Crossing family. How you guys doing?
How you doing? All right, I'm hoping.
So I'm glad we getting to hang out and have a little bit of fun
today. I want you to do me a quick
favor right here on the front end across all of our locations.
Those of you online inside will be a little bit.
Maybe more challenging for you, but if you want to participate,
we'd love to have you do it. Can I get y'all to stand up for
just a quick second? Appreciate it.
We did this last week. We spent a little bit of time on
the front end of the sermon. Just praying for one another.
And I want to give us an opportunity to do that again
today. And, I know that last week there
are many of you that not only did you raise your hand saying,
Yeah, Clayton. That's the situation I'm in, but
you have the strength to go and actually pray over.
Somebody else even though you had your hand raced, and I'm
going to ask those of you who did that to summon the strength
again this week. Because I have no doubt that
there's me a lot of hands raised across all of our locations.
Because what I want to do right now is I want to talk
specifically to, those of you who there is a family member in
your life, that does not have a relationship with Jesus Christ.
It is a heavy burden that's on your heart.
You think about it a lot. Maybe made a lot of invites,
you've prayed a lot of prayers and yet still they don't have
what you have in Jesus. Maybe it is a son or daughter.
Maybe it's a mother or father, maybe it's a brother or sister.
And so, right now, just in a moment of vulnerability across
all of our locations. If you have somebody in your
family that you care about deeply that doesn't of Jesus
would use put your hand up. Yeah, I'm in that same boat with
you. And what I want to do is leave
your hand up for just a second that I want to give people in
our church and opportunity. Come around side, you they're
going to put their hand on your shoulder.
Once you put your hand on your shoulder, I'm going to, I'm
going to pray. I'm going to give you guys three
verses, but go ahead and move across all the locations.
Find some people with their hands up, put your hand on the
shoulder so that way we can pray over you because we want, you
know, you're not alone in this. I do for some of you, this is a
little uncomfortable, but this church, we genuinely love you.
So if you see hands up once you got someone, put their hand on
your shoulder, put your hand down.
Want to make sure I give staff and other people an opportunity
to come around. We got a couple people over
there. Be awesome.
Someone prayed with, there's somebody up.
Here. God bless you.
There's some people over there. When someone's there with you,
put your hand on them. Okay.
I want to give you three verses and then I'll price you have to
pay yet. Let me give you three verses
because I know that sometimes when we're navigating this, we
can feel like we're all alone. So let me give you a great 1,
John 3:16, you guys know this one for God.
So loved the world that he gave his one and only son that
whoever believes in him, shall not perish.
But have eternal life. God Is So committed to loving
the person in your life that you want to pray about that.
He sent his son on their behalf. Here's the second verse, second,
Peter 3:9. The Lord is not slow, in keeping
his promise as some understand slowness.
Instead, he is patient with you not wanting anyone to perish,
but everyone to come to repentance God is not slow.
He is moving in this, the last one first Timothy Chapter 2, I
urge them. First of all, that petitions
prayers, intercession and Thanksgiving be made for all
people for kings and those in Authority that we may live
peaceful and quiet. Lives in all godliness and
Holiness. Check out this, this is good and
pleases Our God and savior who wants all people to be saved and
come to a knowledge of the truth.
Would you guys pray with me? God, it is such a pleasure to be
able to approach you right now with these requests because I am
crying out to a God, who loves all the people that were
thinking about infinitely more than we do.
Who cares about them? Infinitely more than we do?
Who wants them to find? Jesus infinitely.
More than we do. God, that you are not an enemy
in this. You are the greatest Ally.
And God, I specifically pray that you would soften the hearts
of those that are on our minds and God, that you would give us
the courage and the strength to do, what you call us to do, to
open up the door for them to find your son, Jesus, and it is
in Jesus name that I pray cross all of our locations.
Help me. Close it out.
Amen, man. I'm glad we get together
together. You can go ahead and grab a
seat. Thank you for doing that.
