The Worst Sinner: Week 3

I'll tell you a story. Several months ago, I was

putting together the crib for our baby boy, Shepherd, and

this crib was delivered to our front door in a

big box. And I opened the box and I looked

at the instructions and I read those words that most

every parent dreads. Some assembly required, and so I laid

out all the pieces, and I had the bolts and

the screws, and then that little flimsy tool that comes

with it. They expect you to put the whole thing

together with that little tiny that little tiny thing. And

so I spent all afternoon in the living room trying

to put the pieces together, trying to solve this puzzle,

build this crib and put all of the places in

the right place. And I will admit there were some

times I had to pull a few things apart because

I had them either backwards or upside down. But after

a few hours I got it put together. And then

I carried the crib over to Shepherd's bedroom and encountered

a new problem because the crib did not fit through

the bedroom room door, a new puzzle to solve. So

I had to take the door off of the doorframe

and just barely squeak through the doorframe. Well, the story

doesn't end there. So after many weeks of trying to

teach Shepherd how to sleep in his crib like a

normal person, Shepherd decided that he doesn't like his crib.

He decided that he wants to sleep unencumbered, and he

prefers a large mattress on the floor. So what did

I do? I took the door off of the doorframe,

pulled the newly built crib out of the bedroom, and

now I have a brand new, fully assembled crib in

the shed in the backyard. The title of today's message

is called putting the Pieces together. That's why everybody received

one of these puzzle pieces when you came in. If

you did not, please just raise your hand and Usher

would be happy to hand you one. Putting the pieces together.

Does life ever feel like you're trying to put the

pieces together? Does that ever feel like you're trying to

put together the financial pieces, trying to get out of debt,

trying to say for a down payment, or does it

feel like you're trying to put the pieces together with

school and try to get out a graduate finish on time?

Or I know there are some couples who are trying

to put the pieces together. They're getting married and they're

planning a wedding. One of my friends recently, in the

last couple of years, immigrated to the United States to

marry her husband, and she told me all of the

pieces that had to come together, the travel arrangements, the

immigration documents, the work permit, the visas, all of these

pieces coming together. Planning the wedding was the least of

her worries in all of this. Does life ever feel

like you're trying to put pieces together? I know there

are some of us who are trying to pick up

the pieces after tragedy, you've lost a loved one, You're

trying to put the pieces together in the middle of

grief and loss. You've been let down, you've been betrayed,

and you're trying to put the pieces together. I imagine,

and there's somebody who's searching for a job, and you're

trying to fit the pieces together, trying to figure out

how does the right income match the expenses, trying to

put the pieces together. Often following Jesus feels like putting

together puzzle pieces, trying to understand what is God's will,

what's God's desire, How do I please God? What is

God doing in this situation? Trying to put the pieces together?

As we look today at Acts chapter sixteen, we're going

to see that Paul and his ministry team are trying

to understand God's will and they're putting the pieces together.

Join me and looking at Acts sixteen. Starting in verse six,

Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Fergia

and Galatia. Have him been kept by the Holy Spirit

from preaching the Word in the province of Asia. When

they came to the border of Messia, they tried to

enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow

them to, so they passed by Messia and went down

to Troaz. God stops Paul from going to certain places.

If you look at this map here. Up until this point,

Paul he's traveled far and wide preaching the Gospel of Jesus.

He's been to places like Cyprus and Derby and Iconium

and Antioch. He's been going to these places preaching the Gospel.

But now he wants to go further. He wants to

go to places like Asia and Bithynia, But God says no.

The Spirit of God prevents him from going to these places,

and so now Paul is stuck at this little sea

town called Troaz. Paul's stuck. Have you ever felt stuck?

You've been in a job that just isn't going anywhere,

but you don't have any other options. You're just stuck.

Or are you stuck in a relationship? Maybe someone stuck

in a relationship that's toxic, a relationship that's unhealthy. I

imagine that the somebody who's stuck in a health situation,

in a health condition, like you've been to the doctor,

You've seen the specialists, prescriptions, treatments, but nothing's changed, and

you feel stuck. Do you ever feel stuck in life?

Like you're trying to put the pieces to you? Have

you ever heard God tell you no? It's like you're

trying to do what God once. You're trying to understand

his will. You're putting the puzzle together. You got all

the pieces flipped over and even some of them are

starting to fit together, but then all of a sudden,

God says, no, those are the wrong pieces. Have you

ever heard God tell you no? Last year, Lauren and

I were trying to put together a big puzzle in

our life. Last year, we were helping take care of

a three year old boy who was in foster care.

