Sermon

It's Not Over | Clayton Hentzel

Crossing Church with Clayton Hentzel

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  1. Crossing family. It is so good to be here with

  2. you this weekend, I have missed you.

  3. It is one of my great Joys to be one of the pastors at this

  4. church. As we try to make this the

  5. hardest place on planet Earth to get to Hell from.

  6. I want to welcome you joining from all of our different

  7. locations online and inside and are also want to welcome those

  8. of you who are joining us for the first time or maybe the

  9. first time in a long time. Let me in Encourage you to use

  10. the QR code, on the seat in front of you at any point in

  11. time during the service. So you can engage with our

  12. church family in a variety of ways.

  13. And on behalf of all the people who call The Crossing home, I

  14. want you to know that we love you and that we are in your

  15. corner. Life gets complicated, would you

  16. agree? And life can be hard at times.

  17. Would you agree? But I want you to hear this

  18. promise. We do not have to do it alone.

  19. Today, we are finishing up a sermon series called weeds in my

  20. garden. When we started this sir.

  21. In series, I was a little nervous about what would happen.

  22. Would people leave our church would people get mad.

  23. What's going to go on with the sermon series?

  24. Be too long? Well, I've been amazed at what

  25. God has done during this sermon series.

  26. In fact, our church has grown through this sermon series and I

  27. found out so far. During the street sermon series

  28. 147, people have been baptized and that doesn't even include

  29. what's going to be happening this weekend.

  30. There have been emails from people all across Sr region and

  31. from across the country who watch online, who have been

  32. stepping into these areas, many of you have received help and

  33. hope others of you have listened intently.

  34. So that way you could offer help and hope to those that you love

  35. that are in a battle, I want to read an email that was passed on

  36. to me by one of our parents who attend one of our different

  37. locations and they receive this email from the teacher of one of

  38. their kids. I'm going to call him jack.

  39. Although after service he came. Up to me and said, my name is

  40. Johnny so I guess we can use Johnny.

  41. I have to tell you something funny.

  42. That's how the email begins two days ago.

  43. I was doing my usual bouncing from Kid to Kid in the resource

  44. center forming plans for what they are doing.

  45. What's missing Etc? It can be exhausting at times,

  46. especially with difficult kids. It is a large class after all,

  47. Johnny was sitting next to our para and he said she needs to go

  48. to my church and listen to the sermons on how to weed your

  49. garden. She had to tell me later and he

  50. said, you look stressed. You need to weed your garden.

  51. He went on to explain the sermon series a little bit more.

  52. I told him that he was so kind and that he was watching out for

  53. me and he offered a great suggestion.

  54. I also told him it's just part of the job.

  55. I may look stressed but I'm trying to work quickly to you

  56. make sure that everything gets started on something.

  57. So I also let him know that I thought it was great that he was

  58. listening and applying these things.

  59. He heard from the sermon. I thought you might like to Hear

  60. this too. He's a great kid.

  61. We're going to have a fun year. How cool is that email?

  62. As we're getting ready to start this series?

  63. There's a couple things are this in.

  64. Start this sermon. There's a couple things I want

  65. to do, and I was about ready to cut this going into this

  66. message. But then I had just a

  67. heartbreaking conversation with a girl, in the lobby, who came

  68. up to me? Whose friend is going through a

  69. really dark time. And so, I'm just, I'm really

  70. glad that it got kind of used that to kind of create space,

  71. because I was about ready to cut all of this.

  72. When we started the sermon series, there were resources

  73. that we put together. And one of the resources is kind

  74. of like low end is, are weeds in my garden playlist on Spotify,

  75. and if you don't have Spotify, I apologize.

  76. But this is just where we figured it out.

  77. And the reason why I want you to have access to, this is because

  78. there's going to be times where you need to kind of recenter

  79. yourself. There's gonna be times where

  80. you're going to find yourself, maybe a little overwhelmed, a

  81. little stressed out. And you just kind of need to

  82. speak the name of Jesus, over your situation and recenter

  83. yourself on the goodness of our God.

