Rediscovering Our Forgotten Ways: Embracing Jesus as Lord for Lifelong Transformation

What if the secret to transforming your entire life lies in a daily, conscious choice? As we embark on our new series, "Rediscovering Our Forgotten Ways," we're taking a moment to reflect on the incredible journey of Madison Church as we approach our 10th anniversary. From initial excitement to the struggle of preparation, I share my personal challenges in crafting this talk and how this series will pivot from our typical Bible studies to explore what sets Madison Church apart. We recount the resilience and unexpected growth during the pandemic, highlighting personal transformations within our congregation and contemplating our values and future vision.

How many parts of your life have you truly surrendered to Jesus? In this episode, we dive into the profound significance of embracing Jesus as Lord in every aspect of our lives. We examine the rapid spread of early Christianity and Paul's crucial assertion on the resurrection, emphasizing how the declaration "Jesus is Lord" can be revolutionary and transformative. It's a call to move beyond a compartmentalized faith towards a holistic surrender to Christ's guidance, challenging ourselves to submit every part of our lives to His lordship.

Is self-help really the answer, or is there something more profound at play? By exploring Matthew 16, we discuss the concepts of self-sacrifice and the futility of self-help, reminding ourselves that faith is a lifelong journey of internal transformation. We stress the importance of choosing Jesus every day, inviting Him to guide and transform us from within. Mark your calendars for July 14th, 2024, as a significant date for new beginnings. Listen along as we explore how personal transformation through Jesus can spark broader changes, starting in Madison and extending far beyond.

Chapters

• 0:00 Rediscovering Madison Church's Unique Vision
• 14:02 Embracing Jesus as Lord in Life
• 28:12 Lifelong Journey of Declaring Jesus Lord
• 31:23 Choosing Jesus Every Day

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Well, welcome to Madison Church Online. I'm Stephen Feith, lead pastor, so glad that you're joining us online and want to extend an invitation to you to join us in person soon. Madison Church is so much bigger than the talks on YouTube, as we're going to find out in this series, together Rediscovering Our Forgotten Ways. At the beginning of the week I just share this, not in my notes. At the beginning of the week, I was so excited for this talk. I've been excited for this series for a long time. Then, as I started to write and read, I became less and less excited and hit a low this morning as I was putting my last minute preparation. So why don't I like what I have? And it occurred to me while the band was playing just now. It occurred to me because it's not my normal style of teaching. It's not my normal content, and that'll become apparent soon. But throughout this whole series we're going to look at what makes Madison Church different, what makes Madison Church unique, and not in a smoke and mirrors kind of way, but really what makes us different. And that means that how we present the content, how I present it, will be just a lot different than when we're going, verse by verse through a book in the Bible. So hang with me. I think it'll be a very impactful series, albeit a little bit different than what you're used to if you've been coming to Madison Church.

Speaker 1: 1:24

We are approaching our 10th anniversary here in Madison. 10 years in Madison, that's really yes, that's great, you know. On the one hand, I am not surprised at all that we got this far. I've always believed in Madison Church. I've always believed in the vision that God has for us. I've always believed in the resiliency of this community, even though, you know, from year to year it looks a little different as people come and people go. But I've never wavered in my belief that we would make not just one year, not just two years, but 10 years and beyond. God has a vision for our community. I've been impressed with our ability to persevere through some very difficult challenges.

Speaker 1: 2:06

Can anyone remember how excited we were to turn five years old and then, six months later, the world shut down? We had all this enthusiasm for year five and we just kind of had to throw everything out the window. Some people, throughout that time, left because we went online only. We stopped meeting in person. Some people left because, when we did return, we required them wear masks and have space out a little bit. Some people left because we opened back up way more quickly than they would have preferred or they would have liked. That was a hard season to be at Madison Church, and yet we persevered. As a result of persevering, it popped up on my timeline this morning. Some of you know this, but it was this weekend last year. We baptized 10 people in the lake After the pandemic. After all of these people you know, because they're upset with one way or another, we persevered and, as a result, more people since 2020 have connected with God, have connected with other people and are taking steps of faith.