We were not his foster family, we were just friends

and we did some babysitting. We helped bring him to

church and help keep him enrolled at the preschool here

at the church. We were just trying to support and

this boy became really attached to us, just really attached

to us, and when he would visit our house, he

often called our house his home. And at one point,

after a few months, his caseworker asked if Loura and

I would consider being his full time caregivers, and that

really caused a lot of stress. That was a puzzle.

We had just also learned that Lauren was pregnant. We

hadn't shared that publicly yet. So we're having our own

baby and this boy needs help. We're trying to put

the pieces together. We prayed about it, we talked about it,

we met with a Christian family counselor, trying to put

the pieces together, and then finally we decided to say, yes,

if this is what God wants, we would be willing

for this boy to come live with us. And so

we waited. We communicated this with the caseworker, and we

waited expecting that he would come live with us, and

I think we got our hopes up, and then something

in the whole case situation, beyond our control. Something changed

and he did not come to live with us, and

it was painful. It was disappointing. I know today that

God just wanted my guess, but that was really painful

and discouraging in the moment. You may not know the

reason why God says no to a prayer. You may

not know the reason why a door closes. But you

can trust God even when you feel stuck, even when

you're hopeless. You can still trust him, even when you

doubt yourself. You can still trust him, even when you

can't see the next turn or the next step. You

can trust him when all of the pieces don't seem

to fit together. You can trust him because God is

still putting the pieces together, even if we can't see

the whole picture. And so Paul is stuck in Troas.

Let's keep reading. In verse nine, during the night, Paul

had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and

begging him come over to Mass and help us. After

Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once

to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us

to preach the gospel to them. From Troas, we put

out to see and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the

next day we went to Minneapolis. From there we traveled

to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city in

that district of Macedonia, and we stayed there several days. So,

while Paul is stuck in tro As, he has this

vision of a man saying, come help us in Macedonia.

God's starting to put the pieces together. Take a closer

look at verse ten with me. It says Paul had seen.

After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at

once to leave from Macedonia, concluding that God had called

us to preach the gospel. Notice this word concluding. This

word concluding comes from a Greek word that is also

translated to join together, to knit together, to put together.

It describes putting pieces together, like putting the puzzle together.

And so Paul and his team are starting to put

the pieces together. They know they can't go to Asia.

So that's one piece that they've put together. They can't

go to Mithenia. They've put that piece together. They get

this vision, and they're starting to become clear as they

put the pieces together. They're supposed to go to Macedonia,

to the city of Philippi putting the pieces together. Now

go back to verse ten for just a moment. Notice

that it says that God had called us to preach

the gospel. To preach the gospel. When you put a

puzzle together, what's the first place that you start with.

What's the first piece that you start with? At least

for me, I start with the corner piece. That's my

starting point. I start with the corner piece because I

know where the corner piece goes. It goes in the corner.

It's not gonna change, it's not gonna move, it's not

gonna alter. It is reliable. I know what the corner does.

This is the starting place. So the corner is the

starting place. Today, I want to tell you that the

Gospel of Jesus is the corner piece. The Gospel of

Jesus is the corner piece. The Gospel of Jesus is

the starting place. If you're listening today and you are

not a Christian, you need the Gospel. You need the

good News of Jesus because all of us are broken

like the broken pieces of a puzzle. Our lives are

shattered by sin, damaged by sin. Our sin has separated

us from God. But the gospel is that Jesus died

to pay for our sin. When he died on the cross,

he purchased our forgiveness. And when he rose from the dead,

he's secured your eternal life and heaven. So anyone who

believes in Jesus will be saved. This is the gospel.

The Gospel is the starting place. Ephesians chapter two tells

us you are members of God's family. Together. We are

his house built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

and the cornerstone is Christ, Jesus himself. Jesus is the cornerstone.

He's the starting place, the corner piece, because the Gospel

establishes your identity in Jesus, it secures your future in

heaven and defines your purpose on earth. The Gospel is

the corner piece. And so Paul and his team they're

starting to put the pieces together, and it starts with

the Gospel. And so they travel to the city of Philippi.

Let's keep reading in verse thirteen. On the Sabbath day,

we went outside the city gate to the river, where

we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat

down and began to speak to the women who had

gathered there. One of those listening was a woman from

the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in cloth.

