Latest / The Salt Company Denver / Meeting Jesus- Mark 1- Colin Provart

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Meeting Jesus- Mark 1- Colin Provart · The Salt Company Denver

0:02
SPEAKER_00: What's going on at Skull Company?
0:08
SPEAKER_00: It's good to be together, is it not?
0:11
SPEAKER_00: Hey, welcome to Skull Company.
0:13
SPEAKER_00: My name's Colin.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: I get to work here at Skull Company, which means that I have the best job on the planet, okay?
0:19
SPEAKER_00: Because there's no other place I would rather be on a Tuesday night than hanging out, worshiping with you guys, opening the Bible with you guys, and hearing what God might have to say to us tonight.
0:29
SPEAKER_00: And so, what I want you to know is if you're new, we're so glad that you're here because we really do believe that this is the best place that you can be on a Tuesday night.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: We believe this so much that we have a gift for you if it's your first time.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: And so if you walk out and you find the welcome area, uh, I would head there.
0:45
SPEAKER_00: You're like, ah, is the gift gonna be worth it?
0:47
SPEAKER_00: The gift is only not worth it if you do not like manna from heaven in the form of Chick-fil-A sandwiches.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: So you should definitely check it out.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: We got something for you there.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: If it's your first time here, we would love to give that to you.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: And it's especially a good week for it to be your first time here because we're starting a new series tonight called Meeting Jesus.
1:05
SPEAKER_00: Meeting Jesus, and here's the question we're gonna look at over the next three weeks is we're really gonna answer the question: what happens when people in the Bible meet Jesus?
1:15
SPEAKER_00: And what happens to us when we meet Jesus?
1:19
SPEAKER_00: What does Jesus do when we meet him?
1:23
SPEAKER_00: That's a question we're gonna answer over the next three weeks, and so I'd invite you back because we're gonna look at uh uh three different answers to that question.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: But tonight we're gonna be in Mark one.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: If you're new to your Bible, as we all once were, Mark one is about 75% of the way through your Bible.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: There should be a Bible in the seat in front of you or an under your seat.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't have a Bible or a physical Bible at home, we'd love to give that to you.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: That's our gift to you.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: We believe the Bible is God's word, and we want you to have access to God's word.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: And so we'd love if you took that home.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: You can also go to the welcome booth.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: We have other Bibles there that we'd love to gift to you.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: But Mark I'm where we're gonna be.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: And as you turn there, I I just felt as I was getting ready for this week, the Lord kind of impress upon my heart uh that that there are people who are walking into this room just carrying some things, some things in secret, some things that uh I don't know, maybe are bringing about shame.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: Um and so I want to give you the opportunity to get that uh off your chest.
2:19
SPEAKER_00: And so, in just a second, I'm gonna ask you to turn to the person next to you and just confess the guilty pleasure that you have of your favorite reality TV show.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: I know you all have them.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: So you're not like, I thought he was serious.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: All right, turn to the person next to you, your favorite reality TV show, go.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna need you to bring it back.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: I need you to bring it back.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: We'll stumbling up, we'll start it off with uh with some layups.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: Any Survivor fans in the room?
3:04
SPEAKER_00: There should be way more of you guys.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: Survivor's an amazing show.
3:09
SPEAKER_00: Um again, I was looking up some popular reality TV.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: Any traitors fans?
3:14
SPEAKER_00: Couple of them, nice.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: Um now this is where like walking in the light, that's what 1 John says, is gonna be mandatory here.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: Any like keeping up with the Kardashian fans?
3:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: Um any secret lives of Mormon wives fans?
3:31
SPEAKER_00: I know you exist.
3:36
SPEAKER_00: I know that there are some of you, particularly men in the room, who feel like some shame and condemnation, and there is no shame and condemnation in Christ Jesus, okay?
3:48
SPEAKER_00: Love is blind?
3:50
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
3:55
SPEAKER_00: The Lord sees and hunters that.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: Any bachelor, bachelorette?
4:01
SPEAKER_00: Okay, does by show of hands, does anyone know anyone that's ever been on one of those shows?
4:07
SPEAKER_00: Couple?
4:08
SPEAKER_00: Okay, nice.
