Behold the Lamb

Yo, listen, I'm excited this morning. Y' all know, like, night session, morning session. Listen, Jesus presence don't change. No matter where we're at, what time of day it is, how we feel. His presence is still his presence, and that's what we're here to encounter today.

And so I'm excited. I want to jump right into the Word this morning. So if you have your Bible, here's what I need you to do. I need you to pull your Bible out, and if you don't have your Bible, well, we're gonna have it on the screen for you. So we have a cop out.

But I need you to pull your Bible out and I need you to go ahead and turn to John, chapter one for me. Everyone turn to John, chapter one. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Fourth book in the New Testament. Go ahead and flip there in your Bible. We're gonna come back to this in a moment.

But listen, as I stated last night, I know we have a couple of churches that are here joining us. We're so glad that you guys are here. I have the honor of serving as the high school pastor at Refuge Youth. So to all my people, all my Refuge Youth people, I love you guys. It's my joy to serve you.

It's my joy to be here. And if it wasn't, then I wouldn't be here because it's a lot of work. Okay? So I love doing this. Sincerely, it is a pleasure.

And, man, I just love y'. All. So Refuge Youth people, y' all are amazing. The rest of our church is here. We're glad that you guys are here.

But I'm going to kick us off this morning and share a word to you that I feel like God laid on my heart. And I'm going to take a little bit of time to expand on our theme a little bit. So I know Nico Peel did last night. How many of you love Nico Peel, man? What an incredible message he brought.

Amen. Amen. Incredible message. And so for those of you that don't know, we plan conference year round. It's not just like it's two months until time, and then we show up and conference just happens.

We plan literally starting in August. We plan for the next year. So we're planning all year preparing for you to come and be here. Our team works hard. We pray, we fast, we intercede, and we believe God to encounter students and leaders and staff as they show up here.

So we're believing that you're an answer to prayer. And we spend a lot of time just asking God, what he wants for Movement Student Conference. How many of you know that's Movement Student Conference is not the refuges thing. It's not refuge youth thing. It's not some other church or its own thing.

Movement Student Conference is Jesus's thing. We want to clear that up first and foremost, right? Like, at the end of the day, we cannot have any part of this without him in the midst of it, right? So we pray and we ask Jesus what he wants to do each year at Movement Student Conference. Because the Bible says that he does a new thing, right?

So in other words, and however powerful and incredible last year's encounter was for you or the year before that, like, the Bible says that we go from glory to glory, that Jesus takes us from strength to strength. And. And so what I believe is that no matter how amazing last year was, if you were here, maybe it's your first year, maybe you've had some awesome encounters with Jesus before in your life. What I believe to be true. And I'm not that old, all right, Regardless of some of the age jokes that some of my student leadership makes.

All right? I know who y' all are. I'm not that old, okay? I'm 25. Like, literally, I'm only a couple years older than some of you guys.

So I haven't lived a lot of life, right? But here's what I do know, that in my life, God goes, and it takes me from glory to glory. In other words, my. The encounters that I'm allowed to have with Jesus and that he privileges me to have with him only grow stronger and stronger. They only get better and better.

So here's what I need everyone in the room to do. Whether you were here last year, whether you weren't, I need you guys to take whatever happened last year or year before or in past experiences with God, be thankful for them. But I need you to put those to the side this year. And I need you to believe God for something new because he wants to pour out his fresh presence on you, right? What happened last year is awesome, but this year, God wants to do something new in your life.

And so we were praying, believing for this conference, and God laid the theme on our heart. Probably like last September, we were praying as a staff asking God to what do you want the theme of Movement 2024 to be? And we felt like clear as day, God gave us these three words. Behold the lamb. So in the morning sessions, if you've never been before, here's what you can expect.

We're going to take the Morning sessions, and we're going to break down three different aspects of beholding the Lamb. And so this morning, I'm going to talk to you about freedom, right? Because as we behold the Lamb, our sins are removed from us. And Nico talked about that last night. I'm going to expand more tomorrow morning.

Ross Johnson is going to be here, and he's going to share about declaring Behold the Lamb to others. He's going to teach about evangelism, how to share your faith with other people. Because what happens in this room, students, is not meant to stay in this room. You came to be empowered. You came to be encountered by Jesus, and you came to be commissioned and sent out to a generation that desperately needs Jesus.

And as much as I can tell them that, as much as a leader or an adult can listen, students listen to students. So at the end of the day, when it's all said and done, the greatest revival the world has ever seen will not come through an older person. It will not come through. I don't believe it will not come through. Just some youth pastor who's really on fire for Jesus.

It will come through through you guys, the ones who sit in the seats, the ones who would say, I'm laying everything down for Jesus. So Ross is going to share about evangelism, taking your faith, sharing it tomorrow, tomorrow morning. It's going to be powerful. And then the last morning, we're privileged to have Bailey Redmond, who is going to lead some worship for us this week, sharing about worship. She's going to talk about beholding the Lamb as an act of worship.

