All right, everybody. It's good to be here with you guys. Come on, it's Jersey Sunday. Are you excited to be at church today? Amen.
All right. Well, hey, my name is Jeff, and I am super glad you're here. If this is your first Sunday, I hope you're having a great day. I hope you're with us. You walked in the doors, you're thinking to yourself, "How do I get out of this place?" I guarantee you that's what you're thinking. But please don't do that. This is just one Sunday a year. We like to have some fun. This is just who we are. We're a group of people that break the rules when it comes to what church has to look like, and we just like to have some fun from time to time. We believe that God, we believe we share a God that likes to have fun. Come on, somebody, right? This is what we believe.
So welcome to Jersey Sunday. How many of you guys think your team is going to win? Let me hear you.
Okay. Not very confident. All right. That's good. A lot of people are like, "Nope, my team's going to lose." But I'm in it. I'm in it for the long haul. That's awesome. That's really good.
So yeah, man, I know we got family members that are here. We got friends that are here. We got people that are first-timers here. We got people that have been around forever. We got people that, you know, it took a lot for you to wear a jersey to church today, and I just want to say thank you for doing that. I think that's really, really cool of you.
Hey, look, I just want to start out today by kind of kicking off with a sports kind of a theme. So you guys understand, like, when teams play against other teams in leagues, they have a record, right? And it's called wins and losses. You'll hear them talk about how many wins they have and how many losses they have. Have you guys heard this before?
Right? You guys understand it? So, like, if I said something like a team was one and nine, what would be your response to that? If that was your team, if that was your team, and your team went one and nine, someone's out there going, "What does he mean? What does he mean?" That means this: your team had one win, and your team had nine losses. That would be a tough season, right? I would call that very bad.
What if your team was three and seven, right? And your team had one win, and your team had nine losses? That would be a tough season, still not as bad, right? What if your team went five and five? For Nebraska football, you'd be like, "That's good."
Okay. Hey, you'd be like, "All right, that's pretty good. That's a pretty good record right there." That's a pretty good thing. No, that would be like, that would be average, right? Average.
Okay. So what happens if they go seven and three? Seven wins, three losses. You guys excited about that? What if your team went nine and one? You guys excited about that?
Okay, you guys really don't like this at all. I can tell that right now. No, I'm just messing around. No, if your team went nine and one, that would be an incredible season. And if your team went ten and oh, I mean, it would just be like off the charts, right? Nine and one, I just think that would be awesome.
And so when you think about whatever team you like, and I'm not even talking about Super Bowl teams. I'm not talking about Kansas City Chiefs and the Eagles, right? I'm not talking about that, right? And I already know if you're going to ask me, "Well, Pastor, you're not even wearing one of the uniforms of one of the teams that are playing in the Super Bowl." I go, "I know." You know why? Because I'm your pastor, and I'm playing it neutral.
But secretly, don't tell my wife. I know who I have to vote for. I have to root for the Kansas City Chiefs because if you've seen my wife, then you'll know why, right? Because if I don't, I might end up at your house tomorrow.
Okay. All right. So when you think about your team, okay, think about your team.
Like, what record do you want your team to have every season? You want your team to be one win and nine losses, or do you want your team to be nine wins and one loss?
Yeah. That's what you want. That's what you want.
So let me ask you this question. What record do you want for your life?
See, we can put on jerseys. We can get all excited about our sports team. We can get excited about whatever team we try to win. Whatever team we play, we try to follow, like the St. Louis Blues, a hockey team, right? We can get excited about it before the season. We can really want them to have the nine wins, one loss kind of a record. We can want that.
But you know what we don't often think about? We don't often think about our own lives. We don't often think about, "Well, what record do I want for my life?" I feel like in a way we kind of go through life just going, "Well, whatever comes, comes."
And I'm here to tell you today, that's not the way life has to be. It doesn't have to be a mystery for you whether it's going to be a winning season or a losing season. Like, you need to know something today: that God created you to be in a winning season.
Jesus didn't create you to be a loser. Jesus didn't die on the cross for you so that you can have an average season or an average life, that you can just have five wins and five losses. No, that's not what happened. Jesus created you, and he died for you, and he wants you to be filled with his Holy Spirit so that you can have an amazing season. You can have an amazing record.
