Your Life: By Jesus for Jesus

Hey, Pando, good to see each and every one of you. Can't wait to meet you in person one day, whether it's in this life or the one to come. I want you to know that we view you as our brothers and sisters in Christ. We talk about you all the time. We pray for you and can't wait for you to hear the word of God today. Not because of me, but because of what the Lord says in his word in Colossians chapter one, and what it means for you. That is Jesus, God the Son is over all, over the church and then specifically over you. And when you live in that reality of surrender, what he can do with your life. What he's done with mine, what he'll do with yours, what he'll do with anyone who calls upon him. So God bless you, we love you, see you soon. Hey, before we begin, I just want to invite you to bow your head and pray that God would speak to you today. Just like looked at my watch, I'm like, all right, February 22nd, 2026. I think we get in these routines, we come to church, go from church, go to lunch. But maybe today is the day that God does something powerful. Would you ask him? Lord God, we're here for one reason alone. To hear from you, to be made more into your image, to worship you.

Not out of dead routine. So spirit speak in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. All right, y'all, I want to tell you like pro tip, hack. This is the secret to the root of every marriage issue. So maybe you're like a student, one day you think you'll be married. Maybe you're dating, maybe you're engaged. Maybe you've been married 60 years. And you're like, what do you know? You've only been married 15. I know the secret. I just saw a wife like raise her eyes, like really, I'm listening. The secret to every marriage issue. You see, we look at the fruit of the issue. We look at like, oh, you know, it was because of Laura and I. It's like, oh, maybe money, maybe calendaring. Maybe the finances, maybe the bills are due. Maybe it's about parenting, shuttling kids around. Maybe it's about the tone, not the content, but the tone. Can I get an amen from the wives? It's like all these different things. That's just the surface level. That's the top of the iceberg. Let me tell you and lean in, what is beneath every single one of them. It is that one or both of you are living with a single mentality

when living in a married reality. You're living with a single mentality in a married reality. That's it. You're just thinking about yourself. You're like, well, this is what I want. I have my own time, my own money, my own calendar, my own desires, my own needs. This is what I thought I was gonna do with my part of my day, which is like, you've got agency, but you're not realizing like, oh, wait, I'm in this interdependent, one flesh relationship. And so you're not yours anymore. You don't just belong to yourself. You don't get to just call the shots. Scripture says you're one, and therefore you can't just like, my body can't be like, we're gonna go left and be like, no, we're going right. We're one now. And so we go collectively. That's the root of every single issue, having a single mentality when living in a married reality. The same can be said, even if you're like, well, I'm not married, what about for me? If you have roommates, it's the same thing. You're dependent upon one another to a lesser extent, but even still, it's this single mentality when living in a married reality. And I begin there because Scripture is really abundantly clear that if you trusted in Jesus,

it's the same for you and your life, now and forevermore. Scripture says that we are betrothed to God, that we are wed to him. We are in covenant with Jesus, that he is the bridegroom who is coming for us, the bride. In Jewish tradition and heritage, this is the wedding before the consummation, that in reality, we are legally covenantally wed to Christ, and yet we still live in the same way with a single mentality when in a married reality. We're married to Christ, we're wed to him, but yet we think just like in a marriage conflict, we're like, well, no, but I can do what I want. Like, you've saved me from hell. You've forgiven me of my sins, but I'm still gonna do everything that I want to do. I'm not gonna consult you. I'm not gonna say like, well, what would you have me do? What would you have me do with my money, with my time, with my dating, with my school, with my sports? I'm not gonna, like, you saved me from hell. That's your business, this business is mine, who I date, what I do, and it's not the case. There's two A words that I wanna give you. The first is agency. We have agency. That means that you have the ability to decide and you have responsibility. You have a volitional mind that can do the things you want to do.

