Identity | One in Christ

Grateful. Grateful for Lauren and her courage to share her story. If you've been around here for a while, you just know we don't pretend around here. We just go right at it. We speak real truth and real ways to real people. If you're new around here, you're like, "Whoa, we're right into the deep end." Yeah, that's what we do. So if you got your Bibles, go ahead and go to Ephesians chapter two. We're gonna pick up in verse 11 as we continue our study through identity. We're gonna start right where my buddy Scott Hatfield stopped last week. Didn't he preach the pain off the walls last week, by the way? I mean, yeah, we had by the way 22 people get baptized in response last week across all of our services. Go ahead, it's a clapping kind of service. It's good, it's good. And we had, I don't know how many hundreds of people respond in prayer. It was just a powerful Sunday. This is why you should not skip church because you miss out. I'm just telling you. It was bookended by a really powerful night. We had the same event that happened twice, the previous Thursday, and then on Sunday night, called Fight by the Fire, here at the Nicholasville campus.

We're a bunch of men in our church who've been a part of something called Fight Club, all gathered, and we had a fight by a fire. That's what we did. But we contended and we fought in a different way. The way we fought was on our knees in prayer and repentance. We didn't beat our chests. There was no machismo. And so this should give those of you who are a part of this church, great comfort and safety to know that the men who are serving and leading within it are doing so from a posture of repentance and prayer. And because of that, God is doing powerful, powerful things in this place. So Fight by the Fire was an amazing, amazing evening on both days. And one of the things that we did there is we did something that was a common practice in the Old Testament. We raised an Ebenezer, okay? So we raised what's called a stone of help. That's what Ebenezer means. This was a monument in the Old Testament. Whenever God showed up and demonstrated his faithfulness to his people in a specific place, they would build a monument so that they would never forget. So that when kids are like walking by, they could look at their daddy and go, hey, what was that? All about, and he would go, that was about the time that God showed up for us.

And so we now have this Ebenezer, this stone of help here on this campus at the Nicholasville campus, where if you're ever doubting God's faithfulness, you can just go right out there by the pond and you can spend some time with the Father and be reminded that he is your ever present help in trouble. It was a beautiful, beautiful experience. Now, as we were preparing for fight by the fire, our staff men went out to that place. We had like, I don't know, 2,000 stones out there, something like that. We needed to set the foundation for that thing. And when we decided to set the foundation, we had to begin with something that you always begin with. This is so important, write this down. It's called the cornerstone, the cornerstone. And here's what a cornerstone does. It gives the decisive shape to the whole foundation and everything else that will be built upon it. And here's what you need to understand, there can be only one. There can be only one cornerstone. Now, some of you guys are geometry wizards, of which I am not, but some of you are like, well, there's a wall with four corners. There's four cornerstones, incorrect. You begin with one and it sets the decisive shape. Everything else is squared off of the original one and only corner stone. So keep that in mind as we dive in today

to Ephesians chapter two, verse 11. It begins by saying this, therefore, now here's the Bible college joke. Whenever you see a therefore, you should ask yourself, what's it there for? All right, that's very, very clever. I don't, well, I've remembered it, so I guess it works. Now, that's been light of everything that's been written prior to this. Those 10 verses that Scott Hatfield walked us through last week, therefore, here's the key word that's all throughout the scriptures. Remember that at one time you Gentiles. Already he's talking to one group of people, okay? You Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands. In other words, he's going, you Gentiles are referred to a certain way by another group of people known as Jewish people, two groups of people. Remember, again, remember that you were very important word, you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise. Watch this, having not some hope, not a little bit of hope, no hope, and without God in the world. This means that in light of everything that Scott taught last week,

