Unashamed Faith | Dream Big | Week 9

A reveal can thrill or sting, but it always tells the truth. We opened with lighthearted stories, then shared a milestone that took our breath away: our church family pledged 2.4M over two years. That number isn’t a headline to frame; it’s a compass. Every dollar represents a person within reach who needs hope, healing, and a living encounter with Jesus. It also exposed something deeper—our commitment to pray, fast, and follow wherever God leads, even when it interrupts our comfort.

From there we moved into the core of our message: living unashamed of the gospel. Paul’s words in Romans 1:16 are more than a slogan. They remind us that the gospel is God’s power to save, restore, and realign lives. We contrasted crowd-pleasing religion with cross-shaped discipleship, told real stories of fasting that reshaped desires, and pressed into repentance that actually repairs relationships. Not the vague kind, but the kind that picks up the phone, names the wound, and chooses a new way forward. We asked what it looks like to carry a daily cross in a loud culture—courage without cruelty, clarity without pride, and public faith without performative hype.

As we looked ahead, we talked about why this moment is a starting line. Buildings and budgets are tools, not trophies. The mission is people—our neighbors, co-workers, and families who have yet to meet Jesus. If this is truly His work, it’s unstoppable; our role is radical surrender. Imagine hundreds of us fasting weekly, praying at set times, confessing quickly, and inviting boldly. Imagine the ripple in our county as ordinary obedience adds up. That’s the future we see, and we’re stepping into it together.

If this resonates, join us. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs courage, and leave a review with one bold step you’re taking this week. Let’s go all in—daily.

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Transcript

Welcome And The Power Of Reveals

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hello, this is Jamie Bridges, and thank you so much for joining us for this week's podcast. All of our services are inspired and built straight from the Bible. Let's get into this week's message recorded at Life Community Church.

Gender Reveal Story And Lessons

SPEAKER_02 0:17

What's going on? Everybody good? You should be the most rested. I mean, I know it's 9:52 and your bodies. I mean, the 7:30 people, they were struggling. It was 6:30, you know. This is the reason you weren't here. You guys good? Hey, this uh my name is Jamie. First time here, thanks for uh checking us out. Uh thanks for being at our 1030 service. The last I would say a couple months, you guys. We've been kind of in this dream big moment where we're just asking the Lord and dreaming about the things that He's what we feel like He's asking of us. And so thank you for uh the way you've leaned in. And uh I feel like this is our reveal weekend, and uh, you know, reveal, you know, culturally, revealing moments in culture. You got like, you know, Apple reveals their new iPhone. You got like Beast Games, the reveal of the last, you know, the last two. Any Beast Game people? Yeah, every Thursday? Okay. Um, and then like you got like the draft, right? The NFL, the NBA draft. This is a reveal moment. You have lottery winners when they found out, like, oh my gosh, reveal. I won$350 million. This is incredible, right? And then, of course, number one in society and our culture is gender reveal. And uh, this is one of my favorite moments in December of 22. Um, Casey and Hayden had two girls already, and Casey came to me and said, Listen, I'm gonna give you the ultrasound of what we're having, and you're gonna be the only one that knows what we're having. Me and Hayden do not know. When you reveal it, it's up to you. There's incredible pressure, right? My wife's like, Why did you trust him with it? I only told Sean. Because I knew this moment where I invited her family to come, and and uh in this moment I knew like they had two girls, and I knew Casey wanted a boy, and so I wanted to see this moment of what Casey's face would look like if she was getting another girl. And so in this moment, we counted down and popped pink everywhere, and Casey was like this, oh yay! And you could tell, like, that was not what she wanted, right? And then let it all die down, people would cheering. I said, I'm just kidding, and we popped it and it was blue. It was a great moment, incredible video. But I re what I figured out about reveal moments, though, are reveal moments, they show us something that you can't unsee, unhear, unfeel. And there's levels of excitement, and there's levels of disappointment in these reveal moments. You if you're an Android person, you don't care about Apple's reveal, you're disappointed with Apple in general. You're like the anti-Apple person, and some of you, you just didn't bite the apple, and some of you just do it because you're anti everybody else, right? My Android's the best. You keep saying it over and over again, which I've typically found if you gotta say something over and over again, it tends to be not true. Okay? And you got like the draft people, someone's someone's excited, but someone's not, right? They thought they were gonna be the number one pick or the number 10 pick. You have someone who thought they had all four numbers and they thought they were gonna win. And then there's the like the people who wanted a boy, wanted a girl. And if you're the person in the room that's like, no, I just want a healthy baby, don't we all want healthy babies? Like, isn't that the given? Like the people who's like, no, I just want a healthy baby, they're hiding what they really want. Can we agree on that? Thank you, third service. Because 7:30 was like, it's still early. And nine was like filled with some of 7:30 that was like, it's still early, you're my people. Thanks, Chris.