I know it gets you a little bit out of your comfort zone, but I
just, I want Sure, that, you know, that we are in this with
you? Well, we are in a sermon series
called there has to be a place. And last week we talked about
there has to be a place for everyone.
And it's going to take every one of us to make that happen.
And we looked at this graphic right here, that we're trying to
help people start the relationship with Jesus, and
we're trying to help people live out the relationship with Jesus.
There might be -5 s people who hate God.
Hey Church. Don't even believe in God, and
then you've got, you know, No, your grandma right over here.
And then, as a church, we have a responsibility, a spiritual
responsibility to everybody on this Continuum to those who are
far from Jesus and to those who have been following Jesus for a
long time. And then we also recognize that
we have a spiritual obligation to our region.
And that what we want to do this is what our church looks like
from space. And that our hope is to make
this region and whatever, God, grows it to be the hardest place
on Earth to get to Hell from then it's going to take each and
every single one of us. To make that a reality.
Well, this week, I entitled my message.
There has to be a place that gives people time.
And by say, it takes time, you may not know this but there's
some people right now that they are in diaper.
Hell, And they are putting food in one end and it is constantly
coming out the other end and they feel like all they do is
change diapers and they're looking at you and they're
going. When is this ever going to end?
And those of us who've been there, we can look at them
lovingly and we would say to them, it takes time.
Right? And then there's some of you
you're out of diapers stage. Never thought you'd get there
and you thought it'd get easier after that but it didn't.
Because then you're trying to address these kids and they have
their own opinions. You haven't been on time in
years, you don't even know what the first two songs that church
sound like you just keep coming in when I'm onstage you like I
guess he's singing now. I guess.
Yeah. II get it.
And you try to get your kids dressed every morning and every
morning. It's as if your kids forgot that
they've been dressed every morning of their life like
socks, don't go on your face. What is your deal like, how did
you forget how to put pants on? But and you're going, how long
is this going to last? And those of us who've been
there, we would look at them and we would say it takes time,
right? Right now I'm in the middle of
potty training, a dog and I keep hearing people say that dog is
man's best friend. Nope, I can tell you, I'm that
dog's best friend, okay? Because I, I've never had a
friend as good as I am to that dog.
I've never seen anybody pick up my poop.
Not once. Not once I let him poop in my
yard. You've never.
Let me poop in your yard, that's his dog.
Has it easy? Okay, and no matter what
happens, he doesn't get blamed for the problem.
My fault because I didn't take him out fast enough for a fill
in the blank and I was talking to Lindsay in about potty
training, the dog and Lindsay looked at me and you know what?
She said to me takes time Ladies.
You, you know, you met your husband and he says it was love
at first sight. But it one commitment at First
Sight. Was it ladies?
You may like the way you looked. It was nice to talk to him, but
if he had got down on his knee on night one, yet a walked away.
You had to wear you down, didn't he?
and eventually he got down on one knee and you said, yes, and
the reason you said yes, is because well It takes time.
And fellas, you can back me up on this, you can want some ribs,
but they don't come out as fast as a hamburger, and you can
watch some brisket, but you can't smoke a brisket as fast as
you can cook a steak. And if you're looking, you ain't
cooking. Because if you want some good
delicious ribs. Well church you know the answer
to that said, what does it do? Yeah, it takes time.
In a world of microwaves and Pop-Tarts, K Cups and high-speed
internet. We can get pretty impatient.
And I wonder if you're like me that you bring you hope that the
first time you make an invitation a personal come to
church with you and the first time they come to church in the
very first time that they hear a sermon that people would
respond. However, oftentimes well, you
know the answer. It takes say it with me.
Yeah, it takes time. And there's this cool story in
the Bible that for years, I misread, I didn't misread the
story. I misread the events surrounding
the story and my hope is that the end of this message, you
will have some hope that this will encourage you to be
faithful and continue in your commitment to investing in the
people that God has placed in your life.
Let's look at this story, Luke Chapter 5, one day is Jesus was
standing The lake you can estimate, the people were
crowding, around him and listening to the word of God.
He saw at the water's edge to boats left there by the
fishermen who were washing their Nets.
