Am I Winning?

Well, I'd like to welcome everybody to Bridge Gospel this morning. I'm glad that you're here with us.
I'd especially like to welcome you if you're here for the first time.
I know that it can be a little weird to walk into a new church and not know what's going on or where you can set your coffee down.
But just relax and enjoy your time, and I'm glad that you're here with us.
I'd also like to welcome everyone who is listening online, and I believe that God will bless you right where you are.
So I just have one announcement this morning about the women's ministry.
They're going to get together, and they're going to be making some cards and some bookmarks.
It's just kind of a chance to hang out, make some friends.
You could make a card for a friend. You could keep it for yourself.
I make cards to myself all the time.
Fun fact, thinking of you.
Don't ruin the drama.
Anyway, it's on Saturday the 24th, 5 to 7 o'clock.
They're just asking you to register so they can get the supplies together and things like that.
You can bring a friend.
That little thing, I guess, takes you to the website where you sign up.
I've been hearing a lot of great things about the women's ministry,
about people getting together and having a good time and making friends.
I have not been able to personally verify any of this information,
so I'm just taking them at their word.
Hallelujah.
Anyway.
Say what?
God can turn it around.
We just sang that.
Amen?
Amen.
Boy.
Well, I'm going to pray for the offering.
We're not going to pass a plate or a bucket or put any pressure on
or try to make some crazy emotional appeal to get you empty your wallet this morning.
We're just going to say there's a box in the back.
You can give online.
Please make your checks out to Two Rivers Church.
This is an opportunity to worship God with the things that he has given you
and entrusted to you, so I'll pray for the offering.
So, dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you that every good
and every perfect gift comes from you.
We thank you that you're a faithful father, that you're a good, good father,
that you provide for our needs,
and we appreciate that you have created a way for us to celebrate that by giving back, Lord.
So we know that it may leave our hands, but it does not leave our life.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Amen.
So if you want to follow along in your Bibles, we're going to be in Luke 24.
If you want to kind of put your finger there for a moment.
You ever find yourself sitting around and asking yourself this question,
Am I winning?
You ever sat around and wondered, Am I winning?
You ever look around the things going on in your life?
Maybe you look at the bank account.
Am I winning?
Or maybe you look at, you know, the list of, you know, house projects.
Am I winning?
Car projects.
Am I winning?
And there's this thing where you just want to know, like,
the way I'm running my life and the way I'm approaching my problems.
Like, is this working?
And you think, well, I gave years to this career, or I prayed about this,
and I thought that God led me to where I'm at today.
And, you know, I've been trying, and I've been expecting something to happen.
And then I look at what actually happened.
And maybe I ask myself the question, well, am I winning?
And maybe for some of us, it's our career.
Maybe it's our marriage.
Maybe it's a business or a relationship.
And maybe you've prayed about it for years.
And people said, well, you're called to this thing.
You're called to that thing.
But you maybe thought it would look different by now.
And I think there's these two categories of advice that, as Christians,
we're really good at giving each other.
One of them is kind of like this.
Well, maybe God closed the door, and he wants you to quit.
Okay.
And then maybe someone else says, well, no, maybe you just need to keep knocking,
and the door will come open.
And you're kind of stuck in the middle.
You're like, awesome.
Thanks, guys.
These are complete and polar opposite ideas and ways of thinking about what's going on.
So which is it?
How do I know whether I'm, like, faithfully persevering over here
or just maybe admitting that whatever is going on is not working?
Right?
How do I know whether the resistance needs to keep going?
Or maybe I should stop?
That is the question.
Am I winning?
And we look at what happened, what didn't happen.
Did it grow?
Did the door open?
Did the door close?
Did the money show up?
Did the relationship get fixed?
Did the thing happen?
And whether we say it out loud or not,
we all have this little scoreboard in our minds, right?
And that brings us to Luke 24, verse 13.
Now, that very day, two of them were talking about Jesus' disciples
were on the way to a village called Emmaus,
about seven miles from Jerusalem.
They were talking to each other about all the things that had happened.
