When Life Isn't Fair

Oh, crossing family, I am so thankful for you and on

behalf of all the staff, all the difference makers,

all of the group leaders, all the elders, Jennifer

and myself, I hope you know you are deeply, deeply

loved. I also want you to know that

God is using you to change people's lives and it is

such an honor that we get the opportunity to serve

alongside of you. There is life change happening

every single week at almost all of our locations and I

am so thankful for what God is doing. Now

before I jump into this sermon, I want to give you

a couple updates. First off, on Mother's Day

weekend, Jennifer and I will be sharing the stage

and if you are ever wondering, what would

Jennifer say back to me in light of everything that I

have said about her, this is a weekend you are not

going to want to miss. God will do something special

and it is going to be a great weekend for you to

bring some friends and some family. The

second thing is, the week after Mother's Day and all

the way until Father's Day weekend, we will be doing

a four part sermon series focusing on politics and

faith. This is an election year and

there are going to be some of you who are feeling

like the world is ending and there are going to be

some of you who think that people are losing their

minds and there are going to be some of you who are

going, Jesus take me now. And

there are going to be others of you who are

asking a deep question, which is how should a

Christian respond during these interesting seasons?

And that is going to be the

goal, the aim, the target on the wall of that sermon

series. So, if you are the praying

type, I would love for you to start praying over that

sermon series because I believe that God could do

something very cool through it. Now,

we have been in a sermon series called God's Way, or

Jesus is better than you thought with the tagline,

God's Way is the best way. And

here at the crossing, we believe this to our core.

That is why we work tirelessly

to help people find an intimate personal

relationship with Jesus Christ. We

believe that God's Way is the best way in every area

of your life. When you've been hurt, when

you've failed, when things are going well, or when

you find yourself in a situation that you never

thought you'd find yourself in, we genuinely believe in

every area of your life that God's Way is the best

way. I'm not saying it's the easiest

way. I am saying it's the best

way. Proverbs chapter 14 says this, there

Proverbs 14 · chapter mention

is a way that seems right to a man. But

its end is the way to death. So

there is a way that seems right to us. But

if you were to follow that way, it has a destination,

that destination is death. But

Jesus offers a different path, a better way. Look

what it says in Proverbs chapter 8. This

Proverbs 8 · chapter mention

is the Lord talking. Listen to my instruction and be

wise. Do not disregard it. Blessed

are those who listen to me, watching daily at my

doors, waiting at my doorway. For

those who find me, find life. And

receive favor from the Lord. So

in other words, there's a way that seems right to

us. That road leads to death. But

there's God's Way, and it says it leads to blessings.

It leads to life, and it

leads to favor. You don't have to be a rocket

surgeon to figure out which one of those two you

should probably do. Because these three things sound a

whole lot better than death. In

fact, one of the closest people to Jesus, his name

was John, actually recorded some of the words that

Jesus said about why he came to earth in John

John 10:10

chapter 10 verse 10. Jesus says this, I have come

that they may have life and have it to the full.

So instead of experiencing life

at 30 % or 60 % or even 95%, Jesus is saying that

God's Way allows you and I to live life to the max,

to live life that is abundant. That

is why I am so glad that you are joining us today

from wherever you are joining from. Whether

you're joining us at one of our physical locations,

whether you're watching online or a part of the

crossing inside. And whether it's your first

time or your first time in a long time, I'm glad that

you are here because we believe that God's Way is

the best way. And today we're going to look

at an area of our life that maybe we didn't think

God would show up in. Or maybe an area of your life

where you're kind of ticked because God didn't show up.

