The Church of Eleven22 - Saturated 2021 - Thursday: Pastor Josh Turner

Episode Date: September 16, 2021

What's up? Hey, y'all. No. Y'all are setting yourselves up to be disappointed right now. Hey, please. Holy cow. Here's the reality. After that worship, I could get up here and read the ingredients of a can of soup.

And 97 people would be like, I want to know Jesus. You know what I mean? It was the worship team guys all around. Come on. Crushed it. Hey. My boy, Cade. Cade.

Hey, stand up and wave to everybody. Stand up and wave. Cade crushed it in the choir. Good job, buddy. You broke me down already. So I hope you brought your tissues because I am an emotional roller coaster. For real, though.

I hope you really brought them. Hey, I want to share something really cool with y'all. with Bishop Martin earlier today. So like Joby said, Jobi and I have known, I'm not going to talk about how much I love you and we have been friends for 20 years and good Lord, the stories we could tell about each other, my friend.

I'm very proud of you. And this is incredible what you and Gretchen have allowed the Lord to do through you. I will leave it at that before I cry. But Joby and I were sharing today, you know, last year I was at saturated, representing one hope. And we are a global,

missions organizations where we help translate the gospel to get it to children all over the world. And Church of 1122, you are partners of ours. And so you actually help us translate scripture to get to those places that Pastor David Platt was talking about last night. So last year, y'all said at Saturate, hey, what we want to do is we want to translate the language of Macedonian. I'm not quite sure where that is. I'm going to be honest with you. Macedonian. And we want to do it in the Bible app for kids. So I pulled the numbers so that I could share this with you, but since this time last year, you guys have already reached over 75,000 children with the gospel. And in the past six months, in the past six months, that app has been downloaded by 26,000 different children

that speak the Macedonian language. And so that is something to celebrate as a church, amen? And so I'm super honored to be here. I actually brought a picture of my family. A lot of you may know me. I've been around for a while. So this is my family. Like Pastor Jobi said, that's my son, Aidan. Let him take a gap year because he's very smart and I like his father.

And he is up in Montana, fly fishing down the Bighorn River. So really suffering for the Lord up there. And you know, he's coming back. and Jobby, he's going to be a Georgia bulldog. Yeah. And, I mean, I went to Florida State, but I mean, the only thing worse is a gator, right? I don't wear them jean shorts all the time. That'd be weird, those UF people.

Man, you all love some jean shorts. Can you cut them off shorter? Some of y'all are very offended right now. The night is just beginning, folks. That's my wife, Becca. We just actually celebrated 18 years of marriage two weeks ago. So 18 years of marriage, she's a very lucky woman and she hit the jackpot with me. So some of you just did math that I have an 18 year old and I've been married

for 18 years. So every sinner's got a backstory, you know what I mean? Like here's what happened. I was at a prayer meeting at Florida State University. We were in the book of Ezekiel. And she walked in, that's not what happened at all. And that's my daughter Riley. Riley, as you can see in that picture, has a tracheostomy. She is lower in that picture. She is in a wheelchair. And she's a little bit about what I want to talk about tonight.

Three years ago, my life exploded. And I'm talking like COVID, please. 2019 was a dumpster fire for the Turner family. In one week, I resigned from an organization that I've been a part of for 17 years. In that same week, my daughter gets her first ever diagnosis at 11 years old. The doctor calls us and says,

your daughter is the 12th known case in the world of a rare genetic disorder. We lost everything, and when we found out that she was the 12th known case, we lost all of our Medicaid. So now I have resigned from an organization I've been a part of for 17 years and now we have to leave the state of Florida

that we've been at the majority of our life and we have no idea where we're going. And I was in a crisis of faith. When have you ever been in that moment? And let me ask it to you this way. What do you do when God doesn't do what you think he should? Because the past two years,

I think all of us in here have said God has done some things or he has allowed some things that really don't make sense to me. And y'all can preach back at me and holler back at me. I get either a lot better or worse. We're not sure yet. We'll see how it goes. But all of us in here, there are going to be moments in our lives where God does not make sense. All of us from COVID, from the people that we've lost, to everything that's happened in this world,

to everything that's happened to you personally, what we've got to understand is that there's going to be moments in life where God doesn't do what we think he should. So my question to you saturated is, what do you do with that? Have you ever had those moments where you're like, God? Seriously? God for real? Or you ever do this with God? God, I'm one of the good ones. I signed up to be on your team. God. You know, one of the things I wish is a preacher that I could stand up here and Pastor Jobi wishes the same thing, that we could stand up here and say, here's the deal, guys. At the end of the tonight's service, I'm going to give you a chance to come to know Jesus Christ as your Savior. I'm going to tell you how he saved you from your sins, separated them far away as the east is

from the west, and then gave you his righteousness. But what I wish I could say is, and then there's going to be a Holy Spirit bubble that lowers on top of you, and nothing ever bad will happen to you for the rest of your life. And everything that happens to you will always make sense. and you'll always be like, thanks, Lord, and walking off. But if you're over the age of four, you've realized that that's not reality. That God does a lot of things that don't make sense to us. And guys, I've seen it crush people.

