God is doing some incredible things these days. We're celebrating Him, we're giving Him the glory. The baptisms were powerful in the first service. You can watch, if you missed it, on YouTube, check out those testimonies. Were you encouraged today? Were you inspired by those baptisms and what God's doing? That's what church is all about. What Jesus is doing in our lives, in this relationship with him, walking with Jesus, that's the heart of our church together. And notice the tone too, so real, authentic, and that's how we come to God, because he's real and we can be real with one another. I've got water on the right side of my pants and shirt. I got to work on my form a little bit, I think, but I'll tell you, I'll take it every weekend because you know what? Ministry is a little messy and revival is a little messy. And sometimes the water just goes in places and we're good for that. We're up for that. Whatever God has, we're up for that. We're up for that. We valued keeping everything so tidy and planned and perfect for too long. We just want to go with what God's doing. And some other things that God's doing, yesterday we had FX, which is a family experience here for Easter. And there were about 350 families, people coming together yesterday with an awesome day. So let's thank the people that served. And you can just get that picture in your mind. What's happening is families from our community are coming here, they belong, and then they're becoming part of our church family. And they're going through Grace Path, and they're coming to Jesus, and they're getting in life groups, and we're embracing the people that are coming in. It's just like a stream of people coming in right now, and it's exciting. We also have opportunities to serve. And maybe you heard the phrase impact team. we decided we're gonna have a name because we have so many different teams at Grace, and we wanted to unite all the different teams, and that's why we called it Impact Team. Impact, making an impact for God's kingdom, and living and using your gifts with purpose. All these different teams, you can join any one of them. We're gonna bring the impact team all together. It's close to 500 people now, I think, in the different teams. And we're gonna come together April 12th. Save that date because that's a vision night, April 12th. You're like, well, how do I come that night? We'll just get on a team and then come April 12th. We're gonna lay out a vision because we're gonna walk through something for 28 days in May that we've never done before. and we are trusting God for what's coming up. So that vision night is April 12th, and you just text serve to the church phone number, go to the connecting team and say, tell me about these 40 teams. I wanna use my gifts. And they'll take it from there. This week, there's no week like it in human history, the significance of this week. And as we walk through this week, good Friday, you wanna come at seven. Because it's a time, it's reverence and awe, there's creativity, there's worship. We're gonna walk through scripture, every pastor's involved. We're gonna tell the story of Jesus and his death. He died so we can live. And we're gonna enter into that together, Friday at seven. and then Easter morning, resurrection Sunday. I'll say it again because our times are different, right? 8.30, 10, 11.30, you choose one, but don't come alone. Invite somebody. Some of you can invite 100 people with a simple social media post. That's easy, but that one-on-one where you say, do you need a ride? Do you wanna go out to breakfast? Do you wanna go out to lunch afterwards? And you just put that invitation out there. This is how God works, invitation transformation. Invitation, transformation, you see it in scripture. You just say, come and see, join me, taste and see that the Lord is good, come with me, and then God will do the rest. That's what we're gonna walk into this week. Are you feeling ready to walk by faith this week? You feeling ready for the Holy Week? Let's go. We want to glorify God together. That's our heart. Today we're going to look at scripture and a holy commitment, a holy commitment. Let's pray. Father God, thank you for planning our lives, going ahead of us, caring about the details, caring about our decisions, guiding us with wisdom, God being patient with us when we're stubborn, Lord, we thank you that every time we turn from sin, you are right there to receive us, and your grace is greater than our sin, and all of us sing the same song of your wonderful grace, and God, we are gonna focus on you, and God, there's no place we wanna be more than close to you, and thank you that you invite all of us into that, and we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Jesus enters into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday with a holy commitment. He enters into Jerusalem knowing what's coming. Knowing that the cross is the destiny, he enters into Jerusalem for what we call Holy Week. There's no Holy Week if there's no holy commitment. Jesus has a holy commitment and it's going to include death on a cross