Get Off The Milk | Pastor Nelson Bowen

My hallelujah belongs to you, cause you've been faithful, yes my hallelujah belongs to you, there's no goodness of my own, my hallelujah belongs to you You deserve it, You deserve it You deserve it, You deserve it Great is your faithfulness to me Great is your faithfulness to me From the rising sun to the setting sea I will praise your name Great is your faithfulness to me Great is your faithfulness to me Great is your faithfulness to me Great is your faithfulness to me Great is your faithfulness to me Great is your faithfulness to me Great is your faithfulness to me Worthy you are, worthy you will be forever Say worthy you are, worthy you will be forever Say forever Yahweh, forever Yahweh You keep your promises Yahweh, forever Yahweh Worthy you are, worthy you are, worthy you will be forever Yahweh Worthy you are, worthy you are, worthy you will be forever Yahweh Munch, we thank you for your love and your mercy God we thank you that even in this moment Lord God we can exalt you high And know Lord God that you're working things out on our behalf So forgive us for being in doubt and being worried and being concerned Father we take this moment to acknowledge that you are the great I Am That you are Jehovah Jireh, that you are Jehovah Nissi, Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah Sikhanou God we just take the moment to remind ourselves that we are in your hands And so because we're in your hands God we don't have to stay up waiting Burning at night, we don't have to walk around in fear or concern to God. You've given us a sound mind in exchange for fear.

So we put on the full armor of Christ today. We say, Lord God, that you are who you say you are. We love you. We praise you. We give you all the glory and all the honor. In Jesus name we pray. High five a couple of people. Say God is good, you know. High five a couple of people. Come on. Say God is good, you know. I said, say God is good, you know. You should look at your neighbor and say, you should just feel real blessed. I let you sit next to me today. Say I usually charge for stuff like that, but I was feeling real generous and I said, you can sit here for free. But if you feel so inclined, my cash app is. It's real good to be in the presence of the Lord this morning, is it not? I am, I come, say PB, you got housekeeping after this. Yeah, I just got to share some something with you, but I want to do it at the end. Here's what I want to share with you right now. All last year we were preparing for God behind bars. Do you remember that? And spent a lot of money, say a lot of money. And we raised money. We did everything we could to make sure that we could get the message of Jesus to people who were behind bars. We said we wanted to provide freedom for those who were not yet free. We got our first report. Do you want to hear it? What's incredible to me in the short amount of time that we have been streaming God behind bars, we have seven salvations. I thought you would respond a little better than that. Seven people have given their lives to Jesus. And here's the story. It says, Hey, I've been locked up since I was 17 years old. I committed murder while under the influence. I've been in prison the last 42 years,

but today I have given my life to no, come on. I said, we are providing freedom to those who are not yet free. Free. And that's from someone who watches in Ohio up to date. So far, 1,153 people have subscribed to engage church to watch this every single week. So I just want to tell you, thank you for your giving. Thank you for believing in the vision. I believe more and more and more are going to come. Isn't that exciting? So for those of you all watching at God behind bars, let me tell you, I believe that God is going to move in your life. Don't you give up? Don't you quit? Don't you think that it's over? God sees you. He loves you. And you've got a church family here that says, man, we're praying for you. We're believing the best. Come on. Let's let them hear how much we love. Say we love you. God behind bars, man. Okay. Uh, that's our extended family, man. And this feels good to be able to do that. We're in part two. I've got 20 minutes. Oh Lord. We're going to go a little, we're going to go over today. Is that okay? Cause I usually, I'll say I'll wrap it up. I'm not wrapping it up. We're gonna go a little, uh, but, but, but we're in part two of this message series called guess who's coming to dinner. And we have done a variation of this, uh, at least three times over the last six years. It's one of those messages to me that it's just like, you got to go and listen to it like just every now and then. So we just decided when we did it six years ago that every other year we would preach this, this message. And so, uh, let me just give you some context of what we're talking about. Um,