I've seen people say, if this is how God is, then I don't want anything to do with him. And I've seen it push people closer into him. And here's the thing, it's a choice. And we get to choose. And what's so unique about Christians at times is I think that we think this is new to us. What we've got to understand is when you look at scripture,

God has been doing things that don't make sense to us from the very beginning. There's a lot of people in scripture that I think are going, seriously, Lord, let me give you an example. If you have your Bible, turn on me to Genesis 39, 10 through 20, if not, it'll be on the Jumbotron covering my giant head. Genesis 39, 10 through 20. Let me give you a little backstory.

So what we're about to look at is a young man by the name of Joseph. Joseph had a father named Jacob. Jacob loved Joseph more than the rest of his brothers. The Bible's very clear. He gave Joseph a dope coat. The other brothers are mad at him. Joseph's has him some dreams. He's sharing some things.

His brothers are out in the fields working one day. Jacob goes, Joseph, come here to me. I want you to go check on your brothers. So Joseph begins to go check on his brothers. The brothers see him coming from a long way off, and here's the first thing they say, here comes the dreamer, let's kill him. So let me just remind you,

Joseph is actually being obedient to what his father has asked him to do, and the first thing he has met with is his brothers conspiring to kill him. Then one of them's like, no, no, no, no, no. Guys, that's too much. Let's dig a pit and throw him in it. Then his blood's not on our hands. and they're like, cool, team, and they slap hands, and they dig a big pit, and they throw Joseph in it.

So as they're sitting there eating lunch, a band of gypsies, Ishmaelite gypsies come by. One of the brothers goes, guys, we shouldn't leave Joseph in this pit and get nothing for him. Let's sell him into slavery. So they sell their own brother,

who is being obedient to their father, into slavery. Joseph is bought by a man named Potipher, who is the chief of the palace guard, for Pharaoh. So he is a man that has some authority. He is a man that has some, some, a palace. He has a big place. He's like a governor in this area. So Pharaoh, or so Potipher buys Joseph. The problem is, is that Potipher's wife also takes note of Joseph. The Bible tells us that Joseph was well built. He was very handsome. If you need a physical representation, you can use me.

here to make the Bible come alive to you this evening. So we're going to pick it up in verse 10. She kept putting pressure on Joseph day after day, but he refused to sleep with her and he kept out of her way as much as possible. One day, however, no one else was around when he went in to do his work. She came and grabbed him by his cloak demanding, come on, sleep with me. Joseph tore himself away, but he left his cloak in her hand as he ran from the house. Just a side note, a lot of us in here, our reaction to sin needs to be more like Joseph. When sin comes our way, when temptation comes our way, because we all know those things that tempt us, right?

Like we all know those areas that we have weaknesses in our life. See, Joseph, when he was faced with temptation, he didn't say, well, maybe I'll just hug her. Maybe we'll just cuddle and watch a movie together. Joseph took off running. See, a lot of us, when we get into temptation, and we get into that sin game, we actually like to see how close we can get to the edge before we get caught. We like to see how close we can get before we get burned a little bit.

So Joseph, he takes off, he runs, he leaves his cloak in his hand. When she saw that she was holding his cloak and he had fled, she called out to her servants. Soon all the men came running. Look, she said, my husband has brought this Hebrew slave here to make fools of us. He came into my room to rape me, but I screamed. When he heard me scream, he ran outside and got away, but he left his cloak behind with me. She kept the cloak with her until her husband came home. Then she told him her story.

That Hebrew slave you've brought into our house tried to come in and fool around with me, she said. But when I screamed, he ran outside leaving his cloak with me. Potiphar was furious when he heard his wife's story about how Joseph had treated her. So he took Joseph and threw him into the prison where the king's prisoners were held, and there he remained. If I'm Joseph, I'm like, for real God? God, I did what was right. God, I did the honorable thing. Here's me, if I'm honest,

I'm in prison going, I should have just left with her. Let's be real. We can act all holy in church, but some of you were like, word, dog, I ought to been in there too. I'd be like, hey, girl, come in here. You smell good. Dang, what is that, herbal essence?

