The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 2: Every Family Has a Story

Episode Date: November 17, 2019

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. - Romans 8:28

Amen, amen, amen. Good morning, church. I hope you're doing great this morning. I am Ryan Britt. I'm one of the pastors here, and I get the honor of standing in for Pastor Jobi today and talking us through week two of a three-week teaching series called One More Generation. I love the vision of our church. I love that we are focused on raising up one more generation in the gospel

and that we are putting so much energy and effort into it. We're going to talk a bit about that today. I watch the video and I watch child dedication. and I am just grateful in my heart for our church. Amen. Amen. I am. I am thankful that we are here, parents at all of our campuses that dedicated your children today. Thank you. Thank you for being willing to say, hey, hold me accountable. I want to be all in on following Jesus. I want to model what it means to be a follower of Jesus in my home. I want to point the energies and the efforts of our home in the direction of Jesus. That means something. And I believe in generational faithfulness. I do. I do. I believe in the

legacy of faith. I'm living proof of it. My father was a great dad. I'm going to give him a hard time in just a few minutes, so I thought I had to say something nice about him up front. So my dad was a great dad. My parents were incredible, incredibly godly people. I had people all along the way who came alongside of my family to help my brother and me see the gospel and understand who Jesus is and that it is ultimately the point of what it means to be alive. And all of these folks, just like our church is doing now, came along to raise me up. And so, it is such an honor to be a part of a church so committed to raising up one more generation in the gospel. Praise God for it. Amen. Amen. That's what child dedication is all about. We know as parents,

we know as disciple makers that we cannot make our children love God. You know, I can't make my little girls love God. I can't make my little girls do anything, if I'm honest. It's like, I just, sometimes I just want to sit down with my kids and I just want to say words and I want them to do what I said. You know what I mean? Like, hey girls, I need you to go to the bathroom and brush your teeth. Okay, Dad. I wish that was that easy. Hey, girls, I need you to go to your room and clean up. Okay, Dad, whatever.

Like, if I could just say things and they would do them, then life would be far less complicated. But we can't. It's not how it works, right? Maybe it is at your house. If so, come teach me the weights. But we can't make our kids love God. But what we can do,

what we can do is to set kingdom kindling, like little kingdom firewood around their hearts, believing that the Holy Spirit of God wants to strike a fire in there. He wants to wake them up. to the things of God and wake them up to the purpose for why they're on the planet. He wants to see them flourish. And we do this stage setting through parenting in a way that models Jesus, doing our best to teach our kids the scriptures and to pray with them

and to talk them through what it means to follow God. We do this through putting them in experiences that are spiritually intense and spiritually pointed like church. And that's why we're happy to partner with you. This is how we set the kingdom kindling around our kids' heart. and my wife, Jennifer and I are deeply committed to this. We're all in at this church, obviously. We're all in on trying to raise our girls up to love Jesus more than anything in this world.

But, man, it is not the easiest of things. And so I wanted to, for a second this morning, invite you into mine and Jennifer's discipleship journey. And I want to introduce you to the one more generation that lives in my house. These are my two little girls, Anna Catherine and Abigail. Here they are. Yep, that's right. This is just a random Tuesday. This is just how they dress.

And so, I'm just kidding. It's Halloween. My littlest Abigail, she is Princess Ariel of the Sea, and the nana Catherine is dressed up as her American girl doll, Samantha. And if you would have asked me 10 years ago, Pastor, do you think you'll ever be standing on the stage and say the words American girl doll? I would have said, you're crazy, but here we are.

And so, no, this is my little girls. And the truth about my little girls, I love them. They're God's gift to us, but they are completely different. They are completely different. They literally choose the opposite from each other every single time. It doesn't matter what we're talking about. They're different. They look different.

One is blonde hair with diamond blue eyes. One is long brown hair with deep brown eyes. One likes to walk and take her time. The other likes to sprint and to cause as much damage as possible on the way. One likes to run and jump. The other is very cautious. I mean, my kids just choose differently all the time. I mean, if I went all matrix on my kids and I was like,

all right, red pill, blue pill, you've got to pick one. And they were like, every time, 10 out of 10 times, they would choose the opposite of each other. The truth is what would happen would be my oldest would look at me and she would ask me a thousand questions. And she would be trying to logically deduce which pill carried with it the most amount of risk and then she would choose the other one. That's what my oldest would do.

