Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Hey, New Life Gillette Church. We are thrilled you decided to listen to our teaching on your favorite podcast app. If you made a decision to follow Christ today, would you let us know by visiting? Yes. Newlife gillette.com here is this week's teaching.
[00:00:25] You know, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what to say after he made that announcement. The only thing I can come up with is we love this church a lot.
[00:00:34] We absolutely love it here, and we are so excited about the future.
[00:00:39] This is not in any way what Jen and I were expecting about a year and a half ago when we moved here. In fact, when Mike told me that he was stepping down, I said some very unkind things to him immediately.
[00:00:50] We've prayed about it a lot over the last few months and have come to believe that the Lord is in this. And we are so excited about the future and just humbled and honored to be able to be part of it. And it's interesting, it was about, I don't know, a month ago or so when we started planning what we were going to be talking about today. Having no idea what announcement was going to be made today, we felt like it would be a good thing for the first Sunday of 2026. By the way, Happy New Year, the first Sunday of 2026, for us to look back at who we are as a church and what it means to be a community where you can come as you are and become who God's created you to be. So that's what we're talking about this morning. We're going to be in Acts, chapter nine. Whoops. If you got. It's fine. I'll get it later.
[00:01:39] I've got another one. Oh, I've got two now. Thank you.
[00:01:42] Acts, chapter nine. We're going to start reading in verse ten. But while you're turning there, I want to say, say good morning to everybody watching on Church 307 all over the state of Wyoming. We're glad you're here at the prison, at the jail, at home, wherever you're at, everybody in the room, we're stoked that you're here. Acts, chapter 9. Starting in verse 10, here's what it says. In Damascus, there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision. Ananias. Yes, Lord, he answered. The Lord told him, go to the house of Judas on Straight street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul. For he's praying in a vision. He has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.
[00:02:23] Lord, Ananias answered, I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your people in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.
[00:02:39] But the Lord said to Ananias, go.
[00:02:42] This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.
[00:02:54] Let's pray.
[00:02:57] Jesus, we love you.
[00:02:59] We worship you today.
[00:03:02] And Jesus, as we often ask over the next few minutes, let only your word linger in our hearts. If there's anything over the next few minutes that's my opinions or my ideas, let us notice it so we can reject it. We don't need my opinions. But if there's anything that's consistent with your word and faithful to your character, plant it deeply in our hearts that we would become like you, Jesus, we love you.
[00:03:31] Amen.
[00:03:33] I brought a prop.
[00:03:37] Does anybody know what this is?
[00:03:40] A birdhouse? That's actually an excellent guess, but wrong.
[00:03:44] Anybody else? Anybody else got an idea?
[00:03:48] A what? A nuclear generator, maybe. Who knows? I don't understand the science.
[00:03:54] This. This sits in my office. If you've been in my office, you recognize that. It's funny because it usually takes people about three times before they say, okay, I' been wondering this. What in the world is that thing sitting on the table?
[00:04:07] What this is is construction scraps.
[00:04:11] That's what it is. It's scraps from an installation. My cousin in South Carolina owns a company where they build tubs out of concrete and charge people a whole lot of money to take baths in them. They install them in, like, really nice high rises and stuff. And this is what's left over. It's some packaging, a mold that they use to pour a tub. It's a washer and a bolt, some plywood that's painted. It's just leftovers. That's what it is. Scraps that were sitting around my cousin's shop. It is also an abstract art sculpture.
[00:04:48] Some of you are thinking, this is why I don't like abstract art.
[00:04:52] My cousin, for as long as I've known him, has been an abstract artist, painting, doing sculptures.
[00:04:58] And he made this sculpture out of scraps from his shop. And he has an interesting process. If you're like. If you're the type of person who likes abstract art, you can find him online at Scarce Covenant.
[00:05:12] He, from what I understand of his process, he's got a shop that's much like most of our garages and shops. I've been in it. It means it's chaos, it's dirty. There's stuff everywhere and there's scraps around.