Speaker 1: 3:12

It's not just new believers, though. I know that there are some of you here in the room. You have experienced healing from the past, something that has happened to you that's traumatic. It's a crisis of some sort. You've experienced healing here. Others of you, you've been coming to church and you've been discerning and praying God. What do you have for my life? These are maybe the first time in your life that you're asking that question. Wait a second. Maybe I'm not. I don't want to be the career planner for my life. Maybe. Wait a second. I don't want to know what God thinks about my relationships and, as a result, being a part of this community, you've gained clarity of things. You have said oh, this is what God is leading me to do. Some of you have celebrated with us huge milestones in your own life and it's awesome, and others of you are walking through something real tough right now. But you know you have love and support here at Madison Church. It is a testament. This unexpected growth over the last few years is a clear testament to God's grace. As we approach this significant milestone in September, I do what I always do every summer I'm just reflecting on where we've been, what we've done, what we've accomplished and I'm asking myself the question what does God have for us next, the next 10 years, the next five years, the next 10 weeks? What does God have us here for? And this reflection has gotten me to the point of this series where it was, like you know, we've been here 10 years.

Speaker 1: 4:39

I don't know if we've ever done a series in which we unpack our values at Madison Church. Now, if you have a business background or you went to business school or you're into that sort of thing, leadership-wise, you know that there are very different views on organizational values. Organizational values. Some of them are like this is what we value, let's name it, let's claim it, let's move at it. Others are more like this is who we want to be, and we pursue this.

Speaker 1: 5:07

And at Madison Church, this is really where we are at with our values. Their name, they are claimed, but it's more like this is who we want to be. This is the direction of us. It's the score card in which we hold things up when we do small groups, gatherings, our mission, all of that are our values at work, and the answer is never, ever going to fully be yes. It won't be yes, because just as we go, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, this community is going to evolve and change, because you're people and I'm a person, and then we go back to the drawing board. That's why we chose this model for values right, so we could say this is who we want to be. We believe that this is it, and we can keep going back Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom and how we have practiced these values. It was different in 2014, the first year we got started, and it was different at the fifth year anniversary, certainly different during the pandemic era and it is different now.

Speaker 1: 6:00

But I want to talk about our values, because how we do church at Madison Church isn't like a specific model or like this way of doing church that we just particularly enjoy. The way that we do church at Madison Church is different on purpose, because our identity, our DNA, the values that I'm talking about are all about a movement, not one church churches, not one leader leaders, not one disciple, disciples and it is about taking over and saturating the gospel, jesus' love and his kingdom all over the city of Madison. And so throughout this series we're going to be looking into a book written by a missiologist from Australia, alan Hirsch, who was studying. One day he was asked this question like why are there church growth movements? Like what happens when the early church goes from like 20,000 to millions of people? And he goes and he begins studying and what he finds is he says you know what, in any good movement of Christianity, there are six things at play, and those are our six values at Madison Church, because if that is what we have determined is causes a Christian movement that doesn't just change lives but changes cities and changes countries, then we should pursue that at all costs. The vision isn't just one church, us four, no more. There's plenty of that already. We are going to be different, which I want to say.

Speaker 1: 7:41

This also came up this morning as the band is playing. You know, that's why we're going to experience probably more spiritual warfare here than other places, because we're not just talking about one church, we're not just talking about my own private salvation. We're talking about an aggressive movement to change one of the most post-Christian cities unapologetically post-Christian cities to one that becomes sort of like a spiritual fountain that goes into the rest of the world. Because I do believe this. I believe that if you can change this city, that we could change this country. Because how many of you you can raise your hand. If you want to, came here because you got a job or you went to school, go ahead. You got a job with school, yes, yes, yes, yes. And even more of you are not raising your hand. That's okay, but I promise you it's like most of the room, okay, and then maybe you do stay, and that's great. I hope you do. I like being your friend and you being a part of this community, but perhaps you go back to wherever home is for you, and that's been the story of a lot of people at Madison Church, and so the idea here when people come into the city, whether it's for school, work, government, whatever it might be, family just needed a change of scenery. Whatever it is, if we have a missional church movement that is, madison Church in the city and we interact with you, whether it's two years, four years, eight years then you decide to go back to wherever you're going next, that we have fully equipped you to take the missional DNA of Jesus to another town or city and in that way there's the fountain it keeps pouring in and we keep pouring back out. That's why we partly chose Madison. We believe that, with the government here and the education systems and all of the jobs and tech, that God was bringing people to Madison, including us, and that we were going to partner to equip and empower people. But we have to do it the right way.