  84. And this playlist will help you do that.

  85. The second thing and this is you may have need to re-watch one of

  86. these sermons or maybe you want to catch up on one of the

  87. sermons or God may put you in a position where you over hear

  88. somebody talking about something and you're going, you know what

  89. I have. Something for you.

  90. You can catch all of these sermons on our website or you

  91. can watch them on YouTube. But the thing that's the most

  92. important that we did during the sermon series, is we created a

  93. resource page, it has access to all the sermons.

  94. It also has coaching from a psychologist on what you can do

  95. to provide help and hope as well as resources that you can look

  96. at questions, you can ask and the national and Regional

  97. resources. This girl came up to me and she

  98. said, my friend is having deep dark thoughts, and I don't know

  99. what to do. And I said, go to this site and

  100. do what it says. And tears were just welling up

  101. in her eyes and there may be a moment where you find yourself

  102. in a situation, you're going. I'm not a psychologist.

  103. I don't know how to navigate this.

  104. This will tell you exactly what you should be doing on your end

  105. because you don't have to carry this and walk through this all

  106. on your own. When we started the sermon

  107. series, I talked to you about the course of a song that

  108. impacted me, deeply. In fact, you just heard it

  109. saying at all of our different locations but I want to walk you

  110. through it. I tell you that I'm whole but

  111. I'm still healing. I Tell you that I'm happy.

  112. But I'm grieving thought I was a fighter.

  113. I'm still in the fire. But if I'm being honest, I'm not

  114. being honest. I'll give you roses.

  115. Just hoping you don't see the weeds in my garden.

  116. If I'm being honest. I'm at my darkest.

  117. I'm sitting here, waiting and praying for someone to show me

  118. what love is. I'm just being honest.

  119. I wonder how many of our spouses kids.

  120. Grandchildren, employees, co-workers bosses, find

  121. themselves relating to these words.

  122. I can't help but wonder how many of you and week one.

  123. We talked about. It's okay to not be okay.

  124. That you can be messed up and still be part of this church.

  125. And then we talked about the three lies that Satan tries to

  126. tell you. That if the truth about you were

  127. found out or when you find out that you're navigating weeds in

  128. your garden, that somehow your life loses, its meaning that if

  129. people knew everything about you, that they wouldn't accept

  130. you and that God wouldn't love you.

  131. And we dispelled those lies and then we did a deep dive into

  132. issues related to self-esteem suicide anxiety.

  133. Stress burnout worry and depression and then we brought

  134. in dr. Wes Beavis, you has Pastors all

  135. across the country as well as 10 to 15 percent of the staff here

  136. at the Crossing and he gave us practical steps that we can take

  137. on Mental Health. We talked about the four

  138. buckets. Where mental health issues,

  139. reside in there's the spiritual bucket.

  140. You have an enemy who's trying to steal and kill and destroy.

  141. There's the biological bucket. Each of us were kind of made

  142. differently and uniquely. Which means that there's going

  143. to be different and unique challenges that we are going to

  144. have to face and we talked about the situational bucket,

  145. sometimes you're just going to find yourself.

  146. Elf in tragic circumstances and then there's the clinical

  147. budget, our bucket where you're going to have to have help from

  148. other people to help you chart a path forward.

  149. However, from the very beginning of this sermon series, I've been

  150. looking forward to preaching this message.

  151. I called it hope weekend because I believe that there is so much

  152. hope for you, your family, your friends and for your future is

  153. there anyone here at any of our locations?

  154. Watching online or inside. That would be willing to be a

  155. little bit honest. And admit that they have some

  156. weeds in their Garden. Okay, I want to have been bad.

  157. If I came to preach this sermon to the wrong group of people

  158. during our first service today, as people were walking into the

  159. auditorium. There was a greeter going.

