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Sam, how's it going? Church of the Highlands? You guys good today? Praise God. It's such an honor to be with all of you today, just in the presence of God, together as a church family. As always. Want to start out just looking in the camera, saying hello to all of our other locations, Alabama and in Georgia, all the correctional facilities. Anyone joining us online or on demand. Maybe you're even deployed military somewhere around the world. What an honor it is to be together as a church family. Come on. Grants Mill, every location. You know what to do. Put your hands together. We love you guys so much. And I am excited to be in church today, excited to worship. Come on. Heart of worship today. The presence of God today. And to see all of you here is such an honor and a joy. I love you with all of my heart. And we have come together today, and I just want to proclaim this from the very beginning to lift up one name, and that is the name of Jesus. Can I get a better amen at Church of the Highlands today? Come on. The name that is above every name, the name of Jesus. And John 12:32 says this. When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself. What that verse does not say is draw a few people or every so often, somebody. What does it say? Everyone. I will draw everyone to myself. And I am just celebrating the fact that that's actually what's happening on planet Earth right now. God is moving in a huge way, of course. There's so much brokenness and pain around us in the world. And I'm not saying this is the end times, but go read Matthew 24. And Jesus makes it very clear that revival doesn't happen when everything's going great, when it's in the middle of the most painful moments, that God moves and gets all the glory and church. I just gotta testify that is what we are seeing happening right now at our church and so many other churches around our nation, around the world this past week in our college service and our student service. I mean, God's moving in young people in a huge way. A boldness and a conviction for God like I have never seen in over 20 years ministry. And even a bunch of people who are here at church for the first time or back in church, in fact. Y' all aren't ready for this. Y' all are not gonna believe this. Today is actually national Back in Church Day. Come on, somebody put your hands together for everybody who is back. And so we're. If you're okay with it, can we just Lift up the name of Jesus, because God is good. And all the time, God is so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so good. Amen. All right, so. And if you are here with us for the first time, we're in a series called the Goodness of God. And so that's why we're singing about God's goodness and, in fact, our key scripture. And you'll hear this throughout today's message, for sure. So many scriptures, just about how good our God is. Even in our tough moments, He's a good God. And Psalm 34. 8 says, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. So this series over these nine weeks, it's just not about talking about his goodness. We are gonna talk about his goodness. We are gonna sing about his goodness, but we are going to not only talk about it and sing about it, but we're praying that we would experience his goodness in our own lives. Every single one of us would experience in a fresh way or maybe for the first time, the goodness of our God. And then, of course, we would go out, as I've already talked about, and share his goodness with the world around us. How do we know God is good? We know God is good because of Jesus Christ, His Son. In fact, Colossians 1:15, another one of our key scriptures, says, the Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. So we know God is good because he gave us His Son. And so this whole series, we are looking at Jesus and through his life, we are seeing who our God is. And again, so that we can experience that and share it with the world around us. So in week one, I kicked us off with a message called Jesus Reigns that was all about answering the question once and for all, how do I know God is good? And we know God is good because of the cross of Calvary and that God gave His only Son for all of us. And then last week, Pastor Chris talked about just the power of the grace and mercy and forgiveness of God. It was so powerful. And today I'm excited. If you have your app, you want to go ahead and open it up for notes. Today I'm excited to preach a message called Jesus Calls. Well, look at your neighbor and say, jesus Calls. Jesus Calls. There is a call of God. And I wasn't going to preach this for a few weeks. In fact, just praying this week, and you'll see even more of why in a moment. Just really felt led by the Holy Spirit to preach this message today and to Start the message with a loud proclamation to everyone in the sound of my voice. You are called. You are called. I don't know if y' all called it yet. I'm gonna go one more time. You're called. You are called. There is a call of God on your life. And I'm preaching this today. It is national, back to church day, and God is moving in a huge way. And so if you've been around Highlands, if you've been following Jesus for a long time, today will hopefully be a reminder and a challenge. But I'm telling you, this message is especially deep in my heart for anyone who is checking out maybe Christianity for the very first time. God has a call on your life, and it is not a subtle call. Our God is not over in the corner whispering your call. In fact, in The Bible, over 160 