyes but cannot hear, and ears but cannot—or eyes but cannot see and ears but cannot hear. And then listen to Psalm 115 in verse 8. Then it says, those who make them become like them. You know, if you want to hear my preaching philosophy, it's actually—it's actually Acts 17. There are times to challenge allegiances, and you've heard me do that. There are times to explain, and hopefully you've heard me do that. And there are other times that I watch the way that we're going and how we keep falling prey to the same hustle, to the same marketing, to the same commercial, thinking this is the thing that's going to make it better. And can I tell you, it's frustrating in the church for us to keep falling for it. It's frustrating for us to think this is the thing that can do it better than God. This is the thing where I'm more right than God is, and just again and again and again and again and again see, no, you're not. No, you're not. This is what I need. This is how I get it. That can't give it to you. It can't keep its promise.

This is what I need. This is how I'm actually going to be able—no, that's not going to work. That's what an idol does. It dehumanizes you, and watch, you become what you worship. Michael said it. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Your life isn't going in the direction of your deepest thoughts, it's going in the direction of your greatest loves. And not the ones that you think that you should have, the ones that you actually have. The truth of it is, some of you do love Jesus, but you also love money. Some of you do love Jesus, but you also love power. Some of you do love Jesus, but you also love sex. And you think that God's going to compete, and then you could split the difference. And here's what God says, you can't serve God in money, so you look more like somebody who worships money, power, or sex over time. And no matter what you think makes you the exception, you are not. You are not. You are being shaped by what you worship. When our culture monetizes, please hear me. Culture monetizes what you worship. And our culture is being shaped by what we love. And Paul confronts these aspirations. The gospel confronts our allegiance, confronts our aspirations and our ambitions. And the Bible is available to anybody who would pick it up. And Paul says to the Athenians, human wisdom cannot answer the things you most desperately need to know. He says only Jesus, your creator, only Jesus who defeated sin and death can lead you to repentance and true hope that can be found in the resurrection. And so Paul takes three waters, three worldviews and addresses them all very differently. And so Acts 17 reminds us that Christianity is not just about changing opinions, it's

about confronting worldviews which lets us know that many of us in engaging with people around us are having the wrong conversation. We think that what happens at the end of time or what version of the Bible or what that Greek or Hebrew means is what people are most desperately interested in. We think that the world is exactly as it was when God saved us. And can I tell you we're having the wrong conversation. What this would say is that the gospel confronts three things that the gospel still confronts. Number one, our fears, Thessalonica. Number two, our thoughts, Berea. And number three, our worship or our loves, Athens. Now if we're going to engage with our faith, with those around us, we have to engage where people actually are. What does that mean? It means that we have to have kingdom presence and engagement. A lot of Christians that I know, we think that when Jesus said don't be of the world, what He meant is don't be around the world. He said be in it, but don't be of it. The only way that you can engage with your faith is to be around people who don't share it. And most Christians that I know, listen to me, the longer you're saved, the less lost people that you know. That's the exact wrong direction. We're living in a time where tribalism is infiltrating every element of our society, including the church. Church is becoming its own tribe, and it's a tribe that assumes that it's right, while at the same time being ignorant to why it's right, and at the same time being incapable of defending why it's right to anybody who thinks about the world differently. That's why I'm always on you about read your Bible. That's why I say two times a month coming to church isn't enough. Here's why.

Because that very low bar means that if anybody sincerely asked you what is in the Bible, why do you believe it, and how can you know it's true, how many of you could engage with that at a sincere, authentic, truthful, helpful place versus, well, come to church with me and Tim will tell you. No, it's funny to me. It's funny to me. I vehemently disagree with the celebrity culture around pastors, but can I tell you, can I tell you why celebrity pastors exist? Because you think that I have access to something that you don't. And so you bring them to me like I know something that you can't know. You can know. You got a Bible. You got the Holy Spirit. You got prayer. Stop bringing them to me to tell answers that you should know. So how do we engage? We don't isolate and we aren't passive. How do we engage? I'm going to give you four things. I'm going to be in my seat. Four things in five minutes and 59 seconds, all right? Number one, are you with me? Understand before you critique. This is so important. Paul walks into all of these spaces confident. He's not fearful. He's not defensive. He doesn't talk about this culture is going the wrong direction. He never talks about that. Christians in 2026 talk about America going the wrong direction all the time.

