Waking Up to a Kingdom-First Mentality

We're going to have a beautiful morning today, just praising God for His faithfulness, His goodness. Come on, let's just continue to sing this morning. Come on. Look at the flowers and all of their beauty. I don't have to wonder, you know what you're doing. So why would I worry at all when you're faithful to supply? Look at the flowers and all of their beauty. So why would I worry at all when you're faithful to supply? Cause everything I need, everything I need, my Father has it, my Father has it. Cause every single time the Lord will provide, my Father has it, my Father has it. Yes He does, my Father has it. Look at the sparrow, lacking for nothing. No fear of tomorrow and what it will bring. You are enough, God. If I have you, I have enough. Cause your love will satisfy. Everything I need, everything I need, my Father has it, my Father has it. Every single time the Lord will provide, my Father has it, my Father has it. Seek first the kingdom and its treasures. Everything else, it will be added. All that I'm needing, I know the Lord will provide. Do you believe that today, church? I know my God's not empty handed. He gives us blessings upon blessings. I'm still believing. I know the Lord will provide. So seek first the kingdom and its treasures. Everything else, it will be added. All that I'm needing, I know the Lord will provide.

I know my God's not empty handed. He gives us blessings upon blessings. I'm still believing. I know the Lord will provide. Everything I need, everything I need, my Father has it, my Father has it. Every single time the Lord will provide, my Father has it, my Father has it. Everything I need, everything I need, my Father has it, my Father has it. Every single time the Lord will provide, my Father has it, my Father has it. Seek first the kingdom and its treasures. Everything else, it will be added. All that I'm needing, I know the Lord will provide. I know my God's not empty handed. He gives us blessings upon blessings. I'm still believing. I know you are. I know the Lord will provide. I know the Lord will provide. I know the Lord will provide. In Jesus name. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the 21st of April. I'm your host, Pastor Mike Schroeder. I'm excited to have you all in the room. I want to also welcome all of our campuses who are watching via video right now. Love all of you. Excited to see what God wants to do in your own heart together today. We are in the middle of 21 days of prayer, two weeks in, one week to go. And as you just heard Jennifer say, we are entering into a week of fasting. I hope you will join us in that. Fasting is abstaining from food with a spiritual goal in mind.

And our goal is to see people saved next Sunday. And so we would encourage you to bring people with you, invite people who you love, who don't know Christ yet, and believe with us that God's going to save people next Sunday. And we're going to have a great, great, great time together on that day. If you have questions about fasting, you can go to the website on the screen, crosschurch.com slash 21 days. And that gives you more information. If you would say, Nick, I can't fast from all food, maybe you can do a meal a day. Or if you can't do food, maybe try to figure out something else you can fast from with the same spiritual goal in mind of seeing people saved next Sunday. I began my fast yesterday, had one last final lunch at Chewy's, you know what I'm saying? And it was going to be seven days, so I went home and had a piece of pound cake as well. And then, you know, began after lunch. And so I hope you'll join us in that journey at whatever level you're going to jump in. Okay. Why don't you grab your Bible. Matthew chapter six is where we will be together. And let me, as you're turning, let me give you just a reminder, next week we begin our Highway 62 campus in Farmington. And it's going to be a significant day in the life of our church as we move from three to four campuses and really as we see all that God's about to do down there. Be praying for our team, for our volunteers as they are wrapping up final details. Even today, they are having two preview services, just almost like practice services at Farmington High School, where they are setting everything up and checking in kids and having, you know, kind of a mock worship service. And so I think it'd be kind of cool, like right here, all campuses for the very first time, can we welcome the Highway 62 people who are watching down there? Welcome. Glad to have you guys. Look forward to being down there with you next Sunday and believe in God.

