Taking Ground Fortifies the Church

As this week unfolded, I began to think there's never been a greater need for the Church of Jesus Christ in a culture than there is today, right now. Jesus Christ said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. It's the institution of the body of Christ that God uses more than any other institution and it's so important for us to understand that because if we really understand what the Bible and all the New Testament teaching is talking about regarding the church, then we'll understand what is it that should be going on in here and why should it be going on in here and how do I really know Jesus and how do I grow in Jesus and how can my life truly be the full measure of everything that God put me on the earth to do. And that's what I want to talk to you about today. Last week, if you've been a member of our church, we started a series called Taking Ground and we began to talk about how taking ground strengthens your faith. And this whole series was set up because we're getting ready to launch a three-year capital campaign of $35 million to help advance the cause of Christ. And I've had several people come to me this week saying, are you pivoting from your message? Are you going to change it? My answer is no, because I didn't talk about this budget being for buildings and new cool chairs. I talked about advancing the kingdom of Christ. And I'll tell you today, if we had three other campuses in Denver, they'd all be filled today too. God is doing something through his church that is ultra significant. And today I want to talk how taking ground fortifies the church. When we step forward in courage, God strengthens us for everything that he wants to do. And what's taking place in the church, or certainly what should be taking place in the church is always going to be and always has been contra to what is going on in our society. So it's important for us to understand if we're really going to know God and we're really going to grow in God and we're really going to be the fullness of everything God wants, then how do we get strengthened to do the mission that God wants us to do?

What does it look like for us to be the men and women and boys and girls that reflect the glory of Christ to our culture? We're only given time and space to serve the Lord. We only have a certain amount of days to be able to do that. And with that, we want to be able to give God our best. And when we give God our best, how is it that he strengthens us for his glory and for his purposes? So today as we talk about taking ground, we're going to talk about taking ground fortifies the church. Now we will be talking next week about generosity and we will on the 28th be collecting our cards, our pledge cards as a church. It's going to be a massive day of celebration. If you haven't picked up one of the taking ground booklets, I'd encourage you to do so on the way out. Follow along with the devotions. As I told you last week, just pray and ask the Lord, Lord, what would you have me do? It's that simple. We're going to have a massive celebration on the 28th as we do what God's called us to do. And then we will continue to take ground for the Lord Jesus Christ. But today I'm going to talk to you about why are we doing this? What's the benefit to me? What's the benefit to our church? What's the benefit to our culture? And what should I be focused on? And so today to do that, we're going to be in the book of 2 Timothy chapter one, 2 Timothy chapter one, verses six through 12. If you have a copy of the scriptures, you can follow along with me and I'll read it and then we'll unpack it together. But as this book is being written, this is the second time that we have Paul writing to his young protege, Timothy, and he's telling him, you have what it takes to do what God wants you to do.

He said, I'm very convinced about the faith that your grandmother and your mom had. And I'm also convinced lives in you. And so he begins to write him this encouraging letter, even though he's young, how to pastor the church he's pastoring in Ephesus. And here's what he says, starting in verse six. For this reason, I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but a power and love and discipline. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me, his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to the light through the gospel for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher. For this reason, I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and I'm convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day. And so as the Apostle Paul, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, writes to Timothy, he begins to tell them about what we need to do and how we need to be fortified in order to see the church of Jesus Christ unleashed in a powerful way. And the first thing he says is this, that we fortify when we stir up and deploy every believer's gifts. We fortify, we get stronger as a church when we stir up and deploy every believer's gift. He says, I'm convinced of your faith.

And he said, for this reason, I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. Paul imparted a gift to Timothy through the laying on of his hands. So it was a gift in Timothy. Let me just say this, every single born again believer has been gifted by the Holy Spirit for service. When the Holy Spirit saves you and regenerates you and marks you and indwells you and begins to fill you, he gives you with a certain measure of grace, with a certain type of gifting. And here's why he does it. He doesn't do it for you. He does it for the body of Christ. He does it because you're designed to serve other people in the body of Christ, so that they get built and strengthened and fortified, so that the cause of Christ can be advanced on the earth. Who's called to do that? Every single born again believer. Now you may ask, well, where am I gonna find these believers to pour myself into? Can I give you an answer? Your local church. You find a church that preaches the word, that prays, that honors the Lord, that's doing the things that are biblical, that evangelizes, that unites people to do one another's and sends people out on mission.