Today, we're going to talk about

this. I believe that God's Way is

the best way when life seems unfair. There's

not a parent in the world who is not on multiple

occasions, had to look at their kids and say life is

not fair. However, in 2016, there was a

survey conducted of adults and the results were

surprising. This was the first question. Do

you think life is fair or not fair? You

guys already know the answer to this. You

don't even have to raise your hand. Well,

it's going to surprise you. 38 % of the people said

life is fair. Who are these idiots? I'll

tell you who they are. They're

going to be voting in the upcoming election. This

is why we got to do this series. 46 % said life is

not fair. And then there's 16 % who are

like, me and a, I don't know. You

don't know. Okay. How's it? Here's

the next question. Do you think life should be

fair? 63 % of them said, yeah, life

should be fair. 18 % said life should not be fair.

And 19 % don't know, man. Can

you imagine being that person just going through

life? Don't know, man. They're

moving to Colorado. So actually, weed's legal here

in Illinois too. So we joke. That's

why you should be praying for the politics series

guys. Because who knows what I'm going

to say. Now, you know this. Trying

to make life fair is almost impossible. For

instance, your older child had better clothes, but

worse furniture. And your youngest child had

nice furniture, but all the hand me down clothes. Have

you ever looked at the pictures of you when you

were a little bitty? If you're the oldest, what was

that stuff your parents were putting you on? It

wasn't, it wasn't safe. Your

oldest kids get more time with the grandparents. But

the youngest kid gets more time with the parents alone

when they're in high school. There

are parents. You don't have to raise your

hand because I don't want to make you feel bad. But

out of the kindness of their heart, you have tried

when it comes Christmas time to match the presence

dollar for dollar. You're a psycho. At

our house, we had to navigate intense birthday

pressure. Because the day before one of our

kids would have a birthday, the brothers would be super

excited for the other one. Oh,

tomorrow's going to be your birthday. We're

going to get cake. It's going to be super fun. And

tell it was fun up until we started opening up the

presents for the person who was their birthday. And

then the other kids started crying. He's

getting so many presents and I didn't get any. It's

because it's not your birthday. You

guys been there? Maybe for you, it's more

sophisticated than that. Why did they get a better

metabolism? Why did they get better hair?

Why did they get hair? Why

do I have hair there? Some of you are like, oh yeah,

preach. Okay. When you go to the barber

and they start doing a lot with the ears and nose,

you're like, okay, let's settle down, man. It

could have show up in different ways. Your

friend marries into a rich family and doesn't have to

work. That's been a real tough one for

us. Because Jennifer's family was broke

and that's why I'm doing what I'm doing right now.

I wanted to be a stay -at

-home dad. I did. Can

you imagine me just... It would have been no bueno.

Or your neighbor was born into

a family business and you were born into a family

that had wheels underneath your living room. Or

for me, I grew up from kindergarten through sixth

grade sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag under

the business manager's desk at my dad's vet clinic.

And so sleepovers at other

people's houses was a really big deal. And

I don't know if I was actually friends with those

people or if I just wanted to sleep in a bed. Or

maybe you've seen something like this happen. You

have actually been like the picture of health your

whole life. Like you've done all the right

things when it comes to your body and yet sickness

and disease and diagnosis never leaves you. And

you have a friend who has done nothing but abused

their body and they're the picture of health. Or

maybe you're a leader in a business and you are always

doing things properly and you're always doing things

legally and you can barely get by. Meanwhile,

the guy who is never there, who's definitely

shady and can't control his anger, seems to always have

the line on where the next best move is. For

some of you, you can't get over how much you invested

in your kids and how intentional you were at

raising them. And you paid a lot of

attention to their development and your kids

grew up to make a mess out of their lives.

Meanwhile, the parents who were

selfish and unattentive, their kids end up on the

honor roll and turn into highly productive citizens.

For some of you, your life was

falling apart. You hit rock bottom. You

started your intimate personal relationship with

Jesus Christ. You realize your needed for a

savior and you thought life was going to get easier.