This is what I believe. I believe that Jesus prepared you to have an amazing record. Now, when you think about what wins are, many people go to the wrong kinds of wins. I'm not talking about an amazing record that deals with things like, "Man, my life's going to be perfect. I'm going to be rich. I'm never going to get sick. Everything's going to go the way I want it to. Every investment I make is going to have an amazing return. I'm going to be successful. And everything, and I'm going to be famous. I'm going to be the next big YouTube influencer."
That's not what I'm talking about when I'm talking about a winning record. What I'm talking about is a spiritual winning record, somebody.
So you were sitting out there thinking to yourself, "Oh, man, it's impossible to have a winning record." No, no, it is possible. That's why Jesus created you. That's why he died for you. That's why he wants to fill you with his Holy Spirit. He wants you to have a spiritual winning record.
What does that look like? That looks like this: that you would be full of hope. That even in the midst of life, when things are going crazy and everything's turned upside down in your life, you would still be full of hope.
Why? Because you realize that, man, your hope is not in what happens on this earth. Your hope is what happens after this life. That you would be full of hope. That would be a spiritual winning season.
That you could find the freedom that you've been seeking after. I want you to know today, Jesus created you, and he died on the cross for you so that you could find the freedom that you've been looking for and have the winning season that you desire in your life.
That's good news, everybody. Right? That's why. That's what spiritual freedom looks like. That's what a winning spiritual life looks like. That the brokenness inside of you would be healed. That you would find purpose that you're looking for. And that your sins can be forgiven.
Guys, this is the kind of season God created for you. This is why he did everything that he did. He did this for you so that you could have a winning season.
However, you need to know this: that you have an enemy who doesn't want to see you win. It's one of the reasons, it's the primary reason. We can be our own worst enemy, but we do have an enemy who doesn't want to see you win. And he's trying in every type of scheme, every type of situation, he's trying to cause you to lose. He's trying to cause you to fall flat on your face. He's trying to cause you to see the worst of your life instead of the best of your life.
Jesus is wanting you to see the best of your life.
So what is it going to take? What do you need to do if you want to win in life? What do you got to do?
Well, you got to do this: you have to have both a strong spiritual offense and a strong spiritual defense. And you got to have both. It can't be just one or the other. Because if you just have one, you're going to lose.
Like, look, you look at any sports league, you look at any sports league that you like, and if a team has got a really strong offense, meaning they can just march the ball down the field and score whenever they want. They can take the puck to the net, and they can score whenever they want. They can hit the badminton up, and they can put it down wherever they want. Or the pickleball.
All right? Come on, pickleball people. Do I have any pickleball people here, by the way? Is anybody wearing a pickleball uniform? Come on. You don't love it that much.
Okay. All right. All right. But we do have some pickleballers. I like that.
Okay. And it's awesome.
All right. So here's the thing. Like, if you just have a strong offense and you don't have a strong defense, then you'll score, but the next team will just keep scoring on you. And you'll get beat. You'll get beat every time.
If you have a strong defense, you might be able to keep the score down, but the other team eventually will beat you. Like, you have to have a strong offense and a strong defense if you're going to go nine wins and one loss. Because I like the nine wins and one loss, and here's the reason why. Because none of us are perfect.
Right? None of us are perfect. But you've got to have both.
So what does a good spiritual offense look like? What does that really look like? And I would say this: first and foremost, you've got to think about gathering together.
If you want a good, strong spiritual offense, meaning you're taking ground for the kingdom in your heart, "May your kingdom come, Lord, and may your will be done in my life," then we got to learn how to value, lean into, and take advantage of the gathering together.
And the gathering together happens in two critical phases. It happens in the large setting, and it happens in the small setting. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 25. Take a look at it with me. It says this: "And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but let's encourage one another as we meet together, especially now that the day of the return of Jesus is drawing near."
So what do we do when we gather together? Well, we're actually encouraging each other. I think when you're here today, and you're walking around, and you're seeing people that have the same jersey on as the same team that you like, that's probably pretty encouraging, right? You like that.
There are others of you that when you walk through the doors, man, you look at each other, and you see, you run into on a regular basis, and you get encouraged by that. There are other people that are at our campuses, right? And you walk through the doors, and you look around, and you see a bunch of faces that you've never seen before, especially on Jersey Sunday. And that encourages you.