  160. Did you get your weed yet? And I was thinking to myself all

  161. across this region, people are going to be going at the

  162. Crossing this weekend. They were passing out weed at

  163. the doors before you walked into the church.

  164. God, protect us. There might be some of you

  165. tempted to think that if you were more spiritual, you

  166. wouldn't have weeds in your garden.

  167. The maybe if you just prayed a little longer, read a little

  168. harder. You wouldn't have some of the

  169. weeds. However, just a simple look

  170. through the Bible. Shows us that even the super

  171. spiritual from time to time, had to navigate the weeds and their

  172. Garden. Just because your spiritual

  173. doesn't mean you're exempt from Weeds.

  174. If only, I spent more time, I wouldn't have these problems but

  175. just because you're listening to The Shepherd's voice, doesn't

  176. mean that there aren't wolves who will try to bite just

  177. because you've read the Bible and done what it says doesn't

  178. mean your life won't have storms.

  179. It just means that after the storm you're still standing just

  180. because you're doing spiritual things, doesn't mean that you

  181. are exempt from Weeds. Maybe if I did more for God, Or

  182. maybe if I served more saying louder gave more, then I

  183. wouldn't have these weeds in my garden.

  184. But if you were to look through Scripture, its chapters are

  185. dripping with stories of people who are spiritual and doing

  186. spiritual things that still had to navigate weeds in their

  187. Garden. It was Jonah who preached a

  188. sermon and 120,000 people the entire town, repented and turned

  189. to God, I've preached a lot of sermons and never change the

  190. city. In fact, I don't know anybody

  191. who's preached a sermon that had greater effect than Jonah and

  192. right after that sermon, he begged God to let him die.

  193. It was Moses who led the people out of captivity descended, the

  194. ten plagues on the Egyptians walked across the Dead Sea who

  195. finds himself overwhelmed and distraught in Exodus 11 and said

  196. I can't do this any more. It just might mean that when you

  197. try to do things for God and walk with God, the more

  198. susceptible you might be. Become to weeds because Satan

  199. will do anything. He can to stop the work that God

  200. is trying to do through you and in you and on your behalf hear

  201. me. I came today to preach a sermon.

  202. That when you find weeds in your garden, it is not a sign that

  203. you are not spiritual. It is not a sign that you are

  204. not significant. It is a sign that you are human

  205. living in a And world that Jesus came to die for redeem and

  206. prepare a heaven for my sermon today is called, It's Not Over.

  207. It is not over just so I wouldn't forget it.

  208. I made a shirt that said it this message is for all of you who

  209. have weeds in your garden. This sermon is a message.

  210. For those of you with loved ones who have weeds in their Garden,

  211. this message is for those of you in a troubling situation, coming

  212. to terms with the past, trauma, navigating a devastating

  213. diagnosis and those of you fighting for your life, with a

  214. battle between your ears, the sermons called, It's Not Over

  215. turn to your neighbor and say It's Not Over.

  216. Turn to your other neighbor. The one you like the least?

  217. Tell them it's not over. Say it say it just a little bit

  218. louder so hell knows. You're paying attention.

  219. It's not. Say it a little bit louder so

  220. God knows we're serious. It's not over.

  221. Let me tell you why, it's not over.

  222. I may have weeds in my garden. Weeds that have been in my life,

  223. my whole life. And weeds that just sprung up.

  224. Weeds that I've picked before and weeds, I can't remove.

  225. Weeds, I thought were behind me and weeds that keep showing up.

  226. I may have weeds in my garden but my promises I have a good

  227. Gardener and if you have a good Gardener, it's not over.

  228. We serve a God who can turn things around.

  229. We serve a god, who's caring enough to notice the little

  230. things. And strong enough to handle the

  231. big ones and wise enough know how to repurpose and redeem our

  232. pain. Jane.