Like, he did what was right. And he ended up in prison. That's God not doing what you think he should do. Some of you in here, the cancers come back. That's not God doing what you think he should do. That person that you loved, that you put a ring on your finger for, they looked at you and said, I don't want to be married to you anymore. That's not what you thought God should have done.

Some of you lost loved ones to COVID. And you said all the right prayers and you did all the right things that you felt like you should do. And they died. And that's not what you thought God should have done. So what do you do? This is the stuff that I've had to walk through the past two years in my own life. Through a massive hurt, through a terrible betrayal, to having to leave our friends and our family. That's not what I thought God should have done.

I thought he should have showed up different for me. And I realized I had a choice I had to make. And it was painful. And I want you to know what I'm going to share with you tonight, like, this is out of my hurt and pain. This is out of the stuff where I'm looking at God and I'm freaking out. and I'm mad at him and I'm angry and I'm saying, where are you? I didn't do anything to deserve this. And some of you, if you're honest with yourself, you're there right now.

You have braved the rain and Beach Boulevard to be here because what you need is you need God in your life to help you make sense of the circumstance that you find yourself in. You're here going, please God, speak to me. please God say anything that makes sense to me about what it is that I'm walking through right now because if you don't then I'm out I've been there I know what that's like so over the past three years I've had to figure out what do I do with this and on top of that I'm a preacher and a pastor so that screws up everything as well you know because then people want to give you biblical advice and you're like I know it all get away from me

The Lord will never give you more than you can handle. I will punch you in the neck. You ever want to just throat chop somebody for the glory of God? Golly, man. Some of you are like pointing right now. Terry, row three. I want to hit him all the time. If someone on the row three is named Terry, I'm really sorry.

That would just be a weird, super weird coincidence. Or prophetic. I am charismatic, so who knows? See how the night goes. Do you imagine they're just beating a man in the aisle named Taylor? And we're like, oh, that got weird. So here's what I want to do tonight. I'm going to go ahead and tell you,

I've been praying for you today. I'm going to tell you my end game for tonight. I'm going to give you a chance at the end of this night to respond to this message at this altar. And there's not probably one of us in here that does not fit into one of these categories. Some of you are like, you're going to hit all three. I hit all three.

I wrote them. because this is what I found that I had to work through. And so I'm going to give you the three things that I think that everyone should do when God doesn't do what you think he should. And my prayer is that you would understand that anything that speaks to you, Knight, is not from a person on a stage, but it is the Holy Spirit trying to help you understand that there are going to be some things on this side of eternity that you may not get.

and that the Holy Spirit is wanting to speak to you and the best place that you can put yourself when God doesn't do what you think he should is in his presence. And it doesn't mean it's all going to make sense but at least you know God's there in it with you. And so I want to give you three things and here's what I want to encourage you.

I want you to write these down because if you take notes in church, you get to pick where you live in heaven. And listen, I know Pastor Jobi hasn't taught you all that. That's the advanced stuff. that you learn in membership class at Church of 11. No, here's why I want you to write,

here's why I want you to write this down. Some of you're like, dang it. Someone get that waterfront finally. Because when God's not doing what you think you should and you find yourself in those dark nights of the soul, it's sometimes hard to remember what was spoken over you. It's sometimes, it's that, what did that person say that helped me, like,

write it down. Because guys, I know how hard life is. I have a 13-year-old special needs daughter that's in a wheelchair that sleeps on a ventilator at night that has a tracheosomy, a feeding tube. We have nurses that get to our house from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. But since COVID has happened, we've had to cancel them. My wife and I have slept in the same bed probably 12 times and 18 months. I know life's hard. And I know things don't make sense at times. and I'm not going to be able to help you make sense of them tonight. I just want to give you some tools so you can help wrestle with God. Amen?

So let's pray and we're going to jump into them. God, we thank you so much for tonight. God, we thank you that you are with us in this place. God, I pray that these next few moments that I speak, Lord, God, that you would prepare the hearts of your people for what it is that you want them to hear. God, I pray that you would meet each. God, you know where every person in this room is sitting right now and, God, what it is that they are wrestling with with you. God, I pray that you meet them there.

Holy Spirit, I pray that you speak to them, and God, that you would let them know that you see them in their hardship and their heartache. God, we love you. We are expectant about what you're going to do tonight. And God, tonight, I pray for salvation. I pray that there would be people in here, God, that are dead and their sins, but would come alive in your son, Jesus Christ, tonight. God, we pray all these things in the name of your son, Jesus. Amen. If you're taking notes, the first thing is this.

Now, let me just say this. Pastor David Platt, how many of y'all are here last night? Preach an incredible sermon. Unbelievable. The length of a point does not add to its spirituality. Okay? Mine are like one word. So some of you're all like, amen, brother.