There's something about large gathering, coming together on Sunday. In fact, I just want to say this to you: prioritize Sunday. Do everything and anything inside of your authority to prioritize Sunday.
Why? It is the large gathering. Some people are neglecting meeting together. Here's what's happening: they're not having a strong offense.
When you make Sunday a priority, or the large gathering, whenever we have large gatherings, whether that is like an encounter night that might happen on one of our campuses, or a big first Wednesday, or a quarterly gathering where we come together and we worship, when you prioritize the large gatherings, then you're preparing yourself to be able to take more ground for the kingdom of God.
So the large gathering. In fact, I would just go as far as to say this. I'd be bold. I would just say this: like, look, go into your calendar and put Sunday in your calendar. You put a lot of other important things in your calendar.
Maybe you should put Sunday in your calendar. If other things, going to the bank, being at this appointment, getting my hair cut, if those things are important to go on my calendar, then maybe Sunday morning should go in my calendar.
And then what happens is that when I'm entertaining another idea of maybe I can do this or do that, then you're always going, "Yeah, oh, okay, we got Sunday."
All right, but we're going to go to this grand, we're going to go to this grandchildren's thing. Like, that's important. And I love it. And I'm all for it.
Right? We're going to be out of town. We're going to be on vacation. Okay, perfect. That's incredible. I got to be away at business. Okay, great. Go do it. Just know this: like, you can always tap into New Life online.
Remember, you're dual citizens. Come on, turn to somebody and say, "We're dual citizens."
All right. You're dual citizens. You've got the physical campus that you're in right now, but you also have the online campus. And you can use both all the time.
So make the large gathering coming together physically in person where you can see each other. You can shake a hand. You can hug somebody.
Right? You can see the smile on their face. Like, don't forsake that.
Why? Because we encourage each other there. But there's also then the small group. Don't forget the small group. The small gathering, it's important as well.
That's why we do life groups here at New Life. You want to find more information about our life groups? Go to mynewlifechurch.com, and you can get all the information about all the groups: men's groups, women's groups, married groups, young adult groups, college groups, groups for teenagers, groups for senior adults.
Like, we've got groups all over the place at all of our campuses. So lean in and take advantage of gathering together. I'm telling you, that's part of having a strong spiritual offense.
Well, what's another one? Sharing your faith. Yep, I know. And for some of you, you're like, "That's scary, sharing my faith." You know, there are all kinds of creative ways for you to share your faith, but here's why it's so important for your spiritual offense.
When you share your faith, you go public with Jesus, then you set up an accountability for your life. That will help you take more spiritual ground.
Well, what does it look like to share your faith? It could be this: it could be you posting something on your social media. It could be you praying before you eat lunch. That's part of sharing your faith.
It could be you inviting someone to church. That's a huge part of sharing your faith. Inviting a friend to church, it's massive. Take advantage of that.
It could be you, man, at the right moment, telling somebody really about the spiritual transformation that's happened in your life. In fact, 1 Corinthians 16, verse 13 says this: "Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous and be strong."
Stand firm, be courageous, be strong. Guys, that happens when people know you are a follower of Jesus.
When your friends know you're a follower of Jesus, let me tell you this, you will act differently around them. It's about spiritual offense. It's about taking spiritual ground.
When your friends know that you're a follower of Jesus, it will cause you to second guess the decision you're going to make. It will cause you to speak differently. It will cause you to love differently.
Why? Because you recognize, now my friends know I love Jesus. I'm modeling Jesus for them. Like, I'm accountable to the Lord. I'm accountable to them for how I live my life. That is a really, really good spiritual offense move.
So we got a good spiritual offense. What about a good spiritual defense? Meaning, like, we're going to keep the enemy from scoring in our lives. What does it look like to have a strong spiritual defense?
And first off, I would say this: you got to have the right friends around you. You got to have the right people around you that are encouraging you to live the life that you actually want to live.
Ecclesiastes 4, 9 and 10 says it this way: "Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in what? Real trouble."
You need the right friends around you. You got to have the right people, man, that you can be real with.
