Identity | By Grace Through Faith

So thank you for them. And thank you for you. Shout out to all five of our campuses. If you're brand new with us today, it's an honor to have you come and be a part of our church. We kicked off a brand new series last week. And if you've got your journals, go ahead and grab them. If you've got your Bibles, a Ephesians chapter two, one through 10, will be our key text today. Our key word is the word identity. And so I'm just gonna jump in and get to work. I did this father-son fishing trip with my dad when I was 12 years old. And we were camping with all these dads from my dad's work and I'll be honest, I love fishing now, love it. Back then, I didn't have the same feelings. And so, but I wanted to go hang out with my dad and so we get there and all the dads collect all these kids and we get together and we go, hey, they're gonna share some rules with us. They give us three rules. The first thing is this, we're gonna get on a boat, a bunch of boats. And once you get on these boats, you have to keep your life jacket on, okay? You gotta leave it on, super important. Second rule is this, you get one pole, okay? And so we're gonna fish for crappie. They are biting, we were out last night,

so some of these dads were saying they're biting and so you gotta hang on to your pole. If you let go of it, the fish will pull it in the water and you will get to not fish anymore. And so, third rule is this, there's a bunch of filet knives around the campsite, okay? They are freshly sharp and we're gonna catch a bunch of fish. We're gonna eat a bunch of crappie. And at no time are you, any child, to pick up any of these filet knives. If I got it, we said, yep, good. We get out to the boat, we're fishing. I'll be honest with you, it was about 20 minutes. I was already like, just going, what is going on? And so, I didn't realize it, but I let go of the pole and I'm looking around, got a bite, rips it into the water and it looked like Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic. Like it just disappeared, you know, just like that. It was gone. And so I'm like, sweet. No more fishing. And if you think fishing's boring, the only thing more boring than fishing is watching other people fish, right? It's like, wow, this is a blast, check it out. My dad picks up on this and he goes, hey, there's a bunch of kids up at the campsite that aren't fishing, do you wanna join them? I'm like, yes, please.

And so, the boat pulls up to the edge of the shore, I jump out and I'm hanging around the campsite. I see some kids, I don't know a lot of them, so I'm just walking around and I find this fillet and I'm sitting on this picnic table, it's in a leather case and I'm like, wow. Never seen one of those before, up close. So what do I do? You know what I did. I pulled the knife out of the case and like it feels like instant manhood. I mean, it's the coolest thing on the planet. And so I'm walking around and I see these trees with leaves and I just, I just, I swing it, I wanna see how sharp and like, the leaves just fall. I mean, I just kept chopping down leaves. It was like, I'm gonna empty this tree of all of its leaves and I find these sticks and I'm cutting up these sticks and I find this little beer cank and I just cut through it like it's hot butter. I felt like a redneck ninja, it was unbelievable, it was so awesome. Until this kid from the campsite comes up and he's a rule keeper and I love to punch rule keepers. (audience laughs) And immediately he goes, hey, you know you're not supposed to have that, you know, they just told us this, you're not supposed to ever touch those, they're really sharp, you get hurt. If you don't put it up, I'm gonna tell my dad.

So I grabbed the leather case and I go to put the knife in the case and I had the case in upside down. Yeah, this is where we're going. And that knife rips into two of my fingers. And if you feel squirming, okay? I'm just giving you a warning. You need to put on your earmuffs, find your happy place, okay? Plug your ears. When I did it, I felt it immediately. Like my mouth filled up with iron. There was blood everywhere. I found a roll of toilet paper on this other picnic table and I'm grabbing rags and I'm just putting it on my hand. And as soon as I do that, I gotta toss it and get rid of it because it's just filling up with blood. I start sweating profusely, I feel nauseous, the campsite like begins to spin around and I'm like, I got a plant or I'm gonna go down. So I find this camping chair and I sit down and I've got this rolled toilet paper and I just keep putting toilet paper on it, dropping the rags, toilet paper, dropping the rags, toilet paper, dropping the rags. At some point, I think, you know what? I should probably take a look to see how bad it is. And looking back, can I say, bad idea. So I put this toilet paper on my hand and I squeeze as hard as I can hoping that I can hold the blood back

