That's What I Do

Hallelujah.
The Bible says that God inhabits the praises of his people.
So I encourage you this morning to think about something that God has done in your life,
something that he has given you, something he has shown you,
something he has spoken to you through his word or through prayer.
And this is just a great time to grab a hold of something and be thankful for it.
And there's times in our life where there's a ton to be thankful for
and everything's going great and the kids are behaving and the money's coming in.
And then there's times in our life where, well, it's hard to be thankful.
But it says that God inhabits the praises of his people.
So I encourage you to just find something and hold that in your heart this morning
and say, well, here's something I can be thankful for.
And maybe it's hard to find something, but it's there.
You're alive. You're here. You have breath.
Your car made it here this morning.
There's something to grab a hold of and to be thankful for.
And God can inhabit that thing.
So dear Heavenly Father, we thank you that you inhabit the praises of your people.
And we thank you this morning for the things that you do in our life,
the way that you care for us and provide and protect us.
And Lord, we just hold up whatever it is in our heart to you
and we say thank you, Lord, this morning.
We say thank you and we give you glory.
And we just invite you in and we say, Lord, inhabit our praise.
We thank you for the opportunity to worship you together this morning through song,
through fellowship, through prayer, through teaching, Lord.
And we thank you that we can sit in your presence, Lord.
Because in the end, that's what this is all about.
It's that you want to be with your people.
And we want to be with you, Lord.
So we give you all the glory and all the honor this morning as our Lord and Savior.
And we celebrate you this morning.
And all God's people said, Amen.
God bless you. You may have a seat.
So I'd like to welcome everyone to Bridge Gospel this morning.
I'm really glad that you're here with us.
It's exciting to see some people I haven't seen for a minute.
Welcome back.
I'd also like to welcome everyone who is online watching.
I believe that God can bless you right where you are. Amen.
So this is time for the offering.
And I'm not going to pass a bucket or shake anybody down for anything.
You can give online.
You can scan the thing and do it on there.
We have a box in the back.
Just make your checks out to Two Rivers Church.
So I'll pray for the offering.
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you that every good and every perfect gift comes from you.
We thank you for the ways that you care for us.
The ways that you provide a way for us.
And Lord, I specifically pray for everyone here that is looking for a job or a better job.
Lord, that you can open up favor and opportunity in the marketplace for them to work and to have gainful employment.
And Lord, I pray that they are encouraged as they look for work.
That ultimately their value is determined by you.
So Lord, we thank you for that identity and that provision that comes from you first.
And we celebrate that this morning in Jesus' name.
Amen.
So we just have one announcement this morning.
Michelle's going to come up or Terry's going to come up or they're both going to come up.
And a person is better than a slide.
So I figured I'd have them just come up and talk for a moment.
Go ahead.
Okay, so October.
Get your calendars ready.
Mark it.
We're giving you lots of time.
But October 24th, it's a Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m.
We are going to be making some cards.
So make sure to bring a friend.
It's just going to be a fun time of fellowship.
Get together.
We're going to be making a thank you card, a happy birthday card, and just a note.
And then as a little bonus for fun, we're going to throw a lot of little fun things out there.
And you guys get to make your own little bookmark however you want to do it.
So mark your calendars.
Bring a friend.
It should be really, really fun.
And we're just looking forward for the fellowship.
All right.
Thank you, Michelle.
Hallelujah.
All right.
So we're going to be studying the story of Peter today.
Peter's an interesting guy.
He's definitely all over the place throughout Scripture.
And there's pieces of his story all throughout the Gospels.
There's pieces of it in Acts.
So this does bounce around a little bit.
I'd say that the foundational text for what I'm talking about today is in Matthew 26.
So that's a good place to turn to.
We'll obviously touch on some other areas.
As we kind of look at the life of Peter.
And my message today is called, That's What I Do.
And, you know, I was watching cops the other night, as one does.
And, you know, these kind of all start out a little bit the same.
This guy is sitting in his truck.
He's sitting outside of this very upstanding motel establishment.
And the police show up.
And, you know, I think they knew his vehicle.
They knew the guy.
They started asking him questions.
They asked, Well, what are you doing here?
Well, I'm waiting for a friend.
Oh, okay.
And the police start, Well, how do you know your friend?
Well, he starts to kind of tell a story.
And then he gets nervous.
And he starts mixing up the details a little bit.
And starts talking really fast.