Another way to say that is this: I can be honest with. Do you have the right people in your life? Because if you got the right people in your life, man, you can overcome anything.
And when the enemy tries to come and bombard you, you got somebody that's standing with you. And when you fall flat on your face, you got somebody you can be open and honest with.
You know, one of the most devastating things for a person who calls themselves a Christ follower is this: to get isolated on an island all by yourself.
When you get isolated on an island by yourself, you're stuck. You lose hope, like you lose purpose, you lose focus. One of the most vulnerable things you can do is have a person that you can actually be real with.
One of the most freeing things you can do is have a person you can be real with. When you have somebody you can be real with, and they're going to love you in spite of what you're getting ready to tell them, and they're going to walk with you, it's one of the most freeing things you're ever going to discover in your life, and it creates an incredible spiritual defense for you.
I was thinking about this in the sense of like you wouldn't think at all about getting out on the football field and trying to win the game by yourself. You would never do that. You would know, like, I can't take on all those guys on the other side of the line.
You would never try to win a football game by yourself, so why are you trying to win spiritual battles by yourself? We think we can overcome it. We think we're better than that.
You couldn't win the football game by yourself. You can't win your spiritual life by yourself. Not only do you need Christ, but we need each other. So let's not do it alone.
Let's jump in a life group. Let's be real with somebody. Let's get one person that we can get some coffee with, and we can open up our hearts and really talk to them about what's going on.
Let me tell you another thing about your spiritual defense. You got to have a good prayer life. A good prayer life means this: you just got to have a time where you can talk to Jesus, where you can open up and you can be real, and you can share what's really going on in your heart, and you can get to know him.
You can say, "But Lord, what do you think about this? What do you think about this? What do you think about this? What do you think about this?" And you can listen to what the Lord has to say about it.
First Thessalonians 5, 17 simply says this in three words: "Never stop praying."
Never stop praying. And some of you are like, "Well, that's impossible. I got to go to work."
Right? And some of you are thinking, "Wow, this is a good moment. I can use this excuse with my spouse. Don't bother me right now. I'm praying right now."
But you don't look like you're watching TV. I know, but I've never stopped praying. I can't really do it. I can't clean the house right now. I got to focus. I'm praying.
You can't use the excuse like that. But here's what he means. He means like, look, in your thoughts, some of you guys, you have random thoughts go through your minds. You have random emotions course through your heart.
Let me just say this to you: turn those into prayer. Some of you, you have thoughts that occupy your mind that are like anxiety, and you can't get rid of them.
Let me tell you this: take that to the Lord in prayer. What Paul's talking about is this: like, be in constant communication with the Lord.
The more you're in constant communication with the Lord, the more you're getting to know his heart. The more you're getting to know his heart, the more you're going to win.
So be in constant communication with the Lord. I think to me, like, look, guys, I'm just telling you like right now, like this is part of the test that I keep on myself to where, where is my spiritual heart? Am I hungering for the Lord?
I look for those, what I call the daydream moments of my life, right? Those moments of thought, and I don't really have a lot going on. Where's the thoughts of my mind? Are the thoughts of my mind racing back to the Lord? Or are my thoughts of my mind and my heart racing to some problem?
Like, where's the thoughts? Because I always want the daydream moments of my life to be racing towards the Lord. Because if they're racing towards the Lord, then I feel like, man, I'm more living out this scripture.
Like I am a man who is more praying continually. I'm never stopping. Like I want to be in constant communication with the Lord.
And when that happens, then when we get in difficult spots, then the Lord has the opportunity to speak to our heart because our heart is constantly open going, "God, I'm just wanting to have communication with you."
It's like I called you, Lord, and I've never hung up the line. Some of you, you call the Lord on a Sunday, and you hang up the line for the rest of the week.
No, you call the Lord when you surrender your life to him, and you keep the line open because you're going to need his wisdom. It's going to be part of your spiritual defense.
But lastly, I would say this: God's word. We got to have God's word in our life, right? A little bit every day if you want to have a good spiritual defense.
Here's what Psalms 119:11 says: "I've hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you."
So God's word then becomes what? Becomes a window, a window into who God is. That the more you know God, the more you know God's word, then the more you know God.