we said that the church is like a table. Remember that the church is like a table and the table is the place where people come to get fed. It's the place where people come and sit in at the church and at the table, the place where people gather. We believe that there should be people who are gathering of all different cultures, of all different backgrounds, those who believe those who don't, those who are certain, those who are in doubt, those full of faith, those full of fear, but we're all just gathered at this table. And what attracts us to the table is the aroma of the bread. Remember that we said that it's the. bread that brings people to the table. The table is the place where people come to get fed. And Jesus said this in John chapter 6, verse 35. He says, I am the bread of life. And all those who come to me will never hunger again. So when people come to Engage Community Church, they're not coming because of me. I serve the bread, I'm not the bread. You hear what I'm saying? I'll never get it confused. They're coming because of the aroma. In fact, I actually got to meet her after this. I was talking at 9 a.m. two weeks ago. There was someone who was driving and she just saw all these cars coming down Industrial. She was like, where are these cars going? She was just being nosy. She was like, where are these cars going? And she said, so I just followed them. And then she pulled into this church parking lot

and she walked in these church doors and she gave her life to Jesus. And she joined a group. And see, why did she do that? Because of the aroma of the bread. It wasn't me, it was what we serve. And we would say this, Jesus says that when I be lifted up, I'll draw all men near to me so we are serving the bread. Now, here's the deal. At this table, there's four different chairs. This chair, it represents the host chair. And we said at this church, I get to have the wonderful privilege of being your host. I'm the dude with the food. I'm the one that's serving the bread. And then in chair one, it represents the unbeliever. In chair two, it represents the new believer. In chair three, it represents the mature believer. And what we said that you should have all three present in your church. All three should be present. We're not just looking for a specific person, we're looking for people. And we're presenting people the gospel, the good news, the bread of life. That's the recap, okay? Now let's go on to week two. This week, I wanna teach a message called get off the milk. If it was my grandmother, she would say, get off the milk. Yeah.

Y'all know what I wanted to call it, right? First Peter chapter two, verse number two. Look at what Peter says. He says this, he says, like newborn infants, long for pure spiritual milk that by it, you may grow up into salvation. Peter, here's what he's telling us that at the beginning of this journey, we all sit here, this chair that represents the what? Unbeliever. And the way that we journey to chair number two is our cravings start to shift. That we no longer crave the things of this world. We no longer crave the desires of this world, but we actually begin to long for the things of God. One of the ways we can tell that you're spiritual is that your hunger shifts. One of the ways we can tell that you've been impacted by God is that your desires and what you're hungry for and what you're thirsty for begins to change. And so the way you journey to chair number two is that I'm now hungry for the things of God. And I sit in this chair by accepting Jesus as my personal savior. And I begin to reach for the bread, the thing that will consume me, the thing that will fill me. But there's tension built into chair number two. Say, what's the tension? There's this tension.

When you sit here, there's a pull forward, but there's also a pull backwards. There's this gravitational pull to want to mature and this gravitational pull to be like, but I liked it over here. There's this gravitational pull between who God is calling you to be and this pull between who you used to be. And we sit in the middle of both of them. The pull upward, it comes from mature believers and discipleship and scripture and community and obedience and serving and getting these spiritual habits that begins to pull you up. What pulls you back is your old mindset and your old way of thinking and your old way of doing things and your old mechanics and your old boo. I mean, your old... The old boo know when to hit you up, don't he? Or she? It's the reason why chair two is actually not this chair at all. Bring out chair two for me. This is what chair two actually is. Wow. Wow. You're a little big. Chair two is actually... a high chair. This is my first point. The high chair elevates you before you're

