Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - When God Doesn’t Make Sense, Part 1: When God Seems Inattentive

Episode Date: December 5, 2015

Life doesn’t always go the way we expected. You pray with faith, but God doesn’t do what you asked. You seek Him, but don’t feel His presence. You’re going through pain, but your cries for relief seem to go unanswered. What do you do When God Does... Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Glad to have all of our life churches with us today, all of our network churches, those of you on the other side of computer screens at church online, I believe that you are not there by accident, but it's in God's purpose and plan that you're here today. And I just want to tell you, we're launching into a brand new three-part message series called When God Doesn't Make Sense. And I know if you're like me, there's not a week that goes by that when you look at things going on in current events, maybe when you look at things going on in current events, maybe when you look at going on in your own life. There's so much pain, so much heartache, so much confusion in this world that it's really, really easy to look on and say, I don't like the way that's going.

And that's what I want to talk about for the next three weeks when we see things that don't really make sense. And I will tell you, going into this message series, this is a really good time to invite somebody that may have walked away from their faith because they were hurt by circumstances or someone who's going through a really difficult time. This is a perfect to invite them. I also want to tell you and just kind of warn you as we walk into this three-part message series that many of you are not going to like this message series. This doesn't feel real good. It's not hilarious. There's not a lot of tweetable little things you can say. There's no practical steps. It's simply not a feel-good message at all. There are no easy answers. And so

just wanted to tell you that so you'd be really glad you came to church today and say, I'm thrilled to be here. but the reality is sometimes life is very, very difficult. And what we're going to do in this series, we're going to look at three different stories from the New Testament. We're going to look at one today where God seems inattentive. We're going to look at one next week where God seems late. And in week three, we're going to look at a message. It's my favorite in the series.

Week three is when God seems uncooperative. I also want to give credit to Andy Stanley. He's a pastor, a very good friend of mine in the Atlanta area. for the idea behind this series. Andy, about four years ago, taught on a similar theme. I'm obviously going to make it my own, but he came up with this idea. And I listen to Andy and one other preacher every single week. If you want a good additional kind of spiritual meal every week, listen to Andy Stanley.

If you want some leadership ideas, Andy and I actually teach six leadership events in six different cities together every year. And he's got an amazing leadership podcast I'd recommend to you. as well. But I wanted to give him credit for the idea behind this series. And I want to dive in and just kind of acknowledge that there are many times when God doesn't make sense. Truth is that a lot of people can make it even more difficult for you when you hear their stories about how amazing God is. You might be dealing with something really challenging and you're praying for a miracle and your friend that your life group comes and he goes, you will believe it! I was Black Friday shopping and I pulled up in God. He gave me the perfect parking spot.

Oh, glory! You're like, happy for you. Hashtag, you make me sick. You know, I've got real problems, and you do that. And then you hear, you know, like the amazing preacher stories because all of us preachers, we have the amazing, miracle, perfect preacher stories that just wow you with how God always does exactly what we need. And like the time I was on an airplane, because every good preacher story starts on an airplane.

And I was sitting next to a crack-smoking palm reader. And she said, do you mind if I read your palm? And I said, thouest may, because I always speak in King James when I'm witnessing to people. And she grabbed my palm and said, the lines of your hand, they actually form a cross. And I said, that's because Jesus, my Savior, died on a cross for me. She said, there's unusual heat coming from your hands. I said, that's the love of God. May himself manifest for you.

I led her to Christ right there on the plane. The pilot overheard it came out. Asked about Jesus. I led him to Christ. He got so excited. He turned the plane around, flew over the 1040 window. We all parachuted out into an unreached people group. I preached and led them all to the Lord.