You thought that life was going

to get better. However, it seems like at every

turn there has been opposition, challenges,

storms. And you show up for church at

one of our locations and you sit next to the one

person who just can't stop smiling. And

you say, what's going on with you? Like,

well, I came to church last week because my

marriage was falling apart and I started a

relationship with Jesus Christ and then I lost all

this weight. And my kids started getting up

and folding their own laundry and my husband

wants to renew our vows and he said, can we watch

more Hallmark movies? And you're sitting there and

you're going, so you said you have a relationship

with Jesus? Yeah, you sure? Yeah,

Jesus, I'm about to send her to you. You

better take her out. Give her a phone call. Get

her away from me. What do you do when life's not

fair? Now, there's some of you, maybe

I listed your challenges, others of you, you have a

completely different subset of challenges. Challenges

that you don't want to utter, pain that you don't

want to navigate. Because that's ultimately what

happens when we're talking about life being fair.

There is a unresolved pain

problem and we're not completely sure how to deal

with it. What do you do when life's not

fair? My position is that even when

life is not fair, God's way is the best way. Now

I want to be clear so that way you don't think

I'm saying what I'm not saying. I

am not today talking about justice and I am not

talking about favoritism. God

is just and always does what is right. And

he commands his followers, that would be you and me,

to not show favoritism to treat people fairly. So

while it is not possible or responsible to advocate

for equity, Christians should be firmly on the

side of equality. Regardless of who you are, you should

have the laws fairly protect you. Regardless

of who you are, you should be treated with dignity and

respect. Why? Because every single person

you will meet is an image bearer of God. They

are made in his likeness and deserve to be treated

as such. However, we live in a sinful world

full of sinful people. And history shows that when

oppressed people are given freedom from their

oppressors, eventually those very same people will

oppress others. They will do to others what has

actually been done to them. If

you were to look at some of the people that God

used the most, what you might think as some of his

favorite people in Scripture, what you would

find is that almost every single one of them had a

great deal of pain, a great deal of problems, a

great deal of hardships. Abraham

was loved by God, but God said you have to leave

your homeland. Joseph was betrayed by his

brothers, sold into slavery, had to grow up in a

different country, and was wrongfully put in prison.

Daniel was captured, taken from

his homeland in Jerusalem and forced to live in

Babylon. Job lost his entire family.

Peter was put in jail. Paul

was beaten multiple times for his faith. And

while you and I might be sitting here wondering why

life is so unfair, looking at all the other people in

our lives, if we were to sit across the table from

some of the people in the Scriptures, they would be

wondering how come you got it so easy? How

come your life is so much fairer than what my life

or my spiritual journey was? Life

is going to have ups and downs. It's

going to have twists and turns. The

promise of God is that he will bring purpose out of

your pain. Romans 828 says this, and we know

that in all things God works for the good of

those who love him, who have been called according

to his purpose. I've seen it again and again.

You have seen it too. The

people who have gone through the deepest pain

become the best counselors. The

people who have had the deepest losses are the ones

who can have the greatest amount of joy in a moment.

The people who have gone

through the harshest abuse become the greatest

advocates. The people who have suffered

the most have the greatest amount of empathy. The

people who have sinned the most develop the greatest

measure of grace. What that means, crossing family,

is I may not be responsible for what comes

to me, but I am responsible for what comes

through me. You may not have any choice

about what is going to happen to you, what is

going to come to you, but you are completely

responsible for how you respond to it. Some

people will use their pain as a permission slip. You

know those people. Because they've had a bad

experience, they inflict bad experiences. They

are always playing the blame game. Well,

if I had grown up the way you grew up, well, then I

would be different. Well, if I had different parents,

I would be like you if it's always somebody else.

However, there are other people who

use the pain to purify their purpose. We

have a campus pastor at one of our locations, who

probably the simplest way to say it is that he

suffered at the hands of generational sins. Stuff

that had kind of been passed on generation to

generation to generation showed up in his life as

a kid. And what he decided to do is

not use what happened to him as a permission slip.

