Big Dreams, Big God: Week 3

As I mentioned, my name is Andrew, and I am

a recovering control freak.

I'm serious. I like to be in control.

I like to have a plan and a strategy and

stick to my plan. And I don't like when anything

interrupts my plan. And I don't like when I feel

like I'm not in control. Can I get an amen

from anybody else?

Yeah?

Yeah, Well, let me tell you about a time where

I was not in control and things didn't go the

way that I wanted them to.

It was a few months back, and it was a Friday.

Friday is my day off and I guard my day

off and I usually have a plan for how I'm

gonna spend my day off. But my plan got interrupted

because my wife, Lauren was at home sick that day,

and so I pivoted and changed my plans to help

her out. I volunteered to go and pick our son,

Shepherd up from daycare so Lauren could.

Stay home and rest.

And then I had a plan that Shepherd and I

would go and do some errands so Lauren could have

some more time to and recover. So I picked Shepherd

up and as we were driving on our way to

the grocery store, the flat tire indicator came on my dash. Well,

not to worry, I've got a plan for this. I

keep an air compressor in the car for moments like these.

And so there I was kneeling on the pavement in

the parking lot of Trader Joe's, trying to inflate this

tire just enough so I could get the groceries and

then get home, all the while Shepherds screaming until I

get him out of his car seat. So we got

the grocery shopping done, groceries loaded, and I had.

A plan because there's a tire.

Shop right around the corner, and so I drove to

that tire shop and walked in ten minutes before they

closed for the day. Now, I don't know what was

going on on that particular Friday, but I think all

of Indianapolis must have had a flat tire because there

were so many impatient, grumpy people, including myself, in the

waiting room, trying to get our cars fixed before the

close of business. Have you ever noticed the floor of

a tire shop? Probably not, unless you have a one

year old who explores the world.

By tasting things.

At one point, Shepherd had one hand in the trash

can and another hand holding an empty gum package, and.

I don't chew gums, so it wasn't mine.

That was the moment I realized I'm probably not in

control as I thought I was.

This plan is not working out well.

I ended up leaving and the technician told me to

bring the car back the next day, which is what

I did. I brought the car back the next day

and the tire shop was unable to repair my tire,

which I don't have time to go into why that's

the case, but let me just.

End this therapy session.

I mean this story by saying that it took four trips,

four days to two different shops to get the tire fixed.

I was not in control. Things didn't go the way

that I plan for them to. How does it feel

when things don't go your way. You've got a plan,

you thought through everything, you've got a strategy, but then

something happens that you couldn't plan for. You're forced into

early retirement that wasn't part of the plan. There's an

unexpected expense that wasn't part of the plan. Or you've

got an adult child who's been at college and then

they call and say that college isn't for them and

they leave mid semester.

That surely was not part of the plan.

Or there's a diagnosis, or a loved one passes away suddenly,

or the school calls and says they want to talk

about your student. How does it feel when you're not

in control? How do you respond when things don't go

your way, when they don't go the way that you

want them to.

Well, we are studying the life of a young.

Man named Joseph, and his story is found in Genesis

in the Bible. And Joseph had a lot going for him.

He had a lot of potential. Joseph was his father's

favorite son. He was on the fast track to inherit

the family business, and the Bible actually tells us in

one passage that he was physically fit and handsome. So

Joseph had all the cards. He had wealth and favor

and health and good looks.

But as a story.

Goes, not many things went Joseph's way. Things didn't go

the way he planned. First, Joseph's jealous brothers ambushed him,

and then they threw him down into a deep, dark pit.

It's most likely that they stuffed him in a dried

up well or a cistern.

In Israel.

In the Middle East, especially in the desert climates, they

would often have these caves or underground cisterns that would

collect rain water. And it's like that they stuck him

in there, but the hazing didn't stop. It escalated quickly

because they brought him out of the pit only to

sell him to slave traders. And the slave traders took

him far away to Egypt and sold him into slavery.

This is what we read in Genesis thirty nine, verse one.

Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar,

an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the Guard and Egyptian,

had bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him

down there. So things are not going well for Joseph.

Things are not going according to plan. His brothers have

ambushed him, stuffed him in a pit, sold him into slavery,

and now he's a slave to a master named Potiphar.

Well, Joseph tries to.

Do his job faithfully, tries to keep his head down,

mind his own business, and do what his master says,

until one day his boss's wife falsely accuses Joseph of

assaulting her. Now, who is Potiphar gonna believe his own

wife or his Jewish slave? The text says in verse twenty,

Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison.