[00:05:24] And he doesn't clean them up. He walks through and he'll see something that's interesting, something that stands out and think, huh, that's interesting. And they might put it aside. He might put it up on a table or, you know, on a countertop or something like that, save it. Then he'll keep looking at it. And he'll look at it at a different time of day when the light's different, and he'll look at it when he's in a different mood. And eventually that scrap will start looking like it could be something else.
[00:05:50] And he might connect it to a different scrap, or he might dip it in some sort of coat, or he might turn it upside down and let the light hit it in a different way, or stack things together.
[00:06:00] And that leftover construction scrap becomes something with meaning.
[00:06:08] It is scraps.
[00:06:12] That's what it is.
[00:06:14] But somebody was able to see something that it could become. That's what's interesting about the sculptures that he makes, is the only reason they have value is because the artist was able to imagine value.
[00:06:28] They have value because the artist gave them value. They are scraps. They are leftovers that matter because someone put them together in a way that created value.
[00:06:43] An artist is really someone who can see what is and what can be at the same time.
[00:06:54] An artist is somebody who can look at scraps, who can look at what it is and hold in their mind what it can become, and see both of those things at the same time.
[00:07:07] In this story, we're introduced to two characters. The first is Ananias. Ananias is a disciple, just a normal, everyday follower of Jesus who has a vision. God speaks to him. And God introduces us in this section to the second character, Saul.
[00:07:24] Saul, you'll notice in the story, is not a very good dude. In fact, Ananias reaction when God says, I need you to go to Saul is to say God. Do you know who you're talking about?
[00:07:35] God. Saul has warrants for arresting people like me.
[00:07:40] If I go hang out with Saul, I'm going to get arrested. Now, interestingly enough, you might. If you've been following Jesus for a while, you might actually know Saul. But you might know him as his Greek name, Paul.
[00:07:51] Saul was a Hebrew man, and Saul was his name in Hebrew. But he did most of his work and spent most of his career working in Greek speaking places. So he became known by his Greek name, Paul. But in this instance, he hasn't done that work yet. So. So he's still called Saul.
[00:08:08] And as I've been trying to figure out how we could describe Saul, I've stumbled across online another pastor who described Saul in what I think is the best way I've ever heard. His name is Josh Howardson. And here's how he described Saul. There's a picture I want to show you.
[00:08:24] Some of you are familiar with this image.
[00:08:28] This is a still taken from a video that went viral in approximately 2015.
[00:08:36] This was a video of a group of Coptic Christian men, everyday blue collar normal Christians, who were martyred by the extremist group isis.
[00:08:50] They were killed in this video. Now, before I go on, I need to ask you to do something.
[00:08:55] Don't watch this video.
[00:08:58] Do not go home and look this video up and watch it. I know some of you are thinking, well, since you told me not to, I'm definitely going to. Don't watch the video.
[00:09:06] God did not design the human soul to watch people die for entertainment. To watch real death.
[00:09:16] Hear me, it will do harm to your soul to go watch this video.
[00:09:21] Don't watch it.
[00:09:23] Now, these are just ordinary guys. They don't have degrees. They're not pastors, they're not trained in anything. They're normal Christians who are martyred. They are killed with the name of Jesus on their lips. These guys in the black are religious extremists. They're members of ISIS and they are executing these Christians. Now, a lot of people when we talk about Saul, we try to describe him like a thug, like he's some sort of criminal, some sort of gang banger, something like that. But that's not really an accurate way to describe Saul because he wasn't a criminal. Saul wasn't working outside of the law. In this image, what you see is a group of men who believe that they are validated by their extreme beliefs. They actually believe that God wants them to do what they're doing. They think they're justified. And while they might not really have permission from their government, they are shielded by their government because there are people that they report to that share their extreme belief systems. So they have validation from the authority figures over them and they have religious justification in their mind to do the extreme things that they're doing.
[00:10:32] That gets us into the ballpark of Saul.
[00:10:36] Saul travels with a group of effectively enforcers. Ananias tells us that Saul comes with permission, with authority from the chief Priests to arrest, arrests that would often lead to death, to execution. He comes with that authority. So Saul is a religious extremist, meaning that he believes that he is doing God's will by stopping Christianity. He believes that it will help his belief system and help his people to halt the spread of Christianity in the world. So he is justified in his mind by his extreme beliefs to kill Christians. And he is shielded by the authority figures over him.
