 Father, thank you for these opportunities to come and to worship, to be in your presence too. Sing as those who are the redeemed, God, that's who we are. You bought us back, you purchased us with your precious blood, a spotless lamb without blemish. God, thank you, Jesus, for your sacrifice. Holy Spirit, speak to us right now as your word is proclaimed. Minister to every single heart who's listening, I pray, as only you can, you are a personal, wonder-working God, and we need your presence. The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord endures forever. In Jesus' name, and everyone said, amen. Second Timothy, chapter three, I'm gonna assume that you're there, I'm gonna start in verse 10. It says this, you, Paul, writing to the church, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, and my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me in the Antioch, at Iconium and at Lycia, which persecutions I endured, yet from them all, the Lord rescued me. And then verse 12, indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Raise your hand if you have Second Timothy 312 on a magnet on your refrigerator. No one? Any grandmothers in here that have like knitted that on a pillow? No, okay, I didn't think so. Three people in portage, all right, amazing, no one's. Second Timothy 312 is an interesting verse. I'm gonna read it again. Indeed, this is Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus. Raise your hand if you wanna live a godly life in Christ Jesus. All right, that's most of us, good. Will be persecuted, it's a sobering verse. And even the title of this sermon series, which I have loved, by the way, and I love the song that's on our radiant city music, The Praise Forever, Suffering King, it's almost an oxymoron in and of itself, like we don't associate suffering with kings, like they're regal and they're royal and they're dignitaries and they have everything at their beck and call and they're not supposed to be suffering. That's not what we think of, but when we read the New Testament and we look at the life of Jesus, we find quickly that Jesus was not a typical king. Jesus did not come as normal kings would with pomp and circumstance. He was born in a manger and a very obscure place called Bethlehem. He didn't come with the announcements. The angels came to shepherds, not to government officials, not to people who would be considered a big deal. Everything about it was markedly different than we would associate kingship or today. And so Mark chapter 10 actually, Jesus gathers his disciples around him because they're arguing about who's gonna be the greatest in the kingdom. And when Jesus finally inaugurates his kingdom, who's gonna be the most prominent? Who's gonna be on his right hand, his left hand? And Jesus gathers them together and says, look guys, I know that when you look at leadership, when you look at authority among the Gentiles, among the people around you, you see them lord it over other people. You see them use it as sort of a club or a way to get what they want. And he says this in verse 45, but let it not be so among you for whoever desires to be first among you must be last. And whoever desires to be great must be a servant of all. And then he makes this insane statement for even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Yes, Jesus was king. Colossians says that everything we see, everything that's been created happened through Jesus. All authority might and dominion belonged to him, but he never used his authority to enhance his own position. He used it to enhance the position of others every single time. The epitome of servant leadership, that's Jesus. And he was a suffering king. And 2 Timothy 3, 12 is accurate. There is going to be things we have to endure as Christians. And we have to be okay with that. Again, the goal isn't necessarily I want to suffer and we don't wake up and say, what are some ways I can suffer today? But it is inevitable as you're following Jesus and we make a mistake if we don't recognize that suffering is part of the Christian journey, of the Christian walk. Because then what happens is, and it's out there, there's this erroneous theology that thinks if I'm a Christian, if I say yes to Jesus, then my life should become easier. Things should be automatically be better. Like I shouldn't have the same issues. I shouldn't have the level of conflict that others do. Like there should be a primrose path that leads to my eternity in heaven once I become a Christian. And I'm here to say that the Bible never promises an easy life. The Bible never promises a conflict-free existence when you're a Christian. The Bible promises is that the presence of God will be with you in every storm, in every season, and in every situation. That's what we're promised. But what happens, and I saw this in youth ministry sometimes too, is people will say things like this, well I tried Christianity, or I tried Jesus once. Like he's a now and later flavor or something like that. Like I tried it, and it didn't work for me. Like my parents still got divorced, or I still didn't