4:09
SPEAKER_00: So two of my college friends were on Love is Blind and another one was on The Bachelorette, okay?
4:17
SPEAKER_00: I am not, I do not often watch these shows.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: I was locked in on those seasons, you know?
4:23
SPEAKER_00: It's like, how much can you embarrass yourself?
4:28
SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's so brutal.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: The one was left at the altar on Love is Blind.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: Not by his choice.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: Tough.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: So tough, so tough.
4:38
SPEAKER_00: The other one's voted off, didn't get a rose, episode four of The Bachelorette.
4:42
SPEAKER_00: I didn't watch from there.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: But it's remarkable, it's remarkable how much you're like, I know what it's like to be in a living room with you, and yet now I see you on my television, and you're like a totally different person.
4:53
SPEAKER_00: You know, like the producers cut it, like it's totally different to see someone on TV than it is to hang out on my patio.
5:01
SPEAKER_00: You you guys all know this idea.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: Meeting, like seeing someone over a television is totally different than meeting them in real life.
5:10
SPEAKER_00: Meeting someone up close is totally different than observing someone from afar, and that's how it is with Jesus.
5:17
SPEAKER_00: See, I think everyone in the room has seen Jesus be portrayed on a television show, has maybe listened to some Jesus jams in the car.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: Probably almost everyone in the room has heard stories about Jesus, and yet that's totally different from actually meeting him.
5:37
SPEAKER_00: See, I grew up in the church.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: I grew up going to church.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: I was pretty well versed in the things of God.
5:42
SPEAKER_00: I knew almost every song to the worship sets that we sang.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: I knew a lot of Bible verses, I had them memorized.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: I probably could have told you the difference between Matthew and Mark, and yet I thought I knew what it meant to know and follow Jesus, but it wasn't until my freshman year of college when my whole world was rocked and shaken and turned upside down that I realized that I'd maybe been an acquaintance of Jesus, but I'd never really met him and knew what it meant to have a relationship with him.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: See, that's my story, and I'm wondering if that's someone else's story in the room tonight.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: See, the question isn't whether you know about Jesus, it's whether you've met Jesus.
6:29
SPEAKER_00: Because familiarity with Jesus can leave you totally unchanged, but meeting him can't.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: I think that's worth saying again.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: Familiarity with Jesus can leave you unchanged.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: But meeting Jesus can't.
6:45
SPEAKER_00: And so here's what we're gonna see tonight.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: Here's what we're gonna see tonight.
6:49
SPEAKER_00: Is that meeting Jesus changes everything.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: Meeting Jesus changes everything.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: What we're gonna do is we're gonna look at two verses, two sentences, the first 18 words of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark, in Mark's account of the life and ministry of Jesus.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: We're just gonna look at 18 words, we're gonna land there all night.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: This is Mark 1, verses 14 and 15.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee proclaiming the good news of God.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: This is Jesus' first 18 words.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God has come near.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: Repent and believe the good news.
7:22
SPEAKER_00: That's these 18 words that we're gonna look at.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: And it's here that we're gonna discover that Jesus really does change everything.
7:28
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna look at three things that Jesus changes tonight.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus changes history, Jesus changes hearts, and Jesus changes our hope.
7:38
SPEAKER_00: Jesus changed history, hearts, and our hope.
7:40
SPEAKER_00: And I want to tell you exactly where I'm gonna go.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: I want to tell you exactly where I'm gonna land the plane tonight.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: Here's where I'm gonna go.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna tell everyone in the room, I'm gonna look at everyone in the room and say that Jesus changes absolutely everything about your life, and that's the best thing that you can give yourself to is being changed by Jesus Christ.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna look at everyone in the room and say, whether it's for the first time in your life or the hundredth time in your life to actually meet with Jesus and allow him to change everything about your heart, everything about your mind, everything about your life.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: Jesus changes everything, and we're gonna start with Jesus changes history.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 15 again.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God has come near.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: Repent and believe the good news.
