Transcription
[Music] God, thank you so much. Thank you for your word. Thank you for your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your grace. God, as I'm reminded of where you've brought me from, I'm just so humbled to be here in this spot. God, every one of us, because of our sin, has earned, according to scripture, eternal separation from you. And yet, you, by your grace, saw us in our failure and our sin and sent your Son, Jesus, to pay for our sin. And we are literally eternally in debt and grateful to you.
And so, God, I pray for every person across this campus, the thousands who are tuning in online. I pray, Lord, for those who know you, that today, tonight, they would be strengthened by the teaching of your word. They would be encouraged in their faith. They would also be convicted. God, would you speak to us and prod in the areas that we need prodding and strengthen the areas of weakness? And God, I pray for everybody within the hearing of my voice that does not know you. I pray that tonight they would sense their need to surrender to you. And that tonight, here across this place, on this campus, and all around the world with those who are watching, we pray, Lord, that you would bring surrender to people's hearts. We love you, Jesus. We're honored to be a part of what you're doing. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
Hey, if you brought a Bible, would you go ahead and turn in the New Testament to the book of Acts, chapter 16? Acts 16. Now, as we're turning there, would it be okay if I share a Bible verse with you that you may not like? I'm going to do it anyway. So, I just figured I'd ask your permission because that, that seemed nice. Ecclesiastes 7:13. Here's what it says: "Accept the way God does things, for who can make straight what God has made crooked?" Kind of an interesting verse if you think about it. Translation: If your life feels detoured and uncomfortable, deal with it. That's kind of, that's kind of what scripture is telling us.
And life often feels that way, especially this year. Life feels full of detours and feels inconvenient. And when we, when, when I bring up that verse, Ecclesiastes 7:13, it doesn't sound super encouraging, especially to those of us who are calendar-oriented people. Come on, any any planners in the crowd today? Um, I, I understand the way my mind works is if it doesn't get on my calendar, it doesn't happen. And so I'm just a very, kind of calendar-oriented. I need those guardrails in my life to keep me organized. And so then when something goes sideways or there's a curveball or it feels crooked, I, it's, it's uncomfortable.
In fact, it's kind of the world we live in with technology. If you think about it, when we're driving somewhere to get to the next destination, whether that's work or a long road trip, I don't know about you, but I'm always on Google Maps trying to find the most direct route to get there. And if I need to detour and go down the back road and bypass all the traffic, then that's what I'll do because I just want, I don't want to be in my car for longer than I have to be. And I kind of laugh when Google, Google Maps goes, "This route you could take, it'll take 15 minutes longer." Why would I do that? Take the 15 minutes shorter, please. Right? We want straight, fast, easy. That's the way that we live in our Amazon Prime overnight shipping world, right? And so when something goes crooked, we don't like it. It's uncomfortable. We want it to be easy. We want it to be straight. We want to get to the next destination.
And so I want to share a message with you from a passage of scripture that, that takes us back to the early years of the church as it was first getting established. The Apostle Paul is in our story tonight in Acts 16, and things start to go sideways for him. Let me tell you what, what my goal is for you tonight, for me tonight. My goal is for us, by the end of this message, to be able to say, by faith, the title of the message, if you haven't written it down already, write it down: "I'm Okay With Crooked." In fact, let's kind of warm up a little bit tonight. I like to be interactive. I don't want this to be a monologue. This is a dialogue, okay? I'm gonna preach better if you help me, okay? So let's say this together. Let's, on the count of three, let's say the title together. Ready? One, two, three. There you go. It was a little weak, but we'll, we'll get to it. I'm hoping by the end of this message that it's not you just saying it because half of you let, half of you were like, "I'm not even gonna say that." And then some of you who said it were like, "I don't even mean it, but I'll go ahead and say it." I'm hoping that by the end of this message, you see that actually crooked can be good, and we learn to embrace it and trust God through it.
Because really, what I'm saying when I say, "I'm okay with crooked," what I'm saying is we're going to learn, by faith, to be okay with the detours and the slowdowns and the runarounds. We're going to learn to trust God when our plans and our destinations and the directions along the way look very different than how we had originally planned it. Can we accept that? Are we, are we willing to trust God through it? That's kind of the goal for this message today.