Because do you know that the Bible actually says that all the time? Constantly. 24 7. There's a scene described to us in Revelation 4 and 5, last book in the Bible. And in the scene, the Bible says there are millions upon millions of angels surrounding the throne of God.

Like, think about the biggest gathering you've ever been to, sporting event, concert. Think about literally the time where you were in a room with the most people you've ever seen in your life. All right? Imagine that. Now imagine this picture that Revelation describes for us of 10 times what that experience was like at a concert or a sporting event or something else where a bunch of people were gathered.

And the Bible says that constantly, those millions and millions of angels and living creatures that circle his throne are worshiping the Lamb of God, right? So you're like, how are they worshiping constantly like that? How do they not grow tired or weary or bored? Right? And it's because they understand something about this man about Jesus, that we're trying to understand ourselves, right?

So the last morning, we're going to talk about worship and how you can live out worship in your daily life, all right? So our goal is not to just give you a hype moment or experience at conference and to walk away from here feeling amped up for a couple of days afterwards, but then for that to fizzle out. Our goal is to teach you how to have relationship with Jesus when there's no lights, when there's no band leading you, when there's no pastor speaking to you, Right? Because if you can't have relationship with Jesus outside of a conference room in Myrtle Beach, I just hate to say it, your walk with Jesus is gonna be really troubled, right? So we gotta teach you, right?

You need to understand what happens here is not just a moment. And I promise, if you will take to heart some of the things that are shared from this pulpit on some morning sessions, I promise your life will look differently after the fact is said and done. So we are excited. Behold the Lamb is our theme. We're going to talk about those three things.

And listen, we can't put on this whole conference and make something other than Jesus the center, right? I said last night, if we do that, all of this is just for nothing, right? We might have a fun time, we might have some fun experiences, but at the end of the day, those things fade away. They get out of our memory, right? What never fades is the encounter that we have with Jesus.

Right? Even if you don't remember a single word a preacher said, you remember the encounter that you had with Jesus. And that's what changed my life. So that's what this is about. And listen, today, Jesus wants to be the center of your life.

Jesus does not want to be to the left or to the right in your life. He doesn't want to be something that's set off to a side table. He doesn't want to be an afterthought, something you think about at the very end of the day and maybe say a quick prayer in your bed before you fall asleep. Listen, Jesus wants to be the center of your life. And I just want to let you know, again, I'm not that old, all right?

My back does hurt sometimes, but I'm not that old, okay? Jesus wants to be the center of your life. And what I can tell you right now is that if you will give your life to Jesus, your whole life, your whole heart, I promise you, you will experience more joy, more peace, more power, more presence, more feelings of fulfillment and satisfaction than you've ever had in your entire life. Because I've tried it the other way, where Jesus is just kind of like a. He's kind of there in the picture, but he's not the center of my life, Right?

So I'm going to talk about that today. But let's. Let's pray together. Would you bow your heads, close your eyes? Jesus, we.

We invite you into this place right now. And we ask for you to speak. Not me. Not a worship band, not a person. We ask for the presence of Jesus to come and speak to each of our hearts.

Lord, may we be open to what you want to do in this place today. And God, I pray that you would be lifted up, that you would be the center and that you would make sense of everything that's shared here. This morning, in Jesus name we pray. And everyone said, amen. Amen.

So our main passage of scripture, jumping back to that, John, chapter one, verses 29 through 34, open up to that. If you're there, then that's great. I'm proud of you. If you're not there, we'll have it on the screen for you. John 1:29, 34.

And it says this says, the next day he saw Jesus coming towards him. This is John the Baptist. And said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, after me comes a man who ranks before me because he was before me. I myself did not know him.

But for this purpose, I came baptizing with water. Why? That he might be revealed to Israel. And John bore witness. I saw the Spirit descend from.

From heaven like a dove. He's describing this amazing scene that happened when Jesus was baptized in the Jordan river and the heavens opened. And the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, descends on Jesus and remains on him. And he says, and it remains on him. He said, I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, he on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptized with the Holy Spirit.

I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God. All right, so we have this amazing scene that happens. John the Baptist is baptizing people. That's literally what his name is. If you didn't know, that's he's John the Baptist, right?

That's a superpower. So he's baptizing people left and right in the Jordan river, right? He's building this great following. He's teaching people the Bible calls him a forerunner. Does anyone know what a forerunner is?

Yes, it is a car. Yeah, that's. It is a car. Pastor Jacob has a forerunner. It's awesome, right?

But a forerunner is somebody who prepares the way for something else to come behind them, right? So John the Baptist is a forerunner for Jesus, and he's baptizing people. He's telling them, repent because the kingdom of heaven is at hand. There's somebody that's coming that I'm not even worthy to untie his sandals, right? And he's building this great following.