And when you find that place, you don't come in just to take, you come in that place to serve. Why? Because the Bible says it's by grace you've been saved through faith, it's not your own doing, it's a gift of God, so no one should boast. And then what does he say? For we collectively are what? His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that you'd walk in them. In other words, God didn't save you just to take you to heaven. God saved you to serve his church. God saved you to serve his body. The full measure of everything that God wants for you takes place in the local church first and foremost, and everything else springs from that. Now think about that for a second. If everybody's called, do we always have 100% of God's people serving? Now some people don't serve because they make excuses, and some people it's ego, and some people think they're exempt and all these different things, but if you don't have the whole body serving, you don't have the full measure of Christ. Imagine if you went to see the Broncos play today in Indianapolis and the only two guys that showed up

were Bo Nix and Pat Sertan. Nobody else came. Both these guys, potential all pros, and yet we have a quarterback and we have a defensive back and nobody else can play. They lose and they lose huge. Or say you go see an orchestra and only a fourth of the instruments are on the platform and there are no trumpets and there are no drums, and it would just be a different experience. The same thing happens in the church when all of God's people don't realize that they've been called to serve. So we're called to fan and to flame those gifts, encourage people because the Holy Spirit has gifted you, you should serve. And when we don't serve, people suffer. I remember about 20 years ago, I was up with a group of pastors in Northern Minnesota in Superior National Forest, which is north of Duluth. You can look on a map. We were just south of Canada, and we were staying at this place that only had one resort that had running water and all those things and heat, and then we stayed in cabins. And the cabins didn't have regular heat, but they had wood-burning stoves in them. To give you an idea, it was minus 31 degrees and it was in the winter.

And I remember saying, I'm not sleeping in that thing. And one of the pastors came in and I can't do Minnesotan accents very well, but he was like, oh yeah, sure, you betcha, this is so good. He's like, I'll help you get it started and stoke it and all this stuff. So he came in and started the fire in my fireplace and it began to generate a lot of heat in this small cabin. And then he's like, now, get under the wool blankets, you'll be fine. And I was until I woke up at two in the morning, totally stiff, frozen and angry. And I looked and the fire and the fire was out and I didn't quite know how to get all the right kerosene and set it up. So I decided to walk a half mile back to the lodge and I sat in a wooden chair from about two in the morning till about eight when they all walked in. And all these guys, all these pastors were walking in like, oh yeah, wasn't it a great night? Yeah, sure, yeah. Like, what are you doing here? So I'm like, I couldn't sleep, I froze to death. I'm like. My fireplace didn't work. Like, what do you mean? It worked when I started it. I'm like, yeah, but it went out. He's like, oh yeah, you gotta stoke it every hour,

you know, if you don't stoke it, it's gonna go out. I'm like, well, why didn't you tell me that last night? I was suffering because I wasn't told how to stoke it. Our world suffers because our world's view of Jesus is malnourished because his body does not serve one another to the full. This is my invitation to you from the word of God that if you are a born again believer, whether Brave Church is your home or there's some other church, find a church that honors the Lord Jesus Christ, be under the authority of the word of God, and then deploy your gifts to the full, no matter how difficult it is, for whose sake? For the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. Friends, I'm always stirred when I see people that have walked into a church that have said, I'm just gonna sit here, and then all of a sudden they're serving. And they begin to tell me how much they enjoy serving. They begin to tell me, when we came to Brave, I don't think I was gonna get involved, and now I'm doing this and this and this, and it's so life-giving to me. And it's because God is trying to move believers from sitting to serving, from comfort to contribution, and from spectators to soldiers. That's the prompting you're feeling, and that prompting is coming from the Lord. And every time I see that, it lights me up.

Just this week, in light of Charlie Kirk's death, I was talking to my youngest, my daughter, and we were talking about what it meant, and we were praying together, and she said, Daddy, and you gotta understand, my younger daughter, she has a gift. She can sing better than she can just sing. But the only place she really sings is in the back of my pickup truck, which I'm grateful for, but I've been telling her, you need to sing, you need to sing. You're so good at this. And she said, Daddy, I just want you to know, I know Charlie did everything he needed to do for Jesus, and I know God's gifted me this way. Can I just sing in the youth group so I can sing for Jesus in front of other people? And I was like, amen, let's do it, right? And here's the beauty of your service. God doesn't compare you to anybody else. Praise God. I mean, if God compared me to every preacher in the history of the church, I wouldn't even wanna go to heaven. Here's John Wesley, here's Charles Spurgeon, here's Martin Luther, here's, I'm like, that's okay, I don't even wanna be here. God doesn't hold us to other people's standards. God just says, I gifted you. Will you make a difference where you're at?

Some of the people that have made the biggest impact in your life were serving the Lord Jesus Christ in a small capacity at a time that your life got 100% of it and it changed you. I'm calling everybody that calls Brave Church their home to be part of our core, to be, because God's champions of real people serving. That's where we get the name. And God wants you to deploy your gift, to discover it. If you don't know how to discover it, we'll help you discover it. If you know how you're wired and how God made you, then you can serve in a variety of different ministries, but it's always probably gonna flesh out the same kind of way. And God needs you. God saved you, not just so you could get to heaven. God saved you so that you could build others up. And the more people in the body of Christ that give their lives to build others up, the stronger the body of Christ gets. And guess what? This is God's invitation to you today, saying, I saved you because I wanted you. I saved you because I can use you. I save you because there's a place in the church for you. And I'll tell you this, friends, we have a staff and we have people here that love you, that would want you to serve. I mean, just give some appreciation if you say,

hey, if there was somebody here today, I'd be so fired up if they decided to serve. If you go to Brave Church, I mean, wouldn't that be awesome? Can we applaud that? But I would say that just stirring up our gifts is not enough, just knowing that I can serve and just knowing where to serve is not enough, which I wanna give you a second point for how we fortify. We not only fortify when we stir up and deploy every believer's gifts, we fortify when we live in spirit given courage. Not just knowing your gift, but living in spirit given courage. Notice what he tells him, right after he tells him, you know what, I wanna fan into flame, I wanna kindle afresh the gift of God that was given to you by God when I laid my hands on you. Here's what he says, for God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power, of love, and of discipline. God did not give you a spirit of timidity. God did not give you a spirit of fear. God did not give you a spirit of cowardice. This is not a feeling, this is a spirit. The spirit of the age gives a spirit of timidity. Timidity means I know what I need to do, but I shrink back and I'm not going to do it. I'm scared to do the thing that God wants me to do. I wanna tell you that's. The Spirit, and it's not the Holy Spirit.