She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her

heart to respond to Paul's message. When she and the

members of her household were baptized, she invited us to

her home. So here we meet Lydia. Lydia's the first

convert in Philippi. And Lydia is also a businesswoman, a

dealer in purple cloth, and she must have been a

successful business woman. Successful business women in the first century

were rare, but the text tells us she owned a

home large enough to accommodate Paul and his companions, So

she must be successful, must be wealthy. So it seems

like the puzzle pieces are coming together for Paul. Keep

reading in verse sixteen. Once, when we were going to

the place of prayer, we were met by a female

slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future.

This is a demonic, evil spirit. She earned a great

deal of money for her owners by fortune telling. She

followed Paul and the rest of us shouting, these men

are servants of the Most hi God who are telling

you the way to be saved. Now reading the text,

that it doesn't really communicate the sarcasm that I think

was in her voice, that this was a mocking voice.

She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became

so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit,

in the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to

come out of her. At that moment, the spirit left her.

Now let me point out that most scholars agree this

word annoyed is a poor translation, that what this word

truly conveys is that Paul was bothered. He was disturbed,

He was concerned. It's not that he was irritated and angry.

He was concerned, and so out of his concern he

cast out this evil spirit. Look at verse nineteen. When

her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone,

they seized Paul in Silas and dragged them into the

marketplace to face the authorities. They brought them before the

magistrates and said, these men are Jews and throwing our

city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us

Romans to accept or to practice. Now here's a wrinkle.

Paul's been making some progress, but now these slave owners

disrupt everything verse twenty two. The crowd joined in the

attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them

to be stripped and beaten with rods. After they had

been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the

jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received

these orders, he put them in the inner cell and

fastened their feet in the stocks. Now Paul is stuck again.

He's stuck in prison. Archaeologists have uncovered this jail cell

in Philippi. This is a modern day picture of what

historians believe is the jail in Philippi where Paul and

Silas were held. Notice the text tells us that their

feet were held in stocks. This would have been a

large would in contraption with openings big enough to go

over the ankles. Not only would this be uncomfortable, but

remember Paul and Silas had been beaten, they'd been flogged,

they were bruised, they were bloody, they had wounds. They

were suffering in this dark prison, locked up. How would

you feel if you were in Paul's position. You've obeyed God,

You've done what God has said to do. You've been faithful.

Now you're in prison. I mean Paul was making good progress.

He converted Lydia, He's got a home base in her house.

See he cast out demons. Things are moving along, and

now he's stuck, stuck in prison. Keep reading in verse

twenty five. About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and

singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening

to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that

the foundations of the prison were shaken at once. All

the prison doors flew open, and everyone's chain came loose.

It was midnight when Paul and Silas were in prison.

Stuck in prison at midnight. Midnight is one of the

darkest hours of the night. Most astronomers agree that the

time between midnight and one am can be the darkest hours,

depending on where the sun and the moon is. And

so here's Paul in size in the darkest moment at midnight,

and they're in prison. But they did not panic. I'll

be honest with you. Last week, I panicked in the

middle of the night. Let me tell you this story.

That evening, Lorna and I had a great meal. We

put Shepherd to bed, and then the two of us

went to bed relatively healthy. Great At two thirty in

the morning, we both woke up feeling the same symptoms headache,

body ache, fever, chills, a cough, trouble breathing, and I

panicked in the middle of the night. I was convinced

this was carbon monoxide poisoning, and so I went into

the hall and I tested the carbon monoxide sensor and

it was working, but I didn't trust it, and so

in my panic, I opened all the windows of the house.

We got Shepherd out of bed, and we piled into

the car, and in the middle of the night, we

drove to the only place that you go in the

middle of the night, Walmart. And I did not know

that the Walmart near me is not a twenty four

hour Walmart, and so we waited in the parking lot

until Walmart opened early in the morning, and I went

into Walmart and I bought a new carbon monoxide sensor

and an extension cord. Back home, I plugged in that

new sensor into the extension cord, and I walked from

room to room in my house looking for the leak,

looking for the carbon monoxide, but I couldn't find any.