And all of a sudden, just imagine with me for a second, he's been preaching about this man, right? That God gave him a vision for, that he was literally put on the earth to be a forerunner for. All of a sudden, he's baptizing people in the Jordan River. And I just like to imagine, because I'm an imaginative person, as I'm reading scripture, I like to imagine there's, like, this hill that he can't really see over, right? I don't know if this is what happened at all.

If you watch the Chosen, this is probably what it looked like. But I like to imagine there's like, this hill, right, that he can't see over. And all of a sudden, John's baptizing in the river. And. And all of a sudden, like, here comes Jesus, like, walking up over this hill.

And, like, right as he, like, gets to the top of the hill, like, the sun, like, shines on him and there's like, rays, you know, like, this is my imagination. This is what I think about. And Jesus comes up and John the Baptist makes this declaration. He says, behold the Lamb of God. He point.

He stops what he's doing, right? How many of you know he was doing a good work. What he was doing was awesome, right? But Jesus was more important than what he was doing. So he stops what he's doing and he says, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

He says, this is the one that I was talking about, right? This is super important, crucial part in the story. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. This man is the one that I was talking about, right? And so we have this awesome story.

And listen, there's a lot of. There's a lot of Bible language in there. Behold, right? We're talking about a lamb. What does all that mean?

Listen, behold simply means to look at or to. To experience. Specifically in the Greek, that word means to see with the mind, right? Behold. Look Experience this one who is coming.

So if you're like, I don't really know what that is, that's what it means. Behold, it means, look, experience, take it in, right? The lamb, which is obviously. Who is the lamb? Jesus.

That's right. Literally the fallback church answer. You got it right? The lamb is Jesus, who John says takes away the sins of the world. So listen, why is Jesus called a lamb, right?

If you've been called a goat, this is not the same thing. You're not a lamb, alright? Why is Jesus called a lamb? It's because in the Old Testament. Listen, here's how it worked.

I'm gonna give you a little Bible knowledge, little Bible history to take with you. In the Old Testament, things were not the same as they are now. Because in the Old Testament they were under what was called the Old Covenant, which meant that all the people of Israel, God's chosen people, they didn't have Jesus, Jesus didn't come yet, right? So they knew God, they had all these rules and regulations, right? And if you've ever read like any of the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, then you've probably read some stuff that you're like, dude, what even is this?

Why is this in the Bible? Why can't I cut my hair or eat shrimp, right? Like what is the Bible saying here, right? And they had all these rules, right? We're not going to get into that right now.

But one of the things that they had to do because Jesus hadn't come to die for their sins was that after they sinned, they had to go to the priest and they had to bring up an offering to the priest so the priest could sacrifice this offering so that they could be made right with God, so that they could be in right standing, right? This is what scripture says, right? They, they, they had to bring a lamb to make things right or, or, or an animal to make things right. Could you imagine if we had to do that now? Like every time you sin, you got to show up to the refuge or the promised city or the new life or to Bethel in Durham and you got to bring like a cow or like a goat or a lamb or something.

Like I, I don't think the world would have enough goats and lambs and cows for all of our sin, right? Like I literally think we'd run out. But could you imagine like, hey mom, before we go to church, I got to stop by my uncle's farm real quick. I got to go pick up a lamb Because I sinned this week. Like, literally, that was their life.

Like, they had to bring a animal to be sacrificed because Jesus hadn't come and done on the cross. So one of those animals that was required for sacrifice was a spotless lamb. It says this. Exodus 29, 38, 39. These are the sacrifices you are to offer regularly on the altar in each day.

Offer two lambs that are a year old, one in the morning and other in the evening. See the people of Israel who were with John the Baptist. This is a history of them. So everyone lock in with me, all right? It's important.

I know. It's like, oh, this is just old Bible stuff. Why do I need to know this? The people of Israel, right, would have known. When John the Baptist said, behold the lamb who takes away the sins of the world, the people of Israel instantly, because they knew the Old Testament, that's their Bible.

They would have known instantly what he was saying. He was communicating that this man was coming as a sacrifice for all of their sin. Listen, and here's the really cool part. This is what's really cool. If you open up your Bible, you read the Old Testament, you will actually read prophecy about Jesus.

So the Old Testament, if you didn't know, was written hundreds of years before the New Testament. Listen, there are tons of prophecy in the Old Testament that was fulfilled in Jesus. And that's why the Bible is alive and active. There is no other book. There is no other prophecy.

There is no other thing that literally hundreds of years before something happened, predicted the same event over and over and over again. And it was fulfilled in one man. And that man was Jesus. Watch this. Isaiah 53, verse 7 and verse 10, there's prophecy that talks about Jesus coming.

This is Isaiah speaking. And he's telling the people of Israel and he's prophesying about Jesus. Listen to what he says. He says he was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.

