We have a great honor tonight to have someone that God has placed in our city, I truly believe for such a time as this. This is the first time that we've been able to welcome him in our new building. I'm going to pray for him, but will he come up? Would you just stand and welcome Nick Hall from Pulse up to the front?
You guys stay standing. How many of you have heard of Pulse? Yeah? Whoa, hey, leave him high.
Thank you. Thank you for everything you're doing. Guys, Nick, bear with me. Nick speaks all over the world.
Nick has been raised up by God to be an evangelist and to activate people into evangelism. Nick has said yes to Jesus over and over and over and over. That's the kind of person that we want to receive from. I don't know Nick super well, but what I've learned about Nick is that Nick says yes to Jesus when it's hard.
That's something that all of us want to grow in, right? I actually want to say yes to Jesus when it's hard. I don't want to just do this so that I could have the next spiritual high. Even if there's not a spiritual high, I want Jesus at all costs.
Nick models that. We have a lot to learn from tonight, friends. Would you just extend a hand? We're going to pray over Nick from the preaching of the word and then we're going to receive him.
Holy Spirit, I want you to move through Nick tonight. I want you to fill him up in a way that's startling to him. He goes, wow, God was with me as I was speaking. We want you to fill his mouth in everything that you've done in his life.
We honor that God and we ask that we would get to be participants in the harvest that comes from this man's life. And so we bless him, we honor him, and we're excited to receive him. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Amen. You guys can check. You guys can have a seat. How we doing tonight, Church?
Come on, make some noise. Is anybody ready for the timbre wolves to beat the thunder? Come on. All right.
No, that wasn't the spiritual reference, but I just had to. I may or may not have been checking the score in the first service. So how we doing tonight? Are we good?
Are you guys doing good? Come on, listen, I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to be here. I have known Josh and Katie and the story of every day from since before.
There was a story of every day. I knew Josh and Katie when they were wild, leading a prayer room at Northwestern College. And I tried to see revival happen. My wife and I had moved from North Dakota.
I started in Minneapolis. I was called into ministry in Minneapolis. I was an 18 year old college kid here and God got a hold of my life. I knew Jesus, but I got to know Jesus.
You know what I'm talking about? We're like, you meet the guy. You experience the joy. You feel a new passion and New Zeal.
And so I just kind of encountered God at the prayer chapel at Northwestern. And Josh and Katie and I, like we have that in common. Like there's this holy ground in that prayer chapel at Northwestern. And I used to go into this prayer chapel.
I was 18. And I didn't really experience much of the charismatic side of faith growing up. Anybody not experienced the charismatic side of faith growing up? You knew all about like the father's son and holy scriptures.
Right? And it's just like, there's nothing wrong with having a strength and truth and believing in the truth. But I didn't have a paradigm for anything on the emotional or charismatic side. Like my paradigm was basically there was one lady that went to my church growing up.
And she would bring Diet Coke into church, which was like, whoa, what are you doing? And we literally called her Diet Coke Lady. And she would bring the Diet Coke into church. And then she would have her hands raised.
The whole worship service. And we were like, Diet Coke Lady was really feeling the caffeine this morning. And again, part of it is like, where are you from? Right?
I'm from North Dakota. I'm from Minnesota. How many of you know we kind of are stoic people? Right?
I tell people, like, I learned to preach in a very stoic environment. Right? If you get a head nod, I really think the Holy Spirit has fallen. Right?
If there's like a foot tap, like something's really going on. Right? It's just such a different context. Like, we're literally the frozen chosen.
And it is just a lot of a lot of stale people. I was actually preaching in a church a year ago in Washington, D.C. And it's one of the biggest churches in the DMV area, 90% black church and, you know, 10, 20,000 people there. And they're just like, hooting and hollering.
I did not know what to do with myself. I was so excited. I'm moving all over the stage. I'm jumping all over the place.
People are coming up and giving me high fives while I'm preaching. And I'm just like, I'm like, guys, you got to understand. I'm not used to this. I'm not used to this.
They're like, come on, come on. And I'm like, man, where I grew up, we got a lot of salt, not a lot of pepper. And there just was not a lot of seasoning or color or any of it. But I'm just excited.
