Nick Hall: Leaving the 99

Man, it is good to be here. I want you to turn your neighbor and say, I want to be in the room. One more time. Say, I want to be in the room.

Man, I don't know if you ever think about this. You know, it's like when God moves, when he stirs, when things break open, when things change, when revival happens. I don't know about you, but I want to be in the room. You know, Josh and I connecting, realizing, like it was the same room that we were in, where the presence of God was falling on us.

And I don't know about you, but like one thing that has never changed in my life is I want to be in the room. You just got where are you moving? What are you doing? How are you speaking?

God, I want to be in the room. But I don't care where I am in the room, just let me be in the room. You know, whether I'm in the front, whether I'm in the back, whether I'm the janitor or the worship leader, whether I'm putting the flyers on the seats, just let me be in the room. Sometimes I think we want to be in the wrong room for the wrong reason.

We want to be in the cool room. We want to be in the popular room. We want to be in the room where the money's at, where the success is at. We want to be in the room that our parents are going to applaud us for being in that room.

Because a lot of us are still seeking their approval. It's like, man, I got to do this or do that so I can get them to be proud of me. Maybe you want to be in a room because you think that's where the one is at. If I go to that room, that's where she is.

I got to get there. That's where he is. Where my single lady's at. You know what I'm talking about.

I just want to tell you, like some of those rooms that you want to be in, those are the rooms you need to be in. Sometimes we're chasing down the wrong room for the wrong reason. But I want to tell you today, you're in the right room. I don't care how you got here.

I don't care why you're here. I don't care what brought you here. You're here. And I just want to challenge you to be here.

How many of you know it's possible to be somewhere and not be there? Now we live in an age where we want to be everywhere at once. And we all have a device that enables this. Does anybody feel that gravitational pull like check your phone?

Check your phone. Check your phone. Check your phone. Check your phone.

You know, it's like we can't even be in the room that we're in. Because we're worried about what other people are doing in the room there. We can't even be in the room and just be in the room. We got to snap the room, tweet the room, post the room.

You see this ever? You go to a big concert and you got people like watching the screen, like getting the video of it. You're like, you're in the room. You know, I just be in the room.

Man, sometimes I think like our devices, they, man, they turn us and they woo us and they call us and they tempt us. And we forget to just be. You know, I just think of David when he said, man, better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere, God. Better is one day in your courts.

He says, man, one thing I ask, this is what I seek that I may dwell in the presence of the Lord all the days of my life that I may gaze upon the beauty of the Lord. You see something happens when you're in the room. You know, as we were here in this room, I started to pray as we were praying for the loss. There's a couple of people I'm praying for and in your seat back, there's a card.

There should be this right in front of you. And if you can't find it, you can raise your hand and we're going to bring some around. But this should be right in front of you. There's a pocket there.

This is a simple prayer card that has changed my life. And it's the one resource everywhere I go. I have this card with me everywhere I go. No matter where I go, this is the one thing you can ask our team or my assistant, Krista.

I'm like, man, is the card here? Is the card here? Is the card here? They're always like, yes, Nick, the card is there.

But like, I believe in the power of prayer. I believe in it. And we have these cards. And as we're thinking about the people in our life that need Jesus, like I think something that is so on the heart of God is like, are we prioritizing the things that are on his heart?

Are they consistently in front of us? Are we doing things that will pull us to the things of God and not just to the things of the flesh? And one of those things is keeping in front of me the people in my life that need you. So you guys have a card?

If you don't have a card, raise your hand. These guys are going to come around and hand some other guys like that. If you need a card, raise your hand. I think the people in the front might need them, fellas.

So you guys can, it's always that awkward thing. Go ahead and hand these out. If you need a card, grab one. But here's the thing, these cards, I believe this, that if you start to commit to praying for people in your life that need Jesus, and I'll tell people, man, this is something that will change your life.

Okay? If you hear nothing else from my talk, if you commit to praying for lost people in your life, it will change your life. Because man, I'm telling you, what is it that moves the heart of God? What moves the heart of God is when we prioritize the things that he wants.

And you know the evidence that you've been with Jesus, the evidence that you've been in the room is what you do when you leave the room. The evidence that you've been with Jesus isn't that you download that song so you can listen to it more on your way home. Oh, I just love that song. Just want to soak in that song.

I just want that song. No, the evidence that you've been with Jesus is that you go and do the things that Jesus did. And one of those things is are you running to lost things? Are you running to lost people?