and the resurrection. This is the core of our faith. the death and resurrection of Jesus. It's called the good news. And there's two parts. He died for our sins and he's risen from the grave. And as we walk through this week, we're gonna walk closely with Jesus. But we don't just wanna celebrate Jesus, we wanna imitate Jesus. And what we need to know is that as he enters Jerusalem, the crowd shouted Hosanna, which means praise, Hosanna in the highest. They were praising him. It also means save us in a cry for help. They were praising him. And then also be voices later in the week that say crucify him. That tells you the span of what's gonna be happening in what's called Holy Week. From Hosanna to crucify him. As he enters into Jerusalem, there are crowds, the crowds are fickle, but the crowds are shouting Hosanna. He enters on a donkey, a sign of humility. We have a humble savior. who serves and not only that, but this fulfills prophecy from Zechariah chapter nine. There are clues God has laid out so that when the Messiah comes into Jerusalem, you will know that he is the son of God and the savior of the world and riding on a donkey. Another fulfillment of scripture, so many fulfillments, confirmation after confirmation. Here's Jesus. They say Hosanna, yet many people miss the Messiah. The Bible says all of Jerusalem was stirred and the people were asking the question, who is this? Who is this? And as they were stirred and asking the question, some of them said, Jesus, he's the prophet from Nazareth. Now, it's true he's a prophet. It's true he's a authoritative teacher, always teaching in love and truth. It's true there were miracles. All these things were true, but those truths are minor compared to the greater truths of who he is. When someone says today, I believe in the virgin birth, I believe Jesus is a great teacher, I believe he's a prophet, and then they reject him as Messiah, they are completely missing who he really is. Because there's only one that's sinless, there's only one who's fully God and fully human. There's only one Savior. There's only one who could take our place. And through his shed blood, we have forgiveness. There's only one who overcame the grave. He's risen. He's ascended into heaven. He's gonna return. He's gonna rule and reign forever. This is the only one. There's no other name but the name of Jesus by which we may be saved. And they were wondering, who is this? You have friends and family, neighbors, coworkers and acquaintances who are wondering, who is this? In this room right now, most of us know who he is. And God has blessed us with revelation. God has revealed to us who he is. We have scripture and God has written down the account. We have historical evidence. This is not a foolish faith or a blind faith. There's over 500 witnesses of his resurrection. You could go on and on and on because the faith that we have is based on facts. Facts lead to faith. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And we celebrate Jesus. We're not gonna miss that he's the Messiah, but there is something we might miss as we begin Holy Week. As we begin Holy Week, we might overlook or underplay Jesus's holy commitment. He brings a holy commitment into Jerusalem. There is an internal setting. All of us have internal settings with commitment, just like you have a thermostat where you live and you set it intentionally. Jesus set his heart, there was an internal setting before he took a step in Jerusalem. And here's the first truth, Jesus set his face like flint to be faithful and finish the mission. He set his face like flint. We're gonna unpack that phrase and what that means, to set your face like flint. With a heart of love and a face like flint, Jesus entered Jerusalem. As you go through Luke's gospel, starting in chapter nine, in verse 51, this is what we read in the progression towards Jerusalem. As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. Resolute, steely determination, full commitment, a holy commitment, face like Flint. He was heading towards Jerusalem, Luke chapter nine. Luke chapter 13, we continue to journey. Then Jesus went through the towns and villages teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. There's going to be pain along the way, and yet it's going to be so powerful. Luke chapter 19 verse 41, as he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it. He would weep, oh Jerusalem, oh Jerusalem, you kill the prophets. He wanted to gather Jerusalem together. He's a good shepherd, yet so many were unwilling and he wept. He saw the people, he saw the souls. He loved them so much. He wanted them to have the peace of God. and many had hard hearts. And then in Luke chapter 19 verse 47, every day he was teaching at the temple, but the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. The irony that those who study the law are trying to kill the one who perfectly keeps the law. They were threatened. They wanted control. They wanted to call the shots. And who is this? Jesus. And they tried to belittle him and say, oh, he's just from Nazareth. What good can come from