8:22
SPEAKER_00: So I actually want to back up because we're we're starting with an assumption that I just want to clear the air on.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: We're starting with the assumption that Jesus Christ is indeed a real person who actually existed, who actually can change the course of history, because that's gonna be the foundation by which we build everything upon tonight.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: And so if you back up to Mark 1, verse 1, this is what it says.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: It says, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: So here's what Mark is introducing to us as he writes this down is he's giving us a first century biography of the person and work of Jesus Christ.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: And so, what a first century biography would often do is it would often tell the teachings of a teacher with followers, and then it would also examine the life of that teacher.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: And here was the question of the first of a first century biography is do the teachings of that person match the life of that person?
9:09
SPEAKER_00: Right?
9:09
SPEAKER_00: That's the question that first century readers or listeners are listening for.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: Did the teachings of the teacher match the life of the teacher, or is there hypocrisy there?
9:19
SPEAKER_00: And so as Christians, what we believe is that absolutely the teachings of Jesus match the life of Jesus, that that the book of Mark is certainly a first century biography.
9:28
SPEAKER_00: As Christians, we believe that it's a first century biography.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: It's certainly more than that, but it's absolutely not less than that.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: Now, maybe you're thinking, of course, the Bible uh affirms the validity of Jesus Christ.
9:39
SPEAKER_00: Well, you don't have to take my word or just the Bible's word.
9:41
SPEAKER_00: You could look to a Roman historian Tacitus or a Jewish historian Josephus, who all account for Jesus of Nazareth being a real person through which uh a lot of the world is changed at that time.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: But not only that, we can actually look to the Bible and believe in the historical accuracy of the Bible.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: You see, the Bible isn't just uh a book of myths, but if you were to look at first century history and compare it to the words of Scripture in the New Testament, from Matthew to Revelation, you would see that the Bible is incredibly historically accurate.
10:10
SPEAKER_00: And so you've maybe been told that Christians don't believe in history, they don't have an accurate account of what actually happened, even though first century historians will look to the Bible to see what actually happened.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to help you guys out.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
10:23
SPEAKER_00: I want to help you out.
10:23
SPEAKER_00: If you want to be an educated person in the Western world, how many of you want to be an educated person in the Western world?
10:28
SPEAKER_00: Great.
10:29
SPEAKER_00: If you want to be, if you didn't raise your hand, what are you doing in college?
10:35
SPEAKER_00: Just want to make sure you're with me.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: All right, if you want to be an educated person in the Western world, you're gonna have a hard time disputing these four claims.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: I'll give them to you.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus of Nazareth was a real person.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have a really hard time disputing that claim, too.
10:50
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus of Nazareth has incredible, massive socio-political influence in the first century and on.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: That the followers of Jesus Christ have their world totally shaken and go from cowards to willing to die for their teacher, Jesus.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so just an educated person in the Western world, here's what you're gonna believe.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: Jesus of Nazareth, real person, Jesus of Nazareth, massive socio-political influence.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: Jesus of Nazareth followers begin to change over a five to ten year span after the reported death and resurrection of Jesus, and that Jesus and his followers have utterly shaped the progression of Western civilization.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: That's true.
11:30
SPEAKER_00: That's certainly true.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: And so as Christians, what what we believe at Salt Company is we don't believe less than that, we don't deny history, but we actually believe there's a real answer to why that happened.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: Like we actually believe there's an answer to why Jesus in particular changes all of Western culture and society, and it's found right there in verse 15 of Mark 1.
11:54
SPEAKER_00: It says, the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God has come near.
11:59
SPEAKER_00: Here's the Christian answer for why Jesus changes all of Western human history is that Jesus has actually introduced a kingdom where he is the king.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: And we believe that this is going to be a physical and invisible reality one day, but that it's certainly a spiritual reality today.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: So how can that account for what happens in the first century?
12:24
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think there's a massive shift in allegiance.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: You see, everyone in the first century worships and honors and obeys Caesar or Rome, part by force, part by choice, but then Jesus says, Hey, I've come to bring a kingdom where I'm the king.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: And it's a more beautiful and captivating and satisfying kingdom.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: And people begin to say, I'm no longer primarily giving my allegiance to Rome, but I'm actually shifting it to Jesus Christ.
12:53
SPEAKER_00: And when people give their allegiance to the king, the kingdom starts to come in their lives.
12:58
SPEAKER_00: So let me tell you about the kingdom of God and how it's maybe come throughout history.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: You see, no one, no one, no one in the first century cared about social justice.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: And now these Christians, these Christ followers, these mini Christs began to care about social justice.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: Why?