Are you prioritizing the people that Jesus died for? If you find yourself in a room or in the room and you never leave the room doing anything different than you're in the wrong room. Or you're in the room for the wrong reason. Or you're in the room and you're missing completely what's going on in the room.

Like you are worshipping worship. You're worshipping goosebumps. You're worshipping the fields. The vibe.

You know you've worshipped Jesus by what you do after. And then one of those things is like do I care for people who are hurting, broken, lost, weary? Do I prioritize the orphan or the widow? Do I prioritize the down and out?

Now listen, I've always had a hard time with that. Like when we talk so much about poor people or widows or people being trafficked or whatever. And sometimes I'm like, well, what about the rest of us that don't have those struggles? Like does God love them more?

And like the answer is clear to me. No, God doesn't love those people more. But I believe that those people, the people who are down and out, the people who have lost a spouse, the people who don't have enough food, the people who are being sexually trafficked, the reason they're closer to God is because their need is in front of their face. Like you and I, when we live with a nice car or an apartment where we don't have to worry about the rent, you know where you're going to get food.

You don't have to think about these things. It is easy for you to not even need God. But those people, they don't have a choice. Like they're just like, well, somebody helped me.

And so why is it that God would care and move us to those people? Because those people are asking for help. And God is near to the weary and the heavy-laden. He's near to the orphan in the widow.

He's near to the last, the least in the lost. The question is, if God is there, why aren't we? And I'm just saying that one of the things you can do is start praying for people. As we were praying, I prayed for a couple of people.

One is my father-in-law and I texted him. I've been sharing the gospel with my father-in-law for 23 years. 23 years, his name is Merlin. I know you guys don't know him, so now you can remember Nick's father-in-law's name is Merlin.

I tell Merlin everywhere I go, Merlin, I'm telling people to pray for you. Everywhere I go. And I told Merlin over the holidays this year, let me just tell you, what is your father-in-law? Like, that's a tough relationship.

Like, you are trying to be cool. Like, of all the guys you want to like you, like that is at the top of the list. And my father-in-law, he's like a manual labor, like builds race cars in his garage. Like, he's a bowler.

He has bold, like, numerous perfect games. Okay? Like, never been around a Christian his life, doesn't have an opinion. And his daughter Mary's preacher boy.

You know, like, I am, like, it's just like super insecure relationship for me. You know, my wife's sister, she married basically Jason Bourne. He is like, man's man, Kansas City, SWAT. Like, can literally just hit, like, anything.

And like, I mean, he's just man's man. And so like, I've always been like, just in this insecure, vulnerable relationship with my father-in-law. You know, like, I mean, this is literally, this is true story. I wasn't even planning on talking about this, but like, first holidays with my father-in-law, with the family, I'm like trying to do stuff that's cool.

We go bowling. And I'm like, I literally went practicing bowling before the holidays to try to get ready. And like, we go in bowl. I know kidding.

He puts me on a lane with bumpers. OK, like, my father-in-law, he's like, I kind of felt like I was going to help you. So it's me and his mother on the bumper lane, OK? And like, we're bowling on the bumper lane.

And grandma just literally whoops my butt. Like, grandma just, like, this is a rough situation. And we get to the like holiday dinner. And my father-in-law, Merlin, says, hey, Nick, you want to do that thing?

And I said, the thing, the thing. It's like, do you want to do the thing? You guys do that thing before you eat, right? The thing?

And I was like, oh, you mean, pray. OK, yes, I will pray. But I've been praying for Merlin for 23 years. And this year over the holidays, I told him, I said, Merlin, this is your year.

I said, Merlin, this is your year. This is the year that you're going to give your life to Jesus. And he's like, oh, I'm just having a hard time understanding some things. I'm like, Merlin, it's OK.

We're going to go through it. We're going to get through it together. And two weeks ago, I was into Moen. And I was without my kids.

And without my wife, I was there. I'm late at night, standing in his garage, manual, all these cars and wrenches, and all this stuff all around, just reminding me of who I'm not. And he's just there. And we're talking.

And I'm trying to, he can't really hear very well either. And so it's like a hard, you know, I'm like, Merlin, you know, Jesus loves you. You know, it's like, it's a very, I'm drawing diagrams out for him. Like, I'm trying so hard.

You know, but even as we're praying here, and I texted him again, like, Merlin, this is your year, why we were here, this is your year. But even as I'm here, I'm just like, God wants Merlin more than I want, Merlin. You know, Holy Spirit wants Merlin more than I want, Merlin. And like, God is surrounding him.