  233. I came to preach a very simple message to you today.

  234. I may have a weeds in my garden, but I have a good Gardener.

  235. And if I have a good gardener, Second Corinthians says, praise

  236. be to the God and father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the father

  237. of compassion, and the God of All Comfort, who comforts Us in

  238. all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble

  239. with the Comfort. We ourselves receive from god,

  240. notice God cares. And God Comforts, he feels it

  241. with you and he is moved to action on your behalf.

  242. Behalf. Then he does something that only

  243. God can do. He takes our troubles and he

  244. turns them into bridges into the pain of other people's lives.

  245. The sermon is simple. I may have a weeds in my garden,

  246. but I have a good Gardener and because I have a good Gardener,

  247. It's Not Over. You might be tempted to think

  248. that, because of what you've been through that.

  249. God could never use you. But little did you know that

  250. your pain Was preparing you? Like I said, It's not over your

  251. troubles. Just might be the intro to your

  252. testimony because it's not over. Your struggle is just the

  253. beginning of your story because it's not over.

  254. You're paying just might be building your platform, you're

  255. hurt. Just might be what God starts

  256. using to bring healing into somebody else's life.

  257. Your trauma, just might be your ticket to speak to someone's

  258. life. Your diagnosis.

  259. Just might be the open door that God is using to change.

  260. Somebody's Destiny, your oppression, just might be your

  261. opportunity. tunity just show that God is still good Crossing

  262. Church, you may have weeds in your garden but you have a good

  263. Gardener and because he's your gardener It's Not Over.

  264. Second Corinthians. Paul writes, me and I want you

  265. to be uninformed brothers and sisters about the troubles.

  266. We experienced in the province of Asia we were under great

  267. pressure, far beyond our ability to endure so that we despaired

  268. of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received

  269. the sentence of death, but this happened that we might not rely

  270. on ourselves but on God who raises the Dead.

  271. Notice this. He has delivered us from such, a

  272. deadly Peril and he will deliver us again on him.

  273. We have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us.

  274. Do you notice what they're saying?

  275. They're saying God's pulled weeds in my past.

  276. And he'll pull weeds again. He'll remove things in my past

  277. and he'll remove them again, but you'll also, if he doesn't

  278. remove it, he'll redeem it. Paul is trying to tell you and

  279. me and everybody who will read that passage of scripture, you

  280. may have weeds in your garden, put take hope you have a good

  281. gardener. God can redeem the pain of weeds

  282. in our garden to move us from dependence on our self to

  283. dependence on him. For he is our Rock, our shelter,

  284. our great defender and Redeemer the power that he has in your

  285. life and over your story to bring purpose out of your pain

  286. is the same power that he used to raised Jesus from the grave.

  287. And Romans tells us this that that same spirit that has that

  288. same power. Lives in you turn to your

  289. neighbor and say It's Not Over. Hear me.

  290. When I say this, if Jesus can handle your sin, if he can

  291. resurrect you make you new handle your eternity.

  292. Prepare a place for you and write your name in the Lamb's

  293. Book of Life. Is there anything that he can't

  294. do? You may have weeds in your

  295. garden but you have a good Gardener and because you have a

  296. good Gardener, it's not over. I could tell you the story of

  297. Elijah who went and overcame the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel

  298. and he demonstrated In strated, the goodness and power and

  299. sufficiency of God, and as soon as he was done doing your great

  300. thing for God, all he wanted to do was die.

  301. However God reminded him. That God wasn't done and that he

  302. wasn't alone and so we sent Elijah to raise up Elijah and

  303. Elisha prayed a simple prayer. Give me a double portion of

  304. Elijah and Elisha went on to do 2 times the ministry of Elijah

  305. and others. Art's, you may have weeds in

  306. your garden but you have a good Gardener because you have a good

  307. Gardener. It's not over Elijah went on to

  308. bring a woman's son back to life.

  309. He brought a man, who'd been buried a long time.

  310. Back from the dead, he cleans the water that was making a

  311. community sick and impacting their Crop Production.

  312. He stepped in and kept a woman from losing her two sons to

  313. slavery to pay for unpaid debts. He went on to feed over 100 men

  314. who were hungry with only a little bit of bread.