get the job, or my uncle still died of cancer. And so what's the point of following Jesus? And here's what we learn in suffering, is that when we suffer, when we are persecuted, when we go through various trials, James says, we can actually count it all joy. Why, because it's fun in the moment? No, but we understand that it is producing something in us, perseverance, it's producing character, it's producing a stronger faith for the battles and the journeys that are to come. And that's why James says, like look, it's not joyful to be in it, but we count it joy because we know there's a result. There's an end result that leads to a stronger faith, a stronger commitment, a stronger character in the Lord. And I would submit to you that a faith that's never been tested is a faith that can't really be trusted. Like we go through testings so that we're stronger, so that we're able to lean into the Lord when things get difficult. And as Christians today, things are going to get more difficult. There is going to be more suffering. There is going to be things we go through. And so we look at suffering, and we see ultimately the physical suffering that Jesus endured on the cross. We're heading into Easter and Good Friday, and so we know that he was whipped, scourged and beaten, crown of thorns was pushed onto his head, nails were driven into his hands, and his feet, a spear into his side, like we get that. But I would dare say most of us in this country would probably never experience that level of physical suffering as a Christian. We may, and there are Christians who do, so I'm not minimizing, I'm just saying for us, that's not normally what we will experience, but there are levels of suffering that Jesus endured that are going to be things we as his followers also have to navigate. And so that's what the series has been about. We've looked at that hiddenness Pastor Garrett shared a few weeks ago, how Jesus had to go through obscurity. And then last week, Pastor Lee talked about the wilderness, the temptations that Jesus had to endure, the things that he had to say no to, the way he had to stay on point and on mission, even in the midst of temptations and trials. And today, as the Suffering King series, we're going to look at misunderstanding, the suffering of being misunderstood. Raise your hand if you've ever been misunderstood. I thought that'd be more of us, four people in portage. Okay, fine, I'm just kidding. Raise your hand if you misunderstood what I asked. Okay, no, it's fearless. Misunderstanding, being misunderstood. And the first thing you can think is, well, I mean, come on, is that really suffering? Like, I don't know, like there's levels, right? To being misunderstood, for sure. All of us have probably sent a text, especially now that we have voice text, right? And it didn't exactly communicate what we were trying to say. Don't raise your hand if you've accidentally used profanity. I never have. But, you know, it's like, you go like da, da, da, da, and then you send it and then you look and go, wow, is that even English? What did I just write? My mother-in-law sent, sometimes she sends me texts and videos of like some end time stuff and some of it's good and some of it not. So anyway, she sent something and then she said, all of this is happening because of the Lord God, dot, dot, dot, hold my tea. And I was like, hold your tea. Like, I guess I can. I mean, I don't like that you're just demanding I hold your tea. But then I realized she was trying to say, Lord God almighty, but it translated hold my tea. You know, like those things happen. Not a huge deal. Or we can overcome that pretty easily. Or we could have a phone conversation. I remember I called KFC back in the COVID days, like 2020 when nothing was open and then you had to always pick it up. And I said, yo, how much chicken do I need for like three hungry people? And she thought I said 300 people. And so she gave a pretty astronomical amount. And I was like, you know what? I like how you think actually, but I don't think I need that much. I'm we're not that hungry. She says, oh, I thought you said 300. So again, misunderstood. Not a big deal. I still have a few buckets at home. If you guys want to come over or I was thinking through this too, like how many times and you young people won't know the pain of this. But back in the 80s, when I was growing up, you heard songs on the radio and if you weren't sure what they were saying, you just decided what they were saying and you just ran with it. Like this has to be what they mean. And now you can Google and you can go to YouTube and you can have, you know, all these pleasures at your fingertips that we didn't have. And so you can Google this too, but these are literal ones that I grew up thinking were wrong the whole time. So the Uncle Cracker song, I thought he was saying, give me the beach boys, free mice, apparently it's give me the beat boys. And so, but I will sing Beach Boys because I figured they were friends or something like that. And then Madonna, don't judge me. I used to listen to Madonna and she had a