Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - When God Doesn’t Make Sense, Part 3: When God Seems Uncooperative

Episode Date: December 19, 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.

Thankful to have all of you with us today at all of our life churches. We are in part three of a three-part message series called When God Doesn't Make Sense. Last week, we looked at Lazarus when God was late. You may notice that I'm actually on time for this week's message. I just want to let you know that. I'm here on time. A lot of people said, was that an accident that you were laid? Was that planned?

It was totally an accident. The crazy thing is, in all my years of preaching, I've never been able to be. late before. Last week I was late every service. It was weird. I don't know how that happened. Anyway, of course I was land. Today, we're going to talk about something that's a little bit more difficult than last week. Last week we saw Lazarus when God seemed late. The good news was that God actually did what Mary and Martha hoped that he would do. Lazarus got to live. God just seemed late. Today's message is not as much fun, and I just want to tell you that going into this. We're going to look at whenever God seems uncooperative. When we know that God

could do something, we believe that he will, and then he does not. And again, I just want to say this really is not a fun or feel-good message, but I believe it will help create a foundation for us to understand maybe a little better the will of God and to learn to depend on him during those times when God seems uncooperative. And I want to kind of introduce it with a couple of stories. real short. Years ago, when Amy and I got married, we came home from our honeymoon to our little house, and the air conditioner evidently had been broken all week long. It seemed like it was 110 degrees inside. Really, really hot. We were really, really in love and really, really broke, and this felt like a really, really big problem. And she's like, what are we going to do?

And she looked at me, and she said, can you fix that? Okay, now 25 years in the marriage, she never asked me if I can fix anything, but she didn't know better than. So I kind of faked it and went and played with a thermostat and, you know, acted like I knew what I was doing. I went outside and looked at the unit and, you know, just checked and see if it was plugged in. I kind of, kind of wiggled it, you know. And I came back and said, I don't, I think it's above my pay grade. I don't think I can fix this. And she's like, well, why don't you pray for it?

And my first thought was, that's ridiculous. Who prays for an air conditioner? And then I thought, I'm broke, it's broken. Maybe, who knows? You know, so I just give it a shot. So I went outside, very true story, and I'm about to pray for this. Then I felt really ridiculously stupid. I looked over, we had a chain link fence to make sure nobody was watching, and I don't know

how you pray for an air conditioner, right? I know the scripture says, if there are any sick among you, let the elders lay hands on the sick. So I thought, well, it's definitely sick, and so I laid my hand on this air conditioner, and then it still didn't feel powerful. So I lifted my other hand up toward heaven, like it's a lightning rod, I'll get some power or something. It just seemed like the right thing to do.

And I prayed for this stupid broken air conditioner. God is my witness in the middle of my prayer. I'm not lying. The thing kicks on. I jumped back like, oh, God, whoa, whoa. I've got the power. I went in, we hugged, we kissed, we did other things. We were newlyweds.

It worked. It's amazing. This is crazy. So if your AC goes out, let me know. Tweet me, call me something. I don't do heaters, but I've got the power for air conditioners. And, you know, you may say, well, it's just a coincidence. Maybe, I don't know, man.

I'm telling you, I think it was dead. I prayed, and it worked. Amazing. God, wow. God, I can't believe you did that. That's freaky. Okay. Fast forward to today, if you were here last week, I told you about the young girl that had

multiple seizures and was in a coma, and we didn't know whether or not she'd live. A lot of people ask how she'd do it. I'll give you an update. The good news is they have a little. detected brain activity and feel like her brain is functioning. So we thank God for that. The more challenging news is that every time they try to bring her out of the induced coma, she goes back into having multiple seizures.

So we're now two weeks into this young girl being in a bad situation. The doctors are not sure she's going to make it. And we're praying around the clock. Everybody I know is praying. And so here's kind of my point of these whole two things. God, why in the world would you do something so insignificant as answer a prayer for an air conditioner? And why would you not answer the prayers of all these people to immediately heal this girl who has her whole life ahead of her? God, that doesn't make sense to me.