That's agency. You had agency to wake up today, get dressed and come to church. You decided that. had agency to stay at home in your pajamas. No shame, see you next week. Some of you had agency, you're gonna choose what you do for lunch. But you don't have, we don't have autonomy, which the etymology of that is auto, which means self, and nomos, which means law. Self-law, self-governed. We don't anymore. The world would say, no, you have agency and autonomy. You're your own man. You don't answer to anybody else. You decide. It's not the case in Christianity. That would be to have a single mentality and a married reality. Instead, we have agency, but we do not have autonomy. We have what you might say is like theonomy, a God rule. Now we have come under the Spirit of God, the Word of God, with the people of God. Be like, no, I don't live for myself anymore. Rather, I live for God. And it's not burdensome. The world would say, if you give your life to God, you're gonna like, oh man, what a boring existence,

when the antithesis is true. What a wild existence to live with the creator of all and God the Son ruling your life, the full abundant life, unhindered from the entangling sin in these weights that carry us down, to have agency and then give God all of your direction for your life. It's what we're gonna see today as we continue in this letter to the Colossians. What we're going to see and what we're going to talk about today is that you were made by Jesus in all of your life then, and we just sing it, is for Jesus. Like all the chips and everything, full tilt, full send for Jesus. Like you get it all. I was made by you and I was made for you. And so I will live this life under the glory of God. I will no longer live with a single mentality in a married reality, but rather everything I have is all for you. You gave your life for me, I give my life to you. And as we do this more and more, not just a once and for all, but on a daily basis, everything will shift, everything. And it will be beautiful. JP last week started us off in this letter to the Colossians and he talked about how the Colossians believed that we were his. We do belong to Jesus, but he's just not enough.

And so they were adding in asceticism, which means to say like, well, we just need to like put off pleasures and enjoyment when God's the one who gave us richly everything to enjoy that we might glorify him. Well, we need to like add in some syncretistic practices like, yeah, this is okay, but we need to add in some tradition, maybe some like angel worship, maybe some myths, maybe some other heterodox theology. Let's infuse some things. It's like, no, Jesus is enough, Jesus is over all. And so today, as we continue, we'll be in Colossians 1, 15 through 23. And it is one of, if not the most Christological passages in all of scripture, where it just exalts Christ, akin to like, you can think of, if you wanna look down this rabbit hole sometime, it's like John chapter one, Colossians chapter one, Ephesians chapter one, Philippians chapter one, Hebrews one, Revelation one, all these like introductory chapters are just holding up Christ. It's the first word, the first chapter, all like Jesus. And this one with no exception, we're introduced to what theologians think was an early hymn because of the rhythm and the atypical words that Paul's using. They believe that this was actually a hymn that the church would sing that Paul recorded for us today.

We're gonna walk through it. And as we do, I wanna give you a little bit of a roadmap. So what you're gonna see is, the Lord is gonna start really wide, and then there's gonna be this narrowing. And so he's gonna start off, God, the Son. And I say that very intentionally. I'm not just saying Jesus or Christ or Lord, God, the Son. The Son is eternally God, God, the Son over all. Then this narrowing, God, the Son over the church. And then finally, and ultimately, individually, God, the Son over you. God, the Son over all, God, the Son over the church, and God, the Son over you. Let's begin. You'll see it on the screen if you don't have your Bible with you. He is the image of the invisible God. Jesus is the image, the icon of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created, listen, through him and for him. And he is the image of the invisible God. is before all things, and in him all things hold together. God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God. It begins by saying he's the image of the invisible God. Jesus said when he walked this earth, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father.

He said, before Abraham was, I am. And to that, they picked up stones to kill him. They knew exactly what he was saying, like, you're saying you're God. He was like, yes. He was God in flesh. It's the deity of Christ, of which no other false religion or cult would ever have the audacity to claim, but he's like, I am God, God the Son. The firstborn of all creation, from this, many heresies have come. This is called the Arian heresy. It's actually a Colossian heresy as well. They're like, well, there was a time when the Son was not. There was a time when the Son was not. They think that these heresies like Jehovah's Witness and Mormonism, the Arians, it was like that there was a time that God the Father made God the Son. God the Son has eternally existed, pre-incarnate as the second person of the Trinity. God the Son has always existed. He took on flesh to enter into our world to save us from sin, but that didn't mean that he was made, but rather simply God the Son took on flesh, full deity with full humanity. When it says firstborn of all creation, it says in Psalm 89 that David was the firstborn.

