The Power of Being Together | Is This Thing On?

In this week's message from the Is This Thing On? series, Pastor Travis Aicklen casts a compelling and urgent vision for the upcoming year at Radiant Visalia. Using the incredible synergy of Clydesdale horses—where two horses pulling together can move exponentially more weight than one—Travis illustrates the profound power of a united church. The vision is simple but world-changing: Every believer should make a believer.

We are living in a profound "meaning crisis." As post-modernism's cynicism and deconstruction leave our culture feeling empty and hopeless, people are hungrier than ever for absolute truth. By looking at the cultural shifts of our day and the powerful testimony of unexpected figures like Hulk Hogan, Travis challenges us to drop our own cynicism, step into the harvest, and unapologetically share the Gospel.

Key Points & Scripture References

• The Power of Synergy: Just like draft horses pulling a massive load, when the church unites in one direction and one purpose, the impact is exponential. God is calling us to pull together.
• The Vision—Make a Believer: The mandate for the year is clear. Evangelism isn't defined by the method you use, the location you are in, or whether you are an "expert" messenger. It is simply the event of sharing the Gospel.
• The Gospel Brings Power: Drawing from 1 Thessalonians 1:2-10, Travis reminds us that our faith is not just a matter of words. The Gospel comes with power, the Holy Spirit, and deep conviction.
• Answering the Meaning Crisis: Our culture is desperately seeking three things: Coherence (making sense of the world), Purpose (having a goal), and Significance (knowing our lives matter). The Gospel is the only true narrative that provides all three.
• Sincerity over Cynicism: The world is tired of the cynical, "too cool to care" attitude of the past few decades. People are looking for authentic, sincere believers who are willing to boldly declare what Jesus has done.

Call to Action

The harvest is plentiful, and the culture around us is starving for meaning. This week, ask God to give you a genuine opportunity to share your faith. Don't worry about having the perfect method or the most polished presentation; just focus on being a sincere messenger of the Gospel. Who is one person in your life that you can actively pray for and share the love of Christ with today?

Join us Sundays at 8:30am or 10:30am. Find out more at RadiantVisalia.com.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:39

Hey, it's good to see you. My name's Travis, and I wish my job was to make movies and talk Britt Baxley into things. Um, but but it's not. I only get to do that some of the time. The other time uh I'm one of the pastors uh here. Each week we send our kids out the back, out the side doors, but they actually head over to the kids' building and they watch a video, a video that I usually put together with Lori and Micah, and much of the same subjects that get dealt with here are dealt with over there in hopefully an age-appropriate way. And so this week your kids will be talking about the power of going together and the power of unity, and illustrate this. Uh, I actually used a Clydesdale horse as an example for the kids. I couldn't wait to drop animal facts. What's better than an animal fact? I go to the zoo not to see the animals, but to read that placard next to the animal that just has some wild facts on it about bats or butterflies that can taste with their feet. The octopus that has three hearts. You know the facts. So one Clydesdale, this is the question I have to start us this morning. How much weight do you think one Clydesdale can pull? Maybe go public next to your neighbor. Tell your neighbor so that you there's some accountability here, so you can't say I knew it. It's actually 8,000 pounds. 8,000 pounds. So the next question is, and this is what I couldn't wait to blow the kids' minds with how much weight can two trained Clydesdales pull? So together, how much weight do you think they can pull? Yeah, it's actually 32,000 pounds. And that, kids, is the power of synergy. Multiplication, you'll learn it in third grade. These last few weeks, we've been casting vision for the next year. We've been casting vision for the next year in hopes that we'll go together. We would love for you to join us. That's why we keep talking about where we're heading. In order for you to head in the same direction, you'd probably have to know the destination. So we're hoping to kind of mark the front of the bus to say, this is where we're going. We'd love for you to not just attend Radiant Church, we'd love for you to participate in the life of the church. So we're doing our best to describe and define and say uh this is where we're headed, because we'd love to head there with you. Last week we unpacked the definition of discipleship. So last week we talked about what it means to be a disciple here and invited you to join us in this ongoing commitment to be formed into the image of Jesus Christ. And for the few weeks leading up to last week, we talked about how as a church