in light of the fact that you and I, listen, we were not bad people and desperate need of becoming good people, we were not mistakeors in need of life coaching, we were in desperate need, we were so desperate, we were actually dead in need of resurrection. By grace through faith in Jesus Christ and him alone. And never forget that, remember that, because listen, if you forget who you were, this thing called pride will rise up in you. And if you're a Bible scholar, you know, Fall, a bunch of Bible scholars up in here. Pride goes before the fall, remember who you were, but listen, don't live in morbid introspection around who you once were, that's not enough. You also need to keep in mind something else, which is what the next verse teaches, but now, in Christ, this is what all of Ephesians is about, in Christ Jesus, you who once were, you weren't once were far off, you've been brought near by the blood of Christ. Don't just remember who you were, but remember who you are now. But now, sounds a lot like my two favorite words in the Bible, but God. Because of the blood of Christ and only because of the blood of Christ Jesus, his words, not mine, said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Exclusive claim of Jesus that only his blood draws us near to the Father.

Now, that is, listen, that is all about reconciliation, being brought to peace with our Creator. It's like the vertical horizon of the cross. It solves our sin problem with our Creator, but there's also a horizontal plane to the cross. There is reconciliation that happens with us on a relational level. And that's where Paul wants to take us next. He says, for he himself, talking about Jesus, is our peace. Have you ever noticed that our world is not at peace? Have you ever noticed that people have this weird tendency to live in conflict with one another? Have you ever noticed that you have this tendency to find yourself in conflict with people? And what this is saying is simply this, Jesus alone is our peace, him and only him. He's the cornerstone. And this is very important for us to understand because our culture is running a game on us, y'all. Our culture runs a play on us to try to get us to believe that there are other pathways to peace out there. Have you ever noticed that if you pursue peace apart from Jesus, you'll end up not only without Jesus, but without peace. But if you pursue Jesus, you'll get both him and you'll get peace, which means this. This has implications and ramifications. It means no government can bring the peace that Jesus brings. You cannot throw money at something and expect to get peace.

There is no educational initiative that brings the peace that only Jesus can bring and look right at me. No politician can bring you peace. This is important, you're all clappy right now, but it's gonna stop in a minute, I promise. 'Cause I'm in everybody's grill today. It's coming. (congregation laughing) Because of who Jesus is and what He's listened already done. Who has made us both talking to two groups of people. What's He done with those two groups of people? He's made them one. And He's broken down in His flesh, the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that He, Jesus, might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace. And might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And He came and He preached peace to those who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through Him, we both have access in one spirit to the Father. What's that mean? He's talking to two groups of people. Jews and Gentiles. In Ephesus, there were just two big buckets of people. There were Jewish people, and then there were non-Jewish people. And here's what happened with both groups of people.

Pride welled up, and they looked down their noses at the other group, and they believed they were superior to the other. Both groups did this to one another. And what Paul is preaching right here is because of the blood of Jesus, and only because of the blood of Jesus, those two groups in Christ are now one. And He made peace between these two groups of people who have racial hostility toward one another. There's no longer any distinction. There is no Jew. There is no Gentile. There is only those who are in Jesus because of Jesus and through Jesus, which means that when you and I, if we elevate anyone or anything above the name of Jesus to gain our identity from, we are by definition, betraying our Savior, and this certainly includes race. So let me tell you a story that still pains me to tell you. When I was in high school, Paul learned Stumbar High School right up the road from where I'm standing right now. A friend of mine who was black, invited a friend of mine who was white to go to our homecoming dance with him, and she said yes. And all was good until the rumor mill started. and some adults who have the audacity. had a problem with a white young lady going to a homecoming with a black young man. And I didn't have this language at the time

but that young man was one of my one more. Seems a close friend of mine. I was bringing him to church all the time. I was trying to introduce him to Jesus and word got to him that these self-professing Christians had a problem with that. And not far from where I'm standing right now, I vividly remember being seated on the curb beside him with my arm around him as tears were streaming down his face and wrath was arising up in me. You want to know what year that was? 1996. Some of you think that was a long time ago because it's got a 19 in the front but the rest of us. That was a moment ago. So if you think I don't know about the residue of racism that resides up in this place, I do. So I need to speak into this cultural moment that we've been in for it seems like for a long time. We live in extremes in our country. And I don't know if you've ever noticed this but the extremes of the left and the extremes of the right sometimes look an awful lot alike. And around here as it pertains to race, this is so true because on the extremes of both, they elevate race as the primary and sometimes only most important identifying factor in the person who's created

