Am I a Christian? | Who Am I

We're in a series here, Who Am I? Let me ask you a question before we go any further today. Would you say Carl is a golfer? You guys are horrible. See, there was a time when I thought I was. I have, I've mentioned this. My uncle was a PGA pro, played with Arnold Palmer and all these guys. In fact, he used to hold the course record at Tam O'Shanter here. And he was a really good golfer. When I was transformed by the power of Christ as a young man, I was actually shipped out of Alaska to get away from all my surroundings and friends and bad influences and headed down to Central California. And I took up the game of golf a little bit because my uncle, man, he was a golf pro at a country club. and I started to learn how to golf and I realized right away man if you're gonna be a golfer you have anyone can call yourself a golfer and you got to put in the reps I mean you don't just go out there and hit that little ball around there is so much to it and it used to drive me crazy because I am a truth teller and And I do not want to, if I'm taking score on a game, I want to make sure that I'm playing it by the rules. So like when I had like a foot or a two-foot putt, and they would say, that's a gimme, go ahead and just pick it up. A lot of guys do that on the golf course. I'm like, no, I got to sink it because there's a 50-50 shot. Even if it's this long, I'm going to miss it. And I want to know what my score is. But I'd go out golfing. And I'd get to the tee box and sometimes with these guys that I've never met before and I'd ask them, are you guys golfers? And they'd go, yeah. I'd say, well, what do you shoot? And guys would say like 85. Like 85 is like a great score. It's not like PGA, but it's a great score. And I'd get out on the courts with these guys, and I'm like, I'm going to be so far behind them, it's not even funny, because this is going to be bad. And then I'd notice on the first fairway, oftentimes, a guy would get his ball, hit it a little bit out of the fairway behind a tree, and I'd look back, I'm kind of looking at my ball and where it's at and where I've got to go, and I'd look back and I'd... One time a guy's like looking around, seeing if anybody's seeing him, and he just does what's called a foot wedge, where he just reaches down with his foot, kind of kicks the ball out onto the fairway. Now I'm not behind the tree anymore. And I'm like, oh, that's how you score 85. You're a cheater. And there's liars and cretins out on golf courses like crazy, let me tell you. Because here's the gap. You can call yourself something, but there are some really key indicators whether or not you are. And we're gonna break down in this series clarifying some who am I questions. And today we've got one that we're coming out of the chute hot with here. And it's this question I have for you today. Am I a Christian? Now this is a word that I often dismantle a lot around here because Christian in our culture today doesn't mean anything. And you're going to understand why here in just a little bit. Christian is thrown around as a label. But boy, there's a shocking study that came out here December 10th by the Barna Group. And in it they have some top line numbers I want to share with you that are pretty staggering. Do you know that in the year 2000, 77% of Americans claimed or self-identified as Christians? Now that has changed. In 2025, as a result of this comprehensive study, now there's just 63 to 65 percent of Americans who claim the title Christian. It's down 12 to 14 percent. So for 25 years, that's a bit of a drop. But if you get into the numbers a little bit more, you find out how sobering this study is and what it really revealed. So you go into this a little bit deeper and you find out that just 54% of self-identified Christians strongly agree that faith is very important in their life. These are ones that self-identify. So that 77%, just a little more than half, say that it's really important. 24% of all U.S. adults, according to Barna's study, and again, this just came out at the end of last year, 24% identify as Christian who attend church at least monthly and strongly say faith is important to them. But then you go a little bit deeper, and this is where it gets kind of crazy. 4% of U.S. adults, according to George Barna, who's a respected... He's got a great gift with taking a large study group a good mass of people and breaking down numbers, and this was his conclusion. He said this was the toughest question that we had to ask. Do you hold a biblical worldview that consistently shapes your beliefs and decisions? You know what the number is for that? 4% of Americans. Now, You compare that with a Pew Research report that came out in this last year that says that 24% of Americans go to either regularly or infrequently to an evangelical Bible preaching type of a church where they're hearing the good news of Jesus Christ. And you've got to look at something and you go, hold it a second. 