And I don't know why I'm even sharing this tonight. I'm just on a tangent. But I'm just, but my, the reason I'm sharing it is I didn't have an experience of just the power of God and the emotion of how God cares about my emotion. So my faith journey was much that my feelings were something that I should figure out and, you know, just deal with it, be tough.
God didn't care about my feelings. And he wasn't really, like, super naturally powerful. And so the good thing for me in my adult life, which has just happened recently, how many of you guys are in a late bloomer? Anybody else?
You're like, someday I'm going to figure out how to be an adult. I don't know when that's going to happen. But now we have three kids. So I think that means it should happen by now.
But I just am feeling like God has been teaching me the last five, six, seven years. Two different things. One side is that God cares about all of me. He cares about my feelings.
He cares about the sad parts. He cares about the hard parts. And you know what? He's proud of me.
Is anybody thankful that you have a dad that's proud of you? Is anybody thankful that you have a dad that's not uncomfortable giving you hugs? Right? Didn't anybody grow up with dads that didn't love a lot of hugs?
Like, again, Northern, we don't like our affection. It's not common to have you had a father figure in your life that was affectionate. Like, I don't know how that happened for you, but be thankful. Because most of us, it was like a little pat on the back every once in a while.
So many experiences, God healing my emotions. God healing my emotions. God healing my emotions. And I've also just been experiencing more and more of the Holy Spirit's power.
More and more of God's like feeling. More and more of God was you empty me that you would feel me. Would you empty me that you would feel me that you would feel me that you would feel me that you would feel me. So I say this a lot of times we won't God to feel us, but we're too full in order for God to give us anything.
Right? We need to be empty. Say empty. We're just going to say this.
Like, if you want more of God, how many of us want more of God? Sometimes if you want more of God, you have to figure out what do you need less of in order for there to be more of God. Right? Because so many times, if we're honest, we're feeling our lives with all the wrong things.
Right? I spent the last 20 plus years traveling and preaching, and I didn't want to do this. This wasn't like my dream in life. When I was a kid, I wanted to be an MBA basketball player.
Anybody want to be a pro athlete when you were a kid? You're like, it's going to happen. Anybody else believe that you were going to be a pro athlete? Come on, where are my people at?
There's a few of us here. My son, he's 12 now, and a couple years ago, he's in the backseat, and he's just like deep breathing. Like, you know, something stressful is happening. I'm like, true, what's going on, man?
He's like, Dad, I don't know what to do. I'm like, oh, buddy, what's going on? I'm like, I'm like, kind of leaning in for this serious father-son moment. He's like, Dad, I just don't know if I should be in the NBA or the NFL.
You know, and I'm like, oh, son, that's a tough decision. Didn't have the heart to tell him. Like, genetics are not in your favor in my boy. But, you know, I can do anything.
I can't do anything. And maybe he will answer all of my prayers through my son, and it'll be like the generational blessing. I don't know, my son's like, 600, 600, it happened. Jesus, come on.
All this to say, I have been in this journey in my faith. Is it a journey in my faith? Anybody on a journey? Anybody thankful that God is with you on the journey?
Right? We think destination God thinks journey. We think, how do I get there? God says, follow me.
You know how you're going to get there? Stay with me. Stay close to me. Follow me.
Listen to me. Learn the sound of my voice. Jesus said, my sheep, hear my voice, my sheep know my voice. And one of the things I've been trying to do every year is I want to know the sound of God.
What does he sound like? What is he saying? What is he doing? And I want to tune my ear to discern when this is my dad's voice and when this is a different voice.
That doesn't sound like my dad. You'll feel my kids. They're like, who's dad? They're like, that's not dad.
That's not dad at all. That's something pretending to be dad. Like my kids would know right away. They would just know right away.
Hopefully not always because it's an angry voice. Hopefully there's some kindness and some playfulness. They're just like, do I know what God sounds like? Do I know what Jesus sounds like?
And am I able to? When the other voices are there, say, that's the old Nick? That's an old life coming back. Get out of here.
Or it's the accuser. It's the devil. It's the enemy. He's got a simple job description.
He's coming to steal, to kill, and to destroy. How many guys know that voice? You know that voice? It's a nasty.