in the image of God and that's wrong. So here's what we have in our country. On one extreme, you have Marxist organizations which scheme and lie to boil everything down to power dynamics between two categories that they put everybody into. You're either the oppressed or you're the oppressed or. And there's this intersectional checklist that if you could get enough of those checks, you will be the most oppressed which will give you leverage to flip the script thereby moving from being the oppressed to becoming the oppressed or translation, it's a sin solution to a sin problem. And I'm here today to tell you, sin don't solve a sin problem. That's not the way it works. It's evil, it's wrong and it's demonic on the extreme on the right. You have racial supremacy rising up in a way that I would have never guessed in our country in this day and age. It schemes and it boils everything down to racial identity and quote unquote purity which is simultaneously one of the dumber ideas and more dangerous ideas that you will ever encounter. And by the way, it's not a new idea. It says my friend, Joby Martin, says same demons, different day. This has been around a long, long, long time.

And make no mistake, racial supremacy in any form is evil and wicked and from Satan and demonic. I just watched a clip this past week of a man who's a part of a heinous, dangerous cult telling a podcaster, some of y'all will know named Bryce Crawford, there was no way he could go to heaven because of the color of his skin. Y'all that's from Satan and the pit of hell. Here's part of the point. If you don't have Jesus, you will try to gain your identity from someone or something and whatever that thing is. Whatever fills that vacuum, whatever fills that void will become a destructive force in your life. Man, you wanna be concerned about the color of someone's skin, be concerned about the color of our Savior's skin which was stained by his blood for you and me so that we could become one race, in Christ, with Christ and through Christ. So let me show you something that's way better to build your life on than your racial identity. Verse 19, so then you, follower of Jesus, he's talking to you, you're no longer strangers and aliens but your fellow citizens with the saints and your members, check it out, of the household of God. Do you know how beautiful that is? You have a place you belong with your creator. This is where we began this whole journey in Ephesians talking about how you've been adopted into the family of God which means that you have a place where you belong. Best definition of God's kingdom I've ever heard,

the kingdom of heaven that you hear all through Matthew, kingdom of God you hear through the other gospels, Jesus was refrained is simply this, God's people in God's place living under his rule and blessing. God's people in God's place living under his rule and blessing, that's who you are, you belong to him. I got two grown children, they don't live in our house anymore, but let me tell you what they don't have to do when they come over, knock, and they don't. They just come all up in the place. And then you know what else they don't do? They don't ask if they can get in the fridge. I kind of wish that they would 'cause they still cost me a lot of money but they don't have to, you know why? Because they belong Because I'm the Father and this is my place and this is my home and they're my kids. And I say they belong and I say this is the place that they can still reside under my protection and provision. This means that like in many parents you've you've done this. How many parents you have like the the find my friends app or whatever in the life 360 and all the things you can track your kids. I won't make you raise your hand because last service really I don't want to talk about that because then they'll want me to take it away. You've looked in the middle of the night and you've done this and you've seen where all your kids are. And there's been times where I've done that because I don't sleep ever. I've got up in the middle line. One where everybody is and I'm like somewhere on one side of the country and everybody else is on the other side of the country or sometimes even around the world. It's wild to look at like wow look at where all my children are. But they're not they don't stop being my kids because they're far apart from one another. Do you understand that you have siblings in Uganda and Argentina and Russia and North Korea and Australia and that you have brothers and sisters that are suffering in Nigeria right now the news won't talk