mature. What do you mean? A high chair will lift you up to the level of the table, Dr. Meosha, without you actually being mature enough to function at it independently. It'll bring you up to where everyone else eats, but you don't know how to eat for yourself. That is called grace. Salvation puts you at the table and in the chair, but it's the grace of Jesus that gives you immediate access to what you have not earned. In fact, Apostle Paul, he said it this way in Ephesians chapter 2, verse number 6. He said, "...and raises us up with him and seats us." Sounds like a high chair to me. I'm gonna raise you up and then seat you with him in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. The child cannot climb there by themself. Someone puts them in there. So you're brought near, you're accepted into the family. That's the grace piece. Grace will sit you at tables, listen to me, that your maturity has not yet caught up to. Essentially, what happens is you are elevated without development. I'm teaching pretty decent. If I had to say it simple, it would be this. The tension of the new believer, the tension of chair number two, the tension of this high chair is that eventually your maturity has to catch up to your access. At some point, although you're seated here in this high chair, you're expected to transition out of it. Oh, this is...okay, y'all with me. I like this. Number two, the high chair restrains you for your protection. The difference between this chair and all the other chairs is not just this height, Derek. That would be very normal, that would be very...I would expect, oh, it's higher. Okay, yeah, I get that. But the real difference between this chair and all the other chairs is restraints. It's restraints. Okay, why? Why are the restraints a part of that chair? Because without it, the kid would hurt himself. Without it, although the kid is able to sit at the table, the restraints is what keeps him safe at the table. Because if that chair does not have restraints, it becomes dangerous for that child. Are you hearing me? The restraints on your spiritual journey with Christ, the restraints and your relationship with him is accountability, boundaries, correction, community, guidance. The issue though is that

immature believers, they see these restraints as restrictions. The high chair has restraints because without it, you will certainly hurt yourself. Here's the best way now to say it. Spiritual freedom without spiritual maturity will always end up in self-destruction. But the issue is that when I'm immature, I relate freedom with maturity. When I'm immature, in this gospel walk, in this Christian walk, Tiffany, I think that freedom is maturity. So, when there's biblical restrictions known as accountability, known as correction, known as guidance, I begin to feel restrained, not restricted. Does this make sense? Okay. Out of all the chairs at this table, here's the other one. This one is the messiest. My boys was in high chairs. I got a 6-year-old, I got a 4-year-old, and both beat over the head. Whatever, both of them was the messiest of the messiest eaters. Please tell me I'm not alone, that I didn't have just, I mean, I'm talking about like, like, are you going to just spit at everything? You couldn't clean, like, I would go clean the hot chair, and I would find food in places that I didn't know food could ever get to. And the thing that I would really hate is when the straps got dirty, because how do you clean the straps? And I would be embarrassed when people came and put the hot chair up, put it up, put the hot chair up, because when they, they going to think that's how we live. Thing with the hot chair is the way you feed them. You got to feed them these, that's what I used to do. You got these little, these little applesauce packages, you remember that? And you would pour it on here. Does anyone remember this, or is this just me? This is why I'm never going back to that age. Like, I'm just saying, okay, whatever. But the whole idea is like, yo, that was a messy place, hands dirty, face dirty, dropping stuff. We had to get a spill mat, because my kids would just knock stuff over. And you did all that.

And here's the deal, you never got upset, because you understood that this is what kids do. This is what, in matter of fact, at some points, you thought it was cute. Yes or no? See, because you understood that those kids are just messy. Can I help you out? Immature believers are messy. New believers, they're messy. They're going to mishandle relationships. They're going to misunderstand scripture. They're going to overreact emotionally. They're going to struggle with consistency. They're going to fall into bad habits, not because they don't love God. Not because they're acting in rebellion. It's because they're learning how to live a different life in the same way this baby struggles with coordination. It's not that they don't want to eat. They're just learning how to put their hand to their mouth and not make a mess in the same way you should learn to put the hand over your mouth so you don't make a mess. Just saying. The danger of a new believer is not immaturity. The danger of new believers is having immaturity be permanent. The truth is, all of us started off in this high chair, whether physically or spiritually, we all started off in the high chair. That's to be expected. You know what would be weird, bro? Me at 37, still sitting in this high chair. That would be weird. Let me pick on somebody. Okay, I'm picking on you, Brian. That's my little brother. Imagine you and your girlfriend go on a date and you get to the table and she's just standing there. The waiter comes. Is everything okay?