While they were talking and debating these things,
Jesus himself approached and began to accompany them.
But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.
Then he said to them,
What are these matters you are discussing so intently as you walk along?
As they stood still, looking sad,
then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him,
Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem
who doesn't know the things that have happened in these days?
He said to them,
This is Jesus.
I love this.
What things?
The things concerning Jesus the Nazarene.
In other words, where have you been?
Funny you should ask.
They replied,
A man with his powerful deeds and words
proved to be a prophet before God and all the people,
and how our chief priests and leaders
handed him over to be condemned to death
and crucified him.
Verse 21,
But we had hoped that he was the one
who was going to redeem Israel.
Not only this,
but it is now the third day
since these things have happened.
I like this story.
Jesus has been crucified.
The disciples are just walking from Jerusalem
towards Emmaus.
They're packing it up.
They're going home.
It's over.
And they're talking about everything that happened.
They're probably reconstructing every moment.
Hey, do you remember when Jesus,
when they lowered the guy through the ceiling?
You remember when they did that
and they healed that parent?
I was there.
Were you there?
He was there.
We all saw the same thing, right?
Or maybe the time where he walked on water.
Did you guys?
I wasn't there.
I heard about it.
Well, do you think that guy made it up?
You can imagine the whole conversation.
And they're walking home.
And they're just playing the tape.
They're trying to figure it out.
And here comes a guy.
Right next to him.
Right next to him.
Hey, guys.
What's going on?
I bet it was that chill.
I like to think it was that chill.
And then they start telling him all about this Jesus.
They're telling Jesus about Jesus.
And they tell him he was mighty in word and deed.
And that the leaders had handed him over.
And they tell him he was crucified.
And I think Jesus is sitting there like, yeah, I think that's exactly how it went.
He's just kind of following the story along.
And then Luke, he gives us this other little piece.
He said, yeah.
He said, yeah.
We had hoped.
It is such a profoundly human thing to say.
We had hoped.
We had hoped that you were the one.
We had hoped that Israel was going to be redeemed.
Or maybe we hoped the marriage would have worked out.
We hoped the treatment would have worked.
We hoped our kid would have came to their senses.
We hoped our business would have worked out.
We hoped the new job would have came through.
And we had hoped by this point in our life, things would look different.
These men are not saying they did not believe.
They're saying we did believe.
We did hope.
And now what they're looking at doesn't match the thing that they had hoped for.
And in verse 21,
And beside all of this,
it's been three days.
They've been sitting around for three days.
So now we have a hope.
A hope of an outcome.
And now we have a timeline.
You ever find yourself,
God, I trust your timing.
And I have this thing on Thursday.
That I really need to happen on Thursday.
I have it on the calendar on Thursday.
And, you know,
when the outcome doesn't happen on the timeline that we have created,
you know,
we have this scoreboard that we go back to in our mind.
And, you know,
just put yourself in this moment for a minute on the road.
Jesus is killed.
The opposing side has won.
Rome is still roaming.
The religious establishment is still established.
The disciples are scattering.
They're on the road to go home.
And the person that you had put all your hopes and dreams of the future and redemption,
your whole view of God himself is dead.
It sort of feels like losing.
And I can see why they were sitting there wondering,
like, am I winning?
And here's what makes this difficult.
They're not imagining any of it.
You know,
Jesus really was crucified.
Their expectations really were completely shattered.
It really has been three days.
Right?
So they have real information.
And they have real disappointment.
And I think they have a real reason to ask what happened.
So, maybe that's how we know if we're winning.
Maybe we look at the results.
We say, wow, if this works, let's keep going.
And if this doesn't work, well, I'm going to stop.
Well, that's pretty easy.
And, you know, sometimes we'll say that, well, when things get difficult
or when opposition comes into our life,
there's always this temptation to say, well, maybe God closed the door on that thing.
And, you know, maybe we'll wait for an easier door or a better door
or a shinier door to walk through, right?
But Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16, verse 8, he says,
But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost,
because a door of great opportunity stands wide open for me.
That sounds great.
And then he says, but there are many opponents.
You see, Paul has this plan.
