Well, my name is Drew Ursham, and I'm on campus faster,
and I got to spend the entire summer in San Diego
with those crazies.
And so the weirdness of the story
is as you watch that video and you
see 72 people losing their minds on the beach
and random parks and stuff, that's actually
the leaders of our church.
And so I don't know if that's scary or encouraging,
maybe a little bit of both, starting
to re or second guess a lot of our decisions for this
is coming fall, watching that video.
No, I'm just kidding.
Yeah, incredible, incredible summer.
But it's good to be back in Pullman, and I love it here.
And although it's really nice weather in San Diego
and the beach is incredible, there's
something special about the police,
and so it's good to be back.
This morning, I woke up early.
My wife had went to help with move in at WSU,
and so just some spending time in the word
and prepping and was getting really distracted in the house
because I was looking out, and I was like, ah, the yard needs
to be cut, and some walls need to be painted,
and just a million chores.
And so I was like, I'm just going to get out.
And so I got in the car, and this may sound a little weird,
but one of my favorite places to just get away,
kind of slow down, take a deep breath, and just reflect
is actually a love going to the Pullman Cemetery.
And I know that sounds like a little bit morbid,
but here's why.
There's no one out there.
And so it's like the one quiet place in Pullman.
And there's something that's actually really encouraging,
and there's something that actually, I think,
reminds me so much about life in the midst of a bunch
of kind of like tombstones.
I'm always encouraged thinking about the Mark Twain quote
that says that many men die at the age of 27.
They're just not buried until 72.
And something in my heart like stirs
is I'm sitting in this kind of the cemetery just
reflecting on the summer, reflecting on life, and kind
of where I want God to kind of take me this coming year.
And I just never want that to be said of my life.
That at the age of 27, becoming apathetic,
becoming just kind of like putting it on cruise control
to get a job, and just kind of work the 9 to 5,
and just kind of like coast through life,
just waiting to be put into the grave at 72.
Everything in me just wants to war against that.
And so sometimes I think sitting in the cemetery
is just very reflective to me.
I always, most of the guys that I disciple and huddle
can tell you this, but there's something I love taking them
to the cemetery and reminding us that there's
a lot of things that are written on these tombstones.
A lot of them, they were faithful husband,
or they were a really good dad, or whatever.
All these things written about these people,
there's dates of when they passed away,
there's dates when they were born.
But really, I always remind our guys
that the most significant thing on the entire tombstone
is not the day they were born.
They can't control that.
No one controls that.
And it's not the date that you die.
No one can control that.
The most important part of the tombstone
is the dash in the middle.
The life that was lived.
And I think about, what is it that I
want to be written on my tombstone?
Not to get really, I know this is very introspective,
and I'm inviting you to very vulnerable places in my life.
And I apologize going really deep, really quick.
But I'm going somewhere, so just trust me.
Keep going with me.
Is I think about what it is that I want to be written about me.
And I know that hopefully you've thought about this as well.
What is it that you want to be written about you?
And I would love for it to say something about being
a very loving husband.
And I love my wife very well.
And that one day, I'm going to love my kids
and be a great father.
But this morning, I began to think bigger than that.
And those are great things.
And I pray for those things and hope for all of us.
But I think there's bigger.
There's something that's a tad bit bigger.
There are things that should qualify,
that should define each one of us as the church.
Three things that I would pray that for us
is resonate church that would mark us.
And when I say resonate church, I want
to be really careful because what I don't mean
is I don't just mean the organization, the big church.
I'm praying that these things would
mark each and every one of us in this room.
Because as followers of Jesus, we are the church.
And so these are the things that just have been,
as I've been looking at the text and dreaming and praying
and going, God, what is it that you just kind of placed
on my heart?
Tonight, I want us to look at some scripture in just a moment
where I see there are three things that I think
should define each and every one of us as the church.
Each and every one of us, if we confess that Jesus Christ
is our Lord, there are three things that
should define all of us.
And so I want to pray for us really quick,
because I think this could get really crazy really quick.
And I don't want to be up here on my own.
I need the Spirit to speak for me and to open our hearts.
So I just want to pray for us, and then we'll dive into the text.
Jesus, tonight, Father, I think it would be very easy for me
to step on this stage and just try to be witty, maybe
just try to be funny or clever, or to be just a really good
teacher, or just kind of lay it, like just kind of leave it
all on the court.