so I can just get a look at it. And when I look, I see the bone in my middle finger. Yeah, I told you, bad idea, right? And then I see something that's right beside my bone doing like this, pulsating. [chuckles] "Hey, go to the edge of the shore, and yell for help, and call for my dad." Because here it is, I was in trouble. Real trouble. And in Ephesians 2, Paul wants us to understand something really important, right up front. If you've got your notes, go ahead and write this down. We're all in trouble. We are all in trouble. He begins with some really bad news. I want you to capture this. Ephesians 2, it says this, "And you were dead in your trespasses, and sins, in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, and the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, okay. Among whom we all live once in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind. And we were by nature, by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Here's the gravity of all this. Paul begins with helping us understand

the gravity of sin in our lives. His passage is flooded with terms, dead in our sin, following the course of this world, following Satan, our enemy, lawbreakers, trespassers, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, i.e., follow your heart, live out your truth, children of wrath, sons of disobedience, not a fun way to start a sermon. Here's the truth. In order to understand our true identity in Christ, and what the gospel offers us, we have to first understand the bad, horrific truth. And he says it again in another place, Romans 3.23, he says for all, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All means all. Sin is a choice to reject God's truth. It's telling God that we know better than him. It's choosing to step outside of God's loving guardrails. For us, sin is willful, sin is universal. All have sinned, all means all. Paul says this in Romans 6.23, he says the wages of sin. It's death. It's death. Like Paul's sounding the alarm. Like sin's a monumental problem. Like our sin separates us from a holy God. Paul's putting everybody on notice. Sin is a death sentence, okay? The last two funerals that I've officiated

have been for two friends of mine. And one of them is from this church and one of them is from another church. Just a couple months ago, Kyle Snowden, part of this church, part of my Fight Club group a few months ago on a Wednesday, went into the hospital, he had shortened his breath. He just thought he had like some high blood pressure issues. And they ran some tests, did some scans, drew some blood. And by the end of the day, he got grave news, stage four, brain and lung cancer. And that was a Wednesday. And I got word about it Wednesday night. I went to see him Thursday morning, spent some time with him, talk with him, pray with him, he died the next day. Three days from diagnosis to death, 51 years of age. The second one was just a month ago, Rob Preston is his name, I started a church in Seattle, Washington, Rob was a dear friend of mine. He was married to Marcy for 24 and a half years. He has three adult biological children and he has three 14-year-old triplets that he's adopted. He was six, eight, played basketball professionally overseas. We've been friends for 20 years now. And he called me a little more than two and a half years ago and told me this devastating news that he's been diagnosed with ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease. Most of you know this, it's no cure for ALS. You get this news short of a miracle from God,

it's a matter of time, it's a death sentence. Rob Battle ALS for two and a half years and passed away at 52 years of age. Two men, 51 and 52. Stage full of cancer and ALS are nasty diagnoses, they're grueling. Like I wouldn't wish him on my worst enemy but I need you to know this, do you know what's worse than that? It's understanding the gravity of sin in our lives. I want you to write this down, sin is terminal. It's terminal. It makes stage four cancer and ALS look like a mosquito bite. Okay, because terminal cancer and ALS, they affect us in the here and the now and sin will destroy this life and if not treated for all eternity. That's the bad news, we're all in trouble. And man, here's the great news, but God. Paul declares this in Ephesians two, four through seven, he says this, man, I don't ever want you to get numb to this, but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he, Even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Him, with Christ, by grace. You have been saved. And raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages, He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace, in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. But God, power of the gospel is found in two words, but God.

Paul, the author of Ephesians, has been wrecked by these two words. It's interesting how often he uses them throughout the Scriptures. See, he was once known as Saul, and he was a Pharisee who didn't believe that Jesus was a Messiah, and he made it his mission by all means necessary to stomp out this Christian movement known as the Way. And what he would do is he would threaten, he would imprison, he would challenge God's people to recant their belief in Jesus, and even had Christians killed. And then Saul had a but God encounter with Jesus in Acts 9 that changed, radically changed his life. God changed his name to Paul. And once public enemy number one became this missionary, and preacher, and teacher, and church planter, and movement maker, and he's written almost half the New Testament, and he's his father in the faith, but God. Here's another verse that even just displays how important these words are. Romans 5, 8, it says, "But God shows his love for us in this while we were still sinners. Christ died for us." If you're to ask me, hey, half old, describe the gospel in two words. Here it is, rescue mission. The gospel is all about God seeing us in our troubled, broken, helpless state, and Jesus came running.