All right. The first point is this. Remember what God has done. When God doesn't do what you think he should, you need to remember what he's. already done. Now I'm going to read to you Psalm 77 and I'm going to read it all to you. Now I want you to think about this when I read this to you. The Psalms, right, they're beautiful. Most of them are like these flowing God as a deer panteth for the water. God, you caused me to lay down in

green pastures and there are these overflowing love God, you're beautiful, you're awesome, you're great. I'm going to read Psalm 77 to you. I cry out to God, yes, I shout. Oh, that God would listen to me. When I was in deep trouble, I searched for the Lord. All night long I prayed with hands lifted toward heaven, but my soul was not comforted. I think of God and I moan, overwhelmed with longing for his help. You don't let me sleep.

I'm too distressed even to pray. You ever been to that place? You ever been in the place where you've prayed so much and you go in to pray to God? and you're like, uh, Lord, ditto on yesterdays. Or are you ever going to God and you don't know what to say? One of my favorite bands of all time is a band called the Avid brothers. And their grandfather was a preacher. And so they took some of his sermons and they turned them into songs.

And they had this line in one of their songs. And sometimes it bothers people when I say this. But they said, sometimes I use cuss words when I pray. Anybody else in here? Okay, everybody else is lying. But there are times, man, where it is like, and can I just say this about that. God isn't offended by that. God's not like, Jesus, he said the D word.

You know what I mean? God cares that you keep coming to him. That's what he wants in those moments. God wants you to keep coming to him and being in his presence. There is nothing that you can say in a prayer that will ever push God away from your prayer in those moments. And so I love it the Psalm is, I'm too distressed. even to pray. Listen to this. I think of the good old days, long since ended when my nights were filled with joyful songs. I searched my soul and ponder the difference now. Has the Lord rejected

me forever? Will he never again be kind to me? Is his unfailing love gone forever? Have his promises permanently failed? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he slammed the door on his compassion? This is his conclusion. And this is my fate. the most high has turned his hand against me. But look at verse 11. But then I recall all you have done, O Lord. I remember your wonderful deeds from long ago. They are constantly in my thoughts.

I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works. Oh, God, your ways are holy. Is there any God as mighty as you? You are the God of great wonders. You demonstrate your awesome power among the nations. By your strong arm, you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. I love this.

When the Red Sea saw you, O God, its waters looked and trembled. The sea quaked to its very depths. The cloud poured down rain. The thunder rumbled in the sky. Your arrows of lightning flash. Your thunder roared from the whirlwind. The lightning lit up the world. The earth trembled and shook.

Your road led through the sea, your pathway through the mighty waters, a pathway no one knew was there. Could it be the thing that does not make sense to you or maybe anybody else in your life is a pathway for your life that only God sees? Could it be? you are freaking out and God is saying, I'm actually leading you to something that nobody else knows about because I'm the God of the universe. And so you've just got to trust me in this moment. But what we do is we forget. We forget about what he's done. It's Christian amnesia.

We face a hard time. And then all of a sudden we're like, well, we're goneers. This is it, Lord. What would it look like for you to remember? What would it look like? So here's what I did. So I told you about three years ago, my life becoming a goat show and falling apart. So we lived in Orlando at the time, and I would often go work at Disney World. I'd go down and I'd sit outside Disney World and work because nothing makes you feel better about your life than seeing a family meltdown at 3 p.m. at Disney World. You're like, we ain't doing so bad, honey. And so, like, I'm sitting down there.

I have my Bible, and I'm reading Mark Chapter 4. It's a true story, not one that Pastor Jobi makes up. This is a true story. So, so Mark chapter four, I'm reading it. And in Mark chapter four, there is a story about the disciples and Jesus crossing over the Sea of Galilee. Now, the Sea of Galilee was surrounded by a mountainous range. So what would often happen is you could be on a clear day, and you could set out to go

to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, and the cold air from the mountains would rush down and meet with the warm air over the Sea of Galilee and these massive storms. would kick up. So Jesus and the disciples crossed in the sea of galley, huge storm comes. Jesus is chilling asleep in the back of the boat. The disciples are like, like us, we're goneers. Help, this is it. Somebody wake up Jesus. So they go and they wake up Jesus. Jesus walks to the boat and says, peace be still. And it says when you read it in the Greek, it's like the entire environment changed in that moment. Always a reminder with one word. Jesus can change the entirety of your situation.

So he says, peace be still. But here's what got me. He looked at his disciples and said, he said, how do you still not trust me? And it hit me. He's not asking them that question because they just saw him calm the storm. He's asking them that question because of everything that the disciples have seen him do in Mark 1 through 3. So I go through and I start looking at all the things that the disciples have seen in Mark 1 through 3 that would cause Jesus to ask him that question. They have seen people demon possessed come up to Jesus, call him the son of God, and Jesus go hush.