And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. When you read about Jesus crucifixion, people were punching him, spitting on him, right? Mocking him. They were asking, if you're the son of God, say it. And what did Jesus do?

He didn't say a word, right? Because he knew God was on his side and he fulfilled this prophecy. Verse 10, it says, but it was the Lord's good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet watch this. Yet, when his life is made an offering for sin, this is talking About Jesus.

Literally hundreds of years before Jesus would come, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord's good plan will prosper in his hands. See, this was the plan all along. Sometimes we read the Bible, it's like, oh, like Jesus coming and being crucified. Like that was.

That was plan B. Like, we messed up and then God had to send Jesus to make right for all of our things. Listen, this was plan A right from the jump. Jesus desired to give himself for you so that you could have eternal life with him in relationship with him. Let me just tell you, it's not just like, oh, God got caught on a bad day and he accidentally forgot that we were going to sin and mess everything up according to his original design.

Like, no, listen, Jesus was plan A, all right? And this was the plan from all along that Jesus would come and he would offer himself as a once and for all sacrifice. What does that mean? It means you don't got to bring a cow to church. Praise God, because you can show up and be washed in the blood of Jesus that was shed for you.

You don't gotta bring a lamb to church because there was a lamb that already came and took your place. You don't gotta bring a goat to church because Jesus Christ looked at you and considered you worth it enough to go hang his body on a cross and shed his blood as the sacrifice that we were intended to serve. Right? Listen, he sacrificed himself. Can I just tell you, Nobody took Jesus life from him like Jesus is God.

Let's clear it up real quick. Jesus was fully God and fully man. That means nobody took Jesus life for him. The Roman soldiers did not kill Jesus. Jesus willingly gave himself for you.

Do you know that? The place that was meant for us is what he took. So in other words, all the punishment and the sin that we deserved, he took on himself in that moment. And listen, this is the gospel. There is no other message that, you know, I felt led to share to preach this morning.

Because the Gospel is what changes lives. Listen to me, students. The gospel is not just words. Because when you allow the gospel of Jesus, the love that God has for you, that he would send his son to die in your place, to literally wreck and encounter human your life. Listen, your whole life changes when you understand that that voice in your head, that head trash that tries to come against you, that says, I'm not good enough and nobody will ever love me and I can't be used by God because I've done too much and I'm shamed because of who I am.

And how could anyone love someone like me when that stuff starts to come against you? The Gospel of Jesus points a different story and says this. That Jesus Christ loves you with a love that cannot ever change. He loves you endlessly. That means that no matter what you do or don't do, he will never love you anymore or any less.

He loves you to the highest amount, to the nth degree. He literally loves you beyond what you can even compare. And listen, this is the Gospel. That when you were dead in sin, when you could not save yourself, when you had no idea how to get free from the thing that was trapping you, when. When you had no answer to the head trash that was coming against you, the stuff that the enemy was throwing your way, when you were the dirtiest, the filthiest, the most down and low in your life.

That's when Jesus Christ came to give his life up for you. Do you know the Bible says it was not when you were perfect. It was not when you were on the mountaintop. It was not when you had it all together and you were coming to church faithfully. It was when you were in your lowest place.

Romans 5, 8. While you were still a sinner, Christ died for you. Not when you were the best version of yourself. Not when you were disciplined for one week to read your Bible and then you fell off the wagon again. Right when you were in the lowest place of your life.

Maybe that was just a couple days ago. Maybe it's right now. Do you know that Jesus came to die for you? Maybe it was when you were filled with self hatred. Maybe it was when you were laid up in a hospital.

Maybe it was when you were battling suicide. Maybe it was when you were. You. You. You'd fallen again in the area of lust and pornography.

Maybe it was when you had so much fear that you didn't even believe anybody wanted to be around you. Right? You couldn't step out in public because of anxiety. Maybe. Maybe for you it was the moment where you just had nowhere else to turn.

Listen, in that place in your life, Jesus looked at you. Think about just everyone. Close your eyes for a sec. Think about the worst and lowest place that you were in that you can think of in your mind. And I want you to picture that moment where you felt the lowest you've ever felt.

Just for a moment. I want you to picture that. Whatever that is for you. And now I want you to picture this. In that moment when you were at the lowest point of your life.

I want you to look next to you in that picture and see Jesus, because you know where he was? He was right next to you. He was in the room with you when that thing happened to you, he was right there. When that thought came against you, he was right there. When that depression tried to take you out, he was right there.

Listen, in the lowest place of your life, Jesus was there. Look at me. This is the gospel. That Jesus Christ in the lowest place, when you couldn't save yourself, when there was nothing you could do, when there was no out that you could see, he came and he made a way from you. Because do you know that there is a very real heaven and there is a very real hell?

So we have fun, we hang out at the beach, we worship, right? All that's. It's awesome. But at the end of the day, Jesus died so that you wouldn't have to perish and suffer apart from him for eternity. He died so that the gap that was created by sin would be eliminated and that he then would give you eternal life.

