Welcome to the Valley Baptist Church sermon podcast.
We're so glad you're here and we hope this message inspires you, builds your
faith and moves you toward a deep relationship with God.
Today, you'll find great insight into the Bible and learn how you
can apply it straight to your life.
So welcome and enjoy the message.
Today, we're in Ecclesiastes 6 and 7 in a message I'm calling character over comfort.
Solomon in chapter six has just told us
that sometimes being rich is the worst thing
that could possibly happen to a person.
So he tells us, don't stress out
if God doesn't make you rich.
Well, I think Solomon anticipates maybe a little bit
of an objection from us on that.
in verse number 10. And so he says, "'Whatever one is, he has been named already, for it is known
that he is man, and he cannot contend with him who is mightier than he.'" That's God.
"'Since there are many things that increase vanity, how is man the better?' Solomon's reminding us
that we don't make the rules, God does. You want to be rich? Well,
And God's chosen something different from you?
Well, Solomon says, listen, I don't make the rules.
Take it up with the Lord.
Your argument's with God.
But just know, you're not going to win your argument.
Because God named you a long time before you ever existed.
He's sovereign.
He's way ahead of you on this whole thing.
Romans chapter 9, verse 20 says,
But indeed, O man.
Who are you to reply against God?
Will the thing formed say to him who formed it,
why have you made me like this?
Does not the potter have power over the clay?
Now, God sarcastically responded to Job
in the Old Testament in a similar way.
He said, where were you when I formed
the foundations of the earth
and I determined all of its measurements?
Surely you know how I did that.
It's very important that we recognize our place in the world.
In fact, you're never going to be happy in life until you recognize there's only one God, and you're not Him.
Solomon continues in verse number 12.
He says,
For who knows what is good for man in life?
All the days of his vain life which he passes like a shadow.
Who can tell a man what will happen after him under the sun?
Solomon is saying, you don't know what's actually good for you.
You think you do, but you can't possibly know because you don't know the future.
which means you don't know how it's all going to work out in the end of life.
So in chapter 6, Solomon has told us riches are not always the best thing for a person.
And now in chapter 7, he's about to tell us that hard times are not always the worst thing for a person.
Now here's why.
While we can only see the here and now, God sees the end product of our lives.
And so that's what he's focused on.
He's not focused on our comfort in the now.
He's focused on our character later.
Solomon says in verse number one, he says,
A good name is better than precious ointment, referring to perfume,
and the day of death than the day of one's birth.
Now, a good name in this context is not about one's reputation.
It's about their character.
He's saying who you are is much more important than how you're perceived.
You see, perfume is external.
It's temporary.
It creates a great first impression, but it's going to fade away.
So Solomon's saying God's focused on...
Not these great moments in life that fade.
He's focused on you.
He's focused on making you great from the inside out, giving you a great name.
And while perfume might smell great, it's never going to change your life.
All right?
Solomon says, and the day of one's death is also better than life.
the day of one's birth.
Now that seems strange to you and I
because all of us, we celebrate people's birthdays.
I don't know anyone who celebrates a person's death day.
I think though that Solomon is teaching us
that God's not as concerned about how we start life
as how we finish life.
God's focused in our life,
whether He gives us riches or poverty,
whether He gives us good times or bad times,
He's focused on building in us the character of Jesus
so that we finish life well.
Now, He's gonna use whatever tool necessary
to accomplish that.
Now, one of his most effective tools is discomfort.
Now, I wish it wasn't that way,
but I don't make the rules.
Solomon's reminding us God makes the rules.
God often uses very uncomfortable times in life,
even painful times in life, to transform us,
to break us down so he can build us back up again.
You see, God is far more concerned with our character
than our comfort, which means God will sacrifice
our comfort for our character every time.
I think one of the problems we sometimes have with God
is that we really want him to be a grandfather
instead of a father.
A grandfather is focused on fun and games, right?
Comfort, ease, let's have a good time.
A father though doesn't have that luxury.
He's focused on getting his son or his daughter
ready for the real world,
which means he can't afford for his kids
to have lives that are too comfortable.
They wanna sleep in, he says, get up and go to school.
They want to play video games, he says, get to work.
They want to play with their friends, he says, it's time to go to practice.
Discipline.
Most grandfathers don't discipline their grandkids.
But a father, one of his most important jobs as a father is discipline.
And guess what?
The Bible does not call God our grandfather.
The Bible calls God our Father.
Now, here's the thing about our Father's discipline.
