Not My Jesus: Moldable Jesus

And what I found is that a lot of Christian parents just change their beliefs to accommodate their real life circumstance. And not just on that, they’ll change it on finances, on tithing. They’ll change it on sharing their witness and being faithful with that. They’ll change it on matters of marriage and divorce because you don’t like the person you’re married to. In all different issues, when life gets hard, it’s funny how easy it is to say, “Well, I think that the Bible really says this,” instead of what the Bible really says.

Now, we can find one group and judge them and say, “Well, they have an outrageous misreading of the Bible.” And then we can get into our little misreadings of the Bible and feel like it’s okay to have that little misreading of the Bible. How many of you know that the Bible is open and very descriptive about its prohibition on drunkenness, right? But how many of you know that a whole lot of people are crossing the line and it’s like, well, I wasn’t really drunk. Wasn’t really drunk. I was just a little, yeah, and then they fill in the blank with what that is. So, we’re going to get on this person about this issue, but we’re going to kind of blur the lines over here on our issue. How many of you will admit it’s easier to judge someone on their issue than it is to judge yourself on your issue? Right? And it’s easier than you think to kind of bend the Bible to fit what you want it to believe.

How many of you remember as a kid growing up playing with Play-Doh? Anyone? Now, I think they’ve changed the ingredients in Play-Doh today. I don’t know what’s happened, but I literally, in order to get that out the first time, I had to scrape that out with a butter knife. Then I had to wash the whole thing out. Then I had to coat the thing in olive oil to get it out a second time. And I’m like, I used to just be able to tip Play-Doh over and get Play-Doh out. What have they done? And someone’s like, they’ve changed it. It’s not the same.

But I remember when I was a kid. Anyone want to, I don’t know this scientifically, but I think it’s common sense. What are the three or four most common shapes that a child will make? And I’m making one of them now. Snake. Okay, someone give me another one. Most common shape. Ball. Oh, wait. Out of a ball, what can you make? Pancake. Come on. Someone is up on their Play-Doh pancake. Whoa. And then the other, I’ll just say, is blob. You know, and then they tell you it’s something and you’re like, “Oh, yeah, it’s a dinosaur. Yes, I see that dinosaur right there.”

But the thing that every 5-year-old loves about this is they’re in charge for once in their life, and they get to make it to be whatever they want it to be. And it’s interesting how a lot of Christians sort of have that same concept about Jesus. It’s like, hey, I get to shape Jesus to be what I want to believe that he is. This is what I think Christianity ought to be. Christianity ought to be totally accepting of everyone and every religion and every lifestyle and every set of beliefs because Jesus was the most accepting person that ever lived. Therefore, all the other teachings about Jesus probably can’t be true, or I can’t go along with those, because if I go along with all of those other teachings about Christ, then I’m going to have to reject this person or this religion or that belief. I’m going to have to start rejecting some things.

So, my version of Jesus, here we go. There’s a version of Jesus. Not a very good one. Come on. It’s not half bad. It’s sort of recognizable. It could be the angel over the manger. It could be Mary or Joseph. It could be a whole lot of things. I don’t know. Or a cross, I guess. I don’t know. You decide. But here’s the thing. That’s what people do. They decide what their version of Jesus is, and that’s it. They’re like, “This is my version of Jesus.” The Bible really doesn’t give us that permission.

A lot of people make Jesus their personal genie, like personal genie Jesus. We’ll talk more about that next week. But the idea is that he just gives me what I want. And then there’s other people that’s like Jesus the therapist. You know, he understands all the trauma of my past and wants to. How many of you know that sometimes Jesus understands your trauma, but he wants you to be obedient despite your trauma, to obey the scriptures even though you have a reason not to obey, right? And that doesn’t sound like good therapy, but it does sound like a life of surrender. And how many of you know that Jesus teaches a life of surrender to his followers, right? And so sometimes it’s like, well, that doesn’t sound like a very good therapist to say get over your stuff and follow me. Leave your boats behind and follow me and I’ll make you fishers of men.

But whenever he approached his Father God in the garden, he didn’t approach him and say, “I need you to be a therapist and talk me through this.” He said, “Not my will, but thy will be done.” And he committed himself to death on the cross in a moment when he was innocent and he was facing the greatest trauma of his life. And so he’s not that.