Nazareth? And they were upset because he claimed to be God. And C.S. Lewis makes it very clear. When anyone claims to be the Messiah or claims to be God, they are either a liar, a lunatic, or they're the Lord. Jesus is the Lord. It was not blasphemy. He was preaching the truth. He's God. And attention built. All of this is happening in Jerusalem. There's a progression, such purpose and power and pain all wrapped up together. Jesus's mission was redemptive. The painful and the powerful will come together. He'll literally become sin on the cross, but he'll take our place. He'll take our sin and give us his righteousness. It'll be through his scars, his death, his blood. Without his blood, there's no forgiveness of sins. Without the shedding of his blood. Our sins are on us, so they're on Jesus. And as much pain as he was in, there'll be a victory on Sunday because Jesus overcame the devil and darkness and death and despair. He is victorious and he's risen. As Jesus enters into Jerusalem, you need to know that he died before he died. He died before he died. Physically, he died on the cross, but there were decisions he made, going back to the Garden of Gethsemane, the martyrs in the Bible, the 12 that followed him, Judas went astray. The others were all martyrs except for John. They died before they died. The book of Acts, they died before they died. They said, we're gonna reach our cities. We're gonna spread the name of Jesus around the world. They realized they're probably gonna die doing that, and they said yes. There was an internal setting. There was a holy commitment, and they died before they died. This is real love. Real love includes action, commitment, sacrifice, and consistency. Real love is not selfish. It's not about feelings. Real love is in alignment with scripture. It includes taking action, being consistent, being committed, and sacrifice as well. The internal setting in our lives always becomes evident. When you say yes to the Holy Spirit and you're filled with the Spirit, it becomes evident because love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, people see it. They're like, what's going on? Filled with the Spirit. That's what's going on. Your internal story is more important than your external story. But your internal story will always reveal your external story. When something's off and it's visible and it's clear, it's because something's off in here. When we stop abiding with Jesus, our life doesn't bear the same fruit. Jesus has an internal setting of commitment and that steely determination. We see it in Luke chapter nine, and it goes back to the Old Testament in Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 50, and Isaiah is a prophet who's also poetic. There are chapters in Isaiah pointing to the Messiah, like chapter 53 in the Suffering Servant. You can read that on Good Friday. Read Isaiah chapter 53. Here we have Isaiah chapter 50. The sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed. The sovereign Lord has opened my ears. I have not been rebellious. I have not turned away. I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled up my beard. I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting. Because the sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore, have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame." What happened? Jesus is entrusting himself to the Father. Here we read about flint. Flint is the strongest rock in Jerusalem. Flint is used for a knife. We read last week when Moses' son was circumcised, Moses' wife, Zipporah, took the flint and circumcised the son. Flint is also used for arrowheads. Flint represents unwavering. The strongest commitment to set your face like Flint is the strongest commitment. And it's what God calls us to do. Jesus left heaven with his face like Flint. He became human and was resolute. He, yes to the cross in that call. As he enters into Jerusalem, he's not gonna stop now. He's gonna set his face like Flint. God's brought you too far to stop now. God's done too much for you to stop now. God has blessed you too much and given you too much of a calling and gifts and revealed too much. You know too much about God to stop right now. The culture is opposing the Bible more, but this is no time to shrink back. This is no time to go sideways or just fit in. This is a time where followers of Jesus need to have hearts of love and set your face like flint and finish the work. run the race, move forward through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is a message where it's a both. Yes, we make a decision to commit to God and we open up to him and God empowers us through the Spirit. This is not just do it in your own strength. This is what God wants to do through someone who surrendered and committed to him. And as we look at Jesus and how he gave his life to those who persecuted him and they beat him, they mocked him, they spit on him, they murdered him and he laid down his life. And yet Jesus continued to forgive them. He prayed from the cross, Father, forgive them for they know not what they're doing. And even though they were cruel, he brought love. He was faithful because faithfulness to the Father is his ultimate goal. If we're gonna imitate Jesus, faithfulness to the Father is our ultimate goal. One God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, within the Trinity, there's submission, there's trust, Jesus is led by the Spirit, Jesus submits to the Father, trusting the Father, perfect unity, perfect community, that's our model. 