He allowed it to purify his

purpose. And what I see him when I

look at him is I see him standing like this over his

kids and his marriage. And everything that came to him

is not going through him. It

is stopping with him. And you and I have the

opportunity through Christ's power. When

we have the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives,

the same power of the Holy Spirit that raised Jesus

from the dead. We have the ability to go,

what happened to me is not going through me. It

stops with me. Next thing I tell you is that

the adversity that I encounter is an invitation

to deeper dependence. Peter did not walk on water on

the shallow end of the sea on a calm day. Nope.

It was in the middle of the sea in the midst of a

storm on a dark night. James

James 1:2–4

chapter 1 verse 2 through 4 says this, consider it

pure, you guys say the next word, I don't want to

say it. You didn't want to say it

either. My brothers and sisters, when

should we consider it pure joy? Oh,

I'll tell you when. When you face trials of many

kinds. What? Because you know that the

testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let

perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature

and complete, not lacking anything. Here's

what that means. When things are not going your

way, you just might be on a path that leads to

maturity in Christ. Let me explain it this way.

Ladies, you married a deadbeat

dude. Just pretend if you will. Some

of you are like, oh yeah, this is the week. You're

in it. And life is not going the way

you thought it would go. Your

marriage is not looking the way you thought it would

go. And you are angry and you are

frustrated and you are ticked. What

if this is an invitation for maturity in Christ?

What if this is an opportunity

for you to learn how to have joy? I

am not excusing the sin or trying to cover over the

fact that there might be all kinds of dysfunction

inside of your marriage. But

you are not responsible for what comes to you. But

you are responsible for what comes through you. You

might be at work with a co -worker and you've been

working really, really hard. Everything's

going, you know, you've been nailing it. And

all of a sudden, this person you don't like gets

the promotion. And you're going, I'm so

thankful that they got this promotion. Because

now I'm going to get to grow in Christ. That

is not what you are doing. That

is not what you are doing. You

are not doing that. When your kids, oh, are not

behaving the way your kids are supposed to behave. I'm

guessing, crossing family, that we're not going. Oh,

good news. Our kids are being absolute

tyrants today. I'm going to grow so much with

Jesus. Thank you, Jesus, for these

disobedient, destitute, depraved children that have

so much of their father's DNA in them. Right?

You're not doing that. You're

going, God, this is wonderful. I'm

going to grow in you today. No,

you are going. And then you see the other

parents dropping their kids off and matching outfits. I

cannot consider it pure joy. But

what if the hardships you face are the things that

actually draw you closer to him to depend on him? You

guys know this. You don't get healthy eating

what you've always eaten. I've

been told. This week, you'll love this.

This week I went to a store

and they have these energy drinks called Alane New.

And I didn't read them. I

was just told that you like shop the outside of

the grocery store. And so I did that and they

had these energy drinks. And

so I bought like 50. And I drank three in one day.

And I'm just going to tell you

that's hard on your heart. I

found out later that each can has 100 % of everything

you need for a whole day. So

I was good till Thursday. And

if each can has 200 milligrams of caffeine, so

600 milligrams is like drinking 18 pack of Coke.

So I was wired. Okay,

you don't get fit keeping the same routine. You

don't get strong unless you either increase the weight,

the reps or the sets. You will never grow inside your

comfort zone. And so your maturity in Christ

to grow in Christ, you're going to have to be in

positions that you're not normally accustomed to. A

long time ago, I got asked to go to Colorado and

speak at a camp. They had me speaking in the

mornings and they had me speaking in the evenings.

And we drove up to this

campsite and it was beautiful. I

mean, it was just gorgeous to look at. And

then they said on Wednesday, I think it was

Wednesday, we're going to hike to the top of the

mountain. And I'm like, okay, and then

you're going to preach. I'm like, why? And

they're like, oh, it's just so, it's so pretty up

there. Really? Like, yeah. Like,

well, what's up there? Well,

like you can, you can just see everything. Like

how many of you woke up today like, what does the

top of a tree look like? Anybody?