And it's not just a feeling. That is the Spirit of the age telling you, you don't have what it takes, and you can't do this, and don't even begin to think that, and you're not gonna get resourced enough, and nobody's gonna listen to you, so just shrink back. And we have too many people in the body of Christ that submit to that Spirit. That say, I don't wanna do that. What if I fail, or other people are better than me. I'm not really needed around here. When you do that, you're telling the Lord, I'm not listening to you anymore. God did not give you a spirit of timidity. God did not give you a spirit of fear. God did not give you a spirit of cowardice. What Spirit did God give you? He gave you power, love, and discipline. What's power? Power is God's supernatural capacity to do something through you that you couldn't do on your own. He didn't give you a spirit of fear. He's like, yeah, I know you can't do it. That's why I came to indwell you, because I'm gonna do it through you. I've given you my power. I've given you my Holy Spirit, right? What's love? He's given us love.

Can I just say this very clearly? Love is not a feeling. Love is not emotion. Love is choosing to sacrifice yourself for the good of others. That's love. Amen? But I don't feel like loving them. And God would say, so? Do you think God felt like loving you when you were still a sinner? Oh, this is so great to be put on a cross. I'm loving. That's not love. Love is not a feeling. Feelings come and go. Emotions come and go. When I hear couples, we don't love each other anymore. I'm like, well, then you're choosing not to, because love's a choice that you're gonna lay down your life for the good of someone else. That's what love looks like, and that's what God's given you, the ability to do that, preference others. And what? Discipline or a sound mind. What's that mean? It means that you can make good choices. It means you don't have to react in your flesh.

It means when somebody harms you, you don't need to harm them back. It means God's giving you the ability to respond appropriately in the way that you need to, in a way that honors the Lord. And so what he's saying here is the church gets stronger when we live in that spirit-given courage. Last week, we spoke on Joshua chapter one, three times in that chapter. What does God say? Have I not commanded you? Be what? Strong and courageous. I'm telling you, take steps forward, don't step back. Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. The church is offensive. The church is the one who's to step out into the family and out into the culture and out into our society to do the very things God's called us to do. And most of the time, we hear the spirit of the age saying, no, no, no, just stay in the church. Just stay in the church. Now, let me just talk about this really clearly. Politics is downstream from culture. So if you have a problem politically, it's because you have a problem in the culture. Now, if you have a problem in the culture, that's downstream from the family. So you got a massive problem in the family,

which is presenting a bad culture, which is making people make bad decisions in society. Now, if you have bad families, what do you got? You got sickness in the church where Christians aren't hearing the word of God, responding to the word of God, living out what they're doing. But if the church does what it does, families get built up, the culture changes, and decisions in our world look different. So when people tell me as a pastor, oh, don't get all political, just stop, number one. Number two, for me to say I don't care about what happens politically means I don't care what happens in our society. I'll just put my head in the sand and not care. I refuse to do that, refuse. Can I tell you why I refuse to do that? Because Jesus refused to do that. Because all the prophets refused to do that. Because his apostles refused to do that. I mean, I listen to people all the time say, oh, just tell us about Jesus. Just tell us about his death, burial, and resurrection. I will tell you about his death, burial, and resurrection. I do every single week. It's the single most important message I proclaim. But if you know Jesus, he didn't save you so you could hang out at church meetings. He saved you so you could be the fullness

of who you are in your family and in the culture so that the political situation and the decisions that are being made in our society are being shaped by the church. Amen? Now, some of you may say separation of church and state. Okay, fine. Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to the Danbury Baptists because they were concerned that the government was gonna get involved in church. And so he wrote a letter to them, assuring them the government will stay out of church. Separation of church and state. was never to keep the church out of government, it was always to keep the government out of the church. Amen? That's what it's for. To say that you do not care about what goes on politically is to say that you don't care about people. Because if Christians aren't making the decisions and God's not helping them make decisions in society, who's making them? Not God. So, what do we do? We teach Christians the word of God. We encourage Christians to let that word of God transform their families. We encourage Christians to let their families transform the culture so that when decisions are being made and the school board's doing this,

