Good morning church. You see, we had an amazing weekend this past weekend. I feel like what was going on this weekend, we had the opportunity this weekend to see 150 plus students safely gather in this place and worship like they haven't in a long time. It was so good. You also probably saw that video we had 18 salvations from the weekend. And we praise the Lord for that right there. And that's just the beginning of what we know we'll continue to see God move and to do things from the opportunity we had to gather with these students and just be here to worship. It was so relieving and so freeing, just to have that opportunity for these students to step into worship and to experience God in such a great way.  This morning, we have the blessing and the opportunity to have a great friend of mine that's going to be leading this morning. The message, he was our pastor for the weekend as well. Great friend of mine. Welcome to the stage, Wade Morris.

Thank you, Chip. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. How's everybody doing today? All five of you, the rest of you good? Just making sure. Thank you for coming.  The people watching online, it's great.  If you got a Bible, let's do this John 19, the Gospel of John 19. We'll start in verse 25, here in just a second.  If you don't have a Bible or Bible app around you, hopefully somebody will just let you look at it with them. That'd be great. Let me just say as you're getting settled in there, it's been a great weekend. I didn't even do this in the first service. Let me introduce myself, I'm Wade, I'm from Birmingham, Alabama. Super excited to see what God has done in this place. And so, thank you for allowing not only me to come and to be here, my oldest daughter is here, we had an awesome time with the students and to see people go from death to life is always a beautiful thing. I told the students when you hear like 18 or 20 salvations, the Bible says when one sinner repents all of heaven rejoices. So we were like a big honkin party.  Do you understand? I mean, we saw that and it was great. But I will say this I've always been a big fan of your pastor Matt Petty has been a friend of mine for a long time.  I spoke for him many times as he was here as the student pastor, and now to see Chip and Eli, the team and what they're doing, it was amazing, well put together. I've done a lot of things now, as some things have opened back up, but I've seen very few people go to the length of making sure that all the CDC guidelines, all the things were met and done in the right way. And so I just appreciate you as a church praying for us and being there. Just with us in spirit. I tell people from Birmingham, it's interesting to me being from Birmingham is an interesting thing because I live in a city of a million people, but there's nothing to do. Now, when you're young, that's bad, but you learn as an adult that when you get older, it's a great place to raise a family right, because you got a million people but literally the whole city shuts down, like at 9:00pm and so me having teenage girls, so  I'm like, yes, that's a beautiful thing. 

And what happens to me is, I fly a lot. I traveled 200 days a year, going from church to church conference to conference, sometimes youth group to youth group. And so I spent a lot of times on planes and in airports and being from Birmingham, it's great for me because our airport, even though there's a million people it's small enough, and I'm going to bother you Atlanta people here for a second that if I get to the airport, 25 minutes before my flight, I'm good to go. I'm catching that flight.  But I'm well aware that living in Atlanta, it doesn't work that way. And I used to live in the Dallas Fort Worth area when I was in seminary, and it definitely doesn't work that way there. Because Atlanta is the busiest airport in the world. Obviously you know that. But the largest airport in the world in landmass is the Dallas Fort Worth airport.  And when you get there you start to find out. I mean, it is very spread out, very long. And I remember there was a time that I had to go preach at a church in Houston and I learned something that I thought could be interesting for all of us this morning, but I remember driving up to the terminal, maybe 30 minutes before my flight, I knew my bags aren't gonna make it. I'm probably not going to make it. But I'm going to give it a shot. I was young, this is going to be fun. And I go in there and said, hey, real quick. Where is the flight to Houston, like what gate does it fly out of?  And me flying Delta a lot, it's the E terminal. They said well it's gate number 30. Now those of you who are online and in this room, if you're businessmen, business women, and you travel, if you've been out there before the E terminal, and if you've also been to gate 30, you know that gate 30 means it's actually the satellite terminal, which actually means from where you're standing at the front gate, you're about 2.7 miles away. And when they told me it was gate 30 I thought you've got to be kidding me?  If I make this flight, it's going to be a world record. 