And I know that probably every single one of you have some version of this. that story in your own life. God gave you the parking spot of the mall, but God won't take away your migraine headaches, or you're praying for your marriage, or you're praying for some ongoing pain or ongoing challenge, you're praying for a job. And whatever it is, almost all of us have some category of that in our own lives. God, I believe you can do this. I'm praying that you will, and yet, God, you haven't. What do you do when God seems uncooperative? What do you do when you really are a sincere follower of Jesus, you believe that God could answer your prayer, and God does not answer your prayer.

Today, I want to look at the life of the Apostle Paul, one specific story, and bring out three different thoughts about prayer that I hope will minister to you. The first one, if you're taking notes, is this. We need to recognize that true prayer isn't about getting our way, but it's often about surrendering our will. It's not just about getting God to do what we want. It's often surrendering our will to what God actually wants. And some people may push back on this, but you need to remember this is exactly how Jesus prayed in the garden before going to the cross.

But he said, Father, if there's any way, would you remove this cup of suffering from me? Nevertheless, God, not my will, but your will be done. Jesus taught us to pray. He said, this is how you pray. He said, thy will be done on earth as it is in. heaven. True prayer isn't just about getting God to do what we want. It's often surrendering our will to what God wants. And the Apostle Paul would actually discover this. I want to tell you a little bit about Paul in case maybe you didn't grow up around church. If there's anyone who deserved

an answered prayer, in my opinion, I think you would agree was the Apostle Paul. His backstory, he hated Christians. If you're here and you hate Christians, maybe you hate my guts. Listen, Paul would have hated me more than you hate me. He killed Christians, despised them. And he had this miraculous conversion where his whole life was changed. And he went from hating Christians to being one of the most effective Christians in the history of the world. And this guy was crazy amazing in what he did all over the world. He wrote over half of the New Testament.

He essentially traveled on a ship for about 20 years, taking the gospel to every part of the world that he could get He took the gospel to Europe. The guy was amazingly bold in his faith. He had all these visions. He raised the dead. He paid an incredible price for it. Paul was stoned for his faith. He was stoned.

And I'm not talking about recreationally speaking. I just feel like I need to say that because some of you go, oh, yeah, it's not so bad. You know, we don't live in Colorado, okay? He was stone. He was shipwrecked. He was snake-bitten. He was beaten with rice. Rods and left for dead.

They thought he was dead. Like, yeah, he's dead. Thankfully, he was mostly dead, like the Princess Bride. But he was, you know, he was, he wasn't, he was whipped five different times, it lashed in the back. And when they would actually whip a person, they would whip them 39 times, not 40. If you whip them 40 times when they died, it would be considered murder. 39 was acceptable, 40 was not.

Five different times he was whipped 39 times on the back. You can only imagine after round one or round two, and your back is all scarred up. And here we go. Again, he was put in prison over and over and over again. This guy endured more than you could imagine. And so what was his reward? Okay? If I'm God, I'm going, you've done all this.

You know, I'm going to make sure your later years are better than your former years because that's how good of God I am. Second Corinthians 12-7 shows us this very challenging portion of Scripture. Paul's talking and he says this. He says, therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me. Okay? This is a challenging text.

So Satan brings something in this guy's life. God allows it. God not only allows it, but God uses it. God uses it to keep him from becoming conceded, and he has this thorn. Now, what is the thorn? We don't know what the thorn is. Scholars have debated for years, and everybody has their gifts. What's interesting is the Greek word translated as thorn can also mean steak, it's the word scallops.

And whenever they would actually kill a person by running a stake through their body, that's the word they would use. This thorn can also mean a stake. Whatever it is, it was agonizing. He said it was tormenting me. So people wonder what was it? We don't know, like I said, but people tend to guess. Most scholars believe it was probably some kind of physical ailment. Some people say, well, it might have been the opposition, those who came against them.