Maybe some people want to make Jesus their political ally. He believes identically what I believe. How many of you know Jesus is not a right-wing nationalist? He’s not. But it’s funny how many people want to make him into that’s who Jesus is. How many of you know Jesus was around long before America, right? And so we’re not going to shape him into our political values, into whatever your moral values are, your cultural values. He just doesn’t get shaped by those things.

And so a lot of times we just are like, “This is what I’m comfortable with Jesus believing. Are you comfortable with that, Jesus? Because I’m not comfortable if you believe differently than me. And I’m not sure I would follow a Jesus that’s not my Jesus who believes that. And so I want to follow a Jesus who believes what I believe.” And after a while of doing that, misshaping Jesus in so many different ways, what you’ve ended up doing is creating an idol and then naming it Jesus. How many of you know whenever you create Jesus in the image of your beliefs and your values and your wishes and your wants, that’s not the real Jesus. That’s an idol that looks a lot like you that you named Jesus. And so a lot of people are walking around with their little idol named Jesus.

And so we’re going to work at uprooting that in several different areas over the next series here of messages that we’re going to be walking through. And each week, I hope that you’ll be honest with yourself. I hope that you’ll be intellectually curious and honest and say, “Have I misshapened Jesus in this way? And do I need to let go of my version of Jesus now and grab hold of a biblical version of Jesus?”

So this week is the setup. And I want to tell you as a pastor, there are times where I preach series that are totally geared towards the heart. This one’s a little more geared towards the head, which often means I have to say, “Holy Spirit, would you take the truth that’s being preached to our minds?” Because we want to serve the Lord with all of our mind and all of our will, all of our strength, all of our soul. Everything loves, is supposed to love the Lord. How many of you know you’re supposed to learn how to love the Lord with your mind? The Apostle Paul told Timothy, “Show yourself a workman who needeth not to be approved,” rightly dividing the word of truth. It’s understanding the word of God. Study to show yourself approved. That’s what he said. Study to show yourself approved. A workman who needeth not to be ashamed. Rightly dividing the word of truth.

And so how many of you know it’s okay to have a series of messages where we’re studying to show ourselves approved unto God. A workman. We’re all workmen for God. We’re working to understand the word. How many of you know you should be teaching the word to your children, to your grandchildren, to your co-workers, right? So you’re studying to show yourself approved so that you don’t need to be ashamed when someone asks you. Now, we’re getting to First Peter for the truth that you have within you. Be ready to present anyone who asks you. And so you’re going to be ready. You’re going to learn some things. You’re going to grow in these things a little more intellectually. So you’re going to have to think a little more than feel during this series. Are you okay with now and then having to think a little more than feel?

There’s a lot of people that come to Eagle Creek Church and they like feely series. I like feely series, too. But I have to follow God with my mind and with my heart, with my soul, right? And so I want us as a church, I’ve learned this. When people as a church only follow God with their heart, but they haven’t gotten intellectual about their faith, then they get really easily shifted to the left and the right when crazy ideas come at them, because they don’t know how to defend against crazy ideas, because they’re like, I just wanted to feel good when I came to church. I wanted to feel the message. Nothing wrong with that. There’s a time where God needs to be dealing with you on an emotional or spiritual, at this kind of heart level, but I want to understand my faith so that I can present my faith, so that I can withstand the test of time, so that I can share it with my kids and grow them in their faith, because they’re intellectual beings as well.

And my kids and your grandkids are growing up trying to understand the truth. Your children that are little right now are going to become teenagers. Your five-year-old’s going to become a 15-year-old and he’s going to struggle with faith if you cannot explain from an intellectual level what you believe. Amen. So we have to have some basis for this to be able to make sure faith is transgenerational. And so we’re going to be focusing on that.

Now today I’m just going to give you three thoughts as a foundation for this series that really establish why. And there’s many reasons I could give you why we use Christ as the foundation, but I’m assuming you’re a Christian and you believe the Bible. So I’m making a couple assumptions. Now, I could back this series way up to people who are not yet Christians and do not yet believe the Bible. And I could tell you why it’s logical to believe that there is one God and not many. And why it’s logical to believe that that one God has expressed himself through the Bible. There’s the archaeological evidence to prove that that is true. There’s the sociological evidence to prove its impact on humanity. There’s the historical evidence of the writings that have been passed down to us. There’s the historical support for it all throughout the ancient east to show this. There’s a lot of reasons.