My youngest, she would look at me for a second and then she would just reject the fact that I'm giving her a choice, punch me in the face and take both pills. And so that's how that would work. True story. Side note, true story. One time when Abigail, my youngest, was about two and a half years old, we were playing Doug Duck Goose in the living room. There was four of us.

It was an epic battle. And so she's sitting on the ground with her hands behind her like this. And it's her sister's turn, Anna Catherine gets up to run around and steps on Abigail's thumb and dislocates it. Pops it out of joint. And me, having been an athlete at one point in my life, I know what you're thinking. Of course he was.

And so. I've dislocated some fingers. I knew what to do. And so Abigail comes over to me two and a half years old, and her thumbs jacked up, man. And so I grab it real quick and I just pop it back in place. And as soon as I pop it back in place, she just goes, bam, as hard as she can.

And punches me in the face. Before a tear was shed, my two-year-old had punched me in the face. They're just different. They're just different. We have to parent them differently. We have to ask different questions. We have to have different answers.

My kids are just different. And as a father, I am keenly aware that as different as my kids are from each other, that is how different the world they're growing up in is from the world I grew up in. It is just a different world that we live in today. We live in a world unlike anything that has ever existed before. The amount of information and temptation available to us at times can be overwhelming. I want to love Christ in this world as I hope you do, and I want my kids to grow to love Christ in this world. but I am very, very aware that there are a lot of things in this world that are competing for that love.

We, first and foremost, church, we are in an affection war. That is what the spiritual battle is. It is a battle for affections. We are battling for the affections of my daughters, teaching them and trying to show them and trying to pray into existence, that they would genuinely love Christ more than anything that this world has to offer. It is an affection war. So when we say we're committed, to raising up one more generation in the gospel, we're not just talking about raising value-based Americans. This is good. We want to do this. We want to raise kids who make good decisions,

but we're talking about raising children whose highest allegiance is Christ and His Kingdom. That it is Christ and His kingdom by which they make all of their other decisions. That is what we're committed to as a church. But before we get too heavy, I want to do a little generational work. do a little generational work today. Most sociologists on the planet would argue that there are six generations alive on the planet, six generations alive. And so if you are here today and you are from the silent generation,

this will be generation one, the silent generation, meaning you were born before 1945. I'm not trying to age you, we would just want to know who you are. If you're born before 1945, would you raise your hand at all of our campuses, anybody? Oh, man, praise God for you. Thank you so much. I mean this.

the Bible says to honor our elders, and we find it easy to honor you here at 1122. We're so thankful for you. We're so thankful that you would be a part of this dysfunctional family that is the church of 1122, that you would honor us with your life experiences and help us be better at making disciples. Thank you so, so much for being here. So that's the silent generation. Thank you for who you are and what you're doing as a part of this church. The next generation would be the baby boomers.

Any baby boomers in the house anywhere? Baby Boomers, 1946 to 1964, baby boomers are like, I don't know if I'm wanting to do this or not. Look, if you're a baby boomer at all of our campuses, here's what I wanted you to do. All baby boomers, all campuses, here's what I want you to do. I want you to look at your neighbors and I want you to say, you're welcome. You're welcome. Boomers, we love you, we think. So, thank you.

Baby boomers. The next generation would be Generation X. Generation X, 1965 to 1976. Any Xers out there? Any Xers? All right. Hands up. All right. Gen X, here's what I want you to do at all of our locations.

Gen X, I want you to look at your neighbor, and I want you to say, I'm so sorry. I am so sorry. We live in a confused world, and we may have had something to do with it. But we love you. Thank you, Gen X. And then stuck between Gen X and the millennials is this microgeneration. It's called the Xenials. This is my people.

1977 to 1983. The reason we get our own little generation is because we're the only ones who grew up in an analog world but have only ever adulted in a digital one. So we grew up analog. Our introduction to digital life was pagers when we were in like late middle school and high school.

