ReGen May 18th

Good evening, saints. Can you stand to your feet? Come on, we're going to declare some things about our God. He is good. Come on, can you put your hands together like this? We're going to sing a new song tonight. Sing it when you catch it. We're just going to sing about how good He is. Who He is to us. What He's done. Come on. What's bigger than you? What's stronger than you? It don't exist. It don't exist. What's more powerful or in control? It don't exist. It don't exist. Who else could rescue me? Supply all my needs. They don't exist. They don't exist. Who else can make me whole and save my soul? They don't exist. They don't exist. What's bigger than you? What's stronger than you? It don't exist. They don't exist. You are greater than anything.

Come on, that's all the chorus says. You're greater. You are greater than anything. Come on, sing it with us. You are greater than anything. You are greater than anything. Come on, let's sing the verse again. What's bigger than you? What's stronger than you? It don't exist. It don't exist. What's more powerful or in control? It don't exist. It don't exist. Who else could rescue me? Supply all my needs. They don't exist. They don't exist. Who else can make me whole and save my soul? They don't exist. Yeah. Because you are greater than anything. Come on, who's greater? There's nobody like him. You are greater than anything. Say, you know what's greater, Lord? You are greater than anything. I've got it figured. Come on. You are greater than anything.

My healer. Redeemer. Strong tower. My everything. Defender. Way maker. My savior. My everything. Say, my healer. Redeemer. My strong tower. My everything. My everything. Defender. Way maker. My savior. My everything. My healer. Redeemer. Strong tower. My everything. Defender. Way maker. My savior. My everything. My healer. Redeemer. Strong tower. You are my everything. Defender.

Way maker. My savior. You are my everything. You are my everything. You are my everything. My everything. You are greater than anything. You are greater than anything. You are greater than anything. You are greater than anything. Come on, let's declare it again, say, my healer. Say, my healer. Come on, declare it again, say, my healer. Say, you are. Come on, declare it, say, if he's your healer, say, my healer. Come on, declare it, say, if he's your healer, say, my healer. Redeemer. Strong tower. My everything. Redeemer. Way maker. My savior. Come on, let's give a praise. You are everything. You the God that makes ways. You the God that opens doors. All within glory. You are everything. Hey, come on, sing. Say, my healer.

My healer. My healer. My healer. Way maker. Way maker. Way maker. Way maker. Come on and praise him. He's worthy of our glory. He's the only God who can heal. He's the only God who can make a way. He's the only God who can mend a broken heart. Hey, hey, yeah. Come on, give God praise. He's worthy of all glory and honor. And then way maker, redeemer, my savior, my healer, have you experienced that in this room tonight? He's the rock on which we stand. There's nothing else to put your hope in than Jesus. Come on, lift the name we're praising tonight. Come on, lift your praise, dear. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame. But wholly trust in Jesus' name. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood, than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Oh, I wouldn't dare. I dare not trust the sweetest frame. But wholly trust in Jesus' name. In his name alone.

In Christ alone. The cornerstone. Weak made strong. In the savior's love. And through the storm. Oh, he is the Lord. The Lord of all. Oh, when darkness seeks to hide his face. I rest on his unchanging grace. And in every high and stormy gale. My anchor holds within the veil. Oh, we sing my anchor. My anchor holds within the veil. We praise in Christ alone. The cornerstone. The weak made strong. In the savior's love. And through the storm. Oh, he is the Lord. The Lord of all. Oh, he is. Oh, he is the Lord. We believe it. ♪ He's the Lord of all ♪ ♪ In Christ, Christ alone ♪ ♪ The cornerstone, the weak made strong ♪ ♪ In the Savior's love, through the storm ♪ ♪ He is Lord, the Lord of all ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Yeah, I rest, I rest, I rest, I rest ♪