So, if you’re not yet a Christian and you’re like, “Hey, you’re just bypassing the belief in God and the belief in the Bible,” that would be a different series. And I could recommend Josh McDowell’s Reasons for Faith, or something along those lines. Maybe Timothy Keller’s Reasons for God. Sorry. Timothy Keller’s Reasons for God or Making Sense of God. Those would be good starts for you. So if you’re like, I need the pre-series, go read a couple books this week. Listen to them on Audible. You can get through Reasons for God between this Sunday and next and you’ll be a little more with me as I’m going on. So, I’m starting with the basis of a belief in God and a belief in the Bible. Is that okay? Okay. I got to start there because we got to start somewhere with some basis as we move forward with that.

There are three foundations. The three foundations are this. You can jot them down. If you have your sermon notes on your app, open them up. They should be on the app.

Foundation 1: He Is Eternal

Number one is this. This is a foundation. He is eternal. Jesus existed before everything. Jesus existed, like I said earlier, before American culture.

Did you know that Jesus existed before the LGBT movement? Q, whatever. Before that movement. Did you know that Jesus existed before the Republican party? He existed before the Democratic Party? He existed before our judicial system existed. He existed before the civil rights movement existed, before slavery existed. He existed before every movement that is, before prohibition existed. You go back to any movement, before Hitler and the Nazis existed, before communism existed, whatever movement, whatever ideology is out there, Jesus existed before all of those things. This is going to be important to you as you begin to form your values. That understanding will be a foundational understanding.

Now, most people’s picture of Jesus is that he starts in Bethlehem in a manger. And I can’t make a manger there. All I got is, it’s rounded on the bottom and you have a baby head on top, right? I don’t know. There you go. But here’s the thing. Sorry, that was unplanned, but it was there and it’s fun. And I get Play-Doh today, so I get to play with it. But it was there and they pictured that, or they picture, oh, I can do this one quick. The star. There you go. I got the star. They picture the star up over him, and I’m not going to try the shepherd, but they have all that stuff in there. That’s where Jesus began. That was the beginning of the story.

And so really Jesus doesn’t outdate all the isms, because he was at this period of time, that’s whenever Jesus came around. But in the book of John, the book of John is written by John, who is called the disciple whom Jesus loved, and he was known as being probably the closest of all Jesus’ disciples to him relationally. He was one of the three insiders, Peter, James, and John. They were connected very, very closely, inner circle relationship with Jesus Christ. And so he understood him. He knew him just better than everyone. And in his gospel, the book of John, which is probably the most intimate look in the Bible into the person of Jesus Christ, he starts off the book of John with the same words the book of Genesis starts off. Genesis 1:1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Anyone heard that one before?

John chapter 1 verse one. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, and all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” He is going somewhere beyond Genesis 1. Way beyond Genesis 1. He’s saying, “In the beginning was the Word.” Now he uses a Greek word, logos, which means the organizing principle to reality. The logos in the Greek means the organizing principle to reality. He says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” He, meaning Jesus Christ, was the Word of God. And then it says, “And all things were made through him,” a person, Jesus Christ. Everything was made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

And then it goes on, if you read the whole chapter of John, it is unequivocally clear that John the Baptist came and foretold him, and his people didn’t receive him, but to as many as received him, he gave the power to become the children of God, even to those who believed on his name. It goes through this and it’s like, this is Jesus Christ. And he says before anything was created in the entire, before there was a universe to put a globe in called earth, before that existed, there was Jesus, the organizing principle of the universe. And he and the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, existed before time, before matter, before the governing laws of our universe. And Jesus is the governing law of the universe. He’s timeless.

Now, why does timelessness matter so much in the formation of values? Because how many of you know if you’re going to build a solid and stable home and marriage and child and plans for your future, you should build on something that is not time bound and culturally relevant, but you should build on something that is timeless and beyond culture. You should build on something far more stable than our American values. Because how many of you have learned American values go in, they come in and they go out?

I was listening to a book by a professor at Harvard this last week, and I was listening to him. He came back after running a think tank in Washington, and when he came back, he had taught at Harvard, then he came back, and whenever he came back, he said basically my neighborhood was in upheaval. And he said, by my neighborhood, my home, I mean the university campus. He said everything had gone, everyone was so sensitive, it had become so woke, that you couldn’t talk about, there were so many sensitive issues you could not talk about as a professor without just having utter meltdowns. And I came back and I did not recognize the university where I taught when I came back. He said it has swung now, and we’re now again able to have open conversations in the classroom. The environment’s changing once again to where truth, we can talk. How many of you know it’s not a great idea to establish your values on a society that changes that quickly? If it can be like, this is in and this is out, and now it’s back in, and you’re like, well, for my kids I’m going to tell them, oh, you can’t talk like that. Oh, you should talk like that. Oh, don’t talk like that. How many say you would end up with really confused, messed up kids if you follow everything our culture does?