you have Christians sitting on the school board that's like, we're not doing that. We're not doing drag queen story hour in our school. Right, we're just not gonna do that. Now, I gotta say this, I gotta say this because there's so many people that have said this all week and I just wanna be clear on this. Well, we all gotta get along. Both sides are having a really hard time and we just gotta get along. Can I just be clear on this? From my viewpoint, you don't have to agree with me, but I see one side when they don't get their way, they burn down cities, they loot and riot and kill people. I see another group when they don't get their way, they're disappointed, their voices get louder and they have prayer vigils and go to church and ask the Lord to help them. Dude. I see one group of people that does not value life, whether it's in utero, when it comes out of the mother or at later stages, if they don't have the kind of value they think they need to have, then you can kill that. I see another group of people that says, no, God creates life, God's the giver of life, so life's valuable from the womb to the tomb. Now, what I'm not trying to say is that everybody over here's a Christian. You can be the most conservative Republican in all your values and bust hell wide open

if you don't know Jesus Christ. I believe that and I believe that everybody on this side, if they repent and trust Jesus, can be saved and saved to the full. But you can't get along with those that don't agree. You have to stand firm in what you believe. And by the way, this group hates God. They hate his word. I mean, you can't even get through Genesis chapter one without this group being upset. We don't even know how the world got started, it's evolution, it's this, and God's like, well, that's not how it happened. Let me tell you how it happened. I've been here since eternity and in the beginning, I, God, created the heavens and the earth. Let me tell you how I did it. I did it in six literal days, about 6,000 years ago. You don't believe that because your hearts are hard. And then let's travel forward a little bit just to upset them even more. I created human beings in my image, which means there's only one race, the human race. That's the only race I ever created. And oh, by the way, when I created humankind, I created two genders, male and female, and whatever you are in utero is what you are for the rest of your life, no matter what you do. Oh, and oh, by the way,

I'm the one who instituted marriage between a male and a female, a man and a woman till death do you part for pleasure, for procreation, and for all those things, and that's the family, and I love family. I mean, you start talking to this group over here and they're angry, why? They're not angry at you. They hate God, they hate God. Charlie Kirk was murdered this week and he was martyred this week. He was assassinated this week, not because he was political, because he loved Jesus and spoke the truth to people that were hostile to it. That's a fact. And what I've heard people say is, well, then I don't know if I wanna speak up, I don't wanna get hurt, I don't wanna. Friends, everybody that wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Suffering will be part of the norm. I'm sorry people have lied to you and said just pick your religion and make your life better. That's not why Jesus came. He came because he has a mission for you to live out. And it doesn't take a long time through the Bible to see this all over the place. I mean, the Old Testament, you see Daniel.

King Nebuchadnezzar said you can't pray to your God. You know what Daniel said? He said nothing to him. He just made sure he opened his window so that when he prayed to his God that Nebuchadnezzar could see him. And he got thrown in a den of lions. Or how about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? Said if you don't recant and worship my God, I'll throw you into the fiery furnace. And you know what they said. They said in Daniel three, oh, our God is able to deliver us, but even if he does not, we will not bow. Or how about Esther? Godly woman Esther in the Old Testament saved the entire nation of Israel. And she was faced with her life, not because of being in church, but because she had to stand before the king. And her courage didn't come from safety, but in trusting God's sovereignty. And Esther. Four, she says, if I perish, I perish. I'm doing the right thing. All the prophets went down the same way. Jesus said in Luke 11, your fathers killed the prophets. Why did they kill them? They killed them because they didn't keep the truth of God in the synagogue or the church.

They stepped it into their families, put it into the culture, and started telling the culture, this is how you need to live, and they didn't like it. John the Baptist was killed. He wasn't killed because he went to church. He was killed because he stood outside the king's house and said, what you're doing is unlawful. You can't take your brother's wife. God's gonna judge you. You mean you can talk to governors and politicians? Yes, because how else are they gonna hear the truth? When we melt down and all this stuff, well, God says there's two genders, male and female. Well, I want you to be kind to transgender people. Here's what I would say. I wanna be kind to everybody, but I wanna be loving enough to say, if you wanna change and alter the state that God put you in, there's trouble for you now and eternal trouble for you later, and I love you so much, and I believe that you're troubled, but God has a way out if you'll submit your life to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's loving, amen? And the reason you hear talking heads that can't figure out anything is because they're not submitted to this book. That's it, and everybody that you listen to needs the Lord Jesus Christ, but when we live in spirit-given courage,

everything begins to change. I mean, even Jesus said, as we read in the book of Acts not too long ago in Acts 1-8, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you'll be my witnesses in all Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. He didn't say you'll hang out in your little church clubs and just make sure you keep the church thing to the church because these people aren't, that's not the gospel. The gospel is if Jesus has really saved my life, I'm gonna allow him to transform me, I'm gonna allow him to transform my family, I'm gonna stand up in the culture and say what's right, and to the extent that I can sway public opinion, I'm gonna speak the truth, and I will not back down. If the church of Jesus Christ did that on a regular basis, not just Brave Church, but all churches, our culture would shift, our politics would shift, because people in this group, all they do is follow whatever their own desires are and what they think their constituents want. That's it. Friends, I'm telling you right now, I will not stop backing down, teaching you the truth, and here's why. I don't care what culture says, I don't care what our politics are, I don't care about any of that stuff, I do care about what God says,