You never see it in the Bible, never. The Bible doesn't come in and with anxiety and fear say, hop in the boat before you all go to hell in a handbasket. Nope. Anxiety is not a survival movement. It's a resurrection movement. And fearful witness is often not faithful witness. So Paul, before he preaches, what does he do? He walks around Athens. He walks around Athens. He observes, he listens, he learns, he studies, he understood the culture well enough to quote its poets and expose its idols. And before he understood, he did not talk. Most Christians that I know critique a culture they don't understand. Can I tell you how we got here? We got here by creating a whole economy around Christian movies, Christian music, Christian apparel, Christian podcasts, Christian books, and most of us only watch certain movies, only listen to certain podcasts, only watch certain news sources, and only read books that you already agree with. The problem is, that's not where the world is or where the world is going. So when we finally open our mouth, we sound like we're from Mars. Because we haven't done our work. Because we haven't paid attention. Because you don't know two books on the New York Times bestseller list right now. Because you don't know the art that is getting produced. Because you, you and I, we live in a bubble of our own creating. And can I tell you, nobody is interested in what you think about their world when it's very clear that you don't love them or understand the world they live in. And so Paul demonstrates effective engagement by listening before he talks. And this is the opposite of what we do in the church.

You come and you say, Tim, when are you going to do an apologetic series? And I say to you, I'll do one after I do a don't say anything, just listen series. You see, you have this fear that somebody's going to ask you a question that you don't know the answer to. And I'm not telling you to ignore that. But I am saying, maybe you should just listen and be interested. I'm saying that rather than only watching a certain news source, maybe you should watch all of them. I'm saying that from time to time, you ought to think to yourself, I want to understand the people that I live next to. So I'm going to read broadly, watch broadly, listen broadly. There's three types of people in the room. One are people who live in a Christian bubble and can't engage. The other are people who consume the world and never understand that just because it has a beat doesn't mean it doesn't have a theology underneath it. And so you watch the shows, you listen to the music, you read the books, but you never think to yourself, what are the beliefs that are undergirding this? And you aren't in the world, you are of the world. Paul is not in a bubble and is not a consumer. Paul is on mission, but he understands in order for me to reach Kansas City, I have to remember, I'm from Kansas City. Not act like, this is, y'all did this. No, no, we did this. We did this. And I want to understand. I want to understand why Kansas City runs the way that it does. I want to understand the worldview and I want to understand the perspective. And then, number two, I want to find points of connection without compromise. So watch, Paul quotes pagan poets. How could he do that?

Not a trick question, how could he do that? Because he had read them. How many of you can sing for me any song, I'm not talking to y'all students, the rest of y'all. Any song in the top ten of music right now? How many of you know what are the hot movies and the hot artists and the hot books right now? And now listen, I'm not, I'm not, don't overhear what I'm saying, but, but some of us are so detached from it, we don't have any point of contact. And can I tell you, Paul doesn't think connection is compromise, he says no, I'm going to connect without compromise. Too many Christians only confront and never affirm, or only affirm and never confront, but Paul builds a bridge between the two. So here's how this works, I'm not going to say a word until I understand the things that are happening. Why is gun violence on the rise in Kansas City? Why are some of our zoning laws so not good? Why does Kansas City think about the world differently than St. Louis and how do I connect with the worldview of Kansas City, which sounds eerily like Berea, not to just be a part but to introduce them to a king and a kingdom. And then I have to acknowledge that there are things that I as a Christian want that people in Kansas City want, things like justice. on Kansas City, don't you want justice in Kansas City? Yes, I do too. And I do from a biblical standpoint. How about meaning? How about dignity? How about beauty? How about purpose? Here's the difference between you and your neighbor.

How they think it can happen and how you think it can happen are different, but don't step over the fact we both want this. Too many of us start with disagreement when we've got a massive amount of things we can agree with. We just say only Jesus can do that. Let me introduce you to him. Let me show you how. Remember, everyone is searching. Everyone is searching. No matter how confident they look on the outside, no matter how self-contained and self-sustaining they look on the outside, that we all have things. I don't know. Things like what happens after you die? Things like how do I find meaning? Things like how do I find purpose? How do I find hope? What is eternity and why do I feel this sense of something otherworldly that I'm connected to, but I'm still here? Tell me how. Everyone's searching. And can I tell you, I believe that the best answer for that is Jesus. That the best answer for what ails us and itches in us is Jesus. And so Paul recognizes we're all searching and the gospel speaks to the thing under the thing, speaks to our fears, speaks to our questions,

