Transcript
Lead Pastor (0:12)
Church, family, I love you so much. You can stay standing. I was listening to Andrew backstage. And for those of you that are at different locations, I know that your campus pastors were talking about the same thing, and it's that we come into this weekend different than we had planned. I've been doing so good at not crying lately, and I broke everything. All the rules went out today, so forgive me ahead of time. Feels like every time we turn around, Satan, who came to steal, kill and destroy, we see him using this weapon of his called hate, and we just see the outcome too many times. You know, so many things in the last few weeks. So many heartbreaking things. Kids being murdered, Catholic schools, people on subways. We all know Wednesday woke up feeling heavy anyways, because it was like we're remembering 9, 11, and so many people that are still suffering heartbreak and loss from that. And then I'm walking through the office and someone looks at me and says, have you heard what just happened? And I said, no. And they literally just put their phone in my face. I wasn't trying to see it. And I, like most of you, saw the assassination of a man named Charlie Kirk. If I'm honest, I don't know much about him, except for what I've learned in the last few days is that Satan would love to use that assassination to continue to cause division in our country and division in our church. And I'm pissed off. I'll be honest. Red Rocks Church. Can we be a place where we're not going to put gas on the fire of hate? Can we be a place of love, humility, repentance? God said, if my people will humble themselves and pray, not spread hate. Humble themselves and pray and repent. He said, I'll hear you from heaven. I'll forgive your sins. I'll heal your land. Our world is broken. We know that the hope is Jesus. The one and only hope is Jesus. I couldn't hardly process, even though I didn't know much about the individual, I couldn't hardly process the instant heartbreak and almost shock because as I was watching it, they said, and his wife and his kids were there. And I'm trying to, what am I seeing and what is happening? And. And I didn't even have time to finish processing because I think about 60 seconds later, someone said, there's an active shooter at Evergreen High School. And now my brain's in shock in a whole nother direction. And we have people from Evergreen that are a part of every single one of our campuses here in Denver. And I start Hearing stories of students running out of the building, afraid for their lives. And then. And then I start hearing stories of some in heroic fashion, running back to get a little brother or a little sister. And I'm thinking, if I'm a parent, the faculty, the students, it's not fair, it's not right. And Satan would love to take every single one of these things and cause more division because they happened. And I say we be the church that says not on our watch. Everybody's welcome here doing this series called Rowdy Church. A rowdy church isn't a church that we all look the same, vote the same, and live the same. A rowdy church is Everybody's welcome here. We're all broken. We all need Jesus. And that's where our focus goes. We're gonna sing this song again. Just A Sec. Acts 1. In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day that he was taken up to heaven. After giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen after his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. If by chance you had that same feeling this week of, I just think I need to be in church, but I don't know why and I don't know what I believe. God went way out of his way to prove that Jesus was the one and only son of the one and only God and the one and only way to heaven. And he brought him back to life. And there was so much physical eyewitness testimony that it couldn't be refuted then, can't be refuted now. He's alive and he's with us. And if you've never put your faith in him, you could do that before you leave here today. And I'm telling you, it'll change everything. Change your here and now. His spirit will begin to live inside of you and it'll change where you spend eternity. He presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of 40 days. Anybody around got a Kleenex? Just throw them up there. Thank you. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command. Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John, baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Do I blow my nose publicly or try to hide this or what do we do? You know, we got a situation going on here. Give me a Sec. So sorry. So gross. Struggling. But I'm here. Then they gathered around him and he asked them, lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? He said, it's not for you to know the times or the dates the Father has set by his own authority, but you will receive. Listen to this. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Here's what he said. Red rocks. He said, you're the plan. That's what he said. He said, I'm gonna give you the Holy Spirit, and it's gonna give you power in ways that you never saw coming. But you're the plan. I don't know why he chose to partner with us. I got many questions for God when I get to heaven. Many. I mean, if you're creating the whole system, why couldn't it be? I'm trying a diet, so I got to stop eating Brussels sprout sprouts and just focus on Dairy Queen blizzards. Like, I got a lot of questions for God. One of them is, why would you partner with us? Why would you call me? You know me. He said, you're the plan. I'm going to give you the Holy Spirit, and it's going to give you the power to take what I've done in your life and turn around. You want to fight back against the enemy? You turn around and you go, share what I've done in your life with somebody else. In love. Not hate, not judgment. In love, in the fruits of the Spirit. If we're a real rowdy church and we don't all look alike and vote alike and live alike, then there's going to be disagreements. Great. Can we disagree with the fruits of the Spirit? Can we post with the fruits of the Spirit? Can we respond with peace and love and joy and patience and goodness and kindness and gentleness and self control? That's who we're called to be. That's how we make some noise for God's kingdom. Not by jumping on the hate train and just doing what everybody else does. We're built different. You put your faith in Jesus, His Spirit takes over, starts to change things. You can start to live in ways you never knew you could. And from that moment on, you're built different. He said, you're my plan. He said this. He was taken up before their eyes, and a cloud hit him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. Men of Galilee, they said, why do you stand here looking into the sky? That same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven. Church. The king is coming home. He's coming back. Every single thing we're dealing with today, although it feels like it's all there, God says, no, no. This thing goes like a mist here today, gone tomorrow. I'm coming back. I'm taking my bride. Everybody who said yes to Jesus. I'm taking my bride. You're going with me to heaven forever. Let's go. Let's sing that one more time.