Well, he wasn't the firstborn. You don't have to read very far in the Old Testament to know like, no, he was the youngest. He wasn't the firstborn. Why would God the Spirit say in the Psalm, Psalm 89, that he is the firstborn? What it means is that he is preeminent. He is first in rank. He is the ruler over all. He is the highest in rank. He is the highest in rank. And he is the one that no one would cease to reign from the throne that God would give to David, like he is utmost, foremost, preeminence. And so in that, even David, the youngest, was the firstborn. Highest in rank is what it would mean. For by him, four times in this passage, all things were created. All things were created through him, for him, four times in this passage. God's like, all things, all things, all things, all things. Invisible, invisible, thrones, principalities, rulers, through him, for him, all for the glory of Jesus. And that he holds all things together. You know, I began by talking about how I oftentimes will create conflict in our marriage by having a single mentality in a married reality, thinking like, well, I can do what I wanna do. You know, I've got agency and autonomy.

I talk about Laura quite a bit. She enters into a lot of illustrations for good reasons. And you know, we've almost been here two years, and so I wanna tell you more about her. I fell in love with this girl when we were dating because of this. Her dirt dad's a businessman, oil and gas guy, entrepreneur in Dallas. And so he's got a lot of friends in high positions. And I observed that Laura would treat them in the same way that she would treat the homeless guy that we would meet outside of DTS, the seminary campus that I was attending. I was like, oh, she treats the homeless guy the same way she treats the CEO. She, in fact, she might give even more attention, more kindness to the homeless guy or to the waitstaff that could offer her nothing in return. And I'm just like observing this. I'm like, dude, she loves people. And if I'm gonna spend the rest of my life and a lifetime of ministry, like full tilt, all for God, I want somebody who's willing to do the same. And then I watched her walk through breast cancer and chronic OCD that she's had as a little girl and the perseverance in suffering, the steadfastness, not shaking her fist at God, but receiving suffering from God and being like, all right, you've entrusted this to me, then you're gonna get me through it

and I'm gonna glorify you in the process. The Scripture memory that has like come into this woman's life, she's got more Scripture memory like far away than me on lock where I'll be like, you know, there's this passage and she'll be like, yeah, yeah, 2 Chronicles 4. I'm like, who's quoting 2 Chronicles? What are you talking about? I've told you a lot about her, but I think what would actually help, because it's just, it's not enough to be like, oh, she's like this, and one time she did this and she's really, it's more just to be like, I think you just need to meet her. All right, so Laura, would you come out? Oh! Oh! Yeah! Oh! This is Laura. Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! This is Laura, and she said, quote, Oh!

Oh! Oh! John, I would rather swim with great white sharks Oh! Oh! Oh! than walk on stage. Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! This is not her jam. She's like, I will do it for the gospel and for you, but otherwise, like, why are you doing this? Anything you wanna say to the people? You want a mic? No, you know, we all have our different comfort zones. All right. Not mine. All right, well, there you go. That's it. That was her. Here she is. That's Laura. Why did I do that? Why? Like, just so you could meet my wife? Because that's what God the Father did with God the Son. We had, Romans 1 says, beheld the glory of God, his eternal power, his divine nature,

by all that was created. It says that we have a conscience, that we understand the law, even though the law was not given to us. People were like, oh, man, there is morality instead of non-morality, hardwired into us. He gave us the law and the prophets. There was all these things that God had given to us to say, this is who I am. And yet, here in Colossians, the image of the invisible God, God's like, I got something more. I want you to see me in the flesh. And so God the Father sends God the Son, Trinity at work together, and he steps into the stage of the world. And Jesus rightly says, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father, and allows us not just to hear about him, but to behold him, and to see how he would touch the lepers, and heal the blind, and cast out demons, and speak with an authority previously unheard of about the words of God, because he was the author of them. God the Son over all, and that all things, the most repeated part of the passage, spare Jesus alone. It's like Jesus, all things, Jesus, all things.