[00:11:21] There's one other character. It's this guy in camo right here.
[00:11:26] The rest of these are men taking orders.
[00:11:30] This man is giving orders.
[00:11:33] If you want to know what Saul was like when we meet him in the story, that's Saul.
[00:11:42] That's who he was. In fact, we get a very clear description in verse one of chapter nine. Here is the first time we hear any real description of Saul.
[00:11:52] Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples.
[00:12:02] Nice guy, huh?
[00:12:05] Now, you see this? This is what's interesting about this story. Ananias knows it. Saul has a reputation that precedes him. And Ananias responds to God and he says, hey, you know who this guy is, right? You know what you're asking me to do? This guy's dangerous. This guy's not safe for me to be around.
[00:12:23] Why do you want me to go share the gospel with someone who is actively trying to arrest and imprison me? And this is what's interesting. God doesn't correct him.
[00:12:32] God doesn't say, ananias, I promise, Saul has changed. You just don't really know the real Saul. He doesn't say. He doesn't say, ananias, listen. There's a trajectory of transformation in Saul's life, so you can trust him now. He doesn't say that. Saul's been discipled for a few months, and we've begun to see a glimmer of change. He doesn't say that. What does he say? He says, go.
[00:12:55] He just says, go because he's chosen to do something. In other words, Saul hadn't changed when he encountered Jesus.
[00:13:05] Saul had not changed before Ananias was expected to disciple him. Saul had not changed before he was expected to be embraced by the church. He came to Jesus as he was.
[00:13:21] Now, let me go out on a limb here and say that probably no one in this room is a religious extremist vindicated by a government to kill and arrest Christians. But even if you are, you can come to Jesus. Why? Because if Saul can come to Jesus, then anyone can come to Jesus. If Saul the not criminal, the Martyr maker. The one actively trying to destroy violently the work of Christ. If he can come to Jesus, come to Jesus, than anyone can come to Jesus. If Saul can come before he changes, this is what we have to see. We have to see that Saul didn't change first.
[00:14:07] He changed after.
[00:14:09] Saul didn't change before Ananias was asked to go. Ananias wasn't promised safety. Ananias wasn't promised that he would encounter a kind, hopeful, generous person. Ananias was told to go. Why?
[00:14:22] Because Saul can come to Jesus just as he is. And if Saul can come to Jesus, then anyone can come to Jesus.
[00:14:30] If Saul can come to Jesus, anyone can come to Jesus. I'm going to say that again and again until you get excited about it. If Saul can come to Jesus, then anyone can come to Jesus.
[00:14:42] What that means is that if you're here today and you have lived a really good, comfortable life and you haven't made a lot of mistakes, you know, if you're still on your first marriage and you don't have a criminal record and there's nothing in your Internet search history, that's embarrassing. We're glad you're here. We're glad you're here. You can come to Jesus exactly as you are, Praise the Lord.
[00:15:00] And if you're here today and you got out of jail yesterday morning, then we're glad you're here.
[00:15:06] Praise the Lord. And if you're here hungover, smelling like alcohol, we're glad you're here.
[00:15:11] Praise the Lord. And if you're here on your fifth marriage and it's barely working, we're glad you're here.
[00:15:18] Praise the Lord. If. If you're here and you are horrified that the people here are going to find out who you used to be, we're glad you're here. And we don't care who you used to be.
[00:15:29] Because anyone can come to Jesus. If Saul can come to Jesus, anyone can come to Jesus. If Saul can come to Jesus, anyone can come to Jesus. If you're here horrified about what you looked at on the Internet last night, if you're here for horrified that people are going to find out your reputation, it doesn't matter. Because if Saul can come to Jesus, then anyone can come to Jesus. And here's the kicker. If anyone can come to Jesus, I can come to Jesus.