He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon and
he asked him to put out a little from Shore and then he sat down
and taught the people from the boat.
Now Jesus is there on the Sea of Galilee and I know that some of
you are going but Clayton, you just call it.
The lake you can estimate. I'm confused.
I can't trust the Bible. What do I do?
So actually, the Sea of Galilee goes by other names to it.
Also goes by the Sea of tiberias it has multiple names.
Kind of like the Mississippi, right?
I bet you maybe you guys know this, it's also called the
father of waters. And it used to be called Old
Blue, which I think it was named by a blind man, because I've
never looked at the Mississippian gun now that's
blue. Okay, here's another funny one.
We call it old money, but guess what?
That's not the Mississippi. That's the Missouri.
But we just rely cathars is Muddy to.
So we'll call it Big Money. Okay.
So we're in the same geographic region that we're talking about
last week the Sea of Galilee and Jesus is preaching to a group of
people in the group of people are crowding around him and his
ankles Touch the Water. So he goes, I know what I'll do.
I'm gonna hop in Simon Peters boat and he pushes out from
Shore. And he turns it into a makeshift
Amphitheatre where his voice would bounce off of the waters
and get captured by the thousands of Hills surrounding
the Sea of Galilee. So everybody could hear him.
And so he gets out there and he preaches let's keep going in the
story. What he had finished speaking,
he said to Simon put out into deep water and let down the nets
for a catch. Simon answered Master.
We worked hard all night and haven't caught anything but
because you say so I will let down the Nets.
Now let's zero in on Peter for a little bit.
Let me help you see him through 21st century Eyes.
Peter is a blue-collar baller. He's got his camo cargo shorts
on, he's got his Crocs and four-wheel drive.
He's got a salt life fishing shirt on with Maui, Jim
sunglasses. Okay.
He's the kind of guy who has he's a small business owner, who
drives a brand-new F-350 with his company's logo, vinyl down
the side. He has strong thick calloused
hands. A wind Burt face in a set of
shoulders and biceps that are accustomed to carrying heavy
loads. He spent time in High School,
playing full, Back as well as middle linebacker and got offers
from D2 schools. This is the kind of guy who gets
up early works hard because that's what he's done his whole
life it's all he knows make no mistake, he's not fishing for
fun or on vacation this isn't him chartering something.
This is his business and people depend on him.
And he's been working on the whole night and has nothing to
show for it. Have you ever been there?
You work real hard and you've got nothing to show for it.
You created a to-do list on Friday of all the things you'd
like to have done by Sunday. and Sunday comes You got nothing to
show for it. You, you, you are going.
You know what this week, we're going to get these things dialed
in, or you've had a whole bunch of stuff on your agenda and you
ran errands all day long. And got nothing done.
You're working on a project at home and you keep going to Home
Depot, and picking out all of the wrong things and you get
there and none of them fit. And so you drive back, you've
got nothing to show for it. We just finished cleaning his
nuts. This is the worst part of his
job made only worse by the fact that he got them dirty and he
didn't even catch anything. He still has to clean up the
mess even though he made no money.
But because Jesus told him to throw out into the deep water.
He does. Looks what happens.
When they had done so they caught such a large number of
fish that their Nets began to break.
So they signaled their Partners in the other boat to come and
help them and they came and filled both boats so full that
they began to sink when Simon Peter saw.
This he fell at Jesus knees and said go away from me, Lord.
I am a sinful man. For he, and all his companions
were astonished at the catch of fish, they had taken.
And so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's
partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, this
is Simon Peter. Don't Be Afraid from now on.
You will fish for everybody say this word for people.
So they pulled their boats up on shore, they left say this word.
And followed him. It was in.
This moment that Peter made the move to follow Jesus.
I think it's interesting to note, he'd had other nights
where he hadn't caught fish but he chose to follow Jesus on his
best day that his worst day. He decided to follow Jesus after
the windfall, not the downfall. He didn't follow Jesus on the
heels of a divorce after getting arrested after a fight with his
kids. No.