So, some context in Acts chapter 16. You guys are Bible students, but I'll just share it for you anyway, in case you're not aware. Acts 6, Acts 16. Paul is on his second missionary journey. In fact, depending on your Bible, you may have maps in the back of your Bible, and one of those maps probably has about four squiggly lines somewhere on it that trace Paul's missionary journeys. I'll show you that here in a moment, um, or, or you can look at it in the back of your Bible at some point if you'd like. But Acts 16 is in the, the beginning stages of his second missionary journey, and what they're doing is going out to just take new ground for the gospel. Jesus has told them in Acts 1:8 that, "You will be my witnesses to Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." It's interesting, Jesus didn't command them to take the gospel. He just said, "When the Holy Spirit comes, you will be my witnesses." Because how many of you guys know when the Holy Spirit gets in your life, everything changes, right? He's not going to have to tell you to go out and be his witnesses. You will be his witnesses, right? So he already told him, Acts 1:8, "You will be my witnesses." Jerusalem, that's the place that they were. Judea and Samaria, the surrounding areas. And eventually, to the end of the earth.
So they launched out in Acts chapter 16 to take new ground for the gospel, but it doesn't go according to plan. Acts 16. Let's, let's look just at a few verses starting in verse 6. It says, "They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia." Can I just highlight real quick how odd of a phrase it is that the Holy Spirit forbade them to preach the gospel? Let's come back to that. Verse seven, "And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but watch, here it is again, the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them." And so, passing by Mysia, now this is important, this is a detour. They, they tried to go to Mysia, but they got shut down. And so they passed by, they, they went, they bypassed their original plan and they went down to Troas. And in Troas, it says in verse 9, "A vision appeared to Paul in the night." Here's the dream he had: "A man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him, and saying, 'Come over to Macedonia and help us.'" And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
Here's what I want to share tonight, over our next few moments together. I want to give you four things that I believe you will need. We're going to see this in Acts 16. Four things that you will need along the journey as you pursue the calling that God has on your life. I'm gonna give you four things. We're gonna start here with number one: Direction. Not One Direction, but direction. Okay? It's important. Harry Styles is not gonna help you get to where you're needing to go, but direction. You're gonna need God's direction along, along the path as you pursue the calling that God has on, on your life.
Now, it's interesting, I, I referenced the map in the back of your Bible, and if you were to take a look at that map, you might notice that his second missionary journey in particular is kind of like this dizzying, discouraging zigzag. Almost like he was getting directions from Siri, but she was drunk. Like she had a rough Friday night, and she was like, "You just take a left, and you take a right," and he just, she just like led him all over Asia. It was kind of, if you look at the map, it looks like it's probably a little frustrating for Paul. And, and we just get the idea here, because they were planning to go to this city, and then the Holy Spirit forbade them, and so they planned to go to the next city, and the Spirit of Jesus said, "No, you don't do that." And so they went to a different city that they were never planning on going. You get the idea, curveball after curveball. This is a very crooked path that they're on.
Now, come on, let's be honest. If you're watching online or joining us here on campus, show of hands if you've ever felt like you lack direction as you're following Jesus. That's a lot of people that I'm just able to see right here. We lack direction at times. Good news, good news for us tonight. If you've ever felt like you lack direction, you are in really good company, because the Apostle Paul did too. Church planting extraordinaire, author of almost half of the New Testament, at times didn't know where to go or what to do. Take heart, you're in good company. Paul is dealing with that right here. Again, let me remind you what Jesus said, Acts 1:8, "You'll take the gospel, you'll be my witnesses to the end of the earth." This missionary journey and all of the rest that Paul went out on were launched with that statement from Jesus in mind. Jesus said we were going to be his witnesses to Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, to the end of the earth. And we've, we've spent years in Jerusalem, and we've scattered into Judea and Samaria, and Paul's like, "I think it's time." The Holy Spirit in Acts 13 said, "Set apart Paul and Barnabas," and their first missionary, when missionary journey went out in Acts 16. Now they're on their second missionary journey. It's been launched to obey this idea of taking the gospel to the end of the earth. And so they're doing exactly what God told them to do. They go out and they begin preaching the gospel. And now, this is crazy to me, the same Spirit that was empowering and compelling them to preach is now forbidding them to do so. Like, what gives?