13:15
SPEAKER_00: Because the kingdom is coming through the king.
13:17
SPEAKER_00: They began to care about the vulnerable and the needs of the vulnerable.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: Why?
13:22
SPEAKER_00: Because the kingdom's coming through the king.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: They began to dignify and give honor to women.
13:28
SPEAKER_00: That was not true in the first century.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: Why are the Christians the first people to give honor and dignity to women, to establish hospitals for the sick?
13:38
SPEAKER_00: Why are Christians the first people that we that we begin to see create reconciliation among race lines and among uh socioeconomic lines?
13:48
SPEAKER_00: What why does that happen with Christians in particular first?
13:51
SPEAKER_00: Well, because they've now found that they have new allegiance to a king.
13:55
SPEAKER_00: They have shared allegiance to the king, and when you give your allegiance to the king, the kingdom begins to come.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: You see, Jesus changes history.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: We need to agree on that.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: If you want to be an educated person in the Western world, you must agree that Jesus changes history.
14:13
SPEAKER_00: So you can hate that fact, you can debate that fact, you can appreciate that fact, but you're gonna have a hard time denying that fact.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: With secular or Christian historians.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: You're just gonna have a hard time denying it.
14:30
SPEAKER_00: Alright.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: Uh anyone a fan of Albert Einstein, where are my minds people at that have like, yeah.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: Super nerdy, I'm not gonna lie to you.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so let me, I'll just get I'll I'll cut right to the chase.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to like Einstein to live in a world shaped by relativity.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to like Jesus, but you must recognize that you live in a world that's utterly shaped by the kingdom of God and by allegiance given to King Jesus.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: And so my ask for you is that you would actually consider the person, work, and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: Because I think everyone in the room has some thoughts, some preconceived notions, like you've heard what culture says, you've heard what your professor says, you've heard what social media says, but I want you to come to a convictional, personal understanding of who Jesus is, of what he says, of what his claims were.
15:35
SPEAKER_00: And I think you'll find overwhelming evidence that Jesus might just be who he says he was, and that changes everything about your life.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: So my invitation to you is if that's new to you, like, man, I'm kind of nervous to talk about Jesus.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: Like, I should probably try to figure this out on my own.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm gonna walk and figure this out and not invite anyone else into this journey.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: I would say, man, that that is probably not the smartest thing that you could do because we do education corporately.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: That's why you guys are in classes, right?
16:08
SPEAKER_00: Like, that's how it, and so my encouragement to you is find a group of people that you can talk about and consider and come to convictions about who Jesus is with.
16:15
SPEAKER_00: We actually provide that to you at Salt Company, we call them city groups.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: Where you can actually like show up to a place and you don't need to agree with what everyone agrees with, but you can show up to a place and say, I have some real questions and I really want to consider who Jesus is, and I need a place where I can wrestle through that, and we provide that to you in the form of city groups.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: So I think you should join city groups and come to a personal conviction of who Jesus is.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: But here's my fear is that some of you have come to that conviction already, or at least you think you have.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: You've come to the place where you're like, yeah, I believe Jesus was real, and you know what?
16:46
SPEAKER_00: I actually maybe even believe that he's king.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: He he maybe died for my sins, and that's good and all, but I'm not gonna change anything about my life.
16:53
SPEAKER_00: And what I would say is if that's true of you, I'm not sure you've encountered the same Jesus that I'm talking about.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: Because the claims of Jesus are far too radical to meet him, come to a convictional understanding of who he is, and then walk away unchanged.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: Let's look back at verse 15.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: This is what it says The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God has come near, repent and believe the good news.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: You see, we see that Jesus changes history, but we also see that Jesus changes hearts.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: Jesus changes hearts.
17:29
SPEAKER_00: He invites us to repent, right?
17:31
SPEAKER_00: He says, Repent and believe the good news.
17:33
SPEAKER_00: Repent there is the Greek word metaneo, which means to change one's mind.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: But when our mind changes, our heart usually follows.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: You guys have experienced this.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: Like when you change your mind on something, usually you begin to love the thing that you now have in your mind decided to like.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: The things that we that we choose to set our gaze on are the things that we begin over time to love.