song called San Pedro. And I thought, literally thought she was saying, last night I dreamt of some bagels. And I was like, you know what? I feel you Madonna. Like who hasn't had some car problems? Who hasn't dreamed of bread every now and then. But then I found out, no, she's actually saying San Pedro. And then last, you guys are like, why is he doing this? This is the last one. And I need you guys to feel me on this one. Mr. Mr. in the 80s had a song and I would have bet every dime I had that what they were saying was carry a laser. Carry a laser down the road that I must travel. Raise your hand if you know what I'm talking about. Okay, raise your, keep it up. If you thought they were at least saying laser in some way, shape or form. Okay, meet me after church. We'll start a group together. I was like, carry a laser. I even tried to like kind of like, you know, Christianize it like, you know, like a light into my path and a lamp. Like I need a laser to get through. They're not saying laser whatsoever. In fact, I Googled carry a laser. And this came up. It's actually, I wrote it down. Carry a lasin. Carry a lasin down the road that I must travel. And that is Greek for Lord have mercy. So if you didn't learn anything else from my message, you can go home and say, church was amazing today. I used to carry a laser. Now I carry a lasin or whatever it is. So anyway, I don't care if they come to firekeepers to see it wherever I see them in concert. I'm singing carry a laser at the top of my lungs. So again, these are misunderstandings. They're not a big deal. Like we can get over it. We can work through it. But there are some misunderstandings in our lives. And as we're gonna see in the life of Jesus that are different, that are more serious, that can lead to confusion, even conflict, can lead to being misunderstood to a point where you are questioned about why you do what you do. You have your motives challenged. And ultimately it can lead to rejection and even persecution. And so that's what we're gonna talk about. Like as we navigate the waters of Christianity in 2022, we're going to have to understand what does it mean to really follow Jesus. What does it mean? Even when people don't understand, even when people are questioning why we do what we do, are we willing to have Jesus be our only aim, his will be our only goal. And it is going to take intentionality. And so that's what we're gonna talk about. We're gonna talk about the fact that misunderstandings can lead and did lead in Jesus's life to persecutions, trials, and things that need to be overcome. So I'm gonna give you a few about Jesus. First, Jesus was misunderstood by the religious leaders. If you read the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you know that they were always the Sadducees and the Pharisees and the religious leaders were threatened by Jesus. They saw him as a threat to their way of living, to the influence that they had, to the prominence they had in the community because he was teaching something completely different. So they were always trying to trap him, always trying to get him, well, what about this situation? Or who should we pay taxes to? Look what you did on the Sabbath and you're not supposed to do that. And so they would time and time again try to catch Jesus in some sort of a law breaking. And then finally in John 10, 24, they just come out and say, if you're the Christ, why don't you just tell us? Like reveal it, tell it to us plainly. And Jesus said, I have said it. My works are the ones that say who I am, but you won't believe me. And they misunderstood who Jesus was and what he represented and why he had come. And so it cost him, ultimately his life as they persecuted him, also even by his own disciples. Jesus was ultimately misunderstood. I said already that they were arguing about who's gonna be greater. Why? Because they literally thought Jesus was going to bring a political kingdom. Like they was finally gonna be free from the tyranny of Rome and Jesus was gonna establish his throne as a deliverer and there'd be somebody holding Jesus' scepter and somebody who got to be the next man in charge. And that's what they would argue about and that's what they thought. And so in fact, many times Jesus would communicate, no, this is really what is gonna happen and they just didn't get it. And in Matthew 16, Peter goes as far as to say, so Jesus says, look, I am going to have to suffer many things and I'm gonna be turned over to the Roman officials and I'm ultimately going to have to die. And Peter literally says, Lord, no. I mean, that is an oxymoron because Lord means master, owner, controller. So you're literally saying, Lord, no. And that's never gonna happen to you. And Jesus doesn't say, oh, hey, thanks so much for your concern, Peter, appreciate that. That's nice of you. He says, no, get behind me Satan, for you're not mindful of the things of God, you're mindful of the things of man. Like there was a total misunderstanding even when they were doing ministry and James and John and Jesus are going into a town and they reject