(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

Man I love that song.

I asked the worship team to do that.

"So I'll stand with arms high and heart abandoned in awe of the one who gave it all."

"I'll stand my soul, Lord, to you surrendered, all I am is yours."

When I was a youth pastor, this was one of our group's favorite songs, but it, dang it, two seconds in I'm already going.

It took on a whole new meaning when Justin died.

Justin was a 17 year old who died in a skateboarding accident.

He was messing around with some friends, holding onto a side of a car and a rock, rock, he hit it and he was gone.

And here I was, pastor of 100 plus teenagers who are brokenhearted, who are upset, who are questioning, and what did they want to do?

They wanted to worship.

And so one night we opened up the youth building, turned on the sound system, and for four hours straight we worshiped.

And when one kid got tired of playing or singing or they needed to go pray or cry, somebody else would just come up and take their place.

And we sang and we sang and we cried out to God and we surrendered.

And when the world had gone crazy and when the world didn't make any sense anymore, we sang those words, all I am is yours, and we drew strength.

And not that there weren't days that didn't hurt, or not that the world from that point always made sense or felt any less crazy, but I will tell you this, in times of distress, I remember that night.

When I hear some of those songs that we sang, I remember that night.

And I'm reminded that so much of this life that God has called us to and following Him just doesn't make sense.

It's so counterintuitive to this world and my own flesh.

When the Bible says things that the first shall be last and the last shall be first, if you want to save your life, you'll lose it.

The greatest among you will be the servant of all and blessed are the peacemakers.

I don't always understand because in my flesh, it sounds nuts.

Some people might even use the word naive.

I've been told this before, Richard, that's a great sermon, but now it's time to go out in the real world.

And I will tell you, church, it breaks my heart because what we have discovered is that if we put God's word to the test, right, if we actually stop living in our flesh and doing what the word of God says, like crying out to God when your heart is broken, He moves.

He moves.

Time and time again, when I trust in what God's word says and I live it out to the best of my ability, I always find that God's way is better.

Amen.

And it's not just for me, but it's for my family.

It's for my friends.

It's better for my neighbors.

It's better for this world.

And what I firmly believe is that if everyone who professes to be a Christian in America devoted themselves to living a life of obedience to God, this country and this world would be a completely different and better place.

These past two weeks, I wanna tell you, I've talked to a lot of you and I wanna say, number one, I love your guys' passion.

You guys are passionate people and you're passionate about God and you're passionate about this country.

And I've had numerous people come up to me and ask me, I'll use that word, ask me, why haven't we been praying for our country?

And I wanna say, number one, I am sorry.

And number two, it was a complete oversight, all right?

And just all of the things that we've been praying for, all of the things going on in our own church family, we forgot.

And if that offends you, I apologize, but I'm about to rectify that now.

So let's pause a moment and let's take everything before God.

Father, we love you.

Lord, you have called us not only to be your people, but to be your people here in America.

And Father, I pray that we would truly take that seriously, that Lord, as this nation spins out of control and everyone is wondering who is going to stand up and right the ship.

Father, our answer from this place will be it's you, God, and no one else.

And so Father, today, I pray that we would not trust any other power in this world, but you to change our nation.

Father, this is a place where young people are losing hope.

Young people are losing their lives, where families are being broken apart.

And there is no political institution that has an answer for that, but you do, God.

And it is your people sitting right here in this building.

And it is your people sitting in every church across this nation.

And Father, while I do pray for this nation, I pray right now for your people to know that this is their time to stand up.

To stand up and not be pushed back in a corner any longer by this country, but to stand up boldly and to proclaim that we know the hope.

We know the thing that is going to make this nation great again.

And that thing is you, God.

And so for all of us, God, here, we love our country and we thank you that we have been placed here.

But Father, just like your word says, we have been placed here for such a time as this.

Help us to not miss that, Lord.

All we are is yours.

It's in your name we pray.

Amen.

So you guys, again, as we start today, I want you to understand that the only reason that we are here, the only reason I'm up here is because I want you to understand how important it is to have God in your life.

And not just a small portion of your life that has, you know, it takes an hour on a Sunday, but every single moment of every single day of your life.

And I'm up here today because I want God's best for everybody, even if they're not in this building right now, right?

Even if they vote different from us, even if they look different from us, even if they have different ideas for us.

I know what God's word says is that he came to save everybody.

And that's why we're here.