It might have been, we don't know. But most people think it was maybe headaches or malaria or recurring epilepsy or speech impediment. Some people argue it was actually bad eyesight because in one of the epistles, Paul said, notice I'm writing was really large letters, you know, and you can only imagine without glasses and, you know, you can't read, right? Whatever it is, we don't know. But he said, this was given to me. God allowed it. It tormented me, but God used it to keep me from becoming conceited.

Now, you today, many of you right now, you have some thorn in your life, some issue, some challenge. Some of you might say, my thorn is a person. If you're sitting next to them, do not point at them, look at them, don't breathe in their direction. That would be rude. But some of you, it might be a boss that's a challenge. Some of you, it might be a similar health issue, that you've prayed and prayed and believed that God would take it away, but it hasn't gone away. It could be depression.

you're trying all sorts of different things, and you're still fighting depression. It could be a sleep issue. It could be that you're just praying that God would change some circumstance. God, give me reliable transportation so I can get to church so I can work. Whatever it is, you look at it and say, God, would you please change this? And God isn't changing it. We need to remember that prayer isn't just about getting our way. But sometimes it's about surrendering our will and saying, God, even though I really wish you would do this

and you're not, I'm choosing to trust you in the middle of this situation. Second thing that I want to point out, and this is a thought that it really ministers to me, I hope it does to you as well about prayer. Prayer reminds us that we're not in control, and it keeps us close to the one who is. Prayer reminds us, hey, I'm not the Lord of my own life. Prayer reminds me that I can't control all situations. Prayer reminds me that I'm not in control, and it keeps me close to the one who is. And this thorn actually did this for the Apostle Paul.

2 Corinthians 12, 8 says this, three times I did what? Somebody say it aloud. Three times I what? I pleaded. Somebody in Wichita say it aloud. Three times I what? I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. God, please, I'm begging you.

I'm begging you. I'm pleading with you to take it away. Now, when Paul said I did this three times, this didn't mean like he went, I prayed at breakfast time and then I prayed at lunch and then I prayed at dinner. What's up, God? When he says I pleaded three times, this was three significant seasons of intentional focused intercession in prayer. This is what, quite honestly, Amy and I had done probably four or five times. She has these chronic infections and they'll come up and they'll put her in bed for two days,

you know, and then she'll go 60 days and won't have it and then it'll flare up again. And so we did multiple surgeries, every doctor, every kind of medicine, every natural thing, on and on, on, and on, and on. And we have spent, I guarantee you, four three to six month periods where we'll fast for 21 days. We've got all of our church's prayer warriors, everyone that we know, interceding, seeking God, begging God, please take this away. Please heal this situation. Please, dear God, do this. And this is what Paul is saying. Three seasons.

I just begged, pleaded, fast, and sought after God. Please take this away. Some of you, you may be in a season like that right now. God, please save my parents' marriage. Hold it together. God, please. God, please, take away this pain. God, please, I'm willing to work.

I'll do anything. I need a job. God, I need a job with benefits. I'm supporting a family, whatever it is. And you're begging, you're praying. You're pleading. And this is exactly what Paul is doing. God, please.

please, I trust you, I'm seeking you, please take this away. I'm only asking to do what I've seen you do for others. I know you can do this, God. Okay? If I'm God, I'm going, oh, sure, no problem. Yeah, of course, you're Paul. You've endured this for me. In fact, I'm going to give you a 10% raise on your next paycheck.

I mean, that's what I'm going to do. Like, I'm God, I'm like, you're amazing. You know, of course I'm going to do this. And think about it. God had already answered too many prayers to count. I mean, he has used Paul and done miracles through Paul again and again again. So, of course, God can do this. Paul begs and what does God say?

Second Corinthians 12, 9. Please do this, God. But God said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in weakness. God, please, would you just do this one thing? I could serve you so much more effectively if you would just do this one thing. And God says, no. No, not on this one.