I imagine for Paul, this was very frustrating. There's only a few verses right here, and it doesn't go into any detail about how Paul felt, but let's be reminded that Paul was a human, and this had to have some frustration built into it. Man, we had this campaign planned for this city. We just knew God was gonna use us in this next city. Now we don't even know where to go. God said, "No over there." God shut that down. You know, we expect satanic opposition, or at least we should. I mean, you didn't think that the devil was gonna give you a standing ovation for following Jesus, right? I mean, you should expect satanic opposition. But what happens when God shuts down your plans that are the right thing to do? I mean, we would expect God to shut down our sin and pursue us and convict us. But what happens when we are empowered and compelled and God says, "No"? It doesn't, that doesn't make sense. That's exactly what we're reading right here.
Can I just remind you, we're talking about direction. As you seek God's direction, can I remind you that "no" is a direction, just like "yes" it is? And I know we don't like to hear that, but "no" is just as much of a direction. But here's the good news, ready? A "no" from God is always a "yes" to something better. Come on, right? A "no" from God, when he shuts you down, he doesn't shut you down because he wants to make your life hard. He goes, "No, no, no, that's not the direction I want you to go because I have something better." You're like, "But I don't know where." No, just trust me. God says, "A 'no' from God is always a redirect to something better." And that's, that's coming. We're gonna see that here in just a moment.
Let me remind you, when you wander down and you're following God and you end up where you feel like you're in a dead end, a dead end does not equal a dead calling. It just means a new direction from the Lord. And so again, the question for us, like Paul found himself, is will, will you and I be able to trust God when the destination and even the directions along the way are different than what we planned? Will we be able to trust him along the way, or will we get so frustrated that it's just not going how we planned? We need God's direction.
Here's the second thing you're gonna need as you're pursuing the calling that God has on your life. Number two, write this down: You're gonna need vision. You're gonna need specifically God's vision. What's interesting is that's exactly what happened right here. I mean, they already had God's vision. They knew what they were supposed to go do, take the gospel. So they, they went out by faith, that's what they began to do. But then it got even more specific because after they got a series of "no's," they had an actual vision. It says in verse 9 that "a vision appeared to Paul in the night." We could call it a vision or a dream. And it was this man of Macedonia, and he was urging them. It says, here's what's interesting about this, this vision that Paul received, it was emotional and it was also global.
Watch this. It was emotional because the man of Macedonia says, "was urging them." This means he was like begging, beckoning, almost like verging on commanding them, "We, you have to come here and help us." That was, that's the idea of this language that Luke is writing here, the author of Acts. It's like almost a command, "You have to come help us in Macedonia." Now, it's also really important that the man was from Macedonia. Now, it doesn't tell us how we know he's from Macedonia, but he knew, Paul knew enough in the dream that he knew that there's some random guy in Macedonia that's begging us to come and preach the gospel. And so it was very emotional, but it was global. Here's why: Because up until this point, the gospel was only on the continent of Asia. Macedonia was in Europe. This is the first time that the gospel was about to go global.
Here's Paul, he's just compelled to preach the gospel. "I gotta go tell people." The guy who used to kill Christians is now a church planter, preacher. I love how God takes the worst in us and harnesses it and uses it for our good and his glory. Amen. You thankful for that? And so here's Paul, and he's just going out, and he, he's dreaming, but it turns out he's dreaming kind of small. As hard as that is for us to believe. Here's Paul going and planting churches. His vision was actually a little small. Paul wanted cities. God wanted continents. Paul was thinking, "I gotta, I gotta minister to people locally." God goes, "No, no. Well, I'll take care of that. I need you to go global with the gospel." Right? And so he begins, God begins to say "no" because you remember, a "no" from God is always a "yes" to something bigger and better. He shuts Paul down in those. And this is why we need God's vision. Because as big as you and I can dream, God always sees bigger, right? This is where I, I imagine many of you have heard in Ephesians chapter 3 verse 20, it talks about how God is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond what we could ask or imagine. As big as your mind can dream, that's the starting line of where God starts to think and envision what he has for your life.
So we need God's vision, not just our vision, not just some vision, not just some leader's vision. We need God's vision because his dreams are bigger, his timing is better, and his strategy is perfect. Here's an unpopular prayer I've started praying since God took me to Acts 16 years ago. Here's an unpopular prayer I started praying: "God, please, by your grace, shut down my tiny plans. I don't want to do tiny things that I just dreamed up. I want to go somewhere, God, where if you don't intervene, I'm gonna fail." Right? Like, you hear this whole thing about, "God's not gonna give you more than you can handle." Where did you read that? That's not in the Bible. God regularly gives us way more than we can handle. I don't want to live such a safe life that I can handle it without God's intervention. God, please give me more than I can handle. I want to go further and bigger. God, help me have your vision, not mine.