Let me tell you there was no gas leak. It

was not carbon monoxide poisoning. It was a different type

of poisoning. Have you ever heard of humidifier fever? Humidifier

fever is a real condition that causes flu like symptom, coughing,

trouble breathing, body aches, fever, chills. That night, before we

went to sleep, it was dry in the house, so

we got an old humidifier out of the closet and

turned it on. But an old humidifier that's not clean,

it's got bacteria, that's got mold, can pump that stuff

into the air and cause humidifier fever. So now that

humidifier is in the garbage, tossed it out. I panicked

in the middle of the night. I wonder if you're

in a dark season in your life and you feel

like panicking. I wonder if you are in a midnight

in your life. I wonder if it feels like you

are all alone and there is no future, You are hopeless,

you are scared. You might be stuck in grief like

Paul stuck in the stocks. You are stuck in hopelessness,

you feel trapped, or maybe you feel overwhelmed with things

like fear and depression, overwhelmed by anxiety. You might even

be struggling with harmful thoughts, like suicidal thoughts. It feels

like it's just darkness all around you. Paul and Silas

were stuck in the middle of the night in jail.

But what were they doing. They were not panicking. What

were they doing. They were singing, they were praising God,

they were praying. How could they pray in the middle

of the jail. How could they pray after they'd been beaten?

How could they worship God when they were stuck in

these stocks? How could they do this? It's because they

had Jesus. When things didn't go to their plan. They

had Jesus. When things fell apart, they had Jesus. When

they got arrested, they had Jesus. When they got beaten,

they had Jesus. Let me tell you, friends, when life

beats you down, you've got Jesus. When things don't turn

out the way you want, You've got Jesus. When you're disappointed,

when you're on your heels, You've got Jesus when you

hear things like cancer, You've still got Jesus. Jesus is

what gets us through the midnight. Jesus is who our

hope is built on. What you think might be your

prison just might be the place where God does a miracle.

Just recently, I was speaking with a mom in our church.

Not too long ago, her husband passed away suddenly, unexpectedly,

and so she's been navigating the grief and raising her

family to heal from this sudden loss. And as I

was talking with her, she shared with me that the

Gospel is her hope. I'll never forget what she said.

She said to me, the Gospel is my life boat.

If I'm not holding on to Jesus, I'm not holding

on to anything. I wonder, are you hold on to Jesus?

Are you cleaning to Jesus when you're hurting, when you

feel broken? Are you hold on to Jesus when everyone

around you has left you? Are you hold on to

Jesus when your hopes are shattered, when your dreams are disappointed?

Are you hold on to Jesus? Hold on to Jesus.

Paul and Silas were holding on to Jesus. You see,

they had the Gospel as their foundation. The gospel was

their cornerstone. When you've got the gospel, the gospel helps

put all the other pieces together. The gospel helps put

the pieces together. Remember Paul's vision earlier in this story.

Remember what did he see in his vision? In verse nine,

saw a man of Macedonia standing and begging him come

over to Macedonia, and what help us? Come over and

help you see, the gospel helps put the pieces together.

This is why a Church of the Crossing we say

we want to be a better church, not just a

bigger church. We want to help our community. We want

to help our neighbors. You know, there's so many things

that God is doing to help in our church, and

there's so much more that we need to do. Did

you know that here in our local community there are

a number of neighbors that we have who do not

have access to clean laundry services. Some of the apartment

buildings don't have laundry services. There's not a laundromat nearby.

In order to find a laundrymat, you need to get

on a bus. That's how far it gets to get

to the nearest one. And here's how this ripple effects.

If children don't have clean clothes, they stay home from school,

or if they wear clothes that are not clean, they

might get sick easier and stay home sick from school.

Now there's an education problem. We can help make a

dent in some of this education problem by figuring out

laundry in our community. That's just one example of how

we want to help put the pieces together. The Gospel

helps put the pieces together. And so when Paul went

to Philippi, who did he meet? Who was he helping?

Who was the first person that he met? He met Lydia?

He met Lydia, and Lydia had a pretty good life.

Her life was pretty well put together. She had a

good job, she had income, she had a house. But

there was one piece missing. Lydia had not heard the gospel.

There was a piece missing. I believe Lydia was missing

an intellectual piece. She had questions about God. She believed

in God, but she did not know the Gospel. She

wanted to learn. She had an intellectual curiosity about the Gospel.

It reminds me of a young man who graduated from

Yale Law School and he worked as an investigative journalist

for the Chicago Tribune. And this young man described himself

as an atheist, didn't believe in God, thought it was

all fake. But then his his wife became a Christian.

And so this young man launched a two year investigation

into Christianity. And his goal was to prove that Jesus

was merely a historical figure and not the son of God.

