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Hey, welcome to Prairie Lakes. Really, really glad you're here. Great job. You're starting your week off just right and a new season. Uh, so really, really good job. Hey, uh, before I dive into this week, I wanna just get us excited to fire it up for next six weeks, okay? Um, we're doing a series called The Skeptics Guide to the Bible, and this is for all of us, right? So there are some of us, all of us have questions, okay? There are some of us that are real skeptics and, and have, and we gotta go. I don't understand why is the Bible true?

And what about that part? And what about this, this, uh, this is made for you, okay? It is, and it's made for you to help your friends who are skeptics. So we're starting this next week, man. Get your book today at your campus. Um, get in the group. You don't have to be in. Why don't you to be in a group? It's probably better in a group, but you can go through it, but it's fantastic. So I'm, we're really excited about that. Starting next week, the skeptics guide, uh, to the Bible. Alright, so before we get there, we're gonna do something a little different this weekend. You know, I'm, I'm six decades long now, okay? And, you know, when you get my age, and all of us experience this somewhat, right? So sometimes, like you'll go downstairs at your house or you'll go to the next room and your apartment, and you'll be like, what, what, what did I come in here for? Um, I, I do that. We all do that. It's not big deal, but, but I, I'm, the one that gets me the most is this one. I'll go to the refrigerator.

We have one of the double doors like this, and I'll open it up and I'll literally stand there and, and try to remember what I was gonna get. Now, the good news about the fridge, it's a pleasant place to stand, okay? The light shining out on me, all the, the food arrayed in front of me. But here's what that does. It drives my wife insane. My wife is, is so, um, efficient on, on things that opening the fridge for any longer than it has to be open is like a sin. And, and so I'll do that and she'll see me, and, and, and, and without, without hesitation, she'll go, what do you need? What are you looking for?

Can I help you? So here's what I started doing. I just walk in the kitchen like she's doing something over there. I'll just walk in and open the doors and stand there until she says something. I, I, sometimes I'll make a bet with myself. It's gonna take three seconds for her to say, can I help you? Can I just get that for you? Is now her most famous line?

Can I just get that right? So it's hilarious. But listen, forgetting things sometimes or, or kind of, kind of losing focus, for the most part, it's no big deal, okay? It's, it's, it's not, but losing focus, even though it can be pretty normal and pretty acceptable in a lot of areas of life, there's one place that it isn't acceptable.

And that's this thing called the church. Because when the church loses its focus, it causes lots of pain. And when the church loses its bearing, a lot of people can lose their bearing too. And when the stakes are eternal, as we believe they are, the mistakes are eternal too. You, you may have just started coming to Prairie Lakes.

This may be your first weekend or, or, you know, the first few weeks or the first month, or you may have started re attending, you know, after a time away. And some of you've been around a long time. And by the way, thank you, uh, for that. But, uh, here's what you need to know. You need to know who we are and what you're getting into around here.

You need to be reminded of who we are and what we're doing around here. I'm, I'm switching to seats soon, but the one thing that you can count on is this. We're gonna be a no matter church, no matter what. Now, listen, being a no matter church is personal to me. It's personal to me.

I remember being disconnected from God and on my own. I remember what it's like to wonder if there's a purpose for my life. I remember what it's like to wake up feeling lost and alone. I remember what it's like to wake up going, what am I doing here? And where am I? I remember that and my friends, this is the, the, the, the point of Jesus, right?

The point of Jesus is he can bring hope and peace and freedom and forgiveness and it, and it's only through him. And we, we believe that to be true. We start with this fundamental premise at Prairie Lakes Church, that Jesus came to seek and save the lost. We believe that Jesus changes everything. So around this place, we believe Jesus changes everything.

That means he can change you. And that means he can change your friends. That means he can, he can, he can change your circuit. He, he can we call the, the big changes the faith line, right? So when, when you, and, and, and when I get sick of myself, or you get sick of yourself, and you finally say, I just can't do this anymore, and you're tired, and the sin is weighing you down and, and, and, and you're getting torn up on the heart, on the inside stuff.

And when you finally just say, I can't do it anymore. And you finally say, Jesus, would you forgive me? Would you can, can, can you take me, Jesus? And we call that stepping over the faith line. And when you, when you finally let go of the wheel of your life and you say, Jesus, I surrender. Here's the universal sin of surrender. I let go. I can't anymore. And if you'll make that decision, here's what we believe.