SPEAKER_03 4:32

Thanks, Chris.

Dream Big Journey And Evaluation

Prayer, Fasting, And Honest Metrics

The Pledge Reveal: 2.4 Million

Vision Beyond Buildings And Next Steps

Prayer Of Thanks And Mission Reset

Unashamed Of The Gospel: Romans 1:16

Miracles, Cost, And No Plan B

Following Jesus Over Ideologies

Bold Witness In A Bold Culture

Surrender Versus Being A Fan

Repentance That Restores Relationships

Daily Discipleship And Public Faith

All In: Imagine The Impact

SPEAKER_02 4:34

So back at Christmas time, uh, my son Jake, uh, whose daughter, him and Laura's daughter just turned one on Thursday. They gave us our first grandchild, right? Told us in December that we're gonna be grandparents again. Let's go! And then they came over last week and said, Alright, boy or girl. Now I'm gonna just throw this out there. I know I want a healthy baby. Just like two teams when you show up, like, do you guys want to win? No, I don't really care about winning. You're not okay. I want a healthy baby. However, it's been 23 years since someone looked at me and said, It's a boy. I've had five straight girls in my life. First was Libby and then Lila, and then the twins, and then a granddaughter. I would not trade any of them. But if you're asking me, dear Jesus, if you're asking me, Jamie, do you want a boy or girl? I'm gonna say, God, let my name live on. God, let there be blue in my future. Twitch, me and Kelly opened it up and was revealed the greatest miracle of all. Two of my girls in this room are shaking their heads because they know this boy gets everything he wants. She knows I'm no longer in this will. It's just the boy now, and Harlow, right? Just know, it's just what it is. So, August, it doesn't matter, his last name will be Bridges. I don't care what his first name is. Right? And August. And so for the last several weeks, months, really, we've been on this journey, and this journey has been, God, what do you want? And listen, people have asked this question. They've said, Have you guys felt pressure as a team? Like, are you stressed? Are you okay? Like, people are checking in with just hear my heart in this. Like, we have not felt stress about where we are. And I say that in all seriousness because this isn't about something that we could do. This has to be about what the Lord wants to do. Okay? This is this is not a moment where I even get an opinion, you guys. This is not that moment. This is a moment where we're just saying, God, we're dreaming and we're allowing you to do this. And I'll talk about this a little bit, but we went on this journey, and for me, it was important to bring someone in that would evaluate us, that would look at our numbers, that would declare. And again, in this reveal moment, know this. And there's been levels of excitement, and in evaluation reveal moments, there's levels of disappointment, right? Because when something is being revealed, so like this past week in soccer and Sid, you understand this? Someone ran an 800 for me in soccer. This was a reveal, and they didn't get the time they wanted, so they're disappointed. We run gassers, which is hard to explain, but somebody did not get the amount of gassers they want. What is that? We're revealing that you're not in the best shape that you thought you were. It's not a negative thing, it's an observation and a revelation that I've not arrived. And can we all agree in this room? None of us in this room have arrived. There's no arrival moment here on this side of heaven. There's no revival arrival moment. All of us are always learning, we're always growing. And so we committed to the Lord to pray, to fast, to dream, to ask the Lord, what do you want to do with our family? Some of you, you gave for the first time, you you fasted for the first time. I love the stories. Like over 100 people at 24 hours of prayer, and and you can put the stats up, Nicole. All you can see all the stats of people that prayed, people that fasted, and and people that showed up at Wednesday's prayer, people that did our daily devotions, or at 256 when people are praying. And I love hearing the stories of people like I've never fasted in my life. I now know what it looks like to give up food and to ask the Lord and to be praying for a co-worker, all these things, and it's a beautiful journey. Beautiful. The conversations, but again, the reveal moment, because I do I feel this, you guys. To no measure where we're at as a church isn't our attendance on Sunday, it's who's showing up to the prayer meetings, who's showing up and praying. Because this has never been about making a crowd, it's always been about making disciples. And what we've learned, what we've learned is I'll be honest with you, like there's levels of disappointment. I was disappointed the day we prayed in Columbia, knowing that we're praying in other communities, and 30 people showed up. I had hurt, right? There's or two or four or whatever that showed up in in Jupo or Waterloo, like it it there's the levels of like guys, I expected us. So hear my heart. This isn't just a this is a revelation that we've that what we've not arrived. There's still people that need to know Jesus, there's still depths that we need to go to, there's still ways we need