They have seen him heal people's bodies, multiple people's bodies. They have seen him heal leprosy all before their eyes and a storm comes up and all of a sudden they think that they're dead. And I'm sitting there and I'm like, man, God, how do the disciples not believe Jesus when they've seen him come through so many times? How do the disciples not trust in Jesus when they've seen him heal people and he's come through and he's shown up and the Holy Spirit said, cool, I was wondering the same thing about you. And I said, this isn't about me, Lord. This is about the disciples.

And it hit me. I was doing the same thing the disciples were doing. I was in a rocky boat and things looked really scary. and I'm going, I'm a goner. This is it. So what I did is, as I got out of a journal, this is what I'm encouraging you, I got out of a journal, I started listing all the miracles.

And all the times that God has come through in my life, I made a list of them. Because I knew that there was going to be a day in the future where I needed to remind myself of God's faithfulness in the past. Some of you in here right now, listen to me, you're having such a hard time in this moment because what you've done is you've allowed the enemy to steal God's faithfulness from you in the past. You're freaking out going, God, I can't, how are you, why are you, whatever the case may be.

And all you need to do is look back at the track record that God has with you. And I'm not saying it's always perfect and I'm not saying it's always easy. But God's character is always the same. Our circumstances doesn't change who he is and God is faithful. It may not look the way that we think it should. But that doesn't change his faithfulness. So I went home and I sat down with my family, I got my kids there,

and I told them that story, I just told you. And I said, all right, guys, here's what we're going to do. Because my kids, we're moving our son in his junior year. My daughter, we have to get all new doctors. She's had over 27 surgeries, doctors and nurses and all this. And like, we're freaking out as a family. I said, guys, if he's been faithful in the past, he's going to be faithful in the future.

So I said, let's start listing things. So we start listing things. And parents, let me just say, it's amazing to see what your children think are miracles from God. My daughter was like, our puppy, and I'm like, that's Satan's curse. You know what I mean? Like, that's no. Yeah, it's terrible. It's a curse upon this family and our carpet.

But what would it look like for you? For real, tonight. when you go home, you and your spouse, you and your family, you by yourself, to sit and to say, God, help me remember all the times that you've come through. Because God, I know there's going to be a day in the future that I need to remember them. And I can't tell you how much strength it gives you. And it's like things you even forget about. And it's like we think that when we go through.

through hard times that somehow God has changed or that he doesn't see us now. Listen, there are going to be some things on this side of eternity that just don't make sense to us, but we're still able to trust in the one that it does make sense to. Amen? The first thing is that you can remember what God has done. The second thing is you need to accept what God is doing. I like it when I get a, woo, in church. You need to, okay, okay. Okay, okay, okay. Those were fake. You didn't mean them. The first one is, you remember what God, good night. Keys, keys. You need to remember what God done. Second thing is you need to accept what God's doing. Now, let me be very clear when I say this. When I say accept what God is doing, I don't mean just rolling over and playing dead being, have thine way with me, Lord. Like, I don't mean that, okay? I always, I also don't mean to go on Facebook and post your entire life story. Okay?

Can I just, this is a soapbox, it has nothing to do with my sermon. If you need help, ask for help. Don't post it on Facebook so everybody can be like, you're so brave, we're so proud of you, you're so great. If you need help, come and ask somebody for help, don't do it, just, anyway. That's deep in my soul right there. So I'm not saying roll over and play dead. But I'm also not saying to do what a lot of Christian people do at time.

And that is just fake it. We've all know those Christian people. I know it's nobody at 1122, but we all know those Christian people that no matter what you ask them, they're blessed and highly favored. How are you doing? Blessed and highly favored. Well, your car exploded and your face is bleeding. So we have a bit of a situation going on here.

And there's another. like lie, and this is why I'm so thankful that y'all sit up under one of my best friends in the world as your pastor, there's a lie that has permeated like some Christian churches. It's called speaking it into existence. See, you know, you know what I'm talking about. Mmm. That you can't, that like, let's say the doctor says you have cancer and you acknowledge that you have cancer that you have now spoken it into existence, and God can't do anything about it? That's ridiculous. It's not like you're like, yeah, the doctor said I had cancer, and Jesus is like, well, God,

I was going to heal him, but he said it and I can't do anything. Now my hands are tied. You know how it is? And God's like, tell me about it. COVID. You know, like, it's ridiculous. So I'm not saying to go to either extreme. But here's why we have such a problem with accepting what God's doing.