He's going to do a great, great, great work together. We also had a little milestone as a church on Friday. We celebrated the 15-year anniversary of Cross Church Fayetteville, Fayetteville campus. Many of you were around at Pinnacle Hills back in that day or you were there at Fayetteville or one of the other campuses. And some of you helped pay for that so that there could be a campus. Others of you helped pray for that. Others of you went and launched that. And so incredible thing that God has done the last 15 years. We had no idea what God would do when we launched 15 years ago. Last Sunday, over 4,000 people worshiped at the Fayetteville campus. And so let's give God a big praise for all that He's doing. Incredible stuff. Let me do a little bit of housekeeping, like I'll do a short family meeting here at the beginning. If you're new, just listen in. But one of the questions I'm getting asked all the time right now is, is how is the move from three to four campuses going to affect the preaching and the preaching rotation? And so let me do my best to answer that question right now. The reality is, is we are trying to make decisions now that are the right decisions, not only for today, but also down the road. We don't see this as the last campus we're gonna plant. Not only the Lord knows, but we'll see. We have intentions to keep on planting campuses. And so if the Lord does that, then we need to be operating in a way right now that can also be reproducible. And right now, honestly, the way that we've been doing this is not a scalable model. We cannot reproduce what we're doing right now. And so myself, our staff, our teaching pastors have all been in a kind of a journey together of discussion.

What does this need to look like for the future, praying through this together. And so here's what we know, here's what we plan to do in the future. We're gonna continue to use a mixture of live preaching with people in the room, and we're also going to take advantage more so of technology than we have in the past of a Sunday like this where we're all linked up across campuses. We've done that for special Sundays the last several years. We do 21 days of prayer like that where we're all linked together right now. You say, well, Nick, what does this really mean? This means when you show up at church, it's either gonna be me or one of the other teaching pastors, or it's gonna be a Sunday where we're linked together and I'm on the screen teaching to you. Our teaching pastors are still gonna preach at all four campuses. In fact, the majority of them are preaching... as much or more this year than they did last year. The difference is, is you're gonna hear from me quite a bit more through the use of technology. As a senior pastor, one of my main duties is to try to guard the unity of the church. We have three large campuses. We're about to plant a fourth. Depending on what the Lord does there, we believe it's gonna grow. And so we've got a lot to put our arms around here and just to try to keep us headed in the same direction. And so it is my goal to use technology to help us do that, just to help us monitor our growing church. Okay, it's hard for me as your pastor to lead you and shepherd you if I'm not in front of you. That's what I would say. And so I wanna be in front of you.

We're a rapidly growing church. Just for context here, this past Sunday, January, what was that, the 11th? If you rewind last year to this year, this year we had 2,000 more people at church than we did one year ago today. And so praise God for that. But here's what you gotta understand. Every Sunday we'll have somewhere between 11 and 12,000 people who will be a part of our church, who are from all different backgrounds, varying levels of spiritual maturity. And so I believe, and our teaching team is very strongly in the same belief, that I just need to be in front of you in this season of the church. And so we're gonna utilize technology, utilize the teaching team like we always do, but that's a little bit on that, okay? There's part of me, to be honest with you, I don't even like this. Like at the campus, I can see your faces. I'd rather see faces. But it's physically impossible for me to do. And so we're just, we're making decisions with the mission in mind. Here's what I tell you. You've already embraced the biggest change. Do you realize that?

Every Sunday you show up at church, you have no idea who's preaching. You're laughing because you know it's true. And you find it quite annoying sometimes, all right? But you don't know if it's me, if it's Jeff, Ryan, or Mark. You don't know if it's Sunday where we're all broadcast together. And here's the main thing you need to know. This is my commitment to you as your pastor. Any cross-church campus that you walk into and you sit down to worship, we will be preaching to you the word of God. That's what you will hear. It's not about me. It's not about our teaching pastors at all. It is about the word of God. And here's what I'd say. You have the sermon journal. You know exactly where we're headed for the remainder of our church calendar year through the summer. And so you got the book. You know where we're headed. And here's what I'd say. The future, we're in a season of change here. The future will bring more change, I'm sure, even stuff we don't know about. But change is not the enemy. We need to realize that as a church.