My grace is going to be enough for you. My grace. What does that even mean? You think about it. What does that mean? My grace. It isn't grace what brings the forgiveness of sins. We're saved by grace.

Grace forgives our sins. We need to understand that grace is so much more than that. It's so much more than that. In fact, the word that's translated as grace here is, I put this in your notes, is the Greek word caris. It's used 155 times in the New Testament. And this word, it means undeserved favor. It means grace, but it means so much more than that. In fact, I did a word study on this, and there was one scholar who basically said,

this is a picture of what God's carriest, what his grace is. He says grace is when God freely extends himself, leaning and reaching to us because he is disposed to bless and be near us. I'm going to read this again. I want you to feel and imagine this. What is grace? It's when God freely extends himself, leaning and reaching to us. Why?

Because he is disposed to. to bless and be near to us. It's the leaning in of God. It's the, I'm here for you. It's the leaning and reaching in. I want to reveal myself to you. It's God leaning in to show us his presence. Here's what happens.

We tend to say this. God, this is what I need. This is what I want. If you'll do this, then I'll have what I need. This is what I need. And God says, no. This is not what you need. In this case, I am what you need.

I am enough. I am sufficient. My grace in this situation is what you need. It's the leaning in presence of God. I could do that. I've done it before. I may do something similar later, but in this particular case, you're gonna experience me in a way that you could not

if I did for you what you wanted me to do. It's the leaning in reaching presence of God. It's something that you, it's so hard to explain, you just have to experience it. It's God's grace. How are you making through this? I don't know. I don't know. I mean, it's just like, I've got this special grace from God. How in the world are you surviving what you're doing? Well, I'm not really even sure. It's just, I've just, I've got the special grace of God. It's the presence of God at that moment that is enough. And I'll explain it this way. I tried and tried to think of a good way to bring it to how you might understand.

And this is not by any means a perfect example. It breaks down in many points, but it could give you a little bit of an idea. My fourth child, I've got to count them up. Fourth of six, that's how much my wife likes me. Anyway, and I like her, too. So Sam was, when he was, he's 14 now, when he was two. when he was two years of age, we were riding on a scooter together, and he stepped off and snapped his femur, and horrible. I mean, just screaming, horrible. I'm worst dad of the year for having him

on this thing, just a nightmare. And I was carrying Sam, and I remember the bone, you could just hear it rattling. And, you know, he's just, he's just in more pain than you could imagine. And I'm, I'm like numb, hurting, don't even know which way's up. Took him to the emergency room, and they said, Yeah, we're going to operate on it tomorrow, but we can't tonight. And so it was just, he's miserable. He's crying. There's nothing we can do to calm him down. And we had to stay in this little, oddest little room.

There was a baby bed in the room, and that was it. Every time we tried to put him in the bed, any kind of movement, he would just scream, bloody murder. And so we had to just hold him completely still. Well, it was, you know, I don't know, eight, nine hour night. And so I climbed into the bed. Here I am, you know, all six foot, 185 pounds of me in this bed. holding him completely still, talking to him the whole night long. And I just, I remember if I moved in any, any form, he would scream in pain.

And so I'm talking an hour, two hours into it. My arms are just on fire. I'm locked in, holding him, just talking to him. I'm here with you, buddy. I love you. I'm singing to him. I can't even sing. I'm, you know, praying for him.

I'm here with you. I'm here with you. I'm here with you. And just fire in my arms. Like, you know, I can't do this for five more minutes. I did it for five more hours. I'm not going to let him. everything I can about my presence is going to try to bring comfort to him.

I love you, I love you, I love you, I'm here with you, I'm here with you, I'm here with you, I'm here with you, I'm here with you, I'm here with you, I'm here with you. I'm here with you. And this is sometimes how God is. This is, I want my presence to be a blessing to you. I could do this, but in this particular case, I want you to experience me in a way that you've never experienced me before. My grace is going to be sufficient for you. I could do this. That's what's so difficult about this. I could do this, but in this particular case, for reasons you may never understand, okay, I want my grace to be enough for you. We need to recognize that prayer isn't just about getting our way, but sometimes it's surrendering our will to God.