to keep trusting. Like, if you ever thought this was about an arrival, and we're gonna throw a number up and we're gonna just this is the starting point, not the ending point. This is us going on this journey and it's ups and downs and ends and outs, it's it's a lot. And we know when we hired Injoy that they said, like, listen, statistically, if you got 205 family units give towards this project, that's a win. We had 230. They said, yeah, absolutely. They said almost 400 people. They said, listen, as a as a church, based on your past giving, if you had$750,000 that came in over the next two years, that is a win. If you had$1.35 million come in over the next two years, that is a victory. And their number is if you brought in two million dollars, that is a miracle for your capacity of people at your church. But again, we're not talking about what we can do, we're talking about what God can do. And so I believe God saw that 1.3 number. Just like I think some of us have looked at a doctor in the past and said, I hear what you're saying, doc, but I don't know that you know my Jesus. But because some of you sat down and said, God, what do you want? God, where are you stretching us? Where are you being faithful? What was pledged, what was given was 2.4. Come on. Let's go. Listen, that that is not a dollar amount, that's the understanding that every dollar represents a soul still, and that within 20 miles of 626 West Bottom, there are 650,000 people, of which many of them don't know Jesus. And I've heard this, you guys. Why do we need to do this? Can we just be content, happy where we are? Can you just add another service? And maybe then another, to which I said easily no. Unless you want to go sunrise, which 7:30 told me they're not against because they showed up at 6:30. Sunrise about 640. I'm just not you, not you. Can we have a six o'clock in the evening? Yeah, I hear you. No. What are you asking of us right now? Because we want to lean in to what it is that you're doing, not what we're mustering up, not what we could do. So I understand. I understand that there are questions, and I understand that there are doubts. And we're still going to the Lord. But hear me, If somebody didn't give two million dollars, and then the rest gave 400. There was not a what I would deem a major gift. That number. This was ten thousand, five thousand, twenty thousand, fifty thousand, seventy-five, hundred thousand. Sixteen thousand, fifteen thousand. This was a combination of over four hundred people who said, We believe in this. I don't want to be a spectator. I want to jump in. So again, thank you, Jesus, right? Absolutely. In the next couple weeks, we'll we'll start chatting about what this looks like. Obviously, uh enjoy they've called us a couple times and said we're pumped. The bank has looked at us and said, We're pumped. You know, and we're just praying, we're like, okay, God, what's next? What's next? And so I'll keep you posted, right? Can we pray together? God, first and foremost, above all else, God, thank you. Thank you for the way you love us. Constantly extend your grace and your mercy to us. God, we are blown away by your goodness to us. And God, we know that this is this is a starting point. We we gotta pray harder, we gotta serve stronger, we gotta invite more people, we gotta believe even bigger. Because the mission of Jesus has always been the same. The Son of Man came to seek and to save those that were lost. This is what we're talking about. There are lost people that don't know you. So, God, I thank you for the people in this room, their faith, I thank you for their sacrifice. I don't just say this on a cliche. I do believe the best days of the church are ahead of us. This is not a the glory days moment, the best days are ahead of us. Not because of a building, but because of what you're doing on the earth. The best days are ahead. So, God, we thank you. We give you praise and honor that you're worthy of it because of God. This is what you did. In Jesus' name. Amen. About what it is that God wants to do through and in the church. I think it's pivotal for this hour. I think this is a very difficult message to preach in the United States of America. So I'm going to preface you after doing this twice, what I know to be true, what I know to be difficult with what I'm about to say to you. I'm asking you to take this to the Lord. The scriptures that we're talking about. I'm asking you to dig deep in the scriptures, to discover things for yourself. When Paul looked at Timothy, he said, Timothy, your responsibility in discipleship is first to you. You cannot disciple others until you understand discipleship for you and discipline life. So what I'm asking of you, what I'm asking or believing the Bible is saying about us the church, including life community church, I'm asking you to take to the Lord as a young person in this room who probably have the most child like faith. Because you've not been tainted by tradition and how we used to do it. I'm asking you from a generation standpoint to lead us. I'm asking you to continue in your faith by digging deep and leaning in. That you are not the next generation. You are the generation that will lead us now. If you want a next generation