Which means you can lay your head on the pillow at night and trust. And know if you put your faith in Jesus, that one day you'll spend eternity with him. And listen, students, when you get that, when you understand his love for you, that literally nothing you could do could change his love, you just don't care what people think. Like, you're just a Jesus freak at that point, right? Because, like, who cares what people think of me?

Because I've got the love of a heavenly father. I've got the love of somebody who cannot be shaken or removed from the throne. I've got the love that even if all my friends around me, all the people around me cut me off, like, his love will never change for me. So man's words, man's opinions, my friends, what they care, what they think, my reputation, it don't matter. Why?

Because I have the love of Jesus. And that'll set you free if you'll let it. Listen, this is kind of what it looks like. I'm going to show you guys this.

I'm going to borrow this, actually. This is an amazing teaching that I saw from a pastor named Michael Miller. He's the pastor of Upper Room. He. He did this teaching at a youth camp, and I thought it was brilliant.

So I'm gonna show you guys. So I want you guys to actually visualize the gospel. This is what the gospel looks like, all right? When God created humanity, created heaven and earth, There was us, there was humans, and there was God, all right? Right next to each Other.

There's no gap. They're together, right? When I sit right here, like, God's right next to me. Can you guys see this? It says God.

It's, like, kind of pointed up like this.

When I sit in this chair, like God's right next to me. This is what it looked like, right? When he's here, he's right next to me. There was no separation. When he created mankind, he created everything perfect.

There was no sin in the world, right? And then all of a sudden, the Bible talks about the fall of man. It talks about this story, you've probably heard it before, where Adam and Eve, the firstborn of creation, they sin against God and they disobey him. And so now what happened was, as a result of that sin, because God is perfect, right? He literally the most perfect being.

And so what happened is this sin all of a sudden came and got in the way of us and God. So now when I sit here in the seat, this says me. This says sin. If you can't see this. All right, I'll tilt it up for you guys.

This says sin, right? It's my beautiful handwriting. Now, what happened is now there's separation between me and God, right? He's over here. I'm here.

And my sin has now taken the place that I was rightfully meant to be in in the first place. And so now the Bible talks about our sinful nature. We're corrupt. We're dead in sin, right? And so it was hopeless for us, right?

That's why, like, you know, the people in the Old Testament had to make a sacrifice. And when they made that sacrifice, like, now, all of a sudden, now they get to be close with God again, right? They slaughter the animal, and now they're close with God again. All right? Sounds kind of weird.

I don't understand it. Listen, different times, different culture, right? But then they would sin again, right? And then now this sin is back in the picture. So now they got to make another sacrifice, right?

All right, well, I messed up. I lied to my mom, right? Now I got to make another sacrifice, all right? Now I'm good with God. Oh, man.

Now I, you know, I cheated on this thing that I felt conviction about. I shouldn't have cheated on it. Now sin's back in the picture. They had to keep doing this over and over again. All right, track with me here.

So God decides I'm gonna send my son to die on the cross, right? And so when he did this, Jesus took the place of our sin. What was keeping us open, away from God, what was separating us. And so now what used to separate me, right? Now Jesus has taken that place.

So he steps onto the scene, and now Jesus, what used to separate me, sits in between us and God, right? He dies on the cross. He's resurrected. He washes us clean. And so now we have this mediator, right?

That's what the Bible calls him. A mediator is somebody who kind of like handles the middle of two parties. Like they bring together two groups of people, right? So Jesus is our mediator, and he's sitting here between us and God because he died on the cross, he took away your sin, right? And now, so because of Jesus, right, I can have relationship with God again, right?

And so when I sit here, right, this is Jesus, okay? When I sit here now, if Jesus is sitting in the seat next to me, I see Jesus, right? It's a cool picture, right? Because the Bible says that the glory of God, in other words, who God is, is revealed in the face of Jesus, right? And so when I look at Jesus, I see God because Jesus is God, right?

And so now what used to separate me, right? When God is here and he's looking at me, My duct tape's not holding up, guys. It doesn't fix everything, if you were wondering. Now, when I'm sitting here, right? And God, when he used to look this way towards me and saw sin, right?

Now all of a sudden, because of what Jesus did, right? We're gonna put this back up here so you can see it right? Now when God looks at me because of what Jesus did, who does he see? Who does he see?

Jesus. Right? When God looks at me because of what Jesus did, who does he see? Jesus. That's true.

Now when I look at God and I've come to God, who do I see? Jesus. Right? So what God used to see as sin and a gap between me and God, now when God looks at me, he sees Jesus. This is the most amazing story, most amazing truth you will ever hear in your life.

Do you know that when God looks at you, he doesn't see the shame, the guilt, the condemnation, the sin that you're currently trapped in? When we put our faith in Jesus and believe and trust that he is who he says he is, now all of a sudden, all that stuff is erased, right? And now he can look at us and see Jesus. Because Jesus is the mediator. He's the one that came in and took the place of sin in our life.