we believe that we're entering a harvest uh season. In fact, we believe that every believer is gonna make a believer this next year, and that every leader is gonna make a leader. We're preparing for that as a staff and as a leadership team. We believe that we've entered a harvest season, and I've hopefully explained why we believe that. Next week, actually, my office will be torn out along with the nursing mother's room. The new nursing mother's room is uh Danny Cantelmy's former office. So the sanctuary is gonna be under some construction because we want to make space because we believe that God's doing something, and we want to prepare uh for that. So we've been living with this line: every believer should make a believer, every leader make a leader. And it's just been kind of lodged in our heads, and we're living into it. Um, most Christians are gonna live their entire life without leading another person into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. This is not good, I guess. Is this the kind of sense that we have? We're also reading that 82% of people would be open to coming to church if they were invited by you, but only 2% of Christians will bother or take them up on it. So we want to get at some of these gaps and address some of these uh issues. So today and for the next couple weeks, we're gonna ask you to write the name of a person who you know who's far from God but close to you. We're gonna write their names on that baptismal tank back there, and we're gonna spend our year loving them, serving them, praying for them, and looking for opportunities to share the life of Christ with them. And I know for some of us it's nerve-wracking because you're thinking to yourself, well, I don't want to write names on that tank. What if it doesn't happen? Which I think is a valid fear. But do you know what a better question is? What if it does? What if as a result of your prayer, your love, you living life in an intentional way, what if someone does come to know and love Jesus? What if it happens? We're gonna ask a couple things. Just write the first name. You don't need to write the last name on the tank. Uh, we've all been a part of probably prayer chains that feel like gossip. So we certainly don't want someone coming in here and seeing their name on a tank and going like, why is my name written on there? By the way, that gets covered covered in a liner, so it's not actually gonna be visible. But we'd love it if it was this wasn't like a pray for Tammy. She's gone through a hard time. And it's like, are we praying or is this gossip? So write their names. It can be multiple, but I'd love for you to focus and do for one what you wish you could do for everyone. Just focus in. So spend the sermon thinking, man, who is it, Lord, that's far from you and close to me? Who is it that I really have uh faith for this year? And be bold enough to write down the names on the tank. That's what we're going for this year. We usually baptize about 60 people uh every year as a church. Um, so we're trusting God for like a an increase. Um I'm hoping that every person's gonna have faith for this. That this isn't just my idea, but it's something we have faith for. Like I believe this will happen. I'm hoping also that we're gonna have the desire to make it happen, like you're willing to pay the cost to make this happen. And then a plan for this to happen, meaning you know what next step to take. So I've I've framed this sermon around three questions this morning. Um, the first is what do you mean by make a believer? I mean, is this like a hostage situation? Like, how do you make anyone do anything? So, what do you mean by make? This is a conversation about roles and responsibilities, really about human responsibility and divine sovereignty. The second is, how exactly do you expect me to do this? And I'll try to explain that and talk about methods of evangelism. And number three, tell me again why you think this is gonna happen. I want to talk about cultural trends that are taking place right now, or for those sitting over here, vibe shifts. There are massive vibe shifts going on. So, what do you mean by make a believer? How could any of us make a believer? Isn't that God's job? And if it's not God's job, isn't that what we pay you to do, Travis? How are we supposed to make a believer? 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, verses 2 through 10 talks a lot about roles and responsibilities. So there's going to be some job descriptions in here. We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers and sisters, loved by God, that He has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering, with the joy given by the Holy Spirit, and so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achai. The Lord's message rang out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achai, your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore, we do not need to say anything about it, for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell us how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. So there's a lot going on here, but I just want