church, there's plenty of them around, and I'll tell you, most of them, not all of them, but most of them are dying. I don't say that out of condemnation or judgment. But if we don't understand that this generation plays a huge role today, we're missing the point of what God is doing on the earth. Okay? This is not welcome to big church. This is welcome to the church. Okay. And what God is asking of us, what we're believing for, because listen, our culture is not less religious. It's more religious than ever. It is more religious than ever. The question is not whether people will believe something, the question is what they will believe. But hear me, people are preaching something. And that's why at this moment, when Paul is looking at the Roman church, he sees men and women who uh believe differently than he does. They don't believe what he's saying, they disagree with him. And Paul then has to make this statement in Romans 1:16 for I am not ashamed of the gospel. That was controversial, you guys. That was controversial for Paul to say, I'm not ashamed. Why? Because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes. He doesn't say I respect it, he doesn't say I'm comfortable with the gospel, he doesn't say I privately believe the gospel, he says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Why? Because Paul understood it was power, it was power to forgive sins, it was power to forgive uh not just iniquities, but to save marriages, to realign families, it was it was to restore and to rescue lost people, like he understood the power of the gospel, and so for that he was saying, I'm unapologetic, I'm not ashamed of this. You guys disagree with my ideologies, you disagree in my theology, you disagree with all these things. This is why later on he says, Listen, good has become evil, evil has become good, because this is how culture is twisted. Political like this is the twisting, and that's why he says, in the end times, watch out. People will listen to what itching, their itching ears will listen to things that are soft or things that are aren't uh aren't aren't the gospel related and they'll fall away or they'll drift away. Why? Because we want something comfortable that's not Jesus. So as an American culture, we've not taken a bold approach. We've made we've taken an easy approach. Come to Jesus, it's easy, things will get a lot easier until it doesn't. And then what? And then what? The Bible says that Jesus is teaching the disciples, and it says there's a lot of them. There's more than the twelve. The twelve up to this point, they've left their homes, they've left their jobs to follow Jesus. And they're there. And Jesus is talking to a big group of disciples, people who've left everything. Why? Because miracles will always attract people. Up until this point, that's what's happening. People are attracted to Jesus because of what he's doing in their lives. He's reading 5,000, he's saying these people are being healed, all these things. And then Jesus comes to this point where he starts talking about the cross. Guys, I'm gonna lay my life. Time the Son of Man did not come to serve to be served but to serve and to what give his life as a ransom. He starts saying things like people, you're gonna eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, and people are like, Whoa, whoa, whoa. Got freaky. Right? And the Bible says they started walking away. Church split right there. The disciples are there. He looks at Peter and he says, What? Will you guys leave me too? And what does Peter say? Peter says, We don't have a plan B. Where else would we go? Only you have the words of eternal life. Keep in mind, up to this point, Jesus has already rebuked Peter publicly. He rebuked him publicly. And he said to him, Get behind me, devil. When what? When Peter didn't align with why Jesus had come. Peter had a problem with salvation. Peter had a problem with Jesus going to the cross. He said, Lord, that's not gonna happen. And what did he say? Get behind me, devil. And now Peter is saying, only you have the words of eternal life. What's eternal life? Get behind me, devil. What does that mean? It means Peter was so spiritually mature that even in his offense of being called the devil, he didn't leave. Huge problem. This is a pet peeve. Some may disagree with me. You do not have church hurt, you guys. You don't. Susie hurts you, Johnny hurts you, that guy over there hurt you. You have a people hurt. It wasn't the church. It wasn't the bride of Christ. It was someone who was a person who's hurt you. And it was wrong. But don't walk away. In this moment where Peter could have walked away, he didn't. He said, Only you, Jesus, have the words of eternal life. There are gonna be people that hurt you, there are gonna be people that disagree with you. Paul is standing up going, guys, that doesn't diminish our boldness in declaring that I am unashamed of the gospel. I'm unashamed. Why? Because it is power to save. He understood if we ever take out of alignment the power of which we move and change and are healed, this isn't about what I can do to you. It's not about what so-and-so can do to you. It's not about being healed by Jim and Louise on a Tuesday or coming to this small