times, the Bible says that we are called. And the word actually, if you translate it in the original language, is kind of the word invitation. We've been called or invited. And again, it's not a quiet call. It is a loud. In fact, in the original language, it's a proclamation. So anytime the Bible says you are called, it actually comes along with something like this. So when the Bible says you are called, again, it's not subtle. It is a call of God. I just woke you up right there. I saw you wake up. It's okay. Praise God. Hey, I want to say it one more time. You are called. God has a call of God. There's a call of God on your life, and it's not subtle. I'm just praying that message from heaven would reach every single heart. Some of y' all are still terrified right now. I don't know how that translated to campuses, but anyway, you're called all of us. Every one of us. We're all invited. The Bible represents, again, 160 times we've been called. There's an invitation out there. Of course, just like in our lives. It's one thing to be invited. It's something else to accept that invitation. And today is all about accepting the invitation. In fact, accepting it is what makes invitations great. Isn't that true? Think for a moment about the top three invitations of your life. Anything and everything that you've been invited to. For me, the first one I thought of was actually. And I've shared this story, so I won't go in detail, but when Jill and I met in college, we became really close friends. I was, like, crazy in love with her, and I could not read her face. I couldn't read her actions. I didn't know if it was reciprocated. I did not know if she wanted anything to do with me beyond friendship. And so for months, I did my best. I don't have much game, but I just threw it out there. I just held nothing back. And I could not read her until one night, or one day, actually, a whole day. I kind of had this whole setup. I took her to church because that's where any good date starts, at church. That's maybe some of all you need today at church right there, if you're single. Hey, church dates are the best dates. And then we went horseback riding. I had this whole setup. And we got to that evening, and she looked, and I can't read her face. I don't know if she wants anything to do with me. And she looks over at me, and she goes, well, are you gonna kiss me or what? That was a great invitation, which I accepted. In that moment, I think all of us would agree. One of the best invitations of our life is to church of the Highlands. Can I get a better amen? It's like somebody or somehow you got invited here, whether it was through a friend or just word of mouth, whatever it might be. For me, it was back in 2001. The church was only a few weeks old, and a group of friends and I went over to Birmingham Southern for a Bible study, and Pastor Chris invited us to church. And he invited us. It was four or five weeks old. He invited us to all come and be a part of it. I had never been to a charismatic church. I didn't know if there was going to be snakes or shofars or flags, But I like this guy, Pastor Chris. And so we came and. Come on. The last 24 years of my life have been different because of this church. Anybody love their church out there? Come on, put your hands together. Thank God for that invitation. Hey. And just a recent invitation I've accepted, and that is to go to outer space. I'm just joking. Totally joking right there. I just lied in church. That is the top of my bucket list right now. Okay. I just want to settle something. I'm doing this on purpose for Jill right now. How many of y' all raise your hands? You do want to go to outer space at some point in your life? How many of y' all definitely are never going to outer space? Okay, Jill wins. All right, Sorry. And she's like, why do you want to go to outer space? I really don't have a good answer. I want to float around I don't know. But in Jesus name, I'm going to go to outer space at some point. So I'm having fun. But really, just to illustrate the fact, invitations are great, but only if they're accepted did they become powerful. We don't remember the ones we didn't accept. So there is a massive invitation for your life from heaven. You are called. The question of today is will we accept that calling? And Jesus spends so much time. I could go into detail of all these. This would be a great small group semester. But Jesus spends so much time calling people, different groups of people. We see in the scriptures how he calls the disciples. If you want a good Bible study, go read Luke chapter five, where you see him call Simon Peter to James and John and even Levi, Matthew, who would become Matthew, he calls him. Matthew's a tax collector, the least likely person to be called. And Jesus calls him. We see Jesus call the crowds, like at the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus calls the broken, like Pastor Chris even talked about last week with the woman in adultery. He calls the religious nicodemus is a great example of that. He calls outsiders, like the woman at the well, he calls the poor, he calls the wealthy. Jesus spends so much of his ministry calling, inviting, making it clear that everyone is welcome. And we see the goodness of God in every single one of these calls. And again, if you got your app open or a place to take notes, I would love you to write these down. There really are three themes in the Gospels of the call of Jesus that are true not only in the Gospels, but they're true for all of us. So I want to celebrate these today. These are truly representative of