But Father, that's not what we need.
Jesus, we have shown up in this room.
We have gathered here, not to hear from Drew,
but to hear from you.
So Jesus, we need you right now to just kind of speak
on behalf of me.
Father, if there's anything that's
about to come out of my mouth that doesn't line up
with your heart, then God, I pray that you would shut
my mouth in those moments.
God, I pray that for each person in this room, myself included,
would you open our hearts?
Would you give us eyes to see and ears to hear?
What it is that you have for us tonight, Father?
Because if we come in this room and we just sing some songs
and we just, we're entertained by a sermon,
but we don't meet with you, then Father, we've missed it.
So Father, would you speak?
We're listening.
That's in your name, we pray.
Amen.
If you have a Bible, I'd love for you to grab it.
And if you could, turn with me to Acts chapter 4.
We'll have it up on the screen.
Acts chapter 4, you've got the New Testament,
and you've got Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, the four
gospels, essentially diaries written
about this life of this man named Jesus.
And then it switches and it goes into the book of Acts, which
is where we'll be tonight, which is just, man,
the story of the early church.
And so up to this point in the four gospels,
we see that man Jesus shows up on the scene,
does some crazy stuff, man, is his healing people,
is bringing dead people to life, and they crucify him.
He willingly lays down his life on a cross
to take all of our sin, our punishment,
and so that the wrath of God would crush Jesus
on our behalf, the sacrifice on our behalf.
And he is placed into a tomb three days later,
raises from the grave, walks on planet Earth for another 40
days, hanging out with his closest boys.
In the beginning of Acts 1, he pulls those guys really
close, and then he gives them kind of the mission.
He gives them an assignment, and he says this.
He says that the power, the God of the universe
is going to take up residence inside of you,
fill you with power, and that power
is going to propel you on mission.
And so you're going to be my witnesses.
You're going to carry the story to your neighborhood,
to the surrounding neighborhoods,
to the people you don't like, and then ultimately
to the ends of the Earth.
And that's in chapter one.
In chapter two, we see that the church gathers together
the Holy Spirit shows up, shows off,
some crazy stuff happens, and then all of a sudden,
man, people get started getting added to the family.
I mean, massive numbers, thousands of people
are being brought into the family of God.
And that's kind of what we find ourselves in the story.
Peter and John, these two disciples, two guys
that had walked with Jesus really close and knew him
really, really well, were on their way to the temple
to worship.
And on their way to the temple, they come up to this beggar
that's hanging outside the temple.
It's a good place if you're a beggar and you're lame
and you need some money, kind of tug
on the religious heartstrings.
These people go into worship, feel really bad
if they don't give you money before they pray.
And so that's a good place to be.
And so he's begging for money.
He's lame, he's about 40 years old.
He's sitting on the side.
And Peter and John, all of a sudden, hear him.
They stop.
They turn to him.
And they're looking to go, hey, listen.
Money, we ain't got it.
But what we do have, we give freely.
In the name of Jesus Christ, get up and walk.
And this man that's never been able to walk,
all of a sudden, man, the muscles in his legs
begin to just kind of align.
All of a sudden, the bones kind of almost maybe reconstruct.
And he gets to stand up.
And I don't always see standing up,
but he goes on dancing and screaming and singing
and making a really big commotion in the temple.
This guy was well known.
People would have seen him outside begging for money.
And so this big ruckus is happening.
And all of a sudden, man, the leaders, the Sadducees,
begin to go, uh-oh.
This is an issue that calls in a bit of a riot.
And so all they can think of is to take Peter and John
and throw him in prison, because it's kind of late in the day.
And they go, we'll just handle this tomorrow.
And that's where we find ourselves in the story
at the beginning of Acts chapter four.
So Acts chapter four, verse one, it says this.
And as they were speaking to the people,
talking about Peter and John,
the priest and the captain of the temple
and the Sadducees came upon him some big wigs.
Verse two, greatly annoyed because they were teaching
the people and proclaiming in Jesus
the resurrection from the dead.
Just side note, Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection,
thought it was blasphemy.
More than likely these men were standing in the trial
watching Jesus be put on trial.
And so they're not a big fans of the resurrection.