We have a problem. accepting what God is doing because we get stuck in a question. The question we get stuck in is why. And what we end up doing when God doesn't make sense to us is we end up trying to figure out the almighty powerful God of the universe and be able to understand his ways. Why, God? Why would you allow this? Why did you let this happen? Why? Why? I'm going to tell you, when we had our daughter. She is, like I said, severely special needs. I was a preacher and a pastor. My theology went out the window. And now I have to reconcile the world, the situation in front of me in the gospels and in the Bible. And I got stuck in Y for four years. I'm talking deep. I could argue both sides

scripture, theologically to people. I was a head case. And then what we end up doing when we ask a question why, we end up, we end up kind of making these boxes and trying to get God to fit in that box. So it makes sense to us. Because really what we're trying to do is we're not trying to wait patiently upon the Lord trusting in him. We're just trying to make sense of our situation. So we begin asking God why. And sometimes you are never going to understand why on this side of eternity. You're never going to. It's like at the end of the book of Job,

when God says to Job, who is this that counsels my wisdom without words of knowledge? And then God says all this beautiful stuff about all these amazing things in the world. And Job's only responses, it is I, Lord, I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.

Sometimes there are things on this side of eternity that are too wonderful for you to know. And they're hard. I'm not telling you, that it's easy. I'm a pastor that I'm in it, and I'm not telling you, you can do it, champ.

Like, it's hard. But I want to give you a different question to ask. Instead of asking why, I want you to ask, what do you want me to do with this Lord? Instead of asking why, I want you to ask God what he wants you to do with it. Let me give you an example.

My daughter is a diva. she is 13 and when I tell you like if I was to write it's it's Beyonce I am Beyonce always the office Beyonce Riley J-Lo that's the that's the that's the that's the level of divanus we're working with she's 13 and has a 30-minute facial regimen that she does every night I'm not kidding I walked into her room one night she's got one of those like jade rollers. She's like rolling her face. I just backed out of the room slowly. I didn't know what was happening. I go, baby, what are you doing? She's serums and creams and she goes, dad, I don't want wrinkles. I said you're fine. Share it with your mom. Um, my mother-in-law's here.

Do not tell her, Kathy. Um, she's a diva. She, I have some pictures of her. Um, um, I have some pictures of her. We have to do photo shoots for her at times. She's the devil. I'm just playing. So there's another one. So this is a photo shoot. This is a photo shoot. She does a bunch of things for some special needs organizations. And she has a blog. And so this is how the blog starts. One day, I'm about to go out of town. And she's super into fashion, YouTube, Instagram, all TikTok. She's like, Dad, you should have a TikTok. I said, I'm over 40. No. I'm a creeper if I have TikTok. You know what I mean? I like them moves. Anyway, that was too much. I apologize. I wish I could go back in time and get that one.

Cats out of the bag now. So one day I'm about to go out of town. I got myself on that one. I'm about to go out of town and she's sitting on the couch with me and she goes, Daddy, I want to start a blog. So I think that my daughter wants to start a blog because she wants to be internet famous. So now it's my time as a father to teach her wisdom. So I'm like, Riley, baby, listen, shh, shh, listen. I said, you don't, I go, I know you watch YouTube and Instagram

and follow all these makeup artists and all this stuff and all these clothing and everything. I said, baby, those people, they're just out there getting paid. They're not important to you. You don't need Instagram followers. You don't need any of that stuff. Baby, you are perfect, just the way that you are. You don't need to be internet famous.

That's not even fame. And I'm just going on. And she's like, go on, idiot. Tell me more. And so I'm just like espousing all my fatherly wisdom. And I get done. She goes, that's not why I want to start a blog. And I go, okay, well, why do you want to start a blog?

She said, well, you know how I like fashion, right? I said, baby, our accountant, our banker, everybody knows how you like fashion. We're all aware. She goes, well, what I've learned is there's nothing out there to teach little boys and girls who are special needs in wheelchairs and walkers how to dress and be trendy. She said, so I would like to start a blog so that I can actually help other little girls know how they can dress trendy but still be in a wheelchair. And that's also the moment. Yeah. That's also the moment that I realize, I loved her more than my son.

Was that same moment right there. So, here's reality. Here's a little girl. It's now 13 years old. For the rest of her life, she could ask God why. But she started asking God, what do you want me to do with this? We're all grown behind people.

And what if your greatest pain is the greatest thing that God wants to use? What if that divorce? that you think has stopped you somehow. Is God gone, if you would give me that? If you would place this in my hands, I would help you know what to do with this. And not only would I heal your heart, but I would actually heal the hearts of others through you.