And so why do we use the Bible to establish our values? Because obviously it’s a truth of God’s Word, but it’s the timeless truth. It’s a timeless truth. I’m going to follow the biblical principles for having a good marriage. Why? Because they’ve been around for thousands of years and worked. So I’m just going to keep doing that. I’m going to follow the Bible’s patterns for how to treat my fellow man. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The golden rule, right? And so we look at that and we say that’s pretty timeless, right? Pretty timeless.

I would tell you this. Here’s another reason why they’re not time bound. Because at the end of everyone’s life, your life will be judged by your creator based on those principles and those rules that he established for mankind. And you can’t show up and say, “But I was born in China in 1920, and in 1920 we didn’t do that in China.” God would say, “Well, it doesn’t really matter, because I’m timeless and my principles were true in 1920 China and they’re true in 2026 America,” right? And they were true in 32 AD Jerusalem. They were true everywhere. When Jesus taught them they were true, they were true every decade since, every century, every location on planet Earth. If it’s the teaching of the timeless God, it’s true no matter where and no matter when, right? And so we have to have timeless foundations to build healthy and whole things on. And so that would be the first encouragement that I really want to give you guys.

Foundation 2: He Is Supreme

The second one is this. I look at this. He is supreme. He is supreme. Everyone say, he is supreme.

So Jesus is above all things. He’s actually in charge. He’s the ruler of everything. There’s a church in Colossae that the Apostle Paul is speaking to, and there’s a lot of cultural nonsense that is slipping in, that people are trying to determine, is this right? Is this right? And they’re getting into a lot of spiritism. That was the thing that everyone was sort of into. And it’s not the same as what we’re into today. But the idea was the culture is into a lot of stuff and the church is kind of interested, and how do we integrate culture to be more of this spiritist mindset?

Now ours, our American culture, is like how do you become more accepting, right? More accepting. Acceptance. Non-judgmental acceptance. And so we’re like, how do we incorporate that? Does the church need to alter what it believes? Does it not need to speak up about what it believes? How does the church match the culture so that more people will be interested in attending? Isn’t that ultimately why you would match culture? So either you can get more people in, or people won’t think you’re a terrible wacko crazy, or you’re not into the cool stuff. Like for them, the spiritism stuff, like you got to be into the cool stuff and you got to announce that you are, and we got to all think that you’re really, you know.

So the Apostle Paul is dealing with that, and in Colossians 1:15 to 17, he says this. He’s talking about Christ who’s in charge. He says, “He’s the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” That means in position, by the way, whenever you read that. He’s the first, in other words, he’s preeminent. He’s over all his creation. “For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created,” what’s the word, “through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him,” by the way, little note for all you geeky scientist kinds, okay, “and in him all things,” what’s he saying?

He’s the one who not only wrote the laws, the positive and negative forces of the atom. He’s not only the one who wrote the laws of gravity, or, you know, they’ll say the attractional force potentially of dark matter or whatever the things are. He’s not only the one who created those things, but actually those forces only remain in place because he holds them in place. They actually emanate from his will. He’s just choosing to allow all the forces that hold every atom of your body together.

If Jesus just said today, I just think I’m tired of holding the universe together, literally it would be like that moment on, what was it, Thanos at the end snaps his finger and everyone dissipates, you know, half the universe. The whole universe would just dissipate. It’d be like done. That would be it. So literally he’s holding the entire thing together. But everything is existing through him. So we don’t exist unless he made us exist.

But then he adds to it. He says, “But you actually continue exist for him.” Like he’s in charge of you. What you believe, you should be believing it for him. Like, I want to honor you and what you say is true. So my beliefs aren’t for me. My beliefs are for you, to honor you with my belief system, to make sure you are seen through the way I teach my children. To make sure that my children honor you. I’m not trying to get them in line with me. I’m trying to get them in line with you. I’m not trying to get me to a better life. I’m trying to get me to a you kind of life, because I am here for you, not for me. I don’t do Christianity to make my life better. I do Christianity because I’m created for Christ. Amen.