about it but they're being slaughtered by the hundreds. Why because they're Christians. And that should grieve us greatly because those are our brothers and sisters that are dying for their faith and it should also make us ask the question number one why are we not hearing about it. Number two how do they have the kind of resilient faith that would stand up in that level of persecution and that's what Paul talks about next. Verse 20 because they have the kind of faith that is built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets check this out. Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. They got the cornerstone correct and it has given decisive shape to everything that their life has been built upon in such a way that they would lay down their life and sacrifice it for their faith. When church buildings were being constructed in the old days they used to actually put in place a cornerstone. Building B right here on this campus has one of those. I walk past it every day and I always look at it and what verse is in there. Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone Ephesians 220. Jesus is the only one and only cornerstone of this church and always has been and the question that I have for you today we have to personalize this and get really really invasive is Jesus your cornerstone is my question and don't just flippantly say yes because your social media might say otherwise your bank account might betray your confession of faith is he really your cornerstone because listen just because you've gone to church 1.4 times per month on average doesn't mean that Jesus is your cornerstone just because you've been exposed to the things of Jesus doesn't mean that you have Jesus because according to the scriptures the most likely candidate to reject Jesus is religious people who've oriented their lives around the things of Jesus but they don't know Jesus. See we tend to think of like the atheist secular humanist who teaches on a college campus is the most likely candidate to be rejecting Jesus or the pagan on the far off country in a third world country who rejects Jesus but we forget about the religious folks who've been inoculated to Jesus they've had just enough exposure to him to be immune to him. See Peter whose name means rock by the way he harkened back to what David said in Psalm 118 when he said the stone that who rejected the builders the builders rejected has become the cornerstone the ones who should have recognized Jesus oh he's the one we've been waiting on he's the one we've been looking for he's the one that all the law all the prophets all of this has been built upon been pointing towards we now build our life upon him they went no no no no no he ain't it and he's harkening back to Isaiah behold I'm the one who is laid as a foundation stone

and Zion a stone check this out a tested stone a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation the reason so many of us weep when we sing that song firm foundation is because you've tested Jesus and he's been faithful hadn't he it hadn't been easy it's been brutal it's been hard it's been grueling it's been excruciating literally but he's been faithful and he's been tested and he showed up and it actually has revealed that the words of Jesus and the Sermon on the mount were at the berry and he said listen there's really only two groups of people there's wise and there's foolish Why is people build their lives on me and foolish people build their lives on me? like a foolish man who built his house on sand, the rain fell, the floods came, the wind blew, and beat against that house, and it fell. And great was the fall of it. So let me ask it this way, what are you building your life on? Who or what are you building your life on? Maybe you're building your life on good things. You may be building your life on your marriage, on your family, on your work. Those are all good things. The problem is when a good thing becomes an ultimate thing, it becomes a what? Destructive thing. And you're like, Scott, why do you say that almost every sermon? Because it's the temptation of our heart to take created things and put them in place of the creator and to try to gain and get our identity from those things. This is true for me, just like it is for you. You know what's so tempting for me to gain my identity from this church, this church is a good thing. I coach young preachers all the time.

Do not gain your identity from your inbox on Monday morning. If everybody tells you how awesome you are, don't believe your press clippings. If everybody tells you how terrible you are and you should never preach again, don't listen to them either. You just keep Jesus as your true north. You obey him and leave the consequences to him. I can rattle it off. You know how hard it is to embrace real hard. Because this is a good thing. And it can so easily become an ultimate thing in my life and I can try to gain my identity from it. What are you trying to gain your identity from? Your marriage is a good thing. It's a gift from God, but it cannot be a God thing. Only Jesus is your cornerstone. Your kids, family is one of the foundational bedrock things of any community, but it's not the cornerstone. Your work, work is a great thing. It predated the fall. It's a mandate that we were all given to go work, but it cannot become an ultimate thing in your life or it will become a destructive thing. So listen, we have this just draw to make good things ultimate things. And they all end up destroying our lives. This is one of the dangers of what Connor Hall calls country music Christianity. You know what he's talking about? If you notice like in our country right now,