and I will not malign the word of God to be comfortable. Amen? Just won't do it. So when we're gonna grow, when we're gonna get stronger, we're gonna deploy every believer's gifts, we're gonna stir up your gifts and say, let's use those. Let's build each other up, let's use what God's given me to help each other, and let's live in spirit, give, and courage. Can I say a word to the young people out here? I know some of you go to schools, I know some of you even go to Christian schools, and your Christian schools don't even know you go to church. Like, why are you so afraid to tell people about Jesus? Men, why are you so afraid to tell people about Jesus? I know some of you go to schools, I know some of you even go to Christian schools, men, why are you so afraid to tell people about Jesus at work? Ladies, why are you so afraid to tell all your friends about what you truly believe? Why are you afraid to talk to your neighbor? I mean, why? Because the spirit of this age says, be a coward. It's not a big deal. The spirit of God says, step forward with all courage and with all faith, and I will meet you right where you need to be, and I will use your life for my glory, amen?

And when we're doing those things, then we can do the third, which is we fortify when we boldly proclaim the gospel, when we boldly proclaim the gospel. So many churches get this wrong, and here's how you know they get it wrong. So many of you have been falsely taught that you're gonna go to heaven because you're a good person. I've yet to meet somebody who would tell me, oh, I know I was born a sinner, I know I'm going to hell, I'm just looking for the way out. Nobody talks like that. If you ask people why they're going to heaven, they will tell you in some way that their good outweighs their bad, or that they're religious, or they're philanthropic, or they're better than somebody else. I just need to tell you the gospel. Can I just read it to you and then share it with you? Because this gospel means good news, that's what it means, and this is good news. He says, therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. Don't be ashamed of the testimony of Jesus. Don't be ashamed. Ashamed means, oh, I don't wanna talk about it, oh, I wanna hide in it, I'm not gonna let anybody know about that. He says, don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord

or of me, his prisoner. What was he saying? The apostle Paul said, I've been changed by the Lord, I know his grace, he's changing me, he's changing all of my influence, I'm changing the culture around me, and I'm so involved politically that they're throwing me in jail, and they may kill me. So don't be ashamed of Jesus, and don't be ashamed of me. Hey, by the way, it's probably worth saying, Jesus didn't get killed because he preached in church. Jesus got killed because he took what he believed to the family and to the culture and to the politicians of the day who hated him. Why? Because they hate God. I mean, think about it for a second. The perfect God-man, there's nothing wrong with him. God himself walked on this planet and everybody hated him. Why do you think it should be any different with you? I mean, if you're gonna live for Jesus, why would you expect anything different? So boldly share the gospel. Don't be ashamed of the gospel. Romans 1 16, Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's a power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. And here's why you shouldn't be ashamed of the gospel. I mean, just hear the words of Jesus. I'll just let him talk on his own. For whoever is, this is Mark 8 38, by the way,

for whoever is ashamed of me and my words. In other words, if you're ashamed of Jesus and his words in this adulterous and sinful generation, then here's what you can expect. The son of man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels. Jesus said, if you're ashamed of me now, I'll be ashamed of you when I get here. Those are not my words. Those are the words of Jesus. So we stand and we boldly proclaim the gospel. You say, well, what's the gospel? Paul said, don't be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord or me as prisoner, but join me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God. If you're gonna take the gospel, if you're taking this serious and like, I totally believe in Jesus. I know he's the way, the truth, and the life. I know he died on the cross for my sins. I'm gonna live this thing out. And you move it into your family, it can get difficult. You start moving into the culture, it gets really difficult. You start moving beyond the culture and start shaping it through the decisions that are being made in the culture, people will definitely hate you. And Paul says, so don't worry about that. Just suffer when it happens. Suffering is a good part of being a Christian.

It's one of the reasons we gather on Sundays to remind ourselves why are we here and what are we doing? He says, according to the power of God, what's this power that God's done? Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, because you're not saved by works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was granted in Christ Jesus from when? From all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our savior, Jesus Christ, who did what? Who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Can I just tell you what the gospel is? Can I tell you what the good news is? Many people think the good news is this, that God is good, you're pretty awesome too, and if you wanna have a blessed life, you should pray a prayer to receive Jesus. And if you do, your life will become better. That is not the gospel. Here's the gospel. God is great, God is good, everything about him is perfect. He created you in his image, but you've been marred by sin. You were conceived in sin, you were born in sin, your whole life's been a testimony to sin, and God hates sin, and God is angry with sinners every day, and you're all born, as was I, as a child of wrath, which means because you've offended an eternal holy God, he will pour out his wrath on you for all eternity,

and there's nothing you can do about it. You can be as good as you want, and have perfect church attendance from now until the time you meet Jesus. You can give a billion dollars to the church, you can serve in every capacity, and it won't change the fact that you're under the wrath of God, why? Because God's holy and he's perfect. You say, well, I don't think I'm that bad. It's because you've never read the Bible. I mean, God gave us just 10 commandments in the Old Testament, you broke every single one. First one is you shall have no other gods before me, which means from the time that you've taken your first breath, God and only God have been first and foremost at every season, every time, every thought, every day of your life. We've all broken that one. Honor your father and mother. Don't lie, don't cheat, don't murder. Whoa, whoa, whoa, I didn't murder anybody. Yeah, but Jesus came around and said, you've heard it say don't murder, but I tell you, if you think your brother's an idiot, you're murdering your heart. Okay, guilty, I got a sibling. Do not commit adultery. Okay, I didn't do that one.

