CALLED TO A LIFE BEYOND THE CROWD - Pastor Christa Armstead | Elk Grove

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More about Pastor Christa:
     
  Meet Christa, a beacon of inspiration and unwavering dedication, whose life's work as a pastor and community advocate illuminates a path of support and upliftment for all. Drawing from her own trials, Christa's compassionate heart and acute sensitivity embrace the needs of others, a testament to her profound understanding of the human experience.

Grounded in an unshakable faith, Christa finds solace, strength, and boundless inspiration to triumph over personal challenges, discovering the sweet taste of freedom in the process. With a flame burning brightly within her, she is driven by an unwavering passion to share her healing journey, extending a hand of hope and guidance to those who strive for liberation.

For years, her voice lay dormant, but now, it emerges like a clarion call, resonating with the intention to touch hearts and ignite transformative change. Christa's words carry the weight of wisdom born from her own vulnerability, and in their embrace, she seeks to empower others to embrace their own journey of growth and transformation.

As you embark on your own path, let Christa's story be a testament to the indomitable spirit that dwells within each of us, reminding us that through dedication, faith, and the power of our voices, we can move mountains and create a world where hearts are healed and lives are forever changed.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

I'd like for you to talk back to me and I might ask you some questions and might ask you to respond. So I'm gonna start off with this question. If I were to look at your Spotify list, look at your playlist, who would and you're gonna you're gonna y'all gonna talk, but not one at a time on this one, but you're gonna say who your favorite art. Now look, don't y'all get all spiritual and go, Maverick City or Chris Tomlin. I know you guys are listening to more than Chris Tomlin in Maverick City, but if that's who you're listening to, that's okay. But don't try to act real spiritual because I'm asking this question. So just tell me who's your favorite artist on your Spotify list that you're listening to on repeat that you're pressing over and over again. Melvin, okay, Melvin. Oh, he's he's fired. They said Earth Went and Fire. Do you remember? Hey, what it was like okay, C C C. Anybody else? Journey. Um, what's my favorite journey song? What is it? Don't stop. Believe it. See what happens when you go to a diverse church? And I can do it all. I can I can keep going. Okay. Now, how many of you have ever been to a concert of your favorite artist? Okay, okay, tell me that. She don't want to say it. See how she's like, she's hesitant. Luther, hey, okay. Okay. Somebody said print? Oh, really? What year, girl? What year? Okay, okay, because that she's she wait, wait, you're gonna be blown away by this. I asked this question because I wanted to share a story with you all. Literally, 1984, I was in high school down in LA in 1984. I got surprised with the best birthday gift. Were we at the same place? Were we at the form in California? Okay. My aunt gave me tickets to see Prince for my birthday. And we were at the form. The form holds about 18,000 people, so we're at the form now. Y'all don't make fun of this, but in my high school, there's Prince right there, right there. We were huge fans of Prince, right? Some of some of my classmates were too huge of a fan because they they literally tried to dress like Prince, right? They would have tight pants on with the ruffled blouses. I'm like, I don't know if that's I think you're gonna regret that look a little bit later in the future. Pastor Ephraim's from Minneapolis, so he even told me that he had a tight pair of black pants. I tried to get the photo from Dinesha, but I think they were keeping it under lock and key. But we were such big fans of Prince that we tried to dress like him. Okay, now y'all, this is a picture of me in high school. It's gonna pop up. Maybe. I'll keep talking. Anyway, a picture of me in high school. And when my kids first saw this picture, they said, Mom, why'd you have a Joe Dirt? I'm like, a Joe Dirt? That's when you cut your hair shorter on the top and you wore it real long in the back. I said, That's not no Joe Dirt. That's a Sheila E, that's Lisa and Lisa and the revolution, right? They were like, they were trying to clown me. He said, I had a Joe Dirt. That movie wasn't even around yet in 1984. But and then how many of you remember this song? Some of you weren't even born in 1984. You weren't even around when Prince, but if I sing this song, y'all sing it with me. Okay, let's see if you know the lyrics. Purple hooray, purple rain. And