The Fig Tree

Stop allowing your algorithm to be your Bible. We check our phones constantly. I need his algorithm to be louder than my phone's algorithm. We allow our phones, we allow our algorithms to be our pastors in our life. We allow our algorithm to be our Bible in our life. Um, but glad you guys are here. If you don't know who I am, I'm the youth pastor here at Cross Church. Surprise. absolutely love being with you guys. It's going to be a little lively sermon, okay, than normal. All right, it's all right. You guys can hang in there. You guys can do it. Um, open up your Bibles to Matthew 24. Today, we're going to be talking about the fig tree that Jesus teaches us about. And we're going to be in Matthew 24:32-35. But I want to address the opening of my sermon this way. Learn the lesson of the fig tree. Learn the lesson of the fig tree. This phrase has been rattling off in my head ever since Pastor Andrew gave me this section to talk about. Learn the lesson of the fig tree. Man, it it has been going off in my head probably a hundred thousands of times out of all the camps that I've went to. This has been the phrase that has just been going off in my head. Today, we're going to be in chapter 24. And Jesus talks a lot about end times. If you don't know end times, that's okay. We're going to bring you up to speed. We're going to talk about some good stuff today. But if you have read this before, if you have read about end times, you know you can go down a huge giant rabbit hole with all the stuff that Jesus talks about. People start talking about wars, earthquakes, division, prophecies, the antichrist, the mark of the beast. Right? Before long, everyone has a different opinion about how the world is going to end. Amen. Right? But I have to be honest with you, I actually hate this topic. I really don't like this topic. End times drives me nuts. And when Andrew was telling me about this topic, I was just like, man, why do I have to talk about this? This is where pastors get fired most of the time, right? Everyone seems so confident about their theories. Everyone has a timeline, a chart, a YouTube channel that they've watched and they send to their friends over and over and over again, right? And and the focus is trying to predict the future. And sometimes we completely forget what Jesus is actually teaching us in this chapter. We get so caught up in what we think about this chapter and we completely forget what Jesus is teaching us. So, as I was preparing for this message, I started thinking about a different question. And I started thinking about a different question. Why would Jesus put the parable of the fig tree in the middle of this chapter? Why would he put the parable of the fig tree right in the middle of this chapter? Out of all the places to put this place, this is what he says in the middle of this chapter. He gives a direct command and it says, "Learn, learn the lesson of the fig tree." Why? Why would he teach us this? Why would he make this such an important announcement to the believers, to the generation of believers to understand this? Let me ask you an uncomfortable question this morning. If somebody came up to you after church and they said, "Hey, can you show me how to become a Christian?" Would you know how to lead that person to Christ? Would you know how to actually show them what the gospel is? How the gospel is important in their life and how to lead them to Christ? See, I came across this article George Bara wrote and it stopped me right in my tracks as I was preparing for this. He says this, "The most best-selling Christian books have focused on meaning, purpose, and security and end times. Very few have helped people think clearly and comprehensively about their core theology. Consequently, many bornagain Christians hold a confusing and inherently contradictory set of religious beliefs. Man, that hit me hard when I read that article. See, George Barn is not telling us to not study end times. He is saying that we have become so fascinated with knowing what end times is and we have a neglected of who is the one that is coming. George Bara has also found that 17% only 17% of practicing Christians hold a biblical worldview. Only 17% of people actually stick to this thing. That's crazy. That fact is just like it just blows my mind guys. This this this statistic this article should wake us up. We have become so captivated by the signs and we have neglected the savior that is going to come into our world. See, I've spent the last couple of months at camps. I've been teaching teenagers and kids and man, I've been exhausted from all the camps we've been going to. Gotten sick just being at these camps. It's been great though. I've loved every moment of it. But something about camp, every single year, we learn something from God. God reveals something to us in the church about what the future generation, what the generation right now is hurting with. And four things, these four themes kept surfacing over and over again at my youth camp. The things that the teenagers are struggling with right now. These four things that came up out of camp was pornography, drugs and alcohol, divorce, and lastly identity. Pornography is rising in girls. Out of the 10 girls that I