And then somewhere in all of this, he mentioned that he just got out of jail.
Okay.
Well, four, four.
Selling drugs.
Oh, okay.
You on probation?
Yeah.
Are there any drugs in the car?
Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Okay.
So if we were to take a look in the car, we wouldn't find any drugs.
Oh, no, no, no.
I swear to God.
There's nothing in the car.
I'm just sitting here.
I'm waiting for my friend.
Well, then what's that smell?
And he's like, he kind of looks around his car.
I just went to Taco Bell.
And the camera zooms in and the bag and the Mountain Dew.
And it's the only part of his story that checks out, right?
And could you step out of the car?
He gets out.
Another car shows up.
The dog's in the back, you know, and they're going to...
The dog's going to go around the car.
The guy just takes off, right?
He runs.
They're chasing him.
More cars show up.
He's running through neighborhoods, going over fences.
Dogs are barking.
People are coming out.
The cops can't find him.
And they're looking under cars.
They're knocking on people's doors.
And, you know, the canine unit shows up and starts smelling his car.
Oh, he went that way.
Smells like Crunchwraps.
So, finally, they chase this guy down through the neighborhood.
And the dog leads them to this shed.
And the cops surround the shed.
Their guns are drawn.
The dog's going crazy.
And they open the shed.
And here's their guy.
He is sitting on a riding lawnmower.
His head is between his knees and he is crying.
And he's saying, I don't want to go to jail.
I don't want to be this way.
I'm so sorry for what I did.
And he tells the whole life story about how his parents left him.
He's living on the street.
And he was in jail for three years.
He got addicted to drugs.
And he got out of jail.
And he couldn't find a job because he was in jail.
So, then he could only stay with his buddies.
Well, what are his buddies doing?
They're doing the drugs.
They're dealing the drugs.
So, he starts doing the drugs and dealing the drugs.
And this whole thing ends up with him crying on someone's riding lawnmower.
Surrounded by the police and this dog.
And they arrest the guy.
And as he is being arrested, he's saying, I don't want to be this way.
And there's a part of me that I believed him.
I don't think he wants to go back to jail.
I don't think he wants to be addicted to drugs.
I believe that he wants his life to be different.
You know, if you asked him that morning, hey, you want to go to jail today?
No.
Hard no.
Do you feel like running from the police today?
No.
Do you want to end up, like, immortalized forever,
crying on a riding lawnmower in somebody's shed?
No.
But that's where he was.
And I'm watching this guy.
And I'm realizing that I had a question about my own life as I watched him.
And I wondered, you know, do I like who I am?
Do I like the life that I live?
You know, not the life that I wish I had.
Not the life that I thought I might have.
Not the life that, you know, gets pictures posted online.
But the life that I actually live.
The relationships I have.
The habits I have.
The way I spend my time.
The way I spend my money.
Do I like my internal dialogue?
Do I like the things I think about when nobody's around?
Do I like the way that I respond when people hurt me?
Do I like the person that shows up when I'm tired?
Or when I'm angry?
Or when I'm alone?
Or when I'm afraid?
Do I like the life that I have?
And some of us, you know, our mind immediately goes to thinking about things that we never signed up for, we never chose.
And, you know, we don't choose everything that happens in our lives.
You know, we don't choose where we grew up.
We don't choose our parents.
We don't choose the losses that we face.
We don't choose when people betray us.
Some of our history is written for us.
And we're not responsible for everything that has happened to us.
But that's not the whole question.
The question is, you know, what have we built?
You know, and I look at my own life and it has my fingerprints all over it too.
You know, some things happened to me and some things I built.
You know, and some relationships don't just mysteriously become what they are today.
You know, some habits don't just come out of nowhere.
You know, some of our financial situation we may find ourselves, it isn't all because of the economy, right?
And, you know, some conflicts that are in our life aren't just because everybody's crazy.
You know, people are crazy.
But, you know, some things I practiced, I tolerated, I invited into my own life.
I chose them and I kept feeding them.
And here's the question is, what happens when you do this for long enough?
Galatians 6, 7 says, do not be deceived.
It says, God will not be made a fool, for a person will reap what he sows.
Oof.
There's something incredibly important about sowing and reaping.
You see, there's a time between when the seed goes in the ground and when the harvest comes.
And because there is this time, we can forget the connection between the seed and the harvest.
You know, you don't plant a garden on Tuesday and go out there Wednesday expecting to make a salad.
Right?