He's going to stay in Ephesus because there's an opportunity there for him.
He sees how his plan could work out.
But in the same breath, in the same verse, he's saying there's adversaries.
There's problems.
So there's an open door and there's opposition at the same time.
They coexist.
And sometimes there's precisely problems and adversaries and enemies
in the same place where there's very important work to do.
So then the other side is, okay, well, maybe I just keep persevering
and keep pushing at this thing and keep knocking on the door,
and eventually I'll win, and things will work out, you know?
Fight the good fight of faith, you know?
Don't let the enemy get a foothold, and then I'll win.
And I see the idea there, and I see the faith behind that thought.
Hebrews 11 says this, starting in verse 33.
It says,
Through faith they conquered kingdoms, administered justice,
gained what was promised, shut the mouth of lions,
quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword,
gained strength and weakness, became mighty in battle,
put foreign armies to flight,
and women received back their dead, raised to life.
Hallelujah.
But others were tortured, not accepting release,
to obtain a resurrection to a better life.
And others experienced mocking and flogging,
and even chains and imprisonment.
They were stoned, sawed apart, murdered with a sword.
They went about in sheepskins and goatskins.
They were destitute, afflicted, ill-treated.
The world was not worthy of them.
They wandered in deserts and mountains and caves
and openings in the earth.
Verse 39.
And these circled this word in my Bible.
All were commended for their faith.
All.
Not just the winners.
All.
So some faithful people conquered some kingdoms.
Check.
God likes that.
Some people obtained some promises.
Great.
Some of them escaped the sword.
That sounds good.
And then, tortured, mocked, imprisoned, killed,
they don't sound like winners.
See, they don't receive the same visible outcome
that they were hoping for.
And somehow, Hebrews is putting all these groups,
there's like, you know, three groups of people here.
They were all in the same group.
All in the same chapter about faith.
Wildly, wildly different scoreboards.
Wildly different outcomes.
And I think what this teaches us is that we cannot determine our faithfulness
by reading the scoreboard of our circumstances.
You see it?
You see, success doesn't automatically mean that God is approving.
Our difficulty doesn't mean that God disapproves.
And growth doesn't always mean faithfulness.
Decline doesn't always mean that there's some hidden thing going on.
You see, results, they matter.
Our stewardship matters.
Our fruit matters.
But the circumstances don't answer the whole question.
Well, then how do I know if I'm winning?
Well, if I can't tell from my circumstances,
then, well, maybe,
maybe I need to tell God to tell me what my circumstances mean.
And I think this is where things get weird.
Well, maybe God will give me a sign.
Maybe somebody will give me a word.
Maybe somebody knows something they couldn't possibly know.
Maybe I'll find somebody who's really smart and ask them.
That's a good idea for a lot of things.
Maybe somebody, you know,
maybe somebody really influential has something to say.
Maybe somebody predicted something before and they were right.
And maybe they can tell me what God's up to.
But it's a little bit challenging when you hear things like,
you know, God says a breakthrough is coming.
You're like, that sounds great.
I need that.
And then six months go by.
A year goes by.
And it hasn't come.
Well, maybe you're in a season of preparation.
It's still not working, right?
Well, maybe the enemy fights the hardest right before the breakthrough.
What do you do with that?
What do you do with that?
And here's the problem behind the problem that all those things are encouraging,
but none of them can tell me whether I'm wrong or whether I'm winning or where I should go next.
And at a certain level, we need to have a sense of discernment
because some of these explanations are designed that they can never lose.
And the dangerous part of it is every one of those things is true at times.
God does prepare people.
God does bring breakthrough.
God's timing is so much different than ours.
We do face opposition.
God does open doors.
God does want us to be persistent in our faith.
But the problem is not that those categories exist.
The problem is that when they get arranged,
that every possible outcome just starts to confirm the direction that we're going in.
And I think the deeper question here is,
have I built a discernment process where God can tell me that I'm wrong?
Because if I just look and I find things that are right,
I don't have a scoreboard anymore.
I have built some kind of a machine that tells me what I want to hear.
And we say, well, this person was right about this thing.