there's a little pause, and we do it again. Purple hoorain, purple rain. And it does it one more time. Purple rain, purple rain. Purple hoorain, purple rain. I only want to see you. What's the word? Exactly. Some said laughing, some said bathing. I'm like, okay, we thought I thought I knew all the lyrics back then, but I probably didn't. The crowd that night was electric. The forum was packed wall to wall with us Prince Wannabes, us fans. I had no idea that Prince would one day become the cultural icon that he has become, right? Prince is known around the world. Like I just proved today. Some of you were not even thought of in 1984, but you know the lyrics to that song. As much as um, but as much as I, you know, tried to dress like Prince, I tried to cut my hair like Wendy and Lisa, at the end of that night, I wasn't in the group. I was just a face in the crowd. I'm just a face in the crowd. I'm not in the group. During Jesus' earthly ministry, crowds of people surrounded him. I mean, in Mark, in the book that we're going to be in today, I every almost every chapter that I read, I said, and the crowd, and the crowd, and the crowd, and the crowd, and the crowd. And it was too crowded, and the crowds and the crowds, they followed him. They pressed in on him. Remember the woman with the issue of blood, right? She couldn't get to Jesus because of the crowds, but she said, if I could just touch what? If I could just touch a little piece of his robe, of his garment, I know that I'll be made whole. So she pressed her way despite the crowds when she couldn't get through the crowds. And then there was a man, they called him short. His name is Zacchaeus. You know, people had heard about Jesus, they heard his teachings, they heard about his miracles, so they really were pressing in to see to see this man, Jesus. Zacchaeus wanted to see him so bad he couldn't get through the crowd, so he climbed up in a tree. Jesus literally looks up and says, Zacchaeus, called him by name too. Zacchaeus, come down, follow me, come with me today. People from every walk of life, rich, poor, men, women, even children, even little children were brought to Jesus. Jesus fed the crowds. He taught the crowds. He blessed the crowds, as we just talked about. He loved every single person in that crowd. Every single person in the crowd. But listen, he never chased crowds and he wasn't impressed by them. He didn't come to gather crowds, he came to call people out of the crowds. He came to call people out of the crowd. As pastors, we've been talking about this a little bit. We were talking about this uh last week. It's dangerous, you all. I'm I don't I'm not trying to scare you, but I'm I just as as this is the truth that I have to live in too as a pastor. It's dangerous to be in the crowd. This is a crowd. Some of you are like, I just got invited here today. Man, she's gonna be all in my business, right? Um it's dangerous to be in the crowd. To know your to know the favorite worship songs, right? If I say, I trust in God, y'all go, come on. Come on, come on, come on. He will good, y'all in the choir, y'all in, you're you're in. Auditions are next week. But it's dangerous to know to know our you know, the the worship songs, to to listen to the preaching of our favorite pastor. Don't say it's Pastor Tyrone today because it'll make me feel a little bad. But to do all of that, to gather in this crowd, to worship, to hear the word taught, and yet just stay in the crowd. Jesus ultimately, we do these things, we gather, we gather, but Jesus never meant for us to stay in this crowd. He's calling us out of the crowd. He's calling us to come out of the crowd and into a personal, intimate relationship with him. It's dangerous to sit up in church year after year and just never and you're missing out. Not only is it dangerous, you're missing out on one of the greatest things ever, is to have this personal, up close commitment with Jesus. So Jesus didn't come that we could be comfortable just being in the crowd, he came so that we can be converted. Say that he doesn't want, he don't care about me being comfortable, he cares about me being converted. Today I want to talk to you about from the topic that he's calling you out of the crowd into a personal relationship, and I just want to ask you a question. And I'm gonna ask this question throughout the sermon. Can you hear me? Do you hear me? Can you hear Jesus calling you? Have you have you heard the call of Jesus? Have you accepted the call of Jesus? Not just to come and fellowship here at Elgrove. Midtown is a great church, but he's calling us beyond that. He's calling me beyond that. I would, you know, he's calling us to a life of a personal relationship with him. So let me let me just pray. I know we prayed, but Father God, I just