God's discipline in our life is shaping us into the image of Christ.
It goes from being uncomfortable to downright miserable when we fight against Him.
When we fight what He's doing in our life, that's when life gets miserable.
So many Christians are sort of playing tug-of-war with God, right?
He's on one side of the rope, and he's pulling, and we're on the other side of the rope, and we're pulling against him.
He's pulling in the direction of transformation and Christ-likeness, and we're pulling in the direction of comfort and ease.
Well, I hate to spoil it for you, but God's going to win.
He's going to win.
He always wins.
We have no chance against him.
The Bible says he who has begun a good work in you is faithful to complete it.
He's faithful.
He's consistent to win the battle over your Christlikeness.
One of the obstacles to spiritual progress in life is comfort.
And oftentimes that's our highest pursuit.
We want to be comfortable.
God's not as concerned with our comfort as he is with our character.
No one ever became an elite athlete through comfort.
No, a person becomes an elite athlete by blood, sweat, and tears, the grind, the training,
the testing, all of that, it produces greatness.
Well, God is a perfect coach.
He knows that we're never going to become the person we have potential to become through
comfort.
We're comfortable all the time.
We're not building the proper spiritual muscle that we need to face the great battles of life.
So he allows pain.
He allows testing.
He allows those things into our life.
Why?
So that we will become the people he is committed to making us.
Now, chapter 7, Solomon gives us a few uncomfortable experiences
that God actually uses as tools to develop and build character in.
We see in verse number 2, he says,
Now, every one of us would rather go to a party every time than a funeral because we hate grief and we love laughter.
But not much is learned through laughter, Solomon said.
Hey, have a good time, but you're not going to learn a whole lot with fun and games.
It's sort of like perfume.
It's nice in the moment, but it doesn't change who you are.
As a pastor, I have a strange blessing of going to a lot of houses of mourning.
I'll tell you, if you show up to a family, their home, who's just tragically lost a loved one,
and there's this uncontrollable weeping and wailing and tears, you will not leave that house the same.
It will cause you to stop.
And when at that moment reflect on life, God touches my soul and I start reflecting on life.
What is actually important in life?
Now, most of us don't like to think about death.
So we don't, right?
We don't think about it.
until someone close to us dies and we go to a funeral.
Then we're forced to confront the reality of our own impending death.
As you're there at the funeral, you look at the date of the person's birth,
you look at the date of the person's death,
and you see that their entire life is represented by a little dash of
between those two days.
And you start thinking about how you want to spend your days
because it goes by fast, doesn't it?
The Bible says that life is like a vapor,
it's here for a moment and then it's gone.
Solomon told us at the end of chapter six,
life is like a shadow, it just passes on by.
Now, in times of prosperity, in times of a party,
in times of laughter,
that does not cause us to reflect on eternity, does it?
But oh, death, that forces us to face the inevitable and to take it to heart.
That means it makes us better as we reflect on the most important issues of life.
Verse number four, he says,
The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of the fool is in the house of mirth.
Great men and women...
are often shaped by pain.
A.W. Tozer said,
"'It is doubtful whether God can use a man greatly
"'until he wounds him deeply.'"
I heard that quote many times growing up,
and so I always sought to be the exception to that.
But as I went through the pain of losing my dad to cancer,
I quickly realized how God was making my heart
a whole lot better through the pain.
I knew God was doing some deep foundational work in me that he could accomplish no other way but through the fire.
In fact, my dad told me that as he laid in the hospital bed one day, he said,
God's doing for you what God did for me when charity died.
Now, God shapes a man as he's broken down, and then he is built back up.
1 Peter 1, verse number 6 says,
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you've been grieved by various trials.
That's difficulties in life.
That the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes,
though it's tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of...
of Jesus Christ.
Paul says here, he says,
our faith, or Peter rather, says,
our faith is purified in the fire of trials.
Now, in order to purify gold, a goldsmith will take the gold and he'll put it under a hot fire.
And he melts that gold.
And the impurities, they actually rise to the top.
And then he wipes the top off.
He wipes the impurities away.
And the process is repeated over and over again until the goldsmith can see his reflection in the gold.
And Peter says, that's what God is doing when he allows these painful, the mourning, the death within our life.
He is putting us through these fiery trials, allowing us to go through them.
Why? To purify our faith, to purify our lives so that he can now see his reflection properly within us.
Verse number five.
It says, it's better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools.
For like the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool.
This also is vanity.
Surely oppression destroys a wise man's reason, and a bribe debases the heart.
