The Message of the Cross

As growing up, my mother, she always made me go to church, no matter what time it was, no matter what day. Always. If the doors were open, I was there. Until, um, when I was old enough, when I didn't have to go to church, I quit. And that was probably when I was like 16.

So then I, I just took off and went on my own. That's when I was introduced to alcohol. I just did it to, you know, a couple times or whatever, but it wasn't just a couple of times. It ended up being a lifetime, almost. I mean, for 40 years, it, it took control of my life. I would move and thinking that if I moved and got away from these people, then it would stop, but it didn't. I mean, it's like those people are magnets.

So I got married, and, um, he was in the Navy, so he was never home. So I had a baby. So I thought, well, I'm raising him by myself, so I might as well just take the baby. And so we moved back to Texas, divorced him, came back to Abilene. And so then I had the perfect nanny. My mother, she was the biggest enabler I'd ever had. So she took care of Eric while I went and I continued my partying. The DWI started coming, and my mom was even the biggest enabler in that.

Well, the first time I revoked my probation was after the fourth DWI, and that's the first time I went to prison. I did two years of a four-year sentence. So I had two years left. And so I came back to Abilene. I mean, as soon as I got out, I went straight back to it. And so, of course, that led me going, I got another DWI. So that led me back to prison again.

After three times of going to prison, I finally realized I had bonds out in all different places, all different towns. I finally decided that it was time to stop. And so I called all my bondsmen and I said, "Go off my bonds. I'm going to turn myself in."

After three years of being in prison, I had the same job. I did the same thing every single day, which was drive a tractor with the big trailer on the back of it. And one day I had, I messed up and I ran into a tower, one of the big towers. You know, I was arrested and I was put in solitary confinement for 10 days. They strip you of everything you own. You have nothing, nothing whatsoever. They put you in a single cell in the dark. And the cell that I was placed in was a Bible. And three times a day, a guard would come in and check your cell and make sure that you haven't kept anything and there's no contraband, you haven't kept food or anything like that. But not one time out of those three times a day for 10 days did that guard ever see that Bible.

I decided that I would pick that Bible up and read it and see what, you know, who this Jesus guy was, because I needed something way bigger than me to pull me out. I mean, I found the most peace that I'd had ever when I picked that Bible up and started reading it. The Lord, he has taken my mess and turned it into a message. And I found freedom in the place that was designed for no one to have freedom.

And after I found the Lord while I was locked up this last time, I said, "I'm going to keep this because of the peace that I found." And so that meant to me not coming back to Abilene. But the place I went to closed down within two weeks. And so I had two weeks to find somewhere else to go. And I'm like, all doors were closed but Abilene. So I said, "Okay, Lord, if you send me back to Abilene, you can't put anybody from my past in my path. You have to keep all those people away from me."

I went to New Beginnings and I met a lady and she asked me if I wanted to go to church. And so I let her pick me up for church and she took me to Beltway. And I mean, the minute I walked in that church, I was like, "Wow, these people have something I want." She got me into a life group. She put me in Freedom classes. She did all the things that I would have not known to do, you know what I mean? She was my spiritual mom, my mentor.

Now, the place that I live, I'm a house manager for women that need a safe place to live. And if you would have asked me this five years ago, I would have told you you were crazy that that was no way that that would ever happen. And I'm in a leader in a recovery, in recovery groups here in Abilene now. I go back into prison and I teach a class there. I just know that that I'm done with that, with that past that I had. It's gone. And it's all thanks to the Lord. Thank you.

Well, good morning. I could just say amen right now and we'd be finished, right? That is enough of a message right there. But it's not going to happen. Man, I want to know, I want you to know what, how incredible it is to be with you today. We have, um, people who are part of our South Campus, our North Campus. We love having you, our online family. And if you don't know, we also have a group of men that are doing boot camp right now. There's like 600 of them. And we're celebrating, catch this, 134 of them confess Jesus as Lord and Savior in baptism last night. So [Applause].