We believe that Jesus can change everything. We, we believe that's what he came for. He came to seek and save the lost. Therefore, we need to be the kind of church where you and your friends confined him and walk with him. So we better be a place that looks and, and acts like him.

I want everybody in your Bible right now, just, just grab one. There's some on the chairs or the rows around you. Use your phone. This, uh, this app called u version y o u u, version one word. Um, it's fantastic. But go to, go to some Bible with, we're gonna have some on the screen, but I'm gonna go to some so we can eyeball it ourselves. Everybody turn to Acts 15 Acts is the fifth book of the New Testament.

Really easy to find. Okay? And listen, don't be self-conscious about, like, I don't, I don't wanna look like I'm lost. Listen, we're all lost. Okay? So it's Matthew, mark, Luke, John Acts. Okay? So you, you can find it. Go to Acts 15. Now, in, in Acts 15, there's this just a spot, right? The, the, the gospels tell the story of a life of Jesus that begins with the, the, the, the birth of Jesus ends with his death on the cross and his resurrection from the grave. But then Acts is, is like, okay, this is the launch now of Jesus going to heaven, and then the launch of this thing called the church. And, and you get to Acts 15.

And so the churches are being established all around that region of the world. And, and of course, problems are starting to crop up, right? Because you expect the church to be perfect, you're gonna be mistaken. It is never gonna be, we're involved in it. So it's never gonna be perfect. And, and there's, the Bible tells us that, it shows us that. So in Acts 15, there's, there's this, there's this spot. And they, they start arguing about this, this, this, this thing.

And so all over that time, the apostles are telling people about Jesus, and people are starting to step over the faith line, and they're believing in Jesus. And their lives are being changed. He's fixing things in people's lives, right? And starting to happen. Well, when that starts to happen, there were some religious people that the Jewish people who were also Christians, but they said, Hey, wait a minute, if you're gonna follow this, Jesus, he was a Jew.

So you kind of need to be a Jew first before you can be a Christian. So here's what we think. And they began to come in and they began to teach people, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Before you can come to Jesus, you need to be circumcised or you need to do this, right? They wanted to put things in front of that. And, and it started this argument.

And so they, they, they were able to, to disagree, and they were able to, to, to walk through this together. It's called the, the Council at Jerusalem. And, and, and they got down to it, right? And all the apostles, they got to it. They, they, they sent Paul a Barnabas, they sent 'em back to Jerusalem to, to meet with the elders and the apostles. But when it gets to the end of it, this crazy thing happens. James, who was the leader of the Jerusalem church, right? This is just post Jesus. He says this, it's my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.

We shouldn't make it hard for, for people to find God. We shouldn't make it hard for people to, to, to look for God. And, and that's guides us. And we think that's what the church should be. And we think that's what a no matter church is. So at Perry Lakes Church, here's what you're getting into. Here's what no matter means. We say it every weekend, but let's dig into it so everybody knows this.

This is us. This is what we do because we think this is what Jesus is like, and this is what the church ought to be like. Okay? So here's the first one, no matter, right? So we say this no matter who you are, okay? So, so, so no matter who you are, no matter, you could walk into this no matter church called Prairie Lakes. And, and you can look for God no matter who you are, like what side of the tracks you're from, what the color of your skin is, no matter what your background is, no matter if you grew up in a nice home or a dysfunctional home, right?

No matter who you are, male or female, rich or poor, no matter, you can look for God here, right? No matter who you are, I want you to turn to this, this, this story because you know, we're good Iowans, right? And, and I haven't met many Iowas you say, yeah, I am just so lost. I hear a lot of Iowa say something like this. Oh yeah, pastor John, I, I believe in, you know, God and stuff. You know, I'm, I, I go to, um, and I, I've had people like click their finger like nine times trying to think of the name of the church they go to. One time I was at the, at a pharmacy and I was, you know, doing my thing and, uh, talking to the pharmacist and, and, and, you know, I'm always like wanting people to find Jesus, right? So talking and, and, and, and she starts, she kind of starts talking about stuff. And I say, so what church you go to? And she goes, Prairie Lakes. I'm looking at her.

Oh, really? Do you like that place? Okay, how's the pastor? So I went through this whole thing. She didn't know I was, it, it was, it was classic, right? But, but, but here's the point. A lot of times in Iowa, we have people who just, you know, it's God and stuff, right? It's God and stuff. They're good people. They're not, they're not the worst people. They're not Hitler. They're not, they're not the worst people in the world. Okay?

We got one of those pictures in, in, in John here, okay? So everybody turn to, to John chapter three. So you're in act. So just turn back just a little bit to go to John three and early and, and this is Jesus ministry. And, and there's this guy named Nicodemus, and he's a good guy, right? He believes in God and stuff, and he, he doesn't know what to do with this Jesus. He doesn't know.

And and here's what it says in, in, in chapter three, John chapter three, verse one. It says, now, there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish Ruling Council. And he came to Jesus at night and said, rabbi, we know that you're a teacher who has come from God for no one could perform the signs you were doing if God were not with him. And Jesus replied, very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they're born again. And, and look what happens.

How can someone be born again when they're old Nicodemus ass? Surely they cannot enter a second time if their mother's wound to be born, right? So, so here's, here's what happens. Here's somebody who's trying to figure this Jesus thing out. Who, who can come and look for him and come and try to find him.

And Iowa is filled with good people who are trying to figure this Jesus thing out. And we need to be a place where no matter who you are, you could be a really good Iowa who believes in God and stuff. You could be a knucklehead like me, right? Or think of the one dude in your group that's just a, just a knucklehead, right?

No matter who you are, if this is a place where you can walk into and you can look for God, no matter if you're a male or a female, no matter what the color of your skin is, no matter what religious background you have, you can look for him here. So no matter, first of all, it means no matter who you are, you can look for God here, okay? Here's, here's the, here, here's the, the, the second one, no matter who you are, okay?

Oh, oh, you know, I'm sorry, go back to that. Thank you. I missed that one. And this is like this premise of the New Testament. So later after the church gets established, Paul writes in Galatians, and then he says this, right? He says this, there's neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free. There's male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And, and we have a culture that wants to divide, put everybody into camps.

But this thing called the church is trying to pull everybody together and says, here's what unites us. Here's what we have in common, not what divides us. No matter who you are, you can look for God here. Okay? Good. All right, let's go to the second one. No matter who you are, or no matter where you've been, where you've been, there's some of us who have found ourselves on roads or trails or detours in our life, we just kinda go, whoa. How, how, how did I, how did I get here? I worked on a, I worked on a, a, a ranch in Wyoming when I was in high school, and it was a real ranch. I mean, yeah, like you can tell, right cowboy, right?

Got the vibe. I wore my tennis shoes on the horse. So, so it was a real working ranch. And we literally went and rounded up cattle on horseback, okay? And this was inevitable. We did it twice in the summer, and this was inevitable. Here's what always happened there. There'd be this, it was thousands of acres, right? So we'd, we'd kind of all go to one place and we'd, we'd all get on these horses and we'd kinda start rounding them up.

And inevitably most of 'em would be together. Most of 'em would be together. And then we'd get 'em round up and there'd be two or three that you're like, where are, where are the souped cows? Where are they? Right? And, and so we'd ride over the next hill, then you'd ride over the next hill, and there're down in the far corner, there'd be some big old cow just head down Montreal Ram. You walk up and they're like, wow, what are you doing here? It's like, and they, they don't know where they're at.

All they did was they just munched a little bit. And, and then they just followed their nose and they munched a little bit more. And then, Hey, hey, that looks good. And they went a little bit farther, and pretty soon they ended up in a place away from everybody else kind of alone and a little bit afraid. It's the same thing with you and me. And same thing with the people in your little Iowa.

Sometimes we just end up in a place we just never thought we'd be. We ended up in a trail we never thought we'd get on. Everybody turned to Luke 15 with me. This is one of my favorite passages of scripture. It's this, it's this, just this teaching that Jesus gives. And, and, you know, he was always getting tested by like the religious people, right?

And they were always like, Hey, what do you think about this? Jesus. Then they try to say something and try to trick him. And in Luke 15, there's three stories. But the first one is the one. I mean, they're all fantastic. I shouldn't say it. The first one I like the best, but I'm gonna say it. The first one, I like the best. Okay? So here's what it says at the beginning of Luke 15. Remember Matthew, mark, Luke, John, okay, Luke 15. It says, now the tax collectors and sinners we're all gathered around to hear Jesus.

Let's just pause there for a minute. Just take note of this, okay? Talk about A, no matter Jesus, it was the tax collectors, which was code for cheaters, betrayers, right? And then just the flat out word sinners, right? They were, they, Jesus was in the middle of them shining the light, that that's what he was doing, okay?

They were gathered all around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees, the religious people, they came and the teachers of the law, they muttered this. They muttered this man welcome sinners and eats with them. And they tried to, this is like, this was like the ultimate cutdown, right? Oh, yeah. What kind of messiahs he's supposed to be. He welcome sinners and eats with them.

So then Jesus told them three stories, all with the same point. This is what God is like, is the point. In the first story. Think about the cow. Then Jesus told him this parable, suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn't he leave the 99 in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it. And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.

And then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, rejoice with me. I have found my lost sheep. And Jesus says, I tell you that in the same way, there's more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents, and over 99 righteous persons who don't need to repent. And my friends, not only no matter who you are, but no matter where you've been, some of us have wandered off and found ourselves on a trail we never thought we'd be.

But you need to hear this about a no matter church, a no matter church says this, because this is what Jesus says, you can always come back. You've never wandered too far away. You can always turn around. Jesus never gives up. And why does that matter? Because as good as you and me try to be, we're still that one cow who follows his nose in his taste buds and ends up in a spot and never thought they'd be, you know, we can think about all our buddies or our friends out there who, boy, they really need no matter. Yeah, you know what I need? No matter. 'cause every once in a while, I find myself on a trail that I just didn't know I'd, I'd be on no matter who you are or where you've been. And here's the third one, or what you've done, what you've done now with my group of buddies, um, and, and by the way, all of us who know Jesus, if you stepped over the faith line, you should have sprinkled in your relational circle, um, friends who, who, who don't know him yet, that you're, that you're working on, okay? That we just, just, it's what we do. Okay? It's what we do. Um, but in, in my circle, I, I have some that feel like they are disqualified for God, not starting point right from God. First, they're disqualified that God doesn't love him.

God couldn't love him because they haven't followed him. And they don't want to be a hypocrite when they get in trouble and just come when they get in trouble. So they feel that way, but they also feel this way that, that I've, I've done so many bad things that if I walk into the church, um, lightning's gonna strike, or everybody's gonna look at me funny, or it's just gonna be super weird. And, and, and, and that's a real thing.

It it is. But you need to know this. But, but no matter, church means not only who you are or where you've been, but, but what you've done. You can pick your stupid mistakes, right? You can pick your stupid and your dumb decisions and your impulsive messes. Not one of them disqualifies you from coming to Jesus.

Not one of them would Jesus look at and say, well, you know, I had you, I had you, I had your back all the way until that one. That was too far. There's not such a thing. You can always come back to him. You, you can always, he died on the cross. And when he died, he didn't died for most of the sins. He didn't die for 99% of the sins.

He died for 100%. Even the stuff that you've done, even the stuff that you're carrying around when he can forgive you, and he can set you free and he can put you at peace, it's what he does. It's, it's who he is. There's lots of examples of this. I'm just gonna go to one, um, turn to turn to John chapter four. You're in Luke. Now just, just go back one book, right? Go to John chapter four, and in John chapter four, there's just a, it, it's, it's kind of a seemingly innocuous encounter with Jesus.

'cause there's lots of these, right? Um, but this is when he talks with the Samaritan woman. And, and there's just, there's the interesting part about this one. Um, there's lots of energy part, but, but I want you to hear this part, okay? It says in verse one, it says, now Jesus learned that the, the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John. And although in fact, it was not Jesus who baptized but his disciples.

So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now, he had to go through Samaria, which is a, which is a big point, right through Samaria, because the, the, the Jewish people and the Samaritans, they didn't get along. They hate each other. In fact, the Jewish people, when they traveled, when they traveled up through Israel, when they traveled north, they would, they would detour out of their way.

Make it a longer trip to go around this area of the country, you know, avoid that part of town because they just considered them bad dirty people and they weren't gonna go there. But he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria, which was crazy, called sicker, near the plot of ground. Jacob had given to his son, Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the, well, it was about noon when a Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus said to her, well, you give me a drink. His disciples had gone into town.

It says to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, you're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink for Jews to not associate with Samaritan? It's pretty clear Jesus answered her. If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asked you for a drink, you'd have asked him, and he would've given you living water. Sir, the woman said, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.

Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons, and also his sons and, and his livestock? And Jesus answered, listen, now everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But then he points at his chest, says, whoever drinks this water I give them will never thirst indeed the water I give them, becoming them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

The woman said to him, sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming to draw water. He told her, go call your husband and come back. Now. This is, this is now. This is it. I have no husband. She replied. And Jesus said to her, you're right when you say you have no husband, the fact is that you've had five husbands, and the man you are now, and the man you have now have is not your husband.

What you have just said is quite true. Our friends hear this. No matter what you've done, We believe that Jesus can change everything. You may have a list of dumb decisions and stupid mistakes that you feel disqualify you for, for this God to love you.

Your past mistakes do not limit God's love for you. This is it. If you're tired of carrying it and you're sick of it, you can literally say, forgive me Jesus. And you can make the decision to say, I'm gonna live my life different. I'm gonna live it for you. I'm gonna let you drive instead of me. And it doesn't matter what you've done. He covers it all.

All right? Covers it all. Okay? So no matter, let's be really clear on this, no matter who you are, no matter where you've been, no matter what you've done, and here's the last one. No matter what's been done to you, no matter what's been done to you Every single day in the gospels, the Matthew, mark, Luke, and John, the stories of Jesus every single day, Jesus counter people who seem to get the short end of life, stick blind, lame lepers, the short end of the stick, widows orphans, listen to this. Jesus is the only one who can take the unfair, unexplainable, sometimes even unex, expressible junk, and move it from victim to victor.

Power of Jesus to those things meant to hurt you. Jesus, the only one who can take that, that that most unfair, unexplainable, sometimes on honorable thing. And he can move it from being something that haunts you and turn it so that he can actually use you to help others. He can take the bad things and they can lead you to healing and your need for healing. Jesus is the only one who can do that. Listen, we can't explain why did that happen? Why did that happen?

Why did that happen to them? Why did it happen to her? Why them? Listen, we don't know, but it's been a part of the human existence because of the thing called sin. And what we know is it just, it happens. It's a part of the bag. And what we know is this, that this Jesus says, no matter what's been done to you, even if it wasn't your fault, he can take That. And he's the only one who can do this.

And he can move you from being a victim to being a victor. He's the only one. People always wanna say, well, what? Why? What's the deal? In John nine? There's this spot, right in John nine, there's a spot where, where, let me read it. As he went along, Jesus, he saw a man blind from birth, and his disciples asked him, right? And here's the question, right? And, and this is where the world was kind of divided. Rabbi, who sinned?

This man or his parents that he was born blind, right? So somebody has to be at fault, right? Some, somebody, this, this poor guy, blind, somebody had to screw up. And Jesus said, neither of this man nor his parents sent, but this happens with the works of God might be displayed in him. There's just not answers for some stuff, friends.

But here's what you need to know. You can take that what's been done to you. And Jesus is the only one who can fix things. He's the only one who can change things. He's the only one can turn things upside down. And we're gonna be that kind of a church.

We're gonna be that we're kind of a place. That's what we are. So no matter here's what no matter means, no matter who you are or where you've been or what you've done, or even what's been done to you, God does love you. And you can look for God here. Now, I wanna get really clear in the last couple minutes, okay?

Let's get really practical. You're gonna come to Prairie Lakes. Here's some stuff you just kind of have to, to know, right? Here are some implications of being, no matter, I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on these, but this is okay. This is what you're getting into. All right? Here's the first one. It's messy. Okay? Listen, It's just gonna be messy, okay?

It's gonna be messy. And, and here's what you need to know about us. You know what? Prayer lights, 'cause this is what Jesus was like. We're always gonna run to the mess. We're not gonna run from it. We're not gonna close our ears and, and, and, and cover our eyes. And we're, we're not gonna do that. We're gonna run to the mess. We're more of a rescue mission than a country club.

And rescue missions are always messy. And it was messy for Jesus. And it's gonna be messy for us. And you may be against this, right? You may say, well, I don't want that mess. You know, you don't want it until it's you or yours. That's messy. And then you love it, then you love it. So listen, it's messy. No apologies. It's messy. Here's a second one. It's complicated. Okay?