talked to, all nine of them out of the 10 are struggling with pornography. Pornography is at an all-time high with boys, and that has not gone down. But I think it's important to highlight what's going on with our girls in the church. See, kids are experimenting with drugs at a much younger age. They're getting addicted to alcohol at a much younger age. Out of the six boys I talked to, they started drinking alcohol at the age of 9 years of 9 years old. Guys, these students are struggling with divorce. the pain that is inside their homes, the brokenness that is inside their homes, and they have no idea how to deal with it. They have no idea of how to deal with the pain that is going on inside their homes. They're stuck in that. And walking them through those things is really challenging and it's hard cuz they start losing their faith in those things. And guys, so many young people have no idea who they are because they don't know who's they are. There is so many young people that are just struggling to know who their creator is and that their soul is so important to him. Church, our world doesn't need another conspiracy theory. It doesn't need another prophecy timeline. It doesn't need another debate about the latest headline. Our world is desperate for hope. Our world is desperate for truth. It is desperate for King Jesus. And I believe that Jesus is preparing us to learn the lesson of the fig tree today. He doesn't want to try to create us to be prophecy experts. He doesn't want he doesn't want us to actually know everything that's going to happen in the chaos in the future. No, he's preparing faithful disciples. He is calling us not to be obsessed with the chaos, but to be obsessed with the King Jesus that will bring the calm into the chaos. So today I want to wrestle with this question. Today I want to wrestle with this question. How do you bring someone to Christ when everything is in chaos? Because Jesus predicted all the chaos, but he also is showing us exactly who we need to be in the middle of the chaos. So we pick up on verse 32 and 33. It says this, "Learn this lesson from the fig tree. As soon as its branches becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know the summer is near." In the same way, when you see all these things, recognize that he is near at the door. I want to stop right there, guys. The first thing I want you to see is look for the work of God. Look for the work of God. You see, how we get to this parable is that the disciples actually ask Jesus this question. In verse three, they say, "Tell us when all these things happen. Tell us when all these things are going to happen, Jesus." And Jesus proceeds to tell them all these amazing things that are going to happen that actually makes our world tender today. And Jesus before he even gets into this, he actually says something. It prompts this question. He says this, "Do you see all these things? Truly I tell you, not one stone will be left here on another that will not be thrown down." He is he is starting to he is staring straight at the temple of Herod. And this temple is massive. It's huge. He's staring at this temple and he's telling the disciples that this temple is going to be destroyed. This is the second temple that was built in Jerusalem. Man, this should grab your attention, right? This should be like an amazing thing that that Jesus is predicting. I mean, I kind of visualize this like this. Have you ever walked around State Farm? You know the stadium that Andrew loves to like, you know, just go crazy about cuz the Cardinal stadium that has never won a Super Bowl there, right? Okay. You ever seen that stadium? It's huge, man. My kids have been like on many tours there and how they roll out the grass and everything. It's awesome. But imagine like a homeless guy walking up to you and saying, "Hey, you see this great building? This is going to come crumbling down one day." And actually a couple years it's going to just be destruction. It's going to be rubble. You'd be like scratching your head. You're like, "How how is that going to happen, you guys?" Jesus tells his followers many things. He tells them about Satan. He tells them about wars. He tells them about rumors of wars, nations rising up, kingdoms rising up, famines, earthquakes, events all around the world. Then he gets even deeper, right? He says about false prophets. I know a little thing about false prophets, okay? I'm just letting you know right there. I'll get there. I promise. Okay, if you're new here. But hey, no nations. He tells him about nations hating each other, governments hating each other, governments without rules, love that no longer exists. We're kind of experiencing that right now, right? There's not a whole lot of love for one another right now. We see that all the time in our Instagrams, and our Facebooks, right, guys? I've lit um but I I want I want to show you guys like what Jesus is actually saying before he gets into all these crazy events. He says these two words, watch out. Watch out. What does he mean by that? Meaning he wants you to notice the things that are happening. It is good for you to study the prophecies. It's good for you to actually know the end times. He wants you to actually be aware what's