Speaker 1: 9:36

Consider this At the end of the first century, there were only about 25,000 Christians. A couple hundred years later, by the end of the third century, that number had grown as much as 20 million, 20 million. It's the greatest kind of religious movement in history in terms of converts and followers. Is this Christian movement and I want you to consider some of these other things. How did Christianity grow when, first off, it was an illegal religion? It was illegal in the Roman Empire because they rejected the emperor Caesar's lordship. The Roman Empire was fine. If you had all of your other gods, that's fine, as long as you also acknowledge that Caesar was God and the Christians were the first ones to say no, just Jesus only, just Jesus only. And then, as such, they'd be imprisoned, they'd be beaten, they'd be tortured and they'd be killed. How does a movement in which, if you say this is what I am, you're going to get tortured and beaten, how does that grow exponentially to 20 million people? It seems like a rough sell to me in the era of modern marketing.

Speaker 1: 10:37

Okay, they did not have church buildings as we know it. We couldn't put on the website 2,000 years ago. Hey, this is where we're meeting because you know who'd be there the Roman Empire, they'd be waiting for us. Okay, they didn't have formal institutions for training leaders. There were no Bible colleges, there were no seminaries, you didn't go to school and then, all of a sudden, it's like hey, he's a pastor, he's now, or she's now, qualified to lead. That didn't happen. They were just normal people who rubbed off on each other. They did not have seeker-sensitive services, they didn't have youth groups, they didn't have worship bands. So how do you go from 25,000 to 20 million? It's a situation similar to the underground church in China today.

Speaker 1: 11:19

The underground church in China has faced significant persecution since Christianity became illegal in the country in 1949. It becomes illegal. You cannot be a Christian. The government sought to suppress religious practice and Christians who were caught faced imprisonment, torture and labor camps. Now, despite this, again going back to this idea that that's a rough sell for faith, right? Despite that, it is estimated that there are 100 million Christians in China. When the ban took place in 1949, there was 1 million. So 70 years ago Christianity is legal. One million followers of Jesus. 70 years later, it's illegal. We're going to torture you, a hundred million Christians. What is going on? We know the answer to that. We know the answer to that.

Speaker 1: 12:13

It is this MDNA, what Alan Hirsch calls an MDNA. What is the missional DNA? Our values at Madison Church. And Alan goes further. He calls it the apostolic genius, because it was the apostles who came up with this. He says it was their genius and within each of us, within each of us, is that MDNA. You see, I can't do a movement by myself, and neither can you. Our impact will be very limited if not doing this thing together. It will take all of us. You each have a unique role to play in our mission.

Speaker 1: 12:49

It's not just about Sunday mornings Sunday morning is a great place to start, but it is about launching into the rest of the week and other areas of your lives. So Hirsch explains the six factors. That's going to be the content. The next six, seven weeks is what he talks about. So we're going to go week by week, talking about each of our values. We're going to talk about disciple-making next week. That's becoming like Jesus and embodying his message, his teachings, his practices into our daily lives. We're going to talk about the missional incarnational impulse. This is an outward thrust to spread the gospel to those around us.

Speaker 1: 13:24

So you'll notice that some churches are good at either the missional incarnational thing, that it's like going out to the city, that's serving, that's saying you know you all need Jesus, or whatever. And then other churches are really good at the disciple making part. They don't really tell other people about Jesus, but they know the Bible really well, they know theology really well. They do community really well, and so most churches are one or the other. At Madison Church, we're trying to do both well. Naturally, we're going to do one or the other a little bit better, but we're trying to do both. Community that's one that you guys are probably most familiar with. We do that really well. Here we're gonna talk about an apest culture. We're talking about spiritual giftedness, functions within the church, organic systems.

Speaker 1: 14:02

This makes everyone uncomfortable because you can't really describe it and it's unorganized and it's messy and it's vague. And you're like, yes, because if the disciples, those first disciples, think about it, if they were organized, could they have spread from 20,000 people to 20 million people in 100 years? No, not. If they were organized, it would have slowed it down. Bureaucracy Take it to the committee. We got to talk about this. What color should the floors be? No, there was none of that going on. They were just. They took it and they ran and then, finally, jesus is Lord, which is what we are talking about today, because none of this matters. None of that matters, absolutely nothing. I've said matters if Jesus isn't Lord, if Jesus isn't who he claimed and thought himself to be, if Jesus isn't who the disciples believed that he was. None of this matters and it's not controversial, it's not even my idea.