You're going to need God's vision if you're going to go where he wants you to go. And vision can come in a lot of different forms, by the way. It could come as an actual vision, like Paul had here. But it could also come in desires God places on your heart. It can come through miraculous financing that God brings your way that begins to prepare the way for wherever he has you. It can come through conversations that he just happens to bring into your life. There are a lot of different ways that God will give us vision. And I can't tell you the specifics about the vision that God has on your life. But all we have right here is Paul's vision. And I can say this: that Paul's vision, the vision he received in this dream at night, involved stepping out in faith to serve other people with the gospel.
I can tell you this for sure. I may not be able to tell you a lot about what God wants specifically in and through your life, but I can say this for sure: the devil will never tell you to help others, be generous, grow in your faith. He will always whisper the opposite in very enticing ways. "No, I don't think you should give that much money. You're working on saving. Remember, you need to keep some of that. You just never know." We live in a, live in a crazy world. The devil starts telling you stuff like that. "No, no, don't help them. They don't deserve your help. They got themselves into that situation." He'll start whispering those things. So let me just clarify, not every need has your name on it. But I can tell you this: if you're seeking God's direction in your life and the vision you receive is full of faith and empty of self, there's a pretty good chance it's from the Lord. The devil's not gonna lead you that way.
And so God begins to redirect Paul's path. Now, I guess the question is, because I imagine you've had a crazy dream or two at some point in your life. Now the question is, you wake up tomorrow morning, you're like, "The pastor just preached on vision and dreams, and you'll never believe what happened in my dream." Okay, now let's hit pause real quick. Not every dream is from the Lord. It could also be like the tacos from Taco Cabana that have may have something to do with that, right? So like, how do you discern if it was just crazy or if it was God?
Here's the third thing you're gonna need on your journey: Prayer. You're like, "Oh, come on. I was expecting something big." No, this is massive. No, come on. You gotta be talking to the Lord regularly. This is where the, the, the biblical practice of fasting may come in. This is what, when Paul was launched out on his first missionary journey in Acts 13, it happened. They received the call while they were fasting and praying. We need to pray more. Now, there's no in this text in Acts 16. There's no explicit mention of prayer, but we do know from Paul's letters that he was a man of prayer.
Prayer, I would argue, is the pivotal point in all that I'm talking about tonight because it's how you do a couple of things as you follow, as you pursue the direction that God has on your life. Prayer is how you're going to receive direction first of all, but it's also how you're going to discern the changing directions along the way. And you're going to have to do both. You're going to have to regularly stay in contact with God about this. Because here's why, in my experience, I can tell you this, that God rerouting you and the devil derailing you often feels similar. And the, oftentimes the only way you'll know to discern the difference is through prayer. Like, "Do I push through this, or did God close the door?" You'll only know by prayer. Like, "Do I try to kick down this obstacle, or is God, is that satanic opposition, or is God saying no to this?" I believe that Paul only knew that this was God shutting them down because he's a man of prayer. You can read it in every letter he wrote in the New Testament. He begged for people to pray for him. He was regularly praying for those he was in ministry with.
So God was rerouting Paul through some seemingly coincidental, random circumstances. One of my favorite authors, I don't know if you've heard of this guy, um, Theodore Geisel. Have any of you ever read some of the, the writings of Theodore Geisel? Okay, a few of you. Actually, probably more than you think. I brought a few of his books. Jen, can you bring me those? A few of Theodore Geisel's books. Um, "Fox in Socks" is one of them, really, really great read. There's "a Wocket in My Pocket," also a great one. One of his more known reads, "The Cat in the Hat." He also has one about some colored eggs, if I remember correctly, and some meat. Um, you're like, "No, that's Dr. Seuss." No, Dr. Seuss was just his pseudonym. His actual name was Theodore Geisel. In fact, did you know that Dr. Seuss wasn't actually even a doctor? His dad wanted him to go to medical school, and he just wanted to write books. So he created a pseudonym that made him sound like a doctor. I don't know if there's a lesson in that or not, but that's what he did. Dr. Seuss is just the pseudonym for Theodore Geisel. And in fact, the more you get into literature, the more you'll, you'll know that there are actually a lot of authors that write under, work under a pseudonym.