We see here that correction builds a whole lot more character than empty affirmation, right?
Now, no one likes that, but it's true.
Mark Twain said, I can live for two months on a good compliment.
And that is so true.
We need encouragement, don't we?
But the truth is a compliment will not teach us nearly as much as being corrected, as being rebuked.
Now, no one likes to be corrected.
But we all need it, don't we?
We live in a world that says we shouldn't correct one another.
We live in a world that says the most loving thing to do
is to affirm other people,
no matter how destructive their lifestyle,
you just affirm them.
Our culture is singing the song of fools
that Solomon talked about.
We've got these pop culture singers and actors
and influencers who might be very entertaining,
but their song is a song of fools,
like dried thorns that you start a fire with.
They pop and they sizzle, but they fade, don't they?
There's no substance there.
They're empty affirmation.
Oh, but a wise man who rebukes you, puts you in your place for a moment.
A parent, a coach, a pastor, a boss, a loved one.
They rebuke you.
They give you a rebuke, and they're giving that in order to help you.
That shows they really love you.
They care not just about the moment of your life, a little uncomfortable,
they care about the end product.
Proverbs chapter 27, verse number 6 says,
Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
Sometimes the truth hurts, but it's like medicine for our souls.
It might not taste very good.
Sometimes that medicine doesn't taste very good going down, but it makes you healthy.
We need it, don't we?
Why?
We all have blind spots in our life, areas of sin, areas that need to be refined and built up.
Other people can see those blind spots, but we're blind to them.
We can't see that they're there.
A good friend, a good parent, a good boss will point it out to you because he loves you.
Now, this certainly goes for parents.
Proverbs 22, verse 15 says, foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child.
The rod of correction will drive it far from him.
When our oldest, who's 17 now, was just a little kid,
he was out of control one day, and finally he said,
Dad, I think I need a spanking.
What?
God bless him, he knew he was out of control.
Dad was being a little passive, and he knew it.
He needed some help.
Now, now that he's a teenager, I obviously don't spank him.
I thought those days were over, and they are.
But recently, after Micah was grounded for something
a few days into it, he said,
"'Dad, thank you for grounding me.
"'I needed it.'"
Proverbs 15, verse 32 says,
"'He who disdains instruction despises his own soul,
"'but he who heeds rebuke gets understanding.'"
We all need correction in life, and if we receive it,
if we humbly learn from it, it can be life-altering.
When I was in college, I was working one day with my dad on his koi pond.
That was a hobby that the two of us enjoyed almost every Saturday
from the time I was just a little kid to the day he died.
And so that particular day, something happened.
I can't recall exactly what, but we were arguing back and forth.
And finally, Dad went silent.
And after a minute or two, he said,
Son, I think you have an anger problem.
You know what?
That made me angry.
Marrying.
Why?
Because I didn't think I had an anger problem.
So those words were a blow to how I viewed myself.
It was a blind spot, but you know what?
He was right.
The rebuke was exactly what I needed
to face the blind spot in my life.
He loved me enough to make me uncomfortable
so I could become something greater.
God used that to build character in me
that I desperately, desperately needed.
Verse number eight, he says,
"'The end of a thing is better than its beginning.
The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
Do not hasten in your spirit to be angry, for anger rests in the bosom of fools.
Do not say, why were the former days better than these?
For you do not inquire wisely concerning this.
He says, you have no idea what you're talking about.
Here's our principle.
Circumstances that require patience build a lot more character than circumstances that often lead to pride.
Right?
Solomon says the patient in spirit
is better than the proud in spirit.
Now, whenever we experience these great victories in life,
sometimes we're tempted to become prideful.
But whenever we experience the frustrations of life,
it teaches us patience, doesn't it?
And God is patient, that's Christ's likeness.
Now remember, Solomon's reminding us here
for the couple chapters, our great victories, our comforts.
We think our best, but they might lead to pride.
And those frustrations that we face in life,
those setbacks in life that require patience,
they're actually building the character that God's after.
So he said, don't be angry about it.
You know, anger and pride are connected, aren't they?
And an angry heart is a prideful heart.
I found those two sins often go together.
I was working on this part of my message
just over a week ago on my birthday.
It was the Friday of vacation Bible school.
And all morning long, I had distraction after distraction,
emergency after emergency, pulling me
in different directions.
It caused me to miss my morning of study.
which is stressful for a pastor.
And so I was running as I was dealing with things.
I was frustrated.