And I remember going through the metal detector got through it. You see a sign in that airport, it says satellite terminal, take a left and I ran maybe 500 or 600 yards till you see another sign that says satellite terminal take a right and then you go about 200 or 300 yards to catch an escalator that goes down about 200 yards. You get off that escalator, you run 100 yards to catch another escalator that goes down about 200 yards and at that point, you're literally praying to God, there's some man in a go kart down there to pick you up. But my luck never turns out that way. But they've got technology, they got moving sidewalks, I'm good. And I remember running to the moving sidewalk. And as I look up, it says walk to the left stand to the right, I'm running so I just took the middle and you go maybe, you know 800 yards on this thing to get off to run 100 yards to catch another moving sidewalk, that goes about another 800 yards and you run 100 yards to catch an escalator, that goes up 200 yards to go another 100 yards to catch another escalator that goes up and when you get to the top of that escalator, you're just now starting the satellite terminal.  Gate number 30, for those of you who've been there because you're smiling, it is the last gate. It's not the first one. And I remember coming around that turn and I looked all the way down the corridor, like I'm looking into this camera, and I remember looking all the way down the corridor, and I saw what we call the Delta red coat person there, right? And the door was still open. And I thought, No way. I just made this. I mean, I was literally pouring sweat, I could barely breathe. I remember having my little paper ticket that we don't even use anymore. And I remember running up there and I was so proud of myself for running so fast to get there and actually making it. I threw my ticket down right there. In an exasperation. I looked at this guy and I said, "hey, man, this is the flight to Houston, right?" And he looks at me and says, "No, sir. This is the flight to Oklahoma City.

I looked at him and I said, "Do what?" He said, "Yeah, this is the flight to Oklahoma City." And I looked at him and I go, "Do you know what I just went through?" And he goes, "No." I said, "I'd like to tell you." And I've never met a more courteous man in my entire life. I was telling him the story, like I was telling you, do you know those people that when you tell them a story, that they're in the story with you? Those are fun people. I'm telling the story. And I'm like, man, I was running down that escalator and he goes, I've been on that escalator too. I go, I got down to the go kart guy and he wasn't there.  He goes, he's never there with me either. And I'm like, man, he's making me excited to tell this story. And he's right there with me. He's following me. And I finally got done and I thought he's gonna look at me and say, man, I'm just kidding. It's actually the flight to Houston, get on the flight man. And I got down looking at him and I said, "I ran faster than I've ever run in my entire life. And now you're telling me it's the flight to Oklahoma City?" And he looks at me and says, "Are you done with your story?" I said, "Yes, sir."  He said, "Well, I'd like to tell you something to teach you something right now that if you remember for the rest of your life, it's going to help you. And I said, "Well, what's that?" He said, "Sir, it doesn't matter how fast you're going if you're going in the wrong direction." In other words, what he told me was you were told the wrong gate from the very beginning. And it didn't matter how many records you set to get here, you are going to miss that flight no matter what." And when I heard him say that it was interesting, because I thought to myself, it's interesting. That's kind of how life works for us, isn't it? 

Really, it's how the spiritual life works, sometimes. It's interesting, how we have goals. Everybody has a goal they want to get to in business and a family, whatever it is, and even spiritually, we do the same thing. I mean, I've never met a person in my life that they have a new year's resolution as a Christian to never read the Bible that year. Nobody ever says my new year's resolution is to not tell one person about Jesus ever again. But we all have goals. But what happens is I found out at least for me, sometimes I'm running so fast that I completely go right past or completely miss what I'm trying to attain. And I thought sometimes we did that with Scripture, I learned something that was interesting because just not too long ago, I was doing a sermon series and I was writing a series that a lot of you adults that are watching right now have heard before on the last words of Jesus, a lot of pastors have done that. And I came across the first study that you do, and it's one of the most amazing stories in the Bible is when you see the story of Jesus dying on the cross with both thieves on the cross next to him, and it really is not only fascinating, but amazing. Because Jesus, the Son of God is dying for the sins of the entire world. And as He's doing that, the guy next to him starts mocking Him. Literally made fun of Him. If you're really the Son of God, then why don't you have enough power to come off this cross and to take us off of it?  And what I love is, Jesus in that moment didn't even defend himself. You know, who defended him?  The other criminal. The guy on the other side, has a conversation that says, hey, what you and I have done, we deserve the death we're getting, but this man has done no wrong. He's perfect, He's sinless. 