  315. Ed and he cured Naaman from leprosy.

  316. There's a man named Naaman who was cured of leprosy by a guy

  317. that was raised up by a dude who wanted to quit.

  318. In other words, it's not over God can still redeem and

  319. repurpose your pain. The story I wanted to tell you

  320. when I preach the sermon on suicide I held off to this very

  321. moment because this just might be my new favorite story in

  322. scripture, pay attention. Paul and Silas went to a town

  323. called Philippi. When they arrived in the town,

  324. they were looking for a place to prayer.

  325. They didn't find the prey. They didn't find one.

  326. So they they went to another spot down by the river, and they

  327. met a woman named Lydia. She was a worshiper of God but

  328. not a follower of Jesus. God opened up her heart while

  329. they were speaking to her and she and all of the members of

  330. our house were baptized and she invited them to come and stay

  331. with her in her house a little bit after that as Paul and Silas

  332. were going to a place to pray. They were met by a slave.

  333. Girl who had a spirit that gave her the ability to tell the

  334. future. She earned a great deal of money

  335. for her master's by fortune. Telling she was following Paul

  336. and Silas and she was proclaiming out loud.

  337. These are men of God who are telling you the way to be saved.

  338. But Paul in the name of Jesus Christ, commanded the spirit to

  339. come out of her. Her owners realizing that their

  340. ability to make profits in the future had been compromised

  341. immediately seized Paul and Silas drag them in front of the

  342. authorities. They were misrepresented

  343. stripped, beaten with rods, after being severely beaten,

  344. they were placed in the Inner Cell of the jail and their feet

  345. were fastened in stocks, this allowed them to keep Paul and

  346. Silas in a painful position resulting in stretching and

  347. cramping muscles. but at midnight in that inner jail

  348. cell, While their legs were stretched.

  349. Apart Paul and Silas were found praying.

  350. And singing to God, in the midst of a weedy situation, they were

  351. proclaiming that God is a good Gardener.

  352. And in that moment, an earthquake hit the jail and the

  353. doors flew open and the shackles came loose off their feet and

  354. let's pick up the story in Acts 16, the Jailer woke up and when

  355. he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about out

  356. to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had

  357. escaped. But Paul's shouted, don't harm

  358. yourself. We are all here.

  359. The Jailer called for lights rushed in, and felt trembling

  360. before Paul, and Silas that he brought them out and asked sirs,

  361. what must I do to be saved? They replied believe in the Lord

  362. Jesus and you will be saved you and your household.

  363. Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the

  364. others in his house. At that hour of the night, the

  365. Jailer took them and wash their wounds.

  366. And then immediately he and all his household were baptized the,

  367. Jailer brought them into his house and said a meal before

  368. them. He was filled with joy because

  369. he had come to believe. In God, he and his whole

  370. household. if you don't believe my sermon yet, you better

  371. believe it now. Because God took a man who was

  372. on the brink of suicide and turned him into a spiritual

  373. leader in his home, he took a man who is about to end his life

  374. and gave him eternal life. And that man along with that

  375. woman became the founders of a church in Philippi.

  376. And years later, Paul writes to this church, founded by a woman

  377. in a suicidal man we call that book Philippians and it is from

  378. the words in Philippians that for centuries, Christians

  379. worldwide have found a source of strength for it's in this book.

  380. In Philippians that Paul writes these words Being confident of

  381. this that he who began a good work in you.

  382. Will be faithful to carry it on to completion and other words,

  383. Paul writes to them. You may have weeds in your

  384. garden. But you have a good Gardener and

  385. when you have a good Gardener, it's not over Paul.

  386. Goes on to tell them that God is repurposing.

  387. His pain for God's glory. He says this to this church,

  388. founded by a woman in a suicidal jailer.

  389. Now I want you to know brothers and sisters.

  390. What has happened to me? The weeds that have been put in

  391. my life, have actually served to advance the gospel as a result,

  392. it's become clear throughout the whole Palace guard.