Yes. Can I have a booster seat? At that point, wait a second, what have I gotten myself? Most of you, if your dude was at the table and stood there until the waiter brought him a high chair, you would say, I don't know. If I chose correctly, yet in the spirit, you go to church, you pray, you serve, you tithe, you give, but you date in booster seats. Okay, so I just leave that alone. Cause I only got five minutes. I wonder if, for God, you're the one standing at the table asking for a booster seat. See, that's what the writer of Hebrews was frustrated with. Look at this, in Hebrews chapter number 5, verse number 11, he says, we have a great deal to say about all of this. And then when he says all of this, you should begin to ask yourself, well, what's the this? Say, what's the this? He said, well, it's kind of difficult to explain since you've become too lazy to understand because you're 30 years old talking about a when, when. You still need somebody to...you've become lazy. Look at verse number 12, watch this. Although by this time, you ought to be teachers. He's saying like, okay, at one point, the high chair was cool. At one point, that was great. But by this time, what I expected was that you would not still be in the high chair because you still need someone to teach you the basic principles of God's revelation again. You need milk, not solid food. I had expectation that I could talk to you. I had expectation that I can bring you big boy and big girl stuff. But when I got here, what I'm seeing is that you still process as a child. When I got here, what I found out is you still reason as a child. When I got here, I found out that you're still crying at 30 years old, a when, because someone doesn't like you.

And church didn't go the way you thought it was going to go. I got to deal with difficult people and I keep blaming the church for being hurt. I'm just people hurt. But really, I just got my own insecurities. And you get to verse 13 and watch this. He said, man, now everyone who lives on milk, not people who were once on it, not people who had a season of it, people who have made milk their life, their inexperience with the message about righteousness. In other words, they still don't understand this thing called Christianity because they're an infant. Verse 14, watch this. But solid food is for the mature, for those whose senses have been trained to distinguish between good and evil. He said, I want to come talk to you so much, but when I got there, I found out you were still on the bottle. And milk is good because milk is proof that you've been born again. That's what Peter said. Man, at some point, you got to start craving this thing. Milk is the proof that you've been born again. It's not bad, it's necessary. Peter lets us know that you will have a season where you crave it and I need you to crave it. Get out of those old habits and begin to crave prayer and begin to crave worship and community and teaching and correction and the presence of God. But what happens though early on is that while you want all those things, someone has to feed you those things. Someone feeds you. Someone has to watch over you. Someone has to clean up after you. Someone has to make sure that you don't choke.

Someone has to... Now, this was the nastiest thing I think our shell used to do when we had kids. She would eat that food first and then take it out and then give it to them. And I say, if you ever did that for me. But in the church, that's what some of us, like as your pastor, that's what I got to do with you as it relates to growing up. I got to... And you sit right there. Because you only want to worship if everything is right. That's not the right song. I don't like that one. I'm just going to stand like this. And then someone got to come along and say, hey, man, I'm going to worship isn't about that. Oh, okay. Oh, they hurt my feelings and they hurt my feelings. And I don't know. I can't go talk to them. And then Matthew 18 said, okay. You always need someone to pray for. but you only read scripture because when someone tells you to go read, you only worship when the room is right. You only obey when someone checks on you. You only stay faithful when someone carries you. And if this is you, if this is your life, you're still at the place, listen to me, where the Word is soothing you but doesn't strengthen you. You're still on the milk. You want bottles. And this bottle is here to calm you down, to stop the crying, to give you a quick relief.

This requires no effort. It's easily digested. This is the spiritual equivalence, hear me, of you only reading Bible verses that encourage you. You come to the church because it makes you feel better. But the moment you're better, you stay away. We're outside, summertime, let's go to brunch, that's what we got to do because my life is perfect. I don't feel like I'm in shambles. I feel like I got it all together. So, now, church is a choice because everything is good. I'm actually okay. I don't got to give. I was giving and I was tithing. My stuff got back on track. So, I don't got to do that anymore, God. Thank you. You want a bottle. If you only come here when your life is in shambles, it's because you see the soothing. You only got to like, like, hey, Mr. Rain, can you pray for me? It's bad. I mean bad. And you start trying to show up now because you need soothing. You want someone to put you on a... Listen, let me just burp you. And as soon as you get the indigestion and the gas of you needing God to do something for you and come through for you and you burp it, then you're back into the world. And then the world chews you up, spits you out, Jesus, come.