the goodness of God. And here's the first one. You see it in all those examples and you definitely see it in our lives. Jesus always meets us right where we are. Man, I love this about our God. He isn't sitting on a throne, you know, in Jesus day, walking around. He's not, you know, sitting in the temple, like on this big throne saying, hey, come to me. No, he goes to us. He comes to us. Hey, everybody. Jesus has an invitation for you. And he knows your address. He knows how to get you that invitation. In the middle of pain, in the middle of struggle, Come on. In the middle of rebellion. He will get us that invitation. And I would love all of us right now just maybe even take a moment to go down memory lane and just remember the goodness of God in the moments you have heard his voice in your life, the call of God and how he is so faithful. Just to meet us right where we are. And again, I'm going to keep speaking to those who may be here for the first time. God is faithful. He has you here on purpose for a reason. God knows your address. He knows how to get the invitation to all of us. He will meet us right where we are. I mean, he went to the home of sinners. He went out of his way to make sure he had an encounter with that woman at the well. He went to an island to meet the demoniac for literally one moment of ministry for that one person. He spent an entire day and a half of his ministry to get to that one person. He will meet you right where you are. Come on. That's good news, everybody. It's good news. Here's the second theme of all the calling moments of Jesus true for our life is that Jesus call has nothing to do with our resume. I need a better amen right there. Thank God, because if it had anything to do with my resume, I would not be standing here on this platform that Jesus calls everyone Jesus chooses, often the ones that the world. You may have heard this in church before is Jesus doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called. And this is a theme all day long here in church, and that is everyone is invited, including you. And I know this topic even as we go further in the message. The enemy would love to work overtime to disqualify you. He's gonna do it through lies, shame, condemnation, that resume as we go back, kind of through our own resume, all the reasons that you know that maybe it's even, you know, God, you'll tolerate me. But I've lost because of what I've done or because of, you know, what my life looks like. I've lost the ability to be called by you. And nothing could be further from the truth. That is a lie from the pit of hell. If you need a verse, go read Romans 11:29 that says God's gift and his call are irrevocable. God is not a Walmart. You can't return it. He put it in you when he breathed life into you. He put a call of God on your life and he won't take it back. You can go try to get rid of it. He says, I made you with it. It's actually another translation says it's without repentance. You can't even repent at all. It's stuck. It's woven into your DNA. You have a gift. You have a bunch of gifts and you have a call of God on Your life, and it's who he made you to be. And here's the third theme that we see. This one is so, so good, and that is that Jesus invitation. It's unique in the circumstance, but at the heart of it, it's always the same. The Bible makes the call of God so very clear. And even sometimes there's different words. But if you want to know what it means to follow God, to be called by him, it's these three words right here. Come follow me. Every single time that Jesus calls somebody, he meets them where they are, he ministers to who they are, where they are, and then he says something to the effect of those three words right there. Come follow me. So for the next 15 or so minutes, as I finish out this message, I'm gonna lean into that right there and make it. And I'm not gonna do it. The Bible actually is gonna make it extremely clear what that phrase means. What does it mean? Okay, come follow me. Great. What does that mean? The Bible makes it clear. And, y', all, I just gotta be honest. Today it is a little radical. Can y' all handle it today? Okay, I need three amens from the front row. Delvin, we good? Good. Amen. Amen. Okay. Okay. I'm gonna go for it. Cause the Bible goes for it. Jesus goes for it. Matthew, chapter 16, verses 21 through 24, makes the call of God extremely clear. And they're actually. Which is beautiful. There's no wiggle room. In fact, if you're. Again, you're checking out Christianity. If you really want to know what it's all about to follow Jesus, this is it. Matthew, chapter 16. The disciples are hanging out with Jesus. This is about two years into the ministry of Jesus, and they've all been called. Now they're following him, but they're trying to understand, just like maybe we are. What does that really mean? And Jesus sits him down and for the very first time starts to talk about what he's going to do, what ultimately the call is on his life, and how he's going to go to the cross. You'll see it here in these verses. It says, from that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and. And suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and to be killed on the third day be raised. And Peter. Now, Peter, if you know the Bible, he's always. He's the guy that's always, like, foot and mouth guy. All right? Matthew 16, he's on the highest of highs. Cause in their last conversation, Peter was the one of the 12 that said to Jesus, you are the Messiah. So I think he's feeling it a little bit. Y' all ever been there before? You're