And here's what happens: then God's word becomes a weapon for you to fight back and to push back on what the enemy's trying to do. Ephesians chapter six, verse 16 says it this way: "Hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil."
Hold up the shield of faith. Hold up God's word and believe that God's word is true.
Why? Because you have an enemy who's hurling darts at you. He's hurling temptation at you. He's hurling things at your life to try to cause you to get tripped up and to lose in the game of life.
But God wants you to win. Jesus, he created you to win. He died on the cross so that you can win, right? I mean, he gave everything so that you can win. He wants to fill you with his Holy Spirit so that you can win.
And the devil's trying to do everything he can to take you out. Here's what happens when you have God's word in your heart. You take the dart, and you catch it, and you intercept it, and you slam it to the ground, and you run it back for a victory.
When you have God's word in your heart, it becomes literally, literally like a spiritual interception or a pick six for football fans. Meaning you catch it, and you turn it around, and you use it for a victory.
The only way that can happen is if you get God's word in your heart. So God's word now becomes this double-edged sword where it becomes a very strong defense, okay?
But it also turns into a very strong offense where you turn things around that the enemy can't see. The enemy tried to use against you, and you score and you make incredible things happen for the kingdom of God.
How do you do that? When you hide God's word in your heart. Now you can fight back, and you can say, "No, no, no, no, I don't believe that."
And I mean, "Greater is Jesus who's in me than he who is in the world."
No, I don't believe that. I don't believe what you're doing. No, I choose forgiveness because I have first been forgiven.
And you push back on what the enemy's trying to do. And you go, "No, no, no, no, no. I will love because Jesus, he loved me first."
No, no, no, no, I'm going to get back up, and I'm going to keep chasing Jesus.
Why? Because Jesus died on the cross for me, and when he died on the cross, he extended grace to me. This is what God's word says about me.
And you use those things, and you pick up the dart that the enemy has for you, and you run it back, and you score the touchdown.
Like, that's what it's all about. Like intercept those things with God's word and score and do big things for God.
There's a guy at our church, a young man, a year ago, in fact, on a Jersey Sunday, that all of a sudden God got a hold of his heart. Tyler Lemke is his name.
And Tyler started to learn what a dynamic spiritual offense and a spiritual defense was like in his life. And he has seen in this past year, past 12 months, radical transformation in his life.
I want you to hear more about this. I sat down with him and captured just a little bit of his life-transforming story of this spiritual offense and spiritual defense at work in his life. Take a listen to it.
Yeah. Well, hey, you and I were talking recently, right? And we were just kind of talking about your personal life. And it was a great conversation about, really, about a year ago. I mean, you saw some pretty radical transformation in your life.
Can you go back a year ago and tell me about walking through the doors at New Life?
You say broken, though, what do you mean?
Yeah. Yeah. Just trying to, really, kind of avoid what was really going on in your life. So you walk through the doors. It's Jersey Sunday. Your buddy, Michael Meyer, invites you. I mean, he probably had to invite you a number of times, and then you finally came on Jersey Sunday, right?
I think, "Wow. Dude, that's incredible."
Okay, so you come, you hear things that you need to hear, but things you don't.
Yeah. So you walk through the doors, and you don't want to hear. What caused you then to go, "I'm going to lock in, and I'm going to be a part of New Life?"
And then since then, what's really been going on in your life?
I think, I mean, one of the things you told me is that you're also serving in ministry, and people might even have, they might go, "I recognize that guy." Because you do what? Where are you serving at in the ministry?
Here at New Life.
Yeah, right. But at the front doors, right? I mean...
See everybody smiles on the way in. And they get to see your smile on the way in.
So man, you've seen a 180 transformation in your life since engaging. It's been a year. Your life is turned around, and it's going in a direction that is just exciting for you. It's exciting for me.
So let's just say, let's think about you a year ago, right? And if you could say anything to somebody that was like you a year ago that's listening right now, what would be your big advice?
Wow, that's a great word, buddy.
Yeah, amen. Thanks a lot for just taking a couple minutes and sharing your story. I'm sure it's going to be inspiring for many. Appreciate it.
It's a powerful story, Michael Meyer. I don't know if you're in this service or where you're at, but man, that's what a New Lifer is. A New Lifer to the tenacity of going, "I'm going to invite him from the beginning of the year all the way till this Sunday."