the message and James and John go, hey, should we call fire down on these people? Like Elijah did at Mount Carmel and Jesus like guys, I'm sure Jesus rolled his eyes. Like he doesn't mean to though. And then he's like, you don't even know what spirit you're of. Like they misunderstood on many levels who Jesus was and even his own family. The Bible tells us that his brothers, his half brothers, they didn't believe Jesus was who he said he was until after his death, after his resurrection. So James and Jude, like they didn't believe him. And even John the Baptist, who was the forerunner of Jesus' ministry, Mary and Elizabeth, his mom were pregnant at the same time. Like this was a God ordained thing. If there was anyone who should have never questioned Jesus, never misunderstood what he was, who he was and what he was trying to do, it would have been John the Baptist. But in Matthew chapter 11, John the Baptist finds himself in prison suffering and he's thinking to himself, okay, wait, if Jesus is who he said he is, if he's gonna do, then should I really be in prison? Like I'm just trying to do what I'm supposed to do. I'm supposed to prepare the way. I'm supposed to, and I never thought it would lay in me here. And he's processing that and it literally says in Matthew chapter 11, it says in verse two, now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and they said to him, are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another? Talk about being misunderstood. Even John the Baptist was like, go ask him if he's really the one or is there gonna be somebody else who's gonna do something that won't land me in prison? Like misunderstood, even by his family. And lastly, Jesus was misunderstood by the crowds and by Pilate. You know, we're heading into Easter and we read in scriptures that the people, the crowds, they had the poem branches out next week for Palm Sunday and they're waving them and they're saying, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord and they're celebrating Jesus, celebrating as he rides on that colt. And then the very next week, those are the same exact people who are yelling crucify him, crucify him. At one point they were like, yes, come, King. And then when they misunderstood who Jesus is and what he wanted to do, then they were swayed and moved by the religious leaders to say no crucify him and Pilate was the same way. He found nothing wrong with Jesus. He could find nothing to accuse him of but when the people, when the crowds, when he started to feel pressure, when he started to feel some persecution, like people are gonna be mad at me if I don't do what they say. Well, then he starts inquiring a little more, like, okay, Jesus, what about you? Are you a king? He asked him in John chapter 18 and this is Jesus's response. He says, are you a king? And in verse 36, it says, Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting that I might not be delivered over the Jews but my kingdom is not from the world. Then Pilate said to him, so you are a king. And Jesus answered, you say that I'm a king and it is for this purpose I was born and for this purpose I've come into the earth, what? To bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice and Pilate ended up sending him away, turning him over to the Jewish people and to the Roman soldiers to be crucified and killed even though his wife had a dream about Jesus and said, hey, I had a dream about him, do not do anything to him. Guys, let me just help you. If your wife has a dream and says clearly this is not supposed to happen, Pilate should not have done that, but he did. Why? Fear of man, fear of people, fear of other people's opinions and he misunderstood. Bible says that even Satan ultimately misunderstood what Jesus was doing at the cross. Corinthians says if he had known who this king of glory was, he wouldn't have crucified him. Satan literally thought he won. Literally thought it was over. Literally thought he had the victory. But as we're gonna celebrate in two weeks, Jesus overcome the misunderstandings. He overcame death and sin and the grave. And so those are some of the ways that Jesus was misunderstood. Jesus had to navigate what was happening in his world. And now let's fast forward. 2000 years later, what does that look like for us as followers of Jesus? What do the misunderstandings look like today as we try to navigate following Christ and living for the Lord in the midst of a culture that is growing increasingly anti-Christian, increasingly anti-Christ. The Bible says, and it's one of our core verses in Isaiah 60, darkness will cover the land and deep darkness the people. Like that's inevitable and it's going to happen, but we are called to arise and shine because the glory of the Lord is upon us. And so I wanna take the rest of the time we have and just talk through what does it look like for us to navigate being misunderstood. What about when people are labeling you a hater or a person who is hypocritical or you're discriminatory or you're unable to love people the way they... Like all of these are things we've