thank you. I thank you for your word, God, that even speaks to me. I'm not um, as a pastor, I'm not counted out from this. Lord, if I could even be honest, sometimes you're calling me, you're calling me to prayer, you're calling me to intimacy with you, and I'm so busy that I say, oh, Jesus, you know, in a little bit, when I get home, tomorrow morning, I put you on pause. But Jesus, today, God, today, we ask that you would speak to us. I pray, God, that every single person in this room, Holy Spirit, you know how to give us the word in a way that we hear it, in a way that we can understand it, and in a way that we can personally respond to it. So I just ask that in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So just as a little review in Mark's gospel, there's a really important question. You know, we're in the book of, we're in the book of Mark, right? And we're talking about this, the practice, the practice, put it into practice. There's a question that Mark asks and answers throughout the book in ways that that we're gonna talk about. So Jesus' disciples have been had been walking with him for a while, they've been hearing his teaching, they've been seeing all the miracles. Mark records over 20-something miracles. Like Mark is the book of miracles. If you read the book of Mark, like in Matthew, it says, Oh, and Jesus begat, and he was, you know, and he was the son of David, and he gives the lineage and it gives all this. Well, Mark is just like, bam, he's talking to the Roman audience, and his main point is to ask and answer this question. So Jesus turns to his disciples and he says, Who do they? First of all, I want to know who's they. Y'all ever wonder that when they say they said you're like, Who's they? Did you say it? Or, you know, who said it? They. But who do they say I am? And then they said, they thought some people thought that Jesus was reincarnated, that he was John the Baptist, that he had come back. Some thought he was Elijah, one of the prophets of the Old Testament, that he had come back. So they say, Well, they say you're this and they say you're that. And then he got them. He leaned in, he said, and this is more important to us, to me. It's not important with Christina, who Christina as much. I mean, I care about what Christina says, what her answer is, but I really need to be concerned with my answer to this question. Then he looks at his disciples and says, Who do you say I am? I want you to think about that for a moment. Who do you say Jesus is? Because that answer to that question determines how closely it determines how we practice this walk, how we will be discipled. It will determine whether we follow him from afar or whether we follow him up close. Who do you say he is? He fed the 4,000. He fed the 5,000. There's a 4,000 story and there's a 5,000 story. I thought this was kind of funny because he said the little boy brought two fish and five loaves of bread. That'd be like feeding 5,000 people with a fillet of fish from McDonald's in modern day terms. Like, little boy has his little fillet of fish, and there's crowds of people in this church. And imagine us trying to divide up that little fillet of fish. Like, I would just take the whole thing from y'all, just so you know. Y'all wouldn't get one. I'd be like, go get your own. McDonald's is down the street. But they didn't have McDonald's back in the day. Jesus taught the people, He He taught the crowds. And so it's really important. I'm gonna, I'm going to mark the second chapter, the first verse, and I just want to be reading out of there. The scriptures should come up on you know on the screens, but when you get a chance, you can go home and read this for yourself. Like read, read these scriptures, let them get in your heart. Jesus taught the crowds. A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside of the door. And he preached the word to them. Remember, I said the crowds were curious, right? They gathered because this teaching was so unusual. This wasn't teaching that they had heard before. But in Mark, the first chapter, Jesus basically tells us why he came to teach. He says, Jesus, it says, Jesus went into Galilee proclaiming the good news. Can you say good news? Come on, can you say good news? How many of you are sick of the bad news? Like, really? Like I can't even right, thank you. I can't even turn on the TV or go on Instagram or anything. It's like bad news, bad news, bad news. Well, just like them back then, us today, they were the same. They were they were tired of bad news. Jesus said, I came to give you some good news. And guess what the good news is? It's not that you know he's gonna bless you with a new car. He might. You know, it's not that the new house is coming, you know, it's not that the the pay raise is coming, but