Do you know that? 2nd Corinthians 5:21. It's going to Be on the screen. It says this, that God made him who knew no sin to become sin for us to be sin. Why?

So that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus had no sin. He was perfect. And so Jesus now is the person that God sees when he looks at us. Why?

Because him who knew no sin, Jesus became our sin. In other words, the worst things you do, the most terrible things that plague you, those things Jesus took upon himself.

So that you would have life.

This perfect man allowed himself to take on all your sin, all your filth, all your shame, all your guilt, so that you could be righteous in his sight. No matter how filthy you feel, you are now cleansed. Once you've accepted Christ, no matter how hopeless you walked in here to Movement Student Conference 2024, you can overcome by the power of his blood. Because once you've accepted Christ, God no longer sees your sin, your shame, your addiction, your lust, your bondage. When he looks at you, he sees Jesus.

Because him who knew no sin, Jesus became our sin so that we could become the righteousness of God. Who's the righteousness of God? It's Jesus. This is an amazing message. Listen, I'm gonna wrap up and share my testimony, and then I want to give some time to respond.

See, I grew up a pastor's kid, so I was in church my whole life. And I have amazing parents, amazing family. I didn't grow up in a broken home. They raised me to know Jesus. They raised me to love Jesus.

And I did when I was a kid, right?

And I went through, you know, elementary age stages of my life, really loved Jesus, got baptized in the Holy Spirit when I was in third grade. I met Jesus in some powerful ways even as a young kid. But when I got to middle school, all of that kind of started changing because I started to forget who I was. And when I was 10 years old, I got exposed to pornography at the early age of 10. And it created this hold in me where it literally threw me through a loop.

I had no idea where to turn and what to do with this. And so this thing that, you know, I was exposed to became a root in me that caused me to question everything that I had known. And, you know, I didn't know how to respond to it. It made me feel filthy and I just didn't know what to do. And so I started trying to search for my identity in other things, right?

And that exposure at that young age led to an eight year battle in addiction with. With this thing that had a grip on me. Right? And it, and it led to all sorts of identity issues, right? I began to get really resentful and angry towards the church and towards God and towards my family.

I started treating my family terribly. I started treating my parents awful. I was rebellious, right? And I literally would think to myself, like, anything that is associated with God, I'm going to run the opposite way. God, here's the thing.

As a pastor's kid, do we have any PKs in the room? Any pastor's kids in here? Pastor's kids, I love you. I feel you. I'm here for you.

As a pastor's kid, everybody's looking to these people, to these peers, like they're supposed to be perfect, right? That's my experience growing up. Everybody was kind of looking like, hey, you're the pastor's kid. You need to have everything kind of figured out and lined up in your life and be perfect. And I didn't have that.

And so it caused me to grew really angry and resentful towards God. And I just started doing the opposite of what everybody. I was like the rebellious kid that was just like, you know, you think that I'm supposed to act this way? I'm going to show you how unsaved, how unchurchy I am, right? So I just was getting into nonsense, right?

I was associating with people I shouldn't have been associating with. And I lost myself. Listen, I was literally so tangled up in this identity crisis, trying to find it in sports and in relationships and all these things that couldn't give me identity. And I literally had a moment as like a 14 year old where I just, I didn't know what to do. I was caught in this.

I had no idea how to get out of this. And I just needed identity. I needed something, right? And I kept continuing to look for it in the wrong places, in the wrong things. I was running from God.

And I felt hopeless. I felt like I would never get out of this season, of my life. I began hating who God had created me to be. I began hating the labels that people were trying to throw on me. And I was running the opposite way.

I began to feel empty inside, where I was just like, nothing really matters, right? You ever been in that pit where it's just like, I can't find value in life, right? That's where I was. And I remember I would go to summer camp every year and, you know, I would experience the camp high only to come back and fall right back into the same stuff that I was bound in and One year at the summer camp that I was a part of when I was 16 years old, I was in between my sophomore and my junior year of high school. I remember some of you have heard my testimony, but I was in a service.

And, you know, again, I grew up hearing about Jesus. I grew up encountering him. I was baptized in the Holy Spirit at a young age. And I remember in this service, God spoke two really simple things to me, and it literally changed my entire life. I was caught up in addiction.

I was running from God. I was in a relationship that was not honoring of Jesus. I was crossing boundaries in this relationship. I was talking filthy. I was listening to stuff I shouldn't have been listening to.

I was hanging around the wrong crowd, going to the wrong scenes, right? And. And involving myself with the world, just trying to find some source of identity. And I remember in one moment, in the midst of all of that in my life, I remember God speaking to me in a service just like this. I was by myself in the back of the auditorium, and he just spoke two simple things.