You plant and nothing happens.
And you plant and nothing happens.
And one day you're standing in a field.
And some days we are standing in this field of our life and we look around and we wonder, well, how did I get here?
And the answer isn't always simple, but sometimes it is because some of it we planted.
And I think this is why changing our circumstances doesn't always change our lives.
You know, we can get a different job.
We can get into a new relationship.
We can maybe go to a new church.
We can go to a new town.
We can make some new friends.
And maybe we can make more money.
Maybe we can move into a better house.
Maybe we change our schedule.
And we think, you know, if I can just get out of here and get over there, then everything would be different.
Except there's one recurring problem.
Me.
Everywhere I go, I keep showing up.
I changed my job and there I am.
I moved across the country.
Well, son of a gun.
There I am again.
And maybe the question isn't just, do I like what happened to me?
Maybe my question for myself is, do I like what I've built?
And underneath of that is, do I like who I've become?
Not who I intend to become.
Not what kind of person I think I am.
Not what kind of person do I want to be.
But who am I actually becoming?
Am I the person that my dog thinks I am?
I mean, am I the person I think I am, right?
Well, I'm generous.
Well, okay.
Well, what do I do with my money?
Or I think I'm patient.
Okay.
Well, what about the people that live with me?
Would they say that I'm patient?
Or I like to think, well, I'm forgiving.
It's like, well, let's flip through the Rolodex here and see how the forgiveness thing is going, right?
Or I'm family-oriented, right?
Well, let's look at the calendar and see how I've spent my time.
Or I'm serious about following Jesus.
Okay.
What does my calendar look like?
Because there's something that all of us do is that we tend to judge ourselves by our intentions.
But our history records what we actually did.
You know, and there's nobody in Scripture, I think, that shows this more than Peter.
You know, Jesus is telling his disciples, he's standing there, and he's saying that they're all going to abandon him.
And there's Peter.
Matthew 26, verse 33, Peter says to him, if they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.
And in that moment, I believe him.
You know, I don't think Peter is performing.
I don't think Peter is lying.
I think he meant it.
I think Peter really loved Jesus at that point in his life.
And I think he sincerely believed in his heart that in the moment comes, I'm going to be there.
I'm that guy.
So Peter has a story about Peter.
Everybody else might fail, but I won't.
Everybody else might run.
I'll stay.
And everybody else will abandon you but me.
And then, the moment comes.
Starting at verse 69 in Matthew 26.
It says,
Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard.
A slave girl came to him and said,
You also were with Jesus, the Galilean.
But he denied it in front of them all.
I don't know what you're talking about.
When he went out to the gateway, another slave girl saw him and said to the people there,
This man was with Jesus, the Nazarene.
He denied it again with an oath.
I do not know the man.
After a little while, those standing there came up to Peter and said,
You really are one of them too.
Even your accent gives you away.
At that he began to curse and he swore with an oath,
I do not know the man.
At that moment, a rooster crowed.
Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said.
Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.
And he went outside and he wept bitterly.
So Peter intended, well, I'll never leave you.
But history recorded, I don't know the man.
And Peter weeps when he discovers this thing about himself.
That his sincerity had outrun his formation.
You see, Peter really did love Jesus.
He really meant what he said.
But in that moment, Peter saw the person that he sincerely wanted to be was somebody else.
Because we tend to judge ourselves by what we intend.
And history records what we really did.
Now, the next guy on COPS, well, he ran too.
They all run.
He only gets about three car lengths.
And they catch him.
And they ask him, well, why'd you run?
I think he gives this really honest answer.
I love it.
That's what I do.
That's what I do.
He didn't say, well, I thought I could get away.
He was not getting away, by the way.
He was not moving fast.
You know, he didn't say, well, because I weighed my options.
And I determined that flight was the optimal response.
No.
He didn't even say, because I wanted to.
He just said, because that's what I do.
And I thought, that thing right there, there it is.
That is formation.
You know, formation is this thing that comes out before you've had the time to decide who you want to be.
You know, it's this thing that you reach for when you're scared.
It's the thing that you say when you're angry.
It's where your mind goes when you're alone.
It's what you do when you're tired.
It's the person who shows up when you don't have enough time to compose yourself.
Because that's what I do.
And I think all of us have some version of that sentence that we've said before.
You know, and we say, well, why did you say that?
You know, why did you lie?
Why did you go back to that relationship?
Well, that's all that I know.
Why did you lose your temper again?