And so the application that I wanna give to you to consider is, does Jesus have rule over all things in your life? Or rather, I'd say, what are the areas in your life that he doesn't have rule over? Remember, this is God the Son over all. That's the repeat, is all things. And so is it your health, your finances, your dating life, how you treat your girlfriends? And if you went and slept with her last night in her room, rather than saying goodnight, you said good morning. Or perhaps how you treat others who can't do anything for you. How you use your time, the doom scrolling, whatever it is, but what is the area of life that the Spirit calls to mind right now? It's like, I've given you my eternity, I haven't given you my daily, and you deserve this. I need to surrender to you anew, all things by you and all things for you. And it's not just a mental exercise nor a rhetorical question like, what is the thing in your life? You're like, I need to give this to him. I need to give this to the Lord because he's given everything for me. God the Son over all things. You know, JP, our lead pastor, elder, he's gonna have an MRI today on his back

for the transverse myelitis, and so pray with him that in all things, suffering, affliction, healing, whatever God would give, that in all things he would be glorified. Ashton and Andrea Giovannetti, one of our staff members and his wife here, she has stage four Hodgkin's lymphoma, that in all things, I said health, that in all things they'd be like, all right, for you, my suffering, for the glory of God. And whether you bring about healing temporarily or eternally, all things, that nothing would be withheld from him, God the Son over all. Let's continue in verse 18. And he, Jesus, is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. That in everything he might be preeminent. For in him, Jesus, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. He is the head of the body, the church. He puts forward right here the ecclesia, the assembly, the calling of God's people. Though we are many in Christ, we now are one. We sit as thousands here at this church. There are billions gathered globally. And we are one because of Jesus,

adopted, washed by the blood, and dwelt by the Spirit. And Jesus is the head. He is the head. It says he is the beginning, the alpha, we are told in Revelation, not just the omega, and then the firstborn from the dead. What that means is the resurrection. He burst forth from the tomb, showing victory over sin, death, and Satan. And every other founder of every other religion is in the grave to this day. You can visit them on a tourist attraction and see where their bones lie. Only our founder can't be found. The firstborn from the dead. And what he shows us is what he did, he will do for you. That this is not the end, that whoever is trusted in him has crossed over from death to life, and surely you will never die. The body is so imperishable, it is raised imperishable, and therefore we do not have fear, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. There it is again, another deity statement of Christ God the Son. And through him, listen to this, through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven,

making peace by the bloodshed of a trust. Jesus is the creator. Like you read Genesis 1, in the beginnings were the heavens and the earth. God created, let us make mankind in our image. He's the creator. Well, God the Father ordained it. Here is the Trinity at work. God the Father ordained it, God the Son fashioned or created it, and then God the Spirit sustained it, gave it life, animated it. So God the Father ordained, God the Son created, God the Spirit sustains. And so this is as if God the Son creates, Genesis 1, God makes the heavens and the earth, Trinity at work. The Spirit's sustaining, and sin enters in. The serpent deceives Eve, Eve gives him to her husband, sin enters into the seat of man, and every man thereafter that would be born would be born into sin. Psalm 51, sinful from birth, sinful for conception. I didn't have to tell my kids to push or lie or cheat or hurt or hit, they're just natural born sinners, cute as they may be, every single one of them. And God the Son witnessing this, at the time determined right, Galatians chapter four, steps back into that reality, took on flesh to reconcile to himself all things

by making peace with his blood shed on the cross. The blood of God the Son to make peace between heaven and earth, which means there was not prior to Jesus. It's not enough that he would just come and show us this is the way to God, I'm the way, truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me, but rather to give his life, to shed his blood, for it says in Hebrews and throughout the Bible that life is found in the blood. And so he shed his blood for you, for this is the gospel good news of Jesus. He stepped into our mess and your mess individually, that he would ordain and adopt and wash a people for himself to be like, they're mine, they're mine, the head of the church. I want you to stand if you would right now. People like you serious? Some of you are a little slow to the take, now if you would raise your right hand, now raise your left hand, now stand on one foot. Now you can have a seat. Was that a game of Simon Says? Was it a game of John Says? I would say it was a game of your head said, your head said. You see some of you when I said stand up were like, I'm not standing up, you're a punk, and I don't have to do what you say to do. I'm not doing it just because you said,