And now some of the tribal elders serve as the executive directors of the Billy Graham Association. And all glory goes to God for his goodness in every single way, right? That's how the preacher stories go. And you see your friends a lot of times, and everything seems to be going well for them. and they're blessed and they're not even serving Jesus the way you are. And you're like, wait a minute, I'm more faithful and they're getting blessed. And I'm not. All of our churches, how many of you would say, honestly, there seems to be a time when you

are praying and it didn't really seem like God was listening. It seemed like God wasn't doing what you knew he could do or God's timing wasn't your timing. How many would say that's true for you? Be honest. Raise your hands. The good news is you're not alone. The bad news is sometimes God doesn't. make sense from our perspective. What I want to do today is raise the question, what do we do

when God seems inactive? What do we do when God seems silent? What happens when you're praying and you don't hear anything? You don't sense that God is with you. I'd love for you to write this down if you're taking notes, thought we're going to internalize today, and that is this. Just because God is silent doesn't mean God is absent. Just because God is silent, doesn't mean he is absent. Just because you don't hear him doesn't mean he doesn't hear you. Just because you don't feel his presence doesn't mean that he is not with you. Just because God is silent doesn't mean that he is absent.

And to illustrate this principle today, we're going to look in Mark's Gospel, Mark Chapter 6, and we're going to look at a very difficult story about John the Baptist. Now, some of you may not have grown up around church, and you don't know who John the Baptist is. Let me give you a little context. I'm going to explain to you kind of what happened, and then I'm going to show you in the Bible what happened. If you don't know who John the Baptist was, he was actually Jesus' cause. Okay? He was the cousin of Jesus, and he was a crazy prophet.

This guy, he preached fierce. He's here to prepare the way for the Lord. He's preaching, repent of your sins and be baptized. He wore animal skins. Imagine a guy, imagine me preaching animal skins. That makes you a cockier preacher. He ate locust. Who does that?

Wild honey. He didn't take, mm-hmm, off of anybody. And so the common people really liked him because he didn't put up with anything. In fact, there was kind of a massive scandal in society, and he got up into the king's business to correct them. And this is the story. I want to show you today, King Herod Antipus was the king, and Herod Antipus was married to a woman,

but suddenly Herod Antipus took an interest in his brother's wife. Everybody go, ooh, that wasn't very good at all. Someone at Henderson would go, ooh, you can do it better. So he's married, he takes an interest in his brother's wife, and what did he do? Well, King Herod actually divorced his wife and married his brother's wife. Her name was Herodius. Hopefully she was better looking than her name implied. And scandal broke out, okay?

You know, the king marries his brother's wife. Well, John the Baptist gets all up in the king's business and said, you shouldn't be doing this. So Herodius, the wife, hated John the Baptist. Okay? I just told you the story. Now I want to read it to you, and it'll make more sense as we read in scripture. Mark 6, verse 17 through 19. Okay?

For Herod, this is the king, Herod Antibus. For Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested. And he had him bound and put in prison. He did this because of Herodius. Remember, this is the other woman, his new wife. He did this because of Herodius, his brother Philip's wife, whom he had married. Now, why did he do this? Because John had been saying to Herod,

It's not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. So John the Baptist is all up in the king's business. Don't do this. Verse 19. So Herodius, the wife, nursed a grudge against John and wanted to do what? Somebody said it aloud. He wanted to, she wanted to, kill him. That's why you don't mess with women.

They're pretty, and they smell good, but if you cross them, some of them will cut you. Okay, that's all I'm going to say. I got about 15 funny things I'd like to say, but because they'll cut you, I'm just going to back off and call it what it is, okay? So Herod just has him arrested. She wants to kill him, and it goes on to say, but she was not able to because, why? Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and a holy man. So what do we have? We've got Herod, Herod, the king, who has him arrested because Herodius, his wife, is really angry.

He doesn't kill John the Baptist because he actually. He says, I think this is probably a man of God. If you look at this from a distance, here's the context. We've got John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus, preaching on behalf of Jesus. My only mission, John would say, is to prepare the way of the Lord. He preaches fiercely, repent and be baptized. Turn away from your sins. He says, I am unworthy to even untie the sandals of Jesus.

