I know some of us have been fasting this week, and I have not been watching the news, but I don't really need to be watching the news to know the chaos and the lost state of the world that we live in today. We don't have to turn on the news to know that there is darkness going on and that Satan has been released in this world to bring darkness into this place. We live in a generation right now where people are calling what is good, bad and what is bad, good. We know that people are lost in their sins and living apart from God.

Every day when this world becomes darker, our light must be brighter. We go to church. We read our Bibles. We come into the Lord that He may increase within us so that we can combat those values, those ideals, and the darkness—its agenda that it tries to carry out against the world that we're living in today.We can't compromise our message. We are living a message of hope—hope for the world—that salvation is found in Christ alone. It is Him who saves man and brings us to God the Father. Amen?

You see, the world tries to impose its ideals and its values upon the Christian in order to render you useless, to make you unable to move in the power and in the kingdom of God.

"We are living a message of hope-hope for the world-that salvation is found in Christ alone."

You see, the world tries to impose its ideals and its values upon the Christian in order to render you useless, to make you unable to move in the power and in the kingdom of God. But just like what was preached last week, when we learned that Daniel was taken into captivity, into Babylon, we know that he remained set apart. He did not get mixed up with worldliness. He did not get mixed up in sin. He did not forget who he was called to be, but remained set apart in the Lord. Hallelujah. And that's who we are. Amen. It is time, Church, for us to rise up and be unapologetic about the One that we are following, unapologetic about the One that we believe in, about the gospel and about the message that has saved us—that has found us in a dark place and has given us life.

We know that everybody has faith in something. It might be technology. It might be their new business, their work, their intelligence, whatever it may be. And they're not making excuses. They're not apologizing for working overtime. They're not apologizing for staying up all night to study for the test. They're not apologizing when they're vexing their body around the track so that they can make it through the academy.

But why is it only with the things of God that we should apologize, that we should be ashamed of? You see, Satan is not apologetic in his agenda, in the wickedness, in the corruption, in the sin, in the unfairness that he brings into this world. He's not apologizing, so why should we? Hallelujah. You know, that's the only thing that the world wants to do—is point out how the Christians are living. It makes us want to be ashamed. Satan is not apologizing for what he's doing, so we are going to rise up today. And my question is: how many of us will not compromise in our faith? How many of us are going to rise up? Why should the church apologize?

So the sermon today is called Unapologetic. I love that. So we're going to look at three things that the world cannot shame us for. Let's open up our Bibles to Romans chapter 1, verse 16. “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes—first for the Jew, then to the Gentile.” We are not ashamed of our gospel, for it is the power of God to save sinners like you and me—to reconcile us back to God the Father through the blood of Jesus Christ. We believe that when you have faith in the Lord, that He can wash you clean, making you as though you have never sinned. That is the message I need. That is the message that can bring me out of an old life and bring me into the new.

This is the only gospel, the only religion in the world that offers you new life. Who is in need of new life this day? Who wants to be freed? Who wants to be forgiven and redeemed from the old way that we used to live? The old way of thinking used to bring us down. It brought death. We were overwhelmed. We were lost in our thoughts. We were crazy. Our minds were overwhelming us. Our heart was beating at night when we should have been resting. But only God can forgive a man. Only God can make him not condemned. Only God can redeem us and this is the gospel that we preach. This is our message that we bring to the world. We are unashamed.

The Christian has to really unapologetically demonstrate this in our lives on a daily basis because when the gospel comes in, you are no longer that person that is going to be ashamed. You demonstrate what the gospel has done for you. It is power over sin, power over temptation, power over our sicknesses, power over the things that used to hold us down. But no longer are we in the grave! We rise up as new beings in Christ Jesus.

We cannot be ashamed of the testimonies that God has built in our lives. That's where the power is.We believe. We may say that we believe. We may go to church. We may read our Bibles. But I want to ask you: how many people know your testimony? Are you able to share with them that you knew who you once were—lost, hurting, messed up, crazy, broken? That's where the power is because God has come in with His gospel. He saved us when we struggled. He saved us when we were down. He came in and did the impossible. He set us up and gave us a firm foundation in Christ Jesus.