That's why we're here so that we can encourage people to take a step of faith and follow God.

But also for those of us who are Christians, for those of us who do believe, I firmly 100% believe that church is here to challenge each and every one of us to go a little bit deeper.

And so today, what I wanna talk about is one specific area out of several, I think, that we need a reminder about in regards to what God's word says.

And what that is, is power, right?

And not like in electricity or physical strength, power, but what the dictionary describes as the possession of control or command over people or authority or influence.

Now, I know I've been serious, but this is a time for us to move serious.

Think of all the crazy things that you have allowed to have power or influence over you just because you wanted to be in the in crowd, right?

Just because you wanted to be cool.

Here are a few things that came up in my mind.

I got some pictures for you.

I think, polyester suits, right?

Some of you might be thinking, I got one of those in my closet right now.

What's the next thing?

Mullets, making a strong comeback, okay?

Making a strong comeback, all right?

Crocs.

Guys, I will tell you, I'm from California.

It's not happening, okay?

When I came here and I saw that they had actual Crocs stores like that's all they sold, I was flabbergasted.

But you guys rocked those.

The next thing, Stanley cups.

Man, these are taking the world by storm right now, okay?

Some of you got them.

I can't, I'm not strong enough.

I don't have the arm strength to lift that the entire day.

And then finally, this one I found, or my wife found for me.

Armpit hair charms for women.

Come on, okay, get that off, get that off.

That's disgusting.

Influence, power, the things that go on that make people believe this is what you should be doing.

Some of those things are fine.

If you wanna rock a polyester suit here at church, nobody's gonna make fun of you.

I can't promise if you are a woman and you come with armpit hair charms that somebody might not say something, all right?

But here's the reality that we as humans have a really hard time with power.

Even though our world tells us that we need to pursue it, that we need to guard it, that we need to protect it, that no matter how insignificant the power might be, you have to protect it.

No matter how small your kingdom, your world might be, if you have power, it's something that needs to be savored.

And yet when we get it, no matter how much or how little, what we understand is that it transforms us so much so that there's this famous saying, many of us know it, power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts, absolutely.

That's a quote by, in case you're wondering, a guy from the 1830s named Lord Acton.

And he was a politician, he was a church historian.

He's got incredible quotes.

I would encourage you to go look at that.

But power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

And so what we know is that we have to be wary of power and of those who wield it and those who pursue it.

And yet we also claim to serve this God who is all powerful and that his power through the Holy Spirit flows into our lives.

And what we have to understand is that these powers, right, the power of the world and the power of God are two distinct and opposite things.

The power of the world seeks to influence and control others while the power of God seeks to serve and bless others.

And here is the danger that we as the church need to guard against.

Who are we allowing to influence us?

Right?

Who are we allowing to have power over us?

Are we seeking power?

And if so, for what?

Because if we're not seeking power and authority to influence people towards anything other than God, we're probably missing the point.

And then how is power transforming us?

Is it making us better people?

Is it bringing unity into the world or greater division?

Instead of hate, do our hearts break for what breaks God's heart?

Instead of pointing fingers in disgust, do I wanna live out my faith more boldly in order to show the world that there's a better way?

So today I wanna look at how Jesus So today I wanna look at how Jesus handled power and authority.

Because if we're not looking at intently at Jesus's example, I'm going to be led astray by something that is not God.

And so if you got your Bible, open up to John chapter 13, verses one through three right now.

And it says this, it says, it was just before the Passover feast.

Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and to go to the father.

Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.

The evening meal was being served and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon to betray Jesus.

Jesus knew that the father had put all things under his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God.

All right, this is it.

All right, this is another one of those moments where Jesus shows us just how different life in the kingdom really is.

Now, I've been thinking about this passage for about three months now.

And here's what I've been thinking about.

Where it says in verse three, Jesus knew that the father had put all things under his power.

All things, right?

The beginning of his gospel, John tells us that Jesus was the very word of God, right?

The word that brought all things into creation simply by speaking them, right?

All the light, the sun, the moon, the stars, the animals, mosquitoes, I don't know.

But mankind, all of it, all everything that involved the fabric of creation itself, all things under his power.

And I want you to know why this is so amazing.

And because here's what I did.

Put your name in that sentence, right?

Richard knew the father had put all things under his power.

If I'm honest, you wanna know what lame things went through my mind?

Man, how big would my bank account be?

What would my house look like?

Who would I remove from my life?

Who would I stop and really just put in their place because they deserve it, right?

And again, this is my flesh.

And this is how I know that there's such a hard thing when it comes to power with human beings because I am so ridiculous at times that the mere thought of power, and I'm the only one that I'm thinking about, right?

The mere mention of, oh, what would that be like?

What do I think of?

It's a list for Richard.

It's a list for me.

How can I get ahead?

How can I move or have more than anyone else?

How can I control other people?

But what does Jesus do?

In verses four and five, it says this.

He got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing and wrapped a towel around his waist.

And after that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

All things, all power, everything underneath him, everything before him.

And Jesus washes his disciples' feet, a task that they would not even let male Jewish servants do.

It was so demeaning.

It was so repulsive.

And Jesus does this willingly.

Church, this is what we have to understand.

This is kingdom power, right?

This is not world power.

This is not power to get ahead.

This is kingdom power.

And it shakes the world.

Kingdom power makes you stop and go, wait a minute, wait a minute, that doesn't make sense.

That's right, that's what it's supposed to do.

And it was so different than any other power that was operating at the time that Jesus was doing this.

There were three powers that Jesus was working with at all times, right?

And the first one was the Roman government, right?

And they were the most powerful military and political power of the day.

And they would conquer nations and subjugate them and force them to worship Caesar and pay taxes to Rome.

They ruled with an iron fist and anyone who stepped out of line was punished severely.

The Romans were the ones who perfected this art of torture known as crucifixion.

To inflict the most pain for the longest amount of time in the most horrible way possible.

That was who the Romans were.

That was their power.

There was the Sanhedrin.

And this was a group of priests and scribes that ruled over the Jewish people.

They were seen by the people as righteous and learned in the Hebrew scriptures.

And they saw themselves as better than and holier than the common Jewish people.

They wanted to be seen and heard.

And while they didn't have much real power because of the Roman empire, they clung tenaciously to the power that they exercised over their own people.

Remember what I said, no matter how big or how small your world is, we wanna hold on to that power and that's what the Sanhedrin was doing.

And then the third one is Satan.

In this passage, we read that Satan had already prompted Judas to betray Jesus.

Satan got Judas to misunderstand the purpose of why Jesus had come.

See, Judas, like so many Jews at the time, was looking for a Messiah that was going to overthrow Rome and establish the kingdom of Israel as it had been under David.

And when Jesus came not to establish an earthly kingdom, but to open the doors to a heavenly kingdom, Satan used his power to influence and make Judas betray Jesus.

And it was all of these powers at work trying to stop God's work through Jesus.

And yet here, as the culmination of Jesus's earthly ministry comes to a close, all of these powers are set to converge for one decisive final battle.

And Jesus isn't using power like the Romans to raise an army, to force others to submit and obey.

Jesus isn't using power like the Sanhedrin to build up his image, to be someone respected by others.

Jesus isn't using power like Satan to mislead people.

He's washing his disciples' feet.

In a world obsessed with power, Jesus says, give it away.

Give it away.

Don't worry about gathering it.

God will use you, just give it away.

And why?

It's because when we have power, we are usually held captive in trying to keep that power.

Right, in our world today, in our world today, we have this new genre of people known as influencers.

Right, and I know when my kids were little, they wanted to be influencers, right?

And what an influencer does is they gather all these people to follow them, to listen to what they say.

Companies pay them to advertise and use their products so that other people will go and use those products.

And I mean, these people are making hundreds of thousand dollars in a month.

I mean, it's according to the world, it's a very lucrative thing to do if you can do it.

And yet what we know is that while these influencers seem to have power, the moment that they say something wrong, everyone leaves them and they are lost.

They have no more followers.

They have no more money coming in.

All the companies have run away.

And so that power just disappears.

And so what do they do?

They are no longer speaking their own minds.

They're telling people what everyone else wants to hear so that they can keep that power.

They don't wanna offend.

They don't wanna maybe tell the truth.

They don't wanna really share how they feel, why?

Because they will lose that power.

And what we see with Jesus is the actual opposite.

He was never swayed by that.

He was never swayed by the crowds.

There was this great section in John six where thousands of people are following Jesus and he realizes, you know what?

Some of you guys are just here for a free lunch.

And he starts teaching this difficult teaching and people start to leave.

And he looks at his disciples and he says, are you gonna leave too?

And they stop, Peter says, Lord, where would we go?