He says, I must decrease. Jesus must increase. whenever someone wanted to follow John, he said, don't follow me, follow Jesus. John, the Baptist faithfully served Jesus. He's in prison for doing what is right, and Jesus didn't come to rescue him. What? That didn't make sense. I don't know about you, but if I'm John, I'm thinking, you're my cousin, okay?

You're my cousin. I've been serving you. I've been trying to stay in the background. I'm doing everything for you. Now I'm in prison. Surely you're going to break me out. You're going to come and do some of that Jesus power stuff. Poof, you know, chains fall off, guards die.

It'd be amazing, okay? Jesus doesn't do it. What do you think John felt? What do you think he felt? Do you think he's like, his faith just was unwavering? Or do you think he had his doubts? Let's take a vote just for fun. All of our churches, nobody went down us, no fun without you, okay?

How many think he probably stayed strong in his face? Raise your hands up? Raise your hands up? Excellent. How many think he wavered? He wavered. How many say, I am abstaining. I have no idea where this is going. God bless you. Thank you for your honesty, right? Now, John the Baptist is human. He's human. He was serving Jesus and Jesus didn't bail him out. And he started to have his doubts. John the Baptist started to have his doubts. How do we know this? Well, another gospel, not Mark where we're reading, but Matthew's Gives us insight to his emotions. Matthew 11, verses 2 and 3, says this, when John, who was in prison,

heard about the deeds of the Messiah. Now, let's stop there. How did he hear? We're not totally sure. We're guessing probably some of the disciples came to visit John in prison. So you can imagine John's in prison and a Jesus follower comes to visit him. He's like, oh, is Jesus coming? Is Jesus coming? And the guy says, let me tell you what Jesus is doing, what he's doing, what he's doing. And he starts talking about miracles. He's like, yeah, Jesus did this thing and cast a demon out of a boy. And Jesus made deaf ears open up. And the first miracle Jesus did was turn water into wine.

Water into wine. Okay. I'm John, and I'm thinking myself, he's doing party tricks. And he's not saving me. Okay. Then I'm asking what kind of wine was it? because that's the miracle it's given Baptist problems for centuries. You know, real wine must have been unfurmaned non-alcoholic wine.

Surely, it was. John the Baptist? Wasn't John the Episcopal. They'd be like, glory to God. Well, it wasn't, what, anyway? So, so, I've been doing this all weekend long. I just got to have some fun. Okay.

When John was in prison, he heard about the deeds of the Messiah. he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, okay? So here's, Jesus is doing all these miracles. So he says, hey, go ask Jesus this for me. And here's what he says. Go ask Jesus. Jesus, are you the one who is to come or should we expect someone else?

What is that? That's doubt. I thought you were the one. I was pretty sure you were the one. I was preaching that you were the one. But because I'm in here and you're out there and you're not doing anything about being being in here, I'm not so sure you're the one.

anymore. Are you the one or should we expect someone else? Then in verse four, Jesus replies, let me tell you what Jesus does not say. Jesus doesn't say, oh, tell him I just haven't gotten to him yet. Tell him I've been really busy doing miracles, but I'm going to come there and do that magic power stuff. Or I'm sending Peter and Thomas, and Peter's come with a sword, and Peter's going to cut some heads off, and we're going to break out at midnight. We've just been planning the prison break. He doesn't say any of that. Instead, this is how Jesus replies. John says, are you the one or should we expect someone else? Jesus replied, go back and report to John

what you hear and see. The blind received sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the death here, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. In other words, the mission of God is being moved forward. Go tell them all the good news. And then Jesus says, tell him this,

blessed is anyone who doesn't stumble on account of me. Okay, I'm excited about all those, you know, people being healed and all that stuff, and I'm excited about the good news being preached, but you're telling me blessed if I don't stumble while I'm waiting here in prison and you to get me out. And you didn't even come and tell me this yourself. You sent a messenger to tell me that. It's like when someone group texts you, something personally.