Listen to me. Jesus is changing lives. And I'm confident He can change yours because I've seen Him change mine. It was this past June, I went on a journey. And I, I really don't know how to describe the journey to you other than take what we're doing in our Purify workbook and intensify it many times over. Now, don't mishear me. I'm not saying that you have to do that to be able to get free in any form or fashion. What we're doing is incredible. I've done it numerous times. I probably did the first version of Purify over 20 years ago. I've done it several times using different facets of it, almost annually in my life. And even with the intensity of what I did three months ago, I'm still going through the Purify workbook again. Say, "I want you to hear." I'm in. I want everything Jesus died for me to have. But what I need you to know as we go on this journey is it's not a one-time thing. Freedom is not, "I've been there, done that, bought the T-shirt" kind of journey. It is the journey of our life as followers of Jesus. And the reason for this "Made for More" series is not just to go through something, but to equip us, to give us tools. There are beliefs that we're going to need to go back to again and again, that go into deeper ways. There's things that we need to do again and again in our lives so that we can have lives that are increasingly free.

See, the scripture says, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free." Stand firm then. Question: Why do we need to stand? That tells us that freedom is not static. It's not like you get some place and you're there forever. Believe it or not, you can keep going forwards, or you can actually go backwards. Trust me, I've done it, man. I've done it.

The past three and a half years. Anybody remember March 2020? You're thinking, thinking, "Boom, you got it now." The past three and a half years have been some of the toughest of my life. I know it's not true of everybody. That has been for me. And in some areas, I'm going to tell you honestly, in some areas, I have stood firm. I have been strong and moved forward in the things of the Lord. But there's in other areas that I have to be honest that I just gave up ground and went backwards.

But the good news is this: I knew what to do. I knew that there were beliefs, foundational things that I could go back into and get deeper inside of me. And there were things that I could do, things I could confess, things that I could deal with. Now, does that mean I wasn't frustrated? Now, I was frustrated. I was frustrated that I let the enemy take back ground in my life, that the enemy deceived me and stepped back into some old patterns of, of slavery. And such, irritated at that? Absolutely. But I also knew a reality. Listen to it. Because some of you are there. Some of you are like, "As I'm stepping into stuff, it's like I've already dealt with this. Why am I here again?"

But hear the good news: "If a thief is caught, he must pay back seven times." How many times? Say, seven. He must pay back seven times what he stole. And Jesus once said of our enemy, "He is a thief who comes to steal, kill, and destroy." If I may, when we catch the thief in our lives, we begin to recognize what he has done. We don't just go back to where we were. We actually get to step into more. We get to move forward. We don't just return to where we once were. We are watched well into the more that Jesus died for us to have. I will tell you, I am far freer today than I was in March 2020.

Jesus said He came to die that I might be free. "It is for freedom that Christ has set me free." And the way that we can honor Jesus the most is by living in that which He died for us to have. And I'm confident it can be true of you and of me because of one reality. Listen to it: Freedom is rooted. Freedom is empowered, not in what I do, but in what Jesus did. You don't have to come up with the power. You don't have to make it happen. All you have to do is plug in.

Most of you probably remember the freeze. For the next 10, 15 years, we will talk about the freeze that happened a couple of winters ago. And in the freeze, for over half of our city, was without electricity. We learned just how plugged in as a society we are, did we not? There were things that we forgot about that are normal in our everyday life that are relying upon electricity. We use electricity far more than we realize. And during that freeze, we realized we don't generate power, we just utilize it. All we do is plug into the power. We tap into a power generated by another.

Who, when it comes to freedom, when we talk about living in freedom, the more and more that Jesus died for us to have, living each and every day in abundance that the enemy is trying to take from us, it's not about what I do, but it's about what Jesus did. This is massive. Listen to me. You don't have to go find the power. You don't have to whip it up. You don't have to create it somehow in your life. We just have to plug in. Say, "Plug in." We said, "Plug into what Jesus did." That's why the scripture says, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those of us who are being saved, it is the power of God."

Notice the phrase "being saved." Some people think, "Well, if I'm being saved, then I'm not saved." No, no. The Bible talks about it in all three tenses: I have been saved, I'm being saved, and I will be saved. Being saved is another way of saying that the thing Jesus did is becoming more and more real in my life. If I may, being saved is the journey of freedom. And it happens because not of my power, not because I find the principles of God and I, by my own will, live those things out. What is the power of God? The cross.