like, he's got a little bit too much confidence, and he's about to go from the heights to falling off a cliff. It says, Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him. That is never a good idea to rebuke the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. In fact, even that word rebuke, it's like he was shaking his finger at Jesus. Never a good idea. He rebukes him, saying, far be it from you, Lord. This shall never happen to you. But he turned and he said to Peter, jesus, get behind me, Satan. You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. And here it is, Church. Then Jesus told his disciples, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. The call, Ultimately, the words that we just used a moment ago are all about following Him. And the Bible makes it really clear. And this is the rest of the message today. Three steps to following him is that we would come after him, we would deny ourselves, and we would take up our cross. Here's the first one. If anyone would come after me. We are ultimately first called to pursue a real relationship with Jesus. What does God's call entail? It's three things, and it always starts with a real, authentic relationship. And again, the invitation is for God so loved the world. All are invited into a real. I know, listen, I know we're in the Bible Belt and many of us have been around church and we can hear things like this, but I'm just going to say it. And can we just let our ears be fresh today into a real, authentic relationship with the God of the universe? The God who made all things loves you. And his ultimate mission is to come to earth and make a way so that I can have a real, authentic relationship with Him. That is the goodness of God. And what does that relationship look like? I mean, time again. The God of the universe wants to spend time every single day with us. Man. Let that hit our hearts today. Like, we want to spend time with him. He wants to spend time with us. He wants our relationship to grow in intimacy. Yeah, I want to get closer to Jesus. Guess what? He wants to get closer to you. A real, like, authentic relationship with both sides fully in trusting each other and growing. But the truth is this. It is not a Real relationship if it is one sided. And today I just want to, I want to be really clear. Jesus is all in on this thing. I mean we just read in Matthew 16, he went to the cross to make a way for this. He created us. He made a way in the middle of our sins so we could experience his presence, his power. This is his desire. Jesus has done it all. He's come to the table 100% and the next move. Church is always on us. We are not waiting on God. God is waiting on us. Revelation chapter 3. Here I am and I'm standing at the door. This is what God is doing today. All across church life online on demand interpretional facilities. I am knocking on the door of your heart. If you've never met me, let me in for the first time. If you've known me for days, weeks, months, decades, let me in. I want to come into your heart. I want you to open that door. I want a fellowship with you, relationship to eat with you and they with me. God wants a relationship with us, a real authentic relationship. And as I was preparing for this out of the entire message, it was this moment I heard from heaven to say that these simple words and I don't know who they're for, but it's time. The voice of heaven over your life today. It's time. It has been a journey. You are where you are, but God sees you where you are. He loves you. You have come to the end of yourself and it is time to step into, to let him into your heart. It is time for you to open that door. Come on, church. Can you encourage anybody who's right there in that threshold? Yeah. Come on with your hands, with applause. It's the best decision you could ever make. It's time. I was listening to this podcast this past week about these two rock climbers that were on this. They were doing a first ascent of this mountain down in South America. And y' all think that whole deal is crazy. I will go to outer space. I will not climb a big rock. Okay, I don't know why that makes no sense, but. And during this deal, it was uncharted. It was a first ascent. So they're having to figure it all out. One of the climbers ends up falling. He's on the rope, he falls off the edge of a cliff. The other guy wasn't prepared for that, so he's having to hold him. So he can't really do anything to help. The guy hangs at the end of that rope in the darkness for hours. He tries every Trick. He tries every tool. He has no other hope in the darkness at the end of his rope, except to do this. To cut the rope. He doesn't know how far down it is and to hope it's not too far of a fall. And the good news for him was he cut that rope and it was only like 12 to 15ft. He lives. And that's that story. But I am telling you, if you are in the middle of this kind of valley of decision, it is time for you to cut that rope of your own strength. And know this. The arms of your loving heavenly Father are there to catch you. Today is the day of salvation. This is the moment. He wants a relationship with you. He loves you. It's time. It's time. If anyone would come after me, it's this invitation of Jesus. The call of God always starts with that invitation. I'm even gonna pray later on today that for all of us. We would fan that into flame or start it for the very first time. The next part of his call is very strong where he says, if you would come after me. All right, great. We're in relationship now. You're gonna get to deny yourself. The second part of the