to point out what I think our job is when I talk about making a believer. So God's role, his responsibility in this is to choose people for salvation. That's what it says in verse 4. For we know, brothers and sisters, loved by God, that he's chosen you. This is the theological idea of election, predestination that God sovereignly chooses. And this triggers a much longer conversation because logically, where we go is to say, well, if God chooses some to be saved, does he choose others to be condemned? If he predestines some for heaven, does he predestine others for hell? And that's where we go logically, but that's not where the Bible goes. The Bible, when it talks about eternal punishment, doesn't talk about it like a pre-planned divine decree for individuals. It talks about divine punishment as the result of human sin and the rejection of God. So it's not this pre-planned idea of God, it is the result of your decisions. But the scripture says over and over again that you're chosen, that you're elect, that he picked you, that he wants you. And let's keep ourselves from saying that he doesn't want others, because that's not what the scriptures say. That's where we logically go. And if you'd like to talk about vessels of wrath in Romans 9, I'd I'd love to chat it up with you. This is a conversation that shouldn't be four sentences, but it is this morning because it's not the point of our sermon. Spurgeon says it best when he says, God save all the elect and then elect some more. That's like our stance on this. So that's God's role. He chooses. Jesus' role is to save, rescue people from wrath. Verse 10, and to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who rescues us from the coming wrath. So Jesus, as Gunnar prayed, dies the death that we deserve. He takes the full punishment of sin. It's laid on him. He conquers sin, conquers death, and now we are gifted his righteousness. He's an atonement for our sin. Paul's role in all this is to communicate the gospel. We see that in verse 5. Because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction conviction, you know how we lived among you for your sake. So he did this. He proclaimed the gospel with his words and with his deeds. Not just what he said, but how he said it communicated the truth of the gospel. No backing down. This is some of his actions that he says communicates the truth of the gospel if you read on. He says, I didn't back down. I was bold in the face of opposition. There was no deception, like there was no flattery. I wasn't telling you what you wanted to hear. That's not what I was doing. There was no need to please. I wasn't saying what I said to get applause from you. I was telling you the truth. There was no personal gain in it for him. So he didn't profit from what he did, and he didn't make any demands of the people, meaning he didn't pull rank. He didn't say, Well, I'm an apostle, maybe you've heard of me. Listen to what I say. He actually came as a servant. And these actions communicated the truth of the gospel, not just his words. It's the Holy Spirit's role to empower both the speaker of the gospel and the person hearing the words. Because our gospel came to you, not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. So the person communicating the gospel is empowered by the Holy Spirit. That's the Holy Spirit's role. And the person listening is also having their heart softened to receive the message. How many of you ever have encountered what you know to be a divine appointment? Like you sit down with a person and you're like, this whole thing's been set up. This person is so ripe, they're so ready to receive what I have to say. The Spirit's been working on them before I even started talking. You know it's been arranged. The Thessalonians, they got a role, and that's to welcome what they hear with joy. For you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. It says that they go on to turn from idols, they start to worship the living God, they respond with faith, they live as Christians and they model Christian living for others. And it says that they're waiting with hope. This is their role. They're waiting for Jesus to return. So you can look at this and go, oh man, these roles complement each other nicely. I mean, didn't what I just described think, okay, you got a job, you got a job, you got a job. It's like a beautiful org chart that all makes sense on a whiteboard. But then Monday hits, right? And you're like, hey, you're not doing your job. Hey, you're kind of in my lane. Can't you see how frustrating it would be if you didn't get your role or your responsibility right? It's really important that we understand what I mean by make a believer and what I mean when I say stay in your lane. It's not your job to choose or elect anyone. That's his job. You don't get paid enough for that. You don't even want that job, trust me. It's not your job to atone for anyone's sins or die on a cross. You don't want that job either. And it's not your job to be the Holy Spirit and convict other people. How many of you have tried that? Sure, you don't want to go with a salad?