And that's when Jesus looked at him and said, "Truly, this day you will be with me in paradise." That's where we understand that it is your fate that saves you not what you do in the church that saves you. And it's interesting because I was reading that I was trying to come up with a sermon and and then I came across a very obscure passage in John 19 that I'm going to read to you. And it was interesting because I remember thinking even as an adult preacher, I've never heard somebody preach on this. And I thought maybe sometimes we're running so fast, we miss the point that this is something big. And I thought maybe if we could do it this morning, God can do some things. Let me show you this John 19,  starting at 25, it says, "Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby",  by the way, he's talking about John. It says, "He said to her, "Woman, here is your son," and to the disciple,  "Here is your mother."  "From that time on, this disciple took her into his home."

See, I know that some of you are looking at that and thinking, Well, what are you going to do with that? Because most of us when you read that story, right there, would think okay, let's just, let's just run a little bit quicker and go to the next part, because I bet that story is really interesting. And here's what I would say. I bet if we slowed down just for a second this morning and just took those three verses, you might find out some of Jesus's last words meant something. In other words, when you start to see this, some of your translations say at different, he looks down to his mother and says, mother behold John, John behold your mother. And then from that day forward, they became a family unit. Mother behold your son, John was not her son. 

Now, John behold your mother that was not his mother, but he was putting them together for a reason. But here's what I thought when I read this, and I want you to track with me on this. Don't you find it a little weird that Jesus was doing something really important? You know, it was important that he was dying for the sins of the world, right? But don't you find it a little odd that He's dying for the sins of the world and He stopped to have a conversation with his mother. See, it was at that point that I thought maybe I need to slow down for a second because wait, that's not normal, because I think everybody in the room would understand that it was okay if He didn't talk to His mother in that place, right? He's doing something really big. But still, He's up there, dying for our sins. And He looks in and says, John, behold your mother, mother behold John, and they became that family unit. And I thought, maybe if we look at this a little bit differently, it will make sense for most of us. Most of us when we see this, here's the story. Jesus died for the sins of the world. That makes sense. It's true. But I want to flip this for you to make you think a little bit. Not only is the first story Jesus is dying for the sins of the world, but here's the other side. Most people don't think about it because we're running so fast. A mother is watching her son being murdered. And she can't do one thing about it. 

Now you understand why Jesus had a conversation with his mother as He looks down and sees her and what she's dealing with. He knows what she's going through. He understands the anguish that's in her heart. Because there's not a mother in the world that I've ever met that would not die for their own kid. And it's interesting because when He looks down, He understands the totality of what needs to happen. In the midst of that, He says, John, behold her, Mary behold John. And I thought, maybe if we could think for a second, we could think that Jesus is actually trying to meet the needs of His mother in that moment. And when we think about the needs He was trying to meet, we might find out He's trying to meet those same needs in us if we let him. So if you're taking notes, I want you to write down just a few thoughts. If you're not taking notes. I tell the students act like you are it makes you look holy when you do it, Amen?  Yeah?   I'll say it like this. The very first word I wrote down is I believe that Jesus when He made that statement is trying to meet the needs of his mother number one, physically. And you say, well, what do you mean? Well, if you look at the translation, it's real interesting. Mother behold John, John behold your mother.  Literally what he's saying is embrace each other. And I think sometimes we forget what that really means. In church we're very spiritual and we're supposed to be I don't think I explained this right in the first service. So if they say something weird, y'all take up for me, Amen? But let me just say to you like this in church, we're spiritual and we should be spiritual. One thing we do in church to encourage each other is we quote scripture to each other. That's awesome. 

But can I be honest with you for a second, maybe you're not like me. When I'm going through the toughest time in my life, sometimes the last thing I need for you to do is to quote scripture to me, you know what I need? I need you to give me a hug. I need you to sit with me, man. And when you think about the concept of what's happening, John embrace her.  He literally is saying, hug her. Hold her. Why? Because we need our needs met that way sometimes. So I want to just say this, and I'll just say it. So you understand, I believe that means, physically, it's good for us to be in church. Now, I'm going to say this to you because I want you to hear this statement. Way before the pandemic hit, I was telling churches, something that I'm going to tell you right now, so I'm not even trying to just be a preacher that's with the times.  Way before the pandemic, here's what I told people. It's important physically for you to be in church at times.