Not reaching people, that's the enemy. Not reaching our mission, that's the enemy. And so here's my ask of you. Let's be unified together as a church. Let's not assume certain things, but let's just lean in together and go forward together and keep the mission of reaching people above, over, in any of our preferences, including even mine. So if you have more questions about that, what we did is this past week, I got on the podcast. We have a church podcast called The Rise Leadership Podcast. We'll throw this slide up here for you. I got on with Jeremy and with Phil, who normally lead that, and we talked in depth about the preaching decision. And so you can go tomorrow morning, you can listen to all the behind the scenes where we took a lot more time than I have today to download this, because we want to get to the word of God. We spent a long time having a conversation about it. You may find it helpful if you have questions. All right, everybody good? Let's move on, okay? Today I want to talk to you about waking up to a kingdom first mentality. Waking up to a kingdom first mentality. We are in a 21 day journey together through these four Sundays, where we are really talking about 21 days

to a spiritual awakening. In the background of the word of God, I'm also teaching you about the first great awakening that hit America, hit England, the 1700s, which was just a sweeping movement of the spirit of God on both of these countries. And each week I'm teaching you about somebody who was a part of the first great awakening. A man or a woman who was a part of how God used that season in our country. Part of the reason I'm doing this is to teach you our nation's history in a spiritual sense. The other part of why I'm doing this is just to show you like, God uses normal people like me and you. You don't have to be extraordinary. You just gotta be ordinary with a yes on the table. And that's what these men and women did during the first great awakening, and God used them in a great way. So I just, I turn it back to you and say, how does God want to move in your life these 21 days? What are the yeses he's asking you to put on the table for him? Now today, I want to speak to you about a guy. by the name of George Whitefield, but it comes with a catch, all right? George Whitefield is arguably, any scholar would tell you, one of the most influential,

if not the most influential preacher during the Great Awakening. But here's the catch. I'm gonna tell you about him next week, all right? Today, I wanna talk to you about the person behind George Whitefield. Her name, she was known as Lady Huntington. Her real name was Selina Hastings. You'll see a picture over there. Man, she's like happy. She's got the joy of the Lord in her heart right there. Let me tell you about Lady Huntington. She was married to an English lord and lived kind of in the high society circles of England during the 1700s. She was sprinkled as an infant in the Anglican church, and then later as an adult, heard the gospel and was radically saved. So how'd she get saved? She was saved through the influence of other people who were saved under the preaching of the Wesley brothers, talked about them last week, and George Whitefield. So she is like a spiritual grandchild, in a sense, of these great men of God who were preaching during that time. And her life was just radically changed, just radically saved by Jesus. Her life took a different turn when she was 39 years old, where she became a young widow

when her husband suddenly died from a stroke. She was left with four children. Her story is recounted in a fantastic book I read back in the fall. You see it on the screen here. It's called Gospel Patrons. It is a book about the people behind the people. It's an easy read. I would encourage everybody to read it. It's a book about three ordinary people who had a kingdom-first mentality, people who just used what God had given them for kingdom purposes. So I would recommend it to you wholeheartedly. Here's what this woman did. She had a passion for the kingdom of God. She had a passion for spreading the gospel, and she took some pretty drastic steps. So let me show you three. There's much more to say about her life, but these are three. She funded the ministry and evangelistic travel of George Whitefield. That's why I say she was the person behind the person. Secondly, in 1768, she founded Trevecca College as a seminary to train pastors. And then thirdly, she founded what was called the Countess of Huntington's Connection. Don't know why that's spelled with an X. Maybe it's a British thing, all right?

It was a network of pastors and chapels which spread the gospel across England and Wales. So you can see just from those quick three things here that this woman had a heart for the gospel going forth. In the book, the author writes about her partnership with Whitefield, and he says this. He says, the need for more chapels was everywhere. Whitefield worked to raise up more evangelical preachers, while Lady Huntington labored to provide them places to worship. Preaching venues sprang up across England's cities and towns. Often, Lady Huntington encouraged the local people to fund their own buildings, but then would add a generous contribution to help them get off the ground. This is wild. Within a few years, she was responsible for 116 preaching places and a seminary to train more preachers. Pretty amazing, is it not? Now, by a show of hands, how many of you have ever in your life heard of Lady Huntington? Every campus, raise your hand. I'm seeing like, I saw like one hand in here, in the room that I'm in. And so how is it that God used this woman in such a remarkable way, and yet 99% of us have no idea who she was? She was just content to be in the background, just content to use what God had given her