Luke 19, 10 says, "For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost," which means rescue mission. You think my filet knife story was bad, leading up to good Friday. Jesus was beaten within an inch of his life. He was whipped by a cat in nine tails, 39 times. 40 was known to kill a person. Repeatedly punched in the face. They fashioned the crown of thorns. We're just saying about it, and it was fast into his head. Blood poured out everywhere. He was beaten beyond recognition is what Isaiah says. And then he was led up to Golgotha where they drove nails into his wrist and his ankles. And they put him on a cross to experience the worst of deaths. Why? Here's why. John 3, 16, it says this, "For God still of the world that he gave his only Son." And here's the word I don't want you to miss. Whoever, whoever, whoever, whoever, whoever, whoever, believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. He probably heard that verse. My favorite word in this verse is that word whoever. And here's what it means. Doesn't matter the number of sins that you've committed, or which sins you've committed, whoever. Doesn't matter what you've done, or how long you've done it, or how far you run, or how deep and dark your mess is. Look at me, whoever believes in Jesus should not perish,

but have eternal life. I'm going to take you back to that Father-son fishing trip. They finally got word to my dad. My dad and the boat scream up to the shore. My dad gets out, and he comes running toward me, and he says, "Son, let me look at it." And so I pull off the toilet paper. And when he takes a look at it, and he says these two words, he goes, "Oh, son." And I'm like, I mean, I'd like to have to say something else. I mean, that'd been cool. You just said, "You know, it's not that bad. Just a flesh wound. Just going to rub some dirt on it, put some duct tape on it. We're going to be fine." He didn't say that. He said, "Son, you lost a lot of blood, and we got to get you to the hospital, buddy." So he throws me in the truck, and we tear down the road to the University of Louisville Hospital. Coots and Kleiner, one of the nation's best hand surgeons, worked on me. I cut two tenants, a ligament, and I nicked a nerve. I end up with 41 stitches in these two fingers, inside and out of my hand. I've got a pretty nasty scar to show for it. You know what's interesting? It still baffles me. I never got punished, and my dad was strict. Like, I never got a dad talk, I never got chewed out.

Like, hey, you were told not to touch these knives, son. What were you thinking? Never. Not in that moment, not in the way of the hospital, not after never. You know why? My dad knew that I needed healing more than I needed punishment. My dad knew that. You know what? So does our perfect Heavenly Father. but to save the world through him." God's motivation in sending Jesus wasn't to go, "Hey son, I need you to go, put a finger in their chest, shame them, tell them how bad they are, and punish them." No way. He came to rescue and save us. Listen, if God didn't love you and he didn't love me, you know what God would have done? Nothing. He would just stay where he was. God, the Father knows everything that we've done. He knows our secrets, he knows our shame, he knows our regrets, he knows all of our sin, all of it, newsflash. He still came. He came running on a rescue mission for us, but God. And here's what that means. You are worth the life of God's only son. You are. I want you to write this down. Grace is a gift. Ephesians 2.89 is the climax of this passage. Paul hammers his nail because when he does, he wants it to ring out for all to hear. Here's what he says. He says this for us, "By grace, by grace, you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. You can't earn it. It's the gift of God. Not a result of works so that no one can boast." It's my favorite passage in all the scriptures. It's a lot of people's favorite scripture. The word "grace" here is the word "caris" and it simply means this. It means a merited favor, loving kindness, a free gift. Paul uses the word "grace" to demonstrate that salvation comes, listen, entirely from God's love, God's effort, God's generosity, and Jesus' sacrifice. And to illustrate this, I need a volunteer. I need a college student. Somebody... Anybody over here that's a college student, anybody please, just give me your hand real quick. Please, that'd be awesome. Anybody in college, you should say that and watch the