Joseph was not in control. Things were not going the

way Joseph planned. Listen to his own words, Chapter forty.

Verse fifteen. This is Joseph speaking.

I was indeed stolen by the land of the Hebrews.

And here also I have done nothing that they should

put me into the pit. I wonder if someone listening

today feels like you are in a pit, pit of

financial trouble, the pit of a health condition, the pit

of broken dreams, or a broken relationship. You thought the

two of you were meant to grow old together, but

then they said I'm out, They said it's over. I

wonder if someone listening today you know deep down that

you're in a pit, but you're trying to minimize it.

You're trying to ignore it, you're trying to avoid it.

But you know deep down that you're in a pit

of sin, surrounded by shame and guilt and failure. I

gotta tell you I've been in the pit more than once.

I've been in the pit of debt for ten years.

My wife and I had student loans and debts to

pay off, and we were making the minimum payments, only

to find out we were only paying the interest. I've

been in the pit of addiction, ashamed of my secret,

hating myself for my sin. I've been in the pit

of grief and sadness. My parents divorced. That's not what

I wanted. I wasn't in control, but I felt the

sadness and the sorrow and the heartbreak.

I've been in the pit.

If you've ever been in the pit, if you are

in the pit today, I've.

Got something to say to you today.

If you feel like you're in darkness, if you feel

like you're alone and you've been buried underground, I've got.

A message for you. I want to tell you something today.

I want you to know that our God is the

god of the pit.

You may feel lonely, but you are not alone.

You may feel forgotten, but your God has not abandoned you.

You may feel like you're never gonna get out of

this pit, but let me tell you, the pit will

not last forever. Joseph found himself stuck in a pit.

Notice what we read in Genesis thirty nine, Verse twenty

one says, here, but the Lord was with Joseph and

showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the

sight of the keeper of the prison. I want you

to notice three words in this text. These three words

are the most important words when you're in the pit.

These are the three words you gotta remember when you're

in the pit, when things aren't going your way, Remember.

These three words. But the Lord. You gotta remember these

words when you're in the pit.

You may say I was in trouble, but the Lord

was with you. You may think I was near death,

but the Lord healed you. You may think I was alone,

but the Lord did not forget you.

I was in trouble, but the Lord delivered you.

I was in the pit, but our God is the

god of the pit.

But the Lord, but the Lord.

Joseph was stuck in prison, but he was not alone.

There were a few other inmates locked up with Joseph.

Notice Genesis forty, verse one.

Some time after this, the cup bearer of the King

of Egypt and his baker committed an offense against their lord.

The King of Egypt and Pharaoh was angry with his

two officers, the chief cup bearer and the chief baker,

and he put them in custody in the house of

the Captain of the Guard in the prison where Joseph

was confined.

Now, according to ancient history, the cup bearer had.

A very important job for Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.

Not only did the cup bearer serve the king his wine,

but he was also responsible to make sure that nobody tampered.

With or poisoned the king's food.

Often, the cup bear would taste the wine and taste

the food himself before serving it to the king.

The cup bear had the king's greatest trust.

Similarly, the baker also had a big responsibility. Not only

was the baker in charge of baking and preparing the

king's food, but he was also in charge of feeding

the king's tomb.

Now what does that mean.

Well, ancient Egyptians had a lot of superstition around death

and the after life, and they believed that when someone died,

their spirit would travel through the underworld and before reaching paradise,

and so the pharaohs would often spend their lifetime building

these magnificent tombs and then stockpiling those tombs with all

the supplies that they needed for that afterlife, for the underworld,

because the underworld was fraught with danger and peril and threats,

and so they'd fill their tombs with armor and weapons

and food and supplies. And so the chief baker was

responsible for stocking the king's fridge for the after life.

Now, notice in our text.

It says that the cup bearer and the king committed

an offense against the lord, their king.

They committed an offense.

Now, someone might read this text and infer that these

two people conspired, or they were a part of a

seditious plot against the king. Maybe it's also possible that

the baker put too many helopanias in the muffins and

Pharaoh got heartburn, where the cup bearer served some really

cheap wine and the king got a really bad headache.

We just don't know what they did that landed them

here with Joseph in prison. Let's keep reading.

In verse five, one night they both dreamed, the cup

bearer and the baker of the King of Egypt, who

were confined in the prison, each his own dream, and

each dream with its own interpretation. When Joseph came to

them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled,

asked Favor's officers, who were with him in the custody

in his master's house, why are your faces down cast?