Yeah, me neither. That's the only reason you'd hike

up. I want to see a tree from

the top. Just go to Home Depot, walk

through the plant aisle and just look down on. That's

all it is. Save yourself the hike. I

got all the way, we started hiking all the way

up there. Do you know what's up at the

top of a mountain? I'm going to save you guys a

trip. Nothing. There is nothing there.

There's no trees for shade. There's

no water if you're a little thirsty. There's

no food. There's nothing. There's

no restaurants up at the top. All

you can see is trees from the top. And

I'll be honest with you, I can go my whole life

without it. We get up there and I have

to preach the message. And then you know what we did?

We walked back down. And

you know what we did when we walked back down into

the valley? You know what I noticed? There

were trees for shade. There was water. When

we got far enough down, there were restaurants. And

you know this. Things don't grow on the mountain

tops. They grow in the valleys. And

when you find yourself in a valley of life, that is

where the growth happens. The

only thing you can do on a mountain top is see it

from another perspective. But

it is in the valley where we grow. And

God promises that in the valleys, he will be with

us. He will never desert us. Now

the next thing I want to tell you is that when you

are going through struggles in life and you are

dealing with the pain of life not being fair, I

want to remind you that there is more than this

life ahead of me. And God promises to reward me.

Galatians chapter six says, Let us

not become weary in doing good, for at the proper

time we will reap a harvest if we do not give

up. James chapter one verse 12 says,

Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial,

because having stood the test, that person will

receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised

to those who love him. Revelation

Revelation 22:12

22 verse 12 says this, Look, I am coming soon.

This is Jesus talking. My

reward is with me, and I will give to each person

according to what they have done. I

wonder, well no, let me do second Corinthians chapter

four. Therefore we do not lose heart,

though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly

we are being renewed day by day. For

our light and momentary troubles are achieving for

us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So

we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is

unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is

unseen is eternal. Here's what he's saying. Guys,

you're going to go through some bumps, you're going to

experience some bruises, you're going to go through

some pain and some hardship, but this is not

all there is. This has an end date. This

pain will eventually come to pass, and one day you

will be in heaven, and God says that he sees

everything and will reward you according to what you

have done. So the pain that you

experience may be an invitation to a reward from

God from how you handled the pain that you had to

go through. In other words, let me take

you on a quick church history tour. This

sounds like it's not going to be fun, but trust me

you'll be blessed in the end. If

you were to look at all time heroes in the Bible,

you'd be hard pressed to find anybody better than

Paul. His story gives hope to so

many people. And so Paul is traveling around

and he's telling people about Jesus, and he shows

up in the town of Philippi, and he shows up

with Silas, and they are walking through the town

and they're telling everybody about Jesus, and

it's fantastic. Well, there is this slave girl

who is a fortune teller, and so she makes money for

her owners by telling people their futures.