football game. You've got a college, anyone? Anywhere? Come on up, my man. Will you hustle? Will you hustle? Come on up. Let him out of the row, please. We got stuff to do. All right, come on. We're burning time. There you go. Come on up. Come on down. I feel like Price is right. This is awesome. Come on up, buddy. Come on around the side there. Yeah, give it up for him. You didn't know you were doing this today. This will be worth your time. Tell me your name. Isaac, where do you go to school, buddy? I go to Lindsay Wilson. Lindsay Wilson, what are you studying? I'm doing PT. PT, physical therapy, right on. Give it up for him. There you go. All right. Isaac, Lindsay Wilson, studying PT, could you use 100 bucks? I would love 100 bucks. Did you like that? All right. See, some of you were out there going, I should have volunteered. Yeah, you should have. Too bad. Don't come back to second service. I won't call you out. All right. Isaac, here's the deal. All right. Put your hands on this. Look at me. I want you to try and take it from me. Like, take it from me. Okay. I'm going to count to three. All right. And then I want you to take it from me. You ready? Okay. Look at me. Try and take it from me. One. Two. Three. Yeah. Give it up for Isaac. Isaac, don't be going to Keeneland, man. That's church money. Okay. I mean, I'm just saying, you know, here's the point. Here's the point. Hear me. You don't have to try and take something that's been freely given to you. You don't. Saflin, that's our God. That's this picture of grace. Unearned, undeserved, unmerited grace. And it's not given to us based on some future 2.0 version of us when we get our crap together. It's given us right now where we are. It's grace that pays the bills. And it doesn't matter the amount of sins that you've committed. Listen to me. Or what kind of sins that you've committed. Grace is a gift. All you need is need. And all of us need grace. It's the beauty of God's offer. Listen. And it's not about your resume. It is all about his invitation. And listen, you can take it or leave it. Nothing you can do to earn it and nothing you can do to lose it. And let me just ask a really honest personal question this room. I'd love for you. If you've ever felt this way, raise your hand. If you've ever felt unworthy of this grace, would you raise your hand? I'm going to put up both for me, okay? Like stuff that you've done, stuff that you said, promises that you've broken, decisions that you've made and thought.

You know what? There has to be some sort of fine print in this book that tells me that this offer of grace is null and void for me. Like your shame, your sin, your guilt has to be greater than God's love and his mercy and his grace. There's no way the gospel is true for me. You're worthy. Jesus says you're worthy. He's enough for you. It's the old hymn, "What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus." What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. It's but God. Grace is a gift. Paul lands in verse 10. Verse 10 says this, "For we are His workmanship." Okay, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared. Here it is beforehand that we should walk in them. It's packed. That verse is pregnant with action and purpose and activity. It says that we're His workmanship. The Greek word for workmanship is the word "pilemon" which just means "handiwork," something that's been created or something that's been made. Which means "we are His work of art." A week ago, I just got back from Rome, Italy. I was with my daughter, Emilio, and Emilio on a school trip to Rome, Italy. And we saw it all, man. We saw the Sistine Chapel, we saw the Trevi Fountain, we saw the Colosseum, it was unbelievable. Thousands of statues, beautiful paintings everywhere. And it doesn't just make you think about like the art, it makes you think about the artist. Artists like Michelangelo and Raphael and all the Ninja Turtles and all the people that build these beautiful masterpieces. Paul's declaring for us, listen to me, "You're His canvas.

He's the artist. Your new life is the display of God's grace and His power." You're His poem, which means God's writing the story of grace through our lives and our job is to share with others so they might know the power and the grace of the gospel. It's not look at us and it's not look at Southland. It is completely look at Jesus. You see, we get to point to the real thing, the point and purpose of their lives. And then it says, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared beforehand. Do you get what Paul's saying here? God placed you in this moment on purpose in your family, your friend group, your school, your dorm, your workplace, all on purpose. That means today, tomorrow and every day, He has plans for you and plans for me and people that He wants us to bump into and love and serve and pray for. And here's something really important. I want you to see this. You are His masterpiece, but man, God didn't rescue you to hang you in a gallery. He created you to go into the world and shine and display what He can do. And when we put His grace on display and when we talk about our new identities in Christ, it causes the watching world to stop and pause and take a second look and consider the invitation that Jesus is offering them. The last part of Paul's words in Ephesians 2, 10, it's the last three words that says walk in them, walk in them, it means we should walk in them, it means get on board, it means it means look for them, it means be available, it means partner with God, it means listen to the Holy Spirit, it means step out in faith, it means get after it. Here's what it really means, Southland, here it is, welcome to the rescue party. We are the rescue party. God's called those who have been rescued by His grace to join His rescue team. And here's the deal. God's already sent Jesus and now He's sent in His church, He's sent in us. St. Corinthians 5, 20, He says that we are therefore ambassadors for Christ.