probably heard as Christians or question why we do what we do. Why would you do that? Why would you... Like there's gonna be times where people are going to misunderstand what you're doing and how you're living. And we have to understand that that not only is gonna happen, it's gonna happen more frequently and it's gonna happen in a greater way as these days unfold. So three things I wanna give you about how do we navigate being misunderstood as followers of Jesus. And let me just say this, sorry, I forgot this part, but it's important. Jesus never watered down his message to appease the crowds. He never watered down his mission when people didn't understand him. He wasn't trying to be ambiguous. He wasn't trying to get one over on people. He was very clear about what he was doing. And in John chapter six, we see that he just fed 5,000 people with one lunch. He walked on water, he opened blind eyes. And so his popularity is at an insane fever pitch. People are following him. Huge crowds are following Jesus. I want you to just picture that. Like not like 10, 50 people, like thousands of people are following and the disciples are in front with Jesus. And they gotta be thinking, finally, this is working out. We got some momentum. We got some people following us. Our Instagram feed is blowing up. We have tons of likes on, look at how many times we've been retweeted. Like this is finally happening. Jesus, we got something good going here. Let's go. And Jesus turns around and says, a lot of you people are following me because your bellies are full, because you got fed because of the bread, the loaves and the fishes. And they were like, well, well, and he goes, but there's a different bread. There's a bread from heaven. And so then he started asking questions. Like, what is this bread from heaven? And Jesus doesn't go, well, you know, I don't want to be too bold here. No, he says, no, I am the bread from heaven. And I am the living bread. And your fathers who ate manna in the desert, they ended up dying. But if this bread leads to eternal life and now they're like, hey, easy guy, you know, you're kind of comparing yourself to God here. So there's a little tension. So this would have been a moment where Jesus could have said, oh, I'm going to calm it all down. Don't worry. Nobody get, you know, don't be confused. I didn't mean that kind of bread. I meant like, you know, Caraba's bread. You know, again, you know, he could have, he could have eased back, but here's what Jesus said. Turns around and he says, here's the thing, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, then you have no life in you. And every, the disciples were like, well, we quit. You know, like what? What are you doing? Why would you do that? Like we have momentum, we have followers. People want to hear you. Why would you say something so divisive, something so strong? Because Jesus didn't care about pleasing the crowds. He didn't care about other people's opinions. He didn't want anyone to misunderstand his ultimate mission, which was unless you have life in my body, unless you have life in my blood, you don't know what life is. That's what he was communicating. And so even when people were following him in masses, he wasn't saying, oh, this is so great. Oh, look at all these people. Come back next week and I'll have even better fish. Let's be honest, that kid's fish wasn't, I'm gonna have smoked salmon next week. If you guys all come back, he didn't care about that. And I'm just gonna say this, sometimes as preachers, and look, I love that there's a lot of people here and that there's nothing wrong with big gatherings and big churches. But when Jesus saw crowds, he became suspicious. He wasn't like, yes, look at all these people. He was like, some of you aren't here for the right reason. Some of you were here because your needs got met. Some of you were here because you got to eat a free lunch. And I'm telling you that if you really wanna follow me, it looks like this, deny yourself, take up your cross, then you're a candidate to follow me. And the Bible says in John 6 that many fell away. Many no longer followed him. Even the disciples were like, bro, these are hard teachings. Like who can even do this? And he says what's impossible with man is possible with God. And it is so important as Christians, we realize Jesus never lowered the bar, never lowered the standard. Jesus loved people, was full of grace and truth, and he wasn't moved by the crowds, and he wasn't moved by opinions when he was misunderstood. And we have to follow in his footsteps. So how do we do that? Three things, number one. And I'm just gonna say it this way. If you wanna be a follower of Jesus, you are gonna be misunderstood. So what does that mean? You're gonna look weird. Write that down. That's my best point of this whole message. You're going to look weird. People aren't gonna always understand. Do you know why? Because Jesus looked weird. And we're supposed to look like Jesus. And weird in a good way, weird in a God way. I'm not talking about weird, like stand on your cafeteria