It's okay.
And they're really smart.
Okay.
And look how many followers they have.
Okay.
Well, they were right about A, and then they said B.
So B must be true.
Okay.
Premise accepted.
This is Deuteronomy 13, chapter 1.
This is a really uncomfortable text.
Because Moses is not giving an easy version.
He's not saying if somebody gives you a sign and it fails, don't listen.
He's giving a harder case to discern.
He's saying if this thing happens, but then another thing leads people away from God.
You see, the sign doesn't establish enough.
It doesn't establish that he could never be wrong.
It establishes some credibility, but not infallibility.
And I think this is one of the most dangerous things we can get into,
is thinking that there's evidence that someone deserves our attention,
and that they also deserve our submission.
You see, there's this temptation to follow people that they lean on signs and wonders and healings
and sounding smart and looking popular,
and they lean on those signs instead of leading people towards the word of God.
That may seem harsh or weird, but write a letter to Moses.
I mean, we can give enormous authority to those things in our lives and public figures
whose lives we can't see.
People who may not be submitted to anyone.
1 Thessalonians 5 says,
Do not despise prophecies, but test everything and hold fast to what is good.
Paul doesn't say despise it.
He doesn't say discard it.
He says test it.
You see, the words, well, God told me this.
Okay.
That should not end our discernment process.
It should begin it.
But there's another side.
Sometimes the problem isn't, you know, somebody telling me what I want to hear,
but it's someone who's,
I'm looking for someone who's telling me what I want to hear.
And that's easy to do in this day and age, right?
Jeremiah 42.5.
People are talking to Jeremiah.
They said to Jeremiah,
May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us.
So we're setting up an oath here, right?
If we do not act according to all the word with which the Lord your God sends to us.
In other words, we're going to do whatever God says.
Okay.
Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you,
that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God.
So listen to what they're saying.
They're saying, Jeremiah, go ask God what we should do.
And whatever he says, we'll do it.
Whether we like the answer or not.
That sounds very faithful, very devotional.
And if we go to verse 43,
the story progresses, the plot thickens.
He says,
All the insolent men, now they're angry,
said to Jeremiah,
You are telling a lie.
The Lord our God did not send what you say.
Do not go to Egypt and live there.
What are you going to do about that?
You see, were they asking God to lead them?
Or were they just looking for a confirmation?
And if the only word that I'm willing to receive is the one that tells me I'm winning,
that I'm doing the right thing,
am I asking God for direction in my life?
Or am I just asking him for approval?
You see, I can't say,
Well, this thing is going great, so God must approve.
Or, it's difficult, so God wants me to stop.
Or, I'm persevering,
therefore, eventually I'm going to get what I want.
Or somebody said this,
and they were right last time,
and they're smart,
and they're popular,
and they have these follows.
Then how am I supposed to know that I'm winning?
Let's go back to our disciples on Emmaus Road, Luke 24.
It says, verse 16, he says,
You see, they were looking at Jesus.
They could see him,
but they couldn't see him.
You see, we don't see with our eyes.
We see through our eyes.
We see through our eyes.
And their eyesight's working.
They're walking.
But it's their interpretation that's not working.
And listen to all this information that they have.
Jesus was mighty in deed, in word.
That is correct.
He was condemned.
Correct.
He was crucified.
Correct.
The tomb is empty.
Correct.
The women went to the tomb.
Correct.
They reported angels.
Correct.
Other people went and looked.
Correct.
It's been three days.
Correct.
You see, their data is not the problem.
They have this huge pile of facts,
but they don't understand what happened.
You see, our circumstances that we live in,
they can be completely real.
While our interpretation of what is going on around us
is completely wrong.
Maybe the problem isn't that I can't see what's happening.
Maybe it's that I don't know whatever I'm seeing.
I don't know what it means.
And now notice what Jesus does.
He has the most evidence available to him.
He's God himself.
And he could just, you know,
they're telling the thing about Jesus.
He could just say,
hey guys, look.
You recognize me?
It's me.
I've been here the whole time.
He could put up a billboard.