These two men were troubled. They were confused. The dreams

that they had dreamed confused them. When you're in the pit,

it can feel confusing. You can be in trouble when

you are in the pit. I believe that you may

find yourself in two types of pits in life.

First, there's the pit that you dig for yourself. I

told you a.

Moment ago that I've been in the pit of debt.

Lourena and I have had debt to pay off. When

Lora and I got married, Lauren was still in college,

and I met with her dad and asked her his

blessing to propose, and he was eager to give us

his blessing, but he also had some expectations. Her dad

explained that if we we were mature enough to get married,

responsible enough to be married, then we were also responsible

enough to pay for Lauren's education. Up until this point,

her dad had been helping her, and so now we

were taking on that responsibility.

We made that pit.

We chose that there are some pits that we dig

for ourselves because of our foolishness, because of our sinful decisions,

our selfish choices. Very often we may wind up in

a pit that we dug for ourselves because of our

ambition and because of our impatience. Sometimes we end up

in a pit we dig for ourselves because of misplaced confidence.

And I don't need to go on, I don't need

to belabor this. If if you've been in a pit

that you dug for yourself, you know exactly how you

got there. And then there is the pit that you

fall into. So on one hand and you've got the

pit that you dig for yourself, but then there's just

a pit that you fall into. You didn't cause it,

you didn't dig it. You might have just fell into it,

or maybe you got pushed into it.

But it was unexpected. It's surprised. You couldn't plan for it.

And this is where Joseph finds himself.

He's in a pit that he got pushed into, and

he's got two companions, the cup bear and the baker.

Let's keep reading our text.

In verse eight, they said to him, we have had

dreams and there is no one to interpret them.

And Joseph said to them.

Do not interpretations belong to God, Please tell them to me.

So the chief cup bearer told his dream to Joseph

and said to him, in my dream, there was a

vine before me, and on the vine there were three branches.

As soon as it butted, it's blossom shot forth, and

the clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh's cup was in my hand,

and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's

cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand. Now here's

the interpretation. Then Joseph said to him, this is the interpretation.

The three branches are three days. In three days, Pharaoh

will lift up your head and restore you to your office,

and you shall place Pharaoh's cup in his hand, as

formerly when you were his cup bearer.

Notice what Joseph says here in.

Verse fourteen, Only remember me when it is well with you.

Please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh,

and so to get me out of this house. Sometimes

there are pits that you dig for yourself, but then

sometimes there are pits that you fall into. And here's

Joseph saying, I don't deserve to be here. I didn't

cause this. Please help me out. You can't expect, you

can't predict. When you fall into a pit like this.

It's when you get laid off. It's when there's a crisis.

It's when the doctor says we need to do more tests.

It comes when a loved one passes away unexpectedly. It's

a car accident. It's the long road of recovery and therapy.

You didn't plan for this. It's the pit that you

fell into. And what does Joseph say to the cup bearer?

He says, in three days, you're getting out of here.

Hold on, buddy, just three more days and you're getting

out of here. Your time and the pit is almost over.

You're getting out. Some pits are just pit stops. Some

pits don't last forever.

Some pits are just pit stops. What month is it

right now? It's May?

What does that mean? Here in Indianapolis? The race days

coming next week is the nd five hundred. Next week,

there'll be thirty or more drivers zipping around the speedway

over two hundred miles an hour. Just a couple of

days ago, I went to the speedway for Fast Friday

and got to watch some of the practice laps and

these race cars are flying around and as they go

around the race track, I was just curious and I

timed on my phone how fast it would take them

to complete one lap, which is two and a half miles.

It was about thirty four seconds. I mean, that's fast

they're flying. And you should also know that any five

hundred is five hundred laps. It's five hundred miles, not

five hundred laps. If you're from Indianapolis, you know that.

But if you're new, that'll help you. It's five hundred miles.

But they'll make several pit stops during the race, anywhere

between five, six or seven pit stops, and that's where

each car will get new tires, they'll get fuel, they'll

get worked on and adjustments are made and the whole

crew is working on it.

And these pit stops take no more.

Than ten seconds before they're back onto the race. Sometimes

in life, you're in a pit but it's just a

pit stop. Sometimes you're in a job that feels like

it's going nowhere, but it may not be the pit.

It may just be a pit stop.

That set back might be setting you up for something better.