Verse three, so they arrested them
and put them in custody until the next day
for it was already evening.
But many of those who had heard the word believed
and a number of men came to about 5,000.
Crazy, it's a big church, 5,000.
On the next day, the rulers and elders and scribes
gathered together in Jerusalem
with Ananias the High Priest and Caiaphas and John
and Alexander and all who were of the High Priestly family.
Verse seven, and when they had set them in the midst,
they inquired, by what power or by what name did you do this?
And I love this.
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them,
rulers of the people and elders,
if we are being examined today concerning a good deed
done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed,
then let it be known to all of you
and to all the people of Israel that by the name
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom he's fighting words,
whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead,
by him this man is standing before you well.
This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you,
the builders, which has become the cornerstone.
And then in verse 12, this is key.
And there is salvation in no one else,
for there is no other name under heaven given among men
by which we must be saved.
The first thing that I believe that you and I,
as followers of Jesus, that one thing that should identify us,
one thing that should mark us is this,
is that our message should be clear.
We see in the text for Peter and John,
the message was clear, and I pray for you and I
that our message is clear.
That when Peter and John get pressed and they say,
hey, listen, how are you able to do this?
By what power are you able to heal this man?
Man, Peter, full of the Holy Spirit, man does not shy away.
And he immediately begins to go into the gospel.
And essentially he shares the entire story.
To listen, the truth of the gospel, our message as a church,
our message as a believer is this,
that God created the entire world,
that he spoke it into existence.
And then he took dirt and he formed man,
breathed life into man so that we would have this opportunity
to have a deep intimate relationship
with the God of the universe, walk with him,
know him, be known by him.
We make it three chapters into the book
before we totally screw it all up.
And in that moment, man, we spit in the face of God
and go, listen, God, I think I've got a better plan
than you do.
I can do this on my own.
And in that moment, sin enters the world
and fractures it as we know it.
And each and every one of us, man,
we feel the effects of that even in the 21st century.
You don't have to watch the news very long
before you realize, hey, listen,
we live in a pretty messed up world.
You don't have to hang out with two year olds very long
before you realize they're broken, sinful, evil creatures.
OK?
It's just truth, OK?
From the parents in the room, get a little amen, OK?
But here's the deal.
Like, no one teaches a two year old to be evil,
or to be sinful, or to be selfish, or to steal,
or to say mine, or to bite.
Those things are in us.
It's in us.
And the reason is, is from the moment
that sin entered the world and fractured it, that sin plagues
us, it's a cancer that has passed down from father to son,
from mother to daughter, and is in each and every one of us.
And it has separated us from a holy God
that will have nothing to do with that treason,
have nothing to do with that sin.
And all the Old Testament, although it's
a bunch of really cool small stories,
some are very interesting, it's really just one giant promise.
And the promise is this, that one day,
that I see the world as it is, I see it that it's broken,
but one day I'm going to send a hero to fix this.
One day I'm going to send a hero to fix all that is broken.
And so when we move from the Old Testament
into the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John,
we see this, that the God of the universe,
himself, leaves his throne room, he comes to earth,
wraps himself in human flesh, and we call him Jesus.
They would call him even Emmanuel, meaning God is with us.
And he lived on this earth perfectly for 33 years,
teaching us what it means to be fully human.
And then he willingly laid his life down on the cross
to pay for that sin, to pay for our mistakes.
He was perfect.
He didn't deserve that.
But God realized that the only way to fix this
was for himself to die on that cross.
Placed into a tomb three days later,
rose from the grave, proving that he has the power over sin
and death.
And for anyone that would push and say, listen, Jesus,
that would confess with their mouth
that Jesus is Lord, to believe in their heart
that he is who he says he is, then you and I
can be completely forgiven and become a new creation,
is what scripture, that we would go from being enemies of God
to being now adopted sons and daughters of Jesus Christ,
the God of the universe.
That's crazy talk.
And that's what Peter and John just said.
And so everyone around just begins to go either one or two
things, hey, we want to kill these guys,
or hey, how do I get to be a part of that?
I'll join the family.
And so it was very divisive.
But that was their message, very, very clear.
I remember growing up in the South, like I'm from East Texas,
and you're going to hear some accent.
It's going to pop out.