unknown 17:09

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

Man, you're a bad Holy Spirit. The conversation pushes on a bigger one, like, what is the relationship between human responsibility and divine sovereignty? That is that God rules over all, does as he wills, but that we have responsibility, and we play a part in that. And again, this is a conversation that's much bigger than four sentences, and it's not really the point of our sermon today, but I want to say this man, if you're really high on sovereignty and low on responsibility, you're probably a lazy fatalist. Well, if the Lord wants to do it, he will. William Carey, he's kind of the uh responsible for like single-handedly launching the modern mission movement. And he became convinced, sitting in his church, that he was supposed to go to India and convert the heathen. When he went to the church to say, I feel called to preach to the nations, I feel called to go to the nations and to disciple India in particular. One of the men, the older Baptist minister, jumped to his feet and famously said, Young man, sit down. When God pleases to convert the heathen, he will do it without your help or mine. William Carey started then working on a pamphlet entitled An Inquiry into the Obligation of Christians to use means for the conversion of the heathen. And it spread throughout the church, and he went to India, learned several languages, translated the Bible to them, opened a college, planted botanical gardens, and did more in the face of some pretty severe stuff with his family and a fire that destroyed his translation work. We don't want to be a lazy fatalist. Blame everything on the will of God and ignore our role. But I've also met some people that are high on responsibility and low on God's sovereignty, and you know what they are? Really burned out. Because here's the deal: if you're high on God's sovereignty and low on human responsibility, you can do that job because that job is to do nothing and we're good at that. But if you're high on human responsibility and low on divine sovereignty, you can't do that other job. It's going to lead to frustration. You can't save anyone, you can't make anyone a believer. You can't do this job. So you end up burned out and despairing because you can't do the other roles. So here's the idea. Is evangelism something God does or something you do? Totally. Yeah, it is. We just got done studying the book of Exodus. The most famous miracle in Exodus comes from Exodus 14. It's the parting of the Red Sea. I want to read it to you because I think there's no reason that we should pit our efforts against God's. That's not how this works. It works in perfect harmony. It's not one or the other. When the Red Sea is parted, it says Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided, and the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. So, what caused the Red Sea to part? God, for sure. We have a supernatural explanation. And then he did it through an east wind. We have a natural explanation. And then he did it because Moses extended his hand. We have a personal action, right? All three of these things are working together, and we're saying God did it, right? There's no need to pit our efforts against his. That's what I mean by make. Let's cooperate. The second point to this preach goes a little something like this. Wow, Travis, you think pretty highly of me. How exactly do you think I'm gonna do that? Like it's hard for me to get to church on Sunday. And now you want me to spread the good news? I don't even know what to do, and I don't even know what to say. When we think about evangelism, often it gets defined by one method. And the one method it gets defined by is usually the method of evangelism that works for you or worked for you when you got saved. So if you got saved at a Promise Keepers event, you'll probably think to yourself, I've got to get a person to a Promise Keepers event. Or if you got saved in a one on one conversation, or if you got saved at Young Life, you're probably pretty high on Young Life. If you converted under the preaching of some fire and brimstone pastor, you're probably thinking to yourself, there's not enough fire and brimstone in your preaching. This isn't going to work. What I want you to understand. As we talk about evangelism, is that it's not the method that defines evangelism, like preaching or singing or drama, right? Did anyone convert under like a skit, like a Carmen skit, maybe at a concert? Evangelism is also not defined by the messenger, like the person, the priest, the book, the song. And evangelism is not defined by the occasion or the place that it takes place, like a tent meeting or a church service or an awards speech. I'd like to thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for helping me make this rap album. Evangelism is the event of sharing the gospel, and it happens in so many different ways. So if you're like, man, I can't preach on the