24% are just like you. They show up. They get there. But only 4% of the gen pop aligns their life in a private or public manner with a biblical worldview. Man, there's a big gap. Well, then you take that 4% and you realize that 2,000 years ago, Jesus said in Matthew 7, many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, And they will appeal to Jesus at the day of judgment saying, listen, we preached in the name of Jesus. We baptized in the name of Jesus. We did mighty works in the name of Jesus. And Jesus himself said, I'm going to have to say to them, depart from me, I never knew you. So is it possible, probable, that we have even a 4% number who say, yeah, I have a Christian worldview and I try to order my life this way. And would those people be heavily involved or somewhat involved serving or small groups or something? And the answer is absolutely. So these are sobering numbers. And we know that we've got an epidemic and I just want to give you a punchline. I'm working on a project right now that has me doing a deep dive on understanding how in the world did we get so many people labeling themselves Christian? How did that happen? Why do we have so many people in America today and in church who are Christian in name only? Really this actually developed about 200 years ago when this thing called decision ism began and decision ism was meant to be a good thing it came out of the third grade a week awakening and Decision ism is the call that Finney and other great communicators had telling people to come down Lift a hand in the air acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord. Here's the problem. I There's many people today that have made statements of claim. We've told children, invite Jesus into your heart. That's nowhere in the scripture. We've said, accept Jesus, but accepting Jesus is nowhere found in the scripture. We've had all kinds of cultural things in the church. We've created a pretty good dig. We can call ourselves Christian today, And our hidden idols are otherwise untouched. It's a pretty good gig. We hang out with people who live pretty well put together lives, or at least they're trying to change some things in their lives. But does anything really change? Charles Haddon Spurgeon, they called him the prince of preachers. was pastoring what was probably the largest church in the world in London. And when decisionism started getting legs under it, he said, whoa, slow down, man. He said, we are leading people into an illusion, what I love to call a hallucination, something that they've done that gives them a false assurance that they've been born again. And he said, this is incredibly dangerous. He said, the gospel that we're giving people today is no gospel at all. Am I a Christian? Now, that could freak you out. You could be saying, Carl, I hope you got some good news in here. I do. But we got to wrestle with the reality that we live in a world today. And could I be this bold? It is possible for a person to hold a position at a church of pretty high esteem, and their heart is still far from God. We've created a pretty good gig. We've actually monetized ministry pretty well. We have Christian artists in Nashville that are making bank, man, on Christian stuff. And a lot of them, most of them, are just rich in heart and great. But we've got to take a long look at what does Jesus mean when he says, you must be born again. What does he mean? What do we need to know? Will it change the way we talk to ourselves and with each other? I want to tackle this in four parts. First is the call. What am I a Christian really means? First, I want you to know it's not a label that you claim. It's an identity Christ gives. It's not a statement that you make. It's easy to say Christian today, but you know that the word Christian is only used three times in the New Testament. Three times. And it was a term of derision. It meant you were a little Christ. It mean that you were a little Christ follower. And they began to use this term, but no one was identified as a Christian without it having great peril to their life. To be identified as a Christian in the first century meant that you were saying goodbye to all your heritage and upbringing. And you were going what was called the first church. You know what it was called? It was called the way. It was just called the way. And if you're on the way, it means that you said goodbye to family, inheritance, all the favor that you were raised in. There was a cost attached to it. And one of the reasons that we loosely throw around the word Christian in our culture today and even in the church is that there's no imminent threat for most of the people in the West and you here today that you're gonna possibly lose your life for being called a Christian. But there was then. It's not a label you claim, it's an identity Christ gives. Some more appropriate words are found in Matthew 4, verse 19. Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And in Luke 9, he says that if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. And then in John 10, verse 27, Jesus said these words, My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. You're seeing here a relationship with the living God, where you hear his voice. It's not a name you claim. It's not a title you take. It's not, I'm a Christian. It's I have a living, breathing, born again, new creation relationship with the Son of God. And when He speaks, I hear Him. This is why it's so vital to understand the role of the Holy Spirit in our life. In John 14 and in John 16 and in Romans 8, we find that the Holy Spirit will quicken the words of Scripture. And He will remind us of what we've seen. And as we go through life, he'll remind us, and God does this with me. I rise early every morning, and I've done this for a couple of years now, and I've rarely missed one morning where I have a prayer. God, search me. It's David's prayer, the last two verses of Psalm 139. God, search me, know me, try me. See if there'd be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. When I first started this discipline of introspection and inviting the Lord to see me because I'm like David, I don't see myself rightly. You're like David. You don't see yourself rightly. Do you hear me? You're like David. We don't see ourselves rightly. And so we appeal to God who whispers back to us and to me in my living room with a cup of coffee and as I'm crying out that prayer and it most often revolves around, candidly, how I need to encourage and love my bride as Christ loves the church. And I'm not pointing at a random woman. My bride's right in the front row. And the Lord will tell me in the early morning prayer Some things that I'd done the day before that I needed to set right, and I'd just whisper, oh, forgive me for that, God. And he'll tell me how to relate to my team that I go into work with, with radio. And he'll tell me how to build them up and encourage them. And he'll speak words to me like he did this morning when I walked in here and I heard the worship team. And I just told Torrey this morning, I love you, man. I love that you use your gifts so powerfully to glorify God. I love you, man. And I mean that, Torrey. You see, we're flying by the seat of our Christian pants. But we've got to have this living, breathing, following relationship with Jesus Christ. 269 times in the New Testament, disciple or follower is used. It means we are anything but perfect. But when we put our feet on the floor, our intention is to honor, follow Jesus, to abide in his word, and to bring our lives in alignment with it. Some of you in this room this morning and some of you watching online are trifling about. You've got a Christian cultural vibe going and some of you are genuinely born again but you've become a derailed disciple and you're Christian in name only as some great theologians say you're functionally an atheist. And the wind's blowing outside and the Spirit's wind is blowing in here Jesus doesn't invite admirers, consumers, or mere believers. He calls followers, those who hear his voice, leave the old life and walk after him. That's what he calls you to. So I want to talk secondly about the gospel, what saves and what does not. And in Galatians 1, verses 6 through 7, we find these startling words. You're turning to a different gospel, Paul wrote to the Galatian church. Not that there is another one. And this is a staggering chapter because it's the opening of a letter to the church of Galatia. And Galatia was kind of at a crossroads and it was so important for Paul to get a corrective letter to them because they had distorted the gospel. And what they had done was they had added to grace because we know that faith is solo fide, faith alone. There's nothing that we can do to earn anything. But the Galatian church had left some twisted gospel in, which is not good news at all. That it created a man-centered, I've got to do something to make my life work. And the Apostle Paul blasted him. You know what he says earlier than this verse? He said, you've deserted God. It's a military term, meaning you have left the ranks. You have stepped away. You are AWOL, absent without leave. And he goes on to say, if anybody comes to you with a different gospel, a gospel that isn't solo fide, faith alone. If anybody comes to you with another gospel, Paul said it twice, let them be accursed. Even if an angel comes to you with a different gospel, let them be accursed. Whoa. You know what Paul meant by accursed? He said, get that microphone out of their hand. Don't let them say that to a friend over a cup of coffee. And we live in a world today that we've so dumbed down the word Christian. That we've talked ourselves into seeing something in ourselves that may not be there and then it's become part of our cultural fabric where we've made this cultural Christianity such a vibe. But it's a good vibe. You can hold on to your idols and they stay firmly intact while our life is still in pieces and no one knows. In Romans 1, verse 16, the gospel, Paul said, is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. But be careful with this word belief. It's not a belief that just says, I acknowledge Jesus because I want to remind you of the half-brother of Jesus, James himself. He said, the demons believe and they tremble. You ready for this? Demons are monotheistic. Demons know the deity of Jesus Christ. Jesus know that their judgment is certain. Jesus know these demons know a lot about Jesus and God and even the power of the Holy Spirit. They believe in that, but it's not a saving belief. Belief that saves is a belief that trusts in Jesus. So Carl, is there... There are different kinds of emotions that go on in a person, and can some emotional experiences lead us far from God? Oh, you better believe it. Look at what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7, 9 through 10. Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. Can I give you a pastor's insight here? All tears aren't the same. There is a grief that leads to repentance. produces life and can I just linger here for a moment the real gospel according to the Gospel of Mark and the very words of Jesus and think about Peter's words in Acts chapter 2 after they had crucified the Son of God and now Peter has the great opportunity to get up and preach what the good news really was and he got up and he said this Jesus whom you put to death is both Savior and Lord. And you know what the people said? Oh, what do we need to do? You know what he said? He didn't say invite Jesus into your heart. He didn't say accept Jesus. He didn't say raise your hand in the air. He didn't say stand and believe. You know what Peter said? Repent. You might say, oh yeah, you're one of those guys. Yeah, insomuch as I like to read the Word and then share what it says, The gospel without repentance, no matter how many tears are shed, is not good news for anyone. And can I tell you, I tried it for many years. Repentance is metanoia. It means that we were going this way. We acknowledge I'm a sinner. I'm under the curse. This notion that we're all children of God, there is a Greek word for that. Ready for it? Bologna. We're not all children of God. We're only children of God when we repent from being children of, it's going to sound hardcore, but it's scripture, children of the devil that were born with our backs to God and that God in his mercy calls us. And it could be that you're here this morning because you've had this hallucination of salvation. You've never truly been born again. And it could be that God is so rich in mercy that he's calling into your heart right now saying, if you were to die today, I would have to tell you, I don't know you. And God is so good and he's so gracious that he's reaching out today saying, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You turn around. You turn over all your life to me. Don't try to make it good before you do it. Just give everything you are, the total mess that you are. That's why Jesus says, I came to earth and I spilled my blood on the cross because what Peter said to that huge throng of people for which thousands repented that day and left inheritance. left family structures, got mocked, derided, killed, stoned to death, beheaded. Those people turned, took up the cross, and followed Jesus Christ. After Acts 2, there's a little message that's given in Acts 3. Revival at that time went on. Peter spoke again, repent therefore and turn back that your sins may be blotted out. I don't have it on the screen, but it goes on to say that times of refreshing may come to you. Wow. The gospel does not call us to regret our sins, but to repent of them. Regret feels sorrow over consequences. Repentance turns from sin toward Christ. Scripture is clear that worldly grief ends in death, but godly grief leads to salvation. So thirdly, I want to talk to you about the new birth miracle, what God does when he saves, and it's radical. In John 3, verse 3, we find that unless one is born again, born again. Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. But let me flip that around. When you're born again, you come out of the kingdom of darkness. You come into the kingdom of light. You live in a different realm. You stumble. You bumble. You hit your lips. You got sacred scars. But deep within you is a heart that says, I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. He saved my soul. We say, as Peter and the disciples said when Jesus asked him, where are you going to go? And Peter said, where else can we go? Where can we go? We've got to follow you. You see, repentance and the new birth miracle that takes you into a new kingdom involves a holy reckoning in your soul that. Our sin has separated us from God, we were born with our backs to God, we're not born children of God, but by God's grace and mercy. If we confess our need for a Savior and turn and follow Jesus today, you will be born again. Wow. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, If anyone is in Christ... He's a new creation. A new creation. The old is gone. The new has come. Total game changer. And in Ezekiel, it's prophesied in chapter 36, verse 26 through 27, I will give you a new heart and cause you to walk in my statutes. Now, here's what's awesome about The prophet was saying this, when you surrender all you are to Jesus, you acknowledge your sin and you turn and you say, it's all yours. He will so renew your heart that He will give you a hunger to walk in the statutes, the precepts, and the teaching that have felt like dry cardboard in your mouth. This Word will come alive. And by the way, for those of you wondering, Pastor Carl, I know for certain that there was a time when I repented and I surrendered