Speaker 1: 14:58

Paul first writes these words before most of the gospels are written. He says if Christ had not been raised, then all our preaching is useless and your faith is useless. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sin. So now he's building on it. Not only is your faith useless, but you still have sin in your life. Okay, and in that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost. So not only is your faith useless, not only do you have sin in your life, but now you're lost. You're separated from God and creation forever. And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are to be more pitied than anyone in the world. If all Jesus offers me is maybe a little bit better of a life on this side, but not the next holy smokes, should the world feel most bad for Christians is what he is saying.

Speaker 1: 15:55

Everything hinges on Jesus's resurrection. Yes, jesus's life matters, and so does his death, but it doesn't matter if the resurrection never happens. And because of the resurrection occurring all of a sudden, his life matters so much more. His death matters so much more. And it might sound like an Easter Sunday message, but the resurrection is something we need to understand and be grateful for between Easters. It is the cornerstone of our faith, it's the beacon of hope, it's the light guiding us in our darkest moments. And, like I said, if Jesus isn't Lord, then none of the other elements of the MDNA, those values that we're talking about throughout this series, none of that matters. There's no point in making disciples for a Jewish rabbi who lived and died 2,000 years ago if he didn't get raised from the dead. There's no point in doing that.

Speaker 1: 16:48

The resurrection validates everything Jesus claimed about himself. Paul would talk about it earlier on in his letter. He says Paul would talk about it earlier on in his letter. He says there is one God, the Father, by whom all things were created and for whom we live, and there is one Lord, jesus Christ, through whom all things were created and through whom we live. Jesus is Lord became the battle cry of those first followers of Jesus. You can arrest us, you can torture us and you can kill us. And to our last breath, we will be declaring Jesus is Lord, not Jesus is a Lord, not Jesus is one of ten Lords. Not Jesus is maybe Lord, but Jesus is Lord. They were adamant about it to the point of death, and it was a subversive claim that undermined the Roman Empire until around 3-400 CE. The Roman Empire just finally gave into Christianity and said fine, we'll make you legal, because every time we kill you, 10 more pop up. So that's how they dealt with that.

Speaker 1: 17:56

This declaration that Jesus is Lord was revolutionary, but it was more than a declaration. It was more than a declaration. It meant that every part of their lives would be brought under Jesus's Lordship. Every part of their lives would be brought under Jesus's Lordship. For the early Christians, proclaiming Jesus as Lord wasn't just a theological statement. It was a commitment to live in a way that reflected his teachings and authority over every part of their lives.

Speaker 1: 18:27

Embracing Jesus as Lord is not just a confession, it's not just a declaration, but it is meant to be a transformative commitment. If Jesus is Lord over our lives and over every part of our lives, then we submit everything to Jesus, all the parts of our lives, the good, the bad, the ugly, the things we think are important, the things we don't think are important. It's about surrendering to his lordship and trusting his guidance, knowing that Jesus can and will profoundly change us from the inside out, leading us into a better and more fulfilling life. And so, as we consider this Jesus is Lord as a commitment, let's ask ourselves and would you ask yourself right now, this morning are we genuinely letting Jesus be the Lord in every area of your life? Are there parts that you're holding back? You give him a bunch of this stuff, but there's this other part that I'm not quite ready to give, because, remember, following Jesus isn't about perfection, but it's continually turning to him and to grow in his likeness. To ask ourselves the question am I giving everything to Jesus? It's not just a one-time exercise, it's a spiritual discipline that we have to practice in our everyday lives. This question what do I need to surrender is a crucial step in your spiritual growth and truly understanding that phrase, that commitment, that value. Jesus is Lord. It is our call to action. Jesus is Lord over every area of your life home field, politics, work, anything else. Jesus is Lord over all of it.

Speaker 1: 20:23

I think for a lot of us, we have a hybrid type of religion in our lives, where Jesus is the Lord of my faith. Jesus is the Lord of my spirituality, jesus is the Lord of my religion. But then, when it comes to other areas of our lives, we have other lords. Me, I like to be the Lord of my life. Jesus, you have this part, I'll take this part, and in that way I don't serve one God, I serve two gods, even though I'm not eternal and most certainly not a God for the record. But it's not uncommon for us to think that way. Right, and maybe Jesus is the Lord of your faith and you're the Lord of this, and maybe your, your partner, your spouse, is the Lord of your relationship. It's nice when Jesus agrees with what we already think, but do we ever conform to what Jesus thinks for our relationship? And in that way, this phrase Jesus is Lord. It causes us to evaluate who are the other Lords in my life. Paul writes, for everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. Everything in your life, everything in your life is under Jesus's lordship and can be used for his glory.