Now, let's be honest. At first glance, 1 Corinthians 1 doesn't seem to be accurate because it says the message of the cross is foolishness. But you look at our society, man, there are crosses everywhere, are there not? I mean, people from all walks of life will choose to decorate homes and offices with crosses. You can go online and there are literally tens of thousands of various crosses of decor that you and I can choose from to decorate with. People from all walks of life will tattoo crosses on their bodies. They will wear jewelry that has tattoos on it. I dare you, look at our society and notice how often the symbol of the cross is used. No one seems offended. No one seems to be fool, seems foolish about that. But I want you to know, the scripture doesn't say that the image of the cross is foolishness. It says the what? The message of the cross.

And I would challenge that the message of the cross is still foolishness. What I've discovered is our society has actually divorced the symbol of the cross from its biblical reality. To many, if not most people, the symbol of the cross is just a symbol of hope, or it's a symbol of general belief in God. But it's not necessarily connected directly to what Jesus did years ago. I learned this in a very awkward way. I was at a checkout counter at a store. Now, for those of you who are younger, say under 30 years of age, there once existed a day when you wanted to purchase something that you actually had to go to a physical location called the store. There were no apps, there were no online services, there was no Amazon, no Walmart.com, nothing like that. You actually went to a store. And when you went to that store and you needed to purchase that item, you didn't get to use an app on a phone. You didn't get to do a self-checkout. Saying no, no, no. You waited in a line. You got up to a counter and there was, and this is radical, a person. And that person processed all your items so that you could make payment. I was doing that thing. The young lady who was processing all my stuff, getting me ready for payment, I noticed she had a cross necklace on. And I, being me, just said, "Hey, are you a Christian?" She looked utterly shocked. That was not the question she expected at that moment. And she was surprised. And I said, "Oh, you got a cross necklace. Does that mean you're a follower of Jesus?" And she went, "Oh, oh, this? No, no, it doesn't mean anything. I just like the way it looked."

People like the image of the cross. But I would challenge that people still struggle with the message of the cross. Will still consider it foolish because the cross shouts something to you and I. Are we willing to hear it? You and I can do nothing to get free or stay free. We can't work hard enough to earn it. We can't do enough good things to make it happen. We can't buy self-will. We can't buy good old Texas grit and determination to get free or stay free. Freedom is rooted. Freedom is empowered by one thing and one thing only. It is empowered by the cross. And that is still offensive.

When Jesus was on the cross, scripture says in John's gospel that a jar full of sour wine stood nearby. So they put it on a sponge and they put it on a hyssop branch and they held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished." And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. Now, when we read that, I think we miss the intensity of what Jesus was saying. We see, "It is finished," and Jesus said, "I'm finished. I'm done. Process over." But that's not exactly what He said. But I'm going to challenge you that Jesus didn't even say "It is finished." He didn't say three words. He only said one word. I know you're looking real intently at the screen right now and go, "No, dude, come on. You're having trouble counting, aren't you? It is finished. One, two, three. I've got that down." But I need you to please know, the Bible wasn't originally written in English. The Old Testament was written in an ancient form of Hebrew. The New Testament in an ancient form of Greek with some Aramaic words thrown in. Now, you don't have to understand Hebrew or Greek to be able to engage the Bible. Our modern translations are awesome. I know a little bit of the ancient languages, but I don't know them thoroughly. Again, English versions of the Bible are great. But every so often, there's a nuance, there's a little detail that we can grab from the original language that helps us grasp the significance of something.

See, when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, note the word, let it sink in, "tetelestai." It's a Greek word that means a lot of things. In fact, I'm going to go a step further. I don't think Jesus just whispered "tetelestai." I don't think He just kind of casually said it like, "Finally, it's done." We have four accounts of the life of Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They're called the Gospels. And sometimes they show different perspectives or different details, additional details of the same scene. Well, Matthew talks about this time on the cross, "Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, fixed it on a reed and offered Him Jesus a drink." That's exactly what we read in John. But then the next verse in Matthew says, "And Jesus, what? He shouted again with a loud voice and gave up His Spirit." What did Jesus shout? He shouted, "Tetelestai!"