And if you're here and you still remember your pager code, you probably need to see somebody about that. And so, but we grew up analog, but we've only ever adulted digitally. This is the ex-enials. Any ex-enials out there? let us know. All right, my people, here's what I want you to do. I want you to look around at everybody and just say, I'm so confused. I'm so confused. And then the millennials, any millennials around? All right, 1983 to 1995. Millennials, some of you guys have been adulting for a minute. Some of you are on the front end of adulting. I would just say, welcome to it. Welcome to it. Millennials, I want you to look at your neighbor, and I want you to look at all of us old fogies in the room. And I want you to say,

say, we got you. We got you. We're putting our hope in you, millennials. Keep on, keeping on. And then Generation Z. Generation Z, born 1996 to the present, the largest generation on the planet. When we talk about raising up one more generation in the gospel, this is primarily whom we're speaking of. Every weekend, across all of our locations in Jacksonville, more than 1,800 children birth through 5th grader in disciple-making environments at the Church of 1122. Amen. Praise God to all you parents have made them. Good job. Good job. 1800. We have an incredible opportunity. More than 600 middle and high schoolers gather every week across all of our city and discipleship environments learning what it means to follow Jesus as a part of the church of 1122. This generation is really remarkable. It's massive. For sure, this is the most

connected, most highly fueled innovatively, and innovatively challenged and inspired generation that the world has ever known. The opportunities available to Generation Z will be unlike anything that the world has ever fathomed. It is simply an unbelievable

world that we live in. I am not one of those that looks at the next generation and just condemns them or has any kind of anger in my heart toward them. I am very excited about this next generation. And there's a couple of things that excite me. Number one, one of the things that excites me is This is in our country the most racially and diverse generation there has ever been.

And I say, praise God for it. And I also say, as a pastor, let our church is reflected. Amen? Let our church is reflected. I believe that this generation is going to lead us into a future where the church begins to look a lot more like what the kingdom and the throne room of God is going to look like. That God is painting for himself a beautiful mosaic of people.

And he is drawing them together in local churches and that the Church of the future will look far more like the kingdom of God than the Church of the past has. And so I'm excited about it. I'm excited about it. Amen. I'm excited about it. And may we, Church, always stay humble and stay faithful in our pursuit of what it means to be a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. So that excites me. Also, and this may just be wishful thinking, but I see this like growing resistance to excessiveness in the form of minimalism. I see this growing resistance to excessiveness in the form of minimalism.

And I believe that if this new generation can lead us into that future, then holistic discipleship, what we've been talking about is this church, mind, strength, soul, heart, that holistic discipleship can flourish in it. The truth is, every great awakening the world has ever known, every great revival that the world has ever known has been led by young people. And this gospel awakening we are living here in Jacksonville is no different. Did you know that the Church of 1122, we turned seven years old in September. So if you missed our birthday, I would just say, happy birthday to you, belated.

Happy belated birthday. We are seven years old. And since the time that 1122 launched, 8,250 people have surrendered their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. 8,250 people. We are living a revival, my friends. praise God, we're living a revival. In 2019 alone, 1,652 people have surrendered their life to Jesus. 704 of those have taken the step to be faithful in believers, baptism.

The average denominational church in America baptizes one person per year. This year, we've seen 704 people step into the tubs. Praise God for that. Man, it's incredibly humbling to be a part of what God's doing here. this gospel awakening that God is breathing. And these numbers, man, numbers are numbers, but what we know is that numbers have names. And that these names have stories.

And that with these stories comes the redemptive work of God, the grace of God, the truth of God, the salvation of Jesus. With these stories comes eternities changed. The direction of life changed. Purpiceless existence turned into purposeful living. With these stories comes history. Everybody's story has history. When you think about your history,

there are some markers in your past that stand out more than others, things that have been defining events in your life. All of us have those. Some of these things are hopefully stir up hope and stir up good memories. Some of these things have been hard and trying, and there has been a lot of suffering along the way. I know with this many people gathered that we've all walked, different roads and that road has not always been easy.

But nonetheless, it's a part of our story, and it's a part of the story that God is going to use to tell this world about himself. And this church family, 1122, we have a story. We have a lot of stories. We have a unique story, how each campus came to be. We have a unique story of how our lead pastor Joby came to be a follower of Jesus through a JV football coach

that showed him the way. We have stories as a church. at the heart of the story of this church, we find a teenage girl. And this teenage girl has, in a lot of ways, through her testimony, marked what it is to be a part of the Church of 1122. You may have never heard her name. You may not know who she is. But if you were at any of our locations today, you are absolutely, your life is a direct result

as a part of this church because of the testimony of this little girl. And so I want to share that testimony with you today. And so, Church, it is my honor to share with you the testimony of McKenzie Noel Wilson. I'm Blake Wilson. I'm the father of McKenzie Wilson. And I'm Stephanie, and I'm her mom. I guess the best way I would describe McKenzie is she was one of those special young girls that would really enhance everybody's life that she came into. McKenzie and I had a very close relationship.