The life and the truth that we now have has really cost Jesus everything to give to us. We know that He gave His very life in place of yours. He had to be crucified. He had to give Himself on the cross. He had to go down so that we may be raised up. Where is the shame in that? Where is there shame that the Lord loved you so much that He sent His one and only Son for you? You are the apple of His eye. You're the best thing and He has come for you to rescue you and show you a new life—that we may be made new like newborn babies, having the opportunity to live our lives now pleasing God.

We are not living in the shameful things that we used to do in the past. We look back and there is regret there. We look back at our old lives—the things that we said, the things that we did before God. You know, they’re shameful things. But you know what? In Christ Jesus, we are made new and we no longer have to live in guilt all the time. But in Christ Jesus, we are a new creation. The old is gone, and the new has come.

Sometimes the problem is that we're caring too much about our reputation. We're caring about being popular, and we care too much about being liked. So we begin to be shameful about the testimony that God has given us. We alter it so that it will be acceptable to somebody. But why are you trying to be accepted in a place where Jesus is never going to be accepted? You can't mince your words. You can't soften the edges of where God has brought you from. That's your message. That's the power of God to raise you from the dead.

When we put on a show, we're robbing God of His glory. We're taking it away from Christ. When we act like we went through school because we're smart on our own, when we act like we now have a job because we're so intelligent and we’re such people pleasers, when we act like our families were not a miracle of God, we're robbing His glory. This cannot be the way we share. You see, there isn’t power in telling people how you're good today. It's not telling people, “Oh, I've arrived and I have money, I have a car and I have a house and a white picket fence around it.” That's not the power. The power is how far God has brought us. It is how He has raised you up and given you a new hope in Him. Hallelujah.

So I ask you today: what are you willing to put on the line? What are you willing to risk for the sake of this great gospel that cost Jesus everything? And I know for my family, it has cost us everything. We have been kicked out. We had friends and family walk away. We've been asked to apologize. We've been asked to change our message. And in all of that, I want to say to you today, that's nothing compared to all we have in Christ Jesus. I am not ashamed of the gospel that has saved me. I am not ashamed to bring this message because it has been life for me and life for my family and life for you. This is all we've got. This is our richness in the world. This is our inheritance that God has called us to. Hallelujah.

You see, I'm so thankful that God has taught me not to apologize. I'm so glad that I'm learning every day to be more and more unapologetic in my faith. One time I remember distinctly, many years ago, I was in the Miss New Jersey pageant. I ended up making it into the finalis there. When you go, you have to sign out a questionnaire that tells them a little bit about who you are. The girls are brought on stage, and they're asking them questions like, “What do you think about world peace?” The girls were able to share about cancer research and running marathons and raising money for all different kinds of foundations. And here I am. I get on stage, and instead of them asking me about how God has changed poor communities in Honduras through mission trips, they say, “What is your favorite show?” I knew immediately what was going on. So I gave my answer, and I said, “Because I'm a Christian, and I love the Lord Jesus Christ.” I added that at the end because I am not going to be ashamed of who I am. That is who I am in the Lord.

They wanted to keep Him off stage. And so often, as we walk around this earth as Christians, they'll say, “Okay, I'll accept you, but not your God.” Are you willing to be separated? Are you willing to allow the world—are you willing to allow Satan—to say, “Oh, well, you we will take, but Christ we won't”? Today, we're coming into the realization that the people we are today are all because of Him. We don't want to take that glory for ourselves. We can never separate ourselves from the One who has given us life and breath.

So not only do we speak about it, but we have to model it. How do we model our gospel? How do we model this salvation? Surely it has to become your identity. It has to become who you are. This has to supersede anything else in your life. I'm not just a mom. I'm not just a wife. I'm not just a teacher. But first and foremost, I am a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. When that becomes your truth, it's not going to be something that's forced. It's not going to be religion coming out of you, trying to share the gospel, going through the steps of whatever verses we’ve memorized. It's going to be your truth. And that's what people need to hear. That's how salvation comes. “Hey, look, this was my life. God came in. He brought truth to me. My life has been transformed. And you can have the same thing after me.” We must model it. Hallelujah.

Not only are we receiving our identities in God, but we must reflect Him. We must take on the person of Jesus Christ in our lives. Your speech has to change. Your talk has to change. Your walk has to change. You read the Bible not to memorize verses and just go through it like black and white letters, but to become Him—to model Him to the world so they have an example of who Jesus is. This is all biblical because He died and He rose, and Jesus is in Heaven, but He left us His Holy Spirit. And the Spirit enters those who would believe in Him. The Spirit of holiness has come in you to make you Christians—little Christs—that we would now be able to be changed. Our desires would change. Our hopes and dreams would change. And what do they change into? They change into the will of God for your life. We no longer live as individuals.

Shame comes when we're still trying to please the world—when we're trying to preserve an image of ourselves. But today we're not trying to claim individuality. We're trying to claim that we are followers and sons of the living God. So today I pray that you would realize the gospel of power. Tell the Lord in your heart, “I'm not apologizing anymore. I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God to save man.” Amen.

Now secondly, who are those who are unapologetic? They are not ashamed of the cross. Let us open up our Bibles to 1 Corinthians 1:23–24. “But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews, and foolishness to the Gentiles. But to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.” And so we cannot be mistaken. We know that the cross is where the offense comes in. You see, our religion is unlike any other in the whole entire world, because our God came down and took off His coat of glory. We know that He disposed Himself of the majesty that He had in Heaven, and He came down as a man to this earth. And He came as a man to be crucified, to be handed over to sinful men, and to be crucified in place of us so that He could redeem us from the power of sin which brings death to the life of men and women.

God had to sacrifice Himself in our place. As we said, there is no religion like that. There is no example of love like that in all of the world—that God would die so that you may have a new life in Him. The hard thing, the conflict, or the offense that is preached in there is the fact that Jesus had to die to redeem us. He had to die in order to save us and people just don't think they're that bad. People don't have an understanding that they fall short of the glory of God. People don't know about the righteousness of God. People don't know that their works are not pleasing to the Lord. They don't know about His law.

But for us, our eyes this day have been open to the cross of Jesus Christ. We know that it was our sins that held Him there. We sing that song that says, “I, it was me that called out among the scoffers.” If we were there in the time of Jesus, we would have been crucifying Christ, because that's how lost we were—how wicked in our own hearts. This day your eyes are being opened to the fact that we don't have anything outside of the cross of Christ. You cannot leave it behind. Our lives are built on the foundation of what the cross of Christ accomplishes. Your whole life is built up this day on what Jesus has done when He gave Himself as a ransom for you and for me. What He has accomplished, only He could do. In the sinlessness of His life, God accepted His sacrifice as a pleasing offering to Him, and He accepted it in our place. The book of Psalms says, “Blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven, whose sin the Lord does not count against them.” What a blessed people we are for what the cross has accomplished.

So Jesus now overcomes Paul, and Paul begins to preach unapologetically about the crucified Christ. And he says to them, “You cannot have a resurrected Christ unless you first have a crucified Christ.” You cannot have Christianity without the cross, and we will not leave it behind. Paul didn't have an easy time with either the Jews or the Gentiles. If you look at the verse, it says that to the Jews it was an offense. Why was the crucifixion an offense to the Jews? It was because they could not believe that the chosen, blessed Son of God could be condemned to die. They didn't understand it. For what do their own words say? We look in Deuteronomy, and it says, “If anyone is put to death on a tree, he is cursed by God.” How could the Messiah of God be cursed? They could not see that when Jesus died on the cross, this was God's love for them. This was God saying, you no longer have to be judged by the letter of the law, but you will be saved through faith in Jesus Christ alone. Hallelujah.

We know we fall short of the Lord, but in Jesus Christ, we no longer have to follow every letter of the law. We demonstrate that we are transformed by the power of the cross to fulfill the word of God. Amen? Galatians 3:13 says, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.” My friends, sin brings in death. Sin brings in death. The wages of sin are death, and Jesus paid them on the cross so that we may not have to receive the penalty of death, so that we don't have to live far from God, but that you may be brought in. What He accomplished on the cross, we receive this day. There is no shame in the cross, for it is our lives. We see our wretched state, and we say confidently and unapologetically, “It was my sin that was put on that cross. It was my sin that was nailed there. And I thank God that He sent Jesus to redeem me from my old man.”

"We demonstrate that we are transformed by the power of the cross to fulfill the word of God."

The message is foolishness to the Gentiles as well. And why? You know, they had different reasons than the Jews did, but ultimately what was the problem? What's the offense of the cross? Their own wickedness, their own self-righteousness. They didn't know they needed a savior. And this is not any different from the world that we're living in today. People don't see their sin. They don't want to admit they have a need of a savior, but Jesus has come to redeem us.

When Paul went into Corinth to preach, this was the center of all philosophic teaching. You could literally go—and for my students who are in college, you can go to any philosophy teacher and learn about ancient Corinthians—and you will know that there was a philosopher on every street corner. You could go and you can hear any message you want to hear—anything that your ears want to hear—a funny message, a message that makes you feel good about yourself. You could leave what you didn't want, and you could take on what you did.

This is really not any different from the American churches we have today. People come and go. They take what they want. They leave what they don't. They don't want a message that doesn't want to make them feel good. They don't want a message of repentance. But we cannot apologize for the cross. Don't lose hold of the cross because it's your power. It's your strength. It is the source of salvation. We conform to that message and do not water it down. We don't hold back because this is our strength.

The ones who are followers of Jesus are the ones who listen and obey the word of God. I don't know why we want to tell people another message that is not true—for we are obedient to God because of what He accomplished. It is our source of strength to follow Him. And what happens? We do risk people walking away. We do risk some sort of confrontation with them. But maybe, just maybe, somebody will come into the saving power of the cross this day. Hallelujah.

The reality is your eyes have been opened. You knew that with your sin you could not get to Heaven, and you had need of a savior. And we come even today—we'll have an opportunity to remember—that we must lower ourselves and know that it costs Jesus everything. He was betrayed. He was abandoned. He was beat up. He was brutalized. He was ostracized. And He was crucified to give you what you needed this day, and that was eternal life in God the Father. Thank the Lord that because He died, I also die to myself, and I will be raised up with Him. Hallelujah.

Thank God that we don't have to be the same person that we were yesterday, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody didn't water down the message when they gave you the message of the cross. Somebody paid the price for what it takes to have salvation. Somebody picked up their cross and decided to follow Christ, and we follow after Him. Whatever happens, it doesn't matter because of what we gain in Him. Amen? So why do we apologize? Where will the shame be when it comes to the cross? There is no shame for the Christian when we come to the cross. Amen? So those that are unapologetic—those who are not apologetic for what we received—are not ashamed of the gospel. They are not ashamed of the cross, and they are not ashamed of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah.

Open up our Bibles to Luke chapter 9, verse 26. “Whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when He comes in His glory and in the glory of the Father and the holy angels.” This verse is saying we cannot be ashamed of Jesus Christ or He will be ashamed of us when He goes and brings His saints into Heaven. Why? Because it costs to follow Jesus Christ. It is not always an easy walk. He said, “Pick up your cross and follow Me.” And the Lord Jesus Christ—for those who stand firm, for those who do not give up, for those who are willing to put the work in—God will honor you when He is honored in Heaven. When He is surrounded by the angels and He receives a crown of glory, He will also share that glory with you. He will reward those who are with Him, who have counted the cost, who have given up on their old lives and come into Jesus Christ. Amen? He wants to show you to the Father. He doesn't want to be ashamed of you. He wants to say, “These are the ones You have given Me. These are the ones who have stood the flames. These are the ones who have withstood every challenge that came against them. And they were victorious again and again and again. They could not be turned away.”

Satan tries to intimidate. Satan tries to threaten. Satan tries to bring in fear. But we are those who take the heads of the enemies of God off. We will not take any prisoners. We will not live overcome by the evils of this world, but we will take no prisoners. That's the battle that we're in today. We've been fasting, we've been praying, we've been fighting, but the people of God can no longer be apologetic. We can no longer be ashamed. We can no longer be watered down and weak in our faith, but we come back to the foundation of that which we believe in Jesus Christ. He is the leader of this army, and He is the horn of our salvation who goes ahead of us and before us. Amen?

Those that are not ashamed aren't ashamed of Jesus, and really they become His disciples. So what were the qualifications that Jesus had for the disciples when He called the Twelve to Himself? He said, “You must drop your nets and follow Me. You must come on and take My identity, leaving your old self behind.” And so I think of some of the things that they were before they were called by the Lord: a son, a fisherman, a brother, a scholar, a rebel, a thief, a business person, a businessman, a people person, funny—whatever it may be. But you know what the Lord has come to say to us today? “Leave it. Drop your net. Forget about who you were before you came to know Me. Come, and I will teach you great and unsearchable things. I will teach you how to be a follower.” Amen.

I'm not here saying any one of those things are good or bad. I'm saying today that it doesn't matter what you were—it's not what the Lord has called you to be. He has called you in Himself. It's not bad to have a business. No. But you're not primarily a businessman. You are not just a student. You are not just a teacher. You are not just a mother. You are called to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Let Him make disciples in this place today. You know, sometimes we think we have personality traits or skills that God needs, and we offer Him that for the gospel. We say, “You can use this, and I'm going to make disciples. I'm going to make children of God.” But we know that we can't come into the new if we're still holding on to the old. To this day, if you've been saying to God, “I have something to offer You,” let it go! I have news for you: God has something to offer you this day.

Are you willing to trade what is carnal, what is found in this world, what you're able to conjure up, what you're able to accomplish on your own? Are you willing to trade that for that which is supernatural, that which is heavenly, that which is of God, that which is of Christ Jesus? Because that's what He wants to do today. It's got to be above and beyond what you're capable of. We like to do ministries that are in our realm of abilities and capabilities, but that doesn't demonstrate Christ. That's not God. God has to be able to make you patient when you are impatient. He's got to make you loving when you are hateful. He's got to make you forgiving when you are the one who has been holding people and things against them. We need to be the opposite of what we once were because that is a demonstration of Christ in our life. It is not personality. It is not a good sense of humor. It is not good looks. Some of us are really missing in these areas anyway. You know, it is not whatever we can offer the Lord that is really going to make these children of God.

So I want you to ask yourself—to say, “Really, Lord, would You help me to empty myself of myself? Would You help me let go of the things that I pride myself in that I think You need? Would You allow me to be an empty vessel, to be filled and to be used by God—filled with the Holy Spirit—so that You can do the work within us?” You see, we need to repent for those things today because sometimes you're just getting in the way of what God wants to do. I think a really good example of that is when somebody comes in—maybe they're a brand new Christian—they come into church, and Jesus is trying to make them followers. He may bring them into a time of being set apart, of being holy. Then we like to be a buffer, or a go-between, is what I like to call it. We look at them and we're like, “Wow, this is too hard for them. The standard is too much. They're never going to make it if things are going to be like that. That's a lot of legalism, but I'm going to come in and I'm going to give them some freedom. Oh, you know what, buddy? You can have your money. You can have your car. You can go to school. You know, what do you want to be when you grow up?” All these different kinds of things. But the reality is we're stepping in where we don't belong. It's not about our mindset of how to make disciples. It's not what we think that they need. It's what the Lord Jesus Christ wants to do. Amen?

Let us trust the Lord this day. Let us be unashamed of Jesus so that He will not be ashamed of us before the Father. He knows how to make children. Amen? Do we trust that this day? Do we believe that the Lord can do that? I'll even admit, throughout the years that I've been in church, I've sat in on a lot of counseling sessions. I used to have my own ideas and agendas. I used to think, “Well, if you lower your voice and speak really sweetly to people, they'll definitely be more keen on receiving the truth and they'll change their ways.” You know, after a couple sessions, I was like, “Oh, that's out the window,” for sure—because God has something to do with a heart. God is going to break that heart, and He knows how best to do it. You cannot come into the house of the Lord with preconceived notions. We have to be open to see what God wants to do. Hallelujah.

Somebody who did a great job with that, as we saw in the verse before, was Paul. He allowed the Holy Spirit to work through him amazingly when he preached the message of the crucified Christ to the Gentiles and to the Jews. He was open to let the Lord work, and we see that perfect example. He didn't soften the edges to preach to them what he thought they needed to hear. He didn't make the message more palpable for them to swallow. He didn't put his input in. He allowed the Holy Spirit to work through him to be able to accomplish a work that no man could do on his own. How many of you today are willing to be a vessel that is emptied of yourself—to allow God to work through you to reach a lost and broken world? Jesus loves them. Jesus gave His life for them. Allow Jesus to work through you to touch a lost and broken world. Hallelujah.