Now, we have a very selfish American mindset about Christianity, which is I want the payoff. I want the payoff. If Christianity is so great because it works, that’s true. But how many of you know that’s not why you do it? You’re created and he’s the creator. How many of you know that the created should honor the creator, right? My primary drive is not what do I get out of it, because a lot of Christians get persecution and death. Ask Jesus Christ. And so you do it for what you get out of it? “Father, if you’re willing, remove this cup from me.” That’s what I want. I want a good life. “And yet not what I will, but thy will be done. Therefore, I’m going to the cross, and my journey there will mean being beaten and crowned with thorns and nailed to a plank of wood.”

But he didn’t have the blessed life. Why in the world would you serve God if you weren’t getting a richer and a better marriage and better health if you’re a Christian? Because Christianity was never about those things. It was about the creature serving the creator. Amen. Amen.

And so much of the philosophy of our day is how does it work for me? But I hear you, but how does it work for me? But this is great, but I want a how-to lesson on a better life. I don’t want a submission letter, or, you know, direction to serving a greater God. I want you to show me how to get the things that I’m hoping to get out of my life. And whenever we get that, it really makes a mess of our life.

And so we have this idea sometimes that we’re going to shape God to our desires. We’re going to make him what we want. It’s a weird little thing, but if I just grab this and squish it and hold it in my fingers like this, how many of you can guess right now Matt’s emotional state is not one of terror that the Play-Doh will somehow reform my hand into the image it would like my hand to look like? I’m not very afraid of that happening right now. You know why? Because I know that I have the stronger grip. I’m the one who’s shaping and this is the thing that’s being shaped.

But we’ve tried to reverse it and say, “No, Jesus is the Play-Doh and we’re the hand.” How many of you know that Jesus is the hand and we’re the Play-Doh? Amen. I mean, that’s the way it works. And so Jesus is not like, “Oh no, how do I get on board with 2026 American values? Because, you know, they got to shape me and I got to be flexible, and, you know, if I’m going to be a good God, I better lead by example.” How many of you know Jesus does not need us as his example? He doesn’t need that. We need him as our example. So we’re following him. We’re listening to him. We’re growing in the ways he’s called us to live. And we’re not trying to do it our way or get him to flex into our way in any way, shape, or form. We’re sticking with, he is the one who shapes. We are the ones who are shaped.

If you go on, and I have no idea if that one, there you go. I have Colossians 1 verse 18 and 20. It says, “He is the head of the body.” The head, the what? Head. Like he decides which way it goes. The body is the church. He’s the head. He’s in charge, the church. And then, “He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead.” And once again, he keeps giving positions. Sometimes you think the act of being born first or whatever. It’s not. It’s a positional title. It says he’s over. That’s the point of all this. “That in everything he might be,” what’s the word? Preeminent. Set apart, far and above. “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” He’s here on earth, still the fullness of God is in Christ while he’s on earth. “And through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”

So he’s made a way for us to all come to God. But when we come to God, we come to God under his headship. We come to God under his preeminence. We come to God under his position as firstborn over all that will be resurrected. We just come in and we say, “Listen, whatever he says goes. Wherever he directs, that’s what’s happening. Whatever his values are, those are my values. He’s preeminent. He’s the head. He decides. We follow Christ. We don’t do our own thing. We don’t establish our own values. It’s just what he wants.” Amen.

And so it’s that understanding. There’s a verse in Isaiah 64:8. It just says this so well. It says, “We are the,” everyone say Play-doh. There you go. We are the clay, the Play-Doh. “And you are the potter. We are the work of your hands.” So if you ever find yourself frustrated and thinking, why does God say this, and why is God for that, and why does the Bible say that, and I don’t get this in the Bible, pause for a moment and say, wait. I’m trying to mold him. I’m trying to mold Jesus in my image. I got some idea of what he’s supposed to be. That’s what I’m working on right now. And that is not my role when I open up scripture. When I open up the Bible, I am showing up here for it to shape me and my values. Not for me to argue with the potter and say, “Why have you made me this way?” But for me to say, “Shape me, mold me, make me, change my values, change my ideas until they reflect you.” Amen.

Foundation 3: He Is Unchanging

Okay. The final thought that I want to give you, the third foundational thought, is he is unchanging. The theological word would be immutable. He is unchanging. He is eternally reliable. Everyone say, he is unchanging. And then we’re going to use a nice theological word. Say, he is immutable. There you go. You cannot change his substance, form, being, in any way whatsoever.

In Hebrews 13:8 it says this. It says, “Jesus Christ is the same,” how long? “Yesterday and today and forever.” Those 10 words pretty much sink the idea of a moldable Jesus. He is the what? So, do you get to mold him? Does culture get to mold him? Do one of the political parties in America get to dominate the topics of the day and mold Jesus? No. And so, should those things mold the church? Should those things mold Christians?

I only know of one thing that should really mold a Christian, and one person. And it’s the one who is the potter. Amen. The potter should do the molding of his people. And we are his people, the work of his hands. So God, shape my life. Shape my values. Change me until I reflect you so clearly that I’m shining the light of Christ for my children, for my grandchildren, for my church, for my family, for my friends. God, reshape my life in every way so that you shine through me.

And I look at this world that we’re in, I think we need constants. Things change so often in culture that we need constants. I’m going to give you a little side note and I’ll keep it really brief, but I say this every now and then. If you will raise your children ardently, fervently, not in a control freak way, there’s this little hard thing to figure out here. But if you will raise them in your biblical value set, then when they are old, they will not depart from that value set. And guess what? If you didn’t depart from the value set and they don’t depart from the value set, then you and your children don’t depart from each other.

I have a very close relationship, and my wife does, with all four of our adult children. And all four of my adult children have a very close relationship with one another. Do you know why? Because we all are heart and soul bought into the exact same value set. So if you want to keep a relationship with your child, you don’t accept all the crazy nonsense that the world tries to infect them with. And I’m telling young people, when you get kids, you do this, okay? Raise them this way to protect your home. But you don’t stuff it down their throat and be a jerk about it either. You take the time to know what you believe and to walk your children through that.

Did I get too aggressive with my explanation of faith at times? Yes. Did my wife cool my jets? Yes, she did. She reflected things that I was not seeing in the way my kids were responding, and I cooled it down so that I could get my kids with me and walk them to a place of common belief, of common faith. So, side note right there, but I’ll tell you, it’ll save you a lot of hardship in your life.

And so, we need these constants in the church. We need these in our family. We need them guiding our lives in every way, in every shape and form in our life. We need to just say, “This is what I want for my life.” This is what the Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 1:21. It’s one more example of what I’ve been saying, but I want you to see this because it’s so clear in this picture. It says, “For although they knew God,” like the real God, capital G God, they knew him, people created in his image, “for although they knew God,” and it’s going way back, like Garden of Eden, early mankind, mankind knew their creator, knew God, they didn’t want to honor him though with their lives, the way they lived, as God as in charge is, you decide. It’s your rules, not mine. “Or give thanks to him.” Honor him for the life that they had. No, I did it. I made it on my own. And it says, “But they became futile in their thinking.” Pointless. It’s just, all sorts of craziness that the world chased after. Futile in their thinking, “and their foolish hearts were darkened.” So as they got distant from honoring and thanking God as God, they get darker and darker and darker. The more distant you get, the more dark you get. “Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God,” exchanged, everyone say exchanged, “the glory of the immortal God” for what? “Images resembling mortal man.” And it goes on with the other things.

Isn’t that exactly what’s happened in America today? We don’t want to honor the principles of God, and we come darkened in our thinking, and we create images that resemble what we want. Mortal man. Here’s what I want God to believe. Here’s what I want the Bible to say. Here’s what I think it really means. Well, you have your interpretation and I have my interpretation.

Can I just tell you real quick, question here. Are the lights on? Oh, wait, wait, wait. You seem unsure of this. Look up and think about it really hard. Are the lights on? You’re pretty smart. One more time in case anyone didn’t figure that out. Look up real quick. Everyone look up. Are the lights on? Is that open to interpretation? No. They’re on. If you perceive them as off, you’re wrong. Amen. Okay.

There’s a whole lot of things in the Bible that are not open to interpretation. It just says what it says. It just says what it says. Okay? So, when you read it, take it for what it says. And you don’t reshape it in the image of what you want, make yourself a god in the image of mortal men because they don’t want to honor God, and their futile minds want what they want, and so they just reshape God in their own image. And that’s the thing we will not do. We will not do that as Christians. We will not do that at this church. We just won’t do that.