We packed more into 15 years together than a lot of people might pack into a lifetime. Stephanie and I had taken her and the kids to Beach United Methodist Church. And on Easter of 2010, from that day forward, I think we just saw her go through a remarkable spiritual transformation. and a real deep connection and understanding with God and Jesus Christ. And then Stephanie and I were with her at a service. And it happened to be the service where Jobi gave his testimony. And it was at that service that she was sitting in between the two of us and, you know, with her own will, dedicated her life to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

It was pretty early on that we found out that her condition was not good, that she was taken to the hospital, that no one really knew exactly what was the cause, because a day prior, she was acting normally. She was as if nothing was happening. I'd heard about the girl that was in the hospital. I'd heard that maybe she'd even gotten saved at 1122. and so I just felt this nudge to go visitor. I'm heading out to my car, and Ben Williams, who was leading worship for us at 1122, he said, what are you going to do, bro?

And I said, man, there's this girl at the hospital, and I think I'm going to go visit her. I just need to run home and change clothes. And he said, I think I'm supposed to go with you. We get into Wolfson's, and we're down at the front, and we check in, and we get in the elevators. And as the elevator is going up, you could hear what sounded like a bunch of birds.

It's the only way I can explain. It's the only noise that made sense is it just sounded like loud birds. And when the elevators opened, the noise went totally silent. And there are hundreds of high school kids and a bunch of their parents in the waiting room. And I remember Ben looked at me and said,

bro, this is about to get real. And little did I know that over the next few days, those events would change my life forever. And out of McKinsey Room comes Blake Wilson. I'd never met him before. And the Bible that he was holding was McKenzie's Bible. And he turns to one page in the Bible, and McKenzie wrote these words based on a sermon that she had heard from me,

and she just wrote, I want to make my faith public. And Ben and I walk into the hospital room, and there she is. It's beautiful, blonde-headed, 15-year-old, and her mom, Steph, that's just laying in the bed with her. I just held her hand, and I hold Steph's hand. And I just cried for, I mean, for a long time. And that visit from Jobi and Ben was really the start of something remarkable. And the beginning of our two worlds kind of coming together in pain.

Blake and Steph began to share with me. They're not sure exactly where they are on their faith journey, but would you share the gospel with us? And so with their whole family sitting there in the room with McKenzie in the bed, I shared the gospel, just like I did the day that McKinsey surrendered her life to Christ. And I said, and if you were ready to surrender your life to Christ, would you raise your hand? Right there in the hospital room at McKenzie's bed, Blake and Steph raised their hand to signify that they put their faith in Jesus. The next day, we went to Blake and Stephanie's house.

We sat on the couch with Blake and Steph, and we began to talk through what the service was going to be like. And then Steph looked at me and just said, we just wanted to do. to be 1122. We want to sing our songs. We want to worship Jesus. She said, can you please be funny? Mackenzie had friends that went beyond the Bowleswold, was at Episcopal and also Ponte Vida.

And so it was an incredible large group of people that attended the funeral. I mean, we're talking thousands. The band sang, and Blake Jr. shared, and Blake Sr. shared. And it was incredibly courageous and powerful. And then it was my turn. And so I just took McKenzie's Bible.

And I just said, listen, McKenzie's prayer was she wanted to make her faith public. And so I just want to tell you about her faith through the notes that she had written. And then at the end of the service, I ask if anybody's ready to surrender their life to the Lordship of Christ. Just admit and believe and confess. And signify that by raising your hand. And I think there were 176 people that day that surrendered their life to Jesus. and a bunch of those people are now some of the most significant leaders in the life of the Church of the Leverton. We knew how amazing she was.