call of God is to deny ourselves. And this. There's a lot of amens on that first point. I'm not so sure there'll be as many amens on this point. This is the part that I got the amens from the front row. It's Yalls fault, Delvin. It's your fault. You asked for it. Because that word deny is huge. It's strong. In fact, here's the definition of it. To forget oneself. To lose sight of oneself and one's own interests. Now, none of us probably woke up in our own streak today, and we're like, you know what? Today is the day I get to deny myself. I'm just, you know what I want today? Less of what I want. If you are that holy, can you raise your hand? We're all gonna come let you pray for us. All right? I hope my coffee order is wrong today, because it doesn't really matter. It's less of what I want. Who cares if they let me into traffic on Highway 280? I'm good just to wave at everybody as they go by like it is ridiculous. Like, that takes the power of God. And this is exactly the point. This is why it's not first on the list. Religion would say, get yourself right and then get in. Relationship is always the foundation. But in that relationship, make no doubt, as a Follower of Jesus. We are called to deny ourselves. Y' all want it a little bit stronger? Well, it was on the screen earlier on purpose, Romans 12. To be a living sacrifice. That language is from the Old Testament where literally they would take animals to an altar and they would sacrifice them. This is what God is calling all followers of Jesus to do daily. Not have someone else do it, but to put myself on that altar and to sacrifice my will for his will. But God is not being harsh. This is the heart of this point. This is huge. This is everything. He's not being harsh. He wants us to be holy. God is not a sadist. He's a sanctifier that he takes us from where we are, where he meets us. He meets us right where we are, but he does not leave us there. He takes us from where we are into more and more of his image, more and more every single day. A journey of sanctification, a journey of growth. Letting his power shape who we are so that we look more like Jesus. And ultimately denying. Here's the best way you can think of denying. When the Bible says deny or to crucify ourselves or living sacrifice. What we're doing when we deny ourselves is we are killing off in ourselves what was already killing us. We're killing off through the power of God what has been killing us. This is the promise of denying right here. And I think we would all take this list right here. We may not want to put ourselves on that altar, but come on, through the power of God. I would love to lose my pride for his humility. Can I get a better amen right there? I would love to get rid of my anxiety for his peace. I mean, go down the list, take a picture of it. This is the promise of a follower of Jesus. It does not happen all overnight. But as we press into him, as we allow him to shape our lives, we get his strength instead of our weakness. His courage instead of fear, his wholeness instead of brokenness. And ultimately, even in death, we have his life. This is the call of God to pursue a real relationship with the God of the universe. And we get to deny ourselves so the power of God can work inside of us. So here's a beautiful daily prayer. This is one of my favorite verses in the entire Bible. John 3:30. This is it right here. Church today. God, more of you, less of me. Add that. What is that 3 seconds, 5 second prayer to our daily life today. I'm not going to want to go out of here and deny myself. I'm not going to want, Actually, I want more of what I want. But I know God, you've called me to experience more of your life. And so today, more of you and less of me. And church, make no mistake, the world will listen to what we're saying, but they're really watching how we live. And this is the greatest way to let our life be transformed is the greatest way to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm not who I was because of what God has done inside of me. And oftentimes it doesn't even take words. It's the living example of the grace and the mercy of God. And I believe more than ever before in our world, we need this and in fact, the rest of 25, but especially in 2026, myself, the team, we already sense in our hearts for 2026 to be a year of discipleship and transformation here at Church of the Highlands. God, how can we equip ourselves to be faithful witnesses of you in the world we live in? Can I get an amen right there? Church, that's the call of God, that we would come after Him. We would deny ourselves. And then there's one more part, that we would take up our cross and follow Him. And I want you to write it down. And I want to explain this one. This one's a little different than you may think, but it's actually what we think of typically when we think of calling, and that is this. I am called to live on mission with God. And the reason it can be confusing in the language is because he's talking about the cross. But if you look at the Context of Matthew 16, we just read it. He's already gone through the crucifixion. He's already talked about, even in the phrase we just talked through, that we're called to deny ourselves, to be that living sacrifice. He's not repeating himself. This is a different thought. He's like a good communicator. He's connecting the thought to what he was already talking about earlier in his own crucifixion. We see the purpose of God here on earth. When Jesus came to earth, his purpose was to go to that cross. That was his purpose. And when he uses his cross language