Well, I've always had a short fuse.
Why did you shut down?
Well, I've always been a lone ranger.
I just want to be alone.
Well, why did you pick up the phone?
Why did you pick up the bottle?
Why did you spend the money?
Why did you do the thing that you promised yourself up and down that you were not going to do anymore?
And sometimes the only answer that we have is, well, that's what I do.
You see, in our formation, it turns into a reflex.
And some of us have spent years practicing something that we desperately wish was not a part of us,
that wish it wasn't an automatic decision.
Romans 7.15 says,
There it is.
What do I want and what do I do?
They're not the same thing.
And I think that's what makes us so troubling.
You know, what do you do with somebody who really means it?
What do you do when you really mean it?
And in verse 18, he says,
What do you do?
I'll never do that again.
What do you do when you meant the apology?
It was real.
What do you do when you really wanted to change?
And you prayed about it.
And you cried about it.
And you've begged God to help you.
And then you find yourself doing the thing again.
And eventually, I have to confront something that my intentions tell me something real about what I desire,
but my intentions are not the only evidence that I have about the person that I'm becoming.
And then there's my history.
What did I actually do?
What have I repeatedly done?
What do I do under pressure?
What do I reach for when I'm afraid?
What do I do when I'm ashamed?
What do I do when nobody is watching?
And what have I practiced so many times in my life that I just say,
Well, that's what I do.
And here's Peter's problem.
And here's my problem.
And here's, I think, the predicament of the human condition,
is that we cannot rewrite history.
We can't go back and change what happened.
Peter can't go back.
He can't take back what he said.
I don't know him.
He can't stop the rooster from crowing.
It happened.
And there's things in all of our lives that are like that.
You can't unsay it.
You can't unsee it.
You cannot unspend it.
You cannot get the years back.
You cannot get the decades back.
You cannot go back and be the father you wished you would have been.
You can't go back and tell the truth.
You can't go back and make the other choice.
You can't make the rooster not crow.
You see, our history records what actually happened.
And sometimes we're the ones that wrote it.
So the question is, do you like who you've become?
And what do you do when you realize that, man, I don't like some of the things in my life.
I don't like some of the things about the life that I have.
And some of it happened to me, but some of it I built myself.
And somewhere along the way, some of it became part of who I am.
And it's not that I just dislike what happened.
I don't always like who I've become.
And I can't go back.
I can't rewrite history.
And we've seen this before in Peter's story.
You know, Peter's fishing.
And years earlier, you remember Jesus first called Peter.
Peter had been fishing all night.
He didn't catch anything.
And this man came along and said, well, why don't you cast your net a little deeper?
And suddenly the net was just full of fish.
And when Peter realized who this man was, that he was Jesus,
his reaction was, go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.
And in that moment, Peter saw Jesus for who he was,
and he saw himself for who he really was in that moment.
And that was his response, is get away from me.
Get away from me.
John 21-7, same setup.
Jesus had been risen from the dead.
And it says,
Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, it is the Lord.
So Simon Peter, when he heard that it was the Lord, tucked in his outer garment, for he had nothing on underneath it.
No commentary.
And plunged into the sea.
And this moment that Peter hears the Lord, again, it is the Lord.
He runs.
He jumps out of the boat.
He starts swimming towards Jesus.
Now this is the same lake.
This is the same nets.
This is the same command that called him in the first place.
The same type of miracle.
The same catch.
The same Peter.
The same Jesus.
But look at what is different.
The first time, Peter's response was, I am sinful.
I am sinful.
Get away from me.
And now, Peter's saying, I've sinned.
And I'm coming towards you.
And Peter has so much more to be ashamed of now than he did the first time.
The first time, Peter just knew, well, I'm a sinful man.
Well, now, he's got a little bit of history walking with Jesus.
He knows what he's done.
He knows he denied Jesus.
He knows that he failed when he did not think he would fail.
And he had promised Jesus, I'll lay down my life for you.
And when the moment really came, he knows that he ran.
And it was Jesus that laid his life down for Peter.
And now, it is the Lord.
And Peter doesn't hide.
Peter doesn't run the other direction.
He doesn't say, well, you guys just go ahead.
I'm going to stay in the boat.
He doesn't, he just jumps.
He goes.
And Peter is still impulsive.
He's still Peter.
He's not any less Peter than he was before.
But Jesus has changed what Peter is running towards.
And Peter gets to shore.