corner, that's fine. You don't have to preach on the corner. If you're like, man, I can't, I guarantee there's a way for you to communicate the truth of the gospel. In the scriptures alone, the parables communicate the gospel: songs, creeds, letters to churches, one-on-one conversations, sermons in churches, discussions, public speeches, apocalyptic literature, and even just performing miracles. So if you can do that, you can get out of saying anything altogether. Just heal somebody, and you don't have to say anything. It does the talking for you. All of these can transmit the message, so don't count yourself out. It's hard to communicate this message. I think that much of it boils down to a fear of rejection for us. I don't want to be a kook, uh, a love of comfort. We want desperately to be comfortable. Uh too busy, maybe, to be bothered. We've got too many issues of our own. Once we get past those, we'll help somebody with theirs. But the biggest one is I just don't think we live with a sense of eternity. I was reading Psalm 17 and it talks about men of the world whose portion is in this life. We just don't think there's something beyond this life. Most days we aren't trying to swing through this life. We think that now's the time. And this life is our portion. But there's more to this life. When we talk to people about the faith, I know that it can be really um abrupt. One of the things that ends conversations really quickly for me is when people ask me what to do, and I have to tell them I'm a pastor. And then it just shuts down the conversation. And they're like, cool. Anyway, because what happened is the conversation just got thrust into the deep end, and that person wasn't ready to talk about their relationship with God. But when they asked me what I did, and I said I'm a pastor, it took the conversation that should have been just interests and put it in the category of worldview, and we don't want to go there. Because as Americans, we've been told you can believe anything you want about God, just don't make that public. Pray to whoever you want, do whatever you want in your own home. But just don't make that public and push that on anybody else. So what happens when people are like, what do you do? I'm like, well, I'm a pastor. And then all of a sudden they're like, wow, we're in the deep end already. Well, I don't believe in God. I'm like, okay, nice to meet you. I don't believe in God. You know, that's just where it goes. And that's the freaky thing about evangelism for us. Am I right? That you have to walk up to someone and say, if you died tonight, where do you think you would go? They're like, wow, that's a heck of a way to start a conversation. That's so intense. That's just like getting thrown in the deep end. Most of our conversations with people start with shared interests. Oh, nice Dodger jersey. They move to conversations once you know them about values. I grew up in LA and I used to go to Dodger games with my uncle. I love the Dodgers. And then they move to worldview. Family is everything for me. I'd die for my family. Do you understand? But what happens often with evangelism is we skip interests, skip values, go straight to the deep end talking about worldview. What do you believe about God? And this is uncomfortable for us. So I just want to give you again five ways to work this out that I think you can do. I think you can do this. The first thing to remember about evangelism, if you want to engage in it, is that it's conversations over time, not one conversation. Sometimes I think we self get ourselves worked up, and I'm like, I'm going for it today. I'm gonna tell my coworker about Jesus. I'm gonna tell him everything I ever thought about Jesus. And we don't recognize that it's actually seed that we sow over time. And it's not one big conversation, but it's conversations. By the way, this is great parenting advice too. If you're like waiting to have the conversation with your 13-year-old, like I'm gonna talk to them once about sex, and I'm gonna answer every one of their questions, and then we're never gonna have to talk about this again because this is awkward for them and this is awkward for me. Let's just get this over with. It's go time. That's not the way to do it. It should be conversations about sex over time, not one big one that does all the work. But some for some reason, the conversation about sex gets pressurized in that way. Conversations about Jesus get pressurized in that same way. Where you walk up to someone and you're like, I better make it count. This is my one conversation. I'm gonna tell them everything I know. Don't pressurize it in that way. It's conversations. Keep the conversations going. You don't have to tell them everything in one pop. Number two, you don't need to have the right answers. You gotta have the right questions. I keep saying it, I said it a couple weeks ago. It's scary to share your faith because you feel like you don't have all the