in this moment, what he is saying to us is this. I want you to know me to go into this process of sanctification. And then, just like I'm picking up my purpose, I want you to pick up your purpose. I want you to pick up your cross. When we pick up the cross, we are picking up our purpose. And I Want you to live a called life on mission with me. That we would live on mission that God is doing things on planet Earth and that we would be a part of those things. And this is huge in America in 2025 because we got to be careful even in the church, especially in the church, honestly, that when we talk about purpose, we're really just not talking about our own dreams. It's very easy, I think all of us have probably done it. It's very easy to fall in this trap of like, man, I've got some dreams in my life. I want to, I want to live a purpose filled life. And God, would you come bless these dreams. God, would you come make these dreams a reality. That is not what the biblical picture of purpose is. In fact, that's a heresy called this moralistic therapeutic deism that God exists. But his main role is to make me happy and fulfilled and to fuel my life so that I have joy and purpose. That is not biblical purpose. Biblical purpose is this. I'm going to take up my cross and God, I'm not asking you to come, you know, make my dreams come true. I'm telling you, I'm submitting my purpose to you. You made me with it. God, I'm coming underneath your mission. God, whatever it is you're doing, I want to be a part of that. I'm taking up my role in your kingdom. And so here's biblical purpose, a life where how God made me collides with what God is doing on earth. So teachers out there, you are in full time ministry on mission with God in your classroom. You are bringing light into that classroom. I know even in this service we have several who are in the area of politics. We need you like never before to be a light. That is your mission field. God has called you there. If you're a parent, your mission field is really for any parents. It's whatever else we're doing. First and foremost, it is our home to be a light, to be on mission with God. God, you're doing something in my home. There's things you want to do in all of our lives. I'm going to join what you're doing. If you're in the medical field, thank God for you, by the way, all those who serve us so well in the medical field, God has placed you there. You're in full time ministry as much as I am on this platform. Here's our prayer. God, just use me. Here I am. Send me. Baby, you're an artist. Whenever you bring creativity into the world, the Beauty you bring into the world points people to Jesus. You're on mission for him. And listen, there is no life more fulfilling than that. But it's not about our fulfillment. It's about fulfilling our role in his kingdom. That brings inside of us the real joy of our salvation. So biblical fulfillment, it's not going to lead. I mean, it will lead to at moments, of course, you know, comfort and ease. There'll be moments. I mean, God blesses us. Praise God for all that. But even if you read the Bible, oftentimes our calling takes us into really difficult places like rejection and sacrifice and even persecution. It's all in there. It's fulfilling because we know we're a part of what God made us to do. And no matter what happens to us, come on, somebody. We're a living sacrifice. We've already decided. God, it's your way. More of you and less of us. And when we're called by God, even though it makes no sense in the natural, the call of God leads ultimately to a John 10:10. Come on. Matthew 16:25. Life. Whoever wants to save their life will lose it. But whoever loses their life for me will find it. Seven or eight years ago, I was in a different role here. If you're new to our church, before I was serving as lead pastor, I was the president of our Bible college called Highlands College. And there was this chapel service. We do chapel every Tuesday and Thursday where we invited a speaker to come speak. His name is Ken, and he's from England. He's our second favorite person from England. Our first is Charlotte. She's right here on the second row. But Ken, Ken, I will show you a picture, but all you have to do is imagine. Take Winston Churchill and C.S. lewis, put them together. This is Ken, all right. He should be smoking a pipe. He literally looks like the part. And he's a business leader and really has a gift of mentoring and coaching. And he's just amazing with just leaders. And he's an encourager. And so I was driving that day. So we left chapel, and we were driving back to the hotel. And I had never met until that week that he was with us. And so I had a bunch of questions I wanted to ask him. I always try to ask questions and learn and grow. And so I was about to get to my questions, but he preempted it before I could say anything. He says to me, I don't even know this guy. He goes, mark, I would try to do the British accent, but I'm not gonna do it. He's like, mark, how are you? And y', all, you know, we're from the South. We know how to answer that question. I am blessed and highly favored. And I gave some kind of like, just, you know, whatever token answer to that. The truth is I wasn't doing very good. I was very tired physically. Been kind of a crazy busy season. I mean, emotionally being a parent and growing, you know, through the seasons of kids, seasons of their lives, my kids lives, feeling the weight of that leadership, all those different things. I was in a really, really, honestly, very rough spot. And so I give him this token answer, and I think