going on. But the first thing he says, he says, "Watch out for them." Why would he say that? Why would he say, "Watch out for them?" because you are going to be the people to know how to speak to these things. See, Jesus talked about sprouting up sprouting up people. Sprouting up his church, sprouting up the people that can actually speak to these signs and warn people and say, "Jesus is near. Jesus is near." I've literally been leaking this to my students for the last year. And this year we have a theme this year that we want to make our ministry a whole lot more messier. George Pitman reminded me about how messy we leave the sanctuary sometimes. So we're going to work on that, George. I promise. Okay. But we have made this deal with the students that we want to make this ministry, student ministry, a whole lot more messier. We actually want to see God move in the midst of a tender time. We've been seeing all the signs of what God has been doing and we've been watching people trust in things that are going to eventually be in destruction. And my students, man, they're doing a great job of this. But our theme this year is going to be, why not Jesus? Why not Jesus? Why are you trusting in things that are just going to leave you a wreck and in destruction? Why not? Why are we going to show Jesus and make our ministry a whole lot more messier with a whole lot more lost students inside of our ministry so we can proclaim the gospel? And guys, they're doing such a great job of this. Every Wednesday night, we have about 80 students in this room. And in this room, we've had students attend church for the first time, which has actually brought their families to church for the first time. We have seen students that are atheists get baptized and come to Christ. We have seen students break addiction in their life and actually say, "You know what, Jesus? I'm not doing this anymore. I'm going to give this to you." We have seen students fall away from their faith and come back stronger than ever. We have seen students address the issues and say, "Hey, we live in a tenure time, tender time, and the only thing that we can do to change it is to announce Jesus Christ our Lord." I love leading my students. I absolutely love them with all my heart. And I love what Jesus says right here in verse 13 and 14. It says this, "The one who endures to the end will be saved. This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed." Guys, this verse should make you think. This verse should make you think about what Jesus is saying. Jesus is at work in us. Jesus is not at work in our time right now. We are the ones that are supposed to go into the chaos. We are the ones that are supposed to endure the chaos, endure all the earthquakes, endure all the wars, endure all the false teachings, the false prophets coming before us. We are the ones he has sprouted up and he has put the work before us so that we go and endure those things. Guys, I believe the future church, the seats that you're sitting in right now, I believe the future church is going to be occupied with a bunch of ex addicts in this future. I believe the future church is going to be a bunch of ex only fans influencers. I believe the future church is going to be a bunch of exhomosexual individuals. I believe the future church is going to be a bunch of ex Satan worshippers. The future church is going to be a bunch of ex thieves, ex murderers, exreligious people, but are we willing to go into the chaos and endure with them? See, this got real for me. A lot of you probably don't know, but I'm going to share the story again. But I came to Christ on my Mormon mission. I'm an excommunicated Mormon missionary, and I served my mission in Chile, and I absolutely love Chile. The people in Chile were awesome, man. Always always took care of us elder boys out there. But I came to Jesus on my Mormon mission. And while I was there, towards the end of my mission in 2010, Chile got hit with this earthquake. It was the biggest earthquake that ever hit in modern-day history. They said ever the biggest earthquake that has ever been recorded in South America. It was a 8.9 earthquake. And at this time, I thank goodness I lived in a good construction type of home. I didn't live in a mud hut like in my former houses, but I remember being on the second floor with my companion. The door was wide open to get some cool air and this earthquake hit. And I remember just jumping up out of my bed. I was born and raised in California, so I'm used to earthquakes. But this thing just would not stop. It kept growing and growing. So I ran over to my balcony and I just hugged this thing. And as I'm like hugging this balcony, I just see all these houses just falling everywhere all around me. The destruction was just huge. And I remember just holding on to this balcony with all my might. And I remember looking up at the moon and I was like, "God, is this the end of the world?" And I'm just holding on for dear life. This earthquake lasted for about three minutes. It finally stopped. It was a complete calm. Only alarms of cars were going off. And then people started coming out. People started entering into the streets. I started hearing voices. I started hearing screams. And so for the next