It says, I'm alive, dash Jesus.
He could call down fire.
He could go up to each and every one of them
and tell them their most private thoughts
because he knows.
He could have just revealed himself in that moment.
But what does he do instead?
Verse 25,
You see, he interprets to them in the scriptures.
They've been trying to understand God
and make sense of the world
and figure out if they're winning
by looking at what happened.
And Jesus takes what happened
and he teaches them to understand it
through what God had already revealed.
You see, Jesus doesn't teach them
to learn about God or understand God
through their circumstances.
He teaches them to read their circumstances
through what God has revealed.
That doesn't mean that their circumstances
don't matter.
It doesn't mean that seeking wise counsel
doesn't matter.
It doesn't mean that paying attention
and having information doesn't matter.
But it means that none of them
have the final word
in explaining what's going on.
And maybe I don't need God
to give me a better scorecard about my life.
Maybe I need to have him teach me
how to read what's going on around me.
And now the scriptures
are forcing these two men
to reconsider the thing
that convinced them
that they had lost.
The cross.
So let's put a scoreboard under Jesus.
Let's just do this for a minute.
Let's do this.
It's Friday night.
Followers.
Scattered.
Peter.
Denied him.
Judas.
Betrayed him.
The crowd.
Turned on him.
The religious establishment
they thought he was going to overthrow.
Still there.
Rome.
Still there.
And Jesus himself.
He's dead.
Nobody thought Jesus was winning
when he hung from the cross.
Nobody was thinking that.
But the cross itself
is so central
to what Jesus was accomplishing.
And he asks in verse 26,
was this not necessary?
And the very evidence
that these disciples
were using
against Jesus
being who he was
was central
to who he was.
And that creates
the question
that I don't want
to ask myself
is what if faithfulness
looks so different
from my definition
of winning
that I can be staring
right at the work of God
and call it a failure?
Ooh!
God, am I winning?
The disciples
were not wrong
about Jesus.
They were wrong
about what winning
looked like.
And I don't want
to just say,
oh, just keep going.
Your resurrection
Sunday's coming, bro.
That's not what I'm saying.
Because all that does
is it rebuilds
the scoreboard.
And it pushes it
into the future
and it pushes the failure
right back onto God,
which isn't fair.
And it isn't right.
You see,
scripture doesn't promise
that every faithful thing
that we attempt
eventually gets
an outcome
that we want.
But look at these guys.
At the beginning
of the road,
oh, we had hoped.
And at the end
of the story,
they're looking backwards.
They're saying,
didn't our hearts
burn within us
when he was opening
the scriptures?
They're looking at,
did you feel
the same thing I did?
And they're putting
the pieces together.
And they're recognizing
afterwards something
that they didn't recognize
while it was happening.
He was there
the whole time.
He was speaking.
He was opening
the scriptures.
And they didn't know
yet what was happening.
So maybe we need
to look back
differently.
And maybe
before we ask God,
what is he going
to do next?
Maybe we should ask,
what has God
already done?
What has God
already done
while you were
out of work
and looking
for a job?
And maybe the job
hasn't come yet.
I'm not going to
pretend that doesn't
matter.
That's huge.
It totally matters.
Did anything else
happen?
How much of your
identity did you
discover while you
were looking for a
job?
Maybe you realized
you were more
than your job.
Maybe you realized
you undervalued
yourself and should
look for a better
job.
Hallelujah.
Maybe you had
some time to love
some people that
you lost track of.
Maybe you learned
how frightening
unemployment is.
Now when somebody
else loses their
job, maybe you
don't go to them
and say, well,
God is able and
walk away.
Maybe you sit with
them and encourage
them.
And maybe you show
them that maybe they
are winning, even
when it doesn't feel
like it.
And maybe you're
looking at your
own life and
saying, well, I
wish I had that
person back.
I wish this
diagnosis wasn't
what it was.
And I wish things
would have been
different.
And I'm not going
to stand here and
tell you, well, God's
trying to teach you a
lesson.
I don't know that.
You probably don't
know that.
But while all this
grieving and
frustration has been
going on, has he
done anything?