all I am to Jesus. I know that there is. But right now, the Word of God has grown cold to me. You know what Jesus is saying to you? Behold, I stand at the door and knock. You think you're rich in this world today, but you're poor. You think you're well-clothed, but you're buck-naked. You think you can see, but you need eye salve for your eyes. All three of those things is what Jesus said to the church of Laodicea. They had been born again, but now they had become derailed by a very opulent culture. And some of you... have a very cold heart toward God today. Not because you don't have a new heart. It's let your heart grow cold because the worries of this world, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desire for other things has choked out your ability to bear fruit. God have mercy on us. Right, guys? God have mercy on us. Being born again is not a prayer you repeat. It is a miracle God performs. New heart, new nature, new direction. You don't just believe new things. You become someone new. I feel prompted to share this. I had spoken at a very large mega church in Southern California one time and then I came back a couple of weeks later and I'd heard just some rumblings that they were going to have these I believe services and I'd never heard what one was. I'd never seen one happen. And at the end of the service and you got to understand the service that I'm sitting in there's thousands of people in one service is a humongous church. I'm not going to say which one it is. And at the end of it, the pastor said, I want some of you to come into faith and become a Christian today. And this is what we're going to do. And the worship team started playing. And he said, if you want to confess your belief in Jesus Christ, just stand up wherever you are today and just stand up and say, I believe, and then have a seat. I'm sitting back there going, hold it. You can add a little bit more here. And the music's playing lightly, and one pops up here, way over on this side of the auditorium. I believe. Sit back down. And then another one. I believe. Sit back down. And they pop up. Now there's two or three at the same time. I believe. I believe. And now people are starting to applaud. Inside my heart, I knew, oh, no, we're giving these people some bad information, man. If anyone comes to you with another gospel, let them be accursed. I know what it is to try to have people talk you out of a real story. After I was radically transformed, I had a few people come alongside me going, no, no, Carl, you were a Christian. You got baptized as a kid, and I went in and filled in the blanks. Yeah, man, I memorized verses out the wazoo. I was heavily involved in a youth group. I was, and I mean, I went through and checked all the boxes, and I said, and you know what? I told these people, I was absolutely lost as a goose, man. Until God, in his mercy, brought Carl to the end of himself. And on that day, I didn't have a fancy prayer. There was no piano music in the background, man. There was no aisle to walk down. In my car, I doubled over in spiritual pain, recognizing that my life was a total train wreck. And the only way it could be turned around was for Jesus Christ to become the Lord of my life, that I would have a new birth miracle. And on that day, instantly, I believed that I was a sinner separated from God and that I'd never repented and given my life to Jesus Christ. But on that day, I'd surrender all I am to Jesus. And I'm more fired up about it today than I even was then. And it just appealed to you. Please, don't be a person that looks back about the time that you invited Jesus into your heart. I'm not saying that there couldn't be some level of sincerity in that. I'm saying that an eternity separated from God will be loaded with well-meaning people who are shocked to hear, I never knew you. The fourth thing I want to give you is the assurance. How you can know who you are. You know, I wrote a blog called Nine Ways to Know You Stand with God and He Stands with You. Don't download the blog. It's good, but it ain't great. I've got to rewrite it. Thanks babe. See, I got that great friend and my bride of 38 years. I want to tell you from the scriptures just a few things that can give you assurance of salvation today. And maybe today is a day of repentance for you. In Romans 8, 15 through 16, we find the Spirit himself bears witness that we are children of God. Listen, listen to me. I've had times in my spiritual life since I was radically born anew, born again, where I've wondered, God, how do you put up with me? Anyone else ever had that? God, how do you do this? I'm a mess. But I can tell you with absolute certainty, I've never once lost the assurance that I'm a child of God. Because the Holy Spirit indwells me. According to Ephesians 1, the Holy Spirit seals us in Christ Jesus. And the Holy Spirit speaks to me. And if you don't have the comfort of the Holy Spirit, and your only comfort is to go back to an event that was just filled with power, and maybe you did stand, and maybe you did say, I believe, and maybe you lifted your hand, or maybe you followed a little prayer, but you don't have certainty that you were born