he's come to bless us with some good news. And this is what he says the good news is. He says, the time has come, the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news. That word repent means turn around. Remember, if you were here like a month or so ago, I talked that about the seed and the kingdom of God and that little mustard seed, and now the kingdom of God is like that little mustard seed, that little mustard seed grows in our lives. Jesus said, I came to call you out of the crowd so that you like it's easy to blend in with the crowd. He doesn't he doesn't want you to blend in with the crowd, he wants you to repent and come out of the crowd. He was teaching so they could that they could know who he is, the Son of God. And I love this as I was reading through the book of Mark, he says this word over and over again. When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began to teach them many things. Compassion is just simply love and action. Jesus didn't just come, he didn't just talk the talk. You know, sometimes people be talking to talking be like, I love you, and you let you let you get in trouble. You'll be like, Where is the where is that person? Where are they at? Jesus has compassion. And guess what? Jesus has compassion on you and I today. Every single person sitting in this room, you are not here by a coincidence. He brought you here intentionally, he's brought you to this day, this time, this season, this era for such a time as this, because he has compassion on us and he wants to shepherd us and love us. So he teaches. He teaches about himself. He teaches us, as I said, he teaches us not just for information but transformation. Have you ever met anyone that could quote scriptures? Like there are some religious teachers, there's some professors who teach religion and don't have a relationship. That blows my mind. I'm like, how do they know all that information about Jesus? But he's not looking to get information in our heads. He's not looking for you just to be able to recite some scriptures, he's looking for your transformation for our lives to be literally changed by him. So he teaches because of compassion. The other thing that he does, not only does he teach the crowd, did he teach the crowd, but he blessed the crowd. And we talked about that a little bit with the woman with the issue of blood. I just like to say the woman with the issues. Anybody in here have issues? Am I the only one that has issues? I'll be like, Lord, I still quote that scripture. Jesus, if I could just literally be like that woman today, I just need, I just need a touch from you. I just need a touch. God, through your touch, I can be healed. Through your touch, I will be changed. Through your touch, I will be transformed. Through your touch, I will be encouraged. Through your touch, my mind will be regulated. Just a touch. I don't need to hug Jesus right now. I don't need you to even speak to me. I just need to touch. Still a little touch, and that's what she did. And he turned around and he acknowledges her. He blessed the crowd. I believe it was Pastor Otis who taught us a few weeks ago. I'm continuing on in that same chapter, I'm going to verse 3. Some men came to Jesus, bringing him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Now, normally, Pastor Otis taught us this. Normally we say four friends carried him. But the Bible doesn't say that. It don't say four friends carried him. It says four men carried him, right? And why is this important? It says, since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowds, they made an opening in the roof above, digging a hole through the roof to lower that man down to his mat. I was just thinking, maybe these weren't friends, but they were just people who had experienced the compassion and the love of Jesus. If you have experienced the compassion and the love of Jesus, if you have really experienced it, to me, it's just very hard to keep it to yourself. I mean, really, you just, you just, I don't know. I just want to tell everybody. I'm like, I was a mess. And he fixed me up. He like he picked me up. That's all. Turn me around. He placed my feet on solid ground. I thank the Lord. I thank the master. I thank God. Right? You have a testimony. You have a testimony. So I believe those men, they just said, look, this brother needs to get to Jesus, right? This brother needs just Jesus. I don't care if we're friends or not. Can you imagine? Now, some of you have actually done this, right? They bogarded to Jesus. They took cuts in line. Have you ever been at a concert or watching a movie and you're like behind the person in the front of the line, and all of a sudden 10 of their friends come over and get in the line? They done called them and say, girl, you get in the line, and then