I apologize.
But in the South, we have what I believe
to be the greatest, the greatest fast food chain.
I don't even know if this is up for debate.
I'm just going to go ahead and say it is the greatest.
And the place is called Chick-fil-A.
So people in San Diego, you got to experience that for the first
time.
Life changing.
But here's the deal.
For those of you that are born and raised in Northwest
and you don't quite know what I'm talking about,
their whole thing is like, hey, we didn't invent the chicken,
just the chicken sandwich.
And let me tell you this.
It is incredible.
Now, they've got a bunch of other incredible things.
They've got the waffle fries that are unbelievable.
I'm pretty sure when Scripture talks about manna falling
from heaven, it was pretty much probably the Chick-fil-A
waffle fry.
They've got these like dream cones that are incredible.
The milkshakes are unbelievable.
They've got like 10 different sauces.
And all of them, awesome.
And here's the deal.
Somehow, as a marketing ploy, they
have hired these two renegade cows that seem to find their ways
on billboards across the South, kind of vandalizing them.
And for some of you, if you've been to the South and you've
been to Chick-fil-A, you're going to know what I'm talking
about if you don't, just kind of walk with me.
But they have, wherever you find yourself about how you feel
about Chick-fil-A, the message for anyone
that's been around that company is very, very clear.
It's just three simple words that these cows promote like crazy.
And it's these simple words, eat more chicken.
That's it.
That's their message.
And so the waffle fries, awesome.
The ice cream cones, incredible.
Sweet tea, but their message is eat more chicken,
unbelievably clear, unbelievably clear.
And for you and I, we find ourselves
in a world that is begging for answers.
And there are times where you and I find ourselves
stuttering, well, I'm not really sure.
I don't really know what the message is.
What is it that we believe?
And we find ourselves stuttering.
And for us as followers, our message needs to be really clear.
That all other religions say that you've
got to march your way up the mountain
and get as close as you can to God.
What Peter and John say is this, and there's salvation
and no other name, because you can't make your way up
to the top of the mountain.
The difference between Christianity and all
of the world religions that says this,
that no matter how hard you try, you fail every single time.
You will never get to the top of the mountain.
But praise be to God that He left that peak
and came down to us to rescue us.
But Christianity is not that God came to make bad people,
good people.
Where did we get that?
The gospel is that Jesus came to make dead people alive.
That's the gospel.
So may our message be really clear.
Number two, number one, message clear.
Number two, a quality that I hope that for us as a church,
for every one of us as a believer,
is that we will be marked by Christ.
So our message is clear, but may we
be marked by Christ.
Verse 13, now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John
and perceived that they were uneducated common men.
So these guys, these are fishermen.
Like, they weren't educated.
They weren't Pharisees.
They weren't really super religious guys
that knew all of the scripture.
They're just uneducated guys.
If any of you guys are Duck Dynasty fans,
you've got Uncle Sy, he says there's two types of people.
There's educated and there's undecided, OK?
Peter and John, undecided, OK?
So he says, listen, we saw the boldness of Peter and John,
perceived they were uneducated, common men,
and they were astonished.
And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.
But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them,
they had nothing to say in opposition.
But when they had commanded them to leave the council,
I conferred with one another saying,
what shall we do with these men?
For that unnotable sign has been performed through them
as evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
And we cannot deny it.
Peter and John, you and I, should be marked by Christ.
They look at these men and go, there's absolutely
nothing special about these guys.
There's nothing sparkly.
There's nothing really cool about these guys.
They weren't like in the latest fashion.
They didn't know what was going on.
But one thing we do know, man, those guys
have been hanging out with Jesus.
That's clear.
Not to even mention that you want to talk about the evidence
that God had done something crazy in them.
While they're on trial, while they're standing them,
there's a guy who was once laying that could not
walk that is dancing behind them like a cheerleader, OK?
And so they're going, hey, listen,
we can't believe in the resurrection.
We're having a hard time with this.
We don't believe anything that you're saying,
but it is really hard to deny the evidence
that that guy that we know, man, he's lame.
And he's now dancing.
A lot like those guys in the elevate video.
He's dancing.
And it's hard.
And though we see that these guys are uneducated, man,
it is obvious that they've been walking with Jesus.
Church, I think maybe more than any of these qualities.