for his purpose. Radically changed after she got saved, and then came with a fork in the road when her husband died of, am I really gonna sell out to the Lord, or am I gonna sell out on the Lord? And she sold out to Christ, and she is an example of someone who is experiencing what we're talking about these 21 days. She experienced a spiritual awakening, and a personal revival, and it changed everything about her life. I want you to write this down if you're taking notes today. This is the main thought in the message today. Every true awakening reorients our hearts around the things of God. You ever seen that take place in your life? Every true awakening, every time God gets ahold of your heart, it always has a reorienting, shaping thing on our hearts around the things of God. Now here's what I'm gonna tell you. Every one of us in this room needs this. Here we are in a new year, and you're thinking to yourself, well, I need some resolutions. Like I wanna lose weight, I wanna work out more, I wanna eat better, I wanna read a book, I wanna do something, and I'm gonna make some resolutions. I don't think we need resolutions. We need a reorienting to the things of God in our life. That is much greater than any resolution you or I could have.

And this is the message of Matthew chapter six. Jesus is contrasting the. stories of this world with the life that is focused on the kingdom of God. So I want us to dive in every campus here. Look at verse 25 of Matthew chapter six, a very familiar passage of scripture. Here's what Jesus says. He says, therefore I tell you, do not be anxious. I want you to underline the word anxious every time you see it in the passage. Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet who feeds them? Your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Verse 30, but if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

If you've got your Bible or journal, circle the words little faith. He says, therefore, do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink? What shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after all these things. It's a great word. And your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. Jesus' point is this, you worry about all of these things in your life. Maybe you don't worry about what you're gonna wear. Maybe you don't worry about what you're gonna eat today for lunch. But you worry about the basics in your life. And his point is this, God takes care of two creatures that have never worried a day in their life. He mentions birds, he mentions flowers. Let me give you like an illustration. Everybody look up here. And I'm gonna look silly on your behalf. Okay, like I'm doing this for you. Anybody ever seen a panicked flower? I don't think you have, right? What would a panicked flower look like? Maybe it's like. Man, is it gonna rain today? Could really use some rain. Man, I don't know if the sun's coming out. It's been eight hours, I don't know. That was for you, okay?

Never seen a panicked flower? You ever seen a bird on a twig just pacing back and forth, just nervous? Haven't. God says these two things have never worried a day in their life, and God cares for them. And how much more valuable are you than they? You're not an animal, you're not a plant. You are infinitely more valuable. Now, every campus, listen up loud, okay? I'm gonna give you elementary Christianity 101, but man, it's sure good to hear the basics sometimes. God knows what you need. Isn't that good? So basic, but man, God knows what you need. I often teach it like this, God knows more about you than you know about yourself. He knows more about what you need than you realize what you need. So you just need to trust the Lord. You're not adding a single hour to your life by being anxious. And so could it be, and this is not even like the main thrust of the message here. Could it be that God is calling some of you to a spiritual reorientation in your life away from anxiety and worry to a deeper trust in the Lord? It's funny how we speak about the sin of worry. We just call it what it is.

If Jesus says, do not do this, is that a sin to do it? Yes or no? Yeah. So Jesus says, do not be anxious. So when you're anxious, it's disobedience to God, it's sin. But there's something about worry where we just kind of casually like cover over it and gloss over it. And we even joke about it like, man, I'm just a worrier. My grandma was a worrier. Her daughter was a worrier. I'm a worrier. I'm doing my best to pass it on to my kids now. They can be worriers. And we just kind of like gloss over it like it's not that big of a deal when Jesus himself is saying, do not be anxious. Like let's insert a different sin. Let's say adultery. My grandfather was an adulterer and my father was an adulterer and I'm an adulterer and I'm doing all that I can to teach my children to be adulterers. We would never say stuff like that. And yet this is like an acceptable sin in the church. I'm just worried. Some of you need a radical reorientation from an anti-Matthew six mindset in your life. You may say, well, Nick, you have no idea what I'm dealing with.