Jesus said, yeah, but if you look lustfully upon someone that's not your spouse, you've committed adultery in your heart. Okay, guilty if I've hit puberty. I mean, you've broken every one, and even if you don't think you have, James says if you're guilty of just breaking one part of the law, you're guilty of breaking it all. And on judgment day, here's what you're judged for. Your sin, and you're bringing all your sin to Jesus, and if there's just one blemish, he's sending you to hell for all eternity because he can't be in the presence of that. But God, but God loved you so much, he sent his son Jesus Christ to the earth, the second person of the Trinity who had always existed, who put on flesh 2,000 years ago, who is the perfect. who was the perfect God-man, who will always be the perfect God-man, who came and did for you what you couldn't do. He was born of a virgin, so he was not conceived in sin. He lived the perfect life. He fulfilled all the requirements of the law. And then before he left this earth, what he did was he stepped in your place and took all the wrath of God on the cross. God poured out all his wrath on his son because he takes sin that seriously. And Jesus said, it is finished,

which means I paid it in full. And here's how he validated he was telling the truth. Because three days later, Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Nobody's ever done that. Yes. And when he rose from the dead, he began to offer life to anyone who would come to the recognition of, I know if I stand in front of God today in my sin, I will be sent to hell and I deserve that. But I don't want that. And I wanna tell you this, God doesn't want that for you either. The Bible says in Matthew 25, 46, that he created hell for the devil and his angels. He didn't create hell with you in mind. But if you die in your sin, that's exactly where you go. And if you're like, well, I think hell is better than heaven, then you've never read the Bible either. Because hell is a place of outer darkness. Hell is a place of isolation. Hell is a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. I mean, if you think you've had a bad day on this earth, that bad day will be the best day you've ever had in your entire eternity. Like there's no friendship in hell. There's no community in hell. There's no relationships in hell. All there is is angst, frustration, anger, and you wanting to fulfill every sinful desire you have

without being able to fulfill any of them forever. And God never wanted you to experience that. So he sent Jesus and he took his son and treated him for your sin. Jesus is like, I'll take all their sins. So Jesus took your sin and your sin and your sin. Anybody who would ever believe he took your sin on you and he died on a cross for all your sin, paid it in full. So if you're sitting here like, how do I do this? How do I get to heaven? I got an answer. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the father except through him. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Whether you're a man, whether you're a woman, whether you're a boy, whether you're a girl, regardless of the pigmentation in your skin, your ethnicity, the nation you were born in, there's only one way to be saved and it's through Jesus Christ. And the good news of the gospel is, you do nothing to earn it because you have nothing to bring. The only thing you can bring is your sin

and just place it at the cross and in exchange for your sin, God will give you his righteousness in Christ and you can have all of it. So it's amazing. God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that in him we might become the righteousness of God. God took your sin, put it on his son, punished his son in your place for all your sin and then took all of his righteousness and placed it on you and looks at you as though you've never ever sinned and you didn't do anything to earn it. That's the most blessed gift on the planet. And you can have that gift today. Not by anything you do, but by receiving his grace saying I don't want my sin and I wanna turn to you. And when you do that, God will save your life. That's the gospel. And when you know the gospel, you can't stop talking about the gospel. I mean, you remember in the early church, in Acts chapter four, when they were trying to shut up the disciples to say, you can't do this anymore, it's really bothering us, you keep talking about Jesus. In Acts 4.18, they said, and when they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. Who's doing that?

The government, politicians. You can't speak or teach in the name of Jesus. So how do they answer? Okay, well, if the government says so. That's not what they said. But Peter and John answered and said to them, whether it's right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge, for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard. What were they saying? We will not shut up. We will only get louder. You get to decide what you're gonna do to us. That's up to you, and that's between you and God. But we will continue to proclaim Jesus Christ and who he is in all of his fullness until we see him face to face, because we believe that's the only hope for the world. And if you die in your sin, you will go to hell. And you could say, well, I don't believe that. I can't wait to get out of here. I'm in the middle row over here, and I'd leave right now, but I can't get out, because there's no aisles. I got news for you. If that's you, the Holy Spirit will continue to tell you this truth until the day you die. He will convict you of sin and righteousness and judgment. That's what he does. I'm telling you the truth.

If you don't believe me, go back and read your Bible. Prove it wrong. You will hear God tell you this is the only way. This is the only truth. This is the only life. Come to me, he says, and be saved. And when we hear stories in the history of the church where this has happened, it gives us great strength, and it helps fortify our faith. You remember Martin Luther, the great reformer, who was a monk who was taught by the Catholic Church. He had to do so many things and do all this stuff, and he didn't have a relationship with God. Found Christ as he was reading the book of Romans, and realized it was a free gift, and trusted Jesus, and God saved and regenerated his soul, and he was never the same. begin to study the scriptures and teach the scriptures and show people where they were wrong in their understanding. And so he was called in by Emperor Charles V, who summoned Martin Luther to answer for his writings. It was called the Diet of Worms. It looks like the Diet of Worms, but it's pronounced a V, Diet of Worms. And a diet is this Latin word for day, and it was an imperial council where political and religious matters were debated and decided. And Luther was invited to come and recant his faith.