again, friend, what does it profit you to retain your image and lose your soul? It's a profit, yeah. Nothing. In 1 John, chapter 3, verse 24. It is clearly written, whoever keeps his commandments abides in God. And by the way, this is not, I got to do this so that I can have an abiding relationship with God. No, it's a foolproof evidence that people who feel compelled to open, study, hear, and respond to the Word of God, that's one of the greatest indicators that God's actually alive in you. And I feel prompted that there's someone in this room right now that feels like, Carl, I know I've been born again. Some of you in this room are saying, Carl, I'm not sure I've ever been born again. Some of you are saying, today I'm going to repent, Carl. But for those of you that you know you've repented and are born again, I want you to spend some time with Jesus today. No matter how it has appeared, the voice of God is silent. And just say to God, you created a new heart within me. But something is choking out my ability to cultivate that hunger for your word. Oh God, restore it in me. And if you mean that sincerely, God will hear your prayer. So what do we do? Paul said to the church of Corinth, the church of Corinth, is it possible for people to be even in a New Testament church and not be born again? Oh, yeah. He said, examine yourselves. To see whether you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. And if you examine yourself and you determine, I've never confessed I'm a sinner. I need a Savior. I need my metanoia moment. The beauty of it is in the quietness of this moment right now, you can be broken of all your sin. You can be crushed under the weight of that and then find that Jesus is saying to you, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden. I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I'm gentle and humble in heart. You're going to find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. God wants to walk with you today. You can know who you are, not by perfection, but by direction. A growing love for Christ, obedience from the heart, conviction over sin, and the witness of the Spirit. I'm blaming God. None of this miscommunication in our modern Western world on you today. But I do believe it's systemic. You were born into a Christian culture of easy believism. You were born into a culture that said, identify yourself as a Christian. Let's get squared with God. some of we parents love our kids so much that we're leaning on a little experience junior had back here as hopefully evidence that something really changed there listen to me listen to me the vast majority Of what I call this modern exodus away from the church. Hasn't been an exodus into freedom. These words that we use of deconstruction. Listen friends. You can't deconstruct what was never built on Christ. We have cultural Christian remodeling. And God's in the business of radical change. He's going to strip your soul down to the studs. He's going to put a new face on you. He's going to give you a new name. He's going to put a new song in your heart. You will be changed. And if you've experienced this new birth miracle, come on. Wake up. And if you've never experienced this new birth miracle, songs will make sense. The word will be clear. You'll know where to walk, how to walk, where to go. God's spirit will lead you. You'll get up in the early morning and you'll know Pastor Carl's up early too. If you want to know the time frame, just shoot for four. And you'll go, man, I'm up. I'm early. And Pastor Carl must be in his living room too. And I will be. I'll be joining you there. And I'll be asking God, God, you saved me. Now show me how to live my life today. In a term, cultural Christianity that we have in the West is not Christianity at all. Not as the Bible preaches it. Let each of you deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus today. It will lead to innumerable promises. The light yoke of Jesus, the abundant life that has seemed so elusive. And as I stand here today, I can tell you that there is no greater life to live than a life that is poured out at the foot of the cross for the one who poured out his blood for us. It is possible to feel sorrow for sin without ever turning from it. Emotional moments, sincere tears or religious experiences can move us deeply, yet still leave us unchanged. Scripture lovingly warns us not to confuse feeling bad about sin with repenting of sin. So I want you to close your eyes. And I'm not going to ask anyone in this room to walk an aisle, to raise a hand, nothing. Charles Spurgeon actually said, the great danger In asking people to have moments of decisionism is that we water down the supernatural power of God to reach in a soul and to regenerate that person. The prince of preachers never did altar calls. He would invite people to rooms of inquiry where they met with people who were disciples of Christ. And those disciples of Christ told people from the word, this is what it means to be a follower of Jesus. And then listened as people poured out their hearts, many surrendering all that they were to Jesus Christ. I've got a why in the road for you, but I don't want you