You have no idea what's on my plate right now. No idea what's happening to my family. And you're right, I don't. I will give you the benefit of the doubt right there. But I do speak as someone with some level of experience in this. somebody who has had a period of my life and season in my life of crippling anxiety, panic attacks, here's what I have found. The more that I have trusted in the Lord, the more that I have grown in my faith, the more that I have leaned into Jesus, the less anxious I have become. Now, my story's not your story, and I know there's a lot of factors and blah, blah, blah. Okay, we all know that. But for many of you today who are living in worry and anxiety, here's what I've learned. The more I've grown deeper in my faith, the more I've trusted the Lord, the more I've leaned into Jesus, the less anxious I have become. Jesus calls people who worry, he calls them, oh, people of little faith. You realize Jesus says that phrase a few different times, and here's a clicker for you. It's never good when he says it. He tells people who worry, he says, oh, you of little faith.

Now, I'm taking care of the flowers out in the front of the church. The birds that are flying all around, and you don't trust me to meet your needs. Jesus gets on the boat with the disciples, and they're freaking out during the storm, and he calms the wind. Remember what he says? He rebukes them and says, oh, you of little faith. Peter's walking on the water towards Jesus, and then he looks down, and he begins to sink in unbelief, and Jesus rescues him and says, oh, you of little faith. Every one of these examples and more is about a shallowness of faith. Like, real penetrating question today. Is your faith shallow today? Write this statement down. This is what God is doing in your life right now. Jesus is determined to move you from shallow faith to deep trust. He is determined to move you from where you're at to a deeper place with him. Now, was this not the message last Sunday, if you were here? That God will use anything in your life, including he will bring judgment into your life to bring you to where you need to be with him. He will allow things in your life to awaken you, to shake you, so that you will not be consumed

by the things of this world, but that you will be consumed with the kingdom of God. You remember what it was like before you realized how to swim, before you learned how to swim as a kid? And your mom or dad, they'd say, hey, do not go to the deep end of the pool. And even you're in swim lessons and you're in the shallow end of the pool, you're like on the side and you're learning to kick. And the teacher says, listen, we stay in the shallow end. Do not go to the deep end of the pool. It's like there were monsters in the deep end of the pool. You know what I'm saying? You didn't go to the deep end of the pool until you learned to swim. God is determined to move you from the shallow end of your faith to the deep end of the pool. And he will do whatever it takes to get you there. Some of you are at a shallow faith right now, if you're honest with me, and you would say, Nick, I'm afraid of the deep end. Like I understand the cost of what it takes to get there and to stay there. I understand what that requires me to say no to and yes to. And I don't know that I really want that. I'd rather stay in the shallow end of the pool. I just, I caution you, God's gonna take you. You can be drugged.

You ever get drugged in the pool? You don't stay above water. Like you're like, you know, I don't know what that was, but that was good. That was good sound effects right there. I didn't practice that at home. And you're like sucking wind under the water, right? Or you can cooperate with the Lord today and say, okay, Lord, I'm gonna move my arms and move my legs. I'm gonna cooperate with how you're moving in my life. Those who have found a profoundly deep and satisfying relationship with Christ are those who have radically reoriented their life around the kingdom of God. These are people who have jumped in the deep end and all that that is in their faith, and they are finding a profoundly satisfying life. You get to verse 33, which is the key verse in the entire passage. He says this, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Then what does he say? And all these things, everything else will be added to you. This is not a new verse to many of you. And in fact, for many of you, it's an old verse. By the way, they're all old verses if you didn't know that. But this is a famous verse. Famous verses are famous for a reason. Famous ones get famous because they're good. And this is a good one about the priority

of you living your life according to the kingdom of God. You say, well, Nick, what does it mean to live for the kingdom of God or to seek first? The kingdom of God, very quickly, I'm just gonna rattle these off. It means, it's speaking about a life lived under the rule of God. So I am gonna be a person who seeks first to be ruled by the Lord, is what it means to seek first the kingdom of God. Secondarily, it means that I'm gonna be a person who cares about what God cares about, and I'm gonna be a person who prioritizes getting the gospel to a lost world. I see things in kingdom lenses, lost and saved, heaven and hell. I live with those priorities. Now, remember, all this comes on the heels of Jesus telling the people, from verses 25 to 32, hey, don't be anxious about your life. Like, don't do that, but instead, seek the kingdom of God. So let me ask you a question. Is the verse 33 kind of life, is this a byproduct of a deep faith? Or is this the pathway to a deep faith? Like, in your mind, which one do you think it is? A byproduct, or do you think it's a pathway? Here's the answer. Yes, it's both. Like, the kind of life is a byproduct