speaks to our longings. And it's the job of the church to know the longings, the fears and disappointments of a worldview and community and get Jesus to those, not just post dumb stuff online. And when we do speak, let's not speak with contempt. Let's speak with humility. Paul gets provoked. He challenges, he reasons, he persuades, but he never mocks. You know, contempt is the dominant language of social media. This is why we can't disagree because it's not, I don't think I agree with that. It's, I don't agree with that and you're a moron. That's how we treat people. And I would love to say that only the world does that, but the church does that. The church does that again and again and again. We have to learn how to talk differently. We have to learn how to engage differently and we have to learn how to look for deeper idols. Are you all still with me? I promise I'm almost done. Okay, so Paul was able to see the physical idols, but he was able to see the things under the idols. Are you with me? So let me tell you the three idols that I think drive our worldview. I think there's only three. Number one is money. I think it's number one by a mile. Number two is power.

Number three is sex. I think if you want to understand American culture, look at money, power, and sex, and I can even do this. When I have money, I'll have power and then I'll get sex. Politics is a big thing right now, but do you know what politics is about in America? It's about, yeah, it's about that. So all this corruption and all this buffoonery and all these backroom deals and all these things, they're tied to the three idols that make us go, okay? Whenever you are engaging with somebody, a lot of us, we like to engage with a thing at the surface when the thing that's under it is different. Why is money a God? Why don't you like it when I talk about money in church? Why is politics something you don't like to talk about? Here's why. Underneath, those are things that you think make you safe. You think make you significant. You think give you meaning. You think give you pleasure. You think give you identity. Can I prove it to you? Can I prove it to you? We're living in a time right now where people identify themselves and want you to interact with them based on who they have sex with. Not, not, I just want you to let me do my thing. Nope, I want you to engage with me

around who I am sexually attracted to and sleeping with. What is that? What is the thing under the thing? And Christians, we get this wrong all the time. The thing under the thing is identity. It's not sex, it's identity. And this is why when we have these conversations that we need to have. You miss it. You say, just stop doing the thing. They say, it's not the thing that I do. It's, what is it? It's who I am. And then we're right back to where we started, which is, can that thing do for you what you need it to do, or can only Jesus do that? We do it with money. We do it with our politics. We do it with who we sleep with. We do it with where we work. All of these things. The thing under the thing is, it makes. me feel safe, it makes me feel significant, it makes me feel like I'm going to be happy, it makes me feel like they can't mess with me anymore, it did then and it does now. And so if you take the thing at the top, if you take the red hat or the flag, if you take the side of the aisle or where they live or what they drive, you will miss the point. You will miss the point. Watch, when you find the thing that is actually a thing, to have one of three responses. Number one, to agree and come to faith. Number two, to say I need some more time.

Or number three, to make fun of you and reject you. Do you know what this is? On Easter, A, B, C, D. Now watch, Paul does not think to himself, they didn't all say yes, I must have done it wrong, like you do. Because he understands that he cannot regenerate somebody's soul, but he is called to steward proclaiming the gospel to every soul. And so a lot of you, part of the thing that keeps you from being on mission is your fear of being rejected because that's your idol. And fearful witness is almost never faithful witness. Say amen if you're with me. So Paul ultimately, in all of the talking, keeps one thing central, the resurrection. Watch what happens. In Thessalonica he does it, in Berea he does it, and in Athens he does it. And they tolerate him while he's talking philosophy, spirituality, politics, values, purpose, all personal growth, all those things. And watch, a lot of growing churches today think that they are growing because they are being helpful. Here's the problem. The world will let you talk about personal growth, spirituality, purpose, and value all you want until you start talking about a bloody cross and an empty tomb. Do not reduce Christianity to good advice, to family values, to self-improvement, to correct political positions, or to traditional morality. That is not what it is. The gospel is God sent His Son and you killed Him. You put Him on a cross and you butchered Him because not only are you sinful, but you choose sin and you would do it again. They weren't mistaken, they did it on purpose, and you and I do it every single day. And we thought we had killed God, but God being who He is, walked out of that tomb three days later.

And if, and if, and if He did, and if He did, watch, He is not like you. And if He did, He can do things that you can't do. And if He did, by the way, He's the only dude in the pantheon of spirituality who even said that He could, let alone went and did it. So if the resurrection is true, He's not like you, He can do things that you can't do, and actually He's not like anyone. So if the resurrection is true, watch, what else in here is true? And what does it say about you? And what does it say about purpose and value and meaning and all the things that your heart most desperately craves? Watch, the linchpin isn't to start there or in culture, the linchpin is to start at the resurrection. So let me help you with something that you're not going to understand at first. Stop talking about the cross. The cross doesn't save you. The tomb being empty is what saves you. And what I have found, what I have found is this culture does not debate the cross. They do debate the resurrection. Why? Why? Because nobody cares how Jesus died. We do care whether or not Jesus can do the thing He said He can do for the reason He said He can do it because we know intuitively that if that is true, there are things that would have to change in us. The cross doesn't make me want to change anything, but Easter, Easter means this whole thing is upside down. And so Paul keeps the resurrection the main thing. Now here's where I want to end. So I said to you, if you want to engage with your faith in this culture, I said understand before you critique.