Here's the key statement. God is making His appeal through you and me and here's that appeal. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. We are His ambassadors and if you're in middle school, high school, college, young adult, however old you are and you're in Christ, you are His ambassador. Here's what's crazy. It's not just that we believe in Jesus, I need you to capture this. He said Jesus actually believes in us. Like He actually believes that we can do this, that we can pull it off, that if we'll just partner with Him, we'll have a great impact on the world. God is making His appeal through you and through me. Southland, we are His rescue party. Jesus made some claims in Matthew 16, 18, He says, "I tell you, Peter, on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." When we read that passage, I want you to envision a battleground between darkness and light. And sometimes when we read this, we misinterpret it. We feel like the church is like in this defensive posture, like just hanging on because all of hell is going to come toward our home, toward our family, towards our It's actually saying the opposite. Jesus is saying that when the church is rightly partnered with Him, created in Christ to do good works, which God prepared beforehand, is actually what forcefully advances His kingdom. It's God's church storming the gates of hell to take back those that belong to Him that matter that Jesus died for. We are the rescue party. Saffron, we are at war, hands up and ten toes down. We're His rescue party. Here's the deal.

The greatest problem that's always been the greatest problem in our world. You know what it is? It's that people are born and they live and they die and they don't know Jesus. And God's given this problem to the church. And we have the answer, the solution and the cure. And His name is Jesus. So how do we do this? This statement is so simple, but yet so hard for us. Here it is. It's by giving God our yes. And God says, "Hey, I want you to go over there "and I want you to talk with them." Or, "Hey, I want you to share this." Or, "I want you to go check on them. "I want you to follow up with them." I need you to share your story today. The answer's just yes. Give it your time, give it your money, give it your talent, share your story. The answer is just yes. I'm gonna tell you about an awesome man in our church is named James Dickey. And James was a wild man. Like he was in trouble, he was in fights, he drank a lot and then March 22nd, 1987, James got on his knees and surrendered everything to Jesus. And he just said, "Yes to Jesus." And James never looked back.

For 39 years, James has just kept saying yes, just stacking up a bunch of yeses and following Jesus. And I'll just give you two examples today. These are phenomenal examples, there are so many more. But James has a brother-in-law, his name's Jeep. And Jeep's his nickname, but Jeep is just battle drugs and alcohol, been in trouble a lot, been arrested a whole bunch, was in jail a lot, eventually got in so much trouble that he ended up in prison. And in so much trouble that he ended up in prison, that he ended up with a life sentence of 2049, Jeep would never see the outside of a prison wall. Jeep was James's one more. And so James would visit Jeep almost every week, whether he was in this jail or that jail, whether he was in the state of Kentucky, state of Tennessee, whether he was in jail or prison, he would visit him and he would share God's love with him. And for over 20 years, Jeep was not interested. And James just kept coming, kept loving, kept sharing the gospel and he kept praying. And then year 27 of the sentence, Jeep said yes. He said yes to Jesus. And it radically changed, Jeep's life. And the story's too long to get into, but what I want you to know is that James actually advocates for Jeep in the court system and somehow, some way an act of God, a miracle of God, that he actually abolishes Jeep's sentence. And in 2020, Jeep's, Jeep gets out of prison.

And since then, James and Jeep have just gone to halfway houses and drug rehab centers and prisons and jails and they just share the gospel. They tell their story and they baptize people. Here's another story, James, about James. James was at this wedding and he ran into this guy named Henry that he hadn't seen in decades. He used to play ball together when they were young adults and he hadn't seen him forever. He goes, "Henry, how you doing, buddy?" Henry goes, "I'm not good." He goes, "I'm in need of a kidney, James, "and I'm way down the list. "I don't know that I'm ever gonna get one." And James' immediate response was this, "Well, Henry, sign me up. "For compatible, you can have my kidney." I mean, James didn't go, "Hey, let me go talk to my wife "or let me pray for six weeks about it." James' immediate response to the Holy Spirit's prompting was yes. And they end up being compatible. (chuckles) And James went into the hospital on July 27th on his wedding anniversary and he gave his friend what he needed, a kidney. And here's what's better than that. Three weeks before that, July 3rd, James got the honor of baptizing Henry, his friend, into Christ. How powerful is that story, right?