1 Peter 2, verse 21, to this you were called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps. He committed no sin, no deceit was found in his mouth. When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He trusted the father's final say, the father's vindication. You can say it this way, your commitment won't be stronger than your trust. If you're not strongly committed to the Father, it's because you don't fully trust the Father. When you trust the Father, you fully commit to the Father. Now some of us have had some earthly fathers that were quite destructive in terms of our faith and they've tainted the way we see our heavenly father. But our heavenly father is good and he heals and we're reminded he's benevolent and he's kind and he's been different than that abusive or absent earthly father. And so we keep our eyes on our heavenly Father. And we can trust Him, taste and see that the Lord is good. The Lord is benevolent. He's all full of goodness. There's no one you can trust more. There's no one more faithful. And when you're secure with the Father, you're gonna trust the Father, now you're gonna commit to the Father. Because you realize how much the Father loves you, now you wanna love the Father. And that's the path forward. It's a commitment that's based in trust because we first received and now we respond and it's a holy commitment to our Father. Jesus lives it. And we don't just wanna celebrate Jesus, we're gonna do that in full. But we wanna become like Jesus and imitate Jesus. And this is where the tension comes in. In the Bible, what you see is that people wanna follow Jesus with a soft commitment. We all, like sheep, wanna go astray. And when it comes to following Jesus, he's clear, and we like to soften that commitment. We see it throughout the Bible, but I'm gonna highlight one passage in Luke chapter nine, starting in verse 57. As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, I will follow you wherever you go. Great intentions, right? What did Jesus respond with? Did he say, awesome, wonderful? That's not what he said right here. He said, foxes have dens, birds have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head. In other words, do you really wanna follow a homeless man? Do you know what you're saying yes to? Jesus is not saying to own a home is wrong. We don't all need to sell our homes this week and come move into the church. That's not what this Bible verse says right here. You don't need to think you left here and you did a sin when you bought your home. It doesn't mean you can't have a home. But what Jesus is challenging is what the world calls a necessity. Jesus doesn't say it's a necessity. The world says you have to have an awesome, nice home. Jesus had no home. So this kingdom is gonna flip some priorities upside down. And what Jesus is really saying to him is that if you follow me, you're not gonna have everything you want. And I'm gonna ask you to let go of things you don't wanna let go of. And I'm gonna ask you to say and do things and go places that you don't wanna go. Are you really sure you wanna follow me? Or is your dream your number one just to have a comfortable home? because that's not where I'm going. And now he's got to make a decision. There was a rich young ruler who wanted to follow Jesus. He had some interest in Jesus, and Jesus said, your money, in essence, your money is your God. Your money's first. And he knew his money was first, and he didn't want to make Jesus first, and so he walked away with sadness. Walking away from Jesus always produces that emptiness and that sadness of the soul, but he chose money first. Jesus continues to challenge. Sometimes Jesus will go to someone, sometimes they'll come to him. Now Jesus said to another man, follow me. But he replied, Lord, first, let me go and bury my father. And then the conversation continues. Jesus said to him, let the dead bury their own dead. But you go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Still another said, I will follow you, Lord, but first, let me go back and say goodbye to my family. Jesus replied, no one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God. What is happening in these moments? We have people talking to Jesus who are ultimately saying, Jesus, I wanna follow you, but on my terms and my timing. And Jesus won't have it. Jesus, I wanna follow you, but I don't want you to be first, I want you to be second. Now again, to be clear, love your family. Your family is an incredible blessing. Honor your parents. Take care of your parents. This Bible verse is not saying ignore and neglect family and your parents. Train your kids in the way of the Lord. as much