Because you would pay to know your

future, wouldn't you? If you knew there was a real

person that could tell you what your future looked

like, we'd cough up all the cash. So

this girl is raking in money for her owners, and

she starts going around telling everybody, pay

attention to these guys, they know about the real

God. Eventually Paul gets tired of it,

turns to this woman who's been talking for way too

much, and he says, demon be gone, and she loses her

ability to tell the future. Her

owners are super upset because basically their

business just got closed down because Paul told this

girl to stop telling the future and remove the

spirit that gave her the ability to do it. And

so her owners captured Paul and Silas, put them in the

marketplace, they beat them, and then they had them

thrown in jail. And if that had happened to

you, or if that had happened to me, what would

we have been doing? Well, that's not fair, Jesus. We

were telling people about you, we were trying to

help people find an intimate personal

relationship with you, and now we're going through

this. That was not their response at

all. In fact, it tells us what

their response was, they were in the jail, and the

Bible says that they were praying, worshipping, and

singing songs. That is probably different than

our response, right? The worship service and the

prayers were so impactful that God sent a violent

earthquake to shake the entire jail. And

when it did, all the gates fell off, and all the

prisoners stayed. They didn't leave. And

the jailer came in and was about to commit suicide,

and they said, hey guys, we haven't left, because

the jailer thought he was going to get killed for

all the prisoners escaping, but they didn't. They

all stayed. And so they told the jailer

about Jesus, and he started an intimate personal

relationship with Jesus, and then he went home and his

whole family did the exact same thing. And

so when you read the book of Philippians, you are

reading a book that was written to a church that

was started by a suicidal jailer, but because these

guys decided that they were going to tell people about

Jesus, got put in prison for it, and continued to

worship while they were in prison. And

so if you want to go home, you can check this

out for yourself. Read the book of Philippians and

go, hold on a second. This is a different way of

looking at life. Paul is talking to them and

saying this is how you should live, and these

people know it because they've seen what Paul has

gone through. Look at Philippians chapter one.

Paul says this, Now I want you

to know, brothers and sisters, these are the

people in the church in Philippi, that what has

happened to me has actually served to advance the

gospel. As a result, it has become

clear throughout the whole palace guard and to

everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. And

because of my chains, because of my chains,

because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters

have become confident in the Lord and dare more,

all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear. I

just want to pause for a second. Paul's

not writing about him being in that prison. Paul's

writing in this letter to them from another prison.

Paul is what we like to call a

repeat offender. He is going, he just keeps

doing stuff for Jesus and getting thrown in jail. So

he's writing to the church that was started because he

was in jail from another jail cell, and he's telling

them, hey, check this out. The

same thing that happened when I was in the jail in

your town is happening in the new jail where I'm at

now. People are starting to go, hey,

there's something different about this guy. And

other people are witnessing him cling into the promises

of God in the midst of the pain. And

they're deciding that I want that kind of faith

too. And the gospel is going out

further. Philippians chapter 1 verse 27,

Philippians 1:27

whatever happens, conduct yourself in a manner worthy

of the gospel of Christ. In

other words, when things aren't going your way in

your marriage, when things aren't going your way at

work, when things aren't going your way in the

mirror, when things aren't going your way on the

scale, when things aren't going your way financially,

when things aren't going your way relationally,

conduct yourself. In a manner worthy of the

good news of Jesus Christ. What

is the good news of Jesus Christ? That

God looked down, saw your sin, still moved on your

behalf, sent his son Jesus to not only pay for the

sins that you've committed, suffer eternity in hell on

your behalf, but give you new life and a deposit of

his spirit as a guarantee of the heavenly reward that

you will one day receive. And

in light of all of that cosmic reality, deal with

the temporary stuff. Like get through it. Like

just go, I'm going through. Philippians

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3 says, but one thing I do, forgetting what

is behind and straining towards what is ahead. I

press on towards the goal to win the prize for which

God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Philippians chapter 4, rejoice in the

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice.

Let your gentleness be evident

to all. I'm going to pause there for a

second. Sometimes people who've been through

a ton of pain are the least gentle people. They're

permission slip people. Christians

are different. Rejoice until you can be gentle

about it. The Lord is near. Do

not be anxious about anything, but in every

situation by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving,

present your request to God. And

peace of God, which transcends all understanding

will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Paul is a picture of this in

that Philippian jail cell. I'm

not going to be anxious. I'm

going to pray. I'm not going to be anxious.

I'm going to worship.