we're going to move past it to my questions, but he won't let it go. And that British accent, looking like CS Lewis, he looks back at me and he goes, now tell me how you really are. And I am not normally this guy. I mean, this is an almost complete stranger, y'. All. I just start, like, from the depth of my soul, pouring it all out, going down Highway 280 to the hotel. I kind of even black out before I know. I mean, I was driving, so I didn't literally black out before I would get. But I wake up, we're in the hotel lobby, and I'm still like pouring my soul out to this guy. And he has not said another word since he asked that question, tell me how you really are. And I'm just letting him know how I am. And then out of nowhere, he just asked this other question. It's the strangest mentoring moment I've ever had in my entire life, but it marked me. He goes, now I want you to imagine. Next thing he says, I want you to imagine Calvary, Golgotha, the hill of Christ. I want you to imagine the three crosses, the two thieves, Jesus there in the middle, all the Marys. There's like three or four Marys there. John's at the foot of the cross. And I would love you to actually think of this yourself and imagine that yourself. And he goes, now tell me who you are in that picture. Like, who is this guy? You know, I just wanted to ask my leadership questions, you know? And so I think about it for a moment and I kind of just kind of like, I don't really know. Can we get past this? And so I just say what comes to mind. I'm like, I want to. I want to be John at the foot of the cross. And he goes like this. That's what's wrong. You have no hope at the foot of the cross in your own strength. He looked Me in the eyes. And he quoted Galatians 2, 20 mark, until you're on the cross with Jesus, you have no hope. For I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live. But Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Our daily call, our daily decision is God put me on the cross. I've tried it my way and it doesn't work. What I need is relationship. What I need is the power of God on the inside. And to join the mission of God. That is what it means to be called by Jesus. Can I pray for us today? If you would bow your heads and close your eyes all across church, this is an important moment for us, just to let the Holy Spirit speak to us. In fact, I would love all of us on our own. I'm gonna pray for us. But just even your own heart, ask God how He would have you respond to today's message. And really, the three things I preached today are gonna be our three opportunities, corporately at least. And the first one is, do you know him today? And if you don't, this is why you're at church today. This is why God has brought you here. It's why you're watching this message. It's not an accident. It's not an accident. God is a good God and he's brought you here. Maybe today it's for the first time, or maybe today it's a rededication. In a moment, I want to pray for you. This next one, I think, is probably all of us church. If you're a follower of Jesus, what is the area of your life right now that God's calling you to deny, to lay on that altar? Let's not leave here the same we walked in. Let's not just come to church and go through the motions. Let's let the power of God meet us in that place. More of him and less of us. And all of us today can just recommit to the mission of God. Campus pastors join me on the platforms. They're gonna be there to pray with you in a moment. But at first, I wanna lead us in this salvation moment. The Bible makes it very clear again, I've already preached it. When he calls us, he calls us into relationship, not religion. Right where we are, he meets us and he calls us to follow him. And if that is you today, you already know it. And so on the count of three, without hesitation, I want you to boldly raise Your hands as a sign of faith. And then we're gonna pray together. If you wanna be included today, getting saved or rededicating your life. One, two, three. Come on. If that is you, raise your hands. Amen. Amen. Amen. Praise God. Amen. Right there, I see your hand. Praise God. Right there in the back, I see that hand. Praise God. Awesome. All across the room online as well, if that's you. Put your hands down and pray this prayer. Jesus, today I give you my life. I'm asking you to forgive me of my sins, my mistakes. Today. Be my savior and my Lord. I belong to you and God, fill me with your Holy Spirit so I can live for you for the rest of my life. God, thank you. For those who just prayed that prayer. We all bless them in the name of Jesus. God, thank you that today they said yes to you. For all of us here today have any area of our life that we need to choose his way over our way. Maybe this is a moment of repentance for you or just a moment of faith. You're cutting that rope in some area of your life. I've tried it my way and it's not working. This is your moment. Experience his grace in this moment. His mercy. God, thank you for your grace, your mercy that you forgive us and you give us the power through your Holy Spirit to be transformed. Transforming power of God. Work in these areas of our lives that we're praying for right now. Do it. Only you can. You are the potter. We are the clay. More of you and less of us. And God as you transform us. We promise today. We commit today to be faithful witnesses on mission for you sending us out of these doors today, Holy Spirit, to be your hands and feet. We say yes to that mission in Jesus name. And everybody said amen. Let's give God some praise today for what he's done.