♪ When he's shuckled with trumpet sound ♪ ♪ Oh, may I then in him be found ♪ ♪ Dressed in his righteousness of love ♪ ♪ To fall to stand before the throne ♪ Thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus. ♪ In Christ our Lord, the God of show ♪ ♪ We can make sure in my Savior's love ♪ ♪ And through the storm, he is the Lord ♪ ♪ He's the Lord of all ♪ We sing one more time, in Christ. ♪ In Christ our Lord, the God of show ♪ ♪ We can make sure in my Savior's love ♪ ♪ And through the storm, he is the Lord ♪ ♪ The Lord of all ♪ We sing through the storm. ♪ And through the storm, he is the Lord ♪ ♪ The Lord of all ♪ Sing it. ♪ Cause you are the Lord ♪ ♪ You're the Lord of my life ♪ And we put him in his rightful place. ♪ And you are the Lord ♪ ♪ You're the Lord of my life ♪ ♪ Jesus Christ, you are ♪ ♪ And you are the Lord ♪ ♪ You're the Lord of my life ♪ ♪ And you are the Lord ♪ ♪ You're the Lord of my life, oh Jesus, Jesus ♪ And that's how we sing. ♪ That you are the Lord ♪

♪ You're the Lord of my life ♪ ♪ You are, you are, you are the Lord ♪ ♪ You are the Lord ♪ ♪ You're the Lord of my life, oh Jesus Christ ♪ Jesus, we call you Lord of our lives in this room this evening. And we stand here believing that there is nothing else more worthy of putting our hope in than the name of Jesus. We've tasted and we've seen that you are good. And we call you Lord. And Lord, we stand here humble because we know we should call you Lord, but what a gift it is to get to experience you in all of your glory and all of your joy and your peace and the things that you offer us, Lord, that you didn't have to. For that, we say thank you. And we love you, Jesus. It's in your name I pray, amen. Would you give him a shout of praise tonight for who he is, what he's done? He's been so good. We're so glad you guys are here to worship with us this evening. You guys can go ahead and take a seat. ♪♪ Good evening, region. My name is Jeff. I have a new, yes, I have a new life in Christ. Past struggles, very embarrassing, shameful, being an executive pastor at a large church,

going through a divorce, controlled tendencies, sins of self-protection, and bouts with deep cynicism. So tonight, I'm going to try to talk about hope without depressing you. That's hard for me to do, but here we go. We're going through a series, and we're on Psalm 33 tonight. You can look it up on your phone, but I'm just going to look at one passage. But if you're here, I just want to say, I want to blessing how much region has expanded. So we're at Crossroads Independence Campus, Johnson County Campus. We are online. We're here at Lee's Summit and Tipton Correctional Facility. That's awesome. Actually, and I don't know if Jonathan mentioned this, we got so many watches on the app through the correctional facility that actually Watermark called and asked us what's going on. So anyway, that's exciting. It's good. So Psalm 33 is about hope, and the last verse talks about hope. But before I can talk about what I'm going to talk about this evening, I grew up on what I would call the Seinfeld generation. And no judgment. Hey, I get in trouble for this, man. He's coming to starlight. You got to go see him. So here's the deal. I would say it's the sarcasm generation. So we just grew up making fun of every other generation. Couldn't help it. And so I'm Gen X completely, latchkey kid. You know, created all the technology but didn't need a like for it. See, that was a shot. That was a shot.

Baby boomers caused all the problems, and millennials just wanted their participation trophy, and Gen Z just wanted to be online. So just shots everywhere all the time. The problem with that kind of generation, us making fun of stuff all the time, is we never really, I think, dealt with any problems. So I'm going to give a couple of cliches. I oversee a counseling center here. I teach at a university about counseling. So I'm going to give you these things that are empirically true, scientifically. And I think you're going to know them intuitively when I read them to you, but here we go. Women tend to self-disclose more in relationships and friendships. Duh. Women will be more naturally prone to self-disclose in relationships and friendships. That means, naturally, a ministry like Regen will have more women participating. So tonight, if you are graduating or here to celebrate somebody who's graduating, give yourselves a hand. That's awesome. Unbelievable, unbelievable, the amount of work, time, effort, diligence it takes to do that. Now, I've not looked at the numbers, and this could be the one time I'm wrong. Usually, do you think we have more men's groups or women's groups? Women's groups. If you go to the counseling center, I oversee a counseling center here. We expand to many campuses. Do you think more men or women come to counseling? Women. And this is when the Sen file jokes all come in where we do it, but here we go. So this next one is also true. Men tend to disclose less emotional vulnerability, especially in early or public contexts. That means the first night, so I'm going to be a little facetious here, a woman will