It's a mean voice. Maybe that's your judge, your self-judge. Not enough, not enough, not enough. Who are you?
What do you think you're doing? Who do you think you are? Or whatever. It's like, man, that's not my dad's voice.
Get out of here. So back when I was in my 20s, I started this journey and I called it like this experiment. I was like, I'm gonna have an experiment with God. I never told anybody this, okay?
You might be one of the first rooms I've ever said this to. Have this experiment with God. Just try and figure out the Holy Spirit. Try to figure it out.
Because I knew Diet Coke Lady didn't want to be like her. Okay? And then I got to know some friends. In fact, you guys hear about this merge event coming up at the state Capitol.
I'm trying to encourage you. Go to merge. Be a part of merge. It's amazing.
And you should be there. Josiah Queen's gonna be there and Naomi Raines gonna be there. Food trucks, kid stuff. It's gonna be awesome.
It's gonna be epic. It's free. You know, like free stuff. Come on, somebody.
But my buddy, Sammy Wanyoneone, is gonna be there. And Sammy and I have been buddies since we were like, I don't know, for 20 years we've been friends. Sammy's one of the first guys I started praying with. And we meet at the Olive Garden down in Bloomington back in 2004.
Okay? And somebody, it was like a blind date. It wasn't really a date. Don't get the wrong idea.
But it was like a setup of like, hey, you guys should know each other. Isn't it sad that we have to have context for these things in Minnesota? If I say blind date, I was like, no, I didn't mean, never mind. I'm just gonna keep talking and pretend like this didn't happen.
Sammy and I get to know each other. We sit down. We have literally nothing in common. But we're the same height, the same build, the same size.
And we're like looking at each other. And we're like, you know, he's like, you are my North Dakota twin. And I'm like, you are my Kenyan twin. And so just like, man, you guys ever meet these people like, this is my brother or another mother?
Like, I don't even know you, but we're family. So we start praying with Sammy and we'd be praying together. We'd be crying out to God. We'd get together.
We'd just cry out to God. We'd pray for everything. We'd pray for our ministries that didn't exist. We'd pray that they would someday exist.
You know, we prayed for why is that we didn't know their names. God, please! Don't leave us in the valley of singleness. God, I'm not even kidding.
Sammy and I were overseas, like doing events in Africa and India. One time we're about to preach to 30,000 people. We're both backstage crying because we're lonely. And we're like about to preach.
We're like, God, please, don't leave us. Please. You know, and it's just so funny how God uses the foolish things of the world. They may thank, oh God, use the foolish things.
But when Sammy and I would pray, I'd be praying and like, God, thank you. God, thank you that you're moving. Sammy would be like, shut up. Shut up.
What's happening? Sammy's like, she came to the Honda. I'm like, who came to the Honda? Where was she?
Help me know where the Honda's going. Do I need to get in the Honda? What's happened? But I just opened up this door for me.
God, I want more. I want more. Because now I met somebody that I respected. They had this different dynamic, this different power.
And so I just started this kind of experiment. And I said, God, if you want me to do something, tell me. Tell me, God, if you want something, then tell me. So look, what do you do?
I go, I try to spend time in the Word. I try to spend time praying. And then I just go about my day. And if I hear something, go talk to that guy and be like, oh, man.
Oh, that guy? Really? You know, but I don't have this like this experiment. I would do like a checklist.
Real quick, checklist. Pros and cons, pros and cons. We're like, wait in this out. What if this was God?
What if this was Nick? Okay, what if this is God? What if this is Nick? If this is Nick, I'm going to talk to that person.
He's going to think I'm weird. If this is Nick, I'm going to talk to that person. I'm going to tell him about Jesus. He's going to hear about Jesus.
It might not go well. If I'm going to talk to that person. If this is Nick, I'm not going to talk to that person. He's not going to be my friend anymore.
He's not my friend anyway. So I haven't lost anything. But what if this is God? What if this is God?
If this is God and God wants me to talk to this person, like he may have a miracle for them. Today may be the day of salvation for this man. So I started this exercise. I want to hear you.
I want to hear you. And I tell people, I believe this. I believe faith is like a muscle. It's like a muscle.