to look up at me. I want everyone looking into your heart right now as we look at this why in the road. And the why in the road is simply this. The question is not merely, am I a Christian, but am I a follower of Jesus Christ? Have I turned from my sin and entrusted myself fully to him? not just for forgiveness, but for complete leadership over my life. I want to ask you right now, for those of you that are watching online, for those of you seated right here in this auditorium, I want you to do some business with God. And I'm going to do a room of inquiry here with you right now. And I'm asking you to not let pride hold you back. But as a result of looking at the Scriptures today, and the result of the Holy Spirit working in your life, I want to ask you a couple of questions. Are there some people in your life that you need to stop praying that they would come back to church, and you need to start praying that they would repent and be found in relationship with Jesus? Do you have those? Oh, my friend, that's how you pray? Do you need to honestly pray for someone that maybe has a platform of spirituality? They posture themselves as knowing the one true living God, but maybe they don't. Friend, pray that way. Are you a person today? You are wrestling. This is a tough message. I'm going to ask you one simple question. When you walked in here, versus this moment right now, has the God of the universe been so gracious to speak to you and say, you've never been my child, but I want you to be my child. And if that's you, I'm going to step out of the light here so that I can see you. But if you're just wrestling at that room, that point of inquiry right now, oh friend, what does it profit you to hold on to your image and to your money and to your platform and your pursuits and lose your soul? Jesus said, nothing. If you're in that inquiry room of wrestling right now, whether or not you truly know God, I don't want anyone looking at me but you who are wrestling right now. And God's winning this battle. If that's you, just look up at me. I'm not going to call you by name. I see you, young lady. And you, this is great. This is great. I'm going to keep looking right on, right there. I'm going to keep looking around. And you, this is great, guys. This is great. God knew you were going to be here. I'm going to keep looking around. I've just been on one side here. This is great. I'm over here. Just look up at me and go, Carl, think about me today. You? Cool. There we go. Anyone else? Let's go, Carl. I'm in the room of inquiry right now. I'm inquiring. Oh, God, do I know you? Do you know me? Just going to give it a second longer. Anyone else that didn't look at me? If that's you right now and you're like, shoot, man, I want you praying for me today, Carl. I can't remember all your names. I see you, young lady. That's precious, man. That takes courage. Anyone else? Yes, I see you. That's great. It's a good place to be. Anyone else? Room of inquiry right now. Oh, Father, over every man and woman in this room right now who's wrestling deeply with you. Oh, God, I'm asking you to win. Win them over. And in this moment, Lord, I praise you. I praise you for this room full of young women who are doing business with you. Predominantly. Wow. What a great thing. And oh, Lord. We pray for those loved ones who are far from you that we thought they just needed to come back to church. And now we realize today they've never been in Christ. That's why they aren't in church. But Lord, for those of us that are in church, Lord, make us in you. Make us new, we pray. I want to speak to all of you that had looked at me. I want you to not let this day pass before you get on your knees at home. Fall to your knees. Cry out to God. Tell Him in all the ways that you've missed the mark in your life. And have a metanoia moment when you surrender, you repent, you turn everything over to Him. Hold nothing back. And I promise you, streams of living water are going to course through you. I just feel prompted. There's one person in here that's saying, I wasn't honest with you, Carl, but I'm in the room of inquiry. That's me, man. Who is that in here right now? I'm looking around. Who is that? I'm just looking for you. Yeah, bro. That's awesome. That's awesome, bro. That's manhood right there. And God's birthing that in you. Anyone else? Okay. Oh, Father, thank you that you make all things new. Thank you that you even take the words that I share here today and you animate them by the power of your Spirit. You take the words of your Scripture, for which we've looked at a lot, and you make it come alive. And I give you thanks. Oh God, would you free us from a cultural Christianity that is no Christianity at all? Would you make us part of the remnant, the very few, maybe even the few of the 4%, which is so few, who are really walking with Jesus? Oh, this is what I feel prompted with. God, don't let us compare ourselves any longer to the mass waves of cultural Christianity around us. Oh, guys, I feel prompted. We've got to do that. We've got to go one-on-one with God and say, you search me and know me. And I praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.