group and this leader healing you. If Jesus isn't doing it, that's what it's all about. This is about giving man glory. This is about giving. If if you're serving someone other than Jesus, then you've made that individual or that person an idol. It's the reason I have a problem in this hour that we have become quiet when it comes to who people are serving. We live in a culture that people are actually serving Muhammad more than they are Jesus Christ. And you have a political sect that is defending the Muslim faith. Do you understand that the Muslim faith thinks every single one of you in this room, because you're here in this, you should be beheaded right now? Do you understand that? That you're the infidel? That you're the one who is standing in the way of the plans of Muhammad, who's buried by the way, never rose again, was a sex offender to say the least. And oh, we can't talk about that because we might hurt someone's. We better start talking about it. Because right now, instead of defending people who are dying because of their faith, we're defending political leaders who are Muslim. This isn't about you putting Romans 116 on your social media or wearing a shirt that you're unashamed. This is about you getting in society and going, hey, I'm gonna just let you know that's wrong. And I'm unashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so if it's if it's Muhammad, if it's Buddha, if it's Calvin, if it's Joseph Smith, if it's a mega church pastor that you follow, and if it's more than Jesus, you put an idol in front of them and you're not following the way, the truth, and the life. There's only one way to the Father. It's through the Son Jesus. He made it very clear. There's no multiple options. And I know in America we love options. That's not what he's talking about. He's saying there's one way, and his name is Jesus. That's it. That's all there is. And if we're not going to be bold about it, I'm telling you, you're gonna get steamrolled. Because there's a group of people who are being bold about it. Well, I don't want to offend anyone. Well, they have no problem doing that to you. We were never intended as followers of Jesus to blend in. We were always intended to stand out, to be different. Not for the sake of being different. I'm not saying do weird crap. That's not what I'm saying. I'm not saying don't be different just to be different. I'm gonna walk in. I'm walking in my job on Monday, I'm jumping up on that table and I'm declaring they're all simple. Nope, don't do that stuff. Don't do that, weirdo. That's not what I'm saying. That's not what I'm saying, unless the Lord tells you to. This is not new, you guys. There's there's always been ideologies and and thinking, but you know what's different about today? Do you know where the number one place where more people are coming to Jesus is? Anyone know? Iran is the correct answer. More people are coming to Jesus in Iran than anywhere else. You know why that is? Because people don't just say he's the way, the truth, and the life. Unless he shows up, they may not live. I mean, I have a f we have a friend growing up. He was in South America where we're at, and his name was Muhammad Ishmael. Do you do you understand what religion he followed? Mohammed Ishmael. And one night on the radio, someone was preaching and said, if you believe on Jesus, we believe that God can heal you through this radio. Kids are radio. I'm just kidding. And he said, God, if you're real, I know what doctors say, but if you're real, heal me. And if you do, I'll commit the rest of my life to serving you, though it might cost me my life, it might cost me my family. And God in that moment healed him. And he became a pastor. And he moved to New York and pastored in New York, a Guyanese. He died in 1997 of a heart attack. But he denounced his Muslim faith. Why? Because God showed up in his bedroom and healed his body. He could not deny what Jesus had done. This is not about a fluffy altar call. And I'm not downplaying how you got saved, where you got saved, if Billy Graham was talking or the right song was talking. But there's no, like, there's no, there's no warm, fuzzy feeling moment. It's like, God, if you don't show up, if you don't move in the miraculous, I don't know if I'm gonna live here. I don't know if I'm gonna make it. Like, my problem isn't that we don't know about Jesus. My problem is I don't know that we know Jesus. I think we're really good at knowing about him. But do we know him? Has he shown up on your behalf? Has he radically can't is there undeniable proof? Like, guys, you don't understand. Like, you know why Muhammad Ishmael had no problem declaring who Jesus was? Because he saw them move. And his kids saw him move, and his family saw them move. When Jesus invites us, he said, whoever wants to be my disciple must first deny themselves. Take up their cross daily and follow me. The invitation is death. The invitation is dying to what I want. That's why I threw up a lot of stats. My favorite stat is the individual said, I've never fasted in my life. I've never given up food and I gave it up. And in giving it up, I realized that I denied my flesh something that it always craved. And in that desire, that craving switched