right answers. You just have to have good questions. So when they're like, man, I can't believe in a God who's good when all I see is evil. What's the kind of evil you see? And do you see any evidence of good? And why would you call it evil if you didn't have good to compare it to? Honestly, you keep asking the questions, okay? You don't have to have the answers. Christians are hypocrites. Awesome. Tell me about those hypocritical Christians. Do you know any Christians who aren't hypocrites? Aren't most people hypocrites, even non-Christians? You know, these are the questions you get to ask. And I think that we'll gain an audience by listening. You don't have to have the right answers. You have to have the right questions. Everybody's talking, no one's listening. You could see someone come to faith by just hearing them out. Thirdly, you should attend their event before you ask them to attend yours. So the way that evangelism typically works in the West, still, especially in Viselia, is that you would invest in a relationship and then you would invite them to some sort of event with your church friends. That's the way that evangelism goes. And it's not bad, it works. But can I recommend that you attend their event before you ask them to attend yours? You go see something that's interesting to them. You invest in relationship in that way. Number four, you should fish with a net and not with a hook. Evangelism, uh, we always talk about being fishers of men. When we think about being fishers of men, we think about fishing with a hook and a lure and bait. And if you get the bait just right and then you set the hook, like at the end of the sermon, when Trav you're talking and the piano player is playing, and you set the hook, you know, like then you can reel them in. That would have made no sense to a first century fisherman. They didn't fish with a hook, they didn't fish with a lure, they didn't fish with bait, they fished with nets. And so what they were attempting to do is to create a net, fish with team, and collide with a whole school of fish, not an individual fish. So here's what I want to say to you. You want your unchurched friends to collide with your church friends. You want your friends to become their friends. Here's why. Plausibility structures. Meaning that most of us think that we decide what's plausible and what's not because of facts and data, but that's simply not true. We decide what's plausible based on the friends that we have and the community that we're in. So if I told you right now that I saw Noah Khan last night, he invited me backstage, I shared my faith with him, and he came to faith and he was here in the first service. You'd be like, I'm throwing some flags, probably not. Because you probably know that his tour moved on from California by now. You know that I'm actually not that cool or popular, and you know that you would have heard about it from people leaving the first service. But I can stand up here and say to you that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin and that he rose from the grave, and you green light that and you're like, yeah, that checks out. Why? No one's ever been born of a virgin, and no one has ever gotten up out of the grave. Why do you sign off on that? Well, studies show that it's not facts and data that causes you to sign off on that, it's the community that you were raised in, the experiences that you've had, and thirdly, it's facts and data. So it's really important that your unbelieving friends collide with a believing community because you get swept up in what everyone else believes. And I know you've been told, you know, you think for yourself, and you're a unicorn, and you do you, and you're an individual, you're not, you're a sheep. Lastly, become their chaplain. A chaplain is a certified clergy member, they provide spiritual care for individuals in a non-religious organization like the hospital or the army or a sports team. And if a person's resistant to the deep end, doesn't want to have a conversation about worldview, doesn't want to have a conversation about what they value, they want to stay in the shallow end and talk about interests all day. Trust me, life has a way of throwing you in the deep end. Pain has a way of putting you in the deep end. And you just want to be close enough to get to have that conversation with them when they're in pain. Again, not so that you can answer their questions, but so you can ask the right questions about what is going on for them. Okay. Why, Travis, do you think this is gonna happen again? Like, where'd you get this idea? This is a brief conversation about a much bigger subject, like wider cultural trends or some of the shifts that we see going on right now. Sociologists, I'm not one of them, but they think that we're entering a brand new era, so we are leaving postmodernity behind. Can I get some applause? Postmodernity was a reaction to modernity. Modernity was a reaction to the pre-modern