Because we are living in a day just like we are now, technology is taken over and by the way, I'm not one of those preachers that's against technology. I'm all for technology reaching as many people for Jesus, but I'm telling you right now, having a Bible app as a substitute for this doesn't work all the time. And at the same time, watching online doesn't always do what you need. Being in person does. You know, I say to people all the time, physically, I need you here sometimes and you say, why?   Do you realize that sometimes you being in church, it's not about you, but it's about me.

You know, I tell people all the time, when you look around and you see each other, everybody in this room and everybody watching online, all of us are fighting a battle that nobody else knows about. Everybody is struggling with something that we just don't share with other people. And the idea of when you see this embrace is the idea that technology can't do for us. I think it's great. It's good to watch online, but sometimes we have to walk together. We physically have to be together and physically He's trying to meet her needs. Listen, I didn't go to church my entire life. First time I ever entered the doors. I was 13 years old.

And I tell people, one of the first things I ever heard was a physical statement. I don't know if you've ever heard this before, but here's what I heard a pastor say one time.  And Jesus knows the numbers of hairs on your head. Have you ever heard that before? And Jesus knows the numbers of stars in the sky. The problem was when you're 13, and you say that from stage all I sat there for the next 30 minutes thinking was how many stars are in the sky? Like I was trying to count how many hairs were my head. But you know, the idea of that is, and his eye is on the sparrow, and he watches over you. He cares about every little aspect of you. He cares about what you think about yourself sometimes. And physically, He's trying to meet our needs. And what happens is this. I know the pandemic is keeping us away from church right now. But I would just say this to you. I found out that a lot of people tend to not physically be in church because they've been burned by the church. Somebody talked behind their back, somebody did something.  Something was exposed and in the end, they're scared to be around those people. And you know what I hear them say?  Maybe you've never met these people. They say, I'm not going to that church. They're just a bunch of hypocrites. You ever heard somebody said that before? And do you want to know what say to those people all the time?  They are, I know em.  Every one of them are hypocrites. I'm a hypocrite. Dude, we're all hypocrites. 

The Bible says it like this. We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The problem is we put our faith in people and we forget, people are always gonna let us down but Jesus won't. I remember hearing a preacher early on in my time of going to church, he said it like this, those people always go, I don't want to go to that church over there. They're a bunch of hypocrites. And he goes, you know what, you have a choice. You can be in hell with all the hypocrites or go to church with a few of them. It's your choice. Now, I know that's an old timey statement, but it's actually true to some extent, but what I'm trying to say to you is this when he looks down at His mother, and He says, embrace each othe, we need to care about each other physically and He cares. But not only that, but when He makes the exact same statement, He's not just caring about her physically. He's trying to meet her needs, emotionally as well. And I think He's trying to do the same thing for you and me. And you say, well, what do you mean? Once again, consider this.

A mother is watching her son being murdered. Can you think about the anguish, the pain? Can I use this word in our day? Anxiety she's going through? Listen, a mother's love is big.

And I know as a man, I'm saying that my daughter is sitting backstage because I told her you've already heard the sermon once, you don't have to hear it twice. But I've got two daughters 17 and 13. Love them to death.

But it's amazing how they complain about their mother in front of me sometimes. You know how it works right?  If they don't get something from me, they're gonna go to her and they're like, you know what? Mom just didn't get us you get us dad. And that means they want something usually,  it's money.

But it's interesting. You know what mom just said this.  Mom, she's so short tempered with us. And listen, my wife is the nicest person you'll meet. But that's just them doing that. Do you know what I say to my daughters all the time? Look at them and say this. Hey, girls, I get it. I just want you to know I love you. But your mother loves you, man. Before you say that stuff,  loves you. Does anybody in the room and online understand there's a massive difference in a daddy's loving a mama's love?