We didn't know how many people's lives she had touched. And so I guess I was praying and praying and looking for something that would get us all moving forward, you know, to recognize her and honor her and glorify God. And with the help of some amazing things. friends, started to work on the start of the foundation, McKenzie Wilson Foundation. Really by, really saying, we need to have a run. We started her foundation and had the first run in November that year to begin a process of honoring her and honoring God and uniting and mobilizing youth to care, give, and grow

and realize their full potential. The life and legacy of that little girl, through the work of her mom and dad, empowered by the spirit of God, is mind-boggling. It is absolutely incredible that God would use her life and legacy and the character and integrity of her mama and daddy to transform eternities through the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you look back and see what has happened as a result of McKenzie's passing, there's no question that God had a greater plan. What it seemed like one of the darkest moments in this family and his life became one of the

most epic stories. The narrative has so many little twists and turns. And now to look back on it 10 years later, I'm just amazed at what God did. And I think 1122 would not be here today had that tragedy not have been redeemed by the by the Lord. I never thought I'd be where I am now. this journey has been heartbreaking, but he is faithful. I mean, it's remarkable to think about where we are with God, and I think our faith has grown incredibly strong, and it's just fundamental to who we are today. No matter how much pain we go through in this world,

McKenzie reminds us of the reality of eternity of eternal. no matter how hard life is. When we get to glory, we will look back on the pain of this life and it will be like we slept in an uncomfortable hotel room. So McKenzie's life, it does remind us that there is an eternity, that there are things beyond this life, that there are more important things than the things that are sitting right in front of us. And so as a church, we sit here today with love in our hearts for McKinsey

and for her testimony and her willingness to follow Jesus. We sit here with honor. I have so much honor in my mind for Blake and Stephanie and the fact that they would invite us as a church this deep into this really difficult chapter of their lives. I'm thankful for the families that were birthed at the heart of this movement through this really difficult situation. Obviously the Wilson's and the McLaughlins and the Wycophs and people who have been at the center of what it means to be a part of this movement from the beginning. And so we stand on the shoulders of this teenage girl

that God used in such miraculous ways and is a significant part of our story as a church. And I love what McKinsey writes in her Bible when she says, I want to make my faith public. What does it mean to go public with your faith? What does it mean to have a public faith? I believe that McKinsey is echoing the words of the Apostle Paul from Romans chapter 1, verse 8.

where he says, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. For it is the power of God unto salvation for all who hear and believe. It goes on to say that there is a righteousness that comes from God that is revealed from faith for faith. That there is a righteousness, that there is a right standing, there is a holy living, there is a satisfied existence, a content soul. there is a righteousness available to us from faith. And it is a gift from God. And the way this gift comes to us is through the gospel. It is through the good news of Jesus Christ.

Gospel means good news. And so if it's okay with you for the next few minutes, I'm just going to share the good news of Jesus Christ with you. Amen? Amen. It is good news. And specifically, the gospel is the good news of God. It is the good news that God came to.

earth as a man a little more than 2,000 years ago. A brown-skinned baby was born in a barn to a teenage girl out of wedlock who was also a virgin. It was a miracle birth. He was born into the most humblest of beginnings. He was not born into a king's palace. He was not born into political power. He was born into a lower than middle class existence. He was born into a people who were subjugated by the Roman Empire. They lived under oppressive rule. They didn't have a lot of freedoms. They didn't get to make a lot of their own choices.

He was born into a system that completely oppressed his people. And it is in this that he grew up. Jesus grew up in a rural town. He grew up in a rural town where most of the people were illiterate. And if they were alive today, they probably watched NASCAR. And just making sure y'all are still with me. But Jesus didn't grow up in the king's court. He grew up in the most remote places.

But this man, Jesus Christ, even from these humble beginnings, he has changed everything about the world we live in. He has changed everything. And he is the good news of God. And so maybe you're here today and you would resonate with the words that Blake and Stephanie said to Pastor Jobi in the hospital when they say, we're not sure where we are on our faith journey. We're not sure where we are in our faith journey. And I would look back at you and I would say,

did you know that in Romans chapter 2, verse 4, that it says that it is God's kindness that leads us to repentance. I would say to you that God is kind toward you. His face is kind toward you. His posture is kind toward you. His feelings for you are kind. He loves you. But God's kindness does not exist solely for God to feel kind.