Did you know God often works under pseudonyms as well? I'll tell you a couple of God's favorite pseudonyms to work under: "Coincidence." "It just so happened." "Random." Those are some of God's favorite pseudonyms because he's sovereign. And the Bible says that he is watching over his word to fulfill it. Meaning he is sovereignly working behind the scenes, arranging things that when we look at them, it seems completely coincidental, but it's far from that. And I believe we're seeing it demonstrated right here. Think about this for a moment. Just so happened as Paul went out on his missionary journey that Asia didn't work for him. Just so happened it was coincidental, then, that as that wasn't happening, he had a dream. Seemed coincidental. Seemed kind of random that they ended up in a city that they never planned on going to. And it was kind of crazy that after Asia didn't work and he had a dream about a man in Macedonia, which, by the way, he would need a ship, he would need a port city and a ship to get on to sail to get to Macedonia. It's kind of random that he had the dream while he was in a port city, and they could wake up and get on a ship the next morning. What, what are the odds?
This is the way God works. As you are seeking God's direction and vision through prayer, you will begin to find that your life is filled with "just so happened" moments as God sovereignly arranges the circumstances to steer the course of your life. And prayer works as the navigational tool to help you navigate the twists and turns of life. Now, obviously, a booming voice from heaven would be preferable, but listen, a quiet voice is more probable. But you know what our problem is? When God speaks quietly, it's not that God is silent. It's that we tend to make way too much noise trying to kick down the doors that God has closed. And while we're bringing a jackhammer to the door that God has closed, he's over here trying to whisper to us, and we're making so much noise over there that we can't even hear his voice over here. Thankfully, Paul learned that "no" was a way that God was rerouting him. And God is always arranging seeming coincidences in our lives to steer the circumstances and the direction that he wants us to go.
Let me take you back to this: Prayer is the pivotal tool that you will need to discern whether this is the devil trying to derail you or the Lord trying to reroute you. How will you know? You gotta talk to God.
Here's the fourth thing, and I would argue this is what it has all been building to: By prayer, you receive direction and vision. Here's the fourth: Obedience. You're going to need obedience. Obedience is vital because, come on, let's, let's be honest, who cares if you have God's direction and vision if you don't do anything with it? A lot of people want God to tell them directions, but then when they hear it, they don't want to do anything about it. So who cares if God told you what to do if you're not even willing to do it?
This is really what it's all been building toward. God could have shut Paul down, and then he had the dream. But what if Paul goes, "I don't even like water or ships. I'd rather not." Right? And he just went, "I don't know. Back to Jerusalem where it was easier." Look what we would have missed out on. The gospel going global onto a new continent. The, the Philippians, the jailer comes to Christ, and the church in Philippi is planted. I mean, look what, what the world would have missed out on. Paul not only wanted God's direction and vision, but as he prayed about this and navigated the twists and turns, he jumped into action. God, God gave him a "no" and a "no" and a dream, and he immediately jumped into action. Did you see this? Verse 10: "When Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them."
I get fired up about this. This word "concluding" means to bring together, to unite, to put something together. Here's what Paul's doing. He's putting the pieces together as the Holy Spirit is leading him. And he starts to realize the "no" and the "no" and the dream, these are not just some coincidences. And he unites, he puts together. This is the word "concluding." He puts together his frustration and the "no's" and the dream, and he goes, "I think, yeah, I think we're supposed to go to Macedonia." He concluded. He he combined all of those, and he, he got on a ship and set sail to a new continent based on this. I love this because this is the kind of faith that I want. He set sail for a new continent off of a conclusion. There's no angels, there's no miracles, there's no booming voice from heaven. This was a spiritual hunch. Like, "I, I have a hunch we're supposed to get on a ship and set sail and go to the next city. I had a dream, and we got turned down in Asia, so that must be what we're supposed to do."
I want, listen, I want concluding faith where God doesn't have to drag me to Europe. But I'll go. Hey, if it didn't work out there, and I had that dream there, I guess that's what we're supposed to do. Tomorrow morning, I'm not waiting until next week. Tomorrow morning, when we wake up, I'm getting on that ship. And whether you go with me or not, we're going to take the gospel to the next continent. I don't need God to try to drag me there. I want concluding faith. I don't want the frustration in my life to ruin me. I want it to reroute me. But this takes faith. This takes direction and vision that's discerned by prayer and leads to obedience.