Scholars tell us that humanity has never created a more horrific form of execution than the cross. It was designed to maximize pain and lengthen the time of death. I mean, people could hang on the cross for days and days and days in excruciating pain. In fact, that word "excruciating," you know where it comes from? It's actually of the Latin of the cross. It's where we get the idea. So Jesus is in this excruciating form of punishment. All His energy is gone. Yet He takes one last moment of physical exertion to make sure that you and I would hear one word. He rises up. We know from what happens on the cross, He would have to pull Himself up and push Himself up from the wounds on His feet and His hands. And He pulls Himself up and He shouts to everyone who would hear, "Tetelestai!"

Why? That word has massive implications in the first century. It says so much to you and I and what we do. See, in ancient times, when a painter would finish a painting, he or she would say, "Tetelestai." It's a word that means complete. Now, I am not talking about the doodles you're making on your notes right now, okay? Some of you have learned that to be able to engage our minds when we're listening to something, if I engage my hands like doodling, drawing, or something like that, I do better. Which is perfect. That is absolutely right. But at the end of the service today, you don't get to turn over to your spouse and show them your stick figures and go, "Tetelestai!" Okay? It doesn't work. It's beyond that.

"Tetelestai" is a word of something masterful that has been completed for others to enjoy. But that's not the totality of it. When a worker of old would finish his or her task for a day, she might tell her employer, "Tetelestai, done." It is a word of achievement, stating everything that is necessary to be done has been accomplished. When a prisoner of old would stand before a judge after completing their punishment, their sentence, their prison time was finished, the judge would give them a certificate that it had stamped on it, guess what? "Tetelestai." Served. It was a word of justice served.

Question: How many of you have ever paid a bill? Hands up. Come on. Not a lot of hand raisers in here today. Well, it's not a trick question. I know you've had a bill come to you via the mail. So we'll try again. For everyone, I know the North Campus participated. South Campus is struggling today. How many of you have paid a bill in your life? Hands up. There you go. Have you ever paid off like a big debt? You know what I'm saying? We, we have some, we have a class around here that we do called Financial Peace University. We'd recommend it for every follower of Jesus, how to handle the money that God has given us, uh, in a godly, biblical way. Most of the people who do Financial Peace have some struggles in their life financially. They have major debts. And the scripture says this, "The borrower is a slave to the lender." So when people pay off debts, big debts, you know what it feels like? Freedom, guys. I felt it. I had student loans. And long before the government was helping you pay back your student loans. Yeah, I just said that, right? Yeah. By the way, I'll give you an insight into me. I am a very much a small government kind of guy, okay? That doesn't mean morally big government, small government. It's just a different philosophy. It's not a biblical philosophy. It's a philosophy. I believe in small government. I think it's better for us. So anyway, that's David McQueen. But I paid off student loans that I have, have had houses that we've paid off, church building, several of them. We've gone into debt and we've paid those off. And I'm telling you, when you pay those things off, it feels phenomenal. Well, guess what? In days of old, in ancient times, you paid off a debt, you went to the bank, they stamped your note, "Tetelestai." It means paid. It is a word that says a debt is satisfied. Are you hearing it?

The Greeks, in many ways, were the creator of modern athletics. They were the ones who had the first Olympics. And some of the sports that we still do today in the Olympics were created way back before Jesus by the Greeks. Like one of them would be wrestling. Not WWE kind of wrestling. I'm talking about real kind of wrestling. In life, now, a little known fact about the Greeks is that the Greeks did all of their workouts in the buff. I'm not talking about European Speedo buff. I'm talking about buck naked buff. No clothes, baby. Like, how many of you have been to a gym? Put your hand up. Like in Kisco, anything like that? A gymnasium? Do you know the word "gym"? Gymnasium actually comes from a Greek word, "gymnos," that means naked, without clothes. Yeah. I don't know about you. There's a lot of things I'm grateful for for the modern world. Way up at the top of that list is the fact that we do our athletics with clothes on. All God's people said, "Amen." I am there, babe. To be honest with you, I think spandex is iffy. Come on. Just because they make it in your size does not make it a good idea. You know what I'm saying, right? Listen to me. They make skinny jeans in my size. You've never had to see that. You're welcome. Right? Nobody wants that. But I digress. In ancient times, when a competitor would win a match, a warrior would win a battle, they would yell, "Tetelestai! I win!" "Tetelestai" is a word of victory.