Like, just come and say, all these things you've been saying bad about Catholics, just be done with that and recant and you'll be okay. So when he got there, here's what he said, because God did not give him a spirit of timidity, but a power and love and sound mind. And he said, unless I am convinced by the testimony of scriptures or by clear reason, for I do not trust either in the Pope or in the councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves, I am bound by the scriptures. I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything since it's neither safe nor right to go against conscience. Here I stand, I can do no other. God help me, amen. And because of that, he was declared an outlaw and a heretic, but his bold stand fortified the church and sparked the Protestant Reformation. He was saying all this, not knowing if he was gonna lose his life. He was saying it courageously. And part of the reason we're here today is because of what he did then. In 1517.

I mean, this is the type of stuff that we have to realize. And God wants us as a church to take ground so we can boldly proclaim the gospel. Friends, we live here in the Denver area. A majority of people that you talk to on a regular basis are dead and dying and they are on their way to hell. And if that doesn't grieve your heart to know when you meet Jesus and he says, hey, I put you in this city, I put you in this place for such a time as this, how did you use your gifts to build up other believers and go out and advance the kingdom? You wanna be able to respond, I did everything I could for your glory. That's what God wants from us. Friends, when we boldly proclaim the gospel, can I say this? Courage begets courage. When you see someone that's courageous, there's something in you that says, well, I can do that too. I was praying this week about our capital campaign and all that God's doing. And I really felt the Lord ministering to me. And I wanna be careful when I say that. When I say that God spoke to me or did something, I'm not talking about an audible voice. I've never heard an audible voice. He doesn't speak to me in sentences. It's usually just impressions I get as I'm reading the word.

I just wanna be clear on that. But I was praying about a radio ministry and thinking about all the places we're in now because we're over the entire country on over 400 radio stations heard in every single state. And I was telling the Lord, Lord, I just wanna reach more people for Jesus. And when he was ministering to me, he was telling me that's not the biggest reason I want you to do that. I want you to do that because I want other pastors to hear you and hear how courageous you are so they can be that courageous in their churches too. And that's what we need. Because the beauty of the gospel is God doesn't need one person, he needs millions. And clearly, he doesn't need any of us, let's just be clear. But the church is stronger when everybody's participating. Amen? And that's what he wants from us. He wants us to boldly proclaim the gospel. Why? Because as I look around today at the 5,000 plus or 10,000 people that we have listening to this message or whatever it is, I mean, if every single one of us were committed to serving the Lord and being bold in our influence that we have, all of us have different spheres of influence and we can reach people nobody else can.

And God put you in your sphere of influence to be a witness to the Lord Jesus Christ, amen? So I would encourage you, if you haven't trusted Christ, trust him now. And if you trust Christ, be bold with the gospel. Yeah, but it might divide my family. Jesus said it would. It might make my workplace hard. Jesus said it would. People at school will think I'm weird. Jesus said they would. Like, what do you want? Like, it's a false gospel to think. I just want to trust Jesus and have a blessed life. My blessed life's coming. My blessed life's when I meet Jesus Christ face to face. It will not be the life that I'm looking for until I see him in a perfect world where there is no more sin, where he wipes every tear from our eye and we can glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, amen? But we fortify when we boldly proclaim the gospel. Let me give you a final one. We fortify and we get stronger when we entrust our life, our very life and mission to Christ. We get stronger when we trust and trust our life and mission to Christ. Notice what the Holy Spirit says through Paul to Timothy. He talks about this gospel and the light that comes from it.

Paul says, for which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle and a teacher. For this reason, because of God's calling on my life, I also suffer these things. I suffer these things. When you get to heaven and you meet people that live for Jesus, the one commonality we'll have other than the Lord Jesus Christ and his shed blood is, we all suffered in some way because of God's calling. the fact we live for him. I had no idea that was true when I went into ministry. No idea. I know it's true for everybody, whether you go into vocational ministry or not. You live on the front lines for Jesus, you're gonna suffer. The enemy hates what you do. And the closer you are to the front, the bigger target you have on your back. But God's greater than that, amen? He goes, for I know who I have believed, and I'm convinced, it means it's certain in my mind that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day. What was Paul saying? I know what I believe. I know I believe the gospel. I know I believe Jesus. I'm entrusting my very life

and everything he wants to do to him. I've given it to him. I mean, just think about this for a second. I mean, when you fly in an airplane, you entrust yourself to a couple of people that you've never met before to take you up in a tin can into the sky, 35,000 feet above the ground and land you safely in a different place. I mean, I've done that hundreds of times. Even as I think about it, I'm like, I don't know why I do that, but. You know, you'd think you'd wanna at least interview them or something first or have a conversation. No, we do that all the time. We entrust ourselves. Paul was saying, I know Jesus and I'm entrusting everything I have to him. Or think about a safe deposit box at the bank. You take your valuables, you put it in there because you're entrusting it to that lock. You're entrusting it to that vault. You're entrusting it to that bank because you know it's gonna be kept safe. Or you picture a child in the father's arms. They're not clinging to their dad because they're afraid they're gonna fall. They're clinging because they feel safe and they wanna feel comfort.