maybe it's a trap or a trick. And so you sat there, others of you stood. Adam's like, yeah, I'll stand, I trust him. And then I said, raise a hand and you kind of did, everybody's getting along. Everything that was happening, everything, was not because of me, it was because of your head. You listened with your ears, it somehow sent a signal to your brain, you very quickly made a synapse decision of like, okay, I'm going to, okay, I'm going to, okay, I'm going to, okay, I'm going to, okay, I'm going to. Like that was all you, or maybe you sat and that was all you. And all the while, what was happening is you had a heartbeat and breathing. Nobody felt like, oh shoot, raise my right hand, don't stop breathing. don't stop breathing. It happens involuntarily because the medulla oblongata, it's the brainstem that's just controlling all things at all times. Right here, in the same way as our physical body, the scriptures say, that hurt really bad on my wrist. The scriptures say, Jesus holds all things together, that he's the head of the church, the head of the body. Meaning, just like we said, don't have a single mentality in a married reality. He's like, I'm the head. I call the shots. I have ordained your days. I've decided the time and place that you should live. I've given you the abilities, the passions, the desires, the giftings, the resources. I have placed you in that classroom, in that neighborhood, in that relationship. I have given you everything. I'm the head. You don't do as you want to do. You do as I say to do. Then we would follow him because it's God the son over the church. That's what it says very plainly, that Christ is the head of the body. That's 1 Corinthians 12. He's the head. He decides

everything just as I was like, stand up. That was from your head. It wasn't your legs. That was your head. And so it is that we're listening to Jesus for everything, by the reading of his word, the listening of the spirit, all for his glory, God the son over the church, the head of the body. You know, we just finished the 3E season, which is when you kind of re-up and say, this is the church that I belong to, where I'm going to attend and be shepherded, where I'm going to use my giftings, where I will contribute my giving for the furthering of the kingdom of God, locally, internationally, to the ends of the earth. And I think some here today are like, yeah, I'm not going to sign that. I'm going to be an attender and not a member, or I'll be a hopper and not even an attender. Like it'll be Highland next week, which is a great church, and Antioch the week after that. And maybe then it'll be Renew and maybe Glory Bell, and I'm just going to hop, which is not to be under the authority of the church to be shepherded, to be cared for. You're just like a rogue roaming sheep. Now, look, if you're new to Waco, try all those churches. I'm dear friends with all those pastors, and they're incredible places of God. But choose one and go all in. Because, you know, I ask you to stand, and if you did, then your legs aren't asleep. But when your leg goes numb and is tingling when it's fallen asleep and it's not getting the circulation, you're immobile. You're not movable. And my body needs all of my body parts. I don't want to not have the ability of my leg. And here's why this matters. Scripture says that within the church, God has apportioned gifts to each one of you. Gifts, spiritual gifts for the building up of the body of which Christ is the head. So if the head is sending a message to the arm for maybe encouragement or mercy or a prophetic word or generosity or administration or leadership, and this is like bouncing around all of Waco or coming once a quarter or I don't know what, then it's like the head's sending a signal to the gift, the part of the body, and it's not working. It's all of us together working in concert for the building up of the body of Christ and the exaltation of Christ. So find a place and go all in because he is the head of the body of the church. God, the son of the church. Let's continue. Verse 21. And you who were once, listen to these words, these are not good words, alienated, which means entirely separated, not welcome, alienated, and hostile in mind. There's no neutral. There's no neutral in humanity. You're either immoral or moral, not amoral, hostile in mind. You're hostile towards God and to others. That's Titus chapter three as well. Doing evil deeds, not just in mind, but in deed. He has now reconciled in his body of flesh. Before we've talked about God, the son,

the deity of Christ. He is the image of the invisible God. All the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in him. And there's different heresies and be like, well, yeah, there's that, but he really wasn't actually man. We had to become a man in order to die for mankind. So right here, he is now reconciled in his body of flesh, fully man, fully God. It's the hypostatic union fulfilled in Christ alone by his death in order to. This is the purpose. When you read in order to, it's like, this is what happened. Now lean in because God's going to tell you why it happened. So when you see in order to, you hear the why. First was the what. Here comes the why. To present you wholly, Holy means owned, set apart entirely for God. Like I'm not autonomous anymore, I'm yours now. Everything I have, I'm owned by you, set apart for you. And blameless, which is a moral decree, blameless. And many of you think like, I'm not blameless. You know what I did this past weekend? You know the thoughts that I've had, that the speech that I uttered, the cuss word that I said, like the immorality that's still there, blameless. It's positional righteousness because of the blood of Jesus Christ. But God's like, you're forgiven. You are forgiven, which is the next word that we get to, an abrupt reproach, which is a judicial term that as you stand before God, it's like, absolved, forgiven. All your sins, we're gonna get to in Colossians 2, have been nailed to the cross. Judicially innocent and righteous because of Jesus. If, strange to hear an if, right? It's like, wait, this isn't a work-based gospel. If, if indeed you continue in the faith,