I wonder if some of you are now able to say the title of the message a little more faithfully with me. If you believe it, would you say it with me one more time? Ready? One, two, three. Man, that was better. "I'm okay with crooked." Why would I be able to say that? Why would you be able to say that you're okay with God throwing curveballs? Because that's, I mean, if we're being real, that's not natural for us to say that. Why would we be able to say that? Well, because here's my thought on this: Who am I to say that it's crooked? Who, who are you? Who am I to be the final one to make the judgment on whether or not something God does is straight or crooked? Who are we? Because, you know what the Bible, the world says, "Follow your heart." The Bible says, "Oh, don't do that. The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. You don't want to follow that direction." The Bible says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." The language Paul uses right there, Romans 3:23, "All have sinned." We did, and fall short, we continue, we have sinned, we continue to sin. So if that's the indictment on who we are, who are we to say, "No, that's crooked"? I mean, wouldn't that be like if I, if I just took this table that is obviously very straight, and then I just kind of stood like this, I'm like, "Table's crooked." And you're like, "Obviously the table's not crooked. You're crooked." Now I'm like, "No, I'm looking at it right here. Table's crooked." Here I am, the slanted, crooked one, calling something that is obviously straight crooked. And I think we fall into this when we start to take on the idea that it's up to us to figure out whether it's straight or crooked. We get ourselves in trouble when we become the judges of which, of what it is.
And listen, I think if we ever needed to learn to trust God in the middle of changing circumstances, it is the year 2020. None of us ever saw this coming. I mean, it's one thing after another. What's being shut down next? Right? Unemployment. All of you New Mexicans are overnight homeschool teachers. Didn't see that coming. It's a curveball, right? Loss of finances, disease. Any of you guys read about the murder hornets? That they, that they read? Like I was like, "What is this, Jumanji?" You know? Like, is this like the Egyptian plagues? What is happening to our world? Like, we could have never prepared for this. And if we ever needed to learn to trust God in the middle of changing circumstances, it's right now.
But the bottom line is that my gauge, our gauge for crooked and straight is helplessly skewed. It's not up to us to judge whether it's right or wrong. It's up to us to just follow the direction that God leads us, even if that means 40 years through the wilderness or whatever path God takes us on. You know, so many people are trying not to be exposed to the virus, and yet I think the virus has exposed a lot of us. We've been exposed by the virus: our priorities, our fears, our laziness. This social distancing has traumatized a lot of us, and it's exposed a lot of who we are and what we're actually built on. And so I guess the good news I wanted to bring to you tonight, wherever you're listening on campus, online, here's the best news of the whole night: In an ever-changing world, come on, we serve the never-changing God. The Bible says that Jesus Christ is the same, come on, say with me, yesterday, today, and forever. Everything else in our world is changing. God never changes.
Can I tell you, in the middle of your loneliness, God is present and has a purpose for your life? In the middle of your pain, God is the Redeemer who takes what the enemy meant for evil and turns it for good. In the middle of the scenic route that you feel like your life is on, don't fight it. Take the scenic route and take it in and learn the lessons along the way. In the middle of your failure, God is the Forgiver. And no matter what you've done, no matter how far you've run, you are not too far for God to pull you back. And I can tell you today, his arms are wide open. You're like, "No, I don't think you know what I've done. I don't think you know how far I've gone." You may be really good at sinning, but don't give yourself too much credit, because you can never out-sin God's grace. You've never gone too far.
And, and the salvation and the direction that God wants to work in your life begins with surrender. And that can happen for some of you. I'm going to lead us in prayer here in just a moment. And I'm not sure what brought you to Wednesday night church, or what brought you to click on a link or watch a live stream tonight. I'm not sure what brought you onto the campus. But I just believe, like I shared with you today, that it is no coincidence. Some of you thought you ended up here by accident tonight. Wrong. God brought you here. And maybe now, I hope you're be, you're you're starting to sense this. And so what I want to do here in just a moment is invite you into the relationship that Jesus has been pursuing you for. He wants you so badly that he spilled his blood on the cross to pay for your sin. Not his. He didn't have any. But your death does nothing for your sin. Jesus's death wipes it away. And if you would like forgiveness, if you would like to tonight to say, "I surrender to Jesus, and I'm going to trust him through every curve, through every twist, through every turn. I got a lot of questions still, but I recognize that I need Jesus." I want to invite you into that relationship right now. Would you pray with me? Would you bow your heads across the campus? If you're joining us online, let's pray.