[00:15:58] If anyone can come to Jesus, I can come to Jesus. If anyone can come to Jesus, you can come to Jesus. Whatever secret you're hoping we don't find out about, whatever thing you're hoping I don't preach about whatever. Whatever reputation is laying over your head. You can come to Jesus because if Saul can come to Jesus, anyone can. And if anyone can, then you can. And that's what it means to be a come as you are church. Do you want to know who God has called new life to be now and forever? Do you want to know what the unshakable foundation of who we are called to be as a community is? It's a come as you are community where absolutely anyone can come. Because if Saul can come to Jesus before he changed, that anyone can come to Jesus before they change.
[00:16:52] There's a temptation, though, that pretty much every Christian faces. Pretty much every Christian I face it. I think if you follow Jesus long enough, you will face this temptation.
[00:17:07] And the temptation is to start to think like we are doing people a favor by letting them come to Jesus as they are.
[00:17:15] We start to think things like, isn't it so cool of us that we would let people like you come to church?
[00:17:25] Isn't it so cool and generous and Christ like of us that we don't even judge you for all the stuff you do? We just let you. Let you stay here. Isn't it so cute that our church has all of these types of people in it? And what we start to forget is that I came to Jesus the way I am. So I'm not doing anybody a favor by letting them come to Jesus as they are.
[00:17:47] If I came to Jesus exactly as I was, you probably know this. No one has come to Jesus any other way than exactly as they were.
[00:17:54] No one ever has. No one has ever come to Jesus prepared for Jesus. You know, Saul, the guy we're talking about at this story, he would write later because he wound up writing approximately half of the New Testament. He would write later that all of our righteousness is filthy rags. The Greek translation there is effectively used toilet paper. That's what it translates to. In other words, it doesn't matter how much you're trying to get yourself together. If you convinced yourself that you cleaned yourself up for Jesus, you deceived yourself. You came to Jesus exactly as you were because it's the only way you can come to him.
[00:18:29] The foundational claim of following Jesus is I need a savior.
[00:18:35] So when I start to imagine that I'm doing someone a favor by me needing a savior and them needing a savior too, then I'm standing in the way.
[00:18:49] You know, if you. If you keep going in Saul's life, you see something interesting. Ananias gets a glimpse of it because God says he is my chosen instrument to reach the Gentiles and their kings and their rulers and the people of Israel with them. We see in this moment that God is an artist. He can see who somebody is and what they can become at the same time.
[00:19:16] God can see both.
[00:19:18] If you keep going in Saul's life, we put that picture back up again.
[00:19:23] If you keep going in Saul's life, you notice something that he becomes goes from murderer, justified, government backed murderer and eventually becomes a missionary. He becomes the most prolific missionary in the history of humanity. He took the gospel literally to the known world at that time. He becomes probably the most prolific church planter that has ever been known in human history. He established churches in effectively every major city in the known world, every major city in the Roman Empire at that point. He planted churches or he directly mentored the pastor of that church. He goes on to write more than half of the New Testament or approximately half of the New Testament in fact. Some of the letters, for instance, Philippians, the book of Philippians was written while Paul was in prison for preaching the gospel. So when Philippians chapter 4, verse 13 says, I can do anything through Christ who gives me strength, it doesn't mean I'm going to be able to dunk if I believe hard enough. It means that I can go through anything, I can suffer anything, I can be used by God to accomplish anything.
[00:20:37] Because nothing in his will or in his mission is impossible.
[00:20:41] That's what Paul was saying.
[00:20:44] Paul. There's another story where Paul is preaching the gospel in a city and he gets stoned. Not the Colorado kind of stone that with rocks till you're dead kind of stoned.
[00:20:55] And they did such a good job, they thought it worked. They thought he was dead. So they took his body outside of town and they left his body to rot.
[00:21:05] And he wasn't quite dead. I'm not dead yet. You watch Monty Python, anybody?
[00:21:09] He gets up, I'm not quite. I'm feeling much better. I love that movie so much.
[00:21:14] He walks back into town where they just tried to kill him. Why does he walk back into town to preach the gospel?
[00:21:21] And what I'm trying to tell you is that Paul started as this guy and he died as this guy.
[00:21:28] Paul started as the killer and he died as the martyr. Church history tells us that Saul went all the way, became becoming known as Paul. He went all the way to Rome where he was executed by Caesar for preaching the gospel. In other words, Saul didn't just come to Jesus as he was, he became who he was created to be. And listen, if Saul can become who. Who he was created to be, then anyone can become who they were created to be. If Saul can see such transformation in his life that he goes from martyring Christians to being a Christian martyr, then you can become who you were created to be. Did you know that?