And what we have to know is that God does not exist to serve us. Do you recognize this? God is not here to serve us. We are here to serve him. We glorify him. Sometimes the Western version of Christianity kind of gets it mixed up. If God doesn't do this for me, then I'm out. Who do you think you are?

When did you become God? We're here to serve him. We glorify Him. Prayer, it reminds us that we are not in control, and it keeps us close to the one who is pressing in season after season. God, I'm seeking you. I'm seeking you. I'm believing.

I'm trusting you. Even if you don't do this, God, I continue to trust you. The third thing if you're taking notes is this, prayer isn't just asking, but it's trusting. It's not just asking, but it's trusting. It's not just asking for what you want, but it's trusting that God knows what's best. And I do want to say prayer is asking all day long. If you come before me and you say, I've got cancer, listen to me. We're going to pray in the name of Jesus and believe that cancer goes away.

We believe that the name of Jesus is better than bigger than any other name. We believe that God heals. We believe that God provides. We believe that God does miracles. Don't you ever think for a minute, oh, oh, is God, your will be done, blah, blah, blah. No, we ask, we ask, and we trust. at the same time. We ask and we trust.

We ask. We have not because we do not ask, James says. So we're going to ask and we're going to believe for miracles and we're going to see miracles. But there are going to be times when God says no. In this case, no. It's not just asking, it's trusting. And this is what Paul ends up having to do. So here he is years later, and he's looking back on this thorn that he's most likely still has.

And suddenly he has a very different perspective on it. He's saying the thing that just tormented me, God actually used. He used it to keep me from becoming conceited. Then he said this in verses nine and ten. He said, hey, because of this and now my perspective has changed, he said, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses. Why? So that Christ's power may rest on me.

He said, that's why, for Christ's sake, I do what? Everybody say this aloud. Say it aloud. He said, I what? He said what? I delight in weaknesses. He goes on to say, I delight in insults. I delight in hardships.

I delight in persecutions. I delight in difficulties. Why? Because when I am weak, then I am strong. I delight in these things that I would not ever choose because I experience the presence and power of God in those things. It's not the successes that make me closer to God. It's those times when I can't do anything but depend on God

that helps me to know him and into my way. You see, my ministry is more powerful now because God didn't do what I wanted him to do because when I was weak, I experienced his power in a way that I could not otherwise. I delight in insults. I delight in persecutions. What if he changed your perspective? What if he said, I hate these headaches? Well, I delight in these headaches.

I delight in them because they teach me to trust in the presence of God in a way that I couldn't otherwise. How do you make it through? I don't know. It's the grace of God. I delight in my search for a job right now. What? You're a weird.

No, what you don't understand is I have learned to depend on God as my provision in a way that I could not otherwise. He still continues to meet all of my needs. I delight in this lonely sense that I have this Christmas because someone that I love is not here. How do you delight in that? Because Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us, and he is what I need at this. this moment of my life. This is what I need. No, no, no, no. God is what you need. Paul's perspective changed over time. He's looking back. His perspective changed. People say time heals all wounds. That sounds good. It's just not quite true. You know people like, you know people 30 years later after

the fact they're still ticked, angry, bitter, right? You know people like that? Don't point at them. You know people like that. Time didn't heal all wounds. Time with God's presence heals wounds. It's God's presence. God brings healing. Over time, you could look back. You could look back. And here's the deal. Some of you right now, you're in a place you hate it. And I don't want to make light of it. And like I say, I wouldn't hate it either. There are some things in my life right now I do not like.

Okay? I wish God would change them. And he's changed some things and he hadn't changed other things. But what I do believe is that years from now with the presence of God, I will look back and say, oh, I see what you did. You kept me from becoming conceited. Or you built an intimacy between me and you that I wouldn't have otherwise. Or you use that to draw me and Amy closer together. We wouldn't have been so close had this not had happened, this perspective over time.