17:58
SPEAKER_00: So the invitation of repentance isn't just to choose other things, but it's actually to begin to love other things.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: But here's what we've tried in the first in the 21st century.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: Here's what we've tried in the 21st century is that we want the kingdom benefits that Jesus offers without repentance.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: We want to get God's benefits, but deny God's ways.
18:22
SPEAKER_00: We want to get the things Jesus offers without Jesus.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: And we miss that Jesus is the one that offers the world and the life that we want.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: So let me give you an example of this.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: Like ways that we want the kingdom without the king.
18:38
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've seen this.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: We want justice without the judge, we want freedom but no boundaries, love but no commitment, truth without authority, community without accountability, peace without surrender, identity without a creator, satisfaction without sacrifice, and joy without Jesus.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: We want the kingdom, but I'll leave the king.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: I mean, is it is this not what our world wants?
19:12
SPEAKER_00: Does our like the way our world talks, does our the world not want justice?
19:16
SPEAKER_00: Does the world not want freedom?
19:18
SPEAKER_00: Like, don't you guys want these things?
19:19
SPEAKER_00: Love, truth, community, peace, identity, satisfaction, and joy.
19:31
SPEAKER_00: Can we all corporately affirm that like that is actually what we want?
19:36
SPEAKER_00: We want the kingdom benefits, but I'll leave the king.
19:42
SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing, it's impossible to get the king the benefits of the kingdom without the king because it's the king who brings the kingdom to benefits.
19:51
SPEAKER_00: And so the question becomes how do I how do I meet Jesus?
19:55
SPEAKER_00: Like, how do I get the king?
20:01
SPEAKER_00: We need to repent.
20:03
SPEAKER_00: We need to realize, like, we're wrong.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: We need a better way.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: We need to know the king personally, not just realize that the king might be right from like a corporate or organizational standpoint, but realize, like, man, I was maybe wrong, and I might need to reorient my life giving allegiance to the king.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: We need to stop and realize that we might actually be on the wrong path, desiring the kingdom, but thinking we can go to the kingdom, but not by way of the king.
20:39
SPEAKER_00: Then we might need to change some things.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: But here's our fear.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: Is the reason we don't want to turn, we don't want to say I was wrong, I actually need to choose something better, is because we know if we were to choose that, Jesus would shake some things up in our life.
21:02
SPEAKER_00: Like Jesus might have something to say about the things I don't want him to say something on.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: And here's why we resist that is I I don't think we like change in particular, and so we'll resist it because we don't like change, we'll resist it because it's uncomfortable, and that might be true.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: But I think the main reason we resist it is we don't actually think that following and surrendering to Jesus as King will provide the life we want.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: We don't think it'll provide satisfaction, we don't think it'll provide joy, we don't think it'll provide community.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: We don't think it will provide the kingdom.
21:39
SPEAKER_00: But friends, I think I can speak for all of us when I say the world and what it offers.
21:43
SPEAKER_00: The way it offers us community, the way it offers us satisfaction, the way it offers us life, the way it offers us all the things we want is the world overpromises and underdelivers.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: Like the world tells us it can provide for us in that way, and it never does.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Or at least it never does in the long term.
22:05
SPEAKER_00: Friends, we have to come to the realization that we might actually not have it all together.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: And the invitation of Jesus might actually be to something more satisfying, more joyful, and more beautiful than we actually realize.
22:19
SPEAKER_00: How many of you are QBE majors or like biology majors or nursing majors or like any major where you've taken biology in college?
22:29
SPEAKER_00: Nice.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: More of you should cheer for them because the future of your health is in their hands.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: Here's the longevity, you know?
22:42
SPEAKER_00: Anyway.
22:45
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go to a simple, a simple biology term that you guys all probably can recall from high school.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: How many of you remember what the term metamorphosis means?
22:55
SPEAKER_00: Yes?
22:56
SPEAKER_00: Okay, please, please.
22:57
SPEAKER_00: You guys past college.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: Okay, metamorphosis or past high school.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh you're all in college.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: Uh metamorphosis is the changing of an organism from one form to the other.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: A great example of that is a caterpillar becoming a butterfly, right?
23:11
SPEAKER_00: Gores through metamorphosis.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: That's what metamorphosis is.