Think this was actually a great day and he left it all and he
followed Jesus and for so long. I thought that this moment would
Jesus was Peters first time hanging out with Jesus.
And that's kind of how I thought it was going to be for me that I
would bring a friend, I would bring a family member and the
first time they heard it they would go.
Yeah, this is this. I'm all in.
But it was in some deeper study and reading a couple things.
I noticed that there was actually more going on here.
This was not just Peters first interaction with Jesus or just a
couple moments surrounding it. In fact, that Peter had been
watching Jesus for a long time now.
You see Peter was one of John's disciples when I say John's
disciples. I mean, John the Baptist's
disciples, which means more than likely, Peter was there, when
Jesus was baptized and the clouds.
Parted and a dove descended. And God said, this is my son in
whom I'm well pleased that's my God voice.
Peter would have heard that. And he went back to fishing.
More than likely Peter was there when Jesus cleansed the temple
and claim to ownership over that by saying my father's house.
And after that happened, guess what?
Peter did. He went back to fishing.
He was there when Jesus ministered to the, the Samaritan
woman at the well and told her everything that she had ever
done. And watched her go into the town
and all the people come out where Jesus says, look the
fields are harv, are the fields are full.
The Harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few and guess
what Peter did, he went back to fishing.
He was there when Jesus healed all the people in Judea and
Peter went back to fishing. He was there when Jesus turned
water into wine and Peter went back to fishing, it wasn't until
the miraculous catch that Peter left, everything and followed.
Jesus, say it with me. Sometimes it takes all you, see
it? I mean.
The crazy thing is, I know this because I've seen this happen in
other people's lives. That's sometimes it takes time.
When I was up at our Macomb location, there was an event
where we paired college students with high school kids.
So that way they can have a mentor and at the event, my wife
met a young wiu student named Lisa Now, Lisa ended up talking
to Jennifer about some of the pain of her past.
She had lost her mom when she was about 10 years old.
She had a rough relationship with her father and was
believing a lot of lies and so they started meeting on a
regular basis and over the course of those meetings,
Jennifer said to Lisa, I love you.
And Lisa said you, I don't know how to take that.
And Jeff was like okay well can I you know, can I say that I
like you and Lisa was like nah Jeffers like okay can I say I
care about? You know they eventually settled
on my wife was allowed to look at Lisa and say, I know you,
okay. So they would end their meetings
with my wife looking at least in saying I know you and Lisa would
say to my wife, I know you too. Well, eventually Lisa kind of
fell onto some hardships and she was worried that she was not
going to be able to stay at Western Illinois because of
financial challenges. And so my wife offered up our
house for Lisa to come move in with us and so that September
Lisa moved into our house and she continued to live with us.
And then when Jennifer and I moved down here to Quincy, she
moved out of our house, and she moved into bin and Jessica,
elephants his house in Macomb and Lisas.
A good Godly girl, and she's trying to do things the right.
Wages navigating the hardships of Life which we've all been
there. Well, she was continue to grow
and things were going good. And then she met Don.
Now I have to say this about Don.
Don is as good of a man, as you can find, genuinely a man full
of integrity and honor unbelievably respectful.
Just a good good man. But he's an atheist.
And Lisa cared about it and they were dating.
And so don would hang out with her and, you know, we would talk
and dance been here to our 48th Street campus and he would go to
our Macomb location and we would talk to him and we would answer
questions and we would read books and we would talk through
sermons and for a long, long time.
We, I tried to help him find a relationship with Jesus, but he
like, I said, he's a good man and he has integrity He's not
going to fake the funk, but he's not going to say he believes
when he doesn't believe. Well, eventually he comes down
to Quincy and ask Jennifer knife from permission to marry Lisa
and he has been in Jessica for permission to marry Lisa.
And I'm looking to go on this is this really is just an
unbelievably good man and we told him that but the fact that
she has a faith in the fact that he has no faith was going to put
some serious challenges inside of that relationship and we go.
And you can't just pretend to love Jesus for the sake of being
in a relationship with a girl. That's, that's not right, and
he's not the kind of guy that would do that.