Last image. Many of you have probably engaged in building something like a house. What I've discovered is this: anyone who's gone through the process of building has found it to be stressful. I mean, think about it. You're building something you really want to be a part of something like that, but it is just stressful. And I've heard it again and again. Again, I've experienced it. Have not only built a house, but we've also been part of constructing different buildings around here as tools that God would use. Like right now, we as a church, if you don't know it, we are in a construction project. We're not doing a North Campus or South Campus. It's something different than we've ever done. At South 23rd and Willis, you can drive by there. I ask you to drive by there. We've taken a church building that one once existed, a congregation, Brook Hollow Christian Church, and we're continuing the legacy of faith that's been in that place for over half a century. And we're turning it into Beltway Ministry Center. We're going to have a daycare in there because one of the massive needs in our city right now, especially for those who have some financial difficulties and for foster care, is daycare. We're also going to have a Christ-centered counseling center that we want to be working to work with as many children and teens as we can. We won't work with just children and teens, but we're going to do as many as we can. Listen to me. We love our city. You hear me? We love our city. And it's not just a T-shirt that we wear. We want to do things that serve the needs in the name of Jesus of our community. We do it as individuals as we live to bless, but we're also doing it corporately as a church. So I just want to remind you, we're doing that. Go by there and pray. Pray not only for the construction, it's going great, but pray for the people. There are people who are going to be there who serve those who have needs in our community. And there's going to be people who are coming that have needs. And we believe that God wants to set them free and help them walk in more and more freedom. We believe generations of problems are going to be broken at the Beltway Ministry Center. It is going to be a place of freedom. And every time I mention it, people ask, "Can I be a part of this? Like financially?" Yes. Yes. But if you feel led to do that, just go online to our giving. You'll see you can designate the Beltway Ministry Center. You can give to the construction. You can give to the ongoing operation because we're going to have to scholarship a lot of stuff to do what it is that God has called us to do.

Anyway, you look at that building project, and in the scheme of how things are built, it's going pretty fast. It's going to be like a year and a quarter to do the entire thing. Most modern projects go pretty fast. Did you know that they built the Golden Gate Bridge in four years of actual construction time? You know how long the Hoover Dam took? Actual construction time, five years. The new World Trade Center, actual construction time, you know how long? Six years. Makes you wonder why Buffalo Road's taking so long, right? I, I'm just saying. In days of old, construction didn't go that fast. The Roman Coliseum, amazingly, was done in 10 years. Hundreds of thousands of slaves made it happen. The Great Pyramid of Giza took 20 years to build. And in the time of Jesus, there existed a temple, one of the wonders of the ancient world. It's called the Second Temple, or Herod's Temple. And we know from scripture that it took 40 years to build the temple that Jesus, that was existed in Jesus' time in Jerusalem. In those days, when a builder would finish constructing a building, they would say, "Tetelestai." Built. It was a word of creation.

So think about this now. The final thing Jesus would say on the cross, the one thing He wanted to make sure everybody got. They gave Him some sour wine as a pain relief. And He takes that little bit and He lifts Himself up on the cross. And He wants to make sure that everyone knows why He's doing what He's doing. And He shouts a word, "Tetelestai!" In saying that, He's saying to them, and He's saying to us, "You have a debt, and you don't have the resources to pay that debt. You don't have the skill necessary to paint the masterpiece out of your life that it's designed to be. You don't have the time necessary to serve the prison sentence that heavenly justice demands. You don't have the capacity to build out of your life what I originally designed for you to have." Listen to me. Jesus is saying by saying "Tetelestai," He said, "You can work as hard as you want. You can do as much as you want. And in the end, you will lose. You will have no ability to win on your own."