of people who are in the deep end of the pool. They care about the things of God. And for those who are in the shallow end, but say, man, I want to be in the deep end of caring about and seeking first the kingdom of God. It is a pathway to a deep faith. That's what verse 33 is. It's not an either or, it's a both and. Probably nine or 10 years ago, I was leading a Bible study on Thursday mornings with a group of coaches, and one morning, I was preaching on this very, very verse. I brought in a jar. Some of you have seen me use this illustration before. I brought in a jar, and before I came in, I had put like maybe five or six golf balls in the jar. And then I had poured sand in the jar, and what you see is the sand just covered all the empty space around the golf balls. Then I told him, I can't remember if I brought a second jar or I just told him, I said, but on the flip side, like, if you don't put the golf balls in and you just fill the whole jar with the sand, you try to place the golf balls in, are they gonna fit, yes or no? Not gonna fit. Those golf balls represent a life that seeks first the kingdom of God. It seeks first the priorities of God in your life. And so here's the illustration.

If you will put the golf balls of the priorities of God in your life, you will seek first the kingdom of God, then the rest of the passage says this, everything else in your life will be added to you. God will fill in the gaps with every other step in your life, every need you have in your life. On the flip side, I wonder how many people here have a jar full of sand, like filled to the brim, and it's not the things of God, but it's the things of this world. And if you were, you know, you come to church today and you're like, man, that's right, I'm convicted. I know I need to change X, Y, Z, whatever it is. And so you get that golf ball and you're like, man, it just doesn't fit in my life right now. And you just go on and you never change. What some of you need to do today is not try to fit the things of God into what you're already doing. Some of you need to take the jar of your life, dump it all the way out, start fresh and say, Lord, what are the priorities of you that you want in the jar of my life? And I'm gonna put those in first, and then I'm gonna trust you, the end of verse 33, that all the sand of my life, all the things of my life will ultimately fall into place the way that you want them to fall into, okay? This is the point of verse 33. It's really the point of the entire passage.

If you'll take care of the things of God, like if you will seek first the kingdom of God, God says, I will take care of everything else in your life. Everything else. It's like a radical principle here in the Bible. So you may say, well, Nick, what are those things? I'm gonna close with this. I'm gonna ask you four kingdom first questions, okay? In other words, these are like four golf balls that you can put into the jar of your life, okay? Number one is this. I'm gonna go quickly through these. Is my family oriented around the things of God? Is my family oriented around the things of God? You say, well, what does that mean? Well, do we prioritize spiritual discussions as a family? Do we prioritize church? Do we, are we building our family on the teachings of the Bible? Do we make serving the Lord, His church, and other people a priority in our lives? Here's what I'd tell you. People don't wake up and become godly. It's all the people that you look at in your life and you're like, man, I could never be her. I could never be him. Maybe it's a mentor in your life or somebody in your family or whatever. And they're like, I could never be them. You could be them.

if you would do what they do. Part of the problem is sometimes we just don't wanna do what those people do over a long period of time, but if you did, then one day people would be saying that about you and they'd say, man, I wanna be like her one day. Godly people say yes to the right things and no to the wrong things. Second question, is my life oriented around the mission of God? Ask yourself this, do I care about lost people? Just let that sit for a second. Do I really care about lost people? Like when we as a church at all of our campuses are saying we're gonna enter into a week-long fast so that we could see lost people saved next Sunday, are you kinda like, yeah, it's good for the church to do? Or is it like, man, I wanna see people saved. I got lost people in my life I wanna see come to Christ. Do we really care about family members and friends and coworkers who are going to hell apart from a relationship with Jesus? There's a story in the book I referenced at the beginning where Lady Huntington was being criticized because she was building another chapel for the preaching of the gospel. And people were criticizing her saying, well, that money could have been better used by giving it to the poor. And she said, I do pity the poor