it exists to lead us to something, to lead us to a place of repentance. And what it means to repent, it means to change kingdoms. It means that I am currently living in a trajectory that is based on myself, me getting what I want and me making myself happy, that I am the point of my life. And to change kingdoms means that I will no longer live so that I'm the point of my life, but I will live so that Jesus is now the point of my life because I believe that his ways are better,

that his plans are better, and that his purposes are better. than mine. That is what it means to repent, to change kingdoms or to change thinking, and that it is God's kindness that leads us to this place where we would look at our lives and we would say, I have tried and I have tried and I have tried, but yet I am still so wanting. I still find emptiness around the corners. I have chased money. I have chased relationships. I have chased pleasure. I have chased myself and selfish gain, but still I am left wanting. There has to be something more to this life than just the things that I'm chasing and God's kindness says there is something more. There is something more. There's something more important. There's something more valuable than

anything this world has to offer and it can satisfy you on a soul level. And this is how God leads us to repentance and you may say well how do I do that? How do I repent? It's just like Pastor Jobi said in the video it is a three-step process. The first is to admit it. Romans chapter 3 verse says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. What is the glory of God? Well, the glory of God is God revealed. It is the character and the nature. It is the person of God made visible to us. And the way God chose to let us know who he is and what he wants in the Old Testament is through the law. We're most familiar with this as the Ten Commandments.

And so when it says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, it means that all have missed the mark or the standard of the law. says this is the way that life is supposed to be lived through the law and anywhere we miss it that is called sin where we miss the mark so any of us who have ever coveted or lied or lusted or cheated or wanted anything loved anything in this world more than we loved God for any amount of time than we have missed the mark but Romans chapter 3 verse 24 goes on to say that even though we all have sin that all of those who believe that they will be justified freely by the grace of God. All of those who believe, so we admit that we're a sinner and that we believe that God's grace

can justify us through Jesus Christ. The scripture goes on to teach us that God knows that we would miss this mark. He knows that we would be found wanting. And he didn't want to leave us there. He wanted us to flourish according to the life that he intended us to live. And so God knew that in order for us to flourish, he was going to have to do something about it. And he did.

This is why he came down in the form of Jesus Christ. He came down and Jesus lived the life that you and I were supposed to live and he lived it perfectly. Every dot of the law, every T, every I, every sentence, he finished them all. Jesus never missed the mark. He never sinned. He never fell short. He never disobeyed the Father. He never, ever was selfish, ever.

Jesus never missed the mark. He lived life perfectly, but it wasn't enough that he lived life perfectly. Yes, the law had to be fulfilled, but also all the times that all the people, all of God's children, would miss the mark. That all of those sins, they had to be forgiven. And the way that sin was forgiven was through the shedding of blood. Romans chapter 6, verse 23, says, for the wage of sin or the cost of sin is death. God decided in his infinite plan that the way sins would be atoned for or paid for would be through the shedding of blood. We see this from the first time that Adam and Eve first resist God or they choose to live life their way instead of God's way.

The first time they chose this. God shows up on the scene in the Garden of Eden and he finds Adam and Eve living in the consequences of their own decisions, which is shame, ultimately in the form of nakedness. And God shows up and he sees them living in their shame. he do immediately he goes and he sacrifices an animal and he cuts the animal skin off and he covers their shame or covers their sin he atones for it with animal skins and this

trail of blood that leads to the forgiveness of sin it runs through the entire ancient world all the way to a hillside in Jerusalem called Galgotha and it is on this hillside where we see Jesus the perfect man the one who never missed hanging there being murdered on a Roman cross and it is on this cross where this trail of blood stops. He is the final sacrifice for sin.

He came so that sins could be forgiven so that righteousness could be attained by God's children once again. So Jesus hanging on this cross, dying, he moans with his last breath, three words that changed and literally shook the foundation of the world when he said, it is finished. It is finished. The perfect life had been lived,

and the final sacrifice had been made. The demands of the law had been met. And forgiveness was now available to all who would believe. Romans chapter 4, verse 25, says that Jesus was delivered up for our sins, and he was raised for our justification. See, here's the thing. The miracle of all miracles is that Jesus, Pellan peasant, born to a Jewish people, born as the answer to all the whispers for thousands of years that one day one man would come and this one man would change everything.

Jesus lived being the answer to those whispers and he dies on a Roman cross, but he did not stay dead. They took him down off that cross dead and they put him into the tomb and then three days later he walked out alive. He walked out alive and it is in this victory. Amen. And it is through these events. We're not talking about myths here. We're talking about actual events. A dead man went into a tomb and he came out alive.