The thing that you perceive as a distraction or as

an interruption might be preparing you for something new. Many

times God uses the pit to refocus us, to make adjustments,

to modify us.

For his will and his purpose. Some pits are just

pit stops.

So Joseph told the cup bearer, hold on, buddy, you're

getting out. Your time in the pit is almost done.

You're getting free. But what about the baker. What about

the baker?

What was his dream? Let's take a look at verse sixteen.

When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable,

he said to Joseph, I also had a dream, and

there were three cake baskets on my head, and in

the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked food

for Pharaoh. But the birds were eating it out of

the basket on my head. And Joseph answered and said,

this is its interpretation.

The three baskets are three days.

In three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head from

you and hang you on a tree, and the birds

will eat your flesh from you. On the third day,

which was Pharaoh's birthday, he made a feast for all

his servants and lifted up the head of the chief

cupbear and the head of the chief baker among his servants.

He restored the chief cup bear.

To his position, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand,

but he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted

notice verse twenty three. Yet the chief cupbearer did not

remember Joseph but forgot him.

Now it didn't end well for the baker, and it.

Also didn't go well for Joseph, because the cupbearer did

not remember Joseph but forgot him. You may feel alone

and forgotten in the pit. You may feel like there

is no light and there is no hope, and that

nobody cares. I believe that one of the loneliest pits

in life is fighting a serious health issue or a

life threatening illness. I know a young man who was

in his early forties when he was experiencing some terrible

abdominal pain, just excruciating abdominal pain.

And I won't go into all the graphic details, but.

Things were just not functioning and working the way they

needed to, and so the doctors were trying all sorts

of treatments and tests. They were testing him for gallstones

and ulcers and acid reflux and all these different things,

but they weren't finding the source of the problem, and

he kept getting worse, and so they were trying different treatments,

different medications, significantly altering his diet to try and figure

out allergies and irritants, but he continued to get worse

until after many, many months, one of the doctors had

the bright idea to test for cancer, and sure enough,

they found an aggressive form of cancer just eating up

his insides. And I remember talking to this young man

and hearing him explain how disappointed he was.

Why did it take so long? Why didn't we start there?

All these months of the wrong it has to all

these months of the cancer growing.

Why?

And he endured a multi year journey of treatments and

procedures to attack that cancer. His family was supportive, his

employer was very supportive, gave him extended medical leave.

There were people friends all around the country praying for him.

One thing that I learned from this young man is

it even when you have all of that support, when

it's your body, when it's your fight, when you're the

one feeling.

The symptoms, it can still feel lonely.

Nobody else has to endure the nausea, the fatigue, Nobody

else has to feel the burning from the inside, out.

No one else carries the fear of dying. It can

feel lonely.

And thankfully, after that long journey of tree Man, he's

now in remission.

But the pit can feel lonely.

The pit can make you feel like you're forgotten, just

like Joseph was forgotten. It may not be prison, it

may not be cancer, but the pit can feel lonely.

You feel the grief alone, You carry the burden alone,

you hold the secret alone.

I think of those who've lost a loved one.

You've lost a parent, lost a spouse, those who've lost

a child. And in the initial grief, there are people

who surround and support. There are those who come to

the funeral and encourage and support and grieve. But then

after the funeral, it can feel lonely. The house can

feel lonely. Packing up a love one's belongings feels lonely.

Visiting the cemetery on holidays feels lonely. The pit can

feel alone. The pit can feel like you're forgotten. But

I want to tell you that even in the pit,

there is still hope. Even when others don't understand what

you're going through, there is a God who is with

you in the pit. The pit may feel like you're alone, that.

You're isolated, that you're forgotten.

But I want you to know that there is hope

even in the pit, even in the darkness, there is

light on the other side. So what do we do

when we're in the pit? What do we do when

we're in the darkness? What do we do when we're

in the suffering? It's very simple.

Remember who your God is.

It's not complicated. It's not complex. Remember who your God is.

He has not forgotten you, He has.

Not abandoned you.

One of the devil's greatest weapons is he will try

to make you forget who your God is. The devil

will lie to you and say that God's given up

on you. He'll lie to you and say that God

has forgotten you, that God is far away from you.

We'll try to tell you that you're alone in your misery.

Do not give in to the lies.

Palm one O three says, praise the Lord my soul,

and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your

sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life

from the pit. Somebody listening today needs these words. You

need to hear these words. You need to memorize these words.

You need to cling to these words. Forget not who.

Your God is.