In that one word, Jesus is slapping the face of humanity's self-reliance. It is an affront to the self-sufficiency that we claim. Because, come on, we as humans, we want to take care of it ourselves, right? Man, we love to say in Texas, "There's no such thing as a free lunch." If you're going to take care of it, you take care of yourself. You pay your way. You earn your way. You do the things that you need to do. I get it. But that's not Christianity. The cross is an insult to our idea of independence. See, the cross shouts, "We're not smart enough. We're not good enough. We're not obedient enough. We're not rich enough. We're not successful enough to get free or to stay free." That is why the message of the cross is and has always been foolishness to those who are perishing. To those of us who've recognized, "Yeah, I don't have enough. I'm not smart enough. I'm not rich enough. I'm not successful enough." When those of us have looked in the mirror and we see that person in the mirror, and we know that person doesn't have what it takes to get me where I know I'm supposed to be, because I was never designed to get me there. I was never designed to live independent.

When we get that, when we are in the process of being saved, we realize the cross and the message of the cross that seems to be utterly absurd to a lot of society, is the greatest message that has ever been proclaimed. It is the greatest thing that has ever been done. It is the power of God.

See, the reason I can be so confident that you can be free, that you can get free from whatever's happened in your life, and you can grow in your freedom is it, I know this: Freedom's not about you. Freedom is not about what you do. Freedom is rooted, not on what I do, but on what Jesus did. And we as a people, we've got to go back again and again and again and just rest in the fact that this isn't up to me. All I got to do is plug in. Jesus did it. He shouted it at you, "Tetelestai!" I paid it. I built it. I created the victory for you. I did it all. All you got to do is plug in. How easy is it to take a plug and just plug it in and watch the power do its thing? That, believe it or not, is the Christian journey.

But we as followers of Jesus, we have this tendency, if we're not careful, we kind of plug in and then we want to grab it back and do it ourselves. It's happened from the beginning. Paul told the church in Galatia, the same church, he said, "Is it for freedom that Christ has set us free? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by what human effort?" Listen to me. You can't get free and grow in freedom by human effort. We plug in. Freedom is empowered by what Jesus did. Freedom is rooted. It is grounded in the work of Jesus. And so you and I, we can just take a deep breath. I don't have to somehow generate a power. I don't have to somehow create it. I don't have to will it. I don't have to make it happen. All I got to do is plug in. All I got to do is get close. And when we do that, listen to me. When we plug in, when we yield to what Jesus has told us to think and what He's told us to do, a mystery happens. And what Jesus did on the cross hits our life and empowers us to become free, to become free just like Him. And the reason is this: What He did is more than enough for whatever you've done. What He did is more than enough for what you've done. "Tetelestai." I paid. Justice served. Life built. Victory obtained. Let it sink inside of you. Are you hearing it? It is finished. Yeah, that message is offensive to many. But what it shouts to you and I is Jesus took upon Himself what we deserve so we could have what only He deserves. That's good news. The greatest news ever. And it's why the Apostle Paul said it for us all. So, well, may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Let's bow our heads for a moment. Come on, this week we're going to do the, um, third session of our Purify workbook. That's your practical. Man, if you've not been engaging, I encourage you. You can still at our physical locations, you can get a Purify workbook. If you're online, you can actually go to the website, you can download a version of it. It doesn't matter that you haven't started. To start it, start working your way through it. It's very self-explanatory. Read what you need to read. Assess what you need to assess. Pray what you need to pray. Do it more than once. And I promise you, there's going to be a work. You're going to encounter power. Why don't we right now? How about we dare do something radical? How about we just say, "Thank you, Jesus." See, the most common thing we talk about in church is that Jesus died on a cross. I can ask my two-year-old grandson what Jesus did, and he can tell me, "Jesus died on a cross." But there are depths to what that means. I truly believe all of eternity will never let us grasp the totality of what Jesus did on the cross. I think again and again and again and again, we're going to have a revelation of the depths of what He did on the cross. Much of Christianity is not getting new information. It is just going deeper and deeper and deeper into what we know and seeing the reality of there. There we see His heart. There we see the significance. Everything we need is rooted right there. Come on, let's say, "Thank you, Jesus." If there's not something in our heart that is leaping with joy for what Jesus did, we have run amiss of what is core to our faith. And we've got to get back. And it is all about You, Jesus. And it's not about me. And we've got to go back. And sometimes when we're struggling with an issue, we're struggling with a problem, we can't seem to find freedom. And what we need to do is, "I got to try harder. I got to do more." No, we plug in and we say, "Tetelestai. What You did, Jesus, is enough to empower me to quit looking at the garbage on the computer. It is enough that I can walk in a spirit of self-control and I don't have to have outbursts of anger and say things that I don't mean to say. What You did, Jesus, is enough to forgive the foolishness of what I've done in the past." And we go back to that. Man, ask God to show you right now. Is there any way that you are trying to obtain freedom by human effort? Man, we all do it. I've done it. And really, what we got to do is rest like a little child and plug into Jesus and come close and listen to Him. Just this morning, He was telling me, just a little thing I needed to shift in my life. It wouldn't seem big to you at all. It's okay. It's just a little shift. And it happened just as I was sitting in His presence. Now, I have to say yes to that. I have to yield to it. But it's going to shape the way I think. And there was just a little thing, a little thing about what I was engaging. What if we did that? What if He told you, "Man, you got, you gotta, you gotta quit reading so much news because maybe your anger is connected to the news." What if we did that? What if we just yielded and you said, "Yes, Jesus, help me do that." And we just started living that way. And would you say, "Jesus, forgive me for doing things in my own power." Let's begin to yield this route back in.