share her entire life story on her first night, and by the third week, maybe a guy will share his first name, but that's just, that's the way it is. The modern psychology caught on to this, if you don't know these names, it doesn't matter, but Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow reacted against the fact that men would not disclose, and there were psychological models that were early, and they would just reduce human beings to pathology, instincts, drives, environmental conditioning, things like that, and they said, there has to be more to it than that. And so here's the reality of what happens. The difference between men and women shrinks, here we go, in close, high-trust relationships. So all the science that I threw out, empirically that's true, but once you enter into close, high-trust relationships, and you get to that place, then men and women will share equally. So all the stereotypes go out the window. But men are not prone early to share as much. I had a friend named Stan, still a friend, but years ago, I don't see him as much, he was in the highway patrol, he was actually a sniper. And later when he knew I was into mental health and all that, he was always trying to get me to put together processes or programs or work with people that were in high-trust relationships. trauma fields, and I won't get into naming those fields to single anyone out, but you can guess what they were. Basically, in the fields he was in, if somebody killed somebody, you know, on the line of duty or something like that, they'd want them to talk about it, and they wouldn't want to talk about it. Very cliche for men, but he always said this, they would either talk to me, or they're gonna go talk to a bottle. And the reality is, we're not created as human beings to just suck it up and not be known. So I will get to something positive here in a second,

but I'll just throw out some statistics. I deal in a counseling center, I deal a lot with suicide. It's weird, you know, when they asked me to speak like at different ministries in the church, would you do the suicide talk? It's kind of a downer. But I'm familiar with it. So here's the reality, if I were to give you the decade and the gender of the person, most likely in the United States, by just numerics, not ratio, but by numerics, to commit suicide, what would they look like? Me. Not teenagers, not middle school. Not 20s, 30s, 40s. 50s. Men, four to one over women. Why my generation? Why do they look like me so much? It seems weird to me. So this is really a message for anyone who's here tonight, especially towards men. There's this passage in Psalm 33 and it says this, but before I read it, I just want to say this. I remember learning to make fun of everything. It was like sarcasm was, you know, it. I grew up, the first comedy that I grew up, I couldn't really watch it, but I remember I could watch it eventually that I loved was MASH, if you don't know what that is.

And MASH was joking, funny things, making fun of it, but it wasn't that biting sarcasm, right? And I'm not judging, I don't like all comedies, so I'm not telling you not to watch your, I'm not, I'm just telling you how things change. When it came to the Seinfeld generation, I never got into this show, but friends, and all the sarcasm, pretty soon you just made fun of everything. So I grew up, and this sounded kind of silly when I was a kid, you would do these little arts and crafts either in school or church, and you would like make a snowflake, and they would teach kids, you're like a snowflake, and that means you're special, and you're unique, and all these things to teach them, but my generation just made fun of that later, a lot. In fact, we still do. And I want to speak to the reality of what's true about that and what's not true about that, but to take it serious, and maybe encourage you this evening, so. In Psalm 33, it's this beautiful psalm about praising the Lord and God over all of creation, and the universe, and I'm not gonna read it for the sake of time, but it's really this very massive macro view of God, and he's dividing like, sons of men over here, and humanity over there, just these big groups of humans. And it says, in verse 13, the Lord looks from heaven, and he sees all the sons of men.

The Lord looks from heaven, and he sees all the sons of men. From the dwelling place, he looks, and it says, on all the inhabitants of the earth. But then there's this one verse, it's verse 15. It just kind of sticks out. He fashions their hearts individually. I'm gonna read that again. Psalm 33, 15, he fashions their hearts, all humans, individually. So there is something about the snowflake analogy that doesn't ring true. You're special like every other snowflake. I get it, all the other jokes. It's not about you're special, and you're neat, and you're different, but it is about this. Are you known? Are you known? And then, the Hebrew word says to create with intention like art, like pottery. So God fashioned your heart, and especially men get this, individually, with intentionality. Now what is your heart? It's your longings, your emotions, your will, your drive, the center of who you are. Why does something like region work? It's not that it's this unbelievable curriculum. It's not that it's this really succinct way to analyze a human being. It's not.