You couldn't even text me, you had a group text me? Okay. You didn't even come and tell me this yourself. And John evidently starts to doubt. Are you the one? What happened next? Well, the king threw a big keg party. I don't know if they had kegs or not,

but he threw a, let's all get drunk party. And everybody got drunk. They're all drunk. He loves everybody. I love you, man. You're my best friend. You're my best friend. We're all my best friends.

You know, they're all drunk. And if you think the story's weird, it gets weirder. I mean, like, it's really weird now. Okay. So, Herod Anabus is drunk. His wife, Herodias, his daughter is named Salome. She's a teenager. And she does a dance.

King loves the dance. We don't know what kind of dance it was. In the purity of my pastoral mind, I'm assuming it was probably a ballet dance. She's on point. Got a little tutu, and she's amazing. It may not have been. She may have been twerking. I don't know if they twerked in the first century thing.

She may even dancing with a pole. I don't know what it was, okay. But whatever it was, the drunk guys, oh, that's amazing. It's the best dance I've ever seen. Ooh, I love, oh, that's such a good dance. I'll give you anything you want, whatever you want. And what is he doing? He's showing off.

He's the king. He's drunk. And he's, I'll give you anything you want. And he's thinking she's a teenager. What's she going to want? A new iPhone, give me a pony. I want two tickets to a Justin Bieber concert. You know, he's thinking something like that.

goes to her mom and says, well, what do I ask for? What is Herodius to cut you lady say? Okay? I want the head of John the Baptist. Go ask him for the head of John the Baptist. So he's stuck. Okay? He just bragged and gave his word. So if you don't know the story, this is how it goes. He said, go and execute John the Baptist. And right as the executioner was about to behead John the Baptist, The earth shook and a giant earthquake came. And seven angel the Lord appeared with flaming swords and struck everybody blind except for Herodius and said, You have to watch this as he gave everybody hymoroids there on the spot.

And then suddenly the angel came in and swoofed the swords and the prison door threw open and the shackles fell off. And as the music began to swell and the smoke began to rise, John the Baptist stepped out. His face was painted blue and he yelled, freedom, right? That's how I'd have done it. I'm telling you, he'd look like Mel Gibson and the whole thing, man. I mean, he's coming out. He's like, it's amazing. And then, go with me in the American version of Christianity, then he gets given the keys to the city, and he gets

to raise, and he gets a perfect home in the suburbs, and he marries, you know how he loves his dress and animal skins? He marries a smoking hot animal skin model. This is how it happens. This is what God does. And then they have children and they have a cat. Named Herodias. Boom! Take that, right? That's how we want it to happen, right? That's the American version of Christianity. When you always get the promotion, you always get a better car, you always get a better house, and you're never, ever sick. Because God is here to serve us, right? It's all about us, right? God exists to serve us, right? God is here to make our lives.

better, right? That's the purpose of God, isn't it? Here's what happens. Verse 26. The king was greatly distressed. But because of his oaths and his dinner gifts, he did not want to refuse her. So immediately,

he sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. The man went, beheaded John in the prison and brought back his head on a platter. One more time. The man went, beheaded John in prison, and brought back his head on a platter.

Now, if I can be real honest and you don't get mad at me and call me a heretic, I don't like the ending to that story. I'm guessing John wouldn't go, and that's the way I plan. it, right? That didn't make sense. I do not like that. What do you do when God seems inactive? What do you do when God seems silent? What do you do when God doesn't make sense? If we take a step back from this, which I think we need to do, and let's ask ourselves this,

okay, a couple thousand years later, what was John the Baptist's greatest desire? What was his purpose, what was his calling? To prepare the way for the Lord? Did he accomplish that? He actually did. What was God's purpose to send his son to die on the cross that we might have an opportunity to be forgiven? Did God accomplish his purpose? Yes, he did. Okay. So we can agree that even what John the Baptist wanted was accomplished. He just didn't like the way it was accomplished. God's purpose ended up being fulfilled, it just wasn't according to John's plan. Can we agree? God's purpose was fulfilled. It just wasn't according to John's plan. Preference 1921 is a verse this ministered to me for years. It says, many are the what? Somebody help me out. Many are the plans in a person's heart.