My schedule was being interrupted,
and it dawned on me
that I had let myself get a little bit angry
about being disrupted.
And the Spirit of God touched my heart in a moment.
And he brought this verse to mind
that I had been studying early in the morning.
A spirit of patience is a lot better
than a spirit of pride.
Do not be quick to become angry.
And I had to stop in that moment
and thank God for the interruptions
that he was bringing into my life.
Why?
Because he was building in me the character of Christ.
God is patient with us.
We need to learn to be patient as well.
We have such a hard time, though, seeing the big picture of what God is doing in our life.
And God's always focused on the big picture.
We're focused on the little picture we can see, right?
Most of the time, we're either too focused on the past or we're too focused on the here and the now.
And Solomon deals with both.
A lot of people are...
living in the past, living in the good old days.
Their eyes are in the rear view mirror of life.
They're looking behind instead of in front of them.
And they wonder to themselves,
why were the former days so much better than these days?
I don't think it is ever a good idea
for a Christian to be focused on the past.
Because for one, you're probably romanticizing it.
I saw a dad one time wearing a t-shirt at a wrestling tournament that said,
the older I get, the better I was.
Isn't it amazing how our memory changes the facts over time?
Those good old days, you were having a hard time back then more than likely.
Now, also for the Christian, the past, it's never better than the future.
I don't care if you're 100 years old, your future is a whole lot brighter than your past.
Why? Because heaven's in your future.
We've always got to be looking forward to what God has in store for us.
So sometimes people, they get caught up in fantasizing about the past.
Others can't seem to look beyond the moment.
So they foolishly make decisions for the here and the now with no thought of future consequences.
But Solomon says here, he says, the end of a thing is actually better than the beginning.
One of the keys to enjoying life
is to learn how to live with the end in mind.
Proverbs, which is a book in the Bible
filled with these short statements of wisdom,
it teaches us that wisdom is the ability
to look forward in time and to make decisions now,
not based in the moment, but based on the future outcome.
That's what wisdom is.
Now, here's the truth though.
Well, we try, and we should, to anticipate how it's going to work out in the end.
Scripture gives us a lot of principles to do that by.
While we try and attempt to do that,
we don't actually know how it's all gonna fit together.
That's why Solomon is saying,
you don't know if your best days are actually best days
and your bad days are actually bad days, but God knows.
God knows what he's doing.
You see, God's the ultimate chess master of the universe.
While we're playing checkers in life, God is playing chess.
Now, a chess board has 64 individual squares.
It has 32 separate pieces.
It's a very strategic game.
And while most of us can only see two or three moves ahead,
a chess master can sometimes see 20 moves ahead.
Well, God is the ultimate chess master
who can see trillions of moves ahead.
Infinite possibilities based on decisions
in all of these different events.
He can see how it all fits together.
So Solomon says, we can't possibly know
if a particular move by God is a good move or not.
We can only see two or three spots ahead,
but we can trust God because he sees trillions
of spots ahead, steps ahead.
Verse number 11.
He says,
Wisdom is good with an inheritance and profitable to those who see the sun.
For wisdom is a defense, as money is a defense,
but the excellence of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to those who have it.
Here Solomon is teaching us that character protects us a whole lot more than money does.
Wisdom is the word that he uses, is referring an aspect of godly character.
Wisdom protects us more than money does.
Now, does money protect us?
Well, you bet it does.
Your car breaks down and you have money to fix it.
The money that you have just protected you from going into debt.
It just protected you from losing your job that you can't drive to and get to work.
So it protects you in a sense.
Money brings a sense of temporary protection.
But Solomon says here, in a greater way, wisdom and godly character protects us in life.
How?
It helps us navigate life.
There's pitfalls everywhere we look.
Everything we're not, there's pitfalls all around us.
Wisdom and this godly character that God is building us,
it helps us navigate life without unnecessarily falling in the pitfalls.
take simple thing like driving for example wisdom teaches a driver that's important to anticipate
what's next right what are the possibilities of what's next and so it teaches a person to
look both ways before going out on a street now a child behind the wheel or a
fool who's drunk might not anticipate what's next.
They might just pull out onto that road
without the thought of possible danger.
But a person with experience,
a little bit more wisdom about driving,
knows to look both ways in order to avoid
possible danger in the future.
Wisdom is the ability to properly discern
the possible ramifications of a decision.
Maybe you're fed up today with your spouse.
And you're wondering whether you should divorce him or her.
Here's the deal.
The fool...
does whatever he or she can do to get out of the painful relationship that they're currently in.