table and be like, who needs to know the Lord? Like that's really weird. But what I'm saying is, people are gonna look at your life and go, that's not normal. That looks different. And that's weird. And that's exactly what they did to Jesus. Why? Jesus came on the scene, like I said, like no other king had ever come. And what were the things he was saying? If you wanna be great, serve. If you wanna be first, be okay with being last. Do you wanna have more? Yeah, then give. Be generous. Have people hurt you? Yes, forgive them. Have people smacked you on one cheek? Yes, then turn the other one. The law said not to commit adultery. Jesus said, I don't even want you to look lustfully at someone else. Then you've already done it in your heart. Like all of this was brand new to everyone who hurt it. And it would have been weird to them. And now we fast forward 2,000 years later and following Jesus is gonna look weird because normal is crazy now. Like if you can tell me what's normal, I would like to know. Because when I look at social media and the news, I have no idea what normal even is anymore. But I know this, it isn't working. And if we're gonna be followers of Jesus and we're gonna be normal and we're gonna look like everyone else, then we're gonna blend in with culture and we're not gonna stand out and we're not gonna have any influence for the kingdom of God. And Matthew 7, Jesus talks about it. He says there's a wide road that's available and you can walk on it and tons of people are gonna be on it, but at least to death. But then there's a narrow gate and that road's a lot smaller and not as many people are on it. And it's going the other way. It's leading to life and few find it. But that's the one you wanna be on. So what I'm saying to us guys is as we're living our normal lives, if we're just going through the motions and we're like, I don't wanna rock the boat. I don't wanna seem weird. I don't wanna, I'm gonna kind of just go along. Then we're on the wide road and there's others who are coming after Jesus and the world's gonna be saying to them, you're going the wrong way. Like why are you on that path? Why don't you just do what everyone else is doing? And it's because we are going to look weird as Christians and culture is going to demand our adherence. They're gonna demand our loyalty and it's going to look weirder and weirder when we take stands for Jesus and when we live our lives for Him and when we walk on a path that is not as wide and not as many people, but it's leading to life. And if you're not willing to look weird for God then you're not willing to be used by God. Like that's just, cause look, let's just be honest. What's normal in our culture when it comes to like our schedules? Work, work, work, work, never take a break. 1,000 RPMs, go crazy all the time. No Sabbath, like that's normal. Who cares about family, kids, making time for, that's normal. What's normal when it comes to money in the world? Get stuff, have stuff, overextend, go in debt, whatever it looks like, that's normal. What's normal in our world when it comes to relationships? Bounce from person to person, partner to partner, see if this is gonna work out, move in together. Who cares? It's all just body parts. It doesn't matter. There's no covenant. Like that's normal. What's becoming normal is let's talk to children about sexual things in our schools. Like that's becoming normal. Do you know that normal in our country right now is 52% of people's marriages end in divorce? And the church is not any better. And look, I don't have stones in my hand and I'm not condemning anyone. I'm saying this. If you've never had anyone say to you, wow, that's weird. If you've never seemed or felt uncomfortable as you're following Jesus, there's a chance that you're on the wide road. If you've never been confronted and said, why would you do what? You give money to the church? What? What? You go to a Bible, you're in a small group? What? You go to prayer meetings? What? What is, I mean, again, why aren't you signing Billy up for baseball because we're gonna miss three months of church? Well, how's he gonna be an Olympian? He's not. Like again, and I'm not mad at sports. I'm just saying there's gonna be some decisions that we make, people aren't going to understand. And are you willing to be uncomfortable? Are you willing to be persecuted? Are you willing to even suffer for the name of Jesus and say, no, this is important to me. I'll never forget, I had a friend who was meeting with his financial advisor as he had some things going on. He had just changed jobs and the financial advisor, what's this? And he's like, well, that's what I give to the church. And he's like, well, that's your problem. Like, yeah, stop doing that. Literally. And my friend was like, well, I'm not gonna stop doing that. That's part of who we are, whatever. And I'm not just trying to make it about money, but it was just crazy. This guy was like, well, what are you doing? That's like, he didn't understand. He was misunderstood. And kudos to my friend who was like, no, this is important to