What if that addiction that you keep screwing up on? This thing goes, listen, you're going to struggle. You're going to have some victories, and you're going to have some losses at times. but if you're willingly serving me, I can actually use it. What if your greatest pain, your greatest confusion, is what God wants to use most in your life? I was telling Pastor Ryan this morning, this afternoon we were driving here, and this hit me this morning.

I was thinking about the sermon and thinking about you guys. Not long ago, I was put my daughter to bed, Riley, to bed, and I went in to pray with her. I started praying for God to heal her. She stops me in the middle of my prayer. She said, stop. She goes, don't pray for God to heal me. And I go, she goes, God made me this way for a reason. And she goes, and God doesn't make mistakes.

So what are you walking through that you may think may be a mistake is not that at all? It's the thing that God wants to use the most. Listen, some of you in here, you've made poor decisions. decisions on your own having nothing to do with God. God can redeem it. There is nobody in here that right now at this moment is all heaven looks down into this room that God's going, Jesus, that guy's too much. All the other people on that row, but not that guy. Is that Terry again? Yeah. But I'm serious. All of us have that thing. All of us have that thing of going, God, there's nothing you can do with this.

I've screwed up too bad. I've gone too far. I've messed up too much. What if God's going, man, if you just knew what I could do with that, if you would release it to me. Some of you tonight,

you need your behind at this altar. God, this, take it. I don't know what to do with this anymore. I don't know how to give this to you. God, just take it. And what if God's just going? Now it's time to get to the work. Now I'm going to do some things.

But you've got to stop asking why. The why doesn't matter, unless you make terrible decision, then that matters. Asking what he wants you to do with it. You need to remember what God has done and you accept what God's doing. And the third and final thing is this. You need to trust what he will do. And guys, listen, that is hard. It's hard.

and the reason I think it's so hard so many times is because most often our emotions trump the knowledge that we have of God. Our emotions are a real thing. And so what ends up happening is a hardship comes or a fear comes or whatever comes and our emotions are just going berserk. I mean, look at the world right now.

The world is everybody's emotions going berserk right now. That's what it is. is I was reading the news this morning, and I was like, nope, can't do this, and just turned it off. Because it's our emotions. But what if you allowed your knowledge of the Word of God, not your opinion? Listen, and a lot of people in this world, they give personal opinion like it's biblical advice. Okay? Well, you know what the Lord always did for me and Sheila, and you're like, that's not my situation.

Don't give me that advice, as if it's biblical. biblical advice comes from the Bible, not your opinion. So what would it look like for you? See, half of us in here when we come up of a situation, what we end up doing is we end up going to God telling God how big our issues are instead of telling our issues how big our God is. And you've got to, listen, you've got to train yourself to do that. You have to, it's a muscle you've got to learn to flex.

You have to, everything sounds way more spiritual with keys, doesn't it? Watch, stop playing for a second. I said stop. God loves you. Play them. Play them. Anytime, sweetheart. God loves you.

Just sounds, feels better. Here's what I want to encourage some of you to do. Emotions. God gave them to you. I'm not going to demonize them. Obviously, I'm an emotional person. But we have to understand that our emotions do not trump the truth and the Word of God.

And we have got to learn how to flex that muscle. You've got to remind yourself that no matter what the situation that you are in says that you have the Word of God that says he will never forsake you or leave you. And you've got to remind yourself, I used to carry a journal in my back pocket. And I just had scriptures.

because there would be days where I would get calls from doctor's appointments. Do you know what to do when your wife calls you and says, hey, our daughter's going to have back surgery, have two titanium rods, 27 screws putting her back, and it's going to take 10 hours. Your emotions aren't like, hooray, Lord. Your emotions are freaking out. And that's when I have to discipline myself

to pull out this journal in my pocket, to go to the word of God and say, God, you were her sickness bearer. God, you are going to be there, and this is what these scriptures say about who you are. Some of you, you need to quit writing the wave of your emotions. And know that your emotions does not change the character of who God is. Your emotions are not what God says about you. Anybody in here wonder how God loves us the way he does all the time when we do the dumb stuff?

that we always do. Good Lord, that's my greatest struggle ever. And I have to remind myself, this is the way I feel about myself. This is not the way the Lord feels about me. Some of you, can I just, there's a theological tool that you can use. It's called Google.

And you can go to Google and you can type in scriptures for suffering, scriptures for heartache, scriptures for trials, and you will get 18 million different websites and scriptures. Write them down. Carry them with you. And the next time you find yourself in that moment, which there's probably a lot of us in

this room right now that we're all in this moment, I'm going, God, you're not doing what I think you should do. And I don't understand it. And I don't like it. But God, your word says this. and you read it to yourself to remind yourself of the goodness of your God. See, some of you tonight, what you need to do is you need to make a list. Tonight, don't do the, I'll do it tomorrow.