But it's the Lord's what? It's the Lord's purpose that prevails. Many of the plans, you see, there are so many times when we're going to say, this is what I think, think should happen. This is the way it should play out. This is the way if I were God, I would do it. This is my plan. Many of the plans in a man's heart, in a person's heart, but it's the Lord's purpose that will prevail. I'll tell you how this is playing out in my life right now. And I'll tell you just very transparently, there's a situation that's been painful for my family. On the scale of how horrible things are, it's not up here. Some of you all have this up here and I acknowledge that.

This is more kind of middle level, but if you're a parent, you would understand our pain. My 17-year-old daughter, Anna, my third daughter, is just precious to me. I am crazy about this girl. She's brilliant. She's godly.

She's beautiful. She served Jesus as faithfully and with more passion than most of any age. And she's so faithful. Well, she used to be a dancer, and dancing was her dream. The reason I say she used to be a dancer

is because 26 months ago, we were at my campus, and Amy asked her to go pick up Joy, our youngest from life kids. And so Anna walked across the lobby with the stained concrete floors, and evidently someone had spilled some water, and just walking to pick up Joy, she slipped on the water and messed up her knee pretty severely. And so she was not able to dance, and we thought, you know, six, eight weeks, things would be better, and what it didn't get better.

We try some therapy, and then we tried to. tried some doctors, and then we turned up the prayers and prayed like crazy, praying, praying, getting all our prayer warriors to pray, pray, pray, pray, went to the best doctors, had the most amazing care, did the injections, then did the surgeries, then did more injections and more therapy, and 26 months later, she's still in pain, can't walk for very long without the knee swelling up, and still can't dance. So, as a parent, I... Hate that. Hate that. But I'm not in despair.

It's not my plan. But I honestly trust God's purpose. I've seen his faithfulness, and I believe in his faithfulness. One of the reasons is because something similar happened to me. My dad was a pro baseball player, minor league pro baseball, and so he raised me to play baseball. And I had probably a pretty decent chance of doing something in baseball, was most likely heading to college and maybe beyond.

I went before I was going to pitch in a championship game the night before I went to take a few swings in a batting cage, took the first pitch inside, jammed me, and crushed and shattered my hand. And so I wasn't able to pitch the next day, okay? Years later, no big deal. When you're that age, you know, championship game, you're pitching like, it's the worst thing ever, devastated. Where is God? This isn't fair.

This isn't fair. Then, for whatever reason, it got in my mind, and I was actually afraid to get in the box, and I was always hesitant, and I was stepping out, and I just couldn't hit, and I was so devastated because I was a good batter, and now I'm afraid, and I was letting my dad down, and I had all these emotions of not being good enough for him, and so I decided to take a year off and play another sport, and I just tried something, and I ended up making it. I was so afraid to go back and fail.

I took up another sport my freshman year of high school, and managed in four years to actually get a college scholarship. Well, I went to this other school I never would have gone to in a million years, where I ended up meeting Christ and my life was transformed. At the end of my college years, I met Amy, and we ended up falling madly in love, and six kids later, we're still going strong, and that led us into the ministry. And so here I am today preaching a message when God doesn't make sense, and I can trace it all back to the event that I never, ever wanted to happen,

but God's used it to bring about his purpose in my life. It wasn't according to my plan. it was the worst thing I could have imagined that God's purpose prevailed. So when I look at Anna, my precious 17-year-old dancer who cannot dance, I do not fear. Just because this didn't go according to our plan, I now wonder, how is God going to use this to fulfill his purpose? What's he doing? What's he doing? How are we going to see his goodness? Because I have learned that I do not, don't miss this.