and I give to them when I can. She said, but I have devoted my fortune to Jesus. Listen to these powerful words. She says, many people who aren't even Christians feel for the physical needs of others and meet those needs. Here's the gut punch. But few, even among professing Christians have a proper concern for the awful condition of perishing souls. She's saying this, few people care about lost people. Like there are lost people who will feel for physical needs and they will meet physical needs alongside of us. It's our call too. But she says, man, few Christians even care about lost people even care about hell. Is my life oriented around that? Here's a third quick one. Is my schedule oriented around the priority of the kingdom of God in my life? Every one of our calendars tells us about our priorities. What does yours tell you about your commitment to the kingdom of God, to the things of God? Here's a fourth and final one. Is my money oriented around the things of God or around the things of this world? Is my money oriented around the things of God or the things of this world? This is a big one. People freak out about their money. I think you realize this, but every business in the world

has an opinion of how you should spend their money. Spend your money and make it their money. This is why you see ads everywhere. This is why we have billboards. This is why we have commercials. This is why everybody does marketing. Like everybody has an opinion of how you should spend your money. Every day you're bombarded with the opportunity to give towards things that are not bad. They're just not gospel. Like two weeks ago during the holidays, Meredith and I were laying in bed watching TV and this commercial came about how you could donate money to save rhinos in Africa. I'm not anti-rhino. I like rhinoceroses. Everybody with me? Anybody else like rhinoceroses? I think it's a worthy thing for them to be saved. But they're animals. I'm not gonna give to save rhinos in Africa. I'm gonna give generously to my church, as Meredith and I do, for the sake of seeing lost people won to faith in Christ. I want my life to count for eternity. Anybody else? I want my money to count for eternity. I want the blessing of God on your life, on your finances.

I want your life to count. And sometimes we just spend our money on frivolous, silly things that will pass away. So are you a tither? Like basic question. Are you a tither? For some of you, you say, well, yeah, I am. Have you moved beyond the elementary principle of tithing and you're living in a generous lifestyle towards the kingdom of God? The book describes Lady Huntington. It would take 50, 50, half of her income to pay for her seminary students' needs, their food, their travel to the unreached places of England and yet those were the men of God who were taking the gospel to places that needed it. Lady Huntington is just one story of somebody who got radically saved and then radically reoriented her life around the kingdom of God and its mission. You realize this is why we do 21 days of prayer every year? By the end of the year, here's all of us spiritually, including myself, like, ah, just kind of wandering around in the darkness and then 21 days of prayer, it's like, hey, let's get back to where we need to be. Let's reorient ourselves with the Lord back to where we need to be. So let me wrap up. Maybe you're here today and you've never trusted Christ.

In other words, you have never oriented your life around Jesus for the very first time. You hear about a God that knows you better than you know yourself, who takes care of your needs and knows what you need, and you think, man, that sounds good. He can be your father today. If you'll come to him, you can be saved. Maybe you're here today and you say, Nick, I know that I'm saved, but man, I'm burdened for somebody in my life to get saved. I've got a son or a daughter. I've got a friend that I work with. I've got a friend outside who doesn't even live here. Man, I'm just burdened over their condition of lostness. And man, I just wanna come to the altar today and just lay their name before the Lord. Why don't you come? Maybe today you're here and God is calling you to a deeper faith and trust. Maybe your story is like my story, crippling anxiety. And man, you're desperate for God to do a work in your life, but you've tried and it's beyond your own power and you need the power of God. I'm gonna ask you to come, to get on your face and just say, Lord, I'm trusting you. I'm trusting you with my life. Maybe you're here and if you're honest with yourself, you've been consumed with worldly things. Your jar is filled to the max, no room for God.