if you listen to country music, it's super popular to sing about Jesus and cold beer, deer stands, American flag, family, a little bit of chicken fried, all the things. And what's that do? It paints a picture that like Jesus is a part of this bigger algorithm. He didn't come to take part to quote the great theologian, Connor McGregor, he came to take over. And he's not gonna share you or the throne of your heart with any of that country music stuff. That's who Jesus is. So don't make a good thing an ultimate thing, it can't hold up. But honestly, let's be honest about this. We're also very drawn and tempted to make flat out evil, sinful things ultimate things. We are. Well, let me tell you one of the worst funerals I ever had to do. I've had to do some brutal funerals over the last 30 years. This was years ago in Colorado, I got a call. Man had died tragically on a motorcycle. He was former military. They wanted me to do the funeral. I said, yes, grab my notebook and my Bible went to meet with the family, sat down and said, okay, tell me about him in crickets. Nobody had anything good to say about this man. Not his wife, not his kids, no one.

I started asking about the circumstances surrounding his death and come to find out he had been at a bar 2 a.m. the night before he got drunk and he picked up a woman who wasn't his wife. She's on the back of the motorcycle taking her, who knows where. He crashes the motorcycle, kills them both. And I got to do the funeral. And here's what I decided. I'm gonna say two sentences about this dude and then I'm gonna preach about Jesus for about 20 minutes. And so that's what I did. And then when I folded up my Bible and put my notes away and sat down on the front row, they played the little slideshow. You've been there, you know what I'm talking about. They played a slideshow of a man who was married, had kids, and in every single picture. It was just him and a motorcycle. That's it. That's what he treasured most. And the song by Luke Bryan, "Drink a Beer", played in the background. It was one of the saddest things I had ever seen on display. Make no mistake, greed, lust, pride are all top contenders for our hearts. In fact, the Bible frames it up in those simple categories when it says this. Do not love the world in the world. There just means like a system of thinking

and believing and acting. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father's not in him. For all that is in the world. Here comes our three categories. This is what you got if you wanna go with the world. the pride of life. It's not from the Father, but it's from the world. This is where all that leads, watch. And the world is passing away. Translation, it's dying. It's temporary. Along with all those desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. Living demons, different day, the enemy loves it when we embrace the desires of our eyes at the expense of Jesus as our ultimate treasure. The enemy loves it when we are enslaved to the desires of the flesh because he hates us and his intentions are always to kill and steal and destroy, and he loves to see us pridefully exalt ourselves and only and always focus on ourselves. Now listen to what I'm about to say very carefully. This is very important. This is why some of us are in love with therapy because we get to talk about us all the time. Now listen to what I'm saying. There is a very important place for Christ-centered Jesus exalted, Bible believing, good and godly counselors. We refer so many of you to so many of them, but make no mistake, not all counselors are Christ-exalting, good, godly, Bible believing, and some actually see you as an opportunity. And if you think you might be struck stuck in a cycle, just morbid introspection of just trapped and just always talking about yourself and all your stuff and you can't get out of who you once were to pursue who you are, I want you to do two things. Number one, I want you to read a book called Bad Therapy by Abigail Schreier and pay attention

to the incentive structure that has been created in our culture. And if you still think that's what you're stuck in, then come forward to our prayer team people and we will help assess where you are and what next steps you need to take. Because here's the truth, pride can masquerade in things that look very humble. The enemy loves to see us get fixated on certain things that sound really, really humble. Like here's one, the idea of self-forgiveness, not really in the Bible. And what's underneath of that is pride. Because who am I, if my sin is primarily against the one true holy God and it is, and he has forgiven me by and through the blood of Jesus, who am I to try to usurp his throne and to play judge over me or over anyone else, do you see the subtle way that pride can well up? So don't make sinful things, ultimate things. Team demons, different day. Let me also say this, and for the sake of levity, but also because this is just true, don't let dumb things become ultimate things. Have you ever noticed, like our hearts are kind of drawn towards some dumb things? Years ago, again, this is easy. I can look back at some things in Colorado and there's enough distance now. I can tell some of these stories. Years ago, it was probably like 2008, so I probably only had two babies at the time. I was taking them to the rec center in our neighborhood to go swimming. And as I approached the rec center and the field beside the rec center, there were all these grown people in medieval costumes with Nerf swords just beating the fire out of each other with these Nerf swords. And I was like, what's happening right here? I pulled up real slow and I just watched. I'm like, kids, look at this. You ever see anything like this? And they're shooting these little Nerf bows and arrows at each other's wearing each other out.