I just got to get out of it in the now without considering the long-term consequences.
But the wise person considers the ramifications of divorce, right?
What are the ramifications of broken vows to God?
What are the ramifications of maybe some broken kids?
What are the ramifications of broken finances?
They consider the possibility that their next spouse might be worse than the one they currently have.
You know that happens sometimes, right?
Wisdom often protects a person from compounding pain.
Verse number 13.
He says,
Consider the work of God.
For who can make straight what he has made crooked?
In the day of prosperity, be joyful.
But in the day of adversity, consider, surely God has appointed the one as well as the other,
so that man can find out nothing that will come after him.
Solomon is saying you need to come to grips with reality.
You want to be God and you want to be in control, but any control you have in life is simply an illusion.
God is in control.
If God wants something one way, you've got to accept it because you can't change it.
Now, he said earlier, he said, don't let that make you angry.
Instead, in humility, be patient as God works in your life through the good times and the hard times.
Solomon is teaching us that God uses both the good times in life and the bad times in life to build in us the character of Jesus.
That's what God does.
That's what he's committed to doing.
Now we began today with Solomon's question.
Who knows what's good for man in life?
And the answer is God knows.
God knows what you need and he gives us what we need.
Why?
In order to become who we are meant to become in Christ.
So when God gives us some good times, enjoy them.
Enjoy the prosperity that God gives to you,
but when adversity comes your way,
consider the fact God has appointed that as well.
He's allowed that.
Why?
To make you more like Christ.
Now, does that mean the bad times are good?
No, absolutely not.
The bad times are bad.
Evil is bad all the time.
Pain and suffering, tragedy, that's bad.
But the Bible teaches that God has this incredible ability to take that which is evil and to turn it into good.
On our church's 20th anniversary, we published a book of my dad's, of 20 sermons from the
first 20 years.
One sermon from each year.
There's a little history in there as well.
And on the front of the book, my dad dedicated the book to my sister Charity, who was hit
by a car and killed when she was just six years old, his oldest daughter.
I want to read to you the dedication that he wrote.
for her.
He said,
God gave us Charity for only six short years.
Her death broke my heart and left my soul in darkness.
God in his greatness has mended my heart
and filled my soul with the light of his presence.
Charity's life on earth was brief,
but the lessons from sorrow continue to linger.
God has used her tragic death to shape me
and conform me to his image.
Sermons are born not only out of study,
but the best ones come from brokenness.
I cannot assess the impact of charity upon my life and my ministry.
I am who I am in large part because of the sorrow that God has entrusted to me.
There was a time when I could not think of charity without being engulfed in sorrow.
Now, I look forward to seeing her again
and sharing with her the profound impact of her life upon me
and all those who hear God's message from a man whom God has broken.
Dad didn't allow his pain to make him bitter.
He allowed his pain to make him better.
Maybe you're listening today and you are broken with pain.
And I don't know the exact source of that brokenness
in terms of whether it's been the loss of a loved one, maybe
it's a divorce, maybe it's a wayward child.
Maybe you're battling a physical ailment that's just got you beat up and full of physical pain, emotional pain.
You're broken.
Maybe it's your own failures.
And it's a guilt that's weighing you down that you have felt God.
You felt those around you.
And you have all of these regrets.
And you're just broken today.
I want to invite you to allow God to make you better through the trials you're facing in life.
If you will surrender your life to Him, God will take your brokenness and He'll bring healing.
As only He can do.
And not only will He heal you, He will actually make you better than you ever were before.
He will build in you the character of Jesus.
But here's the problem.
Whenever we face difficulty in life,
and whenever we don't surrender to the Lord in that time of difficulty,
That's when life becomes unbearable.
You see, pain is inevitable, but misery is a choice.
Pain's inevitable because we live in a broken world that's been broken by sin.
Misery is a choice.
The child of God does not have to live in misery as he has the Spirit of God,
and he can live a clean life before him.
So here's my encouragement to you.
Here's how you get out of misery.
Stop playing tug of war with God.
Stop pulling against what God is doing in your life.
If you keep pulling against him, you're going to end up face down in the mud.
You're going to end up hurt.
You're going to get in a miserable condition.
So here's what you do instead.
Instead of pulling against God, switch sides.
You can grab on the same rope your life.
Just switch sides.
Let go of the side of the rope you're on.
Go over with the Lord.
Grab onto the rope he's pulling and pull on that same rope.
Yield to what God's doing in your life.