For myself, I pray daily that this would be true of me,
that as I walk on campus with a BWSU or the University of Idaho,
when I come in contact with students,
as I interact with my wife, as I interact with my staff,
may it always be said that, man, it's
like Drew hung out with Jesus this morning.
I mean, I don't know.
I don't know if I can believe everything that he says.
And I mean, he believes some crazy stuff about that, Jesus.
Like he really believes it.
But regardless, it's obvious that he's spent time with him.
He's walked with him.
Because you know what happens when you spend time with someone?
You start talking like them.
If you hang out with any of the people that spent this summer
in San Diego, they all have the same jokes.
They all have these same little phrases that they all say.
They're all insider, and they're not funny to anybody else,
but they all know it.
And they all kind of walk the same.
They kind of the same language.
I spent a year, OK, after graduating college,
I spent a year, almost a year and a half,
living in a car with our worship leader, Josh Martin.
Josh and I kind of friends before we started, OK?
Now, to this day, I mean, he is one of my closest friends.
And if you hang out with us, OK, very different personality.
But we have a lot of the same stories.
We have a lot of the same jokes.
We think a lot the same.
Even to the point that Josh tells some really brilliant jokes
and gets all the credit for it, let's just be really honest.
It was my joke to begin with, OK?
But he just tells it more often, and so people think it's his,
OK?
No offense, Josh, but that's true.
And so just edit this out of the video.
And so, but it's just true.
And the reason is, is because we spent that much, I mean,
literally for over a year, every waking and asleep moment,
side by side.
Our jokes are the same.
We talk the same.
We have some same mannerisms.
Why?
Because we walk side by side.
And may it be said for you and I that the more time
that we spend with Jesus walking with him,
the more time we spend with the Father,
the more we look like the Son, may we be marked by Christ.
May it be obvious that each one of us
go, hey, listen, man, you don't maybe have a lot going on.
You've changed your major three times,
and you're on your seventh round of school.
But hey, it's obvious.
You've been walking with Jesus.
Obvious you've been walking with Jesus.
The last and final thing, may our message be clear.
It will be marked by the cross.
And number three, it will be motivated by the cross,
marked by Christ, marked motivated by the cross.
Verse 18, let's just do 17.
But in order that it may spread no further among the people,
let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name,
talking about Jesus.
Verse 18, so they called them and charged them not to speak
or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
Verse 19, love it.
But Peter and John answer them.
Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you,
rather than to God, you must judge,
for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.
We read it one more time, verse 19 and 20.
But Peter and John answer to them,
whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you,
rather than to God, you must judge,
for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.
That Peter and John are motivated by the cross.
Say, listen, you can throw us in prison, you can beat us,
you can do whatever, you can charge us not to do it.
But ultimately that's gonna be between you and God.
Because listen, here's the deal.
We cannot, cannot help but speak of the things
that we've seen and heard.
It has changed our lives.
That we've left everything in the chase after Jesus.
We're not going back.
There's even a moment where Jesus is teaching to the crowds
and everyone goes, man, this brother is teaching
some hard stuff, no thanks, I'm out, and they walk out.
Left with these 12 guys, he looks at him and goes,
hey, are you gonna leave too?
And Peter says this, he goes, hey, listen, Jesus,
we've left everything to follow you.
We left our families, we left our jobs.
Where would we go?
We've left everything to chase after you.
Have the words of eternal life.
We're not going anywhere.
And then now, he's standing before the Sanhedrin,
the same man that denied Jesus when he was put on the cross
and he goes, hey, listen, no, no, no, no, no, no.
I saw a man placed on a cross, I watched him die.
I mourn that loss.
But then three days later, I watched him raise from the grave.
And I can't help but speak of those things.
So you do what you have to do.
But I'm gonna do what I have to do.
It's like the same language as Jeremiah 20, verse nine.
Jeremiah, he says this, he said,
but if I say, I will not mention his word
or speak any more in his name,
then his word is in my heart like a fire,
a fire shut up in my bones and I'm weary of holding it in.
Indeed, I cannot.
Same language.
2 Corinthians 5, 14, and it says this,
that it's Christ's love that compels you.
It says that it's Christ's love that compels us.