The devil wants you to do nothing. He does not want you to make a list of all the times that God's been good to you. He does not want you to do that. I hope you know this. The devil's desire is not for you to stub your toe and be late for work. The devil's desire is for you to be utterly destroyed because you have been made in the image of the God of the universe. He hates you. And you're going to, and you have an adversary.

Some of you, you need to make a list tonight. Some of you, you need to accept what God is doing in your life right now. You need to say, God, this is where I'm at. What do you want me to do with this? And some of you need to write down some script. scriptures to remind yourself that God is good no matter the situation that you find yourself in. But some of you, your trust looks differently tonight. Your trust looks like committing your life to Jesus Christ for the first time ever. And I mean the first time. And I know that we're

at a church conference. And I know that sometimes it can be awkward. and I know that we can think, listen, I've been there. I got saved on a Sunday hung over from Saturday. Some of you were like, I'm right there now, man, you know, like, I've been there. I've wondered about what people would think when I did this. Because you feel like a spotlight's going to be on you and Pastor Jobbys going to come dance around you with a tambourine. He loves going Rambo on a tambo.

I'm going to get a shirt for you that says that. But some of you, tonight I'm going to ask you to be bold. I'm going to ask you to raise your hand in a minute. I'm going to ask you for the first time ever if you need to commit your life to Jesus Christ as your Savior. Because guys, none of this matters without Jesus. And I don't, I can remember my wife and I, when our daughter was in the NICU for three months. I would walk around the NICU praying for other babies. They frown on that, by the way.

I'm walking around, and I remember coming back to my wife and saying, I don't know how anybody on this earth goes through anything without the hope of Jesus. I don't get it. And the truth is, if Jesus Christ is not your Savior, you are on your own right now. Because you are separated from Him in your sins, from God in your sins. So I'm going to give you a chance to respond. and then for all of us in here, I'm going to give you a chance to respond to this message.

And here's what I want, because you know where you are. If something in this message spoke to you tonight, come to this altar. God help me remember. God help me accept. God help me trust. And then if everything's great in your life right now, you better come to this altar and say,

God, thank you. Like the altar isn't just the place where we come when life is falling apart. The altar is also the place where we come and say, God, thank you that everything I have in my life is a blessing and a grace from you. Just respond tonight. Put yourself in his presence and allow the Holy Spirit to move on your heart. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to ask us to close our eyes and bow our heads in here.

You know, the Bible is very clear that all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. And what that means is every person that's ever walked on this earth except for Jesus Christ. We're all sinners. We've all been separated from God because of our sin. But because of God's great love for us, he sent his son to pay for the things that you and I cannot pay for, our sins. And the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ took on himself all of our sins. sins and all of our iniquities, and that when we confess with our mouth and believe in our heart

that Jesus Christ is the son of God who is crucified dead and raised for us, that our sins are separated from us as far away as the east is from the west. But on top of that, what we get is the righteousness of Christ. So now when God looks at you, he doesn't see you, he sees what his son did on the cross for you. Every sin that you and I have had, will have, whatever the case, past, present, future have done, Jesus Christ paid for all of it. He paid for what we cannot pay for. When you confess with your mouth and you believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is a

son of God, you are saved. Maybe there's some of you in here tonight that for the first time ever, you need to commit your life to Christ. So I'm going to count to three. And if you need to commit your life to Christ, I want you to raise your hand. If you need to commit your life to Christ, I'm going to count to three,

and I want you to raise your hand. One, two, three. Raise them. Amen. Amen. Now, if you're in here and you would say, I just need to respond to this message. the Holy Spirit spoke to me.

I need to do one of these three things. Or man, I just need to thank God because everything's good right now and he's with me. If that's you, I'm going to count to three and I'm going to ask you to raise your hand. One, two, three. Raise them.

There's a lot of hands. I'm going to lead us in a prayer. Here's what we're going to do. I'm going to lead us in a prayer. And I want everyone to repeat this prayer after me. And I want us to say it like we mean at Church of 1122.

And then when I say amen, I'm going to walk off that side of stage and this worship team is going to start playing and leading us. And I ask them specifically to do this song because I think it's one of the songs that best helps us help remind us that no matter where we are that God is with us. And no matter what we're facing, he's with us. And if you raised your hand, I want you to make your way to this altar. and just worship your guts out and meet the Lord in the place that he desires to meet you in. Now repeat after me, say, Lord Jesus,

I ask you to forgive me of all of my sins. Jesus, I believe that you are the son of God. That you were crucified, that you were dead, that you were buried, and that you were resurrected for me. Jesus, thank you for saving me. Jesus, help me to remember, help me to accept,

and help me to trust that you love me and that you're with me.