I'll no, y'all get in the back of the line. Excuse me, I was here second. Maybe I wasn't here first, but I was here. That's what those men did. They bogarded to Jesus. They cut in the line. Come on, say, cut in the line sometimes. Get out my way. When you get to church, say y'all got, excuse me. Excuse me, because I need to get to Jesus. So he he blessed the people. They dug a roof in the hole. On one occasion, a man with leprosy steps out the crowd by himself. So nobody brought him. He said he had heard Jesus and and heard about the miracles. And he was a little apprehensive. Have you ever been apprehensive and just wondered? Does Jesus want to bless me? You look like, oh, that worship team, they look real spiritual, right? They look like they just spent a lot of time with Jesus. I don't do all that, but I wonder, am I good enough? Am I worthy enough? Does he love me enough? Does he would he would he would he bless me? I wonder. So this this leper and leprosy was shameful. It was a it was a it was a shameful disease because you could get other people infected with leprosy. So you had to live way out somewhere. He was not permitted to come to Jesus. But you know what? He so that's why he he said, I'm a I'ma come too. I'm gonna come a little bit apprehensive, but I'm coming. Some of us, if we would admit it, if you would really hear our testimonies, you'd be like, Woo, yeah, there's a reason you were far off. Yeah, you probably should, you might still need to stay a little far off, we know. But we come with a lot of shame, we come with a lot of baggage. So this man, this leper says to Jesus, he kneels before him and said, Lord, if you are willing, can you heal me? Can you heal me? And you know what Jesus does? Jesus reaches out his hand and touched the man and said, I am willing. Immediately the man was healed. Come on, say he is willing. He's willing. Is that some good news? That he's willing to bless you, he's willing to bring you out, he's willing to hear you, he's willing to help you, he's willing to save you, he's willing to work miracles in your life, he is willing. We don't have to come to him afraid. He already went to the cross so that we could. They said that he tore the veil when he went on the cross and he was crucified, darkness. There was a veil that was ripped off. In the Old Testament, they had to do all this stuff to get to Jesus. Now, thank God we don't have to do any of that. We can just come. I don't need a priest, I don't need a pastor. Did y'all know? I don't need a church. I can get to Jesus in my car, I can get to Jesus in my bed. Room. I can get to Jesus wherever I am and say, Lord, help me. And you know he says, I am willing. I am willing. That really just blessed me. Jesus is willing to meet our needs, but ultimately, he is really after our hearts. He'll do all that. He ain't got no problem doing all that. I thought about some of us, he has opened doors that we couldn't open for ourselves. He has blessed us to get in colleges and schools that we couldn't get in, or he's blessed us to buy our first house, or he's blessed us. You name it, you put your name in there. You know what he's blessed you to do. I thought about me growing up in a in the hood of LA, y'all. Four of my friends were dead. Friends, I'm not talking about uh a story on the news. I lived in a rough part of LA where young people were literally not making it out of high school. This is another time for another story, but literally, I was shot in high school. Shot in high school, and I'm here to still talk about it. Oh, he's willing to bless, he's willing to heal, he's willing to protect, he's willing to save. I shouldn't even be here today. Oh my God, but he's willing, he's willing to do so much more. He's not he's not shy about blessing us, but he just doesn't want the blessings to get in place of the relationship. So he's teaching, he's blessing, or he's healing, and ultimately he's calling. He's calling. Are you listening? Do you hear? Can you hear? He's calling us out of the crowd. I'll never forget the day. Some of you have heard it at nauseum, so I won't tell you it over again, but I'll never forget the day. I heard him call me out of the crowd. Some of you today, he is saying, today is your day. The scripture says, the day we hear his voice, harden not your hearts. Today is your day. Don't stay in the crowd. So he's teaching, he's blessing, and he's calling. Mark 2, 13 says, once again, Jesus went out beside a large, uh, another large crowd, you all. Beside the in a large beside the lake, and a large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. There he's teaching again. And as he walked along, he saw Levi, the son of Alpha, sitting at the tax collector's booth. Follow me. Follow me, Jesus told him. And Levi got up and followed