Listen, a daddy's love sometimes can be conditional. We're black and white. Hey, you follow the rules or you're going down? Mama doesn't usually do it that way. You know what I found out?  Mothers go through a pain that sometimes dads never do.  Do you understand that when Jesus looks down and sees what His mother  is going through, He understands what she's dealing with, He knows it. And when I think about mothers, there's something that happens in that eight months, nine months of pregnancy.  There's something that happens in the eight months or nine months that it takes to adopt a child. And all you have to go through. That when mothers go through that something clicks in their head and in their heart, that they are going to love that child no matter what, to the point to where I go to churches, and I've seen mothers being made fun of.  You know why? Because they love their kids so much. They still love them when they end up in prison. I see mothers love their kids, even when they become drug addicts. I see mothers have wayward kids and they refuse to not love that little kid. Because there's something that happens in their heart. There's something that goes on, that they get to that place and you understand that you Jesus realizes this.   He sees the anxiety.  He understands. And you know, he says, John, behold her. John help calm this down.

You know, we're living in a day, where in case you don't know what I told the students that anxiety and depression is higher than it's ever been. It's just the truth. I mean medication for it, higher than it's ever been. That's what gives us our numbers. And listen, I'm not here to play a game. I think that stuff is real. I think people really go through that. But do you know what I believe? People that truly go through anxiety and depression, actually get to that place that they forget that Jesus actually cares what they're going through? Can I just say this to you so that you really get this?  When you read this story, and I want you to read it at some time on your own. Here's what I want you to recognize about how much Jesus didn't just love his mother but He loves you and me.  Jesus was dying for the sins of the world, doing the most important thing ever done in human history. But He paused enough in the midst of it to make sure His mom got a hug. If He's willing to do that for her, do you understand what He's willing to do for you? I have to remind people, sometimes Jesus cares that you do have anxiety, He cares that you're depressed. He cares that your heart is broken. He cares when you get fired. He cares about all these things.

And in the midst of us going through it thinking that He doesn't, that tends to hurt us. And sometimes we've got to turn that around. You say what do you mean?  Listen, Eaton my oldest daughter is 17 and when she was about 11 years old, she came to me and goes, "Daddy, can I have a friend spend the night at the house?" And I was like, "Okay."  Now I know that sounds weird for you all because there's a lot of parents going we have kids spend the night our house all the time. I'm gone 200 days a year, just to be honest with you. The last thing I want when I'm home 100 something days is some random kid in my house, Amen?

But I also realized that I need my kid to be normal, too. So I'm looking at her and I said,  "You know what?   I've never allowed you to do that. Yes, yeah, invite your friend over. Let's do this thing, man." And I decided to go into superdad mode, right? I was like, we're gonna do this. Watch Netflix, we'll stay up all night. I'll get up at five in the morning, get hot Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. You know I'm saying do the thing.

But my favorite time of that entire 24 hours was at noon the next day when her mom came to pick her up. But you know, I did the whole parent thing you know how we do you walk to the door? Oh, yeah, no, no, no, we loved her. We loved her it was awesome. Come back anytime. I shut the door and in my mind I'm  thinking I'm done with that. But here's what I'm trying to tell you. I walked over with my daughter and sat on the couch. I'm tired as could be.

And she started to cry. I looked at her and I go Eaton what's wrong?

And she said something that every woman in girl is about to understand. And no man's about to get what I'm about to say. Because I'm a dad, it took me a while for this to sink in. She started to cry and I go, "Honey, what's wrong?" She goes, "I don't have any friends." And I looked at her and I go, "Who was that in my house last night?" She goes, "What?"  "Who was that random girl? I thought that was your friend?" And she looked at me goes, "But I don't have enough friends." And when I saw her, I'm trying to make you laugh because it actually happened and it was funny, but here's what I'm trying to say. She was 11 years old.

I figured out about my daughter. She cares about people tremendously. She cares what people think. She's what I call a worrier. Does that make sense to you? We would call it anxiety but I tried to tell her there's people that have legit anxiety. Let's don't put that down just because you didn't study for your test hard enough. There's a difference between anxiety and not being prepared.

And I looked at her and realized she was a worrier, and I thought as a dad,  I'm trying to fix this for her.   As a dad,  I hate it when she goes through hard times. But do you know what I did? When I figured out she was a worrier? I did,  y'all remember my first point that I just talked about the physical stuff? Do you know what I did? I quoted scripture to her. I didn't give her a hug. I quoted scripture.