I've never seen anything like it in my whole life. And so it took the kids to the pool. Next day, I go to the office. I'm like, guys, you'll not believe what I saw. And they're like, you've never seen that before? I'm like, we didn't have that in Kentucky. We got it now, just so you know. They're like, yeah, that's called larping live action role playing. And I was like, well, this is the dumbest thing I've ever seen, man. Now listen, if that's your thing, it's all right. It's okay. Some things are not necessarily sinful things. They're just dumb, okay? But they become a sinful thing. Let me give you an example. Like, let's talk video games for a second and all the dudes are like, no, let's not, let's not. Yeah, let's talk video games for a second. I mean, put the pornographic ones over here, that's evil and wicked and demonic and put the hyper violent and all that stuff. You know what I'm talking about. Like Sonic the Hedgehog, pick something, you know, Mario, I don't know what they play. That's fine, man. You want to spend some time playing a video game? I got dumb things that I do, you think we're dumb. But listen, the second that video game takes away from your ability to be the father and the husband and the provider and the protector that the almighty God has called you to be, that dumb thing has become a sinful thing.

Can we agree on that one? Yeah, so put away dumb things. Now I'm about to go to a really sensitive area and you're like, haven't you been there for a while? Like no, I'm about to though. I'm going to talk about a dumb thing that can become a sinful thing. And some of you are going to be tempted to amen. And some of you are going to be tempted to applaud. Don't do either. Okay, just listen. There will come a part where you should amen, applaud and do all the things. I'll cue you and tell you when that is, just to keep you from embarrassing yourself, okay? So I'm here for you. I'm trying to help you, so get this right, all right? And listen carefully to what I'm saying. How about politics being a dumb thing? Now, thanks be to God. They're good, godly, Christ exalted, Christ exalting, Bible believing politicians out there and we should pray for more of them, okay? But you want to talk about live action role playing? Look no further than politics. You want to look for a clown show? Look no further than politics. You want to see wolves and sheep clothing? Look no further than politics. So let me just, again, address the cultural moment

'cause we're now stuck in the perpetual election season that ain't ever gonna go away and our phones are all blowing up and all the commercials and all the yard signs and all the things and let me just start at the top. And again, don't applaud amen, respond or say anything. President Donald Trump cannot and should not be your cornerstone. You cannot build your life upon him. He didn't die on a cross for you. He didn't rise from the dead for you. He's not a prophet, a priest or a king. He's the president and if you get your identity from him and try to build your life on him, your life will fall apart. And again, no clapping for what I'm about to say next. Hating President Donald Trump cannot and should not be your cornerstone. You cannot build your life on hating him or anyone else. In fact, you should be, according to the scriptures, praying for him because when your world falls apart and your marriage is no more and when your diagnosis comes through, your hatred of President Trump or anyone else will not serve you. This goes for everyone and everything downstream of politics. So here's what we should do as Christians. We should vote and Christians, you should vote. We should vote for people who pursue policies that do this. This is what the Bible teaches. Restrain evil, promote the good, honor and elevate the Bible as reality and our creator