Remember who your God is. When you feel forgotten, do

not forget him. He is the God who redeems you

from the pit. I gotta tell somebody today, he is

gonna redeem you from that situation. He's gonna redeem you

from that broken dream. He's gonna redeem you from that heartbreak.

He redeems you from the divorce. He redeems you from

the abuse. He redeems you from the sin and the addiction.

Your God redeems you from the pit. If you believe that,

would you praise him? There is resurrection on the other

side of the pit. There's a new day on the

other side of the pit. There is hope beyond the pit.

How do I know that because I know Jesus Christ.

Jesus endured the deepest, darkest pit, the loneliest pit is.

There's somebody who felt abandoned and betrayed and forgotten.

It was Jesus.

And yet he died on the cross to pay for

our sin, to rescue us from.

The pit of sin.

And as he was hanging on the cross, dying, there

were two other criminals crucified next to him, and one

of those criminals called out to Jesus. He said, Jesus,

remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said, truly,

I say to you today, you will be with me

in paradise.

Remember who your God is. Because he remembers you. You

are not forgotten in the pit.

The pit will not destroy you, it will not ruin you,

It will not overwhelm you.

When you're in the pit. It's easy to feel sorry

for yourself.

When you're in the pit, it's to give up fighting,

to give up trying.

When Joseph was in the pit, he turned to God

in prayer. He asked God to interpret these dreams that

the text says in verse eight.

Joseph said to them, do not interpretations belong to God.

These two men were confused. You might be in a

confusing situation right now. You might be trying to figure

out is this a pit that I dug for myself?

Did I get pushed into this pit?

Is this just a pit? Stop? Is this?

You might be confused. So I want to encourage you

to pivot from pity to prayer. When you're in the pit.

Pivot from pity to prayer. Self pity will grow.

In the pit.

Depression will consume you in the pit. Self harm can

seem inviting in the pit. Destructive habits multiply in the pit.

So pivot from pity to prayer. When I was in

a dark season of depression, I was in a pit.

I was grieving, I was sad, I was broken, and

nobody else felt what I felt. Nobody else understood what

I was feeling. I remember that I was unmotivated. Food

had lost its taste, my job had lost purpose.

I was just going through the motions.

And there were days that I prayed and all I

could say was God, I know.

That you're there, but it doesn't feel like it right now.

I was in the pit.

But God did not leave me. He was with me,

and he walked with me. He was patient with me,

He was kind towards me, and he showed me more

of his heart and of his character. And he met

me in the lowest, darkest place, and he drew me out.

He restored my joy, He healed me, he redeemed me.

You may be in a pit longer than you want

to be. Your breakthrough may be taking longer than you want.

Your healing may be coming slowly, the change may be unnoticeable.

But I want to tell you God, here's your prayers,

even from the pit.

So bring your problems to the Lord.

Bring your disappointment, bring your frustration, bring your hurt.

To the Lord.

He hears your prayers, and there will be a day.

I promise you, there will be a day when you

can agree with the psalmist who says, I waited patiently.

For the Lord. He inclined to me and heard my cry.

He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out

of the miri bog, and set my feet on a rock,

making my steps secure. You may be standing in the pit,

but I promise one day you will stand on the rock.

You will stand on the rock of Jesus Christ. You

will walk secure in the love of Jesus.

So pivot to prayer, because God is with you in

the pit. When you're in the pit and you're feeling alone,

and you're feeling isolated, you need some other people to

lean on. You need brothers and sisters in Christ to

lean on. I mentioned the ndy five hundred earlier in

the speedway. You know when those drivers pull in for

their pit stop to get new fuel and to get

new tires. There's a whole team that comes around. Have

you ever noticed what the driver does during the pit stop?

He just sits there because he's got a team. When

when I was at the speedway on Friday, I got

to two or some of the garages, and I got

to see the teams working on these cars.

There's a whole team and they're called the pit crew.

You know, why is it called pit crew? But why not.

A maintenance crew or a support crew or a team,

Like why are they called the pit crew?

Well, more than one hundred years ago, history tells us.

That racing teams literally dug pits in the ground so

that the race cars could drive over and the crew

would stand in the pit and work on the car.

They were literally in the hole, they were in the dirt,

They got their hands dirty. When you're in the pit,

you need to get a pit crew. You need a

pit crew that's gonna roll up their sleeves with you. You

need a crew that's gonna get in the dirt with you.

Joseph wasn't shy asking for help.