It's because you're on this bottle. It's soothing you. And if you only interact with Jesus to make you feel better, then you will avoid the thing that actually makes you better. Number four, the word is designed to strengthen you and mature you. Apostle Paul, he was talking to his spiritual son, Timothy. I've been compared to Timothy a lot because this is really because of this one reason. Timothy's young. So Timothy, you would think he would be sitting in chair two because of his age. That's why Apostle Paul said, man, Tim, don't let people despise you because of your youth. What he was saying is don't make decisions that remind people that you're young. He wasn't saying like, don't let them talk about you because you're young. He was saying, no, when times come up, when difficulty shows up, when wisdom is required, please just don't act like a child. So Timothy should be in chair two, you would think, because of his age, but he's actually a host. He has the burden to really present and declare this bread and to lift this bread up. And so, although he's young, he's in the position of a host because maturity in the kingdom is not about age. Maturity in the kingdom is about obedience. It's about accountability. It's about guidance. It's about protection. So he's serving the bread and he's talking to him and he says, here's what I need you to know about this word. That's what I need you to know about it.

Here's what it's supposed to do. Look it up in 2 Timothy, I mean, chapter number three. It says, all. All what? What does all leave out? All leaves out what? What does all mean? Everything. So all scripture is in spite. So everything in the book can be trusted. Everything in the book. You can't pick and choose which part of the scripture you want to believe. You can't pick and choose what part of the scripture you want to apply. You either leave all of it or you believe none of it because all of it is inspired by God. And here's what it does. It's profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training, not soothing. No, no, no, no. There's a progression that the word is supposed to do inside of me. And that progression is well, the first thing it does is it teaches me. The word teaches me, like it shows you the truth. It rebukes me, it shows me where I'm wrong, it corrects me, it shows me how to fix it, and then it trains me, it builds me into who God has called me to be. If I'm just reading the scripture and I'm not being rebuked and I'm not being corrected and it's not training me, then I'm still not reading, man, I'm being pacified. This word is supposed to challenge me and correct me, and I'm supposed to read it till I read myself, and it shows me, like, yo, I got stuff I need to work on. But correction will feel like rejection if you're immature. And I'm supposed to learn how to lean in.

See, one of the signs that I'm growing as a believer is I don't avoid hard conversations. Like, I can lean in, I can...like, you don't got to give me your milk, like, let's talk about it, like, let's have a hard...like, one of the ways I know I'm growing is I don't resist accountability. One of the ways I know that I'm growing is that I'm not easily offended. Here's how I really know that you're growing, you don't leave environments that challenge you and make you uncomfortable, and only go to places where you're affirmed, and only go to places where you're the best one in the room. Everyone wants to attaboy you and pat you on the back. No, that is not growth. And we have to come to this place where we understand that correction is not God pushing us away, it's Him drawing us near. Does this make sense? It's correction that comes through accountability. Accountability is the spiritual nutrition that fuels maturity. That's why groups are so important in this season, to be around people who are going to hold you accountable, to be around people who are going to love you, to be around people who can say, I want the best for you. Can I give you a biblical definition of accountability? Can I...oh, okay, only six of you. Can I give you a biblical definition of accountability? Accountability is not just someone checking on you. Biblical accountability is when someone loves you enough to tell you what you don't want to hear because they're committed to you being who God has called you to be. Biblical accountability is someone who loves you enough to tell you what you don't want to hear because they're committed to you becoming who God has called you to be. Solomon was writing in the book of Proverbs. This one verse in Proverbs, like, I've read this for the longest but it stood out to me, Brian, like never before in these last couple of weeks.

Proverbs chapter number 27, watch this. It says, faithful are the wounds of a friend. Meaning that sometimes your friend, if he's a faithful one, if she's a faithful one, will tell you things that hurt. That not every wound is an attack. Oh, you're not hearing what I'm saying. Part of maturity, Lady B, is that someone can tell me something that's hard and I don't feel attacked. I actually view it as, man, they're actually faithful to me. They're faithful to me becoming who God has called me to be enough to tell me what's going to hurt, not because they're hating, not because they're mad, not because, oh, they just want to be me, bro. No, they want you to be who you're supposed to be. God's like, I got this for you, but you keep wanting this. And the reason why the writers of Hebrews were so mad and so frustrated, Chris, is because he's like, man, I'm trying to serve you food. Can I come down off this thing? Will they get me? Y'all still got me? I'm trying to serve you food. God, dawg, man, I want this for your life. And I've come to you because by this time, I thought that you were ready for chicken. And I found out you're still on the milk. Milk will calm you. Milk will soothe you. It will not grow you. Milk is for babies, this for grown men, grown women, and what I'm telling you is I feel like we're in a time and we're in a place in life with this culture where God is looking for people that will sit at the table and he can give a grown plate to, not people still