And I think there may be people who've never plugged in. You've never said yes to be a follower of Jesus. We had dozens of them at boot camp. Many of the baptisms we did were brand new followers of Jesus. Some of them were baptisms of renewal. We know that. But maybe you've never said yes to follow Jesus for the first time. Listen to me. If you've never said yes to follow Jesus for the first time because you've been saying, "Well, I've got to do some things to get right with God." What you do to get right with God is you plug into Jesus. Because what you say is, "Jesus, I can't fix myself. I can't do enough good things. I can't get smart enough. I can't go to church enough. I can't serve enough. I, I can't do any of these things. I am screwed up, messed up. And really, what I need, because I just need to yield myself over to You and I give my life to You and I take upon myself what Jesus did for me. I become Your follower. I become Your child." And that happens by just saying yes. Yes, Jesus. Do you need to say yes to Jesus today for the first time? Somebody online right now, at our North Campus, you need to say yes. If you want to say yes to Jesus right now, I'm going to ask you to take a bold step. I'm going to just ask you to do one thing. You mean it? You're not playing around? For the very first time in your life, you say, "Jesus, I want to become Your follower." Right now. If you want to say that, I'm going to hit the count of three. And I want you to raise your hand. Ready? One, two, three. Put your hand up right now. Come on, people. I see. Yeah, there's people around. I know there's people at the North Campus. I know there's people online. Come on. Lives are being changed. That's what He does. It starts with Him. It's all about Him. And it ends with Him. You can put your hands down. Everybody at both campuses right now. Give a round of applause to these men and women. Give them a shout. Come on. Thank you, Lord. If you raised your hand, your next step is to confess Jesus to the public in baptism. You take the QR code that's in your park news. I have decided to fill it out. We're going to contact you this week because we've got a baptism class next week to talk to you more about it so you can have more understanding. We can talk to you about more next steps. And then we're going to do baptisms in two weeks. And we can confess Jesus before people. It's incredible. So I need you to do that before you leave campus, before you do anything else. If you're online, let's do that.

Let me pray for us. Father, return us to our foundations. For those of us who have been doing this Christian journey for a while and find ourselves really doing in the human effort, it's an act of foolishness. Forgive us, oh God. Give us grace to radically plug into You. To do the things that we need to do. Take these tools, oh God, that we're learning in this Purify workbook. We think You have guided us in those things. Would You take those tools and would You just help us use them as a tool to plug into everything You did? But we make a proclamation right here, right now. We have done nothing to save ourselves. It is all You. And any good thing that has been produced in our lives, it is because of You. Yes, the message of the cross is foolishness and absurdity to our self-reliant world. But we proclaim, those of us who are being saved, it is the glory. It is the power. It is the honor. It is everything that's worthwhile. It shows us Your heart, oh Father. We celebrate the cross and we rely on it more than we ever have. We say in Jesus' name. And all God's people said.