Come on.
Maybe you've
learned to notice
people and learned
that maybe just
showing up and
being a friend is
more than having
an answer.
Maybe you've
become gentler.
And maybe you've
had one of those
crazy seasons where
everything was going
wrong and all you
could say, what is
happening?
But I encourage you
to evaluate your
life and think,
well, maybe while
all this was
happening, maybe I
learned to love
people.
Maybe I learned to
be less rough with
people.
Maybe there's a
whole different kind
of growth going on
that I haven't even
seen.
You see, we pray to
God and we ask God,
well, God, just make
me bigger.
Make me stronger.
Make me more
powerful.
Fix me, God, so I
can do this next big
thing.
But God doesn't
always want us to
be bigger.
God wants us to be
better.
Not richer, not more
impressive, not more
productive.
He wants us to be
more like Christ.
He must increase
and I must decrease.
That means that I
become more patient.
I become more
compassionate.
I become more
willing to listen
and less certain
that everybody
else's problem has
an easy explanation.
And maybe I become
more willing to say,
well, I was wrong.
Galatians 5, 22, and
23.
The ladies are
studying this.
But the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy,
peace, patience,
kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control.
Against such thing,
there is no law.
So what does
Scripture actually
call fruit?
Love, joy,
patience,
kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control.
Strangely absent
from the list.
Money, houses,
career, square footage,
a new car.
Come on, somebody.
Influence, followers,
getting what I want.
Those things might
matter at times,
but they're not the
fruits of the Spirit.
You see it?
Maybe you've been so
busy looking for what
you hope for
from God
that you haven't
noticed what He
has actually done.
Maybe God didn't do
the thing
that you hoped for,
but He has not
done nothing.
I can promise you
that.
And I encourage you
to look at your own
life.
And I believe that you
can recognize the work
of God.
I think it's easier
to see in the
rearview mirror.
But I think you'll
be able to say,
maybe I didn't get
what I wanted,
but God was not
doing nothing.
So I ask the question,
am I winning?
And at the beginning,
is my thing working?
Am I going where I
need to go?
Am I getting fixed?
Am I succeeding?
Did I do the right
thing?
But now I'm not so
sure the scoreboard
can answer the
question.
And maybe the
faithful thing is to
continue or to stop.
I don't know.
Maybe it's to change
direction.
Or maybe it's just to
say, well, I was
wrong.
But I think the
greater thing is,
can I still trust
God if I can't tell
from the scoreboard
if I'm winning?
Can I still trust
God?
That's the heart
question.
And these two
disciples walking
with Jesus, it's a
funny story.
And then it's not
funny anymore.
All we hoped, and
that the part that
they didn't know yet,
they hadn't figured
out, they had no
grid for, was that
the risen Jesus
Christ that they
loved was walking
right there with
them.
But they couldn't
see it.
So before you leave
here, asking God,
am I winning?
I encourage you to
look around.
Look at what he's
doing.
Look at the people he
has put in your
life.
Look at the person
that he's making you
into.
I want you to look at
the things that used
to destroy you, that
don't destroy you
anymore.
Maybe you quit
something.
Maybe you quit
smoking.
Maybe you quit
drinking.
Maybe you started
working out.
Maybe you started
reading your Bible.
What is God doing in
your life?
Look at the grace that
you have learned to
give people.
Look at the ways that
you've learned to love.
And look at the things
that God has taught
you that you probably
wouldn't have even
chosen to learn.
learn.
And maybe there are
some things that you
hoped that haven't
happened yet.
And I pray that God
sends a breakthrough.
I pray that he sends
healing.
I pray that he sends
hope and victory into
your life.
Those things matter
too.
But don't become so
focused on what God
hasn't done that you
become blind to what he
has.
Amen.
And maybe you can't
read the scoreboard
today.
And maybe you still
don't know whether this
is going to end the
way you want it.
But remember those
people in Hebrews.
Some of them conquered
kingdoms.
Some of them escaped
the sword.
Some of them were
killed by the sword.
But all of them were
commended for their
faith.
And verse 40
says that God
had provided
something better.