three weeks, me and my companion would be pulling out dead bodies out of the rubble. me and my companion for 3 weeks would have no water, no electricity, nothing. Every time we went into a grocery store, we had a military guy right next to us with an AK-47 and if we got out of line, he was ordered to shoot us. Every night, I would hear screams and shots because people were starving to death and they would try to go into these grocery stores, but to keep the riots down, that is how they occupied the people. Guys, I remember going through that time for those three weeks. Everything was stripped from our lives. No water, no electricity, some of them no homes, some of them losing their family members. And the only thing I could help them with was bringing the cross to them, was bringing hidden Jesus to them. this Jesus that I studied in the Bible. Knowing this Jesus and knowing the cross and what he did for us and all the suffering that has happened in the world and the chaos that has come in the world, Jesus is the answer to all those issues. And that was the only thing that I could bring to them. The hope and the faith that comes through that sign. See, I think the greatest sign that has ever came into this world was the cross of King Jesus. to endure the chaos and to bring his news. That is the greatest sign that we have in the midst of chaos. Verse 34, I want you to see this. Look at what it says. It says, "Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things take place." See, the second thing I want you to see right here is listen to what God has proclaimed. Do you know your scriptures, you guys? Do you know? Do you spend time with God every single day? This is what I want you to reflect on for a moment. Stop allowing your algorithm to be your Bible. Stop allowing your algorithm to be your Bible. What do I mean by that? What what is the first thing we check every time we wake up in the morning, right? Our phones, right? The first thing we check is this stupid thing all the time, right? We grab this thing. We're like, "Hey, what happened in the latest news today?" Right? Stop allowing your algorithm to be your Bible. Our phones are constantly attached to us. I know this. The data is there. It's okay to admit that. All right? I do it, too. I fall into this sin all the time. And we check our phones constantly. And the first of the year, I put this this fast on myself. And I think I drove Andrew nuts about this. But I put this fast on myself. And I said, "Hey, I'm not going to check social media for 3 months in the first of the year." And every time he would come in, I would come in the office and Andrew, we'd be getting talking about something. And Andrew be like, "Hey, did you see that post?" I'm like, "No, Andrew. I didn't I didn't see that post, dude. I'm on that fast." He's like, "Oh, yeah, that's right." I was like, and some people think that's stupid. Some people like look at like that fast and that social media thing. is like, "That's a soft fast, Kyle." But I needed to do that, man. Cuz I was falling in this trap of always checking my phone the first thing when I woke up. And I needed to do this. I needed to take this fast. So for 3 months, man, I learned about myself. I learned about my relationship with Jesus. And I learned that I need his spoken word in my life. I need his algorithm to be louder than my phone's algorithm. I learned that he is the most important thing in my life that needs to be speaking into me, not a 30-se secondond reel from a pastor across the way or a pastor across the country. Unfortunately, a lot of us today fall into this trap. We allow our phones, we allow our algorithms to be our pastors in our life. We allow our algorithm to be our Bible in our life. Unfortunately, we allow this algorithm to be our God in our life. See, the thing is Jesus is talking about knowing his words that he spoke in the past, knowing his words that he's speaking right now, and know his words that he's going to speak about in the future. Know the prophecies of God. Know the prophecies that he spoke in the Old Testament. I tell my students this all the time. Know your Old Testament. Know what Jesus has spoken in there. Know what Jesus has spoken in the New Testament. Know what Jesus is speaking about in the future. In verses 15- 21, there is a lot to address right here. 15- 28. There's a lot of theological systems that you can fall into and you can unpack. There's many commentators. There's many theologians that address and have advice about their thoughts on these scriptures. But today, I want to show you something more specific that Jesus addresses before he even gets into all these prophecies. He says this. He says, "Spoken by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place." I want to stop right there. Do you go to a holy place to learn about God? Do you meditate like Daniel did about the things of the Lord? Do you pray about the things like Daniel did? Can you imagine the time Daniel lived in? Daniel, a prophet that was shown many visions. Daniel, a prophet that was shown many revelations about our savior coming into the world, about the end times. Daniel was a man that was born and raised in exile. He never saw the Holy Land. He never even saw