And he says that I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the father except through me. If a dead man comes to life and he tells me he's the way to God that I'm going to believe him. That is the crux of the gospel. The thing that makes Christianity, Christianity is not churches and religion. It is the fact that Jesus Christ came out. out of the grave alive. It is this event

that marks us as a people who follow God. Jesus didn't stay dead. Romans 5 says that this raising is our justification. To be justified is to be made. It is to say that Jesus made it

just as if I never sinned. And so that he could give me, he could credit me his perfect life through faith. So we admit that we're sinners. We believe in the person of Jesus Christ that he is God's son, that he lived the perfect life and he died on the cross to pay the forgiveness for sins. And that three days later, he came up out of the grave having victory over death and hell. And because of what Jesus has done,

if we put the weight of our life on him, if we put our trust in him, if we put the hope of our eternity in him, then we too get credited or get made justified by faith. We admit that we're a sinner, we believe in Jesus Christ. And this is how we know that God loves us. We know that God loves us because in Romans chapter 5 verse 8 it says that God demonstrates his love for us in this. God proves his love for you in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This is the gospel and the final step that leads us to repentance, that that leads us to the changing of kingdoms is that we confess. We admit we believe we confess. Romans 10 verse 9 says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your

heart that God raised him from the dead then you shall be saved. You shall be adopted into the family of God is what that means. You shall be found righteous by God. You shall be found not pursuant unto self anymore but free to pursue the better things of the Lord. You shall be saved. You shall be and you may be here today and you may say, Pastor, you don't know what I've done. You don't know where I've been. You don't know the things that stack up in my story. My story's not like that. My story is marked with some things that are almost unspeakable.

I don't think that counts for me. And here's what I would say to you. I would say the words of God in Romans chapter 10, verse 13, where it says, anyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And so if you have breath in your lungs and you fall into the anyone category, then you too, my friend, can be adopted into the family of God by faith. And then what happens? We repent.

We admit, we believe, we confess, and then this thing starts to happen. It's what Blake says in the video. He calls it a remarkable spiritual transformation. In Romans chapter 6, verse 8 and 9, outlines this remarkable transformation. It says this, now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we believe that we we also will live with him because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Jesus will never die again.

He will never die again. And then it says this, death no longer rules over him, nor me, nor anyone who believes. Death no longer rules. We put our faith in Jesus Christ, and God comes to, he moves in the neighborhood, he comes to live inside of us in the form of the Holy Spirit. This is the remarkable exchange of being a believer in Jesus. And Holy Spirit teaches us. He empowers us to think like Jesus, to care like Jesus, to love like Jesus,

to want more of the things that Jesus wants more of to be focused on the things of Jesus. It does not happen overnight. It happens over time. And yes, we stumble all the way through, but deep down in our hearts, we want to be like Christ. We want what Jesus wants. This is what the Holy Spirit does in us. from the inside out. And if you are empowered this way,

if you experience this remarkable spiritual transformation, then you can join in Stephanie McKenzie's mom when she says these words, he is faithful. How can a mother who has suffered so much and walked through such a dark chapter say, in just a short amount of time, say, he is faithful.

It is only by the grace of God through the empowering work of the Spirit of God that those words are possible. You may be here and like me, you've lost loved ones. I buried both my parents way before their time. I've got hard questions that don't necessarily have answers that I can find.

I've walked down roads and I've traveled the journey of this life with a lot of questions and sometimes I feel like I've offered up these prayers that have seemingly gone unanswered but yet still inside. of me, there is this small voice, the Spirit of God, whispering to me, Ryan, he is faithful. He is faithful. He is faithful. He is faithful. And it's reminding me what the Apostle Paul writes in