And so for two years he investigated history. He met

with experts, he interviewed scholars, he studied the facts, He

cross examined the evidence. He did all of this work

for two years, and after two years, he concluded that

Jesus is the son of God. This man's name is

Lee Strobel, and Lee's Strobel has written many books about Christianity,

including The Case for Christ, which gives evidence based reasons

for Christianity and the Resurrection of Jesus. But more than

just these intellectual facts, Lee's Strobel describes his Christianity has

transformed him. Jesus has transformed his character, transformed his marriage,

transformed his values. In other words, the Gospel put the

pieces together for Lee Strobel. Now, your life may look

a lot Lydia's. You may have good job, you may

have a good family, you're saving for retirement. You know

you've got some pieces figured out, but there's something missing.

You've got questions about faith, You're skeptical about Jesus. You're

curious but not sure. There's a peace missing. I want

to tell you that God, he invites questions. God welcomes investigation.

But ultimately the Gospel. Believing the Gospel is not just

intellectual agreement. It is heart transformation. Just look at our text.

In verse fourteen, it says the Lord opened Lydia's heart

to respond to Paul's message. Is your heart open to Jesus.

Paul helped Lydia put the pieces together that missing peace

the gospel. And Paul also met the female slave in Philippi,

and her life was just a mess. I mean, it

was just broken pieces. Just imagine this woman trying to

put the pieces together. It was just distorted, shattered. You know,

she's got this demonic spirit that's oppressing her, the slave

owners exploiting her. It's just a mess. Scholar John Stott

writes this, she had lost her identity, her individuality as

a human being. If socially she belonged to her master,

psychologically she belonged to the spirit which controlled her. She

was in double bondage. The female slave was missing a

psychological piece. No doubt, she struggled emotionally, she struggled psychologically.

She had no freedom, she had no internal peace. Her

life was a mess. And when she was delivered from

that spirit, she was delivered to Jesus. When you see this,

your life might feel a little messy like this. The

thoughts in your brain might feel a little bit scattered

like this. You might be fighting some emotional challenges depression, resentment, fear, paranoia.

You might be wrestling with hidden things that nobody else

knows about, hidden habits, hurtful habits. You might be trying

to medicate some of that pain on your own. You

might be trying to escape some of that trauma on

your own, and your life just feels like this distorted mess.

You're just trying to put the pieces together, and sometimes

there's that thought it might just be better if I

wasn't even here anymore. I want to tell you today

that there is hope because of Jesus, there's healing because

of Jesus. Jesus can put the pieces together. Jesus once

said this, the spirit of the Lord is upon me,

for He's annoint to me to bring good news to

the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives

will be released. The blind will see that the oppressed

will be set free. If you are oppressed today, Jesus

can set you free. Those oppressed by addiction are set free.

Those oppressed by grief and loss are set free. Those

oppressed by hurts and habits and hang ups are set

free by who by Jesus. Jesus has the power to

put the pieces together. When you get the Gospel, when

your faith is in Jesus, Jesus brings forgiveness. Jesus brings healing.

Jesus restores hope. Jesus redeems what has been lost, and

Jesus takes control the Gospel puts the pieces together. Jesus

is the missing peace. Paul helped Lydia, he helped the

female slave. And there's one more person in this story

who needed the Gospel, and that's the jailer. The jailer.

I feel bad for the jailery. I think he was

just mining his own business. I'm sure he was really

good at his job. He wasn't looking for trouble. And

then these Christians show up and there's some trouble. Let's

read our text in verse twenty six. Suddenly there was

such a violent earthquake that the foundation of the prison

was shaken. At once, all the prison doors flew open,

and everyone's chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and

when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his

sword and was about to kill himself because he thought

the prisoners had escaped, but Paul shouted, don't harm yourself.

We are all here. You see, the jailer was responsible

to keep the prisoners alive until their trial, and if

they died in his care, he'd be punished. Worse, if

they escaped under his care, he might be executed. So

when the jailer saw that the doors were open, he

assumed the worst, and in his shame, he planned to

take his own life. You see, when the prison was shaken,

the jailer's life was shaken. It all fell apart. Life

will shake you up. Life will disrupt you. Life will

knock you down. Losing a loved one will shake you up.

Losing a job where the ending of a career will

shake you up. A divorce will shake you up, a

diagnosis will shake you up. You were happy living your

life until somebody gave you the bad news. You were

just cruising along until somebody said the word foreclosure. You

were fine until you heard someone say early retirement. Life

shakes you up. The jailer's life was shaken up. I

believe that the jailor was missing a moral piece. You see,

the jailer wanted to end his life because of his shame.