You have the words of life.

And so church, as we think about, as Christians, when we finally get to the point in our lives of just wanting more Jesus, right?

Just wanting more Jesus in our lives instead of power or influence over people, I think that's when we're in a good spot.

And I'll tell you, I've got experience of this from my own life.

For those of you that don't know, I was a pastor of a very small church plant in California for seven years before I came out here.

It was the worst time of my life.

I was hurt, I was betrayed, I was backstabbed, all of the things by God's people.

And I was the pastor.

And I remember sitting there and I was done.

Like, I didn't wanna be a pastor anymore.

I just wanted a place for me and my family to heal.

And I didn't care what I was doing as long as they were okay.

And I told God, I said, God, I love you with all my heart, but your people, you can keep your people.

Amen, amen, all right.

But then God brought me here, right?

And initially my job was just to welcome people to the church.

Initially, my job was just let them know that they belonged here and that you have a place here and that we want you to be a part of what God's doing here.

And honestly, for the 20 years prior, every single Sunday, as a youth pastor and as a church planner, I preached.

And when I came here, there was never even a thought of me preaching again.

And I'll tell you, I was absolutely okay with that.

I was absolutely, because I just, God had brought me into this place where my family, my friends, my family, God had brought me into this place where my job was just to love people.

My job was just to let people know that, man, you make a difference here.

I'm so glad that you're here.

I'm so glad that you're a part of this.

And if I never preached again, I was 100% okay with that.

But then all of a sudden here comes God and his infinite wisdom.

And I would argue a really good sense of humor because a month after I get here, Pastor Clay has back surgery and the recovery is taking a little longer than he thought.

And so for two straight months, where did I find myself?

Not out front welcoming people.

I mean, I was out there, but I had to preach, right?

And I share this story because I just handed it over to God.

I just wanted to love God's people.

I just wanted to make sure that you knew that you were important to God.

And then all of a sudden he brings me into this place where, no, Richard, I need you.

I need your gifts.

And see if we can handle power like Jesus did, it won't corrupt us.

If our hearts are just about honoring God and serving his people, God will get you where he needs you to be.

Even if you try and run from it.

But if we pursue power for our own benefit, we will lose sight of the heart of God.

If we see power and pursue power for our own benefit, we will lose sight of the heart of God.

And unfortunately, it's not just in the world that we see this, it's right here in the church.

And it's a shame because we see people, we see Christian leaders who want the power, who want the prestige, who want the fame.

And then we see that Satan comes in and they fall.

And when they fall, they don't even hurt, they don't just hurt themselves, they hurt God's bride.

And that's what we have to be weary of.

And so I will tell you this, right?

You guys here in the South, you take care of pastors better than people do in California.

You do.

Every time I preach, Rebecca here, she comes up and she says, Richard, what kind of snacks do you want?

And the first time I preached, I'm like, what do you mean snacks?

Like, there's a drinking fountain outside, right?

And her response was, no, you're a pastor and you deserve respect.

And don't clap for that, I don't.

I don't, I appreciate that.

But in my mind, what I was saying to myself was, a married man with three teenage kids.

I live my life perfectly fine without respect.

But I mean, I tell that story because if we go back to Jesus' example, who are the ones who actually deserve the respect?

In Jesus' example, it's you.

It's every one of you, I'm here for you, right?

The passage is very clear that Jesus exercises His power and authority by serving His disciples, those He loves the most.

This isn't respect.

I'm honored to be here serving with each and every one of you.

Why?

Because that's what Jesus tells me to do.

That the one who wants to be the greatest has to be the servant of all.

And you know what?

I've gotta be the guinea pig.

And so I'm gonna serve and I'm gonna love.

And this is why I wanted to share this is because it's you all who are the most important part of this power and authority.

He tells His disciples after He washes their feet, He says, I've shown you what to do.

Now you go and do it.

You go and serve each other.

And I love it because it's almost like He's saying, don't worry about how the world fights and what the world says about power.

Use your power to serve each other, right?

And it gets to be so easy when you love the people that you serve, when you see God in them.

My favorite place to be is at home.

I love my family.

When things go crazy, I just, I cannot wait to just pull into my driveway and be in my home.

Because I think one of the reasons that I love it so much is because they don't expect anything from me, right?

Maybe money, they might expect some money from me.

And to maybe cook burgers every now and then.

Right, but other than that, my family just wants me to be home with them.