crying about stuff that happened 10 years ago. Not people stuck in their past, not people still choosing their own preference and choosing their own stuff. He's like, yo, when are you going to grow up? You still complaining about the same thing? You ain't got hands laid on you. You won't fell out. You won't fasted. When are you going to sit down, pick up a fork, pick up a knife and feed yourself? You still talking about when? And what I'm afraid of is that we'll miss it, church, that God will come ready to feed us well, that he'll come ready to just come bearing food to get here and find out we can't even digest it yet. Could you be praying for things that you can't digest? Could you be praying and believing God for things that you cannot digest? So we can't give it to you because you're still in the middle. What's your favorite part? How do you know if you're addicted to the bottle? Because you only want comfort instead of, yeah, comfort instead of correction. Correction comes from growth. If you're eating real food, how do you know if you're addicted to the bottle because emotionally you're driven and easily tossed around and being real food, you're spirit led and spiritually grounded. Here's the part that I want to get to, y'all can take a picture of it, whatever. How do you know if you're addicted to the bottle? Because you leave when challenged or uncomfortable and I'm seeing so many people just leave because it's not an environment that they want. You don't like broccoli, you train yourself to like broccoli. You don't like green beans, you train yourself to like green beans and the reason why you begin to get a taste for it is because you eat it enough and your body begins to respond

to it and you begin to mature and you understand, okay, this is good for me and so at some point you stop eating for taste and you start eating for nutrition and it's the same thing spiritually. I don't go to church every Sunday because I like it, I go to church every Sunday because I understand that my soul needs it. It's how I grow up, it's how I mature, it's how I become who God has called me to be. I don't tithe because I just want to give my money to God, no, I tithe because I understand that it's what tells me that I trust him, it's what tells me that you are my provider. Like at some point growing up is not about preference, it's about obedience, it's about me saying, God, I don't even understand this but here's what I know, this is what you require of me. That's how we get the chance, but food is for the mature and at some point we got to grow up. Or my grandmother would say, get off the milk. Did y'all enjoy this? Listen, God needs believers who will withstand storms, endure hardship, resist temptation, bear responsibility, remain faithful under pressure. Who are those people? I'm challenging you to get off the milk, amen. All right, let's pray. God thank you so much, man, we've been on this milk too long, help us to grow up, help us to identify the areas of our life that you're requiring more of. The areas of our life that you're saying, okay, man, I want to nourish you beyond just milk and begin to eat solid food, thank you Jesus. Hey, no one looking all eyes closed and heads bowed, I'm going to pray for one more person. I'm going to pray for the person today who, man, maybe you're not like, you're like that unbeliever, you're sitting at that chair. And you're like, yo, I want to begin to reach for bread. I want to begin to know Jesus for myself. Or maybe you kind of was at that table at one point, and you've just been kind of hopping chairs.

But today, you want to make a decision and say, God, no, I want to put you first. That gravitational pull has been real for most of my life. And I found myself struggling going back. But I want to stay planted. I want to stay grounded. You've been going back from trusting God to not trusting God, from living for Him to not living for Him. But today, I've heard this message, like, you know what? OK, I'm putting all that stuff aside. God, I'm going to live for you. It's a great decision to make. You say, God, He loves you so much that He sent His one and only son, Jesus, to die for you. No, He's not mad at you at all, man. He's mad about you. You keep Him up at night. He has this wonderful plan and future for your life. And the way we access that is we have to accept His son, Jesus, into our hearts. You've got heaven, you've got hell. There's a lot of debates about are they real or not. I'm selling it for you. Both of them are. The myth is this, though. God does not decide where you go. You do. And you decide that you're going to spend eternity with God when you begin to give your life to Jesus. When you say, yo, I'm a sinner in need of a Savior.