I do not, and you should never interpret. the goodness of God through our circumstances. Instead, we interpret our circumstances through the goodness of God. Don't miss that. We don't ever interpret, is God good, based on my circumstances? We interpret our circumstances through the goodness of God. My faith is not in our plan. My faith is in God's purpose.

Whenever you think, what's the plan? What's the plan? What's the plan? God may say, now's the time to try. Trust my purpose, trust my purpose, because this is how good our God is. Romans 828, our God is so good that he works in all things to bring about what? If you know it, say it aloud, to bring about good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose. Purpose.

I don't understand the plan, but I trust God's purpose. I don't understand the plan, but I trust God's purpose. In fact, you can write that down if you want to. You don't have to understand the plan to trust in God's purpose. So you've got a higher level pain right now. You don't have the financial resources and you don't know how you're going to pay your bills. And that is horrible. You're praying for someone who's sick and they're not getting better.

That's horrible. You're praying for a relationship to get better and the person continues to go the other way and it devastates you. You've got migraines and you've been to doctor after doctor and you can't seem to get it fixed. You can't figure out why, why, why, why, why, why? Why? Why? Why? You don't have to understand. You only have to like the plan, and you can still trust God's purpose, his character, his goodness.

He is always good. He is only good. He cannot be anything but good. Our God is good. And Jesus experienced this himself. You think that we're better or immune to hard times? Jesus himself, who knew what was coming on the cross, knelt down in the garden of Gassimony and called out to God.

Father, if there's any other way, please remove this cup of suffering. He knew what was coming on the cross. And essentially, this is what Jesus prayed. Essentially, he prayed, Father, I don't like this plan. But may your purpose come to pass. That's what he prayed.

Not my will, but your will be done. And you know what mankind did to Jesus? Is they beat him senseless. Senseless. So he didn't even look like a human being. They lashed him on the back until his internal organs were exposed. They stripped him naked and put him on a cross and drove stakes through his wrist and through his feet and hung him to be exposed and shamed as they spit on him and mocked him.

And you know what Jesus did? Right before his death, he looked up to heaven at one point and he cried out, my God, my God, why? Why? Have you forsaken me? In other words, why do you seem silent? what do I feel you right now? What do I see you doing something?

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Just because God is silent does not mean God is absent. Just because you don't understand in the moment doesn't mean that God isn't still good and isn't still doing something because everything in our Christian faith hangs on that moment when God seemed inactive. And yet God was hurting even more than Jesus was

as he watched his son endure everything he did on the cross. Why? For us. So that his purpose could be fulfilled, that we might have forgiveness and a chance to know God by the grace and the shed blood of Jesus Christ. So the next time you feel like I don't understand, you're not alone.

Jesus looked up to God and said, why? Just because God is silent does not mean he is absent. You don't have to understand the plan. You don't have to like the plan to trust that his purpose, will be fulfilled. Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it's the Lord's purpose that is fulfilled. We don't have to understand to trust his goodness. Just because he seems absent, just because he seems silent does not mean that he is not with us, because our God will never

leave us and he will never forsake us. So no matter what you're going through today, even if he seems silent, it does not mean he is absent. We will continue. you to interpret our circumstances through the goodness of God and not vice versa because God, you alone are always good. At all of our churches, I'd ask you to join me in prayer. Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would minister to people today because, God, I know so many are hurting and so many are facing situations that they simply don't understand. Would you do a work, God, in a way that only you can to bring healing in our lives? At all of our churches, we're right now, I just want to see a show of hands in a moment of those of you who would say,

don't raise them yet, but you think about it. There's something in your life that doesn't make sense, something you don't understand. It could be a physical sickness in your life or somebody you love. It might be a career challenge. It might be a financial obstacle. It might be that you're facing persecution in some way. It might be that there's relational tension. It could be any number of different things.