And there's breakfast waiting.
And John tells us something very strangely specific about the whole scene.
He says there's a charcoal fire.
And the last time John had mentioned that was in chapter 18.
That's where Peter was standing next to the fire and he was denying Jesus.
Three times.
I don't know him.
I don't know him.
I don't know him.
And now, Jesus has brought Peter to another fire.
And three times.
Do you love me?
Do you love me?
Do you love me?
And his answer is yes, of course.
Yes, Lord.
I love you.
And Peter's history is all over this scene.
I mean, you're walking in the same landscape as his failure.
Another lake.
Another catch.
Another fire.
Another three questions.
And the past wasn't erased.
It wasn't pretended that it never happened.
But Jesus meets Peter in it and restores him.
He can't go back and undo what he did.
He can't go back.
He can't unsay what he said.
But Jesus can meet Peter on the other side of all of his history.
And you notice what Jesus doesn't say.
Well, Peter, I guess you let me down.
You never really loved me, did you?
But he comes back and he asks the same question.
Do you love me?
And Peter says, Lord, you know I love you.
And I believe him.
Just like I believed him the first time.
His failure did not prove that his love for Jesus was imaginary.
His failure revealed that his love had not yet formed throughout his entire life.
And Jesus doesn't cast him aside because of that.
He says, well, feed my sheep.
Feed my sheep.
Feed my sheep and follow me.
And it's the same invitation.
You see it?
All the way back at the beginning.
And he says, Peter, we're going to do this again.
Jesus doesn't change what happened.
Peter denied Jesus three times.
That is part of Peter's story and history forever.
Peter can't go back and change it.
But he can make more history.
And if we keep following Peter, we get to Acts 2.
Same city.
Same Peter.
Same Jesus.
But something different has happened.
Jesus has risen.
Jesus has restored Peter.
And now the Holy Spirit has come and Peter stands up.
And the guy who couldn't even tell a servant girl that he knew Jesus stands in Jerusalem in front of thousands of people.
And he announces, God has made this Jesus whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Those are fighting words.
Same Peter.
But Peter's not doing it alone.
But he didn't go back and change the past.
He couldn't make the rooster not crow.
He couldn't rewrite what happened.
But he made more history.
And this is really important because Peter's problem was never that he didn't want it badly enough.
He already wanted it.
He already meant it.
He already made the promise.
So the answer couldn't be, well, Peter, why don't you just try harder next time?
Jesus had to restore him.
The Holy Spirit had to fill him.
And Peter isn't just coming along trying harder to be a better Peter.
God is forming him.
And this is what I love what Paul says about grace in Titus.
He says,
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people.
This is important.
Verse 12.
It trains us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.
That means now.
Now, as we wait for the happy fulfillment of our hope in the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
He gave himself for us to set us free from every kind of lawlessness and to purify for himself a people who are truly his, who are eager to do good.
That is beautiful.
But did you catch that?
Grace trains us.
You know, we imagine grace a lot of times as this thing that God gives us after we fail.
And thank God.
But it's not just about after the failure.
Grace is training us before the next one comes along.
And we think about grace so much as going backward.
Well, I sinned and God forgave me.
But grace deals with your past, but it's also teaching you and preparing you for your future.
And it's not about overlooking what was done, but it's about giving you something that you could never produce for yourself.
You see, God isn't merely forgiving your history.
God is forming your future.
How is he doing this?
Well, prayer is formation.
Scripture is formation.
Confession is formation.
Forgiving somebody is formation.
Telling the truth when it was easier to lie, that's formation.
You know, fasting teaches us that our desires don't get to command us.
That's formation.
Being in a community like this teaches us I don't have to hide.
That's formation.
These things, they don't earn grace, but they're places where grace is training us and forming us.
And we practice obedience until it becomes increasingly available to us under pressure.
You see, you can't go back and change what you did, what you said.
But today you're making more history that you'll someday look back on.
Because today is tomorrow's history.
And today's choices become tomorrow's history.
Today's habits become tomorrow's character.
And today's response to what happened becomes part of what happens next.
You see, we experience life at the harvest when the field is ripe and everything's ready,
but the decisions were made when the seed was planted.
And maybe this is why sometimes we're staring at the fruit and we're asking God to change everything
when God is growing the tree.
And we keep looking for fruit while God is still growing this tree that's in our life.
So,
do you like the life that you have?
For some of us, the answer is yes.
It's not perfect.