Okay? In the same way as you had a friend today that ran like a half Ironman. How many of you don't run half of my Ironman? Just start this day.
You start. You know, like, today I will do a half Ironman. You don't do that. No, it's a lot of training.
It's getting ready. There's building up. You got to learn how to swim. That's important if you're going to an Ironman.
Then you probably have to get a road bike. Like, if you've never been on one, you shouldn't do an Ironman yet. Right? If you don't know how to run, you don't want to do an Ironman.
But you take this one step at a time. The same thing is truth faith. You start where you are and you grow. Faith is a muscle.
The more you use it, the stronger it gets. The less you use it, the more it becomes nonexistent. Same thing as you listen to God. The more you listen to God, the more you're in tune with his voice.
The more you're hearing what he's saying. The more you're saying, God send me. Send me. What do you want?
What do you want? But if you never listen, then you're just never listening. You're just like if you expect nothing to happen. Guess what?
Your expectations are going to come true. But if you expect, God, you want to move this week in my life in Roseville, New Brighton, Columbia Heights. God, you want to move in down to me. You want to move in Stiffle.
You're going to move in Shockerbie. You're going to move in Storwater. You're going to move in Storwater. You're going to move.
God, in Hudson. God, and I'm taking this trip. I'm taking this trip to Iowa. God, I don't know why I'm going there.
But I know you're going to move. I'm just telling you that ordinary becomes extraordinary because now you've invited God in. And so I've been in this 20-year experiment. 20 years.
I'm just God. What do you want? If you want it, Lord, I want to do it. And you want to things happen.
Actually, today is an anniversary of one of the things because God told us, I don't know when this was, 2016-17, he told us we're supposed to book US Bank Stadium for Jesus. And so we're like, what God? You're crazy. But today on May 18th of 2018, we've filled US Bank Stadium for Jesus.
So I'm telling you, again, that wasn't like day one. I've never listened to God, US Bank. Let's go. No, but it's like, listen, you start where you are.
You start where you are. You know the first thing is I was like starting to listen to God and God said, go talk to that guy. Go pray for that guy. Don't go do this.
And then it was Nick. I want you to write a paper in your English class. I wrote a paper when I was a junior and I was going to stay. And then it was like, take the paper and give it to people.
So go, okay, I don't know if I can give this to people or if they're like it. It's about reaching the campus but revival. It's like Nick, invite him to come over. He can't invite him to come over.
He's like, people are praying. People are dreaming. This thing's spreading. And then it's like, okay, Nick, try to book this venue.
They said, no. I said, God, I tried. So try again. Try again.
Try again. Try again. Try again. We're praying.
God told us to book this venue. Now, again, this isn't 2018. This is 2006. This is a long road.
How many guys know that? Getting where God wants you to go is a long road. It's a long road. And if God told you where you were going, you'd mess it up.
Okay? But no, He's giving you a general direction and He's going to take you and lead you and guide you. And there's a hundred yeses between here and there. You know what?
And there's 200 trip ups between here and there. And there's 500 times you're going to do something dumb between here and there. Get over it. You know why?
Because you're going to fall, but God's not going to let you fall. You know why? Because you decided a long time ago. I'm not going alone.
I sell people like your goal in faith. It's a so many brothers and sisters around you. So close to you. We're running together.
We're going after. We're charging the gates of hell together. We're on mission together. We're loving life together.
We're going to move this together. You know why? Because sometimes this one, we're going to move it. We're having good coffee.
You know why? Because God delights and good coffee. It's just not Starbucks. I'm sorry.
If it has to drive through it, it does not have good coffee. I hate to break it to you. I don't make the rules. This is just what they are.
Listen, I'm just telling you, there's things that you enjoy in life, but your life isn't about just these things. Like if the peak of your life is fishing, you don't understand life. If the peak of your life is coffee, you don't understand life. If the peak of your life is valley fair, it's funny.
If the peak of your life is being a Minnesota sports fan, right? How many guys know? Like it's mostly a downer. Now again, not this year though.
Not this year. It's always this year next year in Minnesota. This is one year away. But I'm just saying like this is the mission of like the beauty of life is when you can enjoy what is, but realize that this will never satisfy me.