If any of you were to walk out,
maybe for whatever reason, you're on your way to Moscow
and you're on the Moscow Pullman Highway
and you have to pull over and you get out of your car,
this is a little bit morbid, go with me though.
And there's a Mack truck that's coming back from Moscow to Pullman
and you're on the same side of the road
and it's going a little over the speed limit,
it's going a little over 60 miles an hour
and you're not paying attention,
you accidentally step into that road
and get hit by that Mack truck.
Hear me say this, you do not walk away.
When you're hit with something that powerful,
your life is forever changed
and it is the same to be true of the gospel.
If you once were dead in your sin
and Jesus Christ jumps off the boat,
swims to the bottom of the ocean,
grabs your lifeless corpse,
brings it back and breathes life into it
and you were once dead and you are now alive,
you don't just limp away,
you are forever changed,
you are motivated by the cross realizing,
listen, that's where God is taking us.
That's where we're headed because of everything that Christ did for me.
It's the same as Romans 12 where Paul's going to say this,
he says, therefore, if you have everything that God has done,
if you have all of his mercies,
may you offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,
that this is your act of worship,
may we be motivated by the cross,
may it push us,
may we be motivated by the cross.
We're all billboards for something.
We're all champion stuff.
Let any of you go watch an amazing movie tonight,
whether it be on Netflix or iTunes or even to the theater.
And it's amazing, there's something in you that has to tell people about it.
And we're wired this way, we all billboard something,
we're all champion something.
But may it be the cross.
In San Diego this summer,
I can't tell you how many random cougs I would see
in just random places.
And it's very obvious.
Not to mention that they're crimson and gray,
it's like exploded.
But they make sure their presence is known
with just hearty go cougs.
Or in Texas, in Texas this summer,
I saw cougars on the airport, a Dallas airport,
like what is going on?
They're everywhere, okay?
Vandals, you're just sticking in Idaho, okay?
So, but you're strong, you're strong in Idaho.
But we all billboard and champion something.
So how do we do this?
I'm fearful that we'll leave this place
and just go, okay, let's just try harder,
let's just try to be more motivated.
And I don't know if that works.
I don't think the answer is more willpower.
But for as far as our message being clear,
the only way it gets clear is by us articulating
and practicing the message.
And whether it's with people that don't know Jesus
and we continue to tell our story
and tell these stories,
whether it's with our friends,
we're constantly reminding ourselves of the story.
The way we get better at language is we practice it.
The way we get better at telling stories
is we practice telling those stories.
And how do we get marked by the cross?
Like I shared with you,
it's as silly and as contrite and cliche as it sounds,
it's by spending time with Jesus.
How do we get motivated then?
How do we get motivated then by the cross?
For me, it's simply remembering.
It's reminding myself of the cross and what happened,
just like in Romans 12,
and therefore, in light of everything that God has done,
may I continue to be motivated by the cross,
may I continue to offer my life as a living sacrifice,
Hebrews 12, that says,
may we fix our eyes on the author
and the perfecter of our faith, Jesus Christ,
may we fix our eyes on him,
may we remember what he did,
because he was very motivated by the cross,
very motivated by the cross.
He fixed his eyes on the cross
and for the joy set before him,
he endured the cross and the shame
and the pain that was wrapped up in that.
And so, may we remember
so that we don't grow tired and weary
and not finish the race.
May we remember.
When I was in college,
I just started following Jesus,
and I remember there was a,
I remember finding this old hymn that got remade
and so that's kind of,
it's a song called,
in a survey, the wondrous cross,
by a guy named Isaac Watson,
I believe,
Josh would probably know better.
What's his name? It's in the notes.
And he wrote it
in 1700s
and
this dude wrote like over 500 hymns,
including the very popular
Joy to the World.
And in this one hymn
that he wrote,
I'm talking about fixing his eyes on the cross.
There's some lines that were added to it
by a popular worship leader,
but essentially this was the hymn.
These are the lyrics,
I just want to read these to you.
It says,
Oh, the wonderful cross,
it bids me come
and die
to find that I may truly live.
And he says this,
we're the whole realm
of nature mind,
meaning if it was all mine,
if I own this entire world,
this was going to be my offering,
my gift to the Lord.
It's so divine
that we're a present far too small.
Love so amazing,
so divine,
I love this.
It demands my soul,
my life,
my all.