Henry passed away a few years ago. Got way more than a kidney. Here's the point, James is a regular dude just like you. He's not on staff. He didn't go to Bible college. He has the formal training. But here's what James does. He just continues to say yes to Jesus over and over and over. Because James just believes that God has plans, good plans, that he's prepared for James beforehand that he should walk in. Safan, you want your life to count. Like, do you wanna make a difference in the world? Do you wanna advance God's kingdom? Do you wanna fill up heaven? And here it is. Give God your yes. Give him your yes. Step out into the places where God is leading you and just say yes. We've been saying this a lot around here. We're building a resilient church to reach one more. You've heard Nicholas say it. You've heard a lot of people probably say this. It's the Great Commission, which is Matthew 28. It's what we're called to do. This statement is not just something that we say, it's the mark of a movement that Jesus has called us to be a part of. And here's the deal with movements.

Everybody look at me for a second. Movements require movement. So not just talking about it, it's being about it. It requires action and prayer and resilience and mountains of faith. It's about us pouring out ourselves as we partner with God. I'll close with my story. Just to let you know how it got to this moment. I grew up in Louisville, did not grow up in church, grew up in a broken family. My mom was 14 when she had me. They both come from various dysfunctional toxic homes. And in seventh grade, I met this kid named Chris Johnstone. He was the first Christian that I'd ever known. And after the first week of seventh grade, he started inviting me to his church every week for the next three and a half years. And I would tell him no every week for three and a half years. And he had a friend named Kevin, Kevin Comp. Kevin Comp is Georgetown campus pastor at one of our campuses. And Kevin became my friend and he's praying for me. And he started inviting me to. And I told him no every week for three and a half years. Fast forward, five and a half years later as a junior in high school, I'd had enough of my own life. I couldn't fix my broken family. I couldn't fix my broken heart. I was broken. And I called out to Jesus.

And on a Wednesday night, I said yes to Jesus. And I was baptized. And when I came out of that water, all of my friends were there and my church family were there and they were going nuts. And so I step out of the room and I walk in with this baptism robe on, I'm soaking wet and I'm met by all these people by Chris Johnstone and Kevin Comp and Rodney James and Philip Marshall Miller who are celebrating me. And they tell me that they love me. They're so proud of me that they've been praying this for me. And then waiting for me where Rick and Linda Johnstone, Chris's parents, I mean, they were special people. I walked up to Rick and Rick gave me this incredible like dad hug that I needed. And after that, I looked at Linda and Linda's this beautiful woman who's not very tall and I walk up to her and she puts her hands on my face with tears running down her face and she said, "It's God, for five and a half years." Since ever since the moment that Chris met you in seventh grade, we've been praying this prayer for you every single day. That you would encounter Jesus and that you would surrender everything to Him. (breathes deeply) - The story wrecks me every time. I brought all my shame, all my brokenness, all my family junk, all my bitterness, all my anger, all my rebellion and I left it in that water.

I gave it to Jesus. Listen, I know where I'd be without Jesus. I know where this movie plays out. I know how it ends. But God, how did it happen? Because God had some plans for Chris and Kevin Comp and Rodney James and Phil and Marcia Miller and Rick Linda Johnstone that included me. I was a part of God's plan for their lives. The reason I'm staying on the stage is because some people said yes. And they just kept praying and kept inviting and kept pursuing and they kept loving me and they didn't quit on me. And here's what happened. Jesus made His appeal through them. Southland, it matters. Life and death, hanging the balance. We're a part of God's rescue story. I'm gonna close by just challenging you If you're in the room and you've never accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, here's the first question. Do you understand that grace is a free gift? If you can't earn it, like you can't just keep coming and doing good stuff and reading the Bible and give 'em. You can't earn it. His love is greater than anything, anything, anything that you've done. It's way better than a hundred bucks, it's a gift. And this morning, listen, if you've never accepted

Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you've never gone public with your faith and baptism, would you please? I'm pleading with you today. Come and talk with our prayer team. They're gonna be on the sides of the stage. They would be so honored to talk with you, answer any questions that you have, because today is the day of salvation. And you can have and experience your own but God moment because it's by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And then you can leave everything in that water over there. Jesus has invited you to come. For those of you who know the Lord, here's the second question for you. Is there anything that God's forgiven you of that you're still like holding on to? I know because I felt this way, maybe you're in the room and you go, yeah, I mean, I hear you. I have Phil, but I've got some stuff. Like you don't know what I've done. And you're right. I don't. But Jesus does. And he came knowing, came pursuing. He laid down his life and paid for it on the cross. You know, man, you don't have it clue how much pride I have. He paid for it. I got so much shame in regret. He paid for it.

