Pray for Battlezone tonight

I thought something might be kinda cool.

here is my message for battlezone tonight.
would you join with me in preaching it by reading it and praying for tonight?
i think this may be a cool way for us to all be involved in the preaching of
god's word.


"Who is Jesus to this culture?
well, he’s kinda been gone for a while.
so, its harder and harder to know.
this book [the bible] just gets older and older while
we have new shiny things to look at and new idols rising in man
made glory.

i am not here to compete with that.
if you hear what im saying its because God himself is passionately after you.

i know that Jesus is Lord. i know that Jesus is God. i know the cross and resurrection are historical realities.. but thats just it. isn’t it? its history.
its as important as fifth period history with Mrs. Crisp, who smells like old black licorice strangely, when it is summer and school is out!

but, heres the difference, its history with eternal ramifications. its history that is still affecting change and restoring lives and giving hope even today.
its more than history... its now.

i mean think about it... even the word “history” is simply “his-story”
its what God has been trying to say, if we would listen. its his story, and its still happening all around us.

in Romans a guy named paul is thinking about Jesus and teaches that in “his-story” something went wrong. man turned away from god. this is called sin.
and that that sin deserved death. man separated from a perfect God by murders and slanders and gossip and killing each other with their words everyday.
then it says that one man came from God named Jesus and died in our place. he lived a perfect life and then was tortured by those he came to save.

a historical event. the cross, like pearl harbor or the signing of the declaration of independence, the cross happened on a day in real history, in real time.
the climax of history, the peak of his story.

fast forward 2000 years.

romans goes on to say that this historical event has present and real realities. that the cross has something to say to 2011. to 400 kids sitting on a blacktop waiting for me to end.
it says that those that look to the cross for hope are now sons and daughters of God.
that “all things” now “ work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose”

His purpose. His story. He’s still telling it.

The good that Paul is talking about in Romans 8:28 is that these sons and daughters who have found hope in the cross are now starting to look more and more like Jesus.

that in all reality, the history of the cross has broken through and into today by those who are starting to look like him. that Jesus who has been MIA for 2000 years has actually been here all along... in his people, telling his story.

and thats why im here. a man whose found hope in the cross and now can’t but tell his story. thats why many of you are here, those who have been made sons and daughters of God, now telling his story through trials and hardships and joys and laughs. because the cross has something to say to 2011. Jesus is here and now among his people calling for some of you to stop running and come home. to stop being silent and hiding but to stand in worship and tell his story that is happening in and through your journey in knowing him."

ty