Anyway, Well, as they continue to Journey along they say he
started spending more and more time with Ben, Ella Fritz and
eventually, they were getting ready to move out to the east
coast and they didn't want to live together and not be
married. So been elephants did a private
ceremony where they got married in and they went out east and
they continue to meet together or with been on a regular basis.
Now I need to pause and say this real quick.
And Ben would tell you this that when it comes to the Bible,
like, I'm smarter than him. That's the only thing I'm
smarter than Bennett but this is it.
And I know though I mean that's what I went to school for.
That's what I studied theology for and Ben didn't do that, but
I need you to know. It wasn't my conversations that
were making all the difference in Don's life.
It was Ben's that sometimes your relational credibility is more
important than your theological credibility.
Here's what I'm trying to say. I know that sometimes you're
going, man, if I could just have my friend talk to Clayton or
talk to Jerry, or if you know, if they're busy, maybe talk to a
campus password. If they're busy, I'll talk to
another Pastor if they're busy, I'll talk to a staff member.
And what I want to tell you is, no, you can talk to them, some
of my greatest journeys of Faith have been, what I've been trying
to answer somebody else's question.
I need you to hear me say this. I am not your pastor.
I am one of your pastures. And I am surrounded by campus
pastors and other pastors and staff members.
And I'm surrounded by you. And you can Pastor, you can
Pastor your home, you can Pastor your family, you can Pastor your
street, or your block, you can Pastor your school, you can
Pastor your workplace, and you can Pastor the people at this
church. It's in.
You, God has purposed. You any quick to you and will
sustain. You in those moments, he makes
it possible where he will come and he will intercede for you
and help you in those moments. As you try to help someone find
a relationship with Jesus Christ.
And so Don and Ben keep meeting and meeting and meeting and
meeting. And then this past Thanksgiving,
the Thanksgiving where I filled the trailer full of a whole
bunch of food to cook for my family.
On Friday, there's a whole bunch of people at my house and I had
been hearing a rumor, but I didn't want to like, you know,
mess it up by saying about anything about it too soon.
And that afternoon before we cook pork chops that evening,
Seven Vehicles loaded up at my parents house.
And we left Fort Madison Iowa and we drove down the big hill
and went over the two Bridges. We hopped on the highway and we
drove to our Keokuk campus. I'm so glad we have a kick-up
campus just 15 miles from my parents house.
Because on that Friday right after Thanksgiving, this
happened, Say it with me. Sometimes, sometimes sometimes
it takes, it takes time that I should have known that because
that's what happened to me. You know, I didn't say yes to
Jesus the first day I heard about him either.
You know, there was a I went to Fort Madison Christian church
and there was a lady by the name of Del all I can remember is
that she wore a tie dye Church volleyball shirt.
And she had white hair, she worked at the Sheaffer Pen
Company for many years and she had black dark Rim glasses.
And she taught me about Jesus from kindergarten through sixth
grade. And I didn't get serious about
Jesus, and she didn't do it once a month or every other week.
You know what, she did. Every Sunday for Sunday school,
she taught me the word of God. When I got into junior, high and
high school, a man by the name of Ken Morrow, an electrical
engineer, who was before his time in 1985, he had programmed
a device that he could start his car when he was in the church
service, while his car was parked in the parking lot, 1985
folks. He also had it on that same
thing that he could turn on all the lights in his house and
control the thermostat at his house.
He also did all of that wiring for the church on his little
device that he made, but that's not what impressed me about him.
It was that every single Sunday, he taught me.
The book of Acts, January to December, he taught us the book
of Acts and then when January, we started back at Acts chapter
1. At the end of every month, he
gave us a quiz on the chapters we had covered.
And if you got all the answers, right?
You got three dollars. And if you got most of the
answers, right? You got two dollars and if you
showed up, you got a dollar and I got a lot of dollars.