I believe that even now. And so the question is, am I aligning myself with God's heart for the people in my life? Or am I too busy? You see, I hear people say this all the time.

Like, I never get to talk about Jesus. I never get to talk. Some of you have never even maybe shared your faith. You've never even talked about it.

And you hear these stories almost like you're an outsider, hearing a story from like a weird person that you, you and your mind think, I'm not like Josh. I'm not like Pastor Josh or Pastor Katie. I'm not like them. And you hear it as if like, that's for some people, but not for you.

And I just want to tell you, no, no, no, that's not for some people. That's for Jesus people. Okay? And like, and this isn't a shame or a guilt thing.

This is an invitation thing. Like this is, that's a Josh's point earlier, there is more. There is more. There is more.

I've been feeling that this year, like there's more. There's an invitation, like God in his goodness invites you to more. Like he's better than you thought. Like it's more exciting than you thought.

I mean, I gotta say this like I surrender to God's calm my life as an evangelist back in 2001. And I would say like, I have never shared my faith more in my life than I have this year. And I'm just like, I'm just blown away because I'm asking God for opportunities. I'm like, God, would you give me opportunities?

You know, would you just send me to people who needs you? And there's a couple things. I'm gonna share what you open up with me to Luke 15, Luke 15, but as we turn to Luke 15, I'm gonna read this quote, this is John Wesley, he is an old revivalist preacher, and this was his quote, this was his prayer, and this has been my prayer lately, he says, give me 100 preachers who fear nothing, but sin, desire nothing but God, I care not a straw, whether they be clergy or laymen, such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on earth. So John Wesley, he prayed, and he was like, God would you give me 100, give me 100, I want 100 young, fire breathing preachers.

And he prayed this, and some of you guys have heard like Wesleyan churches or Methodist churches, well, a couple hundred years ago, like this all started through some brothers who were really mentored and discipled from their mom, and their mom really would pour into their lives, and they literally were like these just on fire for God, but they believed in this thing of the everyday ordinary believer. Like they believed in this, and I think you guys have been saying this even like every day, what is it, every day, every day reverence, right? Every day reverence. And I was actually thinking about that term, everyday reverence, and I was thinking, everyday reverence are born out of everyday reverence.

You know, like as we are living in the everyday ordinary moments and realizing that there's like a divine moment that we're living in, there's an everyday reverence, there's an everyday awe, there's an everyday God, you are in this place, and we didn't even know it, but you're here. Like as your eyes are open to the fact that there are no mundane moments, there are no insignificant moments, there are no insignificant places, but like literally your eyes are open to the reverence of God, and then you are activated to be a reverend, to say, man, I am the hands and feet of Jesus. You know, we've been doing these events called God Lives Here, and the heart of this is really to go into broken places and declare with confidence God lives here. So we're in downtown Minneapolis, and pulse offices in downtown Minneapolis, I'd love for you to come hang out with us sometime, we pray every morning, we're fasting all the time, we're trying to reach people, we're trying to plan like massive youth outreach events around the world.

This week we had meetings with leaders from Russia, I've been praying for 10 years, I want a million young people in Red Square in Russia. Now the only way that happens is if you get Putin involved and the heads of the Russian Orthodox Church involved, and so man, I'm telling you, we are working the angle for Jesus, so literally say, God, if you want this to happen, then ABC and D are gonna happen. And so this week we met like the second in command, he would be like just below the Pope if we were talking about Catholicism in the Russian Orthodox world, and this dude's like full on black-down and massive bling around his neck, and he's just like, this would be good. You know, and I was like, yeah, that's right, it'd be good, come on, come on.

And so we're just praying and believing God for what he wants, but people have called me since George Floyd's death, since him being killed, and I use that word intentionally, he should be alive right now. I don't know why, that's like a hard thing for people to say, I am for the police, and I also can say that was wrong. Okay, like we as a Christian need to reclaim the middle ground. Like there is a radical middle, where I can confront what is wrong, where I can speak about what is right, where I can lift up the name of Jesus, and I don't have to like live in this place where the world defines me.