world. Sociologists believe we're entering into what they call meta modernism. So this is not the time, nor am I the person to explain all this, but I just want to show you what I believe to be some incredible opportunities in front of the church right now. Here's what I want you to know. We're in a meaning crisis. We're in a meaning crisis. In the last 20 years, suicide has risen by 35%. In the last 20 years, since 2020, drug overdoses have increased five fold. We don't see the meaning in living anymore. It's meaningless. You need three things to have meaning in life. You need a sense of coherence. That's like repeatable patterns in the world around us so that we can understand reality. When the world does not make sense and it's fragmented and it's random, we get depressed, confused, and apathetic. We think life is worthless. Number two, we need purpose. You need like an ultimate goal, a telos, a place that we're heading. And number three, you need significance. That would be an understanding that you have a part to play in this bigger story, that your life matters in the big picture, that there's a role and you have responsibility in it. You can see our longing for meaning coming up in the constant remakes, reboots, prequels, sequels of old movies. I go to the movie theater these days, and I don't know if it's the old man in me, but I'm like, do we not have a new story? Do we have to remake the old ones? Why do we have to make a prequel or a sequel? Why do we have to reboot it? Why do we have to rebrand it? Why can't we come up with anything new? There is a deep ache inside of us, a nostalgia for simpler times. That's why they that's what they're making money off of is your desire for coherence, purpose, and significance. And that's what you had in 1985 when Stranger Things was made. This isn't about aliens. This is about you going, yeah, I used to have a bike that I peddled. Now everyone's on e-bikes. And I love Dagos. You're watching, I'm watching Stranger Things, and it's like I long for a simpler time. A time when your parents didn't even know what you were doing. There was no such thing as a helicopter parent. They couldn't track you. You were just gone fighting aliens, and they're like, I don't know, and I don't care. We long for this. And this longing is coming out in an aching nostalgia, going, I wish it was like it was. The core idea of postmodernity was that truth is relative, subjective, and shaped entirely by language and power structures. Nietzsche said, and the postmodernity made it famous, that facts do not exist, only interpretations. The worldview of postmodernity was skepticism, especially around all grand narratives, especially religion, science, and postmodernity making us fundamentally cynical. We're fragmented. We believe that everything's constantly changing. We don't believe that anything's inherently pure or original, and our lives are characterized by irony, parody, and existential nihilism. It's meaningless. Postmodernity specifically took aim at any sort of overarching grand narrative. Anyone claiming to know what life was all about should be treated with suspicion, because any claim to absolute truth is just an absolute power grab. But because we couldn't live without story, we're storied creatures. We can't live without stories. That's what makes us human, is that we search for meaning. I don't think your dog is. And they were like, Yeah, you want to build with brick because it's gonna go good for you in the long run. And that story, which is being it's been told since the 1600s, works to communicate the fact that you don't want to take shortcuts, or else you'll be eaten by wolves. Because we have to have stories, and because postmodernity took aim at all our great grand narratives, we started using the anti-story and the anti-hero. The anti-story and the anti-hero, they don't save the world, they see through everything. They don't save the world, they see through these power structures and they expose that the good guys are really the bad guys, and that the bad guys are really the good guys. Sound like anything? Maybe the Hunger Games or every other movie you've seen in the last two decades. Wicked was only released on film uh recently, uh, but the Broadway musical came out in 2003. It's the height of postmodernity, and the story is subversive, right? It's classic subversion. The wicked witch isn't wicked, she's just misunderstood. And what if she isn't evil? She's just actually green and misunderstood. And and and what if we spent all this time thinking she was evil because the person who wrote the story was the wizard of Oz. He's actually the evil one. She's just acting out of her trauma. So she is the anti-hero. The bad guy who we thought was a bad guy is really a good guy. The person we thought was a good guy is really the bad guy. This is classic subversion. But here's what I want to say to you, and this is so encouraging to me, is that subversion is so played