it. He wasn't born and raised in Israel. He was born and raised under the leadership and under a government that worshiped false gods. And this guy was used in the biggest the biggest thing in the Bible of showing us all these visions and revelations and showing us things about what will happen in the future, what will happen during Jesus's time. It's amazing some of the things that Daniel got to say. I think we spend a lot of time in our news, in our phones. We spend a lot of time looking for someone else to be our Messiah. And we fall into the trap that Jesus speaks about in these verses. He says this. If anyone tells you then, see here is the Messiah over there. Over there, it's in here. If anybody tells you over there, there's the Messiah. You have fallen to the trap. You have fallen to the trap. We have too many people going to other places than the holy word of God. We have too many people not being like Daniel and going to our knees and meditating day and night on the things of the Lord. I love my Bible, you guys. This is how I came to Christ. If I have ever doubts or questions, this is exactly where I go. If I'm fighting with my wife or my kids are driving me nuts, this is where I go. The word of God needs to speak louder in your life. We need to start listening like Daniel did. See, I I I thought of this story because this is something I wanted to break this chain in my life. I remember my mom, she would get off of work, right? She would get off of work and this was her regimen. and she would get off of work, she'd put her stuff away, and then she would take out her bon bon ice cream and go straight to the couch and turn on the news. Okay? And my mom, I'm not here to just throw her under the bus. These were just things that I saw in her life that I was like, "Man, I don't want this in my life. I don't want to be the first thing that I come home and I just turn on the news and I just get glued into the screen." Now, being born and raised in California, there wasn't a whole lot of good coming out of that television screen, okay? So my mom, she would just absorb the things. She would listen to those things. It would just absorb in her heart. And I constantly saw her change her demeanor. She became more angry. She became more depressed. She became more frustrated with people. She became more anxious. Then when social media came out, man, she all those things just got heightened 10 times thousand times worse. And I watched my mom just change her demeanor because she was listening to things in the world and allowing that to absorb in her heart rather than this. Now, she was also lost. She was a Mormon, so she didn't know who this Jesus was. But guys, I think we can learn something from this. God is telling you to listen in his holy place. Pick up this thing first thing in the morning. Listen in this holy place. My favorite thing to do is to study my Bible on my back porch with a cup of coffee and just meditate on what Jesus is penetrating on my heart. That's my daily regimen. What is your daily regimen? Look at verse 35. It says this, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away." man, what do you believe? What do you have faith in? See, see this verse is a very reflection type of verse. And I love when Jesus does this to us. I love when Jesus speaks to our heart. I love when he sits us down and he says, "Kyle, what do you believe?" See, the reality of this verse is that our faith is not in the cosmos of heaven. Our faith is not in the earth. Our faith is not in tarot cards, in Greek mythology. Our faith is not in myths or zodiac signs. No, no, no, no. Our faith is not in those things. I love that Jesus is speaking to the Jews. He's speaking to the Greeks right here. He's speaking to everyone in the world right here. What do you believe? coming from a former atheist. Yes, I used to be a former I used to be an atheist. And the thing that I absolutely loved, I love science. I love space. I love the stars. I love the cosmos. I loved all of that stuff. And being born and raised in California, I also love to surf. All right? I was a big surf bum. All my uncles and and grandfather taught me how to surf. And I just love to surf. And my favorite thing to do is in summertime, I would go night surfing because everybody was clear from the beach and I just like had the beach to myself. Nobody jacked my waves. I could just like go out there and just be me. Okay. And me and my buddies sometimes we would take breaks from these waves and we would just lay out on the board and we would just look at the stars and be like, "Man, this is cool." And I love seeing the stars and how it hit the water from the east to the west. And it was just like, man, there's a lot of stars up there. And it was just an amazing sight to be a part of. I used to call that mother nature, but being in God's nature is awesome, man. And I think you guys should break away and see that. But here's my point with this, guys. I know the cosmos and the earth are fascinating things to learn about. In our culture today, a lot of our officials and intelligent minds want us to put faith in the cosmos and into this earth rather than Christ. We see this all the time in our young people. We see this all the time that they