In fact, as we move toward Christmas Eve, I'll tell you, Christmas Eve, I think growing up, my favorite night of the year, there's something about the expectation of Christmas. It's like, as a kid, all the way in adulthood, it's like, I don't have a better night. But as I've grown through the years, we've had two significant blows on Christmas Eve, One of them is one of my best friend's brothers died on Christmas Eve. And so I preached the third or fourth message, got in my car and went to their house and cried my eyes out with them. The second thing is that 12 years ago, this Christmas Eve, Amy's brother went into the hospital on Christmas Eve. And I just remember thinking, oh, this is horrible, but more so, like, kind of inconvenient because, well, what a horrible time.

Because all of us thought, well, you know, Christmas Day, the day after, whatever, he'll be home. and be totally fine. Problem was Christmas Day, he wasn't better. 26th he wasn't better. 27th he wasn't better. 28th he wasn't better. 29th he wasn't better. 30th he wasn't better.

31st he wasn't better. First, he was bad. And so we brought in all the prayer warriors, man, and we still totally completely convinced he's going to be better because he's 35 years of age. He's going to be better. There's no doubt. We're all praying.

There's a church full of people praying. No doubt, no doubt, no doubt. no doubt, no doubt he's going to be better. No doubt whatsoever. He's coming home. David is going to go home. January 16th, he went home, but not the earthly home. So for months, Amy'd cry herself asleep, as you would.

Her parents are just crazy, amazing people. And to watch parents grieve the loss of a child, no one should have to go through that, you know. 12 years later, and we're looking back on it. Time doesn't heal all wounds. Times with God's presence heals wounds. And I did the funeral for David, and there were so many lives impacted by this. In fact, I've been a pastor for 25 years.

This is crazy. I've never seen more good come out of a death than I did out of that one person. It's hard to describe. It wasn't famous, but it was amazing. It was just amazing. So I asked Amy one time, if you had to lose all the good, but you could have your brother back,

would you have your brother back? Without hesitation, she said, I'd never want to go through that again. I'd never choose it again. But under no circumstances, would I want David back after all the good that I saw God do through it? That's crazy.

She would not have said that the first week. She wouldn't have said it the first year. She probably wouldn't have said it five years into it, 12 years into it, with the presence and the goodness of God. She would say the very worst nightmare in her life is something that she wouldn't change because she saw the way God used it. So I don't know what it is right now. And I don't want to play it down at all because what you're going through,

might be equally or more painful than what our family endured. But what I do know is no matter how bad this moment is, the goodness of God is even better over time. The goodness of God. And if God didn't do exactly what you want him to do, it doesn't make God any less God, okay? It makes them more God. And so we continue asking.

We're always going to believe for miracles. But not only are we going to ask, but we're going to trust. because prayer isn't just getting God to do what we want, but prayer is often surrendering our will to God. Your will be done on earth as is in heaven. Here's what I want God, but not my will, your will be done. We're going to keep praying.

And any time there's something difficult that we don't understand, we're going to remember prayer reminds us that we are not in control. And it keeps us close to the one who is. And so whatever that thorn is, because we all have a version of a thorn in our life at one point or the other. My prayer is that years from now, you'll look back and say, well, you didn't like it, didn't understand it, but God did use it. Because even when life doesn't feel good, our God still is good.