as it depends on you. Live at peace with your family. Those are all solid scriptures. This doesn't contradict that in any way. But the request was, Jesus, I'll follow you. You know, eventually when my dad dies, I'm gonna stick around here. I'm gonna wait. We don't know when dad's gonna die. One year, five years, 10 years. Jesus, I'll follow you. After that, I'm gonna take care of family. Remember family first, Jesus? Have you heard that phrase in our culture, family first? Christians say that all the time, like that's a righteous phrase. Family first, family first, family first. I like the part about prioritizing family. It's important to prioritize your family. Connect, time, energy, but anything first is idolatry. And sometimes we hide behind our blessings. Your job is a blessing, but your job's not supposed to be first. that blessing can turn into an idol. Your family's a blessing, but a lot of people hide behind the blessing in their family and they elevate family first. And it's like Jesus is saying here clearly, he's gonna be first, family's not first. Who are you gonna please? And there's gonna be moments where you're deciding, and in some cultures it's always family first, but I'm telling you, the Bible says anything first besides Jesus is idolatry. And in this passage, Jesus is challenging this soft commitment. Well, I'll get to it later. I might do it. Let me figure out my things first. I'm just gonna chill with the family for a while. Jesus says, go proclaim the kingdom of God now. Some of us don't like that message, but that's the message of Jesus throughout the entire Bible. Go right now and pass on what I've taught you. Go right now and share the word. Go and share your testimony. Go and share the gospel. Go lead people to Jesus. Go share your faith. Reach everyone in Auburn, every man, woman, and child. Go to the nations, because his house right here is a house of prayer for all nations, and in heaven there'll be people from all nations. Just go and share the good news. Some of us don't like that right there. That's not optional. That's the great commission, that test commitment. Well, do I wanna do that or do I not? Jesus, I'm going for the soft version of following you. How does that play out in this situation? The soft version. There's only one version of following Jesus, and it's a holy commitment, Jesus first, sold out. That's the only version in the Bible. It's not the spectrum like, well, I could go all in for Jesus, or you know, I might soften it a little, or I'll go semi-soft. I'm gonna go super soft for my college years, and then maybe I'll think about it when I have kids coming back. That doesn't play out. There's one version of following Jesus, and there's decisions to make. In John chapter six, the crowds started to come around. Jesus provided food for the masses. Jesus was teaching. Jesus was healing people. And the crowds came around, big crowds. And in John chapter six, Jesus brought a message that, well, it thinned the herd. You had all these people gathered. They were interested in Jesus. And when Jesus finished his sermon, almost all of them were gone. And then the 12 are there. Now, most churches today are all about church growth. I'm telling you, church growth is not the top priority. It's a blessing when people come into the house of God and get the word and get baptized and grow. We want that, of course. But if you have church growth as an idol, you'll do anything you can to keep people happy and more people coming. And you won't preach the word, and you'll water things down, because you're always looking at the numbers and trying to get them up. What are the people gonna like? Deliver that. Jesus wasn't playing that game. What happened after he preached? It was down to just 12. I don't know who's coming back for Easter. There might just be 12 of you next week. We'll do that, we'll do that. What would the church leadership gather on Jesus after John chapter six? They say, Jesus, you blew it. Numbers are down. Now giving's down. Now who's gonna serve on the teams? You blew it. Jesus is in alignment with the Father, full of love and truth, and Jesus will be who Jesus is, and following Jesus is not something we get to determine and decide. It's not on our terms and our times. We're not following him with a soft commitment. Soft commitments, the lie is that it brings you freedom. Because you can do a little bit of God and a whole lot of you. When people are looking, go one way. When people aren't looking, go the other way. Sunday morning over here, Friday night back over there. Soft commitments. I can do it my way, how I want. I'm gonna follow Jesus how I wanna do it. I'm my own person. I'm gonna decide what's truth. That's the message in our culture. And I wanna say so clear today, softer is not better. Softer is not better. Turn to the person next to you and say softer is not better. And then look the other way, and I say, I gotta tell you, softer is not better. You have an enemy of your soul, and the enemy's agenda is very clear, very, very clear. Soften your commitment, harden your heart. This is