  393. And to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ, and

  394. because of my chains because of my weeds, most of the brothers,

  395. and sisters, have become competent in the Lord, and dare

  396. to proclaim the gospel without fear.

  397. In other words, Paul saying God's using my weedy situation

  398. to inspire other people to proclaim, the goodness of God,

  399. Paul writes to this church and says you may have weeds in your

  400. garden but we have a good Gardener and because we have a

  401. good Gardener it's not over. He's saying there's hope Paul

  402. writes to this very Church in chapter 3 but whatever we're my

  403. gains to me. I now consider loss for the sake

  404. of Christ. What is Consider everything a

  405. loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus.

  406. My Lord and Savior for whose sake, I have lost all things.

  407. I consider them garbage that I may gain Christ and be found in

  408. him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the

  409. law, but that which is through faith in Christ.

  410. The righteousness that comes from God, on the basis of faith,

  411. I want to know Christ. Yes.

  412. To know the power of his resurrection and participation

  413. in his sufferings Earrings becoming like him in his death

  414. and so somehow attaining to the resurrection of the Dead, not

  415. that I have already obtained, all this or already arrived at

  416. my goal here. This, but I press on to take

  417. hold of that for which Christ took hold of me brothers and

  418. sisters. I do not consider myself yet to

  419. have taken. Hold of it.

  420. Paul keeps riding, but one thing I do, I do forgetting.

  421. What is behind and straining toward what is ahead?

  422. I press on toward the goal to win the prize, which God has

  423. called me heavenward in Christ. Jesus.

  424. He's saying, even though you have weeds in your garden, Press

  425. On, Because you have a good Gardener press on keep walking,

  426. hold on. And the one you're holding on to

  427. it's good. He can either remove the weed or

  428. redeem the weed, but don't let go press on.

  429. He writes to this church and Philippians chapter 3.

    Philippians 3 chapter mention

  430. The church that was founded by woman in a suicidal Jailer.

  431. Our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await a savior from

  432. there, the Lord Jesus Christ. Who by the The power that

  433. enables him to bring everything, under his control will transform

  434. our lowly bodies. So that we will be like his

  435. glorious body. He's saying, our citizenship is

  436. in heaven, no matter how many weeds are in your garden, your

  437. position in Christ is steadfast its strong.

  438. Satan can't touch it. You can't lose it.

  439. He has a hold on, you Philippians chapter 4.

    Philippians 4 chapter mention

  440. He says this for I have learned to be content.

  441. ENT, whatever the circumstances, I know what it is to be in need

  442. and I know what it is to have plenty, I have learned the

  443. secret of being content in any and every situation, no matter

  444. how many weeds are in my garden. I have a good Gardener because I

  445. can do all of this through Christ who gives me strength.

  446. He says, this, for those of you who are doubting that, God can

  447. handle your weeds. He says this in Philippians 4:19

    Philippians 4:19

  448. and this same God who takes care of me, will supply, all your

  449. needs through his glorious riches, which have been given to

  450. us in Christ Jesus no matter how many weeds you have.

  451. God has given you everything you need to Stand, everything you

  452. need to keep going, are yours and they have been purchased in

  453. Christ in Philippians chapter 2. He writes to this church.

    Philippians 2 chapter mention

  454. You wouldn't have this letter. If it wasn't for a suicidal,

  455. Jailer who got saved. In your relationships with one

  456. another. Have the same mindset as Christ

  457. Jesus who being in the very nature, God did not consider

  458. equality with God. Something to be used for his own

  459. Advantage, rather. He made himself Nothing by

  460. taking the very nature of a servant.

  461. And being made in human likeness and being found in appearance.

  462. As a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even

  463. death on a cross. Therefore God, exalted him to

  464. the highest place and gave him. The name.