And you say, yes, there's something that doesn't make sense, and I need God's help. and faith to trust his purpose. If that's you today, would you lift up your hands right now, all of our churches and say, yeah, there's something like that in my life. And there's so many people. Father, I want to start by praying for miracles because I know you're a miraculous God. You could do all things, that everything is possible for you, God.

So I pray for financial miracles, God, for those who are hurting and need employment. I pray you to open up doors and open up the windows of heaven as you're their provider and bless them, God. I pray for miracles. There would be obvious it comes from you. God, I thank you that you're a healing God, that Jesus is a great physician. We pray for supernatural, physical miracles and bodies, God.

That it would be so obvious this could only be from God. God, you brought about healing. God, we pray for relationships to be restored, marriage is to be healed. God, for parental and children in relationships to find healing and forgiveness and grace. God, we pray for every type of miracle, knowing you're a miraculous God. And God, when, for whatever reason you don't do what we think you should do, and we know you could do.

We ask for the grace to trust your heart, to trust your purpose, even when we don't understand and don't like the plan. God, I pray today that your presence would bring comfort.

That as we cast our cares upon you, God, that you would minister to us in a supernatural way, that you would guard our hearts and our minds and our souls in Christ, Jesus. God, for those who maybe have been mad at you or walked away from you for a season because of something that happened. I pray, God, that we would not interpret your goodness through our circumstances.

But, God, we would interpret our circumstances through your goodness, trusting in you. God, give us the grace, to trust in your purpose, even when we do not understand the plan. As you keep praying today at all of our churches, nobody looking around. There are some of you right now, you're hurting so much. in life, you're so low that you don't know what to do. This is just my opinion, so take it for what it's worth, but it's my opinion. I believe there are times when God may allow us to get to a place where we're so low. We have nowhere else to look but up. Maybe that's why you're hurting today because you need to look up and call on him. There are others of you, you're on the top,

man, you're killing it. You're making money. You're having fun. You're doing everything you've always wanted to do. And yet there's an aching on the inside. There's a longing. There's a, there's a, there's a sense that there must be something more. You have everything you wanted, and yet there's, that you want something more. Let me tell you what. God may have allowed you to have everything you want, to recognize that you don't have everything you need. You need him.

You need him. When we talk about a God that doesn't make sense, let me tell you about a God that doesn't make sense. A God that loved us, loved you so much, that he became one of us in the person of Jesus, willing to die in our place so that we could be forgiven, shutting his blood on the cross, being raised from the dead three days later so that anyone, and that includes you, anyone, no matter who you are, no matter what you've done, no matter how dark your life feels,

no matter how bad you've been, anyone who calls on his name would be saved. Jesus, when you call on his name, all of your sins are forgiven, the old is gone and the new is coming. There are those of you who are here for this moment. You may be on the bottom and all you can do is look up. You may be on the top and you're still empty. It's time to look up. It's time to look toward Jesus and say, I need you, I need your grace, I need your forgiveness. And all of our churches, there are those of you.

This is why you're here, and you know it. It's your time. Why is this happening? It's so that you would meet the grace and the love of a God who sent his son for you. All of our churches, you say, that's me. I need Jesus. I need his forgiveness. Today, I give my life to him.

Today, by faith, I surrender my life. That's your prayer. Lift your hands high right now. All of our church and say yes. That's my prayer. Lift your hands and say yes, I surrender right back over here. Over here as well. God bless you guys.

Others of you right here in this section saying yes, right back here toward the back. Over here toward the back as well. God bless you guys. Others today who say yes, Jesus, I need you. I surrender to you. Church online, would you click right below me? I would love it if all of you would pray aloud with those around you. Pray Heavenly Father.

Today I give you my life. Jesus be my Savior. The Lord of my life, forgive me of all my sins, make me brand new. Fill me with your spirit so I could follow you every day of my life. My life is not my own. Today I give it to you. Thank you for new life. Now you have mine.

In Jesus' name I pray. Would you worship big, worship loud. Welcome those born into God's family today.