out, we're having to subvert the subversion. We've seen this so many times, and we're so tired of the villain just being misunderstood. Oh, they're not evil, they just had a hard childhood. We're like, no, that's messed up. We can also see through this, believe it or not, the anti-hero and the anti-story is itself a grand narrative. Trying to describe all of life. And this is what I think is so exciting right now is that cynicism is not punk rock. Cynicism and subversion are played out. They're every they're every movie, they're everything, they're every moment. You know what's punk rock now? Sincerity. That's why Top Gun Maverick goes bonkers. Because it's like, oh, they don't make them like this. The good guys are just good guys, and the bad guys are bad guys. They're subverting subversion. And we're like, this is so refreshing. Man, Ted Lasso, he's actually not naive. There's like a brilliance to what he's doing, and sincerity. Sincerity, his sincerity is punk rock. What about Creed? We're listening to Creed again. I mean, Creed had their moment, and then they were mocked for two decades. They were a meme for two decades. In 2024, they had their highest grossing year and launched another global tour. Because Gen Z is screaming, can you take me higher? To a place where blind men see. It's a subversion of subversion. It's sincerity again. It's an embracing of the cringe because caring is cringe. And cynicism is safe. Detachment, the detachment that marked postmodernity is safe. But punk rock risks. And it's risky to care. And it's becoming cool again. We live in a day of unprecedented hunger and openness. That's what's marking our moment. And I can't believe it. I used to get in conversations with people who were like, there's nothing beyond the material world. Like, this is it. No one believes that anymore. Everyone wants to talk to me about giants, aliens. Everybody believes in a supernatural realm. No one thinks that this is it. Unparalleled openness. And when I say openness, I say openness because there's a spike in astrology, there's a spike in witchcraft, there's a spike in anything and everything. Bigfoot doesn't matter. We're thirsty for a story again. We recognize that in our deconstruction, we're putting down the sledgehammer and we're picking up the metal detector and saying not everything we destroyed was bad and we want it back. That's what's happening right now. Worship team, would you guys come? I'm gonna end our time by illustrating this further, this moment that we're in, by using uh the life of Hulk Hogan. Because I I think it's great. I just watched uh a Netflix documentary on his life, and I think it's the perfect picture of the journey that we're taking and the excitement that I have because we have a great story with loads of coherence, loads of purpose, loads of significance. And we have an opportunity to share it with people who are more open than ever. So this Hulk, this is Prime Hulk, this is 1986 Hulk. This Hulk is in the throes of modernity. No, no, no, go back to 1986 Hulk. 1986 Hulk is telling us to train, brother. And the other piece of his mantra was say your prayers, take your vitamins, and you'll never go wrong. And we believed him. In 1986, this is the height of his popularity, but then as time goes on, we found out that the Hulk wasn't, no, stay. We found out that the Hulk wasn't taking vitamins, he was taking loads of steroids. And he also wasn't praying to Jesus, he was praying on women. And his name is Terry, and he lives in Florida, but his tan's not even real. That's a fake tan. And furthermore, pro wrestling is fake. I know. I remember I remember this argument with my dad. I was like, there is no way, dad, that this is fake. He's like, Travis, it's fake. I was like, he just got hit with a chair. Fake that. It's fake. So then we grow up, we get really disillusioned. And we become cynical. Because this Hulk taught us that to believe someone is not only naive, but it's dangerous. And in 1996, in the thick of postmodernity, Hulk has to change his identity, not to be a hero, but to be an anti-hero, so that he can continue to be relevant and popular. So he became Hollywood Hulk Hogan. Now you can go. Remember this guy? He was a villain, telling all the crushed Hulkemaniacs that he said everything he used to say just to sell tickets. And we became cynical and jaded in our post-modernity. But there's something new going on. And as I watched the documentary, hope began to rise from the rubble of deconstruction. At 70 years old, Hulk was baptized. He died a few months later. It's probably the steroids, but they don't know. I was listening to him talk on the documentary and just thinking, this is it. Something's rising. We have an amazing story, and there's incredible hunger and openness. Everybody knows that both modernity and postmodernity have run their course. Something new is needed. That's why I think we're gonna see a season of harvest. Would you stand with me?