what God does, softens your heart, strengthens your commitment. The enemy wants to harden your heart, soften your commitment. God wants to soften your heart, open your heart that the King of glory may command and strengthen your commitment. It's going in two different directions. And now there's a difference also between conviction and guilt. My prayer is that there's conviction because conviction leads to transformation. Conviction leads to commitment. Conviction's a gift for all of us from God. The Holy Spirit convicts and he helps us to become more like Jesus and make some shifts and changes and repent and grow in our faith. Guilt is not from God. Godly sorrow is good. We repent, we turn to Jesus from our sin. Guilt and shame are not from God. We don't wear it. That's not our identity. We don't want it. It's not from God. That just brings us down to this low place. So reject the guilt and the shame. Say yes to the conviction. And by faith, with God's grace, move forward. Don't stay in the old guilt and shame. There's newness of life in Jesus. Commitment is key. I know from playing on sports teams and a lot of soccer teams that one thing I paid attention to in the locker room and during the off season is the commitment. And I could watch the team. Are we lifting weights? Are we running? Are we doing the sprints in the off season? Are we practicing hard? Are we showing up after practice and working on our skills before the game? You could just gauge the commitment. You could gauge the culture. And when the commitment was wavering on a team, when we had half the guys going all out and the other half like, yeah, it's fun, it's cool, hope we win. We would not win championships with a half committed locker room. And I'm telling you in a spiritual way in a church, you can tell where the church is going by the commitment as we gather in the culture in the church. You can tell if the commitment's there, the city will change. But if the commitment's missing, the city will stay the same. And it comes down to that holy commitment with God. And it's a good thing to bring that commitment, and that's worship. Now, I wanted to get specific, because I know commitment's kind of broad. And rather than just leave it general or vague, what does commitment look like in 2024? I also wanna say my heart is a heart of love right here and I'm not angry. This isn't coming from like angry pastor. I don't have one person in mind. I can't tell how often I'll preach and then someone would say, I knew you were thinking about me. You were this and that, you had me in mind. I'm like, I wasn't before God. Like I'm just trying to preach the word and if God's speaking to you, great, that's awesome. But I don't have anyone in mind with this stuff. So having said that, let's look at what a soft commitment look like. Generosity. Christians, followers of Jesus, give about 2.5% to churches. What's ironic is that during the Great Depression, when our country was pressed economically, 3.3% was still given to the church. This is from Pushpe. Less than 25% of the people in the church tithe. Tithe is the word, when you read it in the Bible, it means a tenth. You could break that down in different ways. You could say, well, they gave more than that. You could talk about the tithe. You could look at Malachi. There's a lot you could talk about, but what you need to know is that less than 25% even tithe, which means that in churches, there's a small number of people that really carry all of the responsibility to cover the ministry financially. Now, what else? This number in giving is down 50% since 1990, according to New York Times. So we're becoming less and less generous. Where there's commitment to Jesus, there's generosity. What about sharing your faith? Over 50% of followers of Jesus who are active in their faith say that sharing your faith is optional. So majority of church just says, that's not the Great Commission, that's not what we're called to do, that's totally optional. And as a result, with the commitment missing, 60% of the church hasn't invited anyone to church in the last six months. And I'm talking generally, not our church. We didn't do a Grace Community Church survey. 80% of the followers of Jesus haven't shared their faith in the last six months. I'm like, six months? I already wanna wait six hours. I mean, six days is a long time. Six months, no one's sharing their faith. Here's the irony, 79% of people that aren't connected to a church are very open to talk about Jesus. So we've got a whole country that's open to talk about Jesus, and we've got a silent church. that somehow fear, shame to Jesus, relationship risks, something broke down in the commitment. And we see the results of this. When it comes to purity, Relevant reports that over 80% of Christians don't wait until marriage to have sex, even though the Bible's very clear. You don't have sex before marriage. You honor God, keep the marriage bed pure. Christians just reject that. 76% of young adults, 68% of men, over 50% of pastors are viewing pornography on a regular basis. Let me say that again, 76% of young adults, 68% of men, 50% of pastors are viewing pornography on a regular basis according to Barna. The average age is 11 years old when kids start diving into pornography. You know, they might be saying, give me the phone, give me the phone. Do you know what they're watching on that phone? That's what's coming in right now. And then that's just an epidemic, and I could go on and on, but pornography is one of the biggest businesses. It makes more money than ABC, NBC, and CBS combined. More money than the NFL, NBA, and Major League Baseball combined. And Christians are funding it all over the place. It's destroying families and marriages. What about church life? Do you know who the most devoted are? Who's the most devoted in terms of church life? Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses. They are most active, most devoted, and sharing their faith the most. If you don't know and you haven't studied, Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses believe a false gospel. I'm not saying I'm better than anyone, but I am gonna share what the truth is. And they absolutely twist and distort the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ. And they are more devoted, far more devoted, than the followers of Jesus who know the truth. Now, attendance keeps going down for decades in our country. It's down to about one every four Sundays. So the attitude's kinda like, I don't know, what do you wanna do today? Yeah, let's sleep in. What do you wanna do? Oh, let's watch the game. Oh, what do you wanna do? Let's just, you know, go for a run. Let's skip church. Church is not the place to be on Sundays. Steady decline. And serving church, the percentage is very low in churches who serve. Once again, that theme, there's a few people in churches that are carrying all the work. It's all on their shoulders. and everyone else is just content to just watch them, maybe critique them. And that's not the culture that God lays out. The priorities are so far off for us. And then starting in the pandemic, 3,500 were leaving the church a day, and the average is about 10 to 15% leaving the church a year. So I'll say it this way, cities won't be healthier than the churches. And you say, well, it's just because you're a pastor. No, I want all the churches to be healthy. It's not just about Grace Community Church. The cities won't change. The cities won't be vibrant until the church is alive. And when the church is alive, We will not be contained in these four walls. God has given you a full-time ministry. It's already been given. And we need to live out our faith. What about the phone? LifeWay reports that for active Christians, there are less than 33%, less than a third are in the word daily. And a lot of times the excuse is, I just don't have the time to get in the Word, I'm so busy. And yet, every year the amount of screen time just keeps increasing to up to about nine hours a day on screens. So devices, I got all the time in the world. The Word, not so much. And what's really happening? We are more committed to pleasures, earthly pleasures, than we are the purposes of God. And sometimes we have to step back and just look at what's going on. I didn't even mention doctrinal pieces. I could make a long list. The symptoms are everywhere, but rather than just point out a symptom, a symptom, a symptom, a symptom, a symptom of the patterns of the world, let's just get to the heart of it. There's a soft commitment to Jesus. There's nothing soft about his commitment to us. but he loves us and he brings truth. And as I look over this and have thought about this week, my desire is just let's bring Jesus some glory. Let's bring Jesus some glory in 2024. Let's recommit our lives to the Lord, that God wants to do something new this year, that we would be filled with the Spirit and it's time to answer the call. And here's the encouragement. God will strengthen you if you set your eyes on Jesus and you place faithfulness above any cost. It's not just about what feels good right now. We've got a deeper purpose than that. And is the cost gonna be high? I'll say it is. I'll say it is. As Jesus entered Jerusalem, would the cost be high? As high as it could possibly be. What you're not hearing today is that if you commit to the Lord, your life's gonna get really pleasant and comfortable. That's not what you're hearing because the Bible doesn't say that. When you commit to the Lord, what you're saying is that I consider faithfulness to God more important and I prioritize that over the other things that are competing to distract me and pull me away from God. And that's what I want my story to be. Jesus on the cross, it didn't look like he was winning. And you're gonna have moments when you follow Jesus where it might not feel like you're winning. You might feel kind of alone, kind of misunderstood. You might take a risk. And by the way, you have a lot more freedom probably at your workplace than you realize legally. You can take some risks there. As you do that, there might be some hatred, some opposition. There might be some slander. There might be