23:15
SPEAKER_00: And so imagine for just a second that a caterpillar could choose to not go through the change of metamorphosis.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: So imagine a caterpillar is like crawling on a tree, it's like, you know what?
23:29
SPEAKER_00: The whole cocoon, the whole like wrapping myself, being, you know, out of commission for a while, not really my thing.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: And so if a caterpillar could choose that, the caterpillar would spend its last days thinking that change was robbing it of beauty.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: But what do we all know?
23:52
SPEAKER_00: That a caterpillar goes through metamorphosis, goes through change to become something more beautiful than it was before.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps change isn't robbing you of the life you want, it's actually bringing you into the life you were made for.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: Friends, the good news of Jesus is you don't actually have to stay the same.
24:18
SPEAKER_00: You can repent, you can change your mind.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: You can say, the way I was living is overpromising and under-delivering.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps I should try the way that Jesus says.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: You see, what I know certainly is true of the room.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: I'm not guessing, I know it.
24:33
SPEAKER_00: That there are people in this room with secret struggle, with things going on in your life that no one else knows about.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: I know certainly in the room there's anger and jealousy.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: Like you hate when someone else gets praise and when someone else gets recognition, and so when someone else gets the shout out because you think you deserve it.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: And that anger and jealousy that you think, I deserve this.
24:59
SPEAKER_00: You think it's bringing you joy, it's only robbing you of joy.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: Or there's like rampant insecurity.
25:05
SPEAKER_00: Where you're evaluating yourself in every room that you walk into, where you smile in the group text, but you find yourself crying in the car.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: I know that's true of the room.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: So I want a life that's better than this.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: Friends, Jesus is the one offering you a life that's better than that.
25:27
SPEAKER_00: Like, what if there was a space where you could walk into and say I don't have it all together?
25:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm actually kind of stumbling through life.
25:35
SPEAKER_00: I actually like have some of these struggles that I've never told anyone about before, and I just wish someone could help point me in the right direction.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: I got good news for you, Salt Company.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: We have something for that.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: It's called Citigroups.
25:54
SPEAKER_00: I think there are people in the room who think the invitation to repent is true of some people, but it's too late for you.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: You're too far gone, you've done too much, you've seen too much, you've walked away too far, and friends, that's not true.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: Everyone in the room is struggling.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: Whether they're faking it or not is their choice.
26:14
SPEAKER_00: But everyone in the room is struggling, figuring it out, getting their questions answered.
26:17
SPEAKER_00: No one, no one, no one, no one, no one, no one, no one, including me in the room, has it all together or all figured out.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: Can we all just corporately affirm that?
26:26
SPEAKER_00: Like no one in the room has it all figured out, which means we're all stumbling forward, trying to figure it out.
26:31
SPEAKER_00: And so together we're gonna come together and try to say, hey, I'm trying to figure it out too.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: And will you help point me to Jesus so that I can repent from the way I was living and aim my life at him and his kingdom?
26:44
SPEAKER_00: I think the fear is if we own it, it'll change how people feel about us.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: And maybe more prominently, it might change how God feels about us.
26:53
SPEAKER_00: But I want to give you the third thing.
26:55
SPEAKER_00: Jesus changes everything, He changes history, He changes our heart, changes our hope.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: Look at what it 15 says again.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God has come near.
27:03
SPEAKER_00: Repent, repent and believe the good news.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: Believe the good news.
27:08
SPEAKER_00: Not good advice, not moral clean yourself up, but good news.
27:13
SPEAKER_00: It's a proclamation.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ has come with one message.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: And I so often hear people get up on stage, open up the Bible, and say something to the tone or the effect of you better get it together so God accepts you.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: And that is not true and not what I'm saying.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: I'm saying you need to decide that the way you were living isn't the right way to live, but that is not cleaning yourself up.
27:35
SPEAKER_00: It's realizing that Jesus has offered you everything you could ever want in himself.
27:44
SPEAKER_00: Look, he says, believe the good news.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: Here's what we believe at Salt Company is that the eternal Son of God, who's always coexisted with the Father in heaven, looked at people like you and me, who are in their sin, stuck in sickness, stuck in shame, and he says, Well, they have no hope, I'll go to them.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, the eternal Son of God, puts on human flesh, is born of the Virgin Mary, lives a perfect life.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: And then the eternal Son of God, perfect and holy and righteous, goes to a Roman cross where he dies a criminal's death.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: The death that sinners deserve.