to a desire to go after Jesus, to where I will never not fast the rest of my life. That is a bigger win than the dollar amount, than all of that. That someone now says, so when Jesus said this kind of fast, this kind of healing only happens when you pray and fast. So now you have a church who's understanding that 300 people fasted. If all of us would fast one day a week and say, God, I'm killing my flesh one day a week, one hour a day, whatever it is, I'm killing it, and I'm going after you hard that day. What would happen in our community? What would happen in this county? When Peter got up and and preached the word, and the Bible said, 5,000 people said yes to Jesus. Do you think Peter goes, This is too many? I need about half of you. I can't handle the crowd. Do you not understand what God? This is why I have a problem when people say, No, no, no. I I like where we're at, I like being comfortable, I like doing all these things. It feels like we can't control it. I don't want to control it. I don't want to. Because if I can control it, then it's about me. As I meet with guys, Pastor Mike meets with guys, 70, 75 years old, and they've taken a mindset. And this mindset is I'm gonna build a church. And when I die, the church will probably die with me. That's a horrible mindset. Horrific. The problem isn't that mindset, the problem is they actually believe it and they're okay with it. They're okay with the fact that they've put their blood, sweat, tears, prayer into a church and they've built it. Jesus said, unless the Lord builds the house. Everything that we're doing is laboring in vain. If this is Jesus, you can't stop it. You can't stop it. If it's Jesus, you cannot stop it. In the sports world, there's a saying, and I like the saying, I usually yell it to a ref. It's the ball don't lie. The ball goes out of bounds. I know it's our throw-in. All of a sudden they get a foul throw-in. I might yell, the ball don't lie. Sir. In the church world, this is not about us conjuring up something. This is about the ball not lying. If it's God, you can't stop it. You cannot stop it. This is not about us, you guys. What Jesus is asking in this moment. As a church. You can read Not a Fan yourself. It's one of my favorite books by Kyle Eidelman. Not a fan. Am I a fan of Jesus or a follower of Jesus? And he asks those questions. Jesus is not looking for fans. He's looking for followers. He's looking for men and women going, God, I give it to you. What does that look like? It looks like surrender, you guys. Surrendering is the hardest part. Man, it is so hard to surrender. It's so hard to surrender. Control, plans, your comfort, your reputation, your possession, your relationships. Man, it's so difficult to surrender. That's what going all in means. Going all in means this. Jesus, everything I am, everything I have, it belongs to you. Like that's surrender. And this means Lord becomes Lord, not just Savior. That's what He's asking. And then from surrender, He's asking us to be men and women who repent. It's not a word we like to throw around a lot. I think a lot of us, we have no problem repenting to the Lord. But my repentance to the Lord has to always then go the other way. Because in my moments with the Lord, in my repenting to the Lord, he's always gonna ask him, because this is who he is, he's always gonna ask us to live like he lives. So in repenting to the Lord, if repenting to the Lord doesn't turn to repentance to anybody else, we've misunderstood what repenting to the Lord is. Repenting to the Lord is turning from the direction that you were going and going a different direction. So if you came and said, I'm giving my life to the Lord, I'm surrendering, and you're sleeping with your girlfriend, stop sleeping with your girlfriend. I'm giving my life to Jesus and I'm surrendering, but I I surrender to alcohol every day. It's you stop surrendering to alcohol. It's not you going, oh, I'm gonna ease into it or I'm gonna take myself off. No, I believe that there is a God that can deliver you right now. Repentance activates restoration. It doesn't happen without it. So when the prodigal son comes home in Luke 15, he had thought about it, he wanted to do it, and when the father saw him, he ran after him. And what? His heart was bent on coming home. Repentance is you saying, I'm coming home. The father literally shushes his son's mouth. Why? Because he understood the son that he thought was dead is now alive. There's something beautiful about repentance that happens. I'll put it this way I'm married almost 29 years. If I'm going to the Lord and I'm surrendering my life, and God says, Jamie, as a husband, as a father, I'm dealing with you on these areas, and I need you to understand these areas. And I'm surrendered to the Lord. And in surrendering to the Lord, now my Monday conversation with Kelly, as we're driving, doing the things that we do when we have a day day on Mondays, as we're driving, I say to her, the Lord has been speaking some things to me. And in what he's saying to me, I want you to know I'm sorry for acting like this. I'm sorry for acting like this. I'm sorry for doing these things. And in doing that, she's gonna respond in such a beautiful way, right? Because who in