  465. That is above every name that at the name of Jesus.

  466. Every knee should bow in heaven and on Earth and under the

  467. Earth. And every tongue acknowledge

  468. that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father it is

  469. here in these pages of scripture that we realize that God is

  470. using us and using the weeds for his glory.

  471. And for his purpose, he says to this church, do everything

  472. without grumbling or arguing so that you may become blameless

  473. and pure You know, I love you. Some of you because of the weeds

  474. in your garden, you've been grumbling and arguing.

  475. He's saying, don't Grumble, don't argue, so that you may

  476. become blameless and pure children of God without fault in

  477. a warped and crooked generation. Here's why then you will shine

  478. among them, like, stars in the night sky, as you hold firmly to

  479. the word of life, no matter how dark it gets, no matter how long

  480. the night it is used standing. I'm clinging to your good

  481. Gardener while you navigate the weeds in your garden, that will

  482. give the people around you. Hope it will give them something

  483. to fix their eyes on. There is a star shining in the

  484. night and that star is lit up by Christ himself.

  485. It is perhaps why Paul writes in 2nd Corinthians chapter 12?

  486. Therefore in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was

  487. given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment

  488. me. Three times, I pleaded with the

  489. Lord to take it away from me, but he said, to me, my grace is

  490. sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness.

  491. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses

  492. so that Christ's power May rest on me.

  493. That is why for Christ's sake. I Delight in weaknesses in

  494. insults, in hardships, in persecutions in difficulties.

  495. Paul saying I got weeds, some of you, you're listening to me and

  496. you're in a spear, a period of weakness, you're navigating

  497. insults, you find yourself in the midst of hardships, You're

  498. going through persecutions, you're in difficult situations,

  499. but Paul is clinging to the truth of the gardener, for when

  500. I am weak, then I am Say it With Me, Maybe instead of asking God

  501. to remove our weeds, we would humbly pray that God would

  502. redeem them for his glory. And for his purpose, I came to

  503. just tell you one thing, Crossing family.

  504. You may have weeds in your garden but you have a good

  505. Gardener and if you have a good Gardener, it's not over.

  506. We're moving to a time of decision.

  507. This is a special moment for me because I'm getting the

  508. opportunity to speak to all of you at all of our different

  509. locations. I wanted this moment with all of

  510. you because I know that There are many of you.

  511. Who right now? Your garden has no gardener.

  512. And the weeds in your garden are going to choke out all the fruit

  513. and growth in your life. It will steal from your future,

  514. your family and your purpose. The reason I'm calling this hope

  515. weekend is because there is hope.

  516. Not hope has a name. And it is the name of Jesus.

  517. There has never been anyone like him.

  518. He knows you, he created you, he puts you together on purpose and

  519. for a purpose and he died on your behalf and there is no

  520. sinner that he can't save. And you might be thinking right

  521. now, but Clayton, not me. I'm too messed up and I just

  522. need you to know. I've been a part of this church

  523. long enough to know that there is somebody sitting in your row

  524. who could testify all day to the goodness of our God.

  525. You might be going but I don't have it all figured out all.

  526. That's why I love this story. The Philippian Jailer How many

  527. times has he been to church? How many sermons had he heard?

  528. How many worship songs had he sang?

  529. You're so far ahead of him. right now, in this moment, he

  530. hasn't attended any Bible studies.

  531. He hadn't read his Bible, he hadn't offered any prayers.

  532. He was just on the brink. He was just done, he was at the

  533. end of his rope. And he learned that ropes don't

  534. save Jesus does you can hold on to a rope, you can hold on to

  535. yourself, you can hold onto your job, you can hold on to your

  536. political party. But the only thing that I'll

  537. never let you down. The only thing that can save,

  538. the only thing that can restore. The only thing that can redeem

  539. is Jesus and there's hope in that and there's hope for you.

  540. Hear me to those of you. Listen to my voice right now?

  541. If you have weeds in your garden, don't you?

  542. Dare give up. And don't you dare let up?

  543. It's not over, God has a purpose for your life.

  544. He can still use you. Your weaknesses are simply an

  545. invitation for the power of God to show off in your life, in the

  546. midst of your weedy Garden. God still good.