You have, within you, a desire to know people, and here's the key, to be known, individually. I'm working to put together a ministry center in the urban core of Kansas City. It's been something on my heart for a long time, working hard on it. I was down there the other day and we're having to fix things up, and there's a lady who's served for years down there with youth. She says, she's probably my age, and she's working with high school girls. She says, you know, they ask me really hard questions sometimes. She was just telling me that, and I could tell by the way she asked the question, there's some insecurity. Am I giving the right answers? I said, you know, years from now, they're not going to remember much of what you say. They'll remember you showed up. The guy who mentored me in prison ministry, years ago, when I was in my 20s, he did it for decades. His name was Ron Green. Discipleship, teaching, Bible studies, all that. He passed away, it was in the year. I never forgot, he told me, I was talking to him one time, he said, you know, met with a lot of prisoners, a lot of inmates over the years. At the end of it, they don't necessarily remember what I taught them. They just remembered I showed up. What's the need? The need is to be known as an individual, not part of some collective group, not some massive humanity, not part of the human race, not the homo sapien species, not people, individually. So the question tonight, and I hope you find this in region, is this, where are you known? Who knows you? All jokes aside, all sarcasm aside, who knows you hurt more than you admit? Who knows your shame more than you let on? Who knows you have more regrets than you share? Who knows you're discouraged more than you admit?

Who knows the real you? Region isn't about perfect people with perfect answers and a perfect system to make you into a perfect human. It works because it's a place where you can know and be known. I hope that's what you're finding. Robert Faust had this poem, I'll finish with this. We make ourselves a place apart, behind light words that tease and flout. That's all the words we say to hide who we are. But oh, the agitated heart, till someone finds us really out. It's pity if the case require, or so we say that in the end. We speak the literal to inspire the understanding of a friend. I hope tonight at region, men especially, find a friend and say some stuff. I'm going to welcome Matt Pace to be up here tonight to give his testimony. Thank you. Hi, my name is Matt. I have a new life in Christ. I'm recovering from pride, anger, and anxiety. First off, I'd like to give a shout out to my region leaders, Gary and Kurt. Thanks for not screwing it up. No, really, thanks for pouring your love and time into our group. And I want to thank all my brothers from another mother from our group. You know, some of you guys have become some lifelong friends and definitely lifelong prayer partners. But thanks for the group for being so genuine. I grew up in a Christian home, but unfortunately, for a large part of my childhood, I went to a very legalistic church. There were lots of rules for us to follow. Salvation was supposed to be by grace, but you better not miss his service, and you need to dress a certain way. If you got out of line, you're always taught about God's anger and judgment, not hardly

ever about his grace. And so being that I was a strong-willed child, I was given lots of healthy doses of God's wrath from my parents. which our church applauded and taught all the parents to do. If a parent's job is to symbolize a relationship with our heavenly father, my idea of God was fear and love that was manipulative and based on behavior and on an hour by hour basis. My father was told to break the will of his children. So when his punishments weren't working, he went to the pastor, he told him to spank more and harder because he wasn't doing it hard enough. And when physical pain wasn't working, they resorted to more of the mental side of discipline. We're made to stand by the wall for hours at a time, as much as eight hours plus, sometimes with our hands above our head and noses against the walls in a certain spot that he had spotted in the drywall. If your hands came down and your noses came off the wall, you'd get more time at it. The whole time you were told how he was doing God's will and how much they loved us. So unfortunately, when you try to break something or a child and you don't break it, you get something that wasn't intended results sometimes. You create a monster of sorts. So I grew up angry and bitter and hating religion. It also didn't help that I was bullied at a young age. I had an older brother that was abusive.

I thought about suicide as early as 12. I was so angry and hurt. And like they say, hurt people hurt people. I started hurting animals at a young age and shortly turned my anger towards people. I started stealing and vandalizing the neighborhood when I was around 11. I was involved with youth groups growing up, but I was there more for the girls and not a relationship with God. I played sports in high school, which gave me some purpose, but with my anger and mental instability, I couldn't hardly take any direction and I was a terrible loser. If any coaches yelled or ridiculed me in front of the team, I couldn't take it. So I quit sports mid-sophomore year and without sports and the direction it gave me, I quickly turned to the party scene and started hanging out with angry, broken people like me. I started binge drinking and having unhealthy relationships with girls. I moved out of my parents' house the second semester of my junior year. I was a self-dismissal at school, so I was free to come and go as I pleased and terrorized the school. But where I really got satisfaction was from violence. I continued to lift weights after sports, but it was only to help me with violence.