28:40
SPEAKER_00: The death that rebels deserve.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: The death that people who think they can get life in all these other ways deserve.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: And the good news of the gospel does not stop in a filled tomb with Jesus Christ dying for our sins.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: But the good news of the gospel is that Jesus dies for your sins and then walks out of the tomb to prove that death no longer has to hold you anymore.
29:07
SPEAKER_00: See, we think the good news of the gospel is that Jesus died so that you can live.
29:13
SPEAKER_00: The good news of the gospel is that Jesus died so you can die to your old way of living, and Jesus lives so you can live to a new way of living.
29:21
SPEAKER_00: That is the good news of the gospel.
29:23
SPEAKER_00: That is what Jesus has come to do.
29:24
SPEAKER_00: And so that's not, hey, go clean yourself up.
29:27
SPEAKER_00: That's Jesus has done everything that you could ever need in Christ Jesus.
29:31
SPEAKER_00: And you look at him and you say, I believe.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: Hell my unbelief.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: I believe.
29:37
SPEAKER_00: I don't have it all together.
29:38
SPEAKER_00: I still have doubts, I still have questions, and frankly, I still have sin, I'm working out.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: But I believe that the world overpromised and underdelivered, and Jesus is offering to me to be my savior, but also my king.
29:49
SPEAKER_00: And when I accept him as king, I begin to see the kingdom benefits in my life.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: That's the good news of the gospel.
29:56
SPEAKER_00: That's what we talk about every week at Salt Company, that you can actually give your allegiance to Jesus today.
30:03
SPEAKER_00: He can be your king.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: And when you give your allegiance to Jesus today, when you meet Jesus, he changes everything.
30:11
SPEAKER_00: See, Jesus changes everything.
30:13
SPEAKER_00: And the good news of the gospel is that life with him starts now and lasts forever, and there's nothing you can do to get it.
30:20
SPEAKER_00: You don't earn it, you receive it.
30:22
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you a story.
30:24
SPEAKER_00: When I was in college, I worked with the basketball team.
30:27
SPEAKER_00: I was not good enough to be an athlete.
30:28
SPEAKER_00: So I went to a big school in the Big Ten and I worked with the basketball team.
30:32
SPEAKER_00: I got to the point where I was the head student manager.
30:35
SPEAKER_00: Sounds like a big title.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: It was not a big title.
30:37
SPEAKER_00: It just meant that it was my job to remember everything, literally everything that ever happened.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: And so, road trips, if you're an athlete, road trips are both awesome and awful.
30:46
SPEAKER_00: It all depends upon if you win or lose.
30:48
SPEAKER_00: And we lost.
30:50
SPEAKER_00: We're in Maryland and we lose.
30:52
SPEAKER_00: And so you get in the bus after the game, silent.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: No one talks to coach, no one talks to the players, no one talks to each other.
31:00
SPEAKER_00: It's utter silence.
31:01
SPEAKER_00: We drive straight to the airport, we get on a red eye from Maryland to get back to Minnesota.
31:05
SPEAKER_00: And it's my job to make sure everything we brought gets home.
31:08
SPEAKER_00: Coach's bags, players' bags, we have these equipment bags.
31:12
SPEAKER_00: And so I load everything up on the bus.
31:14
SPEAKER_00: I've double-checked it, I've triple checked it, everything's on the bus.
31:16
SPEAKER_00: We get to the airport.
31:17
SPEAKER_00: I start unloading everything off the bus.
31:19
SPEAKER_00: I'm double checking it, I'm triple checking it.
31:21
SPEAKER_00: I put my hand on my back pocket and I realize I don't have my wallet.
31:26
SPEAKER_00: And I begin to think, how in the world am I gonna get home?
31:30
SPEAKER_00: Because last time I checked, you don't get on a plane unless you have an ID.
31:34
SPEAKER_00: I don't have a credit card, I don't have cash.
31:37
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh no.
31:38
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna spend, like, I might sleep on the streets of Maryland.