him. Then later on, Levi is having dinner. Jesus is having dinner with Levi. And while they were having dinner at Levi's house, the scripture says, many tax collectors and sinners, very important, were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many that followed. I love this part. Jesus is calling folks by name. There's a song we used to sing, He knows my name. He knows my every thought. He sees me when I fall, and hears me when I call. Jesus is calling by name. He said, Levi, come and follow me. Some of us, he's calling families of us. I'm looking at two families, and I'm not supposed to say names, I won't say names, but there's some of you that are here today. You're in family serving God. You done called your mama nam, you done called your auntie nam, you done called your cousin them. Y'all say, come on, come on, come on, come on. We're meant to share the good news with our families. Some of us are single and we're not, we're not, we may not have mothers and fathers that are here at church with us, but guess what? We've been called to be a part of this family of God and this body to worship together as a family. Is that good news? Any of you glad that you got a family? He's calling us out of the crowd, he's calling us by name, he's calling broken people. He ate with sinners. The religious folks couldn't stand it. They was too busy criticizing and being religious. They missed out. Remember, I said he don't want just religion. He doesn't care about us. Oh, I prayed today, check. I uh I fasted last week, check, I went to church for an hour, check, check, check, and none of that makes no difference in our in our lives. We go to work, still honory, still evil. If we told them we were on the worship team, they'd be like, really? For real? Hmm. You never want that, right? It's better just to keep it quiet. If you're gonna, you know, if you're cutting up at work, that's just a little, you know, little bit of advice. He calls ordinary people. I love it. He called fishermen. You know what he told him? He said, Come follow me, I'm gonna make you fishers of men. Then when he calls, he calls some brothers and he calls um there's oh, this tax collector, right? I love it because sometimes we think Jesus is calling us, it means we've got to change everything about us, right? He's calling me, I'm a teacher, and he says, I want you to leave and go to Africa. No, stay right there at Christian brothers and love on those babies and love on those kids. I'm calling you to that. I love it because he said, You're a fisherman, that's that's your gift, right? Whatever your gift is, Jesus wants to use you, whatever your gift is. If your gift in this season is just being a great father, then just be a great father for Jesus. If your your calling right now is being a grandma like mama, like Mama Mia, being a grandma of 11 kids, then just be a great grandmother for Jesus. What if you're a student right now, just be a student for Jesus. Whatever you are, he's calling you, he's not changing it, he's taking you, he's taking your gifts. You know what? People in high school used to tell me, when I when people would see me later, they're like, they call my maiden name was Krista Hobbes. They were like, you are always talking us into doing stuff. I said, really? They said yes. And you would have this hopeful look on your face. I they said, I make this expression when I want people to do something like, oh, would you? And they're like, yeah, we all just doing what you said. Do you know that gift is still in play today? I remember when I worked for Nordstrom, I was a top salesperson. I mean, I wasn't competing against anybody there, but I, y'all, they didn't beat in my department, they did not beat me out. If you we we had these boards in the back where it would say salesperson, and it would have the week, and it would sell your sales, and it would have my name was on it unless I was on vacation. It would say Krista Armstead, Krista Armstead, Krista Armstead, Krista Armstead on vacation, whoever it was, Chris Armstead, Krista Armstead. But you know what I prayed? This is a serious prayer, and I witnessed to people on my job. I remember meeting a woman with cancer in her, she was in this abusive situation, and I would say, I couldn't help it, right? Remember, because I've experienced that compassion. I couldn't help myself. I'm supposed to be selling her some clothes. I think I sold her some clothes, but during that time I would just talk to people about the love of God. Then I would say, Hey, can I go with you and have coffee off work? Since I'm not supposed to be talking about Jesus per se here at work. And I remember praying when I was working in sales and really good at it since I'm 16 years old, really good at it. I said, Lord, y'all take hear this the