And I looked at my daughter and I go, honey, I know you have anxiety. I know you're a worrier. But the Bible says... This is what we do as church members. Don't worry about tomorrow today has enough problems of its own. And that's an awesome verse, Amen? But it doesn't work, if you're a worrier. People that worry, that verse doesn't help them.

And I remember sitting down thinking that the dad I got to help figure this out. So you know we did? We came around to the faith of a mustard seed moves mountains. In other words, I said to my daughter, you have to know that in the end, it might be okay for your heart to be troubled, but you got to see the light at the end of the tunnel, you got to know that Jesus is gonna get you through this because He promises He will. And that's when I realized the depth of this. And I still never forget. She decided to go to like Michaels or something and bought some stuff and she made these mustard seed necklaces based off of that verse. I mean, I'm talking like a little $4 or $5 deal, right?  Like, little thing, and she decided to make them for all her friends at church. And she made like eight of them and they were all wearing them. And I thought, well, that's cute. You know? They're like Eaton's friend and that's awesome. And then I figured out they're wearing them every single Sunday. These are like 17 year old girls. And I looked at Eaton and I go, "That's a $5 deal that can break in two seconds. Why does it mean something?"   She goes, "Dad, you have no idea how many people deal with anxiety like this."

And I was like, "Are you serious?" She goes, "Yeah." I went, "Hey, how much did it cost you to make those necklaces?"   She goes "$5."   I go,  "Make 200 of them for me, I'm gonna watch what happens." She made 200.   I went to the next like youth camp I was doing and do you know what I did?  I did nothing more than talk about the faith of a mustard seed moves mountains and the very first session of five days, I sold all 200 of those necklaces like that. Guys, girls, men, women, there are so many people doing the best they can to struggle through this. Hear my heart. I know you feel like you're alone, but you're not. I know that some of you get let down by people around you. But I have to remind the church sometimes,  we forget. Everybody we ever have relationships with in this life is going to fail us at some point. It's just the truth. It's called human nature we mess up, but Jesus never fails. He cares about us physically. He cares about us emotionally. And the last thing that I think He's doing here is He's caring about her and us spiritually when you see this story.

And you say, What do you mean? When you see Him make that statement when Jesus says, John behold Mary,  Mary behold John, that one statement changed not only history, but it changed the relationship that Jesus had with his mother. Up until that point, in Jesus's life, He had one role in Mary's life, He was her Son. But the very second he made that statement. He went from being her son to being her Savior.

Because if you think about it, Jesus looks down. He knows what we're all going through. He understands the anguish and the pain that we deal with. He knows what's happening. John, please step in. But did you notice that Jesus didn't come off the cross and help out? If Jesus is who we say He is, right?  You know, Jesus, if He's perfect, is also the perfect Son. And you know, He wanted to come down and embrace His own mom. But instead, He makes a statement and He says, John, I can't do this, Mary, I can't do this. So I need John to step in and to be your son, I need you to take him as his mother and I need y'all to go live this because the idea of what He's saying is, Mary, if I come off this cross, not only can the world not be saved, but you can't be either. And that one statement, as quickly as we passed by it, sometimes it changed everything. And I thought maybe if we can embrace that and understand that, it could change us as well. I'll end it like this. I was a business finance major in college. I think numbers. I'm a numbers guy. I was telling the students I was that weird dude in college that took like, linear algebra and a few levels of calculus for fun. Those were my electives just because I was good at it. But numbers also can obsess you. I read an article last year, a couple years ago, that really rocked me because I thought you've got to be kidding me. You do know that in America, we're more in debt than we've ever been in history, right?

But it's not just our country, really individuals are to?  When you read the articles where we're more in credit card debt than ever. It's just, the way that it's happened. But here's the article I read that threw me off.  As much as we are in depth. In 2019, in America alone, $1 billion in gift cards, went unclaimed. Now, I want you to think about that for a second. We've become such an impersonal society. I don't need to think about what you want for a present. You know what Christmas, here's $100 to the gap, enjoy yourself.  Do it however you want to do it, right That's just the way it is. And it's fine. But you know what happens? We get out of that party, and it's such a normal thing to get those gift cards. You throw everything in the seat, that little gift card went under your seat, when you leave church, you're gonna look under your seat, right?