Shame is a powerful feeling. I believe that there are

pleasant feelings and unpleasant feelings. I do not believe that

there are bad feelings. Even feelings like anger and grief

and sadness. They are unpleasant, but they're not bad. It's

part of being human. However, shame is from the devil.

It is not part of God's design for human beings.

All the way back in Genesis, when Adam and Eve

committed the first sin, they disobeyed and rebelled against God.

What's the first thing they felt? They felt ashamed, and

they hid from God. You see, Shame will tell you

that you need to hide from God. Shame will tell

you to run from God. Shame will tell you that

you're not worth it, that God can't forgive you, that

God doesn't love you. Shame will drive you to the extreme,

just like it did the jailer here, those are lies

from the devil, Those are lies from the enemy. Because

Jesus is greater than our shame. Jesus is greater than

our past. Jesus is greater than the things that hold

us and keep us captive. Jesus is greater than what

you think is your jail cell. And so this jailer

struggling with shame, we finish our text in twenty nine

Verse twenty nine. The jailer called for the lights. He

rushed in and felt trembling before Paul and Silas. He

then brought them out, and he asked, sirs, what must

I do to be saved? They replied, believe in the

Lord Jesus, and you will be saved. The Gospel is

the starting place. The Gospel puts all the pieces together.

The Gospel helps us make sense of things even when

our circumstances don't make sense. Today, if you are dealing

with shame, I want to tell you that the cross

of Jesus, the death of Jesus, is greater than that shame.

His blood can cleanse and redeem and forgive every failure,

at every mistake. Right now, would you take a look

at that puzzle piece that you got when you came in. First,

if you're listening today and you realize that you're missing

a puzzle piece in your life, you're missing the Gospel.

You look at your life and you're missing that corner

piece the Gospel. I'm gonna give you an opportunity today

to make a decision to believe the Gospel as you

look at that missing peace in your life. Every single

human being has a missing peace in our heart. It's

a Jesus shape toll in our heart. And nothing in

this life will fill that void in the human heart.

No achievement can fill that void. No amount of money

can fill that void. No sinful pleasures, no sexual exploits

can fill that No drug or substance can fill that void.

Only Jesus can fill that void. And if you've been

spending your life trying to pick up the pieces, trying

to sort the pieces out, but you've been missing the gospel,

today is your day. Today is your day. Secondly, as

you look at this piece, maybe you are a Christian,

but you realize that God is inviting you to help

put the pieces together for someone you love and care about.

Our church has a goal that we are prayerfully pursuing.

We want to help at least one hundred people this

year believe the Gospel to be saved, to come into

relationship with Jesus. And perhaps as you look at that piece,

you know that there is somebody in your life, a

family member, a loved one, a coworker, somebody who needs

the gospel. You might be holding the missing peace that

they need. Will you share the gospel with Will you

invite them to church? Will you bring them with you?

I want to make a promise. And I don't make

a lot of promises or a lot of guarantees, but

there's one promise I can make when you bring a friend,

when you bring a loved one here to church at

the crossing, they will hear the Gospel of Jesus. So

I want us to invite us to respond today. Would

you bow your head and close your eyes with me?

And as we respond, the first invitation is for those

who are listening. And you need to put your faith

in Jesus. You need Jesus to fill that void in

your life. Would you repeat this prayer to yourself? Repeat

after me, say, Dear God, I admit that I'm a sinner.

I believe Jesus died for me and rose from the

dead to save me. I confess that Jesus is Lord

of my life. God, would you fill the void in

my life with Jesus as we continue in this moment

of prayer with our eyes closed and our heads bowed.

If you prayed that prayer today for the first time,

or maybe you've recommitted your life today by praying that prayer,

would you just be so brave to raise your hand

because I just want to look you in the eyes

that say I love you. God sees you would just

be brave enough to say yes, I prayed that prayer today.

Now let me pray for all of us. Father, God,

thank you that you sent Jesus to rescue, to redeem us.

Thank you that we are forgiven because of Jesus, and

so God, I pray that you would fill us with

more of your power, with more of your grace. God.

I pray for the situations that need a breakthrough. God,

would you bring breakthrough God? For those who need a miracle? God,

would you do something in those situations to bring a

miracle God. For the relationship that needs forgiveness and reconciliation. God,

would your grace cover that relationship, and as we leave

here today, may our hearts be full of your presence.

And I pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen,