Oh, Crossing family, It is so good to be with you.
If you're thankful for Jesus. If you're thankful to be at
church today, can you put a little hands together?
Thankful. Thankful.
Thankful, Ma'am. Today we are starting a brand
new Christmas series called In the Middle of the Mess.
And for those of you who are New to The Crossing or New to The
Crossing because you haven't been around for a long time, I
am so glad that you are here. And I believe that this
Christmas series is going to be incredibly meaningful for your
life. And I'm going to encourage you
to be a part of this series every single week, and
especially during our Christmas Eve services.
And if you haven't found the service that you're attending
and found some people to come with you, I want to encourage
you to do that. How many of you guys know that
life can get a little messy? Yeah.
And how many of you know that sometimes the reason life is a
little bit messy is because of family?
Yeah, you guys have heard about the Hensel Thanksgiving.
Some of you maybe you're new to the Crossing.
You don't know about the the requirements.
When you become a Hensel, you will never eat Turkey with your
family again because Thanksgiving belongs to the
Hensels. And in trade, you get every
other holiday with your family. You get Labor Day, Memorial Day,
Flag Day, which is a big one. That's June 14th.
You get July 4th. If you want to get together and
let off fireworks, do that with your other family.
You get Christmas, Valentine's Day, however you want it.
But Thanksgiving belongs to the Hensels and you'll never see
your family again on Thanksgiving Day.
And so they all come in and we hang out at my parents house and
it's always a mess. Let me kind of walk you through
a little bit of our mess. This is how it starts.
These are two briskets, 12 racks of ribs, 3 turkeys and 120
pieces of chicken. We needed something to cook it
on. So this is Dad getting the grill
out or the the smoker 640 lbs. So we couldn't carry it.
So we had to get the tractor out and assemble it.
It's a job on top of a job. Then the boys spend their time.
This is Maddox and Zane and our golden dummy and he.
Then the rest of the friends show up and they ride their four
Wheelers. And then Monday night we we had
brisket, which was delicious. It is every year.
We're super thankful to God for that.
Then you have to start Monday night.
You have to start the marinating process on the ribs.
So you you start marinating the 12 racks of ribs and apple
juice, and that's delicious. And then you have to assemble a
team of people to actually make all 12 racks of ribs exactly the
way they're supposed to because you don't want them to take a
lot of time, you know, out of the smoker.
So then you load them back into the smoker.
Game on. We had to get a bigger grill
than because the one we had last year didn't work.
Then we have 3 turkeys now. You'll want to remember this for
next year. For those of you who are
planning on doing turkeys, all the recipes for how you're
supposed to do a Turkey, whether you're going to do it in the
oven, do it in a smoker, do it in a fryer, all of them will
give you like a, hey, you're going to want like a 10 to 12
LB. Bird and you're going to want to
remember that. Otherwise you'll do what I did,
which is forget that key thing, that about 10 to 12 LB birds is
what you're aiming for. Because this one was 16 lbs,
this one was 17 lbs and this one was 21 or 22 lbs, which will
drastically change your cook time and you'll want to have
that dialed in. So then this is all the people
preparing all the sides because the men take care of the meat.
And then OK, let me talk to you a little bit about here.
So this one was the smoked or the fried one.
Delicious. This one up here, Smoked one,
also delicious, but the one that's basically almost gone
already is the smoked fried one. And after first service, I've
had multiple people come up and they've given their life to
Jesus. Just because what I'm about
ready to tell you, you're going to want to put the Turkey on the
smoker at 2:50 for about three, 3 1/2 hours.
Let it get all that smoke flavor in there, and then drop it into
the fryer and fry it the rest of the way until it cries out to
Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.
Then you pull it out of the grave, you put it on the plate,
and you eat it. Listen, it's good on a level you
can't anyhow. I don't Just preach, folks.
Then let's go to the next thing. Here's the problem.
There's not enough room in the house for me like Joseph and
Mary. There's no room in the end and
so this is where I stayed at my parents house.
I don't, you know, I don't need plumbing.
I don't need air conditioning or heat.
Actually I did need heat. You'll notice something this
this tent is from 60 years ago. It's not it's got a lot of holes
in it. You'll be looking Clayton.
It doesn't look like there's a door.
There isn't there's a screen which you know in the middle of
the night when it's 28° and windy makes it a little chilly.
So we did put. So here's the picture inside.
This is me and the golden dummy and I had a person who would
spend a night with me one night and then they never came back.
Andre spent the night, Ben spent the night, Maddox spent a couple
nights and Suge did, but Maddox would take my spot.
There wasn't enough room on the cot for both of us.
Dad said that this is the wood burning stove was brand new and
he said don't overload it with wood because it could get too
hot and it could get dangerous. He doesn't know what he's
talking about because you can turn that baby into a
locomotive. That is not a reflection.
That is the fire burning its way through the metal it got.
And the reason why is in this tent, it would be so hot you'd
want to be in your underwear, and then it would become so cold
you'd have icicles in your armpits.
And so you had to, you had to hedge your bet towards the heat.
That was my Thanksgiving and it was a mess.
And you guys know this. Sometimes things in life do not
go as planned. How many of you have had things
in your life not go as planned? All you're going to love this
sermon. However, the choices that we
make in the middle of the mess can make all the difference.
The choices that you and I make in the middle of the mess can
make all the difference. I want to welcome those of you
joining from all of our different locations, those of
you watching online and inside. I am so glad that you are here,
and my hope is that during this series, as you participate and
fully engage, that you will make the right choice in the middle
of your mess and see how God will use it for His glory.
You see, the arrival of Jesus was anticipated, but it was
unexpected. Far from the beautiful, peaceful
nativity, the calm, clear nights depicted on Christmas cards and
in Christmas carols. The arrival of Jesus into this
world was incredibly messy, and it's in the middle of this mess
that we will see people making a choice that made all the
difference. You have Joseph and Mary, the
wise men, the shepherds. They all had choices to make,
and the choices that you and I make in the middle of our mess
could very well help bring Jesus into the world of those we love.
Take Joseph for an example. Everyone wants to talk about
Mary. Everyone wants to talk about the
angels and the wise men and the shepherds.
But not a whole lot of time is spent talking about Joseph.
And I want you to notice this, that in the middle of the mess
Joseph chooses to trust. Today I want us to spend some
time in Joseph's Carhartts. I say Carhartts because Joseph
was a working class man. He was a Carpenter, a stone
Mason. He had way more in common with
factory workers and welders and construction workers than he did
with insurance agents and loan officers and supply chain
managers. This was a guy who put on work
clothes because he wasn't trying to be fashionable.
He actually had work that needed to get done and we got to
capture pretty much the entire story of Joseph in the first or
in a couple of verses in Matthew chapter one.
Look what it says. This is how the birth of Jesus
the Messiah came about. His mother Mary was pledged to
be married to Joseph, but before they came together she was found
to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.
Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law and yet did
not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to
divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this
an Angel, the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph,
son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife
because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name
Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said.
Through the prophet. The virgin will conceive and
give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which
means God with us. And when Joseph woke up, he did
what the Angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home
as his wife. But he did not consummate their
marriage until she gave birth to a son, and he gave him the name
Jesus. Imagine the mess that Joseph
found himself in. Joseph is engaged.
He is more than likely been working on building a room off
the side of his father's house. Well, you know that how this
comes about. Jesus says I'm going to prepare
a place for you. In my father's house are many
rooms. What a man who was engaged would
do is he would go to his father's house and he would add
on while they were engaged, a place for him and his family to
dwell. So Joseph is working on this
project. He's more than likely having his
family watch him struggle as he tries to put everything in place
and make it just right. Ladies, imagine for a second
that your husband was in charge of decorating and making the
place without any of your input. What a peaceful world that would
be. He's fighting with his mom to
make it just the way he wants it for Mary.
And like all mother in laws, she has an opinion not just on how
things are supposed to be placed, but she also has
opinions about Mary. She's like a lot of moms, she's
nervous about whether or not Mary will love Joseph the way
Joseph deserves to be loved. We know that Joseph is a man of
not much means. He's poor.
We find out about his poverty or we get some insight into it when
they show up at the consecration of Jesus in Jerusalem.
Look what it says in Luke chapter 2 verse 22.
When the time came for the purification rights required by
the law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to
present him to the Lord. As it is written in the law of
the Lord, every first born male is to be consecrated to the Lord
and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the
law of the Lord. A pair of doves or two young
pigeons and you're all going. I don't understand what makes
them so poor. Well, that's why you have to go
back to Leviticus. You know the book that we like
to skip over. You'll be amazed how many times
the book that we don't want to read in the Old Testament is
actually referenced in the New Testament.
Look what it says all the way in Leviticus.
When the days of her purification for a son or
daughter are over, she is to bring to the priest at the
entrance to the tent of meeting a year old lamb for a burnt
offering and a young pigeon or a dove for a sin offering.
He shall offer them before the Lord to make atonement for her,
and she will be ceremonial clean from her flow of blood.
These are the regulations for the woman who gives birth to a
boy or a girl. But if she cannot afford a lamb,
she is to bring 2 doves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt
offering and the other for a sin offering.
In this way the priest will make atonement for her and she will
be clean. So God has chosen Joseph who is
a person who doesn't have a lot of financial margin and he makes
a big mess in his life. The 2nd take away inside of
here? This is just a little nugget for
you. Did you notice what kind of
sacrifice Mary offers? She offers a sin offering.
This would go against the teaching that some of you may
have grown up in, that Mary was without sin and perpetually
without sin. Why would she be offering a sin
offering if she had not sinned? So Joseph is poor.
He's been working on building this room onto his parents
house. He's been navigating all the
trials associated with it. And then Mary comes to him and
she says I'm pregnant. Now you guys have had somebody
tell you that at some point in time, but imagine being Joseph
and hearing that. The logical question is by who?
And she says God. And he goes, I get it, you know,
God's the creator of all things, and we're all his children.
But like, who's the father Goddess?
He has to choose that she is telling the truth, takes an
Angel to the Lord to show up and convince him.
Then he has to go back and tell his family.
And let me ask you this question.
How would you have handled that news?
Like, if I'm after church today, you guys go home and someone
tells you this story, are you going, oh, praise God, right?
Mary has way more in common with somebody who's mentally ill than
someone who is highly favored. The natural conclusion is you're
crazy. Take away #1.
Just because you're in a mess does not mean that you're doing
anything wrong. Now, there's some of you.
Me too, that we're in messes because we've messed up.
But it is incredibly possible for you to be in the middle of a
mess relationally, occupationally, financially,
physically, spiritually. And now I've done anything
wrong. Some messes are not because of
mess UPS. Well, there is chances for you
and I to mess things up. Sometimes you can be in a mess
and be right where God wants you.
Maybe you're taking new ground and the terrain is unfamiliar.
Maybe you find yourself in a mess because you're being pushed
out of your spiritual comfort zone.
You you guys know this. Nobody grows in their comfort
zone. Your comfort zone is kryptonite
to your growth and faith in Christ Jesus.
And when you choose to step out of your comfort zone, you're
going to make a bit of a mess. And when you're The comfort zone
is a kryptonite to your faith that keeps you from experiencing
all that God has for you, you can be tempted.
I want to keep everything orderly and in its place.
But when we step out in faith, we can create messes.
You might be in a mess because you're doing something for God
that you've never done before. You might be in a mess because
there are things that are happening that are completely
out of your control. Maybe it's at work.
Some of you, we all found ourselves in a bit of a mess a
couple years ago. They gave it a name.
COVID. Right?
You see, we're like, oh, don't bring it up, OK, You started to
get the shakes again. OK, listen, COVID was a gigantic
mess, and it didn't happen because you're a bunch of
sinners. It just happened.
We found our self in a mess. Our sin didn't 'cause it, but we
all had to deal with it. And Joseph in the middle of the
mess chose to trust God. And when you find yourself in a
mess, your decision should be to trust God as well.
Because you trying to handle it, you trying to navigate it, you
trying to push yourself through it is rarely going to work.
In fact, look back through your life.
How effective has that been? The Bible says tells us, Don't
lean on your own understanding, but in all your ways.
Acknowledge him and he'll make your path straight.
So when we try to trust ourselves to navigate the
messes, we're going to find ourselves in really bad spots.
But the more rooted you are in God's Word, the more you listen
to the Holy Spirit, the more you trust in God's ways and God's
purposes, the more rooted you will be.
And the more rooted you are, the more you'll be able to handle
the storms of life. Because you know this.
Messes happen. Storms happen.
In fact, Jesus tells us that storms will happen to you
whether you follow him or not. For those of you who aren't
Jesus followers yet, you might be under the impression that if
you say yes to Jesus, you won't have any more storms in your
life. Let me tell you.
Not true. In fact, Jesus goes out of his
way to say whether you trust him or you don't.
Storms are going to happen. Don't get mad at me.
Get mad at him. Look what he says.
Luke Chapter 6. You can go home and read it for
yourself. Why do you call me Lord, Lord,
and do not do what I say? As for everyone who comes to me
and hears my words and puts them into practice, I'll show you
what they're like. So I'm going to give you a
preview. That's what she's saying.
If you don't know what it's like for people who come to me, hear
my words and put them into practice.
This is what their life is going to look like.
They're like a man building a house who dug down deep and laid
the foundation on rock when a flood came.
Are you noticing that he does not say floods don't show up at
Christians houses, messes don't show up for people who believe
in Jesus? He's not saying that.
He's saying check this out. When you're a Christian, you're
still going to have some storms. The torrents struck that house
but could not shake it because it was well built.
Here's what he's saying. When you're a Christian and you
trust in God, the storms are going to come, but you're going
to survive. But here's what happens to
people who don't do that, but the one who hears my words and
does not put them into practice. Here's what he's saying.
You can come to church, listen to the sermon, raise your hand
just as high as everybody else. During worship, drink just as
much communion juice as everybody else.
But if you don't take the words of God and apply them in your
life, this is what your life will look like.
Who does not put them into practices?
Like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation.
The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its
destruction was complete. Another way of saying hear my
words and put them into practice.
You can just sum it up into one word.
Trust that when you find yourself in a mess, you have to
choose to trust God. You can show for all the
churches services you want. You can give all the money you
want, drink as much chameleon juice you want, pray as long as
you want. But storms are going to show up
in your life. Messes are going to happen.
The truth of God's word is this. I'm not going to keep storms
from happening. I'm just going to get you
through the storms. How many of you have been
through a storm and you're still standing?
That's because you took God at his word.
You put your trust in him. And when the storm was over, the
winds can blow against your house, but it can't blow you
over. The rain can fall on your house,
but it's not getting in this. The waters can rise, but they're
not sweeping you away. You know what happens is after
you've been a Christian for a really long time, you just know
that there's a storm and you don't even bother to get an
umbrella, right? Have you ever noticed that's how
US Midwesterners are when it's raining out?
Most of us. I'm not going to make you raise
your hand. Most of us don't carry around
umbrellas. Here's what I've noticed.
The slower you walk, the more likely you are to have an
umbrella. But most of us, we just get out
of our car and this is what we do.
Now I have a question for you. What is it about this part of
our neck that's so important that like we get up, woo, we
don't care about our hair, our makeup.
We just are worried about this strip, which we don't even have
a name for. We don't even, we haven't even
named that part of our neck because there's the front part,
there's a side part of our neck. But we just this unnamed part.
We're just like, oh, it's storming out.
It's not ready, OK, but that's how we operate.
We're so seasoned in the storm that we're just like, all right,
I'm going thrill. And that is literally what
happens to us when we place our faith in Jesus.
We already know we're going through.
We're just going to get wet. And some of you are going.
If I start my relationship with Jesus, there won't be any
storms. Oh no, no, no, no.
It's going to rain all the time. When you're a Christian, the
difference is you're not going through the storm alone, and the
difference is you're going through the storm.
It will happen to you, but it will not defeat you.
If those of you who trust in the Lord will be standing after the
storm, take away #2. Just because you're trusting God
does not mean that the road will be easy.
Some of you are like Clayton. I brought a friend to church
this weekend, and you are not doing a good sales pitch.
Listen, we're going to read all the fine print, OK?
Look at what had to happen in Joseph's life.
Let's slow way down. Joseph denied his marital right
and chose not to consummate his marriage.
He put his sex drive on the altar he's been building.
Imagine your honeymoon being at your parents house.
Joseph's a good Jewish boy, hasn't had sex before he got
married. He's been looking forward to
this day. He's been adding a little extra
insulation on the room. He's been doing double drywall
and offsetting the screws. That was a joke for the
construction workers in here, right?
He's going. We're going with the Rockwall
insulation here. Oh, you're oh, you're pregnant.
OK, well, I'm just not going to have sex with you until you've
had the baby. Now, how long until you have
Nine months? God, why can't you make babies
in, like, 9 hours? Why 9-9 months?
Crazy, isn't it? Joseph put his sex drive on the
altar. Think about how much pain and
sorrow has happened in our world because people cannot do the
same. They can't surrender their sex
drive to Jesus, he denied his right to a divorce, said.
I guess I'm going to stay with the person that everybody thinks
is crazy. He had to lay that on the altar
as well. He gave up his right to name his
child. He put that on the altar as
well, the house, the room that he's been building, and he
couldn't wait to bring his family there and let them spend
time in it. He doesn't get to do that
either. He's told that he has to go to
Bethlehem 70 miles away, and then he gets to come back 70
miles. And then Herod wants to kill all
the babies in the area, so he has to leave and go to Egypt.
100 miles. This isn't in a car.
This isn't in Tesla, where you're looking for a place to
fill out. No, he's got to walk there, and
he's got to live as a refugee, away from his family, away from
his friends, away from the house that he built.
Here's Joseph following God, doing what he said, trusting
him. And none of it's easy, but it
was the right thing to do. If you think that following
Jesus is going to be easy, it's not.
Some of you, you know, haven't started a relationship with
Jesus. You're like, well, how hard can
it be? Let me just give one of them.
Love your enemies. Yeah.
Like, but Clayton, I have an ex-wife.
Yeah. Yeah, that's that's just one of
the things that God calls us to. The life that God calls us to is
not an easy life. It's just the best life.
Trusting in God for Joseph wasn't at the easy thing.
It was the right thing. Take my #3.
Just because you're in a mess does not mean that God is not at
work. We all know this story.
You have heard this story for as many years as or as many times
as you are old. We know this story.
We know these stories front and back.
We've heard a version of it every year that we've been
alive. However, what would it have been
like to walk through this story in first person viewer mode?
I mean, we're so used to seeing it through the rear view mirror,
but what would it have been like for Joseph?
Going through this in the windshield?
You see, we see God using Joseph to provide and protect and care
for a vulnerable woman and a baby.
We see God using Joseph to protect the Savior of the world
and His infancy. But hear me, the same is true
for us today that when we choose to trust God, he uses it to
bring Jesus into the world of those we love.
Joseph chose to trust God, and not only was He able to see a
miracle take place, he was able to be part of the miracle.
And I wonder how many times you and I have missed out on a
powerful experience with God. An answer to a prayer that we
prayed to God because we chose to walk away right before God
showed off. I wonder how many times we've
been in the middle of a mess and God was about ready to make a
way and we chose not to trust. I wonder how many times we've
been so close to seeing a miracle, so close to being a
part of a miracle, but we chose to trust in our own ways.
Here is what God is inviting us to to trust him and let him deal
with the consequences. He's asking you and me, when we
find ourselves in a mess, not to try and handle it, not to try
and push through it, not to try and sort it out.
He's asking us to trust him. And when you choose to trust
God, it makes all the difference.
And I'm hoping that you guys will do what Joseph did.
Joseph chose to trust God and it made all the difference.
And I want us to do the same. We're moving to a time of
decision. So there's some of you in here
today. You are in a mess.
And this mess is sin. This isn't the kind of mess that
Joseph was in. Joseph hadn't done anything
wrong. But the mess that you're in is
100% because of you. We have sinned.
We fall short of God. We have made a mess, and some of
you, you've been trying to fix it your own way for a really
long time. Some of you, you've you've tried
to ignore it, thinking it'll go away, but it doesn't.
You've tried to hide it, but it keeps showing back up.
You tried to swallow it, you tried to drink your way through
it, but the mess remains. This is a mess that you can't
fix. But here's Jesus promise.
Jesus says bring the mess to me. And I know that that sounds
crazy to you. Why would God want your mess?
Why would God want the worst of you?
Because our God is so good. It's the same kind of God who
would send his Son to earth for us.
And he's looking at you and he's going, When are you?
When are you going to just give that to me?
When are you going to take all the mess ups, all the mistakes,
the things that you hide from everybody else around you?
When are you going to give it to me?
And if you would place your mess more than that, your life in his
hands? The Bible tells us at least two
things. One that when you put your life
in his hands, he promises that he will never let go.
If you are not close with God today, I can promise you it
wasn't him who walked away. If you're not close with God
today, I can tell you he is not the one who let go because he
will never let go. The 2nd promises is that He will
give us a new life, a new heart, a new spirit.
So if you're here today and you don't want to have to navigate
the mess by yourself anymore, if you're here today and you want
to experience forgiveness and love, if you want to be made
new, if you want your life in His hands, you can have it.
You can start an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus
Christ today, and in just a few moments, the people around you,
some of them, are going to come up to the steps and pray, and
some of them are going to raise their hands and lift their
voices and sing. But I want to encourage you to
walk right over there by that baptistery, and somebody would
meet you and would love an opportunity to talk with you
about how to start that relationship with Jesus.