And here's what gets interesting. Because there's such a lack of personal stuff with that, even though we're in debt. A billion dollars in gift cards went unclaimed, eh?  It's because we forgot about it. And this is what I'd love to say to the church today. Not to just your church but, the church. Jesus didn't die a tragic death on a cross so that you would hold on to that gift card. No, no, no, no, no, no. Jesus died a tragic death on a cross and went through all He did so that you would cash it in. And I mean every time you need to, to cash it in for salvation, to cash it in for forgiveness, to cash it in for you to come to that place that you understand you need him to give you self esteem. And there are so many times that we forget, he gave us everything that we're ever going to need. And we literally sit there and don't let him meet those needs. Here's my heart today, I pray that you will. In the midst of living a life of uncertainty in our world.

I pray that you rethink that. Because a lot of you have been in church and around church all your life and you know what the Bible says it's just time for you to respond to it. And that's what we saw. In the last few days, we saw students go from death to life.  We saw students get vulnerable and put everything aside and say God, if you want me to do this, give me the power to do it. And we did. My hope is that He will do it in this service as well. And He'll do it in your home as well. So do this with me. Can you just bow your heads just for a second? And as you bow before the Lord and as the band makes their way out just to play here's my question. Where do you stand with Jesus? And I mean that really?

Man I know we live in a day where when we come to church or around church, we just expect people to ask that question.  But truly where do you stand with Jesus? So I tell you what, do this? Can you just look at me right where you're at? I know I told you to close your eyes. Can you just glance at me and for those of you who aren't I just want to say this to you. And just so you know, my heart, it's hard for me to get you to hear my heart if I can't see it.

I meet more people that have been to church all their life and they've truly never given their life to Jesus. I'm just being honest with you. It's a really random weird thing for me who didn't grow up in church to see. I spoke to the students about it. We were here this weekend. I let them know the concept of what it means to come to Jesus. A lot of you have heard this before. But Romans 10:9 is plain. "If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead", the Bible says, "then you will be saved." Very black and white, very simple. But do you know when I meet people, especially in what I call the southeastern United States? Do you know what I see them doing all the time? They respond and say, "Oh, that's all I gotta do. Hey, wait, I prayed that prayer a long time ago. I'm good, right?" And you know what I found out. There's a lot of people that if you're really honest, you did pray a prayer when you were eight years old?

Romans 10:9. You prayed it before. But here's the deal. You know why you prayed the prayer? Because your mom told you a story about Jesus and she said, Do you want to pray this prayer and you prayed a prayer ,not because you meant it with all your heart, you prayed a prayer because you don't want to let your mom down.  I've heard that thousands of times. It's not salvation. I see people, when it comes to invitations, especially in student world, you know that, hey, let's all go make this decision together. If we make it together, we'd be awesome. We'll remember it forever. And maybe you were the one that did that. And you weren't ready for that decision. But you prayed a prayer anyway, not because you meant it. But because you didn't not want to be part of the group. I get that. But it's not salvation. I'm seeing more 40, 50 year olds that have been in church all their life, making salvation decisions. Now, I'm telling you, if you could follow me for two years, it's been really amazing. Because you know what happens in life, especially in uncertainty? You get to the place where you're not willing to roll the dice and gamble on this thing called eternity.

Like seriously. A lot of times we forget how to go about that. I tell people Eaton, my daughter received the Lord when she was 10. And a lot of you are like, well that's young. No, no, you know how it works with preachers. My kid got saved at two days old. You know how they lie.  You know em? But I never shoved it down her throat.  So like, if you want to respond to this, I wanted my girl to own the gospel. Not to live it because of daddy.

I got a text I was living in Texas. And the text said this from my wife, your daughter received the Lord today.  I thought, what in the world? I've been preaching to her all my life. And it was interesting. Because I remember going home and I looked at Eaton and I go, "Honey, what happened?" You know what she said?  Real simple. "The worship guy."