Read some stories about the men that stormed the beaches of Normandy and many of them were told to write letters to their family back home, knowing that many of them wouldn't survive. And so they entrusted those letters to their commanding officers that didn't make the trip so that if they didn't survive, the letters could be given to their family. Here's what God is saying. He's saying, if you really believe the gospel and you really believe in Jesus, then entrust your life and everything he's called you to do to him. It means this, go in 100% with Jesus. I mean, give him your all. Don't hang around and wonder, well, should I do this? Just go all in with you. Lord, you have my life. You hold my present. You hold my future. And Jesus said, hey, I'll never let anyone snatch you out of my hand. I got you. No matter what you're going through, I got you. No matter what you're dealing, I got you. Just trust me. Do you trust me? And guys, these are incremental things. It's not a one-time decision.

I'm still going through the sanctification process where I'm trusting him more and more with my life, trusting him more and more with the mission in my life. It's what he wants you to do. And so we say, take the next step of faith. What's the next step of faith? The next step of faith is what God's prompting you to do. And that next step of faith is always the hardest step you'll ever take. But that's what he'd have for you. He wants you to know him. He wants you to grow in him. And he wants you to serve him. And I just think, I mean, I love Brave Church. I just love you guys. I love Brave Church. I love what God is doing here. And I just wonder if more and more people were welcomed here to serve and use their gift, if more gifts were deployed, if more people fully entrusted their life and mission to Jesus Christ, what impact could we have on our city before the return of our glorious Savior? I want to have a massive impact. I want to have an impact that is so disproportional to what we thought God could ever do. I remember when this church started with about 12 people, and I look around now and I'm like, God, if you could multiply it like that again

and make us 50,000 people, I'd love it to the extent that we continue to be faithful to you. That's what I want. And I want to let you know, I know some of you are here today because maybe you've said, hey, I want to come to church, or in light of this week's events, I need to get back into church. We're so glad you're here. Can I just say that? We're just so glad you're here. And we love you. And we love you and care for you, but we want you to know Jesus. And I would be remiss today if I didn't ask you to respond to that. Because I know there's several of you here today, many of you here today that do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ, that today you realize, that's what I want. And instead of just saying, let's pray a silent prayer and let's bow our heads, I just don't think that's the boldness that we're talking about. Because I would say this, the Bible says, if just one sinner repents, he or she will be forgiven. And I think that's what we're talking about. If just one sinner repents, there's more rejoicing in heaven

than over 99 that don't need to. And there's somebody here today that needs to repent. There's probably several of you today that need to repent. I wanna give you an opportunity to do that. And in a minute, I'm just gonna ask you to stand and here's why, because if you won't stand for Jesus in here, you'll never stand for Jesus out there. It also gives a chance for us to see God at work and also gives us a chance to applaud your courage to stand. If you know today's your day, I'm not asking you, are you religious? I'm not asking you, have you prayed this prayer before? I'm not asking, oh man, my dad, I'm asking if today's the day that you know you wanna go all in with Jesus, would you stand to your feet so we can give praise to God for what you're doing? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Stay standing for just a second. If you saw somebody stand up, thank you for standing, thanks for your courage. Standing up does not make you a Christian, but it's God's work in your heart that does. But if you saw somebody stand, go tell them, hey, tell me about what happened today. Be an encourager to them. If you're new to the faith, you don't have to know all the things. All you have to know is that Jesus died and rose for you and you want him in your life. That's all you need to know. We'll talk to you about your next steps and what you can do. We'll walk you along. You can ask all the questions you want. You're safe here. It's a good place. If you did stand, tell somebody, hey, I was one of those that stood today. What do I do? And we'll help guide you and we'll help grow you. But what I'd love to do is just pray for us on both campuses, ask the Lord to move in power and then let's sing to the Lord. Would you stand with me? Our Father in heaven, we just thank you for the harvest we've seen today. Lord, for your gospel that still does what it always does. You still take those of us who are dead and you make us alive, not because we're good, but because you are. We praise you for those that you've chosen to save today. And if that's you today and you're like, I don't even know what I'm supposed to pray. You can pray just simply like this.

Lord save me. Lord save me. My desire is to turn from my sins and my desire is to trust you. And that's about all I know right now, but I want you. Father, would you help us be a church that believes that you save people today for mission and for purpose. And Lord, could we help each one of these men and women and boys and girls that stood to understand their gifting and their design and then to deploy it for your glory so that they can experience the greatest joy and give you the greatest glory in their life. Lord, we love you and praise you and bless you for who you are and for all you're doing. We give you all the glory and all the honor and all the praise as we continue taking ground for you. Lord, be with us. Help us continue to honor you in all that we do. We give you all the praise in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Can we give God some praise?