31:42
SPEAKER_00: I might have to go to coach and be like, yo, coach, I know we just lost.
31:46
SPEAKER_00: I know that you want to like punch me right now, but I might need some cash in your credit card so that I can get home and have a place to stay tonight.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: So I'm sweating.
31:55
SPEAKER_00: I'm going through every bag before it gets on the plane.
31:57
SPEAKER_00: I'm opening it, I'm ripping through it, I'm looking for my wallet.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: I get to the last bag and I have not found it.
32:03
SPEAKER_00: I'm the last person in line to get on the plane.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: The last person.
32:08
SPEAKER_00: And I get to the security guard and I say, hey, I don't have my wallet.
32:13
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if there's anything you can do, but but I like can't get on the plane.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like close to tears.
32:21
SPEAKER_00: I worked for Coach Pettino.
32:22
SPEAKER_00: Coach Pettino is always the first one on the plane.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: Coach Petino gets off the plane, walks down the stairs, walks to the security guard, looks at the security guard and says, He's good.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: He's good, he's with me.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: See, the one who has authority can look at you and say, regardless of your sin, regardless of your shame, regardless of your past, regardless of your brokenness, regardless of all the things you regret, your sickness, it's Jesus, the one with authority, who looks and says, You want to be a part of the kingdom?
33:00
SPEAKER_00: You have nothing to offer, but I'll go to you and say, He's good.
33:06
SPEAKER_00: He's with me.
33:08
SPEAKER_00: He'll enter in the kingdom.
33:10
SPEAKER_00: Friends, that's the good news of the gospel.
33:14
SPEAKER_00: Is that Jesus offers us hope.
33:18
SPEAKER_00: When we were lost, when we were in despair, when we had nowhere to run, no one to turn to.
33:25
SPEAKER_00: Stuck in our sin and shame, Jesus offers hope.
33:30
SPEAKER_00: I think it might be hard to be like, man, is that does like this actually happen to people?
33:34
SPEAKER_00: Do people actually change like this?
33:36
SPEAKER_00: See, time and time again tonight, I've talked about city groups, and our city groups are student-let.
33:41
SPEAKER_00: Like your city group leaders are in the room right now.
33:44
SPEAKER_00: They're awesome.
33:46
SPEAKER_00: And they've been changed by the gospel, and I want to show that to you.
33:50
SPEAKER_00: Let me just tell you how our students themselves talk about how they've been changed.
33:55
SPEAKER_00: I was almost a victim to suicide, but Jesus brought me into a new life.
33:59
SPEAKER_00: I believed myself a failure, but Jesus made me a son.
34:03
SPEAKER_00: I was drowning in my sin, but Jesus pulled me up.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: I was losing my identity in the world, but Jesus allowed me to find true identity in him.
34:13
SPEAKER_00: I was broken and filled with anger, but Jesus gave me freedom from my resentment and put me back together.
34:19
SPEAKER_00: Someone can say amen to this stuff.
34:21
SPEAKER_00: I was exhausted from perfectionism, but Jesus showed me I'm not judged by my works.
34:28
SPEAKER_00: I was lost in searching for rest, but Jesus not only offered peace between me and him, but filled me with his peace.
34:36
SPEAKER_00: My pride trapped me in anxiety.
34:39
SPEAKER_00: Jesus offered me satisfaction and contentment.
34:43
SPEAKER_00: Friend, it's when we meet the king that we get the kingdom.
34:47
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray for you.
34:52
SPEAKER_00: Gotta ask.
34:54
SPEAKER_00: That you would, by your spirit, bring dead hearts alive.
34:59
SPEAKER_00: That you would invite people to repent, to turn, to change, to look to you for the first time.
35:05
SPEAKER_00: That you would make kingdom citizens of this room.
35:12
SPEAKER_00: Not because we earn it, not because we achieve it, not because we clean ourselves up, not because we free ourselves from doubt, not because we get all our questions answered, but because we know the king.
35:22
SPEAKER_00: And the king sends, welcome.
35:24
SPEAKER_00: Enter the kingdom.
35:26
SPEAKER_00: God, we're thankful that our kingdom hope starts now and lasts forever.
35:29
SPEAKER_00: And we pray all this in Jesus' name.
35:31
SPEAKER_00: Amen.