put their faith in what is ever being pushed online and I try to break them from that. Guys, I've been hearing it from ever since I was in third grade. I remember debating with one of my professors in college about global warming and we would go back and forth about these things because she put her faith in things of the earth and not in God. See in verse 29, look at verse 29 and what Jesus says. Immediately after the distress of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not shed its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. If you call yourself a believer in Christ, that is the future of what heaven and earth looks like. All those stars I like to look at, they're going to come right out of the sky. they're no longer going to be there. And that's an incredible sight and that's an incredible claim that Jesus is predicting right there. But guys, I'm not saying don't care don't don't care about the world. Don't care about the cosmos. Don't care about those things. I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying this. I'm saying why are we so closefisted with the things in this world? Why are we so closefisted with our things in this world? and we put that above Christ. That's what Jesus is saying right here. Why do we care so much about our bank accounts more than Jesus? Why do we care so much about the car we drive, the house we live in, the career we have, the vacation we go on, our kids' sports teams, football, concerts? Why do we care about that stuff other than our faith? Church, we do not believe in temporary things. We believe an eternal man that is coming back one day. He claims his people that believe in him. He claims his people that have surrendered to him. He claims his people that have put their very trust in this Lord and Savior called Jesus Christ. And they have given their souls to him. And now we pay everything towards him. We want everything that happened for him and his kingdom that is coming back soon. I want But here's the thing. Here's the thing. I get this all the time. When's that going to happen, Kyle? Right, young people. Pastor Kyle, when's that going to happen? We don't know. We just sang about that. We have no idea when that's going to happen. Jesus said it himself is that only the father knows when he is going to come back. Jesus has no idea. And we have to be alert. We have to be ready. We have to be ready and just stable and strong in the faith for whenever that day comes. But I love how Jesus Jesus closes out this chapter. And I just love this. I want to read it with you guys real quick. 45- 51. It says this. Who then is the fa Who then is a faithful and wise servant whom his master has put in charge of his household to give them food at the proper time. Blessed is that servant whom the master finds doing his job when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all of his possessions. But if that wicked servant says in his heart, "My master is delayed and starts to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards." That servant, that servant, that servant's master will come on a day he does not expect him. And at an hour he does not know, he will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites where there will be weeping and nashing of teeth. Guys, what servant do you want to be? What servant do you want to be at the time when Jesus comes? That's what I want you to see from that. Are you going to be ready like the first servant? Are you going to be ready to go make the way and make it ready for him to come? Are you going to prepare your house? Are you going to prepare the things and get ready for King Jesus to come into this world? And he's going to say, "You were a good and faithful and wise servant." Or are you going to be the other servant? Are you going to be the other servant that says, "You know what? I got time. Jesus ain't coming back for a while. It's all good. I'm just going to do me. I'm going to live however I want to live. There is a promise with that servant. And it tears me up every single time because it just shows me all the people that have not bent their knee and have not surrendered their life to Christ. is that Jesus is coming back as a warrior and he will cut them to pieces and put them in a place of weeping and nashing of teeth. He's not a kumbaya Jesus. He's a warrior Jesus. He's a Jesus saying that there is a judgment coming one day. So, how do you bring someone to Christ when everything's in chaos, church? You tell them to have faith in the one that spoken the unshakable words that he will remain above everything else we see in our world today. We tell them to have faith. We say, "Hey, we're going to learn the lesson of the fig tree. We're going to look for the work that God is doing right now. We're going to listen in our holy places and we're going to go where he is calling us to go, where he is telling us to go. And we are going to live out the unshakable promises that Jesus is coming back and he is going to be the only one that remains in this whole entire earth and he's bringing his kingdom with him. You can praise for that. But here's my encouragement to you. Don't give up. Stay in the fight. Stay in it. Don't give up. Keep on praying. Keep on serving. Keep on