[00:22:10] See, we have this tendency to want to be patronizing to people who are coming to Christ as they are. But the reality is, if you're here and you're hungover, we're not just happy you're here. We're. We need you here. Because you might be Saul.
[00:22:23] You might be the person who plants the next church that we send out a new life. If you're here on your fifth marriage and it's barely working, we, We. We need you here. We might need you to be on the lba. We might need you to volunteer in the youth ministry. We might. We don't have any idea what the trajectory of your life is going to become. You might become a missionary that takes the Gospel to one of the many places on earth where they still haven't heard the name of Jesus. Because, you know, we don't have enough missionaries, right?
[00:22:48] However you're here, we're not just glad you're here. We need you here. You have to be here.
[00:22:54] We have to be this type of community because people come as they are to Christ and they become who God's created them to be. The trajectory of your life is beyond what you can imagine. The transformation possible is beyond what you can imagine. It's not just Jesus welcomes me and then he lets me stew until heaven. It's Jesus welcomes me and loves me and forgives me and sends me off with a miracle things in the world, because I am becoming something.
[00:23:24] I'm becoming something.
[00:23:26] Did you know that all of our sins cost Jesus the same amount?
[00:23:31] Did you know that every single one of our sins cost Jesus the same amount? There's not one of us that sent Jesus less to the cross than anyone else.
[00:23:41] There's not one of us that required less death than the next person.
[00:23:46] All of our sins cost the same.
[00:23:50] So if Saul can become who he was created to be, then anyone can become who they were created to be. And if anyone can become who they were created to be, then I can become who I was created to be.
[00:24:02] Because you and I are no different. We were both given the same sacrifice and the same mercy and the same love. And we're both invited into the same invitation.
[00:24:12] Do you know what's actually offensive about the gospel. This is something I wrestled with for a long time because the gospel is good news. Why do people get so mad about it?
[00:24:21] You know what's actually offensive about the gospel? It's not our moral code. It's not the sexual ethic of the Kingdom of God. It's not even really that we tell people that they have sinned. Most people know that they've sinned. They just try to cover it up.
[00:24:36] Very few people don't know that they're sinners.
[00:24:40] What's offensive about the gospel is that my sins cost the same as yours, no matter what I think of my sins and no matter what I think of your sins. That's what's offensive.
[00:24:50] What's offensive about the gospel is that we both have the same invitation to become who God's created us to be. No matter what you've done? No matter what I've done. I might have done way worse things than you, but I received the same invitation you did. Hitler received the same invitation I did. And should he choose to accept it, should he have chosen to accept it, then he would have received the same forgiveness I did.
[00:25:14] Because every sin costs the same. There's no hierarchy in the kingdom of God. That's what's offensive about the gospel. I can't look down on anyone because we're all looking from the same place.
[00:25:25] A pastor famously said the ground is level at the foot of the cross.
[00:25:29] You can't look down at anyone because I can't look down on someone for needing saving when I needed saving.
[00:25:36] And I can't look down on someone because I've become something, because they can become something. And Jesus is the one who made me who I was created to be. I didn't really do any of it.
[00:25:48] Jesus is the one who has me on the journey. So I can't look at anybody else who's farther behind and say, come on, catch up.
[00:25:55] Because Jesus is the one.
[00:25:57] This is what it means to be a come as you are and become who God created you to be. Church that we say, yes, you are welcome here. And we say, yes, we need you here.
[00:26:09] We have to have you here.
[00:26:12] Think of who you can become.
[00:26:15] Think of who we can become.
[00:26:17] Think of what I can become.
[00:26:19] We all come to Jesus as we are, and we are all invited to become who we were created to be.
[00:26:29] This story is very personal. This whole message is really personal to me.
[00:26:34] This is why I love this church.
[00:26:38] This is why I love new life.
[00:26:42] My grandpa was a country musician in the 50s in Renfro Valley. In Kentucky. Pretty talented guy. He had a radio comedy show and supposedly it's family legend that he sold some songs to, like Dolly Parton and.