I would fight or assault multiple people on a weekly basis. People didn't understand my rage and learned to fear me and it became my identity. After graduation, I quit partying and started working 60 hours a week, competing in bodybuilding. So I quit drinking and going out, but I knew I needed direction, so I started going back to church when I was 20 or 21. Sometime around there, I met my first wife. We started going to church together and I got married when I was 22. I rededicated my life to God, but I still didn't have a real relationship with God. Was I a Christian? Yes, but if you don't walk daily with the Prince of Peace, the enemy is quick to pounce when you let your guard down. I was married for three or four years and my business had become very successful. I was in my 20s and I could run a lot of my business from a bass boat. Then I started getting too busy for God. I was supposed to be the godly leader of my house, but I let fishing and hunting and drinking get more time than God. I would go out with my friends and she would go out with hers. I thought we were living the dream. She obviously didn't think so because she ran off with a guy we used to go to school with.

And within six months of the divorce, I found out my accountant had stole $65,000 from me and had done my taxes in years. So after paying more than 300,000 in accountants, lawyers, and to the government, I started self-medicating because of my depression. My binge drinking soon became a daily routine and I soon became a full-fledged alcoholic for almost 16 years. I was drinking over a fifth a day, partying and fighting again, living like a hurricane. But thankfully, despite all my running from God and all the damage I allowed sin to do in my life, God still had a purpose for me. When I wasn't looking and didn't expect it, I met Leslie, the most amazing woman I've ever met. And honestly, the most amazing person I've ever known. She stuck with me through all my pain and hurt and alcoholism. I don't know how she did it. We've been married for over 16 years now and we started having children. I knew we needed to go to church. I wanted our kids to grow up in a Christian home. So we bounced around several churches but ended up at Abundant Life about eight years ago. But I couldn't fully have a real relationship with God until I gave up alcohol. I was convicted. I didn't want my kids to ever become alcoholics

because of me. And I also wanted to be involved with the church. I didn't ever want to be the guy who smells like booze in the morning when I was working there and cause someone else to stumble. I'm happy to say that November of this year, I'll be five years of sobriety. God has taken that addiction from me, I not only need it to function, I don't even crave it. I've learned to cast all my cares upon him because he cares for me, 1 Peter 5, 7. I've learned to give all my anger and hurt to the ultimate healer, Christ Jesus. I finally have a true relationship with God. Religion is not being a Christian. Being a Christian is having a relationship with our Heavenly Father. There were 99 other sheep following his lead, but I was that one who left the other sheep, even though I knew I shouldn't do it, and he chased after me and pulled me from the pit I had fallen into and had no way of getting out on my own. I'm still a despicable person. Romans 7, 18 says, for I know nothing good dwells in me that is in the flesh, for I have desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out, as Paul says in that verse. I don't do anything good on my own without the power of Christ. Philippians 4, 13 says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It's taken me a long time to allow God's grace and love to fully heal me. I used to let shame consume me and let pride tell me I wasn't good enough. In region, there's a paragraph that defines pride in a way I never thought of before in step five. Pride, you have not embraced grace. You do not fully accept the truth of your old nature. Nothing is good in you, God's holy nature or your new nature, ransomed by Christ, set apart for him.

You want to earn your way into God's grace. You want the final word on if you are acceptable. You want control. Before region, I always tried to white knuckle through life and self-medicate, but region has taught me to identify the sins of my life that I never really thought had so much control over me. So now when the pressure cooker of life heats up and things get tough, I don't go back to the same old trough of sin I used to. I'm truly learning to give up control, let loose of the pride and anger that used to hang on my back like a gorilla, and give it to the ultimate healer. To everyone who hears my testimony, if there's breath in your lungs, then you're never too far gone or messed up for the healing, redemptive power of Jesus. I'm Matt. My new life in Christ has just begun, and I can't wait to see what he's done for me next. Amen.