us. And I'm just telling you in the world that we live in, it's gonna get more and more divisive when you live for Jesus. Part two, number two. Realize that you're going to look weird. Number two is remember, and this is important, the battle is spiritual. The battle is spiritual. People are not your enemy. Let that sink in. I've preached that from this pulpit many times, but I'm gonna say it again. There is a temptation when you're trying to follow Jesus to begin to demonize other people, demonize groups of people, demonize people that you think are the problem. And we're the solution. And there's this temptation to kind of be on our holy high horse and look down on everyone else. Well, you're not good. You're not right. You're not living for God and we are. And that's exactly the mistake Israel made in the Old Testament. They thought, oh, we're the people of the Lord, people of the Lord and everybody else. And they didn't let their light shine. They were supposed to be a light to the nation, salvation to the Gentiles, and they didn't do any of that. They just started lashing out at people and at the ones who didn't have a covenant with God. And now thousands of years later, there is the same temptation among Christians to look at the homosexual community, to look at the transvestite community, to look at the atheists, to look at Muslims and say, they're the problem. They're who we're fighting against. And what I'm telling you is there is a spiritual battle that's taking place and it never involves people. People are not who we're fighting against or who we're fighting for. They're not the problem. They're the prize. And when we identify our problems as people, we miss the kingdom of God on every single level. So John, what are you saying? I'm saying Ephesians six says this, our war is not against flesh and blood. It's not against people. What is it against? Sensibilities, powers, spiritual forces of darkness in the heavenly. So how do we do that? Prayer, tied to every single issue that we're facing in our country is a spirit, is a demonic spirit. And we bind those in the name of Jesus and we lose the spirit of God over our children. We lose the spirit of God over our city, over the nations. Where do you do that? You do that at home. You do that in the prayer room. You do that in your prayer closet. But what you don't do is get on Twitter, Facebook, CNN, whatever, and air your grievances against people. It's so easy to do. It's so easy to do. We live in a world where you can just walk on stage and smack people in the face too soon. Sorry. Hey, you can get on Twitter and it's a lot easier and probably safer to get on social media. It's like, blah, blah, I hate these people. Well, who's the problem now? Oh, wait, it's Russia. We hate Russians. Oh, it's Disney. Hate Disney. I mean, again, I'm not advocating for them. I'm not saying that they're a good corporation or they have good values, but when the CEO or whoever comes on the screen, I'm not gonna be like, devil, evil. I'm gonna be like, God, 2 Corinthians 4, forces open the eyes of the blind. Those who have had their eyes blinded to the glory of Jesus, God. And let there be freedom. We sang about it. We pray about it. That's how you do battle in the spiritual. And there's a temptation to always connect someone or somebody to what we're praying against. And don't do that. Guard against that. What do we do when people persecute us? We bless them. What do we do when people revile us or say evil things about we pray for them? That's the hard part about being a Christian. And so when people say, Christianity is just a crutch. I'm like, well, it's really not. If you're trying to do it, it's harder than it sounds. And it's only by the grace of God. But we stay committed to loving people full of grace and truth. We don't lower the standard. We don't say you're fine just the way you are. You know, the Bible never says that. Never says you're fine the way you are. It says you're loved the way that you are. What the Bible says is that you're broken and you're hopeless without Jesus Christ. And if it wasn't for his shed blood and broken body, all of us would be on a path to separation from Jesus, from the presence of God in a place called hell. But he came and in his mercy and in his grace, he gave us eternal life. That's what it looks like. That's the gospel. The gospel isn't, we're good and you're bad and we're right and you're the problem. And we're never gonna win people over to the Lord if that's how we think and if that's our trajectory and if that's the way we process. I don't wanna say this too boldly, but guess what? Democrats aren't the problem. Republicans aren't the problem. Our president isn't the problem. You need to pray for him. And if you like our president, then I'm gonna assume you didn't like the one we had before and you should be praying for him. Like that's where we are now is no, we're tribal and we take sides and we hate them and that is not the kingdom of God. That's not how we war. We war in the heavenlies. We war in the place of prayer, the spiritual, but we're