He said, you're my son and I love you. Literally, that was it. Two simple things. You're my son and I love you. And I remember, just in that moment, I remember thinking to myself, how could God view me as a son?

How could he love me? I'm trapped up in all this. I'm in all this mess. I've gotten myself into the lowest place I've ever been in in my life, right? When I asked you to think about that place, that was.

That. That was that place for me. And I remember just, like, breaking down. I'm not a crier. Like, you can ask my wife.

I. I literally. I wish I could sometimes. I'm like, I want to cry right now, but I can't. Like, I don't know. I don't know what it is, right?

And I remember in that moment, God broke me in such a way, I began to weep before him. And I just began to say, God, if this is real, like I think it is, I said, if this is true that I'm your son and that I'm loved by you, then God, I'll give my whole life to that God. I'll lay down everything for that. And in that moment, I felt the most love and the most peace and the most fulfillment and satisfaction. And it was like a wave that rushed over me.

And I just. In a single moment, literally my whole perspective changed. And I'd love to tell you I walked out of that place and felt free and didn't ever struggle again and that I'm here and I'm perfect today. That's not true. Right, because our testimonies are continuously being built on this side of eternity.

But here's what I did know. That I didn't view things the same way anymore. I didn't view my sin the same way. I didn't view the people around me the same way. I didn't view myself the same way.

And some of you in here need a fresh revelation of who God is. You need to understand that you are a son of God. You need to understand that you are a daughter of God, that this is the gospel, that your Father in heaven sent his one and only son so that you didn't have to feel bound and deprived and addicted and in bondage, but so that you could come in here with all your mess, with all your guilt, with all your shame, bring it before him, and he could still look at you and say, I love you and you're my child. In the midst of all that. Listen, there's no other love like that.

Can I just tell you? One Peter, it says this. And we're gonna wrap up. Ben can come on up. First Peter 2.

24, it says this. He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right by his wounds, we are healed. I want you to listen to that again. Listen to the words that I'm saying. First Peter 2.

24. Listen. He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. Listen, no one else has done this in your life for you. There's no other person that can say that they personally carried your sin on the cross so that you could have life.

Listen, Taylor Swift did not die on a cross for you. Travis Kelsey did not die on a cross for you. Right? Meditation did not die on a cross from you. A chakra didn't die on a cross from you.

Evil eyes didn't die on a cross for you. Right? Every other God, Buddha and Muhammad and all these other idols that we worship sometimes did not die on a cross from you. A rapper did not die on a cross for you. A celebrity, the coolest person in your school didn't die on a cross from you.

Listen, every person that you can think of in your life, your mom, your dad, the people that you see around you, right? Your horoscopes, whatever it is that we put our trust in, none of those things died on a cross. For you, none of those things can look at you and say, you're my child and I love you. And tonight, Jesus wants to set the record straight in here. What's the record?

This is the record. Watch this. This is my favorite part. See the sin that we feel so entrapped by. You know that thing that haunts you?

That thing has actually been disarmed by Christ. What does disarming mean? It literally means to take away the power of something. See, once you receive Jesus and put your faith in him, the those things that once held you now lose power in your life. That means the only power that they have is the power that we give to those things.

So depression. Once I've accepted Christ and received him as my Lord and my Savior and I'm laid down living for him, depression does not have a hold on me unless I give it a hold on me. Anxiety does not have a hold on me unless I partner with that thing and believe the lies of anxiety. The enemy tries to come with with me against. Right.

None of those things have holds on us anymore once we've accepted Jesus. See, Colossians 2, 13, 15 says this, that you were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. But watch this. Good news. The gospel means good news.

Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. Watch this. He canceled the record of the charges against against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. Watch. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities.

He shamed them publicly by his victory on the cross. Do you know that the things that were meant to bring you shame, God actually switched up and dealt shame back to the enemy. Why? Because he nailed those things to the cross. When the Roman soldiers were driving nails through his hands and his wrist, they thought they were nailing Jesus to the cross.

And they were. He was a man getting nailed to a cross to be humiliated before all. But they were nailing your sin to the cross. They didn't understand what they were doing, but Jesus did. He knew every time that hammer struck the nail and he felt pain in his body because he felt the nails driving through his wrist and his feet.

He knew that your sin that you would struggle with was getting literally nailed to a cross. And he publicly the b. I love this man like Jesus. Listen, Jesus can't be held down. No one can hold him down because he is God. And I love this that the Bible says that Jesus publicly shamed the powers of hell.

Okay, anyone follow Rap in here. All right, y' all know when Kendrick Lamar just literally rapped Not Like Us five times, right? In diss Drake, right? Like, he publicly shamed him right before everybody. It was a whole spectacle, right?

Some of you are like, oh, I was bumping that this morning. Y' all know we're gonna pray for you. All right? But listen, y' all know when he stood up there and he rapped that five times and he shamed Drake, right? Like, that was kind of funny.