Resonate,
in light
of all that God has done,
he deserves nothing less
than our all.
And hey, if you hear anything
from me, please hear this tonight.
Christ asked for us
to lay it all down
to surrender every piece
of us to him,
not just our Sunday nights,
not just our village nights,
not just a Bible study in the morning,
he asked for every single piece
of us.
The cross bids us come,
die, but it's in that moment
that we truly live.
But hear me say this,
Jesus is unbelievably worth it.
That everything that
you place at his feet,
everything that you surrender,
everything that you give to him,
he's unbelievably worth it.
He's so worth it.
And he bids us come,
and lay it all down at his feet,
and everything that we surrender,
everything that we give him,
he's worth it.
I'll share this story in closing.
When I was first starting in ministry
and then traveling, getting to kind of perform a little bit,
I remember being at a camp,
and I was sitting next to the speaker when we were in the back,
and like second, third row to the back,
and there was a guy kind of in front of us
through the ride,
and probably like in his mid-thirties,
and I remember, I'm not really paying attention,
and he somehow got in front of us,
and during the worship time,
even to this day,
I don't think I've ever seen someone worship
with such abandonment.
I mean, it just, man,
it just arms high,
and just moving, just like, I mean,
losing his mind in these songs.
And the guy that I was with, the guy named Homer,
towards the end of worship,
he sits down, and he kind of taps him on the shoulder,
and I remember him asking the question,
kind of overhearing this, and he just said,
hey, he said, I gotta ask.
He said, how are you
able to worship like this?
Like, how are you
able to just kind of just like,
man, not worried about people, right?
I mean, just to lose your mind in front of Jesus,
like completely surrender everything in this moment.
How do you do that?
And the guy just responded with,
what are you talking about?
And so then Homer pressed him,
he said, well, you realize, listen,
like, you're different.
Like, no one else is worshiping like you are.
And his response is the moment I think it kind of clicked
for both of us. He said, what do you mean
I'm the only one worshiping like this?
And that moment, it's kind of the lights
kind of click on, and you see that glaze
over his eyes, realizing that
he was blind.
That he walked into this
moment
to meet with the king
of the universe,
and with reckless abandonment,
and was going to worship this God,
because he couldn't help but speak of these things
that were inside of him. It was burning inside of him.
He had to get loose, and he had no idea
that this wasn't the reaction of every follower
of Jesus. His assumption
was that every follower of Jesus,
that if you were once dead, and now you're alive,
that you've been motivated by the cross,
that you're marked by Christ, like,
it's obvious that you're going to lose your mind
for Jesus, because he's done so much
for you and I.
And his response
haunts me today.
What do you mean I'm the only one?
Church may not be said of us.
As we leave this place,
may our message be really clear.
May we be marked
by Christ, and it be so obvious that we've
been with him.
And may we be motivated
and propelled by the cross.
So I want to invite
the band up, and we're going to continue
in some time, at a time of worship,
and
if this is your first time
I'm here at Resonate,
we're going to enter into a time of communion,
and you're going to see to your left
and to your right,
we have these stations,
we have bread and juice.
And on the night that Jesus
has portrayed, he gathers those closest
boys together in a room, and he has this
one last meal, and he
spurs us on to remember,
remember what he's done,
less we forget, because we're so,
we're so easily forgetful, we forget
the cross, we forget what Christ did
for us, and we try to do this thing on our own,
and he said, hey, take communion,
every time you do this, remember what I did
for you, that my blood was shed for you,
the juice that represents Christ's blood
that was shed on a cross to redeem
us, to pay the debt that we owed.
As we break the bread
remembering that Christ's body was broken
for us,
and we remember,
because we're just really prone to
forget.
And so tonight, in this time
of worship, you're going to have an opportunity
to just kind of head that direction to
break the bread, to dip it in the juice,
and remember.
Let me pray,
and then we'll worship. Father,
tonight,
Father, may we not forget
what you've done
for us,
and may our message to
a world of your death,
burial, and resurrection
be so clear.
May our time
with you mark us to where we begin
to look less and less like our old
selves, and more and more like you,
Jesus, because that's our hope.
And on the days that are really hard, and the
days that we forget,
may we look to the cross,
and may we head that direction.
We love you, Jesus.