I've been addicted for decades, man. Jesus paid for it. I'm so wrapped up in pornography in the every sexual sin of any kind. Jesus paid for it. I had an affair and I just torched my family. Like everything around me is destroyed. Look at me. He paid for it. I've had an abortion, multiple abortions. I paid for somebody to have an abortion. Jesus paid for it. Jesus def on the cross paid for all your sins. So is there anything that you need to lay down and surrender today? Here's the truth. We don't have to be marked by our own scars. We can be marked by his. Third question, who's kingdom are you building? Yours or gods? Like I know that you're here this morning, but when you leave here, it's like it all about you, your name, your dreams, your success, your pursuits, your stuff, your comfort. Or is it about his name, his glory, his plans, his kingdom? I've heard it said that we either play a really big role in a really small story. We play a really small role in the most eternal, redemptive story that's ever been told. Who's kingdom are you building?

Don't build the wrong kingdom. The last question is this. What's the good that God's prepared for you to do? Like are you aware of it? Do you see it all around you? Are you waking up to it? Are you available to him? Here's the question. Does God have your yes? Please begin to start giving God your yes. Let me pray. Father, thank you so much for today. Thank you for meeting us where we are. Thank you for the power of the gospel. Thank you for the fact that it's a gift, that there's nothing that we can do to earn it, that you died for all of our sins. It's not a sin that's bigger than your grace. And so today, Lord, I pray that you would have your way in our time as we move into this response time, Lord, I just pray that your Holy Spirit would move in a powerful way this morning. And Lord, that we would just respond, that we would begin in this moment to just say yes to you. So have your way in our time. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So as we wrap up, the question is, is what's God been saying to you? Like, how is He calling you to respond?

And we've created this space, this response time for three things. And if you would, I don't want you to open up your communion yet, okay? I know we kind of moved there. Three things, we're gonna praise, we're gonna partake, and we're gonna pray. And here's the praise part. We should defiantly worship Jesus because he's the hero in our story. He came to seek and say the loss. He came to rescue us. He left the comforts of the 99 to rescue the one. And because of that rescue mission, we are redeemed, we have hope. And so we should lift our voices, we should lift our hands, our hearts should overflow with gratitude because of who he is and who we are in him. And the communion, and just a second, we take this weekly sacrament around here that just reminds us, it puts our front and center of minds what we should always remember that his body was broken for us. And his blood was shed, the pain in the sin. It reminds us of who he is and what he's done and who we are because of him. And so in a moment, man, take it and eat it and worship and take it and celebrate and take it and remind yourself that you are loved by the Father.

This last piece has become one of my favorite parts of our services. We have these rugs all up front and all of our campuses that give this this tangible opportunity to respond, like to move, to lay down some stuff, to surrender some stuff, to bring some stuff to the Father. And I'm just going to challenge men today to go first. Maybe today, you just need to get on your face and thank God for your but God moment 'cause you know where you'd be but God. Maybe for you, you've been building the wrong kingdom and you're consumed with building yours and not his and you're invited to come up where we are and just repent of that and confess that stuff to him and pray for God to open up your eyes and to wake you up to the good works that he wants you to be about 'cause I promise you, you're made for more. Maybe you've been white-knuckling some like deep shame and regret like, and I don't have a clue what it might be, it could be a divorce or an abortion or some sexual sin or some addiction or maybe you just carried a wound. You've been caring since you were little. And Jesus is saying, hey, listen, come, bring it. Lay it down, open up your hands and give it to me. You see, breakthrough and freedom and healing come in these powerful moments of just surrender. So open up your hands because Jesus wants to break all those chains and he wants to take that stuff from you.

Maybe there's some of you in the room that just have a heavy heart and you come in every week because of your prodigal child that just wandered far from Jesus, please come and pray. Maybe you just need to come up and pray for your one more or your one more come up and pray. Maybe your marriage is in a tough place or your family's been going through something or maybe you've had some not so good news about your health, come up and pray. Middle school student, high school student, college student, young adult, it does not matter, come, come and pray. And listen, it doesn't matter where you are in the room. If you're in the middle of a row, I promise they will let you have an eye on it. If you're up top, we got times, so come on. Whatever it is, respond. God will meet you there. And listen, if you find yourself staying in your seat during this time, would you do one thing for me? Here it is, would you pray for all of those that are upfront? Pray for salvation, for surrender, for freedom, for healing, for breakthrough, for God to meet them on these carpets and move powerfully in their lives. So let's respond to him, let's give God our yes, and let's watch God move.