Make transformation the number one goal because that is the number one goal of God.
Pursue it.
In the good times and the bad.
And if you will do that, it changes everything in life.
No matter what you face, it changes your perspective.
God will give you this incredible peace and contentment in the good times and in the bad.
He will build in you the character of Jesus Christ.
Now let's bow together in an attitude of prayer, if you will.
Both here and all of Drive.
This is a holy moment in the life of our church.
I'm going to pray here in just a moment.
We're just going to ask you
to give your life to Jesus.
To trust Him.
Now,
sometimes when we say that,
people think,
man, I've got to do something.
No, actually you just have to receive something.
It's a passive acceptance
of what God has done for you.
You see, the Bible says that
We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
There is none righteous, no, not one.
Every one of us have failed God.
We've broken His heart.
We've broken His will.
But the message of the Bible is that even though God made us perfect,
and even though we destroy that perfection and pain entered the world,
suffering, death, all of these awful, evil things entered into the world because of our sin,
that God still loves us.
Not because of how good we are, but in spite of how bad we are, He still loves us.
And no matter how big and great your failure is, no matter how heavy your guilt is,
no matter how broken you are, God can bring healing to your soul.
Not outwardly like perfume, but inwardly in the depths of who you actually are, the essence of who you are.
But that healing and that forgiveness, that experience of grace, only comes through His Son, Jesus.
A lot of people want to try to get to God on their own.
They want to make it up.
We don't make it up.
We can't make straight what God has made broken.
He's sovereign.
He decides how He saves us.
And He told us.
He said, here's how I'm going to do it.
I sent my only begotten Son, Jesus, so He could live a perfect life, that which none of you have done.
And then Jesus willingly died upon the cross, a gruesome death, paying for our sins.
The infinite paying for our sin.
And here's how it works.
Somehow.
Because of the great value of the eternal Son of God,
what would take you and I an eternity to pay for our sin, Jesus did on the cross.
Jesus cried out on the cross,
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
What a thought that the eternal Son of God, there was this sense,
I can't even describe it, it's mysterious,
but a sense of division because he became sin for us.
He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
There was a sense in which the Father looked away from the Son.
That's how much he loved us.
He interrupted that.
I don't even know how to get my mind around that.
That's how much God loves you.
But then Jesus, on the third day, he rose victorious from the grave.
And the Bible says, whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
It's not about you doing anything.
You can never do enough.
So everything you've tried, there's a reason it's failed.
You can't do it.
Only God can.
And God did.
Through his son Jesus.
So now, here's the decision that you face today.
Here's the fork in the road of life.
Will I keep trying to do things my way?
Will I keep trying to enjoy life my way?
Or will I surrender to Jesus and receive what he has done for me?
I want to invite you to give your life to Christ here in just a moment at both campuses.
We're going to stand.
We're going to sing after I pray.
And then we're just going to invite you to step forward and take one of these leaders by the hand and say,
I want to give my life to Christ.
They'll know exactly how to help you.
They're not going to embarrass you in any way.
They're going to help you take a step towards following Christ,
help you take the step that you need to take.
Maybe say, I want to be baptized like others today and,
or I want to join this church family, or maybe it's none of those things.
You just need to come these steps and pour out your heart to the Lord.
This is a moment that God is working, a moment that His Spirit is moving.
Let's just respond to whatever He moves in our heart about.
Let's pray.
Father, thank You.
Thank You for the good times You give.
Lord, we're grateful for that.
We love being comfortable.
But Lord, I also want to say thank you, Lord, for the uncomfortable times you give.
Because you love us enough to be focused on the end product.
To be focused on that which touches eternity.
To be.
I pray, Lord, for those who are in the midst of terrible pain today, physical, emotional, spiritual.
Maybe they feel a great sense of loneliness, a great sense of failure, maybe even a sense of hopelessness.
Lord, would you meet them today exactly where they're at?
Would you touch them, Lord, their heart and the deep place that I'm unable to get to?
Well, you can.
Would you change their heart?
Would you bring them forgiveness?
Would you open their eyes, soften their heart?
Help them believe, Lord.
I pray for those that need to come forward.
It's not just that they need to make a decision where they stand.
Lord, there's something about going public in this moment.
There's something about getting immediate help while you're at work.
I pray for those people who need to come forward, Lord,
that you give them the courage to step out and come right now.
We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
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If you feel the Lord calling you
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No matter where you are in your journey,
know that we love you, we're praying for you
and we can't wait to see what God will do in your life.