Romans chapter 8, verse 28. And this is how Stephanie says it, because it is by faith through the hardship. It is by faith through the loss. It is by faith through the struggle. It is by faith through broken relationships. It is by faith through the sins we've committed and the ones that have been committed against us. It is by faith through the successes, through the boring days, through the monotony of living, through the waking up and going to work over and over

and over and over again and doing it again with the questions that we seemingly cannot answer. It is by faith that we can say, as followers of Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit, that we know all things work together for the good of those who love him, who love God and are called according

to his purpose. The truth. The truth. according to the Bible is that all things don't work together for the good of everybody. All things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose. And so I would ask you this church, if that's true, then what would we say? What can we say if God is for us, then who can be against us? What can separate us from the love of God the desires in Christ Jesus? Can suffering or hardship, can pain? can trial or tribulation, can darkness or sword or famine or persecution or nakedness or shame or even death,

can even death separate us from the love of God the desires in Christ Jesus? The answer is no. It cannot. In him, through him, we are more than conquerors because he has loved us. That is the good news of Jesus Christ, my friends. That is the gospel. So when Jesus was on that cross and he said, it is finished, it counted for you. It counted for you.

So I would ask you this here today. Have you ever repented? Have you ever changed kingdoms? Have you ever admitted that you're a sinner? Believe that Jesus Christ is who he says he is and did what the Bible says he did. And confessed him as your Lord. If not, I would invite you to do that with me today. At all of our locations, if you would bow your head and close your eyes.

If you're here today and you've never surrendered your life to Jesus, you've never admitted, believed, and confessed, I would invite you to do that. I would invite you to do it in this form. I would invite you to, in your way and in your words, repeat this prayer after me. And it goes like this. God, I know that I'm a sinner. I have not lived life the way that you would. intended and I need your forgiveness. I believe that Jesus is your son and he lived the perfect

life in my place and that he died on the cross paying the price for my sin. I want to change kingdoms and I want to follow Jesus. I confess Jesus as my Lord and I want to make my faith public. If you're here today and you prayed that prayer with me, way I would invite you to make your faith public is to put your hand in the air. So if you're here at all of our locations, if you surrendered your life to Jesus today, would you just raise your hand so we can know who you are? Amen. Amen. Welcome to the family of God, I would say to you. You're at the front end of what is a remarkable spiritual transformation. I'm going to pray for us, and then our campus pastors are going to come, and they're going to walk us through our time

of response. Let me pray. God, thank you so much for who you. you are and what you've done. Thank you for your love for us displayed in Christ Jesus. Thank you for the joy that we have that is found through the cross and the resurrection. Father, we pray that you would continue to draw us as a church deeper and deeper into the gospel of Jesus, into the good news. May we never think that there's anything that we could ever do to move past the gospel, that It is the most beautiful and most divine revelation that there's nothing more powerful in the world than the good news of Jesus. Father, we pray that you would help us to disciple one more generation, that you would help us to raise up one more generation in the gospel,

that you would empower us to help them see Jesus clearly and to help them love Jesus with all of their hearts. Thank you for calling us to such a task as a church. I thank you for the Wilson family, for them sharing their testimony, and I thank you, God, for the life, the legacy, and the testimony of McKinsey. Thank you of how you've used it over the last 10 years, and you continue to do so here today. We pray all of these things, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. If you would, stand with me. Around this room, there are prayers written.

They're hanging on the walls. They're all over the altars. there are prayers written, and these prayers written are written by our kids and our students. And our kids and our students have been gracious to us, and they've invited us to pray for them. They wrote specific things down and their names so that we as a church could pray for them.

Did you know that there's nothing more powerful you can do as a believer than to pray? That it is the most powerful weapon that we have. So we don't just pray out of religious habit or religious duty. We pray believing that there is a God on the other side of those prayers who can do anything. He can answer anything. He can heal anything.

He can bring hope to anything. The gospel is the power of God. It can save anybody from anything at any time. So I would invite you to come. Wherever you're seated, come grab a prayer card and begin to pray over that by name. And if it says something like, pray for my dog's broke leg, then you pray for that kid by name, something that actually matters. I mean, you pray for the dog too.

But you pray for by name, pray for that child. You can take that card with you. you can leave it here, it doesn't matter. But what we want to do for the next few minutes, the band is just going to play instrumentally for like a minute and a half as we move and we begin to prayer cards. Grab prayer cards. If there's not room down here, fine. Go back to your seat.

Kneel and pray at your seat. No problem. If you can't get out, I understand. Just turn around and pray where you are. Pray for one more generation. Pray for some child or student you know by name, believing that God wants to do great things through them. So we are going to respond together,

church, and let's do it. Let's grab a prayer card and let's respond by praying for one more generation.