Not their outcome.
Not their circumstances.
Not even their very
life.
But it says that God
provided something
better.
Do you believe that?
the scoreboard
wasn't the end of
the story.
And they couldn't
see everything that
God was doing in
their life.
I can't see everything
God's doing in my
life.
I certainly can't see
everything God is
doing in your life.
And neither can you.
But God can see the
whole story from where
he's standing.
And we can ask God to
open our eyes.
Lord, show me what
you've been doing.
Well, I've been
looking for something
else.
And maybe one day
we'll look back and
we'll realize my heart
was burning.
God was speaking.
God was with me.
And I didn't even
recognize it.
And maybe you've
never known him.
Maybe you've never
trusted him.
And maybe you
wouldn't even call
yourself a Christian.
I'm glad you're here
this morning.
But I wonder if you
could even look back
over your life and see
moments where God was
a whole lot closer
than you realized.
The scriptures say
that he is actually
not far from any
one of us.
For in him we live
and move
and have our
being.
Perhaps he put
things in your path
that you didn't
deserve.
Moments you
survived.
Crazy people you
survived.
Questions you
couldn't shake.
And maybe somebody
dragged you here
today.
I don't know.
The good news of
Christianity is not
that if we work hard
enough or get what we
want or figure things
out.
It's that God came
looking for us.
That Jesus came into
this world to save us.
He lived a life we
could never live.
He took our sin on
the cross and like we
celebrated with
communion we were
proclaiming his death.
But on the third day
he got up.
And that's what the
disciples hadn't
realized yet.
And the thing that
they thought that
meant that everything
was over was the
very place that Jesus
was accomplishing their
redemption.
And Jesus walking
next to them, he was
the risen Lord.
So maybe the
invitation isn't, you
know, try harder,
become more religious,
fix your life, get
the thing on the
scoreboard looking
better.
Maybe the invitation
is to recognize the
one who has been
working and calling
and speaking and
walking with you
despite the
scoreboard.
This is an invitation
to trust Christ.
Trust him.
And to bring him
your sin, your
failure, your
questions, your
disappointment, the
stuff that isn't
worked out yet, all
of it.
You don't have to
understand what's
going on before you
can trust him.
And I pray that
today is the day
that you can see
him, that your eyes
are opened, like
their eyes were
opened.
and you realize
that Jesus has
been so much
closer than I
knew, and that
he died for me, and
that he is alive, and
that he is walking
with me, regardless
of whether I think
I'm winning or
not.
So dear Heavenly
Father, we thank
you for your
faithfulness.
We thank you that
you are coming
after us.
We thank you that
you love us.
We thank you that
you see everything
that is going on in
our life.
And Lord, we
repent for
looking at our
circumstances and
the things around
us and the things
that we put in our
own hearts and
desired and thought
that somehow would
come through, and
that was a way that
we could understand
who you were.
We say we're
sorry.
And Lord, help us
to see our lives
rightly.
Help us to see the
work that you
are doing in our
life, the fruits
that you are
creating in our
life.
And Lord, I pray
that you can heal
every heart that
had hope.
It's said that
they had hoped.
And Lord, I pray
that you can heal
every heart that
has hoped and
been disappointed,
hoped and it
hasn't happened
yet.
To not turn from
you, to not stop
asking, but that
you can heal them
and restore their
hope in you.
We celebrate
you.
And Lord, I
pray for each and
every person and
every household and
every family represented
in this room this
morning.
I pray that you can
bring hope, that you
can bring breakthroughs,
that you can bring
miracles, that we can
have testimonies of
the wondrous works of
God in all of our
lives.
We ask you for that
this morning.
We ask you that the
fruits of the Spirit
may be abundant in
our lives.
Love, joy, peace,
patience, self-control.
And we pray that the
power of your Holy
Spirit is made
manifest through
signs and wonders
and healings in the
power of God so that
we can testify that
you are the one.
So Lord, we thank you
that you're with us.
We thank you for
everything that you're
doing in our lives.
And we celebrate you
this morning.
And all God's people
said, Amen.