And he continually invested in me and I still didn't follow
Jesus. but they continued to work and invest in my life
because sometimes it takes, you know, this and there has to be a
place that gives people time. There needs to be a group of
people who will give and start giving to make sure that the
lights are on the water's. Running the toilet papers
restock, the staff employed in the communion juice fresh
because sometimes it takes time and there has to be a place that
will love on their kids, greet them at the door, say hi to them
at the Welcome Center. Put their hands on them during a
prayer. This Bump them at the doors.
They walk in the auditorium helps with the leading of the
worship, the running of the graphics, the playing of the
instruments and gets down on their knees and bangs on
Heaven's Door. Format, the steps there has to
be a church. A place that will step into the
mess. That's long-suffering patient
with their questions, caring in their approach rooted in truth,
covered in Grace, there has to be a place.
There has to be a place for people like you and me to give
other people the same amount of Grace, that God and others.
Is have given to us. Listen, you might say you love
the people around you and you might say, you love your
communities and if that's true. It shouldn't catch us a
surprise. That when it describes love and
First Corinthians 13, the very first descriptor is love is
patient. And we've been in a rush.
Trying to get it done today, when that's not how it worked
with us. That means that there's going to
be times when people are going to come to our church and say
that they're a part of us and they're going to act a fool and
make mistakes, and we're going to be a church.
That gives them time. There's me time when people come
to church and they don't believe the things that we believe and
they don't act the way that we would act.
And we're going to be a church. that gives people time because
that's what God did with us, we can get in such a hurry, to get
people to find a relationship with Jesus Christ that we
forget, what happens in the parable of the sower, you know,
the seed that sprouted, the fastest was also the seed that
died the fastest it's spring up from within the Rocks, but
because it had no root it withered and died, but the seed
that actually produced the biggest Harvest came up last
Farmers. You go out and you plant your
corn, do you go out the next day to dig it up to see how it's
doing. No.
You know that if you're a farmer if you want to raise a really
good crop it takes time but when it comes up it produces a
harvest of 30 60 and 100 fold. We have to be a church that
gives people time look what it says in Galatians.
Let us not become weary in doing good.
Let me just stop for a second. I know that's not easy.
I know some of you that is exactly where you're at, you are
weary right now. How long am I supposed to be
patient with a spouse? That doesn't believe.
How long am I supposed to invite a kid?
That won't come. How long am I supposed to serve
somebody who doesn't seem to appreciate it?
How long am I supposed to keep doing good?
I'm weary I'm tired, I'm frustrated, I'm hurt.
I'm mad. Let us not become weary.
And doing good. Why?
For at the everybody say this word.
Not your time. Not my time.
Not your time, not my time, but at the proper time, there's a
promise. We will reap a harvest.
If we do not say these two words, there has to be a place
that doesn't give up. And that gives people time
because when it's the proper time, you can't stop it when
it's the proper time. Satan can't get in the way.
You have it when it's the proper time, it's will happen.
And we people who have received profound Grace from God, who he
has been patient and long-suffering with us, have got
to be a people who can be patient and long-suffering with
others. There has to be a place that
gives people time and I say Say it's here.
I say it's with us and I say it's now.
Would you join me in creating that place?
We're moving to a time of decision now, those of you
watching online and in the room, I know right now some of you are
a little ticked. And that's fair.
Because you're going Clayton. I brought a friend today that I
was really hoping you would close the deal on.
And you just gave them an Implement permission slip.
I get it. So let me be clear.
Just because I say this is going to be a place that gives people
time. We are going to preach the
gospel with urgency and every single week, we are going to
give people an opportunity to step into that intimate personal
relationship with Jesus Christ because it's time.
And I don't know when they're going to meet Jesus or when
Jesus is going to meet them. But I want to make sure that
I've done everything in my power, to make sure that they
are ready for that moment. Because when it's the right
time, you know, last week a lot of churches would close when
it's a, our church will never close.
When there's bad weather out. You don't have to come.
You can watch online. Thousands of other people do it.
But you know why we were open. People give their life to Jesus
last week because when it's time it's time and you can't stop it.