That's bold, guys. I'm going to keep inviting, keep inviting, keep inviting, that all of a sudden my friend walks through the door, and this is the story 12 months later, right?
I saw Tyler at the front doors here at the Kearney campus, by the way. So if this is your campus, you can high five him on the way out.
All right? If not, if you ever visit here, you can do it, right? Because he's serving all the time.
So if Tyler's life can be transformed and changed like that, so can yours. So can yours.
And then over the course of this year, you can build that strong offense. You can build that strong spiritual defense.
So here's what I want you to think about right now: where is your life with Christ right now? Where is your life with Christ right now?
Do you have a winning record right now? Would you like to have a winning record with the Lord?
It all starts by surrendering your life to Jesus. When you surrender your life to Jesus, then you can start seeing a winning record start to happen.
It starts by recognizing I'm a sinner. I'm far away from the Lord. At all of our campuses, by the way, I'm far away from the Lord. I don't have a relationship with him right now.
And so what's my next move, Jeff? Well, your next move is this: if you want to start seeing the life that wins, you got to surrender your life to Jesus.
Recognize that he's your leader and he is your Lord, and surrender to him and ask him to forgive you of your sins.
And it all happens with a simple prayer. That's where it starts, and then we start growing from there.
You got to be like Tyler. Tyler said this: "I rarely miss the large gathering." You see how important that is for his spiritual offense? He rarely misses that.
And then he jumped into a life group. He rarely misses getting together with, you know, a group of people in a small group of people.
And then maybe a smaller group might be a smaller group so that he can keep growing. He's been leaning into prayer.
He's been leaning. Like, those kinds of things will all come, and we'll help you with that, right? We'll help you with it.
But it all starts by first surrendering your life to the Lord.
So here's what I want to do. I want to pray with you today. Would you do something with me at all of our campuses? Would you bow your head with me?
And here's what's going to happen: we're going to pray in just a minute, okay? We're going to pray, and when I pray, I want you to talk to the Lord.
And we, Lord, if you're here today and you have yet to really truly surrender your life to Jesus, and you want your life to have a winning record, then I need you just to say, "Jesus, you are leader and Lord, right? I surrender my life to you. Forgive me of my sins. I want to follow you from this day on."
If you say, if you talk to the Lord in that manner, I'm telling you right now, Jesus is going to meet you here right now.
And then what's going to happen at the end of my prayer, when I say amen, our campus pastors are going to come, and they're going to help guide all of us in the next steps that we can take in our lives.
So why don't you join with me, and let's pray.
Father, we love you, and we recognize that, Lord, you created us. You died on the cross, and you fill us with your Spirit so that we can have a winning life.
It means this: so that our life can be full of hope, our life can be full of freedom, that where we are broken, we can be healed, and that where we have sinned, we can be set free.
And Lord, today at all of our campuses, there are people that are praying right now, and they're praying. They're saying, "Lord, I want you to be my leader and my Lord. Forgive me of my sins. I choose to follow you from this day on."
Set me free from myself. And Lord, you're hearing those desperate cries out to you right now. You're hearing them, Lord. That's what your ear is turned towards.
It's turned towards those who are far from you who want to get close to you. The Lord, your ear is also turned towards those who have followed you for years and decades, but yet they don't have a winning season.
So Lord, for those who have followed you for years and decades, but they don't feel like they have a winning season, would you right now, in Jesus' name, would you fill them with your Spirit?
And would you restore hope where hopelessness has thrived? And would you restore freedom where they have not found it?
And Lord, would you give them peace where they don't have it? Would you give them the joy of following you where they don't have it right now?
And would you give them the assurance of the forgiveness of their sins that they might hold their head up and walk in the grace and the authority of Jesus Christ himself?
But for every single person that's listening to my voice right now, and that's included in this prayer, Lord, may they sense a closeness with you, and may they sense that, Lord, you are their coach.
You are the one speaking to them, leading them. Lord, it's your voice in their heart. Lord, you're cheering them on. You're cheering them on to see incredible victories in their life, to see amazing wins in their life.
So Lord, from those who are far from you who are coming close to you right now, and those who have been in relationship with you, may they even draw closer.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
on Feb 09, 2025