God, I need you to come into my life. And maybe your heart's racing right now. You're like, yo, what is this? It's Jesus. He's knocking on the door of your heart. Here's what He's asking. Will you allow me to live with you? Will you allow me to reside with you? Will you allow me to do life with you? See, He's a perfect gentleman, so He doesn't just intrude or invade your life. He only comes by an invitation. An invitation is simple. Jesus, I need you in my life. I want to pray with you because reality is this. At some point, you are going to take your last breath. We all have that in common. And when you do, my job is to make sure that you spend eternity with Jesus. And if you're uncertain about that, you need to become certain today. It's just a simple, Jesus, I need you in my life. I'm not going to do anything spooky. I'm not going to do anything scary. I'm not going to ask you to stand or come to the front. I'm just going to ask you to simply raise your hand on the count of three. Be like, yo, that's me, bro. I'm going to give my life to Jesus today. And what's going to happen is we're going to celebrate

and we're going to cheer because Scripture says that when one person gives their life to Jesus, that all of heaven begins to rejoice. And I'm going to ask you to do a confession because Christ says this, when you confess me before a man, I'll confess you before the Father. So this is your moment. Don't delay it. Don't make it about the person to your left or to the right. Make this between me and you. Make this decision today like, you know what? That's me, man. I'm going to do this right this time. I'm going to live. I'm going to give my life to Jesus. And so on the count of three, I just want you to raise your hand. And we're going to go crazy for you. One, God loves you. Two, your life will never be the same. Three, if that's you, would you raise your hand? Awesome. We got some in the back. We got some in the back. So awesome. So awesome. Come on, let's celebrate. Come on, say, God, today I give you my life. I believe in my heart and confess in my mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Come on, let's celebrate one more time. I know I went way over, but I warned you because I wanted to finish this message in entirety. Did we enjoy it today? All right. I've got a couple of housekeeping things. You ready? I don't know if you know. If you haven't seen it yet, you should. We just did a whole kids refresh. And it looks really, really good. If you haven't seen it, the parents, if you saw it, did you like it, parents? So awesome, man. I enjoy kids being in kids. Does anyone else enjoy kids being in kids? Raise your hand if you enjoy kids being in kids. Some of y'all, some of the parents are like, yes, I do. So let me give you some housekeeping. Some of the kids, people came to me this week, and they asked me for a request that was pretty hard to hear. They said, hey, can we shut kids down? And I'm like, why? They said, because we need a break and we're tired. Because the reality is that the same team has been serving kids since we've opened this building. And they were like, can we just sit? Because we don't get a chance to sit in a service. We don't get a chance to do any of those things. And we're just tired and we need a break.

And my answer was, no, you can't shut kids down. I said, but here's what I will do. I believe that people believe in the vision of this church. I believe people believe in the fact that we're a family. I believe that they just trust the vision of this house. And so here's what I'm asking. I got a request to make of the family. I need 30 people. So I asked in the first service and I'm asking in this one. I need 30 people to say, hey, I don't mind serving, but I want to be a part of the kids team. And there's a million and one different, that's not a million, it's like eight different opportunities that you can do. I don't know all of them, but there's a QR code. that they're going to put up behind me right now. And then also it's Serve Sunday. And so you can go to that table, but we need some help. And so I don't care if it's just once a month, if it's every other week, what I would love for you to do is to at least commit to a couple of months so that we can get the people that have been serving faithfully to be able to come in here and get refreshed, get refueled, get recharged, so that we can give them a break and not shut kids down. Because if not, it's going to be a lot of high chairs all over this auditorium. And so I want to make sure

that we're all doing our part in doing it. Can you guys help me with that? Okay, some of y'all, hopefully I heard 30 yeses, not 500, that's okay. But hopefully the 30 that say yes are the 30 I can trust. But if you guys would do that for me, it would be a huge honor. Come on, let's stand to our feet. Remember, there's no midday this week. We'll worship on the way out. I'll see you next week for part three of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. I love you guys. ♪ Is your faithfulness to me ♪ ♪ Is your faithfulness to me ♪