as he intended us to live, but we must not idolize policy makers. That would be dumb. Don't build your life on dumb things. Don't build your life on sinful things. And don't build your life on good things. Here's who you should build your life on Jesus because listen to me, he's the only one who came for you. He's the only one who came on a rescue mission for you. He's the only one who laid down his life for you, whose body was butchered for you, whose blood was poured out to make payment for your sins, was tossed in a tomb, was thrown in a cold and empty grave. But then on the third day that stone was rolled away, he conquered sin, Satan and death and at his name, demons flee and at his name, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord because he's our cornerstone. That's the part. Y'all got it right, good job. That was the part. So let me just ask this, 'cause it's a good question. Okay, those are all the things not to build your life on. What's it really look like to build your life on Jesus? And I have good news today, this ain't rocket science. It's not complicated, it's clear and it's simple, but it's not easy. Number one, receive grace. Like Scott said last week, if you've not received from the open hand of Jesus, the amazing grace that he has for you,

if you don't know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you are his and he is yours, don't leave here today before you know that. So come forward when I'm done today and talk to somebody about it down here. And be baptized. Our baptistries are always open, but all day every day on Sunday, especially don't leave here. If you've never jumped in those waters, if you don't have your tears in that tub, like Lauren said, then you should be baptized today, in your best of everything that you have back to your local church, the body of Christ, what you can never do for yourself, you now bring everything you got. You usher your treasure and listen, then you get in a group and you grab this thing, it's called a Bible and you read it together. You study it together. You immerse yourself in the scriptures alongside of God's people because we desperately need each other. You get in a group and as a group, you know what you do then? You just go serve like crazy, man. Outside the church and inside the church, why? Because Jesus said the Son of Man talking about himself didn't come to be served, but to serve. And to give his life is a ransom for many. So you just serve like crazy and then you know what you do, you bring your one more. You look around and you go, "Who do I know that is near to me, but they're far from God and you bring them?" And listen, I don't know if you've ever thought about this or not. Sometimes like last week, when Scott Halffield was preaching, I wanted to get on stage and like interrupt at the end and go, "Anyone who has a one more in mind and they're there at the morning service should grab their one more and come to the evening service with them that evening." Don't wait till next Sunday. You don't know if you have next Sunday. You don't know if they have next Sunday. Bring them to that evening service. You bring your one more and then here's what you do. Just run that play against the enemy for the rest of your life on repeat. Like Will Stein going for two. It's effective. All right? Last week between fight by the fires, my family and I, we escaped for a couple days, went down to the gorge. We hiked some beautiful trails and we saw some beautiful sights and the color of the leaves change in and stood with our toes on. One of my sons did, made my wife nervous looking over the edge, taken in the beauty of God's creation, but man, when Sunday morning rolled around, my wife would tell you, I was so anxious. I just wanted to get back here to be with God's people in God's place, defiantly worshiping Him. Because this is the way Ephesians 2 wraps up. Don't miss it. In Him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Christ alone, the cornerstone, has not only given us a firm foundation to build our individual lives on, but He has built us together and we desperately need each other.

Just thank Him for it right now. Father, we come before you. We just need to respond to who you are and what you've done. Because Lord, you know, we've built our lives on so many things other than your son Jesus, and it's all been sinking sand. We have been foolish. But thank you for not turning away from us. Thank you for not being repulsed by us. But thank you for meeting us right in the middle of our mess and our sinful brokenness and doing for us what we can never do for ourselves. I pray for anyone across all of our campuses online television under the sound of my voice right now that doesn't know you. Father, I pray that they will not leave here today without having full assurance that they are yours and you are His with a brand new life that they can begin building upon that firm foundation of your son Jesus, our cornerstone. It's in His name, I pray. Amen. So as we respond, I want you to think about Jesus and Him being your cornerstone as you defiantly praise His name. And as you come forward to pray today, there's all I want you to be doing business with the Father about who and what has actually been your cornerstone. Maybe you don't know. Come hit your knees down front and just ask Him, "God, would you identify who or what has been the cornerstone of my life?" And then whatever that is, leave it down here. Don't get up from your prayer time until you can say, "You are my cornerstone." As we partake in communion today, let's remember that stone, that the broken body of Jesus, the blood that covered His skin, that stone was rolled away. And His resurrected body conquered sin, Satan, and death. And all of that, y'all, demands.