  547. In the midst of all of the weeds.

  548. Still got you in the midst of all of your weeds Satan, can't

  549. take anything from you. because your citizenship, Is in heaven.

  550. All you may have weeds in your garden.

  551. But you have a good Gardener and when you have a good Gardener,

  552. it's never over. And so, if you've never started

  553. an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ,

  554. just a few moments, the people around, you are going to stand

  555. and worship and there's going to be people off to the sides of

  556. the stage, more than likely over by where the baptistery is.

  557. And they would love a chance to talk with you about how to start

  558. that relationship with Jesus Christ.

  559. To the rest of you. specifically, those of you who

  560. call The Crossing home, My prayer ever since I wrote this

  561. message. Was that we as a church, would

  562. be so close to the plans and purposes of God, that we would

  563. have the testimony of Paul and Silas that while they suffered,

  564. they still praised. God while all the weeds that

  565. were in their life that they wish were gone in the midst of a

  566. weedy situation. They still gave God praise and

  567. that while they were praising. God, everybody else took notice

  568. because Paul said we are all here.

  569. It wasn't just Paul and Silas that stayed.

  570. Everybody else took notice that when the doors came off their

  571. hinges and the shackles came off their feet, they knew it wasn't

  572. so that they could get out. But so the Jailer could get in

  573. what if we would stop asking God to remove all of the weeds in

  574. our garden? But ask God to let people find

  575. him through our weeds. You know, this.

  576. It's dark out there. It's dark.

  577. To those of you in 48. It's dark in the communities of

  578. Macomb Kirksville and down at 9:29.

  579. It's dark in Pike County, and it's dark in Hannibal, it's dark

  580. and Lima and Mount Sterling and Keokuk.

  581. It's dark in Monmouth, it's dark and Jacksonville.

  582. And we could Grumble and complain about the weeds in our

  583. garden or we could choose to shine like stars and the night

  584. sky and Proclaim that God is still good.

  585. We have we It's in our garden, but we have a good Gardener.

  586. So here's what I'm going to ask you to do all of you.

  587. When you came in, you received some weeds and I know, some of

  588. your, like, these aren't weeds. And I'm not a horticulturalist,

  589. or I only know how to say that word, but hey, when you have a

  590. church, you bring your own we'd say, okay, this is what we got.

  591. There's a spot on there for you to write some stuff down.

  592. We've got pens up at the front at all of our locations.

  593. I want you to write down your weed.

  594. What's the thing in your garden? I want you to come up here and I

  595. just want you to plan it and say, God this belongs to you.

  596. Selfishly God. I want you to remove it but if

  597. you're not going to remove it, please redeem it.

  598. Put your hands so far into the situation that other people are

  599. brought to you because of it got this sweet isn't mine, it's

  600. yours. And then plant it in his garden.

  601. The while you're down here, would you would you pick up one

  602. of the stickers? We have, I want you to take it

  603. with you. I want you to put it somewhere

  604. in your house, somewhere in your car, somewhere, on your Bible

  605. somewhere when you see it, you'll remember.

  606. Because Satan is going to attack you.

  607. He's good at showing off all the weeds and all the areas where

  608. things aren't going the way we want them to go, but I don't

  609. ever want you to lose sight of. Just, one thing you may have

  610. weeds in your garden, but we have the hope of a good Gardener

  611. and because we have a good Gardener.

  612. Well, you know, the answer, it's not over.

  613. Would you stand with me? Heavenly Father, be glorified In

  614. This Moment. Dual work.

  615. That only you can do in a way that only you can do it.

  616. Bring about a change in our hearts and in our lives.

  617. Got our weeds belong to you because we belong to you.

  618. So father, in every single one of the rooms where this prayer

  619. is being carried all across this region, I'm asking you to move

  620. Among Us. And your name.

  621. I pray. Amen.