Now the answer isn't complicated. Jesus is the answer. We believe that Jesus can fix everything. We believe that Jesus can change everything. So, so the answer isn't complicated, but it it's complicated in this world. Our doctrine isn't gray. It it, it's not. But how we live it out in our world, it sometimes is.

And if you can't see that you're in a bubble, the church can no longer just have a nice building and sing some nice modern music and, and, and think that's that's what's gonna take. We have to bring Jesus to an increasingly shrinking world that clashes upon contact with each other. We used to be able to say, they're way over there. We don't have to worry about them.

Nobody's over there anymore. We're all here. And when we're all here, here's what's happening. It's, it's complicated. We gotta live this Jesus thing out in a complicated world. And friends, we're not gonna run from that. We're, we're just not. It's gonna be messy and it's gonna be complicated. Here's the third one. It's dangerous, okay? It just is. We're gonna get shot at from both sides.

You're gonna be at prayer lakes. You're gonna get shot at from both sides, just like Jesus did. You're gonna have people on your team, you think on your team who are gonna shoot you on the back because you, they think that that, while you shouldn't be talking to them, and you're gonna have people from the other side shooting you back thinking you're being really judgmental. It's just, listen, we just live it.

It's the same way that Jesus lived. If you wanna avoid talking about controversial stuff, then para lakes isn't your place. We can't afford that anymore. We live in a controversial, complicated world, and, and we, we we're gonna talk about stuff. If you want inch deep answers to mile wide problems, it's not your place. You're not gonna fit around here. I just, you just need to know that it's dangerous to be a no matter follower.

It's dangerous to be a part of a no matter church. Here's the last one, but I want you to know, this is so worth it. It is so worth it. There's no greater mission to be on and to be a part of this, this church that says we're gonna dive into the middle of it. We are gonna plant our feet and plant our flag where God put us.

And we're gonna carry this mission that Jesus loves you and he can change you, and he can fix you. And he can change things. And he can, he can, he can, he can give you a do over. He's, that's the only one who can. And we're not gonna run from that. It's worth it, friends. It's worth it because I, I need it now. Right? It's not just my knucklehead. Friends need no matter church.

I need a no matter church. And you know what? That guy or that girl in your little Iowa and your little circle of friends, they need it too. And you know what? Someday it might be your daughter or your son, or your grandson, or your granddaughter who needs a place where they can walk into no matter what, and look for God and get loved on.

That's why we do what we do. That's what Prairie Lakes is. It's quickly, you gotta hear this one too. Okay? Here's what, we're not friends. Here's what we're not gonna do. We're not gonna be swayed by culture and politics. I, I know it's all the rage. It's not gonna happen with us. This is what we stick with This, This is what we're getting swayed by period. We're not gonna be swayed by fear.

We're not gonna buy into these increasingly tactic, scare tactic across our world. You know what's really scary to our culture? People with hope, people with faith. You wanna, You wanna run from the scare ts and stand on the hope that Jesus says, I got it. And someday I'm gonna fix it all. Let's go.

Until that last day's here, we got a job to do. And we're not gonna leave out truth just because it's hard, grace and truth, man, we're not gonna avoid this tough talk about sin 'cause sins a part of this thing, man. We're not gonna take cues from secular or Christian culture. We're just not. 'cause both of 'em are wrong. Sometimes we're not gonna be afraid to conf comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

We're not gonna make it hard for people to come to God. And We're not gonna lower the cost of following Jesus, your friends. Uh, this is Prairie Lakes. This isn't gonna change because the Bible isn't gonna change and Jesus isn't gonna change. And this is who we are. This is who we are.

We're no matter church, we're becoming no matter followers of Jesus because we believe that Jesus changes everything. Let me pray for us right now. Everybody Take a breath. Woo. I feel like I need a breath. Hmm.

So God help us to be a no mattered church. Help us to not just look in the mirror, but to look out the window. Help us to do both. Help us not be a comfortable church that bubbles up and becomes a safe country club.

Help us to be the kind of church that's no matter, not 'cause they need it out there, God, but because I need it today. Right now, the name of Jesus we pray, all of us pray together. Be ready. Amen.