Speaker 1: 21:46

I think of common examples in my own life. I consider, like my finances, perhaps this is one for you yourself. You might be a successful professional. You might be someone who tightly controls your finances. You carefully budget everything, including vacations or luxury items, personal investment, or perhaps you're just barely getting along. You're going paycheck to paycheck and zero dollars to zero dollars every week. You're writing that thing down, I get it, and you might give minimally or inconsistently. You don't practice generosity or the church. Maybe it's because you don't have enough or because you don't see the value in doing it. The mindset views generosity as optional. It reveals that maybe a lack of trust in God's provision for my life, a failure to recognize that I'm just a steward of what God has given me, not an owner. So when we declare Jesus is Lord and we're evaluating our own lives, is Jesus the Lord of your finances or are you the Lord of your finances?

Speaker 1: 22:49

Think about your sexuality. You might be deeply involved in church, but you keep your sexuality over here and church over here. You keep them separate. You might personally believe that those personal desires should not be governed by the church. You're telling me you're like man. I'd really like him to shut up, make his point and move on right now, because you don't want to hear me talk about it. That's fine, that's fair. I will move on. It's a very short section here. But society shouldn't govern our sexual norms, when the Bible, the New Testament, the apostles, the disciples have spoken clearly that sexuality is something that's meant to be better than what our society is offering it right now. And what happens is, when we live this way, when we are the king or the queen of our own sexuality, it creates inner conflict and I think it really believe it that disconnects us from God in some area of our lives, because we're saying you can have all of this, but when it comes to my sexuality, you can't have that, which means we are robbing ourselves from the goodness and fullness that God has, not just for these areas of our lives but also our sexuality. And by submitting your sexuality to God, you can experience wholeness and alignment with God's design. I'll move on now.

Speaker 1: 24:04

Consider how you spend your free time entertainment hobbies. You enjoy gaming or sports or traveling, and even if you're actively involved in your church community, you might prioritize personal enjoyment over spiritual growth in your leisure time. You're so busy having fun you don't have time to pray. You're so busy getting better at golf or whatever it is that you do that you don't have time to read the Bible, or do you even ask this question is Jesus the Lord over all of my life? We're doing this and that and we're so busy, but do we consider then that, well then, god isn't the Lord over your schedule or your time and that we're kind of polytheistic in that way? Then we have multiple gods in our lives and when really, by dedicating your hobbies to God, I think you're going to find ways to better enjoy those activities in a sustainable, long way that enhances your relationships with your partners, your spouses, your kids, family members and work.

Speaker 1: 25:03

I've seen more people burn out. I mean, this is true. I've seen more people burn out doing a bunch of fun stuff and good stuff because they weren't doing some real foundational stuff. First we start there with the inner foundational work and then out of that blooms the goodness and the fun stuff. And you might think all of this sounds intense and it is Holy smokes. Is all this intense? Like if you're watching or listening online and you decide not to come? That's a real bummer for me, but I get it. And if you're in the room and you're like I'm just not there, I get it. I do get it. It is intense.

Speaker 1: 25:40

Jesus is Lord is easily the most intense thing that we could say when put into practice, because it requires self-sacrifice, it requires a total submission to him. And I just want to mention in my own life, you know, I picked all three of those things out because those are my issues. So when I first started following Jesus, a big one was submitting my own sexuality to God, because before that it was never an option, it was never a thought. My sexuality is my sexuality and I'm going to do what I want. I'm going to do what feels good to me, how I want. And then, when I found Jesus and started following Jesus, I became confronted with this idea that if it's all about Jesus and I got to submit everything to Jesus, I was like holy smokes. There's this discrepancy between what I want to do and what God says I should do, and that was like hard. That was a hard growth for me, but especially I was 17. So I had all the hormones raging. Then, you know, and it's just like well, no, we got to submit this to God With my own finances.

Speaker 1: 26:41

Megan and I were dirt poor. I mean, we were making like $17,000 a year, I think in 2012,. That sounds about right, $17,000 in Missouri and I remember being like we can't give to the church because we won't be able to pay all of our bills. This was just math, guys. Okay, this was just math. This was like we make $1,200 a month and we have $1,400 worth of bills we can't give to the church. And I remember just being like so broke, so stressed out, so unhappy, and being like this is not how I'm supposed to live spiritually with my finances. I said, fine, you know we're going to do this, we're going to give Megan and I we believe in tithing, that's something that we practice and we said we're going to do it. I remember declaring to God, as I wrote that first tithe, check God, when we go homeless, it's your fault, not mine anymore. Signed and date, turned it in and I really thought it was going to happen. And like a year and a half later we were completely out of debt.