For some of us, maybe the overwhelming conclusion is no.
I've been there.
I've looked at my life and said this is not the life I want to have.
Maybe some things happened to you.
And maybe some things hung around long enough and they became part of who you are.
And maybe there's some history that you can't rewrite.
But Christianity doesn't offer us a way to repair it.
It doesn't offer us a time machine.
It doesn't offer us a way to go back.
It offers us a risen Lord.
A Jesus who met Peter after his betrayal.
A Jesus who never sat around and pretended that Jesus or Peter didn't fail.
A Jesus who didn't leave Peter trapped inside of the worst thing that he had ever done.
A Jesus who stood beside another fire and said,
follow me.
And that takes us all the way back.
Why did you run?
Because that's what I do.
When I get afraid, that's what I do.
When I feel rejected, that's what I do.
When I'm lonely, that's what I do.
And maybe, maybe you've hated yourself for it.
And maybe you've said, if I really wanted to change, I would have changed by now.
If I really loved Jesus, I wouldn't be struggling with this.
Maybe I didn't mean it.
Maybe I'm just a hypocrite.
Maybe there's something wrong with me.
But look at Peter.
Peter really did love Jesus.
Peter really meant it.
But Peter still failed.
Because sometimes our sincerity outruns our formation.
And Jesus didn't stand around demanding that Peter try harder.
Jesus said to follow me.
Follow me.
Follow me.
Jesus isn't trying to get you to make a more sincere promise.
He wants to form you.
You can't go back.
You can't unsay the thing.
You can't undo it.
You can't.
But Jesus is alive.
And by the grace of God, we can make more history.
Not that we'll never fail again.
Not that we'll never struggle again.
Not that we'll ever have a moment and look back and say, why did I do that?
But increasingly, when we're afraid, we can run to Jesus.
And when we're ashamed, we can run to Jesus.
And when we've failed, we can run to Jesus.
And when temptation comes, we can run to Jesus.
And when we don't know what to do, we can run to Jesus.
Until one day,
somebody could ask, well, why did you run to Him?
And our answer is, well, that's what I do.
That's what I do.
I run to Him.
That's formation.
That's writing new history with Jesus.
So I'd just like to encourage everyone that feels that they have been struggling in an area of their life
that you just can't get control of it.
It's out of control.
And I believe that God wants to meet you in that place.
That He wants to form you.
That He's not finished with you yet.
You know, God does not expect us to be finished right now.
Amen?
So I believe that thing that you're struggling with, God wants to help and He wants to form you.
And He sees a sincere heart.
He sees someone who loves God.
He sees someone who keeps trying.
And He says, follow me.
Just follow me.
That's all He's asking.
He's not asking you to change what happened.
He's not asking you to fix the past.
He's asking you one thing.
Follow me.
Can you do that?
And I encourage you that if whatever this thing was, if it has separated you from your relationship from God in some way,
that it made you feel unworthy of being in His presence.
If it made you hesitant to pray.
If it had taken your hope away.
If you thought, well, I blew it.
My plans are blown.
My vision that God had for my life is not going to happen.
I encourage you to find hope in Peter's story.
And I encourage you to turn around and start following Him again.
Because it's not over yet.
And that you can write more history.
And if you've never known Jesus, if you've never had that person, that Savior to follow,
today is your day.
And I think that God can meet you in this place.
And that He can do a miracle in your life that you can't do for yourself.
Because the Bible says that you can know that you have eternal life.
And eternal life is found only in Jesus, who died and gave Himself for you.
That is good news.
That is the gospel.
Amen?
So, dear Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are forming us.
We thank you for the invitation to follow you.
And Lord, help us.
Help us to take our eyes off of the past.
Help us to allow the past to stop forming our future.
And Lord, we just ask for forgiveness for the things that we've done, the things we can't fix.
We ask you to come in and help us.
And show us.
And we thank you that your grace is training us to follow us, to follow you.
And Lord, I pray that when things get difficult,
we have the courage and the strength to turn to you because that's what we do.
So, Lord, I pray for every person here this morning that you give them strength and revelation of who you are.
I pray for peace in every single household represented here,
every single workplace represented here,
every single neighborhood represented by the people sitting here this morning.
That your peace and grace and hope will go forth.
And people will come to know you as Lord and Savior.
I pray that the things that everyone in this room sets their hands to are successful.
And everywhere they go, there is peace and hope.
And all God's people said, Amen.