You got it? OK. Anyone, anyone else? You got it? OK. Find points of connection before, without compromise. You got it? OK. Look for deeper idols and keep the resurrection central. Y'all got it? Say amen if you got it. OK. It doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean anything. OK? It means nothing. if you don't love your neighbor. And this has been the tension for me all week because I knew, honestly, I could have turned this into a series, but we got one Sunday, and I kept saying to God, God, if I teach them how to do it, it doesn't mean that they're going to do it because some of them won't pick up what they know how to do because they don't care about the people they go to work with. You know, knowing how to do something, we are in the how-to economy, aren't we? How many of you know that you can go to YouTube and figure out how to fix your car?

How many of you do it? Oh, a couple of you. How many of you know how to budget, set up a good budget that you can follow? How many of you do it, right? We're in a how-to, but don't do. It's part of our worldview. It's part of our worldview. That information, whether you do it or not, is important. So I've just said to you, what I think is, if you do this, I think you will engage with your faith better in 2026. But it matters not if you don't love your neighbor. And so I'm going to end where I started. When I say I want to make it hard to go to hell in Kansas City, I am not being anecdotal. I want the churches of Kansas City to make it incredibly hard to stand before an eternal God and have never heard the gospel. I'm not saying we can save everyone. I'm saying we can proclaim so that anybody who wants to know has access to saving faith in Jesus Christ. I do not want to bump into somebody on the other side of eternity that I go to the gym with and have them look at me and say, you knew how? You went to a church, your pastor told you how? Wait a minute, you are the pastor? And he didn't say anything. What did I ever do to you? Why did you care so little that you knew how,

you believed in heaven and hell, you knew that it was eternal, and somebody told you how to engage with me, biblically, historically, pragmatically, and you said nothing, and now it's too late? And so if you listen today and you got all the information and you say to yourself, I don't love my neighbor, then I want you to hit delete on the file that you just created because it does not matter. And I want you to go home and I want you to write on that same file, God, teach me to love my neighbor. Teach me to love my coworker. Teach me to love my family member. Teach me to see them the way that you see them. And until I love them, I will say nothing to them. But once I love them, I will come back to this sermon and we'll figure out how to engage with them. But love has to start before you start opening your mouth. That's why it's in the great commandment. How do I be in good standing with God? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor, how? As yourself. If you were them, would you want you to be bold enough to tell them Jesus is real? The tomb is empty. You can have the answers you need

and be who God created you to be if you will just surrender. Would you want them to tell you? Then love them in the same way that you love yourself for God's glory and for their good. Church, do you receive this today? Why don't you stand to your feet? Prayer team, why don't you come on down? Giving boxes are at the back. Let me pray for you and then we'll get out of here. Heavenly Father, I thank you on this Father's Day that there is no father who is like you. We celebrate, Lord, your good grace to us. We celebrate the good men who are good fathers in this house. And we pray today that you would encourage and bless them. We pray today that your Holy Spirit would speak to them and let them know, Lord, that their faithfulness is being seen and that it matters. I also pray, Lord, as we go our separate ways, that you would give us an actual, sincere, authentic heart for the people of our city, that we would see our city the way that it actually is, the way that you see it, and that we would be less interested in arguing and dividing and more interested in. and loving people that we live beside and go to work with. And we pray, Lord, that as you deepen our love for our city, that you will give us divine opportunities, appointments, and ways to show them that we love them,

to be a good friend to them, to get to know and understand their story and introduce ultimately our great Savior, Jesus Christ, to them. We pray, Lord, that it would actually be hard to go to hell in Kansas City because of Graceway and other churches within our city. Lord, we pray for revival. We pray for human flourishing. We pray for blessing, not of man's creation, but of your grace and goodness to Kansas City. And we believe in faith, in spiritual eyes, that you can do it. And we ask, Lord, that you would let us be a part for your glory and our good. We thank you, Lord. We love you. We trust you. And in Jesus' name, all God's people said, amen and amen. Happy Father's Day. I love you, church. I'll see you next Sunday.