And we're going to be a place that gives people the Time even
on a cold Icy day. And so, to those of you in here,
who have never started an intimate, personal relationship
with Jesus Christ, can I talk to you for a bit?
I know you've got questions. I know you've got doubts and I
just want to tell you something, I do too.
I don't have everything figured
out about an infinite God with my finite brain.
I got questions. And there are things about him
that I struggle with. And there are things about him,
I don't understand. but believe it or not, sometimes it's those
doubts, and those questions that have driven me further in my
faith, not cause my faith to dwindle And you're on with
Clayton, you're wanting me to give my whole life to something,
I don't completely understand. I hear you but you've done it
before. Fellas, I'm gonna need your
help. Fellows at all.
Raise your hand if you figured women out Only the single people
raise their hands, right? Then, Fellas.
Do they raise a lot of questions?
To you are there things about them, that don't make sense, you
don't get it, you're scratching your head trying to understand
because let's just be honest, you are never going to
understand a woman but raise your hand.
If you're thankful. You got one in your life.
Come on, that'll preach right there.
I didn't know everything I needed to know about Jennifer,
but I knew enough to know that I wanted her in my life for the
rest of my life. There were things that I still
don't get. There are things that Still
frustrate me. There are things that we just
don't see eye to eye on but I wouldn't trade her for anything.
I didn't have everything figured out about women, but I knew I
wanted one and I didn't have everything figured out about
her, but I knew that I didn't want to keep living without her.
And I'll tell you, the parallels between that and my relationship
with God are so scary clothes. That I don't have everything
figured out about him. But I don't want to spend a day
without him. I don't know why he does some of
the things that he does, but I wouldn't trade him for anything.
and there are things about him where I scratch my head and I
wonder and I doubt But I am so profoundly thankful that he's
mine and if you're in this room and what I just said is your
testimony to would you put your hand up?
It's the truth. I don't know everything about
him but I know that he's good. And I know that his mission is
worth it. And if you're in here today and
you're going Clayton, all right, all right.
Next week. I'll start my relationship with
him next week. I just want you to know you can
do it today. We're going to give you the
time. If you have questions, come up
and talk to us. We'd love to help.
Answer them some of your going. You know what it's time for me
to get baptized but I, you know, I got to come back next week I
can bring my clothes. We're kind of church that makes
space for people like you. We already got close.
Okay. Caillou.
But, but you don't have my size. I don't know.
We got every size. That's how much that's this
place, that's this place, that's our heart.
And if that's you we'd love a chance to talk to you and help
make that happen to the rest of you in here that already have a
relationship with Jesus. I'm going to be super easy with
you. I'm going to ask you to just do
one thing during this next song. Would you come down?
Maybe up here, two steps or maybe by the baptistry, or maybe
you want to go buy one of the walls or maybe you just want to
get down on a knee, right? Where you're at, but there are
people in your life. You raise your hand already,
that? Don't know.
Jesus yet, I just want you to pray to prayers.
God, would you soften their heart?
Soften their heart. God.
Then the second prayer but would you strengthen mine?
Strengthen my heart because I don't want to become weary in
doing good. Strengthen my heart because I
may be the I may be the Bible that they read strengthen my
heart because my life is going to be a light in there.
And I hope that that point them to Jesus God to strengthen my
heart, because there's going to be times where it's hard to live
for you in front of him and I'm gonna need your strength to do
so. God's often.
There's but strengthen mine. I mean, I I think if there was a
church that was trying to become a place that gives people time
Those are exactly the kind of prayers that we would pray.
Would you join me in there? Would you stay in Heavenly
Father? Man, you know, every thought
every feeling every burden, every tear that is in this room
right now. And God, you know what?
This church could become. You know, the people that could
be reached and changed and saved and blessed, you know, you know,
the true power of this moment. And God, I pray that right now,
if there are people in this room that have been putting off that
relationship with you, God, I pray that they would make that
move today. And got for the rest of us in
this room. I pray that as we get down on
our knees and as we pray, those two prayers that you would do a
work in US. God against our will.
If necessary make this a place that gives people time?
Jesus name I pray, amen.