But to the rest of you in the room, more than likely there's a
mess that you've been avoiding. There's a thing that God's
calling you to that you just don't want to do, and he keeps
bringing it up and you keep sidestepping it because you
don't want the mess, you don't want the drama.
It's just easier to ignore it than to have to trust God
through it. And God is always at work, and
He's always calling us the stuff.
And maybe you've been hearing it over and over and over again for
a long period of time and you've just been avoiding the very
thing that God is calling you to.
But today I want to challenge you to take the very step that
you know you've been putting off a while back.
Maybe like 6-7 weeks ago it was just a normal day, came home
hanging out the house, get the kids tucked in.
And I sit down and Jennifer and I always kind of sit down and
hang out for a little bit every night before we go to bed.
And and she goes, hey, so I got a call today about taking care
of a baby. And would you be willing to
like, could we just foster a baby for like, you know, three
to six months? And I'm like, that is not how I
saw tonight panning out, right. And this is not ideal timing.
Christmas is crazy busy. We've got a bunch of different
trips we've got to navigate. And we're in the middle of
redoing our house. And so, like, there's dust and
dirt and stuff everywhere. And we're showering on two
different floors and I'm a crank.
No, that's a, you know, this could be pretty messy.
So we said yeah, right now. Hold on.
Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. We didn't end up.
They ended up not needing us. So we didn't do anything
special. So I don't want you guys to go.
This guy's awesome now, OK, hear me.
I just know that we knew it was going to be messy and we had to
make a decision about whether or not we were going to be trusting
God in the middle of a mess. Now that was me saying yes to
that, but you need another one. So someone made me incredibly
angry about four years ago, Angry at a level that I have
never been to before. And I every time I see him, I
try to pray for him. I drive by it all the time.
I see it from my house, it just eats me.
And you'd be amazed that a person who loves God can have
that big of a dark spot in their heart because boy, it was there.
And I would say for the last six months, I've been feeling God on
a regular basis. Tell me that I'm supposed to do
something for them. And I come to invitation time
just like you do. And I feel like I'm supposed to
do something and then boy, do I wiggle, right?
Found out that they are navigating cancer.
And I feel, and I know that one of them for sure has
communicated that they do not have a relationship with Jesus.
And I'm going, how do I, how do I help rewrite that story?
And so I feel, like, clear as I'll get out, I'm supposed to
give them a significant amount of money to help them navigate
whatever, you know, cancer costs are associated.
And then it's messy. Like, do you give them a check
And if they hate you still and they don't cash it and then you
close the account, then years from now they do find it.
They do cash. And the checks come like, oh,
that was just like the world's greatest prank from a pastor a
check to an account that doesn't exist.
Like, OK, well then do you give them, do you give them cash?
And then what if they just throw the card away and they don't
know? Like, it was messy.
And so I'm using those logistical concerns to keep me
from being obedient. Tracking.
And I wonder, like, what if God is asking me to just be obedient
and maybe they'll be a miracle? Like what happens if they show
up in this room because the person that can't stand them
wrote them a card? What if our generosity leads to
them being curious about spirituality?
So yesterday I'm trying to write sermons on the wise men.
I'm trying to get stuff done and I just cannot get a single thing
done because I preached this sermon on Thursday, which is the
dumbest idea ever. Why do we have Thursday church?
Because I'm going. How can I land the plane on
Thursday knowing the step that I've been putting off for months
and then ask the people in our church to take the step that
they've been putting off? So yesterday, I can't get
anything done. And I'm like, I'm finally going
to do the thing that I've been putting off.
And then I give it to the boys and I send them down the street
to give it to him. And the only reason I'm telling
you is I don't know what God's going to do.
I just know that I'm supposed to do what he called me to do.
And I'm sure you have an area of your life too, that you need to
trust him in. And what I'm choosing to believe
is that you won't regret it. Would you stand with me, God?
Only you know what kind of grounds could be taken in our
hearts, in our lives, in our families and our communities.
Only you know. But God, we want you to write a
better story. God, we want you to write a
story in our lives that shows a watching world, that you're
still moving, that you're still worthy to be trusted and
followed and obeyed. And so, God, here we are, messed
up, broken people, asking you to give us the strength and the
courage to trust you again, whether it's big or small.
God, give every person in here and watch it online the courage
to trust you again, the courage to trust you and to leave the
consequences up to you. And you name my praying.
Amen.