intentional. And I'm gonna tell you that the culture war we're in is intentional. The war against children, it's intentional. The war against family, it's intentional. So you know what else is intentional? The investment radiant church is making into our children financially in our curriculum, in our teachers, in our leaders, you're gonna see that as fall unfolds. That we're taking the radiant city vision that you've money and finances that you've so generously given and we are intentionally putting that into the next generation. We believe that now is the time when children have an encounter, a real encounter with God. And when they know God and they see God and they have God encounter them with his love, there is no substitute that Hollywood or Disney or movies or Oscars could ever make that can compare to the goodness of God in their lives, the power of the love of God. And so that's how we war. We war with our giving, we war with our serving, we war with our prayer. And the last thing is this, is just live for an audience of one. That's it. You're gonna stand in the presence of God some day and you're gonna give an account for your life. And you know who's gonna be there? Not your peers, not the Joneses, not the people you tried to keep up with, not the status quo in the world. It's gonna be your heavenly father and he's gonna look at you and we wanna hear him say, well done, good and faithful servant. What have we done with our lives? What have we done with our giving? We don't, we're aliens, the Bible says, sojourners and pilgrims in this world. This isn't all there is. And a large percentage of people live their lives like this is the only world they're ever gonna experience but we know through scripture that it's a blink, it's a vapor, it's here and it's gone and everything we do translates to eternity. So live for God. Say, God, just like Jesus said, I can do nothing of myself and John five. I only do what I see the father doing. I do his will and we don't do it perfectly. We don't do it completely, but we can do it intentionally. God, I wake up today and I wanna serve you. I don't wanna be moved by culture. I don't wanna be governed by people around me and what they think and what others might say. No, my eyes are fixed on you and it's your will that I wanna do. You're the only one worthy of my life, the only one worthy of my praise and I live today with the end in mind. That's how we move forward as Christians and as followers and the people will misunderstand us, question our motives, call us names. We love them, we bless them, we continue to do the work of the Lord in the midst of that and God is our defender. You guys stand up with me and let me just pray with you. I just want you to close your eyes and I thought about how I wanted to end the service and I really just want you to ask the Holy Spirit who's in this room, what are you asking of me? Maybe it's one of the things I talked about. You've been blending in with the people around you, the crowds, the things you're laughing at at work, the things you're doing, they're not separating you. Maybe that's what the Holy Spirit just wants to minister to or maybe you're, all of us again are tempted to make enemies out of people or out of people groups. Maybe the Lord's asking you to soften your heart to begin to pray in the spiritual realm or maybe there's a fear of man. What are people gonna think? What is that gonna look like? And God's saying, live your life for an audience of one. My will is the only thing you're after. And I just want you to hear this, that God never judges with condemnation or shame. If you're feeling that in any way, that is not God. That is not how your father speaks to you. God lovingly reaches out to us. He supports us, he encourages us. His mercies are new every single day. Satan wants you to hang your head in shame. God says, I'm the lifter of your head. I'm your shield, I'm your reward and I'm your defender. But the only way we're gonna make a difference in the kingdom of God is when we align our hearts to the Lord's and we say, God break my heart for what breaks yours. I'm sorry for the times I've missed it. I'm sorry for the times that I've judged others and I humbled myself. So I'm just gonna pause for 30 seconds and I just want you to speak to the Lord. In your heart and whatever the Holy Spirit's revealing to you, God, your ways are higher. Your ways are not our ways and your thoughts are not our thoughts. So we ask you, Spirit of God, reveal your thoughts, reveal your ways, reveal your heart to us. We wanna take your word, we wanna shine it all around God. We wanna live as ambassadors for Christ but we ask you Holy Spirit, help us, empower us. Your grace is sufficient for all of our needs and your strength is perfected in our weakness, God. It is not who we are, it's who you are, it's not what we do, it's what you've done. And so we rest, we rest in the finished work of Jesus. And we leave this place committed to serving and loving and surrendering our lives to our suffering King, our victorious King, and his name is Jesus. Amen.