He's always good. He can't be anything but good. We serve and worship a good God. So, Father, we pray right now that you would do a work, and I really, recognize this isn't a fun message that makes us all feel good, but God, I pray that your word would minister deeply to hearts and people, even now as we seek you. At all of our churches right now, I just want to ask very plainly how many of you would say there is a thorn in your life right now, something really challenging. Would you lift up your hands in a moment of honesty? Yeah,

hands up at all of our churches. Father, I pray right now, and I know you know that details of every situation. God, I ask that you would do true miracles. That God, you'd bring healing, that you bring restoration, God, that you'd bring provision, God, that you would do things where we'd sit back in so many storage and say that could only be God. That could only be God. That air conditioner wasn't working and now it's working. That could only be God. Wow, God, thank you. And God, every time you answer a prayer, we're going to give you glory and tell everybody it's because of your goodness. We worship you, oh God. We also recognize that you your ways are higher than our ways, different than our ways.

And God, in those times that you don't do what we know you can do and think you should do, I pray that you would do an even deeper work in our lives. That your grace right now would be enough. I pray, God, for those who are hurting, those who are confused, those whose lives seem to be on hold. God, I pray that your grace would be enough. that the leaning in presence of your Holy Spirit would touch us, God, that we could sense that you are here, you are with us.

And God, at this moment and in this season, that your grace would be all that we need. And God, I pray that maybe a decade later, we'd look back on something that we'd never want to endure again and something that we would never, ever choose. But we could have perspective that, God, you are so good. you took the lowest point of my life and you actually did something eternal with it.

So God, we ask for miracles and we trust your response. Believing God, you are always good. As you continue praying today, nobody looking around. I want to talk a little bit more about grace because it was grace that changed Paul's life. Paul thought he was right with God by following a bunch of rules,

but he didn't realize that Jesus was the fulfillment of the law. Jesus was God in the flesh. Jesus was without sin. Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead for the forgiveness of sins. Paul realized it wasn't about his performance. It was about the perfect work of Jesus. It was grace. It was grace that changed his life.

For me, it was grace that changed my life. It was that one word. I was in college reading in the book of Ephesians, searching for God, wondering, is he real? Does he care? Can he forgive all the things I've done wrong? And I read that it was by grace. that you are saved, it was not by works. It's a gift of God. It was grace. It was a grace of God that brought me to Jesus. There are those of you here that grace is going to change your life.

You look at your life and think, well, I'm not good enough for God. I'm not even sure God is there. Listen, the grace of God changes your life. The same grace that saves you is the same grace that sustains you. It's the same grace that strengthens you. It's the grace of God. It's the leaning in presence of God. At all of our churches, there are those of you that you recognize you're not walking with Jesus. You don't know God intimately. You may be in a really low place right now and you hate it. You may look back and say, you know what? That low place is what brought me into a relationship with God. I actually delight in that low place. I thank you for that low place. I thank you that you allowed me to go through that because you used it to bring me to know you God. The grace of God will

save you. The grace of God will sustain you. The grace of God will strengthen you. And many of you are here today because you need to experience the grace of God. At all of our churches, those who say, yes, I need his grace, yes, I need his presence. Yes, I recognize that I've sinned and I've fallen short of his standard. I know I cannot be good enough. So today, I trust in the grace of Jesus. I surrender my life to him, not just to get him to do what I want. I surrender my will to him and say, Jesus, you be first, you be Lord.

I give my life to you. That's your prayer today at all of our churches. And you say, yes, Jesus, I give my life to you. That's your prayer. Lift your hands high right now and say, yes, I say, I say, surrender, right back over here, over here. God bless you. Over here, praise God for you. Back here in the back, here in the middle section. Way back over here as well. Right over here in this section here. Praise God for all of you. Back over here in this section. Church online,

you just click right below me. Somebody else who's leaning into it, you're considering it, and you want to say, I do it now, Jesus. I give my life completely to you. That's my prayer today. Would you all pray aloud with those around you? Pray Heavenly Father, forgive me of my sins. I ask Jesus to save me and be the Lord of my life. Fill me with your spirit so I could walk with you, so I could serve you, so I could know you. I am not first. You are first. Thank you for changing my life.

My life is not my own. Today I give it to you. In Jesus' name, I pray. Would you all worship really, really big. We get to be a part of amazing life change stories by the grace of God. Celebrate big.