that moment's gonna go, you're a liar. No, you're not. You've always done that. Why? Because I understand repentance before the Lord, it translates into repentance here. See, all of this comes around to the communication that we're communicating to people. See, when I'm silent, you guys, when I say nothing, when I do nothing, I leave assumption on the table. But when I communicate how I'm feeling, guys, hear me. When we're communicating expectations, hard things, listen, most of the time the things you're dealing with right now have nothing to do with what you're dealing with right now. They go all the way back here when we've never talked about the things that happened over here. They're always bringing up in this moment, but we should have addressed it back here. What is that? I've not surrendered back here. I've said, God, you can have all of this, just not this. This is always going to rear its ugly head at a time when you don't expect it. Like a flat tire or car troubles or anything like that. It's not in a moment where you got nothing to do. It's usually your busiest day. Oh, I had the best start to the day and then a flat tire. On Poplar Street Bridge at 8 a.m. on a Monday. Actually, true story. Horrible. Right? Thank God for Modak. They started getting flipped off instead of me. What I don't deal with over here, here's the problem, right here. If I don't surrender it, if I don't repent of it, I have no control of when that will come out. And all of a sudden, someone says something. And it wasn't that person's fault, it was just I've never dealt with it back here. And next thing you know, that comes out. What is that? I haven't surrendered that to the Lord. I haven't killed my flesh in that area. I've made that moment something that I still want to control. I have to surrender it, I have to repent of it, I have to trust the Lord completely, I have to live as a disciple daily. This is not a Sunday thing, you guys. This is an everyday thing. I have to go public with it. Do you know that defining the relationship with Jesus is going public with your relationship with Jesus? Listen to me. When you're dating someone, that is one of the most awkward moments of all time. Defining the relationship. Because the fear is, I'm gonna tell you how I feel, but I don't know if you feel the same. And there's nothing relationship-wise more awkward when you say, Hey, I want you to know I have feelings for you, or I love you. Why didn't you say it back? But with Jesus, while we were still sinners, Christ died. I'm not waiting on Jesus to define the relationship, he's waiting on me. I already know how he feels, I already know what he's done. This is me just saying, I'm surrendering my life and I'm joining the mission. I am going public, I'm joining the mission, I'm going all in with Jesus, which means there is no part of my life where I can say, Jesus, you can't have this. I think for some of us, we just did it back in camp in 2006, and we're living off that moment. But Jesus in Luke 9 doesn't say moments, he says daily. I think we're good at repenting in moments. We struggle repenting daily. I tell people all the time success is not doing something occasionally, it's doing something consistently. That's where you get success. You want your relationship with the Lord to deepen, make it a daily relationship and not a weekend visitation. Listen, some of us in this room, we have horrible home lives, and that's an example of us. And sometimes we treat our heavenly father like we know growing up, and we give him only weekend visitation, and then we wonder why the relationship, listen, Jesus didn't move. We did, and the invite is always a daily relationship. Jesus invited us to surrender everything, not just something, not just one thing, everything. Everything. All in. What happens, you guys? What happens if every single one of us went all in? See, that's what tree big is about to me.

SPEAKER_01 42:37

That's what tree big is about to me.

SPEAKER_02 42:44

I can't even fathom what would happen. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing. Jesus, right now. God, I thank you for the invite. I thank you for the challenge. I thank you for the way that you love us. God, thank you for meeting us where we're at, not just where we hope to be. This is where we are. In the middle of our mess, in the middle of our crazy, in the middle of the chaos, you meet us. You said, Come to me. All of you are burdened and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

SPEAKER_01 43:32

God, you invite us. God, would you give us the strength to trust you? Not just with the easy parts, but God with the difficult.

Closing Prayer And Invitation

SPEAKER_02 43:42

For the person in this room that has unforgiveness, hurt, pain. And you're hurting right now. You're like, I don't know how I'm gonna make it. I'm so angry, I'm so mad, my life is full of hate, God. Thank you that you meet us there. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power. We unapologetically, as a church, declare you are the one. You are the way.

SPEAKER_01 44:13

You are the truth. You're the life. God, keep doing your thing. We keep surrendering to your thing. To your thing. In Jesus' name.

unknown 44:26

Amen.