Jesus, we thank you so much for your grace, for your forgiveness, for the mercy, even just for your presence in our lives. When everything else is changing, you never change. And we're so thankful for that. And so, God, we just pray your grace over this place today, for for the hundreds, the thousands that are watching online tonight, wherever they are, in maybe in isolation, maybe down range, deployed right now, maybe separated from all that they know. God, I pray you would meet them right there, in that room, right there here in the sanctuary, right here on this campus, right there wherever they are they're watching or listening. God, and speak to their hearts right now that you are what they need. And God, help us to trust you. For those of us who are followers of Jesus, I pray we would learn to embrace the crooked and just understand our gauge of straight and crooked is flawed. We are not the ones to decide that. We trust you.
With our heads bowed and our eyes closed, with everybody across this campus and joining online, we don't ask, I don't ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes to keep this decision secret. I ask you to do that so that you're focused. Because right now, I'm just inviting you into the most important decision and relationship you'll ever have. At the end of your life, it matters nothing how much money you had in the bank, how well your investments did, what house you lived in, who you had as your friends, what you drove, how quote-unquote successful you were in this life. Here's the only thing that matters: What did you do with Jesus? Did you trust him? That's all that matters. And right now, if you don't know Jesus, I just want to invite you into the relationship that he wants to have with you. If you're joining us online, you can make this decision. If you're listening by radio, wherever you're hearing this, you can make this decision too. You, God sees you. He knows you. He has a purpose for you right in the middle of whatever you're, you're in. If you're joining us online and you want to make this decision, would you let us know? [Music] Would you put it in the, in the live chat? Would you let us know that you're making this decision tonight? Because we want to make sure and get your name. We want to pray for you. We want you to know you've got a family here. If you're joining us across the campus, if you're outside, if you're here in the, in the venue with us, and you need to make this decision, I'm going to ask you to just make a physical notification of that by lifting up your hand. By lifting up your hand, you're saying, "I'm ready to surrender my life to Jesus. I'm ready to to trust him through the curves and the twists and the curveballs of life." I see you all the way over here. I see you toward the back. Come on, if that's you, if you're making a decision tonight, would you lift up your hand where you are? And I want to lead you in a prayer here in just a moment to surrender. I see a couple right over here. You can place, you can put your hand down once you've raised it. I see your hand by the door. Is there anybody else tonight? If you're joining us online, come on, let us know you're making this decision. We deeply care for you. I believe God brought you here to this live stream for this moment right now. Is there anybody else across this place, hands that I can see, need to surrender to Jesus? I see you right here in the middle. Praise God. You put your hand down. Is there anybody else? [Music] Close to a dozen hands across the venue. I can't see those who are maybe outside and joining online, but I just know God's speaking to people all over the place. Here's what I want to do. If you lifted your hand, or if you need to make this decision right now, I just want to lead you in a simple prayer. These are not code words to get into heaven. This is me just giving you some words to talk to God with. That's all he wants. He just wants you to just be you and talk to him. [Music] So I would also invite all the other Christians, everybody else who's made this decision, would you join those who are praying this prayer out loud and say this out loud with us? We want to vocally stand with those who are praying. Let's say this out loud. Say, "Jesus, I surrender my life to you. Thank you for dying for me and resurrecting and giving me purpose. Forgive me for my sin. Forgive me for my failures. And now fill me with your Spirit. I surrender to you. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen." And amen. Come on, can we celebrate with those who made that decision today? It's the best decision you'll ever make. And the Bible says that there's joy in the presence of the angels when one sinner repents. That's worthy of some celebration. Amen. Come on, we can clap one more time. Want you to know you're welcome to the family.
So listen, if you made a decision to follow Jesus tonight, if you're joining us online, please don't log out of this. Don't leave without telling us. We want to know. Want to pray for you. If you're here in person, you got to tell somebody. Don't just let it be a quiet decision that you raised a hand and then and then left. We're going to have at the end, pastors and leaders and counselors up here, and we would love to talk with you. We'll keep distance as needed, but we would just want you to know we love you and you are not alone. If you ever need, listen, you needed God in your life, but now you need God's people in your life. Don't, don't try to do this alone.
Can we just thank God for all that he's done in our hearts tonight? Come on, let's put our hands together and let's lift our voices. Let's stand together as we close with this song. We hope you enjoyed this special service from Calvary Church. We'd love to know how this message impacted you. Email us at mystory@calvarynm.church. And just a reminder, you can support this ministry with a financial gift at calvarynm.church/give. Thank you for joining us for this teaching from Calvary Church.