[00:26:57] But he was an alcoholic. He drank away all of his money.
[00:27:03] He had six kids, eventually seven, my mom's the youngest.
[00:27:09] He drank away all of his money, became an absent, probably violent, abusive alcoholic, not, certainly not anything remotely close to a good father.
[00:27:26] He and my grandma lived in Indiana. And this was back in the day when people had company over. You remember that?
[00:27:33] You remember when someone would knock at the door and you'd be like, bring out the pound cake. Like, people don't do that now. We hide, we turn off the lights and pretend like we're not home. This was back in the day when people had company over and pastors would go door to door. And there was a pastor who pastored a church just down the road from where my grandparents lived. Pastor's name was Clyde Dupin. And Pastor Clyde would go door to door. He would knock on the door and invite people to church and pray for him.
[00:28:00] Every time Clyde would knock on my grandpa's door, my grandpa would cuss him out drunk, smelling like alcohol, or ignore him.
[00:28:08] He was the most inhospitable person you can think of.
[00:28:12] Clyde had no business ever going back to that house. If I had been the pastor knocking on that door and I had been cussed out and called all kinds of names by a drunk, belligerent man, there's no way I would have went back.
[00:28:24] Clyde went back.
[00:28:27] He went back, kept going back, kept going back for a long, long time.
[00:28:36] Apparently there was an old lady in the church. The church had begun praying for my grandparents. And there was an old lady in the church who would drive her beat up old car across town and she'd knock on the screen door and no one would answer, but she'd say, I know you're in there. I'm praying for you.
[00:28:51] Apparently there was a truck driver who gave up his lunch. He fasted lunch. I think it was Tuesdays and Thursdays. I might have the days wrong. He fasted lunch to pray for my grandpa. And other lost people in the church believe he did it for a year.
[00:29:06] No response.
[00:29:08] No change.
[00:29:11] Finally, my grandpa literally drank himself to death.
[00:29:14] He was dying.
[00:29:17] He couldn't get out of bed. He had had injuries from when he was in the military and he had treated his body horribly. And he was dying.
[00:29:26] And he asked my grandma Mary to go get the preacher, the same preacher he had cussed at and told to never come back and been horrible to my grandma went and got the preacher, brought him back.
[00:29:41] Pastor Clyde came into my grandpa's room. Grandpa couldn't stand up.
[00:29:46] Pastor Clyde said, clarence, I'm going to pray for you.
[00:29:51] If God heals you, will you come to church tomorrow?
[00:29:54] My grandpa said, yes.
[00:29:56] While they were praying, my grandpa, who couldn't get out of bed, got out of bed and knelt down next to Clyde.
[00:30:04] When they said amen, he stood up and shook his hand. I'll see you tomorrow. He skipped church in the morning. This was also back when there was church every night of the week, but he came to the Sunday night service.
[00:30:16] My grandpa gave his life to Jesus. He came down to the altar. This was also back when they had real altars in church.
[00:30:22] He came down to the altar and gave his life to Jesus.
[00:30:28] Come as you are.
[00:30:30] My grandpa became a pastor.
[00:30:34] He took his then 7 kids to Bible college, moved to North Carolina, pastored a church in a little town called Shelby, where my dad grew up.
[00:30:46] My dad was a professional kickboxer, pretty much the center of the party scene in Cleveland County, North Carolina, according to all the stories that he didn't tell me until I was old enough.
[00:30:59] And he.
[00:31:01] My dad was led to Jesus by a mentor of his in a speed shop, in an auto parts shop. They knelt down on the floor when his mentor shared the gospel with him. They knelt down on the floor in this shop in the middle of the day. My dad gave his life to Jesus and then he went to church. You know whose church he went to?
[00:31:17] My grandpa's church.
[00:31:21] It's where my mom and dad met. You know, who discipled my dad when he became a follower of Jesus? It was my grandpa, you know, who helped my dad pursue his call to ministry.
[00:31:33] You know who sat next to my dad when my dad finally met his abusive, neglectful father again after probably 40 years, my grandpa.