I'm gonna ask you to just come. Whatever campus you're at, I'm gonna ask you to get right with the Lord. Maybe you're here today and there's a bit of uncertainty. If you know some things need to shift in your life, they need to shift in the life of your family, but you're not exactly even sure how to get there, but you just wanna put your yes on the table of, Lord, I know this requires a lot. I don't even know really what it means, but I just wanna say, yes, I'm gonna ask you to come. And lastly, I'm just gonna ask, what would it look like if you gave God the next year of your life? What if you just said, Lord, 2026, I just wanted to be one of sold out obedience to Jesus. Lord, I wanna radically reorient my life around the kingdom of God. What if you said that to God? Like 2026, Lord, whenever the doors are open at church, I'm gonna be at church. I'm gonna do the extra stuff. I'm gonna get in a small group. I'm gonna find a place to use my spiritual gift in serving. I'm gonna go to stuff like cross church together. I'm gonna put myself under the word of God and its teachings as much as physically possible this year. What would it look like if you gave God one year of your life? You wanna know what it'd look like?

A radical reorientation. That's available to you. But man, you gotta want it. You gotta say yes to the Lord. And that's my push to you today, is just to say yes to God. Lord, I give you 2026. Every campus, if that's you, I'm just gonna ask you to come, just commit your life to the Lord. I want us to bow our head and close our eyes. At every campus, our staff is making their way. If you're here today, maybe you know you need Christ. I've talked about that, and you're like, man, that is so me. I'm gonna ask you to come as soon as we sing in just a moment at your campus to one of the men or women that's closest to you, just grab their hand and say, I need to give my life to Jesus. They'll lead you to faith in Christ in a very private moment right there. Maybe you're a Christian, like I said, and you fall into one of those categories I just mentioned. You wanna give God your 2026. You're burdened about somebody who's lost in your family. Man, you're burdened about the anxiety that you're living in, and man, you just wanna trust the Lord.

You need the power of God. I'm just gonna ask you to come. So Lord, as we wrap up our service at all of our campuses, God, we pray that these final moments of response to you would be just that, we would respond. We'd say yes to you, whatever that looks like. So Lord, would you move now in this place? It's in Christ's name that we pray, amen. At every campus, why don't we stand right now, and if you are here in the room, I'm gonna invite you, if you fall into any of those categories, this is the moment I was speaking about. I'm gonna ask you to come right now as we begin to sing. ♪ Worthy of every song we could ever sing ♪ But if God's speaking to you, this is the time, you come on. ♪ Worthy of all the praise we could ever bring ♪ ♪ Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe ♪ ♪ We live for you ♪ Come on, if God's speaking to your heart, you come on right now. If you need Christ, this is the time. ♪ Jesus, the name above every other name ♪ That's right, you come on. ♪ Jesus, the only one who could ever save ♪ Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe, we live for You. Oh, we live for You. Holy, there is no one like You.

There is none beside You. Open up my eyes in wonder and show me who You are and fill me with Your heart and lead me in Your love. Come on, it's not too late to come. If God's speaking, you come on right now. Holy, there is no one like You. There is none beside You. Open up my eyes in wonder and show me who You are and fill me with Your heart and lead me in Your love to those around me. And I will build my house upon Your throne. Come on, this is the passage right here. This is what we're gonna do. It is a firm foundation. And I will put my trust in You alone. And I will not be shaken. Come on, sing this out. Commit this to the Lord. I will build my life upon Your love. It is a firm foundation. And I will put my trust in You alone. And I will not be shaken. And I will build my life upon Your love. It is a firm foundation. And I will put my trust in You alone. And I will not be shaken.

Holy, there is no one like You. There is none beside You. Open up my eyes in wonder and show me who You are and fill me with Your heart and lead me in Your love to those around me. Holy, there is no one like You. There is none beside You. Open up my eyes in wonder and show me who You are and fill me with Your heart and lead me in Your love to those around me. So Lord, we thank You. Thank You for loving us. Thank You for caring about us. Thank You for the promise that, Lord, when we reorient our life around the things that matter to You most, that, Lord, You'll take care of all of our needs. And so, Lord, today we just come back to You. Lord, I pray for every person in this room as we thought about the things that we need to seek first. Lord, would You give us the courage today to not just know those things or recognize those things but to act on those things. So, God, we love You. Thank You for Jesus. Thank You for sending Him to die for us.

It's in His name we pray. Amen. Amen, church. As you came in today, you were handed this bookmark, and there's just some places on the back. We're praying and fasting for people to be saved this week. You can write your names right there. Keep it with you all week, and let's invite people to come be a part of what God's doing. We love you, church. Have a great Sunday. We'll see you next week.