God is the one who's going to satisfy me. You know, so students in North Dakota, we book this venue, wrote a paper, didn't have an organization, put everything on my credit card as a college junior, just go broke for Jesus. So say there's nothing better than going broke for Jesus. You will never regret what you give to God.
You will always regret what you hold back from God. You just won't regret it. Like you can't out give God. Like if you're a problem, you know what my problem was?
I gave too much. Thank you. Like if you have people regularly telling you to tone it down, like you're too bold, you're too wild, then maybe this talk isn't for you. Okay?
Like you bring the show floor everywhere, you go, you got the healing oil, you're ready to rumble. Like don't listen to me right now. Okay? You don't need to go louder.
You need to tone it down. But for the rest of us who nobody's ever told to tone it down, it's time to turn it up. It's time to turn it up. You know, Jesus and disciples were regularly told to be quiet.
If nobody's ever told you to be quiet, are you following Jesus? Like if I can just keep this to myself, how many of us have ever offended anybody? Come on, this is everybody. Think of all the stupid reasons you've offended people.
Think of all the dumb things you've offended people over. Okay? Offending people for Jesus isn't okay reason to offend people. Okay?
If you're like me, 99% of them aren't Jesus. They're like my views on many things. It was a little loud. It's a little passionate, a little fiery.
I'm just saying, I think it's time for the Church of Jesus Christ to stand up. It's time to take ground. It's time to believe what he said and get after it. I love Francis Chan.
We were talking before about some of the mutual friends. And you know, Francis Chan is a sermon where he says, He says, imagine I go to my kids' room and I tell them, clean your room. Where my parents at? Where my parents at in the room?
The parent goes to the kid, clean your room, clean your room, clean your room. The parent leaves and comes back and the kid says, Dad, I memorized every word you said about cleaning your room. And I can recite it to you word for word. Exactly how you said it.
Dad, I wrote a song about room cleaning. And I put a band together. Dad, I can recite to you the original Greek of room clean ania. Like as a parent, what do you want in this moment?
Just clean the room, right? Like, hey, I love the song. I love the words. I kind of was just hoping the room would be clean.
Right? And I think there's something to be said here of like, now we want to sit in the presence and love the presence and know Jesus and follow Jesus. But man, if you are always in the presence and you're never going and doing the things Jesus did, you need to ask the question of who are you worshiping. Because if I'm worshiping Jesus, that guy did stuff.
If I'm worshiping him and he's my leader and he's my example, I'm pretty sure he took on some hard things. I'm pretty sure he was pretty bold. I'm pretty sure he prayed for some people. Is he my leader or not?
Because if we're not careful, we can worship worship instead of worshiping Jesus. And the way you can tell isn't what happens on Sunday is what happens every day. We should call a church that. Listen, this isn't about a Sunday thing.
This is about a Monday to Saturday thing. This is about a 365 days a year kind of thing. I want you to open up your Bibles with me to Mark chapter 2. I have three questions I want to ask you.
And then there's eight simple steps I'm going to give you. I'll give you the three questions and then we will read Mark chapter 2 together. Three questions. So there's question number one.
Who in your life needs Jesus? Who in your life needs Jesus? I don't know if you can think of anybody who needs Jesus. Unless you live in a monastery, I imagine you can.
You know, can you think of people in life and he's Jesus? Did you guys get this prayer card when you came in? If you didn't get it, we have some in the back. This is the one thing that hasn't changed in 20 years of doing Pulse.
2006, Pulse Incorporated. So it'll be our 20-year birthday. I wrote the English paper in 2004. So that was more than 20 years ago.
I was called in the ministry in 2001-2002 here. So I'm old is what you just heard. But basically 20 plus years ago, we started using recipe cards. And we would bring these to our pyramids and say, Hey, can all of us link up five people?
Can we think of five people? Do you know five people that need Jesus? Raise your hand if you know five people that need Jesus. I think everybody on earth should do this that loves Jesus.
This is important. Like, who in your life needs Jesus? Who in your life needs Jesus? Write down their names.
Write down their names. Write down their names. I want you to pray about it and think, Who are the five people in your life that need Jesus that someday you're going to stand before Jesus and have to talk about? Like, you're going to have to think about him then.
You might as well think about him now. And hopefully when you're thinking about him then, you're celebrating that they're with you there. Right? We want to think about the things that matter to God and how many guys know every person matters to God.
And I want to tell you, God's answer for your son, your daughter, your classmate, your boss, your coworker isn't other people. It's you. You are a part of God's answer. And just like everybody else in the Bible, when God says it's you, you're like, but God, I'm just, you're kind of like everybody else in the Bible.
God, are you sure I'm the loneliest of the lowly? I can't speak so good. God, I don't know. And God's like, yes, you, because I've called you, because it's not about you.
It's about me. It's about my power, not your power. If it was your power, you could do it on your own. No, this is about my power.
My power's made perfect in weakness. I want to use you. So who in your life needs you? Question number one.
Question number two, who's going with you? Who's going with you? Who's going with you? Who's going with you?
You see, God doesn't call you in isolation. He calls us in community. He calls us in family. Jesus sent the disciples out in twos.
For 20 plus years I've traveled. I've had somebody else that travels with me. I go and we're on mission together, praying for each other, encouraging each other, lifting each other up, and just trying to be on mission together. Now, my core team of who is with me is my family.
So I got a picture of my wife and kids, because I don't just want to preach this on stage. I want to live this in my neighborhood. I want my kids to know. Last night I'm putting Jude to bed.
He's my youngest. He is five. I call him an antidepressant. He is the sweetest kid.
And Jude just melts me. He melts me. Today I was on the trampoline with him. I had to take ibuprofen and different things so that I could be here because it hurts to do trampolines when you're over 40.
Let me just tell you, it's coming. It's coming. But Jude, we're sitting there and I'm just telling Jude I love him. I'm going in like, Dad, you're not always here though.
Dad, you're not always here at bedtime. My heart's kind of hurting. Like, I'm not always here. Man, not always here.
I know buddy. I'm sorry. But you know Dad loves you. I know Dad.
He says, do you know what Dad's doing when he's gone? Telling people about Jesus. Telling people about Jesus. And I asked my kids, like earlier this year I said, guys, Dad's tired.
I wonder if I should do something else. I want you to know that you're more important to me than my job. Do you want me to quit? Do you want me to do something else?
Every year it's like I kind of bring it back to the family again. Hey, I'm here. My first minute she is you guys. You know, and my kids are like, Dad, you can't quit.
We love bulls. More people need Jesus, Dad. I'm pretty sure my daughter thinks it's her job coming forward. So she also has a career plan in the trajectory.
You know, it's their selfish moment is we're going to run them out before we get there. But I understand, like, who in your life needs Jesus? Who's going with you? Who's going with you?
You need abandoned brothers and a band of sisters. That's what I say to this fellas. If all you talk about is sports and beer and chicken wings and girls, you're missing the purpose of community. We need men that are banding together to charge the gates of hell.
To say, man, we are going to plunder hell and populate heaven. We're going to grab whatever little dick you squirt down we got and we are going to run like God is for us. And you know what? Jesus is going to save some souls.
Ladies, if all your community is just encouraging each other and strengthen each other and telling funny stories, I'm often jealous of women. Like, you guys have so much more fun. Just going to be honest. Like, you guys can be feel, you have feelings that are okay.
When I have feelings, people think something of me that I'm not. You know, girls can have feelings. They laugh. They cry.
They jump around. Just things that girls do that aren't normal for boys to do. It's just jealous. Just jealous.
Put it out there. Help me, God. But listen, we need each other. Ladies, it is all about this, that or the other.
And it's not about who in our life needs Jesus. Who in our friend group needs Jesus. What about that girl down the hall? You know what I do?
My kids, everything when I drive to school, I talk to them. I say, who are the kids in your school that nobody's friends with? Who are the kids in your school that nobody talks to? We're going to pray.
Because we're going to school that God would use us to impact those kids. Because those are kids that need a friend. They need somebody to stand up for them. They need somebody who sees them.
My kids, they're part of the mission. They're part of the mission. In fact, sometimes we're going to family trip and be driving. They'll be like, Dad, stop.
What happened? Dad, there was somebody outside that gas station. Go talk to them, Dad. You know, and it's just like, we are.
No, I'm not saying we're perfect. And I'm sugarcoding this big time. That's what preachers do. But I'm just telling you, my kids are living a mission.
In fact, I got a picture of my daughter here with my father-in-law. This has been on my prayer card for 30 years. It's my father-in-law. I mean, anybody got a tough situation with the in-laws?
Anybody? I don't know if you can raise your hand if your spouse is near. Maybe just not at me. Just not at me.
Just give me a nervous twitch or something. I raise you. I raise you. Got it.
Got it. Help him, Jesus. No, I'm like, I love my in-laws. I mean, this is recorded.
I love my in-laws. But I'll just say this. Like, my in-laws, they're not spiritual. They didn't, it wasn't a Christian situation.
I'm dating this girl who came to Christ. She came to Christ in middle school because a friend invited her. A friend invites her and her parents are divorced. And there's all sorts of things that are just tough.
And I'll be honest, my in-laws are great. Their family is amazing. Their family is happy and nice and kind. But just my father-in-law has never put his trust in Jesus.
And so, it's been 30 years of awkward. 30 years of awkward with my father-in-law. My father-in-law is a man's man's man's man. He's building stuff with his bare hands for work and at home.
He builds race cars in his garage. He has bold, multiple perfect games. You know, and his daughter dates a preacher boy. You know, and he doesn't have any context for religion.
So, my other boyfriend was a Kansas City SWAT team member. So, basically, my brother-in-law is Jason Bourne. And I'm coming in the scene and is like, hey! I mean, it's just, I'm telling you, once I went in security, like, we could talk.
I get enough being caught with my father. 30 years of awkward. 30 years of praying. 30 years of trying.
Ruby, all three of my kids. So, here's the thing. How many of you guys have hard people in your life that don't know Jesus? One of you, hard people in your life that don't know Jesus are an invitation for you to know Jesus.
And they're an invitation for everybody in your life to know Jesus. Man, the harder they are, I'm just telling you, the greater the glory to God. The harder they are, the more you got to invite people in. Who in your life needs Jesus?
Who's going with you? Man, I have been asking people to pray for my father-in-law for 30 years. Literally tens of thousands of people I've stood on stage and asked to pray for Merlin, pray for Merlin, pray for Merlin. I'll say, it's easy for you to remember, because you guys didn't know Merlin still existed.
His name is Merlin, yes, he's real, pray for Merlin. Like, I've had people in random cities that I haven't been in in 10 years, come up to me. He's like, Nick, I've been praying for Merlin, how's it going? And I have arguments with God, I'm like, God, this is a bad look.
I'm out here telling people, Jesus, trying to leave people to Jesus. My father-in-law doesn't know you, this is getting awkward, God. We got to deal with this. But man, it's been 30 years of inviting people in.
30 years of calling people to pray, and all three of my kids, every night before bed, for as long as they could talk, have been praying for Papa Merlin. I mean, the number of nights that we're going to bed in the kids said, we can't go to bed yet. We haven't prayed for Papa Merlin. We haven't prayed for Papa Merlin.
Twice, Ruby, my girl up here, starting at about this age, twice she hasn't been able to sleep at night. Because she says, I'm so burdened for Papa Merlin. No, honey, what's going on? It's just praying, and I wrote him a book, Daddy.
What does that even mean? You know, when you started 6, 7, 8, a book is glue stick, printer paper, and crayons. It's the sweetest, most beautiful thing ever. I wrote him a book about Papa Merlin, how to put your heart into Jesus.
Right? Can we get it to Papa Merlin? We will get it to Papa Merlin. This is all the kids are getting involved, all the people are getting it.
Number one, who do you like to get? Number two, who's going with you? Number three, what's your plan? What's your plan?
What's your plan? How many of you don't have a plan? It's going to happen pretty well according to plan. And you're just telling me, like, why do we treat the most important thing in the universe as if it doesn't kind of matter?
Like, what else do you do with that? Like, how did you get a job? Did you get a job by just like clicking your heels? Is that how that happened?