It was fun to watch on the Internet, right? But that comes nowhere close to what Jesus did to Satan and the powers of hell. So the things that you think, man, these things cost me shame. They bind me. They keep me bound.

And in addiction and in sin, Jesus said, I'm gonna die on a cross, and here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna publicly shame the things that the devil has tried to shame you with. Who is this great God, who is Jesus that he, the God of the universe, would love us so much that he'd say, man, I'm not just gonna take away their sin. I'm gonna publicly shame those things on a cross. You know, he could have saved us any way that he wanted to.

He didn't have to die on a cross. He didn't have to give up his body for us. But he knew when he died on that cross and he didn't say a word, he hung there and he said, it is finished. He knew that he was publicly shaming the enemy. And listen, tonight, the OR today, this morning, as we kick off our first full day at Movement 24, some of you have been convinced to stare at your sin and not at Jesus.

But whatever you give your attention to is the thing that you're beholding in your life. So if my attention is on how not good I am, then it can't be on the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. If my attention is on depression, and I constantly think about how I'm depressed, right? I'm anxious, right? I'm claiming these things over myself, right?

I'm addicted. I'm fearful. I'm not loved, right? Then all of a sudden, now I'm looking at those things and not Jesus. And can I just tell you students, it grieves the heart of God when we do that.

Why? Because he's going, no. Like, I shame those on the cross. You don't have to struggle with that. You don't have to feel that.

You don't have to experience that. You don't have to be bound like that. Why? Because I put it on the cross with my body. I nailed it on the cross.

And listen, some of you, tonight you need to. Today. Excuse me. You need to shift your focus from your sin, your shortcomings, your shame and condemnation, the guilt you feel. And you need to put your focus on Jesus.

You need to behold Jesus, because as you do that, your sin is erased. Why? Because you died to your old self.

So here's the challenge. Tonight. I keep saying tonight, I promise it's the morning. I'm running on short. I'm out of sleep too.

Okay, so we're all sleep deprived.

But if, you know, I don't want to move any further in the week without doing this. If you have never made Christ your personal Lord and Savior in your life, or maybe you did at some point years and years ago, maybe you've of dreamed, drifted, and maybe today you need to say, I'm rededicating my life to Jesus. I want to pray with you. Because listen, the Bible says today is the day of salvation. Not tomorrow, not the next day after that.

And can I just let you know there is no better decision that you can make for your life than right now to give your life to the one who holds it in his hands and the one who took away all sin and shame and guilt for you. And all you have to do is receive that this morning. So if that's you, you say, I need to give my life to Jesus. I feel this thing stirring on the inside of me. Or maybe you say, hey, I need to rededicate my life to Jesus.

Here's what I want you to do. On the count of three, I want you to stand up and come to this altar right now. If you say, I got to do business with God, I gotta get right with Him. I've got to come and give my life to Him. Or maybe I gotta rededicate things.

When I count to three, I don't want you to wash. Wait, we're not going to bow our heads and close our eyes, right? That's awesome. We're going to respect the people that respond. But listen, if you can't respond in here, you can't respond out there.

So on the count of three, that's you. You know, I've got to get right with God tonight. I've got to give my life to him, maybe for the first time or maybe rededicate it. On the count of three, I want you to come. Ready?

One. It's the best decision you'll ever make. No Other decision is better. Two, you'll never regret making this decision. Decision.

It will literally change the course of your life. 3. Come on. If that's you, just stand up right now and come to this altar. Come.

Don't wait a second longer. If you know something stirring on the inside of you, come to the altar right now. Right now. Come. Come forward.

Respond. Come. Come on. If you know, if you're in your seat right now, you feel your heart beating in your chest, come. Don't wait any longer.

Don't let someone else dictate whether you respond or not. Don't wait to see who else does Listen. Right now, between you and God, if you know I gotta rededicate my life or I've gotta dedicate it to him for the first time, I want you to come, come to the altar right now.

I'm gonna have some leaders come forward and just lay hands on some students. Leaders, let's allow students to have their own space with God right now in this moment.

But I need you guys to come. Leaders, here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna have you repeat this after me. Students who have responded, maybe you're giving your life to Jesus for the first time. Maybe you're rededicating.

I want everyone to pray this prayer with me. Come on, let's pray to him. Say this. Say, jesus, today I give my life to you. I choose to follow you, to pick up my cross, to deny myself and to surrender every part of me to you.

Jesus, forgive me of my sin. Forgive me of my shame. Forgive me of everything I've done to sin against you. And I choose today to partner with what you did on the cross. Shame has no power over me.

Addiction has no power over me. Because I am your son or your daughter. And I am loved by you. Now say this. Say, jesus, from this day forward, I choose to believe in who you are.

That you were perfect. That you died on a cross for me and you were resurrected on the third day. And I choose to believe that the power of sin is broken. Lastly, say this. Say, I surrender every part of me from here on out, in Jesus name.