stable and steadfast. See, I would've told you I was a Christian before I was a Christian, up until the age of 30. Full-blown alcoholism. I'm on 6th Street in Austin. Somebody's sharing the gospel with me and I'm just messing with them and I toss them the track back. I'm like, ah, just, said a bad word, messing with you. I'm actually a Christian. And you could just see this guy look at me like, no, you're not, as I like walk away. Because I didn't have this if statement. If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast. You might think like, oh, so if I drink, then I'm not a Christian? No, what he's saying is, is there's no proof, there's no fruit, there's no change. I was stated like, sure, I'm not a Muslim or a Hindu. I'm a Christian. I believe that Jesus is the son of God. It's like, well, good, so do the demons. But they have no allegiance to him and there's no change as a result. The if you continue steadfast and faithful is like, do you continue or do you fall away? Not like stumbling into a sin, but relishing, lavishing, choosing sin and not being grieved by it. He's like, you'll know if you continue.

Paul writes otherwise and says, to test yourself and see if you're in the faith. And I think sometimes we take it way too for granted. We're like, yeah, I just am. I mean, somebody told me this past week, I was born and I have always loved God. And I didn't wanna interrupt him or shame him, but I'm like, no, you haven't and you're deceived. He's since trusted in Christ, but I'm like, nobody's always loved God. We were hostile in mind. Not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you have heard the Colossians were. They were shifting from the hope of the gospel with syncretism and asceticism and mysticism. They're like, yeah, but let's make things interesting. Let's add some stuff in. And we do as too with idolatry of the American dream, like infusing various things, instead being like, no, God, the Son over you, which is the third and final point. God, the Son over you. We began God, the Son over all this refrain of all things, all things, then God, the Son over the church. And finally, and ultimately, and very, very personally, God, the Son over you, you individually and everything in your life, all of your days, all of your trials, all of your joys, all your successes. Coach Drew does an amazing job of always giving glory to God.

Arizona State, glory to God. National Championship, glory to God. Do we in all things, every single thing, all glory, all for the purpose. There's a man named Don Richardson. God, the Son over you. He was living a life, comfortable life, and he decided to take his family, long-term, with no return flight, to Papua New Guinea, to the Sawi tribe. You might think like, oh, good for him. He's a missionary. I want to show you a picture of his family. Here's his son. You know, the thing that you wouldn't know by looking at his son standing before that man of the Sawi tribe is that they are hunters of people, cannibals, and there is his son, looking up at an armed man. Don Richardson lived there among the Sawi tribe. The Sawi tribe were treacherous cannibals, as I said, and so he's like, well, they gotta know the word of God, and so he begins to translate the New Testament. They never knew that you could even have a written language in their verbal one, so he's like getting words, showing them an alphabet, developing it. He gets to the story of the crucifixion, the betrayal, the Last Supper, all that, and he writes about Jesus and Judas,

and he's reading it to them, and he's expecting them to be like, oh, Jesus laid down his life. He even washed the feet of Judas. Oh my, this is amazing. Instead, they're like, Judas! Judas is amazing! He's like, it's gotta be a translation. Why would they say, no, no, no, no, Judas is not, Judas, Satan entered into and he deceived and betrayed the son of God, son of perdition. No, it's Jesus. And they're like, no, it's Judas. Because he even had the skill to betray God. And as a treacherous people, alienated, hostile in mind, evil in deeds, they're like, Judas is the OG. Well, Judas is amazing. And right about then, tribal war broke out between the Saui people and the neighboring tribe. Arrows flying, people dying, people being eaten. And Don Richardson and his family are in their hut, hearing the screaming, the horrors, and then it stops. And Don eventually goes out from the hut and he finds the chief standing there with the other chief. And this is what he sees. One chief of the Saui tribe giving his son to the other tribe. Giving his own son to the other tribe. And Don said, what are you doing?