right way. One day I want to be able to have the same enthusiasm and success at telling people about the good news. I said, I want to sell Jesus like I'll be selling these clothes, like I'll be like putting the belts on and everything. And they like walk out of there. I had one client, she would come from Denver to shop with me. She spent$15,000 in one setting. I was a good salesperson. But you know what I would prefer? I would prefer if when I get to heaven, he said, Oh, there were 15,000 souls. There were neighbors who now know me. Because you were you were you were compassionate enough to share the same compassion that Jesus has shared with you. Jesus taught the crowds, he blessed the crowds, he worked miracles in the crowds. You know why he did all that? To show that he is the Messiah, to show that he's the miracles or to show us that we're the that he's the messiah. As I told you earlier, Jesus has got no problem blessing you. But think about it. Why is he blessing you? You know, earthly miracles are gonna fade. He opened blinded eyes, but eventually those people go on to heaven. He raised Lazarus from the dead, the dead, but he had to die again. You know, the scripture tells us don't fear the first death, that would be like your physical death. He said, What we need to fear is the second death. You know what the second death is? That's the spiritual death. Either you're gonna be raised to spiritual life or you're gonna stay in spiritual death. That's what he wants us to be concerned about. Great, great that he's blessed us, great that I'm here today, great that I'm blessed, great, great, great, great. But he really wants me to know he is the Messiah, he's the savior of the world, he's the one that they were waiting for, he's the one that they preached about way back 2,000 years ago. Do you know that there are scriptures that literally in Isaiah it said he's going to, it said where Jesus was going to be born, it said what he's gonna do, it said he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for my iniquities. He said the chastisement of my peace would be upon him, and by his stripes I would be healed. That's a point, that's a that's a praise point. Sorry. That's a praise point. That's a praise point. That's a praise point. As I'm closing, Jesus is not interested in just gathering crowds, he's looking for committed followers. Then he called the crowd to him. This is Mark 8, 30, 34 through 37. Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said, whoever. So he called the crowd, but then he used a personal invitation, whoever. And he's saying today, whoever, who are you? Who are you? Who is the whoever is here today? Whoever wants to be my disciples must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life for their sake will lose it, but whoever wants to lose his their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world and yet forfeit their souls? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their souls? And I was, as I was writing that scripture, I'm like, okay, Lord, deny yourself. When was the last time I denied myself something? And I was just asking myself, like, what does it mean to deny myself? And I'm gonna just give you a few things and then we're gonna pray. Things to practice, things that show we're committed, things that help us to deny ourselves, to put ourselves aside. Choose to surrender, to surrender, choose surrender over self. Choose surrender over self. Say no to things that feed our egos, our pride, and that um give us control. I don't know about you, but we could talk about this after the sermon. I love to control things. That's my jam right there. If I could control all y'all this morning, I would. I would have all the things that I thought you should do, and I would just wave a wand and y'all all would do it. I try to control my family, I try to control circumstances, I try to control Jesus and God sometimes because I'm like, Lord, don't let that happen. He said, but I need you to surrender. I need you to trust me. Take up the cross, stay faithful when it's not rewarding. Stay faithful when it's not rewarding. Nobody's looking, but God is looking. Forgive when it hurts. Somebody say, ouch. Are you hurting right now? Is there somebody that have just harmed you and hurt you? And you are like, I'm holding on to that. He said, take up your cross, forgive them. Because if you don't forgive them, you can't be forgiven. Speak truth even when it risks approval. Release control of outcomes and trust God with your future. Jesus is still teaching, he's still blessing, and he's still calling, he's calling for commitment today. He wants us to move from curious to convicted, from casual to consecrated, and from comfortable to courageous, and finally, from in the crowd to committed followers.