Speaker 1: 27:35

I had a great job, megan had a great job and God provided in like the weirdest wildest ways For those of you who practice generosity. You know this is true. You know this happens. I'm not making it up. It happens. When it comes to my hobbies, I get hyper-focused and I can forget that I'm a man of God when I'm on that golf course and I just sliced my third $5 golf ball into the woods. You know it's challenging. And so in all of these areas, I need to ask myself the question am I submitting myself every area of my life to God? Now I'm wrapping it up.

Speaker 1: 28:12

If you tend to overthink I know some of you do, you're like me you might be considering all of the changes you need to make right now and how many you can get done by five o'clock tonight. Right, me too, me too. Okay, let me just assure you that's not what I want you to do. Me too, me too. Okay, let me just assure you that's not what I want you to do, and I don't believe that's what Jesus wants you to do either. I think that's a way to burn out on your faith and to religiously run out of steam by trying to make all of the changes on the outside in. That's not what we're declaring. We're declaring Jesus is Lord. That's an inside out change. So by declaring Jesus is Lord, let's take his advice for discipleship.

Speaker 1: 28:55

In Matthew 16, jesus, talking to his disciples, says anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat, I am. Don't run from suffering. Embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose your soul? What could you ever trade your soul for? Declare Jesus is Lord and make that declaration every day. That's what this is all about. It's not about the millions of things you could change out here this afternoon, but it's about the inner change, the inner work. Jesus is Lord. I choose that this morning, I choose it this afternoon, I choose it tonight. So what does that mean for all of these areas of my life Finances, sexuality, hobbies, work, family, parenting, marriage and knowing that I don't have to be the one to lead the change? But Jesus will lead the change and what he asked me to do is to make a decision every day to follow him. Remember, please, if you're overthinking, you're feeling overwhelmed, remember that discipleship is a lifelong journey.

Speaker 1: 30:16

And ask someone else in the room who looks older than you if they've figured it out and they don't sin anymore, if they've submitted everything to God. Okay, go ahead and ask them. You might well. Now it's going to be weird, right, because if you're asking them, they're going to be like, oh, I look old, right? So the older you get, the more gunk you find. You get down in there and you start finding things you didn't even know were in there.

Speaker 1: 30:43

There are things that, like 17-year-old me, I was like, oh, by the time I turned 37 and I've been a Christian for 20 years, like I'll have a bunch of this stuff figured out. And I just want to go back in the past and say, no, it gets better and worse at the same time. Like you're going to get over that. You'll get better at that, yep, you'll get more patient. You'll learn to deal with your anger, steve, and all of that will happen. But, boy, let me tell you about these areas of your life that you don't even know are in your heart. And I've talked with people who are older than me and they say, well, there's going to be that going on. And then the age of your life and the stage of your life changes and all of a sudden you have new questions and things you've never considered. So it never ends. That's okay.

Speaker 1: 31:23

It's not meant to be discouraging. It's meant to be a relief. If every day, I choose to follow Jesus. Every day he chooses to walk with me and every day I get a little bit closer, until I die. And then God completes the work. He completes whatever I have left. Whatever I wasn't able to figure out, he takes care of right then and there, for eternity. I want you to be relieved about that. It's not on you 100%. Let him lead, declare Jesus is Lord. And so if you've never chosen to follow Jesus, you've never made that choice.

Speaker 1: 32:02

What we are talking about today. You might have confessed Jesus is Lord. Jesus might've been the Lord of your religion, but if you've never made the choice to follow Jesus, I want you to make it today. Sunday, july 14th, 2024, a new beginning, a fresh start. You don't have to have it all figured out. You just have to know enough to recognize your need for Jesus and to take that step and declare and commit to his lordship. If we want to lead a movement in Madison, as we talked about, that changes lives, it starts here. It starts by activating Jesus in me before we can go out into the world and be Jesus for other people. So will you choose him every day? Jesus for other people. So will you choose him every day? Will you let Jesus lead, will you be part of his movement, his kingdom and working out his will, not just in Madison but beyond.