She goes,  "Dad, he just stopped this song and he told a story about Jesus on the cross that I've heard my whole life",  but she goes, "Dad,  it was really weird. Because when I heard it this time," what she meant was when I heard it the 1014th  time",  she goes, "It did something in me and I said yes to it."  And she says, "Dad, in that moment, everything you've said to me for 10 years, it made sense just like that." You see, that's how salvation comes about. And I think we forget that sometimes, because in the church we don't leave room for growth.   

Do you know what I told the students and I will say it to you. There is a huge difference in a spiritual moment in salvation. A lot of people think spiritual moments save them. Watch me. Some of you were baptized, awesome, spiritual moment. Does'nt save you? A lot of you went to youth camp. You cried at the campfire. I'm not making fun, spiritual moment, it doesn't save you. You know what I found out? Sometimes you've got to have 48 spiritual moments to come to a place where you have what I call an aha moment. Wait, ah, that's what this is about. I told the students this because I'm a math guy. It drives me crazy. Nobody else in my family is.  My daughter comes to me one day and she goes, "Dad, I don't understand geometry."  I said, "You know what? Nobody does. Geometry is such a weird math." But do you know what we leave room for when we're growing up? You don't understand it. You get a tutor, you go to your teacher, ask one of your friends and three months into it, you go, oh, that's how this works. But you know what happens in the church? 

We have this weird spiritual facade and we are just scared to tell somebody. Yeah, I'm 50, and I've been here for a long time. But I don't want to tell anybody, I've never truly given my life to Jesus. Why not? What's wrong with that? And I'm seeing more 40 and 50 year olds saying this. I don't care what anybody thinks anymore. By the way, thank God that's happening in the church today. We've had this spiritual pride that we're wondering about things.  Hear me, at some point. you need to pray this.  At some point, you need to mean this. And by the way, that's when salvation comes to you. And maybe for some of you today. You're going oh, I have never thought about it that way. And today's your aha moment, I want to give you a chance to say yes to this. So whether you're sitting here or whether you're watching online, I want to give you a chance to not only pray this today, but to mean it when you pray it and I promise if you're willing to do that, it'll change everything, I promise. So can you do this? Can you just bow your heads with me just for a second as you bow before the Lord, even online as you watch, I want to pray through this Romans 10 nine thing with all of us, but it's more than a prayer.  It's about you giving your life to Jesus. So can I just do it like this? Just I want to lead you through this. But don't make the mistake of letting me pray for you. It doesn't work put what I'm saying in your own words, but don't say it out loud just in your own spirit. 

But as you just kind of sit there, just say something like this God, I thank you for who you are. And I recognize Jesus Christ as your son. Lord right now, I admit to you I'm a sinner, God, I've messed up, you know it and I know it. And I'm asking you to forgive me of my sins. But I receive what Jesus did for me on that cross 2000 years ago. And right now Lord, I'm begging you, would you please save my soul? And give me the chance God and give me the strength to live for you. And I promise right now, with your salvation and with your strength, I will do the best I can to live this life. For it's in Jesus Christ name I am praying this prayer.  With your heads bowed. Some of you need to say that again. Jesus, my mom's not praying it for me this time. That speaker guys not praying it for me this time. Jesus, I pray this, and I mean this.  Change my life. We love you, Jesus. Amen. 

Look at me church. If you prayed that, and you meant it, I promise you the Bible says you've gone from death to life and we want to be able to celebrate with you? I know we're living in a weird day. But for those of you online, for those of you can we put it for the people in here. If you text that to that number, somebody is going to contact you, and just celebrate with you. You know what I told the students?  When they contact you, you know what happens? We tend to like make it really weird. 

When you go out and talk to somebody with a counselor, whatever you want to call it? You know what I told the students?  Walk out, look somebody in the face and say, I just prayed that prayer, and I meant it, and they will believe you and it cuts the conversation down that quick. You know, what I found out?  A lot of adults came in and said, people look at us and  said I prayed it.  And when somebody contacts you, hey, that prayer, I prayed, I meant. And then let's do this. And let's live together church, Amen. Listen, it's been my joy to be able to be with you guys,

Eli or whoever's coming up if you want to come up. Thank you for welcoming me the last several days for welcoming my daughter. She's loved being here. And hopefully we meet again, Amen. Yeah? Thank you, church. Thank you. Go ahead.