Philippians chapter 4 says this, I

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

have learned to be content whatever the circumstances,

content whatever the circumstances. I

know what it is to be in need and I know what it

is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of

being content in any and every situation, whether

well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in

want. I can do all of this through

him who gives me strength. Paul

was not responsible for what happened to him, but

he was responsible for what happened or what came

through him. And what came through him was

the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul

allowed the adversity that he faced to give him a

deeper dependence on who God is. How

would he have known that he could be content

whatever the circumstances unless he had been through

whatever the circumstances. How

would Paul have known that God can be good when

you're hungry if he hadn't been hungry and found out

that God was good? How would he have known that

God would be there for him when he didn't have

everything he needed? Then he finds out that God is

all he actually needs. How do you know that God's

good in the valley until you've walked through the

valley? How do you know that God's

good in the middle of a storm unless you've walked

through the storm? How do you know that the cross

is good until you give your sins to him and he

says I've covered it? How would you know? You

know because you endure and that endurance gives you

hope and that hope brings about a perseverance in you

that cannot be robbed by Satan or your circumstances.

Maybe, just maybe. This

sermon was for you too. Because

deep down inside we spend a lot of time trying to

make life fair. And if I could put anything on

you and me today it would be this. Instead

of calculating fairness, we should be focused on our

faithfulness. So that you and I can say

too whatever the circumstances. Whether

in times of plenty or in times of want. When

life's not fair, I'm convinced that God's way is

the best way. We're moving to a time of

decision. For those of you who don't

have a relationship with Jesus Christ yet, I just

want to give you a mini devotional. The

last thing that you would want is a God who's fair.

It's the last thing you would

want. Because the Bible says that the

wages of sin are death. Our

sins have brought about an eternal separation from God.

That is what we deserve. That

is what is fair. And when you look through the

pages of Scripture, what you'll see is we serve a

God who hasn't been fair to us and thank God he

hasn't been fair. Because the cross wasn't fair

because I wasn't on it. The

cross wasn't fair because you weren't on it. That

would have been fair, but it was unfair. It

was gloriously unfair because the one who had no

sin became my sin and your sin for us. That's

not fair. I'm glad I have a God who's

unfair. Mercy is not fair. Grace

is not fair. Love is not fair. Eternity

in heaven is not fair, but it is available. And

if you want it, you can start it today. If

you have questions about what it means to have an

intimate personal relationship with Jesus

Christ, I want to encourage you. Don't

put it off any longer. Because

that decision is the single greatest decision you will

ever make. And it gives you the ability

to endure every decision that somebody else makes on

your behalf in the future. And

if you're here and you want to ask questions about

it, in just a few moments, when other people around

you start to stand and sing and some of them come

to the steps to pray, right over there underneath

that screen, right next to the baptistery, there will

be a couple there that would love to talk to you

and answer some of your questions. To

the rest of you in here, to those of you who

already have a relationship with Jesus Christ, maybe

envy of how God is writing other people's stories is

robbing you of the joy of allowing God to write

yours. We've all been there. We

wish that things were going the way in our life, the

way they seem to be going in somebody else's. And

instead of thanking God for the story that he's writing

in their life, we're mad at God for the story that

he's writing in ours. And so maybe, maybe we could

spend a little bit of time saying, God, I don't want

this pen back. Even when life seems unfair, I

believe that you can write a better story. I

believe that your way is the best way. And

so God, here's the pen. Every

day, Satan is going to tempt you to put the pen,

pull the pen back and put it in your hand. And

you start taking over right in the chapter. But

we have no power. Like I said on Easter weekend,

the only power that you and I have is the right

of story that leads from life to death. But

when God has the pen, he has the ability to write a

story that starts in death and ends in life. Whatever

you do, don't take back the pen. Do

you guys stand with me? Heavenly

Father, I'm asking you to move in the hearts of the

people in this room and those watching online and

at all of our different locations right now. God,

I know that in a sermon like this, it's impossible

to capture every hurt and every heartache. God,

I know that it's impossible to know the nuances of

every situation, but God, none of that is hidden

from you. And so God, I pray that you

would give every person some clarity about what it

is that you want them to do. Show

them clearly the step that they're supposed to take.

And then God, give them the

courage to take it. In your name I pray, amen.