No, I can just say, man, God, I'm here to follow you, to know you, to be full of you, and I can stand in March with my black friends, and brothers and sisters in Christ, and I can say, man, this is wrong, I can march, and I can be a part of things, you know, and I can stand, and I can lift up Jesus, and I can believe God that he's in the midst of it, but people have called us and said, are you guys gonna leave the city? People are leaving downtown, they're leaving downtown, and nobody wants to be in downtown. I'm like, what are you talking about leaving the city? This is the best time ever to be in the city.

What do you think when things are hard, we should leave? No, when things are hard, that's when we get going. When things are dark, that's when the light shines. I mean, I just gotta say, what the heck are we doing by playing it safe?

That's not in the Bible. Jesus never said save yourself, he didn't say it. I mean, literally, he's like, I'm gonna go to the cross and I want you to follow me. I mean, you can't give more than that.

Somebody messaged me the other day and like, is it okay for me to follow Jesus and not share my faith? And I messaged him back and I said, can you imagine if Jesus never shared his faith? Like, how can you follow Jesus and not share it? Like, I think we have to just realize we're not following Jesus.

Like, we have grown up in a church world that is so desperate for you to come, that literally we lower the bar till it means nothing. Just please come, just please come, just please come, just please come, just please come, just please come. Do I have to give anything? No, just come, just please come.

Do I have to serve, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, just please come, just please come, listen, we'll change the music to make you happy. We'll soften the message just to make you happy. We'll give bigger buildings to make you happy. Just please come, just please come, just please come.

And it's like we have bigger churches than we've ever had before and our culture is more lost than it's ever been before. Like Jesus, he's calling you to die. I wish there was an easier sales pitch than that, but there's not. Like, if you're saying, man, this is hard, that's tough.

It should be. You know the good thing about it being hard is that means you can't do it without divine intervention. If it was easy, you could do it in the flesh. That's what we've been doing in this country for a long time, just taking the easy road.

Man, this is so cool. I can follow Jesus and be like everybody else. This is so cool. I can be a Christian and still look at porn.

This is so cool. I can be a Christian and never share the gospel, never give sacrificially. I can be a Christian and be okay with the fact that people are dying without Jesus every second of every day. I think God is looking to raise up a generation that says, no, no, pardon me if I offend you, but the question is, do you know Jesus?

Do you know Jesus? Not American Jesus, not white nationalist Jesus, not social justice Jesus? There's a lot of little versions of Jesus out there. Do you know this Jesus?

Now, as I'm praying and I'm just gonna say this quick, as I'm praying, if you're out here and you have a call on your life to preach the gospel, you know that you're called to share Jesus, you in a weird way prioritize lost people more than found people. Like that's not everybody, it's not even many people, but there are some people called evangelists that prioritize the lost, that want to see the lost people know Jesus. If that's you, and I would ask for you to pray with me for this, I'm praying that God's gonna raise up 100 men and women across the country, because I think we need the voice of the evangelists today in the American church, because man, I just gotta say this, like, Grove Church, like this church is amazing and God's hand is here and he's moving here, but Grove Church is amazing because Grove Church isn't about Grove Church. Grove Church is about the church, and Grove Church is about those people who need to find a church.

Prodigals, lost people, the nations, that's why God's hand of blessing is on this church. Now the weird thing in our country today is you can be a successful church without even following Jesus. Like you can get big offerings and have big crowds, and Jesus ain't nowhere near that place. Like that's the thing, the older you get, the better you get at something, the more you can do it without even needing God's help.

But it means that much more that you have to get on your face before God, then not forget who you are, what he's done, what he's doing. But anyway, if you're called and you wanna be a part of something, we're doing something called the Pulse 100, and Alex, who's a ghost here, Alex Hunter, go talk to Alex Hunter if you wanna learn more about it. We're rallying for a year, and actually next summer we're going to the National Mall in Washington, DC, and we're praying for the largest equipping of people to share the gospel that has happened in 50 years ago. There was a gathering called Expo 72, June of 72, a bunch of hippies came together, and the fire department was called numerous times because they had a commissioning service where they lit all these candles, and people were calling and saying the cotton bull's on fire, and they didn't know it, but the cotton bull was on fire, but it wasn't the fire that they were worried about.

And those hippies left that stadium, and they went and literally became, this was the Jesus people movement, they became the most evangelistic generation, maybe ever, they couldn't keep it to themselves. And that's the evidence, I would say, you know you've been in the room if you can't keep it to yourself. So have you been in the room? Because if you've been in the room, you can't shut up, you can't be quiet, it burns in your soul.

You run to the lost people. You know you can't run back, pass somebody who's got their hijab on, you're like, that person for sure needs Jesus. I gotta get there, somebody on the side of the road, man you go and you love people that nobody else would love. Like, man, I just gotta tell somebody, have you ever felt that way?

You just gotta tell somebody. I mean, I just wanna confront this guys. It should be weird to us. It should be weird, you should be like, this is so weird that it has become normal for people not to talk about this.

I mean, you know what literally is weird? If you have an amazing date and you go out and you're like, you know what's those dates? So when you, we all have maybe had this or heard of this, you go out on a date and you just meet the guy or girl and oh my goodness, it was so awesome. We talked for like 16 hours non-stop and it was just amazing and the dessert was awesome and everything was awesome and it was like the music, it was like the angels were surrounding us and I just am so happy.

It would be weird to not talk about that, right? I mean, if that's your friend, that's your bro, that's your sis, nobody's like, why are you sharing this? That's so weird. No people are like, I'm so happy for you.

I mean, that's like a relationship thing but the same thing is true. If you have just an amazing meal, like this is how we lower this bar so much, this is amazing meal, you're like, I ate the best meal ever, you can't shut up about it. Oh my goodness, and then the egg yolk opened and spilled over the sandwich, it blew my mind. Nobody's like, why are you shoving this down my throat?

So rude. No, you're like, it's a good meal, where can I get it? Please, give me the address, invite me next time, okay? You're just the things that we share.

But what, you're gonna share Jesus, that's weird. Wait, you're gonna actually talk like you're excited about Jesus, how awkward. Don't you worry about what they're thinking of you? And you're like, no, I'm not worried about what they're gonna think of me, I'm worried where they're gonna spend eternity, that's what I'm worried about.

Like, I'm worried that they not know actually the best thing in my life, because how can they know me and not know him? You gotta know him. Jesus is hanging out with some religious people, Luke 15. Says the tax collectors and sinners, they're all gathering there.

I love that, the tax collectors and sinners. Where's Jesus at? He's with the tax collectors and the sinners. Let me just say that again, he's with the tax collectors and the sinners.

Where's Jesus at? He's with the tax collectors and the sinners. You see, Jesus had this interesting rhythm. He was either with his crew, there was a crew he had that he went deep with, like the literal model for which we do church comes from Jesus with his disciples, he's with them, he's fellowshipping with them, they're going deep together, they're abiding, they're learning to abide, he's teaching them truths or blowing their mind, and then literally, they're either huddled together or they're out with the tax collectors and the sinners.

Like it's either A or B, which one is it? I mean, you don't, there is no choice. Now this is the problem with prosperity, it's the problem with the blessing we've had of freedom and all these things, it's like, we've been given the choice in our age of saying, like, I can just be successful and comfortable and there is no cost. Like it literally clarifies your faith.

When people are gonna kill you for going to church, you really have to choose if you're gonna go or not. But today there's no cost, there's no penalty. Like, you can just go and fit in and nobody knows and you keep it yourself and nobody cares. In fact, if you don't keep it yourself, then people are like, whoa, hold on, hold on, wait a second.

Are you getting weird, don't get weird? No, no, no, I'm done being weird, I'm gonna start to be normal. Like, I was weird for a long time. Like, I thought that you could know the greatest thing ever and keep it to yourself.

How weird is that? I'm done being weird, wow, is that weird? Holy, what was I thinking? It's like somebody never told me.

You should talk about this, duh. Jesus is hanging with the tax collectors and sinners and the religious leaders are there judging him. Why would you hang with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus says this parable, I'm gonna give you three quick points.

He gives this parable, he says, suppose you have 100 sheep and you lose one. You get 100 sheep and you lose one. Okay, so 100 minus one, it's 96, 99. 99, he says, suppose you have 100 sheep, you lose one.

He says, wouldn't you leave the 99 in open country and go after that lost sheep until you find it? Wouldn't you leave the 99 in open country? You see, we read the Bible and we miss so much of the nuance and the context and the culture. Now hung out with shepherds and you ask any shepherd, you say, hey, would you ever leave 99 sheep in open country and then leave for one?

They would say, no, you wouldn't do that. Why could sheep or dumb? Sheep scatter. If you leave 99 sheep for one sheep, you're gonna lose like 25 more sheep.

Hey, you wouldn't do this. This is very like something you wouldn't do. Jesus is giving an illustration where his hearers are gonna think to themselves, no, you wouldn't do that. But Jesus is trying to drive from a point because they're saying, why are you with sinners?

And Jesus says, well listen, wouldn't you leave 99 sheep to go after one? No, we wouldn't do that. And wouldn't you, when you find the one, wouldn't you put that sheep on your shoulders and go home? Again, they're thinking, no, like you wouldn't put your dignified person, you're not gonna put no stanky sheep on your shoulders and then wouldn't you come home and yell to your neighbors and get them all together and say, everybody, I found my law sheep.

Now if that sounds weird to you, it should. I mean, this is equivalent to you, it's like 1230 at night. You know, you've just eaten way too much carbohydrates for any human, the Netflix thing is still spinning. Are you still watching?

You're like, why do you ask? You know what, I'm still here. Why do you judge me? You know, and you're sitting there and you can't find the remote.

Anybody ever lose the remote? It's like panics coming over, you're trying to figure, you need to hit the next episode, it's about to turn off. You're like, no, where's the remote, where is it? Chido crumbs are everywhere.

You just look like horrible representation of yourself. You find the remote and you go out into the street. Everybody, I found the remote. Your neighbors are like, we are moving.

Jesus is saying, this is the father's heart for lost things. This is man, I am the one that leaves the 99 to go after the one. I'm the one, three parables, three pictures of God's heart. I'm the one that dust the floor to find that lost coin.

And I'm the one that rejoices when my lost son, who's done everything wrong, comes back home. This is my heart, this is my heart. This is my heart. Why am I with sinners and tax collectors?

You clearly don't know who I am. You don't know my heart. If you've been in the room with me, you would know my heart is for lost things. My heart is for broken people.

My heart is for and prostitutes and tax collectors and people who are addicted and people who think God hates them. My heart is for the LGBTQ community. My heart is for Muslims. My heart is for atheists.

My heart is for the people who other people judge. You see, we got too many Christians who they're judging people who aren't like them. What do you figure? How did you vote that way?

How could you do that thing? How dare you shame on you? No, you know what a Jesus person says? Man, I get why you would do that.

You don't know any better, but I'm gonna love you and I'm gonna care about you. And then I'm gonna be there for you. And I'm not gonna give up on you. Why?

Cause Jesus never gave up on me. God is looking for people who are in the, in the hundred. They're in the hundred. They're here.

We're like, man, we're in it. Let's go. But he's looking for those that are in the hundred that are saying, now we gotta leave the 99. We gotta leave the 99.

We gotta leave the 99. It's good for us to be here, but we gotta go. Cause there's more sheep that need the shepherd. There's more sheep that don't know any better.

And they might fall off a cliff unless we go. We gotta go. We gotta go. We gotta go.

Cause the Holy Spirit is saying make way. Make way. Make way. So three things I wanna challenge you with.

I'm gonna give you an invitation. Number one, I think you need to check your hearing. You gotta check your hearing. You gotta check your hearing.

You gotta check your hearing. Can you hear me? You gotta check your hearing. You gotta check your hearing.

If you are never thinking about lost people as they walk by you, then you aren't listening to the God of the universe. If you keep going to work, frustrated at your boss, bitter about your coworkers, you aren't listening to God. I'm telling you, the Holy Spirit is not inspiring you to judge them. That is the devil.

The Holy Spirit is not inspiring you to think less of that person in your life who thinks differently than you. That is not God. God's heart is that they would be saved and set free. God's heart is that they would be changed and redeemed and rescued.

You gotta check your hearing. You gotta wanna hear your voice. A couple of years ago I was running and I went to this, Josh knows this story. I went to my, to get a haircut in Northeast and my barbershop was closed.

It's like hipster barbershop. It's closed, first world problems, when you need that cut, you need that fade. And I'm like, why God? And I'm running home and I see the barber pole and I turn in, it's all Arabic.

And I open it up, there's always Middle Eastern man. And I was like, ha ha ha, no thank you. I ran away. And I literally ran away.

I was like afraid. I was like, I'm not gonna go be around, these Middle Eastern men. I've watched way too much Fox News. And I've seen way too many action movies.

I know how Muslims are. And as I'm running away, it's like, Holy Spirit's like, hey big shot evangelist. Hey, Jesus God, how's it going? Being bold, telling all those people to share the gospel.

How's that going for you? Soft in my tracks, turn around and go sit in the barber chair and meet Ahmed Ahmed. You know, pulls out the straight edge razor. I literally wonder if I'm gonna be on YouTube.

You know, I'm just like, you're thinking man, Nick, you're kind of pretty racist. That's pretty wrong. I'm like, yeah, I was wrong. I was wrong.

You can be a Christian and have a lot of very wrong messed up things in your life. So it's called sanctification. Like, there is more, this invitation. If you want more, you gotta deal with the things that are holding you back from more.

And one of those things holding you back is a wrong image of God's image bearers. You're judging that mom, that gal going into Planned Parenthood, you're hating her, you're thinking less than her. But man, God wants you to love her. You're judging those guys going into the mosque.

God wants you to say, man, let's go. I love you. Do you know Jesus? Ahmed and I, he's the other guy's praying for it.

I texted him and I was just convicted of the Holy Spirit and I was like, I keep asking him to come to things with me but why don't I just offer to go with him? And so I texted him, I'm like, Ahmed, can I come with you to Friday prayer at the mosque? And he comments like, what? He texts me back, what?

He's like, I need to call you now. So literally right before I preach, he calls me and I'm in the back and he's like, what are you talking about? You want to come to mosque? And I'm like, Ahmed, I just, I love you.

I love you too, brother. And I've been getting my hair going from here for like eight years. And I gotta be honest, I don't go there because he's the best haircut in town. I just gotta be real.

Sometimes it's pretty rough. What happens in that chair? But we're getting better together. And, but I'm there on a mission.

I'm there on a mission and I've told him, Ahmed, someday you and your wife and your two kids, they're gonna know Jesus. They're gonna know Issa. And we just talk and we pray and I love him. I hear you, I want to hear you.

And I gotta tell you guys, like, Ahmed has taught me so much about Jesus. He's taught me so much about God. He's taught me so much about God's heart for people who aren't like me. It's amazing.

The second thing you gotta ask God to change is that he would reset your comfort, your comfort, your comfort, you know, God. If you're going to live by faith, that means you have to live a little uncomfortable. This flies in the face of everything that the American dream has told us, that you need to be saved. We get insurance for our insurance in this country.

Like we literally insure ourselves from ever needing God's help. But I'm telling you, like God, he calls you to risk. Add a zero to that gift. Go to the hard places.

Talk to the person you wouldn't normally talk to. Why? Because when you step into the unknown, you need to turn to God and not in what you can do. You say, where is God?

Where's God in my city? He's wherever you would be uncomfortable going. That's where you should be. Where is it?

You need to go with the Somali population. You need to go love the LGBTQ community. You say, why would I do that? Because there's people there who are made in the image of God that don't know him.

And I would tell you if there's people you're judging or thinking less of, those are the people that I would encourage you to go to first. You say, hold on, Nick. Will you actually want me to love my enemies? I think somebody said that once.

Guys, I'm just telling you, like, there's more. This isn't judgment. This is invitation. This is invitation.

There's more, you know, a couple weeks ago, actually last week we were at the border. And there's a million people across the US Mexico border this year. They're stuck. They're stuck at the border.

Just camps, cages. Just stuck at the border. My heart was just wrecked. Just children, young couples.

Just people who are traveling for 30, 40, 50 days, like every woman pretty much has been raped. They're sexually assaulted. These kids have nothing. They've left everything in the cartel.

They just use them. People say, man, that's not our problem. Why are they coming in here? Well, kind of this is our problem.

You know why it's kind of our problem? It's our problem because they are displaced because of the violence of the cartel. The cartel is violent and powerful because the drug trade is massive. You know the biggest consumer of drugs in the world is the US of A.

So we are creating a massive need and demand for narcotics, which is resulting in violence that is displacing people in underserved impoverished areas. We're fleeing their country. They're so terrified. And they show up at our border.

We say, that's not my problem. It means a reset of your comfort. Number three, I'm going to end here. It means a reset of your tribe.

And I'm telling you, listen, Jesus hang with the 12. You know what we've done today is we just built a whole life around the 12. And it's like, hey, let's just do this. Like, let's just hang and be here forever.

Let's just kind of coom by up, Bible camp forever. Like, let's just be comfortable and play it safe. And let's keep our kids away from sinful kids. And let's keep our families away from sinful families.

And let's just do whatever we can do to be as comfortable and safe as we possibly can. Because that's the way you do it here. More comfortable seats and bigger buildings and more music and more books for me, for me. Like, oh, God, you just love me.

You love me. You love me, God. Oh, I just want to soak in your presence forever. God, just me and you, Jesus.

So awesome. If we could just be best friends and just like know each other forever and just hang out and never actually have to like leave this place. This is the best. And you're like, why am I depressed?

Why am I frustrated? Why am I struggling? Why am I not growing? I'm just like, man, you aren't at all you can eat Jesus buffet.

And man, you got to get out there. Mr. Reason, if you're trying, man, I got to be honest. I'm an evangelist, which means I get twitchy around Christians.

Christians are weird. Like, some of you guys have been around Christians so much that you forgot how weird you are. Like, this is weird. It is weird.

It's weird. It's weird. It's weird. It's weird to not hear swear words all the time.

Like, it's weird to not have people doing weird stuff. It's weird. It is weird. Like, man, we're hanging here.

It's to go there. Man, it's the same. And where are the lost ones? Where are the lost ones?

Where are the lost ones? You know, when I was in college, we were crying out to God. And I'm going to have an invitation here. Because I really believe this, that there's some people in this room that God is calling you to leave what is comfortable and to leave what is safe.

And I think that your faith is going to move you to this altar. And we want to pray for you for the Holy Spirit to feel you. And we forget this. The purpose, one of the main purposes of the Holy Spirit coming was that the believers would move from being afraid to being full of power and courage and boldness, not for them, but for the lost.

Like, they were running from the people who wanted to kill them, and then all of a sudden the Holy Spirit came on them, and then they were praying for the people who were going to kill them. And they were testifying before they were killed. I mean, they went from being like pansies to being radically full of the Holy Ghost to the point that people said, who are these people? They fed with Jesus.

And so somebody who you need to move from fear to fame, you need to move from comfort to a radical discomfort of saying, God, I'm going to to find my comfort for where I find my comfort in you. God, I'm going to reset my tribe. I love the lost. I'm going to prioritize people that don't know you.

We were in a prayer group and we were praying for our five, and there was a girl in our group, and she said, I don't know enough lost people. She was really guilty. Like, I don't know enough lost people. And I bet there's people here that you can't even list five people that you are close with and need Jesus.

Because, man, we live our lives in such a bubble. And like, that's become okay. And I'm just telling you, it's okay that you're here. It's not okay that you stay here.

But she came back and she's praying and she's like, guys, God's calling me to be a missionary. We said, what do you mean? She's like, I'm going to get a job and I'm going to go and get this job as a missionary. And we said, you go to Africa?

She said, no guys, every job, if you know Jesus is a missionary job. And we said, okay, thank you for teaching us more than we've ever heard in church. Appreciate that. And she said, where are you going to go work?

She said, I'm supposed to go work at the Northern. Now, is that Fargo at NDSU and the Northerns are strip club. Not the Steak House, but strip club, clothes coming off, strip club. And she was like, wait, you can't be a stripper?

That is not okay. And she's like, no, no, no, no. They need cloaks at the Northern. Who's going to love those girls?

And we're like, wait a second. You're going to go work. Oh my goodness. Don't tell your parents.

Let's go pray. And so we started to prayer walk around the Northern in the dead of winter. You know we didn't got a job at the strip club. And literally you happen to our prayer group like these women started to come to our prayer group, started to come to our church.

Like the church had to come behind them and say, hey, there's more for you. If you're here right now, I want you to come down front and you're saying, God, I want to go. I want to go. If that's you, you just come right down front right now.

You're just saying, God, I want Holy Spirit boldness. I want you to replace my fear with faith. Some of you are here and you're like, man, I'm not even trying with lost people. And you're just being confronted with a reality that there's people all around you that you are blind to.

And God, He's opening your eyes and He's inviting you. That song we sang before when we were saying make way, make way, make way, make way, make way, make way. You were singing that song. You didn't know you were singing that song over yourself.

That God was wanting you to make way of your priorities. That's some things they need to move around and your priorities. If that's you I want you to come down front. Now, we'll wait.

Josh said it. We'll wait. Holy Spirit, we love you. We welcome you.

Thank you, God, that you are merciful. You are compassionate. You are so slow to anger. You are abounding in love, God.

You don't come with condemnation. Jesus, you said the Son of man didn't come to condemn the world but to save the world. And so that voice of condemnation that says, see, see, you're not enough. See, it's another example of why you're not enough.

No, no, no, that is not what is happening right now. This is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit saying there's more for you. There's more for you. This mission, this urgent, beautiful mission that sent Jesus to Earth 2000 years ago.

It is still happening today and you have a part.