They've seen me at my best and they've seen me at my worst and they still love me, right?

And all I wanna do is love them and serve them because they are the people that God has blessed me with.

They are my closest people that I can love.

And I want to show them the full extent of my love.

I wanna humble myself and show them how much they mean to me, to show them that I believe in them and I'm willing to sacrifice anything for them.

But what if the church was like that?

What if that was what the church was like?

Because see, church, we live in a day and age where it feels like this world is tearing itself apart.

The powers in the world are vying for our allegiance by promising to make things better, right?

Those powers are misleading people and causing them to question what truth is.

Those powers are trying to tell us that we have to fight and hate those who are different from us.

And if we don't, our very existence is at stake.

And those powers aren't healing anything, right?

We live in a world, and I just got a call this week.

We live in a world, there's a 17-year-old young man connected to our church.

And for him, death was more appealing than the pain of this life.

We live in a world where two weeks ago, a 20-year-old young man thought that shooting somebody was gonna solve the world's problems.

And it breaks my heart that this is the world that we live in.

And it's so broken, and it's so fractured.

And church, what I'm trying to say is, it's time to stop relying on and chasing the world's power and instead start relying on God.

What if by using our power to serve people and serve one another here, that we create an environment where people feel important and needed, right?

Well, what if we gave people a place where they belong and that we let them know that it's okay to bring your pain, it's okay to bring your struggles, it's okay to bring your questions, and it's okay to let them know that it's okay to bring your struggles, it's okay to bring your questions, and we will walk with you and help them to discover God's truth for their lives?

What if instead of thinking we needed to be in power in order for the world to survive, that we trusted one with all the power who created the world?

Guys, this is what the church has been called to, right in the darkness, so that the world can see the goodness of God and the life with God.

And I wanna close by speaking to those of you who don't think that you have any power, and I wanna tell you this, that everyone has power.

Every decision you make for right or wrong is you exercising your power.

And today, some of you are sitting here and you know that you need to get right with God because the powers of this world, the things that influence you have been causing you nothing but pain.

Right now, you have the power to invite Christ into your life or back into your life.

I'm gonna pray at the end, but at this moment, if you want to, there's a card that says, a card that we have that says, I said yes to God.

And if today you want to come back to God or come to God for the first time, fill this out, take it out to our prayer tent, drop it in one of the giving boxes, whatever you want, because we wanna encourage you, we want you to know that you are not alone.

And this is the greatest decision that you can make.

And for those of us who are already following God, we have the power to decide if we are going to hand more of our lives over to him.

For you, that might mean setting aside some of your own power or choosing to walk away from a power that has been influencing you.

But let me ask you this, can we humble ourselves and let God take us where he needs us and to teach us to be the disciples he's called us to be?

People who follow his example and use our power to serve others instead of controlling them.

I just, I always just wanna blow the world's mind like Jesus did, right?

That's my dream for the church, that we live so differently that the world looks at us and go, this is incredible.

But yet they can't wait to be here.

That's what I want.

You see every now and then throughout history, a movement of God breaks out and transforms the culture around it.

And we normally call those revivals, right?

And we love that word revival.

But I think God looks at those and he says, well, that's what the church is supposed to be like every day.

So church today, as we close, as we walk out those doors, as we sit with one another, as we serve one another, let's be the church that God sees us as.

Amen?

Amen.

Let's pray.

God, we love you.

And Lord, as we talked about, we live in a fractured, broken nation right now, Lord God.

And it's waiting for something, something true, something real to shake it up.

And Father, you know my heart.

I know what that is.

And it's sitting in this room right now.

It's your people.

And so Father, I pray for strength.

I pray for wisdom.

I pray for guidance for your people.

Lord, that you would help them to live boldly in the midst of a world that's telling them just to be quiet.

Father, may we show our power by serving each other here because it begins here, God.

It doesn't begin out there.

It begins the way we treat each other here.

And so may we love each other well.

May we worship together well.

May we serve together well.

And may the world begin to take notice.

And Father, for those who are putting their faith in you for the very first time, Lord, I pray that you would hear their cries.

I pray that you would let them know that they are your children.

I pray that you would let them know that as long as they have accepted the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for their sins, they are in your hands and nothing can take them away from you.

Help us to be the church you've called us to be.

We love you, Lord.

And it's in your mighty and inspiring name we pray and all God's people said, amen.

Amen.