I just want to say that, you know, it's shame. It's shame. It's being forced to apologize. It's being apologetic about these things that stops us from being useful and being transformed by that power. This is something that has existed since the beginning of time. I want to share this story with you. In the book of Genesis, the Lord said that the serpent was there, and he was more crafty than any other thing that He had created. When there's a word in the Bible, you have to hold on to it because it's there for a reason. He says that he was crafty because he was a liar and because he was a master manipulator. So don't be so easily overtaken by Satan and his lies. He is a liar and a master manipulator.

So there he is in the book of Genesis, and he says to Eve, “Hey, did God really say don't eat from any tree in the garden? Did He really say that?” He knew what God said, but what is he trying to do? He's trying to put a worm in her head. He's trying to put a lie in her head: “God is so hard. He's so unfair. Poor you. Did He not give you anything to eat? Did He leave you alone? Is there nothing there for you to have?” So he's manipulating her with his words. And that's the shame that Satan tries to bring in today—making us apologize for the gospel that has saved us, making us feel bad that it's not acceptable to the world, that we have to change it, that we have to decorate it, that we have to make it funny. But that's not true at all.

And so what happens? We see that Eve answers him. And she says, “Well, He didn't really say that. He said that we could eat from any tree except the one in the middle, right there.” Shame. Shame. She's making an excuse for God. She's softening it. She's trying to explain what God really meant. And how many times do we do that? How many times do we have to explain walking as a Christian, picking up your cross and following Him? To our young people, to our children. “Oh, they don't really have to step away from the world. They don't really have to be holy. They don't really have to be set apart. That's too hard. It's not practical in the life that we live in today.” We try to soften the edges and we change it because Satan is a liar and has told us that it's too hard. But it's not too hard because there are many in this room who have come into the saving power and knowledge of Jesus Christ.

So that shame that she felt right there—you saw it, and you saw its effect on her—because she took that forbidden fruit and she took it because she didn't trust God and she was trying to make her own way. “Well, if God's not going to take care of me, I better take this because I got to look out for me.” That's what we end up doing when we don't trust in God. We go to other avenues. We look for other things. But let me tell you, you don't have to go anywhere. You don't have to look in any other direction except at the One who went to the cross for you, who loved you, who gave His life for you, and who is waiting in Heaven for you to join Him. We believe in this message. We will not be confused any longer. So not only does she take it, but of course, the way poison works, she also gives some to her husband. It says there that sin brought separation between God and man at that moment. Let me tell you, Church: the first Adam brought death and it brought sin. But hallelujah, there is hope for us today because the second Adam brings life. Hallelujah.

I just want to invite the worship team to come up right now, and I want us to begin to reflect on so many of the things that God is bringing His church into. He has spoken to me even today, and He has said, “I do not want My children to be overcome by the lies of the enemy, by the shame, by the world that wants to make them apologetic for the things that I have done. Jessica, My message is power. Tell them My message is power—that I came for them and they don't have to be ashamed. Take off the coat of shame and live for Christ and the message that He gives.” I want to tell you there is hope today. Because if you open up your Bibles and you read in that message of Genesis, it says that the offspring of Eve would come in and would crush—He would crush the head of the serpent. And I ask you, what's the head? It's that mindset. It's the one that's ashamed. It's the one that's apologizing. It's the one that lies against who Jesus is.

"Take off the coat of shame and live for Christ and the message that He gives."

Jesus has come to crush the head of the serpent. Would you allow Him to crush those lies in you today? Tell the Lord, “I am no longer going to apologize for Your gospel. I am not going to apologize for the cross. I'm not going to apologize for who You are, Jesus, because it has been the thing to save me. It has been my hope. It has been my future. It is my foundation by which I live my life. Your cross is everything, and I'm not going to allow Satan to manipulate me anymore.” We just want to move over this day. Move over, and let God be God. Hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus. Yes, Lord.

There was a word today that went out actually this week, I'm sorry, and it said: would we be able to be the disciples who make disciples? Would you follow Jesus today and leave it all behind? Would you drop your nets and every identity that you picked up along the way to build yourself up and say, “I'm somebody,” and trying to compare yourself with the Joneses, trying to save face, trying to be popular, trying to be liked, trying to be accepted in places where Jesus is never going to be accepted? Be comfortable being a son. You don't have to compare with everybody outside of God's house. We are only looking at the One that we want to be like, and His name is Jesus Christ.