He said in verse fourteen, remember me when it is

well with you and please do me the kindness to mention.

Me to Pharaoh. Joseph asked for help. Well, yes, the

other guy, would you help me out? Sadly, we know

that he forgot about Joseph. He let him down. This

is a reminder.

That our friends need us. If you want to be

a good friend, remember your friends when they're in the pit.

You may not be able to get them out of

the pit, you may not be able to fix their problem.

All you need to do is show up and remind

them that they are not alone. I've got a few

close friends in my life, people in my life who

have suffered terrible tragedy. They've suffered loss, and some of

them loss of a loved one, some of them a

major setback in their career in their life, some a diagnosis.

And so.

In my calendar here on my phone, I keep record

of the dates and the anniversaries of those painful moments.

I keep track of the date when a friend loves

lost his father, the day somebody lost his spouse.

I keep a note.

Of upcoming surgeries or appointments that have significant outcomes.

Now why do I do that?

It's because I want to remind my friends about their

pain or the sadness. No, of course not. I don't

want to forget. I want to remember them. On those

days I pray for them, and yes, if it's appropriate,

I'll reach out, I'll encourage them. I want to be

part of their pit crew. I don't want to be

like the cup bearer. I don't want to move on

and forget. I want to remember.

I don't know what type of pit you might be

in today.

I don't know if you're in the pit of devastation.

I don't know if you're in a pit that you

dug for yourself. I don't know what you're going through.

But the one thing I do know is that our

God is the God of the pit. So I want

to close today with the story from history. In nineteen

forty one, a young pastor in Germany was arrested by

the Nazis for his faith. His name was Christian Reger

and Christian was a part of the Confessing Church, which

was a church that stood against Nazism. You may know

the name Dietrich Bonhoffer. He was a part of the

Confessing Church and Christian Reger was actually turned in and

betrayed by the organists in his church, and he along

with other pastors from across Europe, were deported to Dachau

concentration camp. All of the clergy and ministers from Europe

were housed in the pastor's barracks at Dachau, where Reger

spent more than four years suffering terrible conditions, exposed to

the elements malnutrition, torture, interrogation, even lie.

Most people in a.

Pit like that would curse God, would give up hope,

would give up faith. But here's what Christian Raeger said

about his experience.

These are his words.

God did not rescue me and make my suffering easier.

He simply assured me that he was alive and he

knew where I was. Nietzsche, the famous atheist, said that

a man can undergo torture if he knows.

The why of his life.

But here at Dachau, I learned the who of my life.

God was enough to sustain me then, and is enough

to sustain me still.

I simply know that God met me for me. He

was enough.

Is God enough for you today? Do you know the

who of your life?

You may be in a pit of despair, a pit

of grief.

Is God enough for you? You might be in the

pit of devastation.

Do you know the who?

If you're listening today and you have not put your

trust in faith in Jesus as your savior, today is

your opportunity to change that, to make a decision. You

may feel like that criminal crucified next to Jesus on

the cross, alone, despaired, humiliated, forgotten. But I want to

tell you that as long as there is breath in

your lungs, there is opportunity for forgiveness and healing and

redemption because of Jesus. Put your faith in him. And

so I want to invite us to respond to what

we've heard today from God's word. Would you bow your

head and close your eyes with me? And today, if

you want to put your faith and trust in Jesus,

I want to invite you to pray this simple prayer.

Just repeat after me, say, Dear God, admit that I'm

a sinner. I believe Jesus died for me and rose

from the dead to save me. I confess Jesus's Lord

of my life. God forgive me for all my sin.

With our heads still bowed, no one else is looking around,

just me. If you prayed that prayer to trust Jesus,

would you be brave enough to just raise your hands

so I could see you and tell you that God

loves you, that God forgives you, that God is in

your life right now, leading you, guiding you, that your

sins are forgiven.

Amen. And now let me pray for all of us. God.

I can only imagine that in a crowd this size,

there are many different types of pits and troubles and difficulties.

And so God, I pray that you would bring more

hope today.

Is more hope today.

That there are better days, that there is a future,

that there is an outcome coming. Oh God, would you

fill us with hope. Remind us that our earthly circumstance,

our earthly troubles.

They are not permanent, but that we have a hope

for eternity.

Because Jesus rose from the dead, because the tomb is empty,

the stone was rolled away. We've got a hope so

we can even endure the darkest days here on earth.

So God fill us with hope today. It's in Jesus'

name we pray. Amen.