[00:31:47] Come as you are.
[00:31:49] Become who God created you to be.
[00:31:54] This is what it means.
[00:31:57] This means so much to me because I'm the third generation. Come as you are and become who God's created you to be. And I had to come to Jesus exactly how I was. I made a whole lot of mistakes, did a whole lot of things that I didn't deserve any forgiveness for Jesus.
[00:32:10] I sent Jesus to the cross just like everybody else did.
[00:32:15] I was able to come to Jesus as I am.
[00:32:18] And I'm in the process of becoming who God created me to be.
[00:32:22] We all are.
[00:32:24] This is what it means.
[00:32:26] We have to be able to see the trajectory, to imagine the change, to look at someone as they are and have the perspective of an artist that says, I see what is and I see what can be. At the same time, we have to be able to look at the people around us and ourselves the way God taught Ananias to look at Saul. Yes, he's a threat, but also he's my chosen instrument.
[00:33:01] So here's how we're going to respond. Today.
[00:33:07] We're going to worship.
[00:33:09] And I can't think of a better way to start the year than to give the invitation.
[00:33:16] If you have never given your life to Jesus, if you've never decided to follow Jesus, today is the day Jesus died to take the full weight and measure of your sin upon Himself. He rose again to give you new life now and for eternity, so that you can be reconciled to God and become who you were created to be. He died so that you can go to heaven, but not only so you can go to heaven. He died so that you can pray with him. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. You can become who you were created to be.
[00:33:50] And if I can come to Jesus exactly as I am, then you can come to Jesus exactly as you are.
[00:33:56] So if you're here today and you've never decided to follow Jesus got both of these cards.
[00:34:04] While we're singing, I want to invite you to fill out this card and bring it up here to one of these baskets on the stage or to one of the baskets on the tables in the balcony.
[00:34:16] There are two reasons why we want you to fill out the card. Number one, because it's a step and taking a step matters.
[00:34:22] The same reason why you never get to go to the dance with someone. You don't ask out loud. Once you say it out loud, you can't take it back, right?
[00:34:31] Jesus always asks people to take a step.
[00:34:34] I want you to take a step.
[00:34:36] The other reason is that you don't have to do it alone.
[00:34:40] And if you fill out the card, we'll reach out to you, we'll connect to you. We'll make sure you have every resource you need to become who you were created to be. Nobody has to follow Jesus alone. We weren't created to go through life alone.
[00:34:52] So while we sing this song, if you're ready to surrender your life to Jesus, to follow Jesus, then bring the card. There are cards all over the seats. Bring the card up and drop it in one of the baskets. And if you're here today and you are a follower of Jesus and you're ready to say, you know What I can see, who people can become.
[00:35:15] I am committed to welcoming people as they are and doing everything I can to help them become who they were created to be. If that's you, then when somebody walks up here and drops a card in the plate, I want you to cheer like it's the Super Bowl. Because there's nothing more important that could ever happen on Earth than someone deciding to follow Jesus. I'm going to say that again. There's nothing more important that could ever happen on Earth than someone deciding to follow Jesus. There's nothing worth celebrating more than someone deciding to follow Jesus.
[00:35:46] So we're going to celebrate that. And we're going to celebrate it as a declaration that we can see what is and what will be. And that we're committed to not just welcoming people as they are, but empowering them to become who they were created to be. Let's pray.
[00:36:03] Jesus, we love you. Jesus, I thank you that my sins were nailed to the cross, that our sins died and stayed in the grave. But you didn't.
[00:36:16] You came out.
[00:36:20] Jesus, I pray specifically for anybody that's here, unsure of whether they're willing to walk up here, unsure of whether they're willing to decide to follow you.
[00:36:30] Make today the day. Put courage in their hearts.
[00:36:33] Draw them to you. Let them see how beautiful and good the decision is. And for every, every one of us here, tear down our judgment, tear down our condemnation. Tear down anything that would cause us to think we are better than anyone else. Tear down everything that would cause us to think that we didn't need as much grace or we didn't need as much forgiveness. Make us people who welcome one another and ourselves as we are and become who we were created to be. We love you, Jesus.
[00:37:07] Amen.