living for Christ. He's coming back. Guys, here's my challenge to you. Are you going to run to the chaos or are you going to run from the chaos? Are you going to run into the chaos and bring as many people out of the chaos and introduce them to their escape that is named Jesus Christ? I love all my students, but the one student I want to highlight today is Tommy. Tommy's an amazing student. I've watched him come to Christ. I've baptized him. He's done an amazing job in just his walk in his faith. Tommy, my first year, he was sitting in the back of my van as we were driving out to California. He's sitting in the back of his my van listening to his music. Didn't want anything to do with anybody. And his first year, he came to camp. He listened to the messages, absorbed all the things we were teaching him and he told me his conversion story. He told me that how he came to Christ. One day after after a message, he went back to his apartment where we stay and he got down on his knees and he said, "Lord Jesus, you are the Lord of my life and I give you everything." That was what he did that first camp. The second camp, he went back and I skipped that part. Sorry. So, as we were driving back from California back to Arizona, Tommy went from the back of the bus and he went to the front of the bus and he sat right in the middle of me and my leader. Didn't have a seatelt on, but he had the seat belt of Jesus on. So, it was great. And he was just yapping. He was just yapping about Jesus. He was yapping about the things he was going to do. Then that second year came and he just like was absorbing everything, absorbing the Bible, absorbing all the things we were teaching him. And then this last year, man, I just remember Tommy in the front row and he's just praising his face off in worship. Sweat is dripping down his face and he's just praising. He's got a smile on his face. He's got two hands up and he's just praising away. And the last night of our worship session, we had like 10 different endings. It was great. It was like a revival. It was awesome. But this last session, man, he was just praising. he comes out and I like to wait for my students as they come out of the building and as they come out of their decision time and I wait for them and I see all the smiles that come and I start walking back to the area where we meet as a church and me and Tommy linked up and Tommy goes to me he's like how I'm going to figure this out. I'm like, "Dude, what are you going to figure out?" You know, and he's just amped up. Sweat is dripping. I'm sweating, you know? It's just like hot and humid in California and we're just having a great time. But he's just like, "Kyle, I'm going to figure this out." I'm like, "Okay, what are we going to figure out, man?" He's like, "I'm going to figure out how to be an athlete and I'm going to figure out how to bring the gospel to my athlete friends. I'm going to go into ministry and I'm going to go into sports ministry and I'm going to figure out how to combine both of those and go share the message of Jesus Christ to all my friends. I'm going to figure it out. See, the thing is that you don't know about Tommy is Tommy lost his dad and his brother in a very short amount of time in his life. At a very young age, Tommy lost his dad and his brother. And it's been him and his mom his whole entire life. And before he came to Christ, I remember his mom just sharing to me the things that were just going on in his life. The darkness that he was just facing every single day about death, about the thoughts that the sa Satan would just feed into him. The depression he would just have from losing those two people in his family. See, I don't see that Tommy anymore. I see a resurrected Tommy. I see a Tommy that knows Christ, that is a confident man in Christ, and he's like, "I'm going to figure this out. I'm going to figure out how to get out of this chaos, and I'm figure out how to bring light to people that are in chaos." Guys, we all need to be like Tommy. We all need to be more like Tommy. We need to be willing to go into the chaos. Endure the things where people that are hurting, people that are struggling, having the same type of story maybe as him. And church, we need to be ready for that. Maybe you're in this room today and you got a lot of chaos in your life. You got a lot of darkness in your life and you don't know how to get out of it. I challenge you to come talk to me. come talk to somebody in this church and ask them, "How do I start walking with the calmness of Jesus in my life?" And you can have that if you trust in him. Church, a lot of you guys are saved already. A lot of you guys know Jesus. I challenge you to go back to your holy place. Maybe you've been holding this thing too tightly. Maybe you've been trusting in this thing way too much. And this has become your holy place. I challenge you to go back to your holy place. That is the word of God. That you bend your knee before the cross over and over and over and over again. That you surrender everything to him because he will take care of it. Church, the truth that I want to leave you with today is that chaos is not what we are ready for. Bringing people to King Jesus who calms all the chaos is what we live for.