some gossip. Things might move around. Some people might come and know the Lord. Some people might come in church with you. There's gonna be some movement when you move forward. Thank you. but it's worth it, and in those hardest moments, know that Jesus experienced it too, and He's cheering you on. He's gonna strengthen you. He looks to and fro across the church and across the land. He will strongly support those who are committed to Him. You will experience the most help and strength and power from Jesus when you're fully committed to Him. In a soft commitment, you're just not gonna experience the same presence and power as you are when you're fully committed to the Lord. Enter into that, it's a great place to be. Nothing compares to that. Throughout the Bible, this is the theme. It's that courage, set your face like flint. Ezekiel in chapter three, this is God's calling on his life. I think it's inspiring as you read this. Then God said to him, son of man, eat this scroll. For us, that means stay in the word, get the word. I am giving you, I'm gonna fill your stomach with it, so I eat it. Tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, full of the word. He then said to me, son of man, go now to the people of Israel, speak my words to them. You're not being sent to a people of obscure speech and strange language, but to the people of Israel. Not to many peoples of obscure speech and strange language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely if I had sent you to them, they would have listened to you. Little irony there. Now, but the people of Israel are not willing to listen to you because they are not willing to listen to me. For all the Israelites are hardened and obstinate, but I will make you as unyielding and hardened as they are. I will make your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than Flint. Do not be afraid of them or be terrified by them, though they are a rebellious people. As he said to me, son of man, listen carefully and take to heart all the words I speak to you. Go now to your people in exile, speak to them and say, this is what the sovereign Lord says, whether they listen or fail to listen. There's always a remnant that listens, but you don't know who. When you're faithful to God, what you're saying is, I trust you with the results. I don't know how people are gonna respond. I can't control that. But I'll be faithful, God, to bring your word and to watch you change lives. And what God said is, Ezekiel, I'm gonna strengthen you. Your forehead, this picture of strength. There's a word there in the Hebrew, it's part of Ezekiel's name. I'm gonna make you strong. Your forehead, you're gonna be as unyielding. Your face is gonna be like flint. As obstinate as they are, you're gonna be as committed to me, Ezekiel, and the strength I give you will be greater than the rebellion of the people. And when they don't listen to you, just remember it's because they don't listen to me. But go in my strength, Ezekiel. There's a calling, there's a commission. Jeremiah was similar in Jeremiah chapter one. We read in verse 17, get yourself ready. Get yourself ready, church, in 2024. Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them. Today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar, a bronze wall to stand against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land. They will fight against you, but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you, declares the Lord. As we enter into Holy Week, don't miss Jesus and his holy commitment. Set his face like flint. We don't just wanna celebrate Jesus this week, we wanna imitate Jesus this week. Where is your commitment soft? How has God been searching your heart this morning and revealing where your commitment is soft? And will you say yes to the Lord? I believe 2024 is designed to be a turning point where we say yes to God, yes to commitment, yes to purity, yes to generosity, yes to devotion, yes to impact, yes to unity, yes to life, yes to hope, and yes in our homes. Deuteronomy chapter 30, as we close with this encouragement. This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God and listen to his voice and hold fast to him for the Lord is your life. And he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Let's pray. Father, we thank you. Lord, you are our life. You are our life. You are our strength. You are our hope. Jesus, we thank you for your holy commitment, your faithfulness. And God, we wanna repent today. All things soft when it comes to commitment, God. We repent today to honor you, to worship you. As we cry out, Hosanna, God, we cry out, not with empty words or just a nice sounding song, but we cry out with a holy commitment to you, Jesus, that our eyes are on you, that we wanna glorify you together. We wanna be all you've called us to be. And we pray across the sound, you would raise up your people, God, young and old, every ethnicity, full of your spirit, Your healing, your grace, your word going forth. Do it for your glory, we pray, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's stand up and say.