And so we just say, “God, I repent of the fact that I thought you could be shaped in my image. Boy, I’m putting that whole idea away. I don’t want to pick that one up again. I don’t want to even think about that stuff anymore. You don’t get reshaped. I get reshaped. So, I’m digging into your word this week. And everything it says, reshape my heart. Reshape my life. Make me and mold me until my life is a life that honors you, that’s thankful to you, that respects the God who created me.” That’s my hope. That’s my prayer for this church, that we would learn to honor the God that created us. And that’s what we’ll be doing over these next several weeks, is learning to honor the God that created us.

I want to pray for you. And maybe you’re not yet a follower of Christ, and this would be a great morning for you to say, “I literally need to surrender my beliefs to follow him, to follow Jesus, to say, Lord, forgive me for going my own way and being led astray by the world’s thoughts and my ideas. Forgive me for that. I’ve been created by God and for God, but I haven’t lived that way. I have lived for me, for what I want.”

And I know that someday every one of us will face God. I will face God. You will face God. And God is the ultimate judge. God sends his son Jesus Christ to give his life for all of our sins, to pay the price we should have had to pay God for every time we rejected him as God, as Lord, as in charge over everything. He does that. He pays the price. But you have to believe in what Jesus did. You have to accept that and say, “Okay, I believe Jesus paid the price. I accept his grace, his payment for my sins.” And maybe today is your day to do that.

Maybe something stirred in your heart as I preached, and you were just like, “I need this kind of life. I’m drawn to this. This is probably what I’ve been looking for. This level of stability, this level of direction, this level of clarity with my life. I just haven’t had it. And I feel like I could find that in Christ if I prayed and surrendered my life to him.” You can. That is what God actually wants for you. That relationship leading and guiding you because he loves you. Not to control you, but because he created you for something so much more.

And so, can we bow our heads to pray? And if you’re here and you’d like to pray that prayer, I’m just going to pray that prayer with you where you’re seated right now. You’ll just remain seated there. I’m just going to lead you in a simple prayer of faith. If you’re not yet a Christian, but you would say, I would really like to pray and accept Christ as my savior of my sin and learn how to follow him in the life that he’s actually created me for, the life he’s created for me. I want to encourage you in a moment to raise your hand and to just say, “Pastor Matt, I’m confessing that I’m following Christ now, and I’m going to pray with you. I’m going to become a follower of Jesus Christ.” Every head bowed, every eye closed. If this is your moment and you’re ready to pray that prayer with me, would you raise your hand real high and say, “This is my moment.” Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

All across the room, people are having this moment of decision, this important moment of decision in their life. It’s a beautiful moment all across this room. Now, church, even if you’re a follower of Christ, would you pray along with them as an affirmation of your own faith, as an encouragement to everyone who just raised their hand? Could we pray together right now? Let’s all pray out loud together right now this prayer of faith in Christ as savior:

Jesus, thank you that you gave your life for every sin I ever committed for my entire lifetime. I believe in you and I ask you, please forgive me. I am choosing to follow you as my Lord, as my Savior. I’m living my life for you from here forward. Thank you for loving me and saving me from every sin. Amen.

And amen. Would you give a hand for those that just prayed with us today? Amen. Amen.

I’m going to ask you to do a couple things, okay? We encourage people to text the word Jesus to 816-664-8995, because my wife and I put together five videos, about 10 minutes each, that walk you through faith, what to do. But one of those videos, pretty early on, is the one that explains how to get baptized and why to get baptized. And I hope you’ll get there and you’ll text that and you’ll learn how to get baptized and you’ll do that right away. It’s also on the app. You need to get baptized with these other, whatever it is, 25, 26, 27 people, just here in Lee’s Summit next Sunday. That’s a first step of faith, baptism. Do that. Okay. Sign up. Do that. You need to move forward with your faith. You need to be open with your faith publicly. That’s an important part, and we’re going to help you with that.

The other thing is, if you’re new here, we do want to connect with you down at Connect 15 and give you a way to get involved at Eagle Creek Church. As we go today, we have people that’ll be up here to pray for you guys. And so, if you need prayer, you can come up and you can just get some prayer over your life. And then next Sunday, we’re continuing our series and we’re talking about this idea of people thinking Jesus is their personal genie. And how many of you know that is not who he is? And so it’s not just saying it’s not who he is. It’s getting a grand perspective of who God wants to be in your life, and that perspective. God bless you guys. Have a great Sunday. I’ll see you next Sunday.