And he says, well, our local tradition holds that if a chief gives his child to another tribe, as long as that child lives, there will be peace. It's called the peace child. And so I have given my son to stop the fighting that we could be unified. And my son will now live and be raised in that community. And the fighting ceased. And Don Richardson said, Jesus is the peace child. We were at enmity with God, hostile in mind, evil in our deeds. And so God the Father gave his son as the peace child when the chief heard this, he relayed it to the entire Saui tribe and all of them converted on the spot. Laid down their weapons, became Christians, not only became Christians, became missionaries in Papua New Guinea to all the other tribes. As for the peace child, he became a principal in the local school, raising up the kids and youth, not to be hostile in mind, but to be wise and sharing the gospel with them. This transformation. This is Jesus, God the Son over you to take away the hostility and reconcile all things to himself. And so the question here for application is, have you given him everything? You have peace with him? Have you trusted him as your savior?

God the Father gave God the Son for you to reconcile you to him. And I believe many are saved. I think fewer are surrendered. I think we're content to be like, yeah, you can save me from hell when I die, but I will live my life this side of the grave for me. Many are saved, fewer are surrendered, and today can be the day of surrender because it's God the Son over you. And I can't think of a better way to show you this now than to show you someone from Harris Creek who lived hostility in mind, now into submission and surrender to the Son of God. Turn your eyes to the screen. I thought, you know what? I'm gonna go to work tomorrow. I'm gonna shake hands. I'm gonna hug guys. I'm gonna tell them that they're awesome. And then I'm gonna come home and I think I'm gonna just take my own life. I'm just gonna be done with this. That night, I like pull out my handgun and I'm like, all right, I'm gonna leave this on the coffee table. Like, this is what's gonna happen tomorrow. The words that were used in my house were identity-forming. That meaning you are statements, you're so stupid, you're useless, you're an idiot.

Cuss words like being called the B word, being called all kinds of things regularly. When that's weaved into your life in those really influential and formational times of your life, you start to believe them. Alcohol helped a ton with that because when I had like, you know, even four or five beers, I'd be like, I wouldn't think about that at all. I just wanted to crawl in a hole and die. Like, I really wanted to. Like, I really just wanted to never be seen from again, never be hurt. I was like, I wish I would go to sleep and never wake up. And I just cried out to God in the most like, I mean, to this day, I think the most genuine way I ever have, which was, you know, which was a genuine way I ever have, which was, can you please help me? You know, it was like a final, I can't do this anymore. Like I've tried and tried. And it was almost like, I was like angry. I was like, all right, like, okay, like I'll, fine, I'll do it your way. like a defiant, I'll get in line. And so I go to Harris Creek that day, they said, hey, membership is tonight.

And so I'm like, let's go, like be a member at a church. I guess that's what you do when you're a Christian. And so I show up to membership and they like ask me these Kennedy questions, which is like, hey, on a scale of one to 10, zero being not so sure, one being absolutely certain, what are the, like, what's the number that you would associate with getting into heaven? And man, and I said a zero, and I just started to cry. They led me over to the recovery ministry there called Regeneration, and as a veteran, you're drawn to anything with structure and goals. And so it's like, oh, that's it, I'm gonna do that. Basically said, okay, my main focus from this point on will not be me. It will be this Jesus guy. And I'm gonna figure out if Christianity is one worth following, and if it is, then I'm going to give my entire life to it in every way, shape, and form. Yeah, amen. So that's Courtney Clary. You've heard his testimony now. What you may not know is that much of what is happening right now every Sunday is being overseen and run by him, he's on staff. And not just on Sundays, he leads our men every Monday night in Regeneration, the ministry that he first began in. That is what the Lord does with a surrendered life.

So I wanna invite you to stand, I'm gonna pray over you. Here's the thing, church, we're gonna sing a song in response, but hear me say this. I'm gonna say it again. Are you living with a single mentality in a married reality? Today could be the day that you surrender all. Not just be saved, but be surrendered. There's gonna be the prayer team up front that you can come and meet with and be like, I wanna respond to that, I wanna give all, I wanna surrender all as this song washes over us. We pray, Father, thank you for your love for us. Thank you for sending Jesus to the stage of this world that we might know who you are, see you in the flesh, that he would give his life for us, and so we give our lives to you. Fully saved, fully surrendered, do a mighty work. We love you, amen. Amen.