This fallen world is a morally broken Pain Machine. I am very conscious of this truth. Every time I stand before you, I know that everyone comes with some problems. Everyone comes here with pain, with struggles, with hardships, with opposition, and sometimes with sorrows too great to bear.

The stories are real.

The pain is right there, right at the surface.

For some, the tears are ready to fall.
No one gets a pass from the Pain Machine.

I am preaching today within days of the murder of our brother, Charlie Kirk. Whatever else he is, he is exactly that. A Christian and therefore our brother in our family of faith. A human created in the image of God. A husband. A father. A missionary of the gospel of grace to a generation. He died a martyr for the faith.
This was pure evil. This was demonic.

Because, you may not know it, but the rocket fuel of the morally broken Pain Machine is an invisible battle. It is a fierce and unceasing conflict between the forces of good and the forces of evil. God vs the devil. Angels vs demons. Truth vs deception. Light vs darkness. Heaven vs hell. Love vs hate.

The Pain Machine was on display not only in in Charlie's cowardly assassination, but also in the absolutely despicable celebrations of it by so many people with hearts so shriveled they could look at that murder and laugh even as his panicked little girl ran to him.

That's not just sick, it's evil.
It is demonic.

This is mortal combat.

We lost one of our Generals this week.

I'm praying that God would raise up a 100,000 to replace him.

I am convinced that if you could talk to Charlie Kirk right now in heaven, he would say the very words that our church studied last weekend.

St. Paul looked at his impending execution by the Roman Empire, and he said, "I am being poured out as a drink offering."

Which simply means, my whole life is a thank you card to God... and what you call an execution, what you call a tragedy, what you call a victory for evil, what you call my martyrdom, I call the sign-off on my lifelong thank you card to God.

So was Charlie. The end. Love Charlie Kirk.

This fallen world is a morally broken, demonically fueled Pain Machine.

If I did not believe there is an answer, I would feel overwhelmed.
If I did not believe there is an answer, I could not do what I do.

But I believe with all my heart there is real and genuine and authentic hope.

I would love to introduce you to the Answer, because the Answer is more than a philosophy or an idea or a program or a pill.

The Answer is a person, and His name is Jesus.

 

And He's not a distant, disconnected answer. He's not a theory or a philosophy you study. He is the God who saw the Pain Machine—He saw the grief, the addiction, the betrayal, the loneliness, the sheer evil of it all—and He didn't look away.

He stepped into it. God became human without ceasing to be God.

He put on skin and bone, and He let the gears of that machine tear into Him for you. He took the worst of the pain, the worst of the sin, the worst of death, so that you wouldn't have to. He absorbed the penalties. He satisfied cosmic justice. He defeated the darkness and smashed the devil in the teeth.

Jesus is the answer to your pain because He's felt your pain.

He's the answer to your struggle because He's overcome the world.

He is the only human who can look the Pain Machine in the face and actually say, "I win."
And that brings us to what's happening right here, right now.

The Public Declaration
In a few minutes, you're going to see 59 people get into this water. I need you to understand what you are witnessing. This isn't just a religious ritual. This is their public answer to the Pain Machine. This is a line-in-the-sand moment.

This is a jersey swap. They are publicly taking off the jersey of the team that has let them down—the team of striving, of self-reliance, of sin—and they are putting on the jersey of Jesus Christ. They are telling the world whose side they are on now.

This is a public signing day. They are officially committing to a new contract, under new management, with a guaranteed outcome that the world cannot offer.

This is the ultimate declaration of a new identity. They are standing up and announcing that their name is no longer "Addict," "Failure," or "Outcast." Their identity is now and forever tied to the only One with the power to make them clean.

Every single person who steps into that water is looking the Pain Machine in the eye and serving it a final notice.

 

They are saying:
"You don't get the final say in my life.
The anxiety doesn't win. The depression doesn't win.
The addiction doesn't win. The failure doesn't win.
The anger doesn't win. The illness doesn't doesn't win.
The loneliness doesn't win. The discouragement doesn't win.
The self-harm doesn't win. The lust doesn't win.
Jesus wins. Only Jesus. Jesus wins."

Their story of public victory begins with a private certainty. And that's what I want to talk to you about. Because God wants that for you, too.

A Know-So Proposition
The Apostle John, one of Jesus's closest friends, wrote this. Listen close, because he's writing this directly to you.

"These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may KNOW that you have eternal life..." (1 John 5:13)

I want you to lock in on that one word: KNOW.

Not hope so. Not think so. Not "cross your fingers and pray you were good enough."

God's standard for His children is absolute, settled, bedrock CERTAINTY. ASSURANCE. 

Why is that so radical? Because the Pain Machine you live in runs on the fuel of uncertainty.

You don't know what the doctor will say. You don't know if the business will survive. You don't know if your kids are going to be okay. The world is designed to keep you guessing, anxious, and afraid.

Into that chaos, God makes you one, glorious, non-negotiable offer: Certainty. A settled confidence about the most important question of all questions: Where you will spend eternity.

So how do you get it? How do you move from the anxiety of "I hope so" to the power of "I know so"?

God didn't leave it to theory. He gave us a case study. A real-world example of a man who went from confusion to certainty in a single afternoon. He put a roadmap in the scripture to answer that exact question.

This isn't an accident. You being here today, hearing this, is not a coincidence. Today is your appointment with destiny.

Let's look at the story. It starts with a man and an angel...